Screw You Fox News!

                  In 'A Taxonomy of Digital Video Remixing” E. Horwatt says, “many filmmakers and video artists voice variations on the belief that media has colonized our imaginations and found footage films are a means of resistance and critique – an unauthorized way of redeploying hegemonic visual discourse to introduce dissent.”1

The following is the best example of this found footage remixing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUmqbiPazRU&feature=related

         I love this clip. It truly depicts my feelings towards Fox News. I only wish they had thrown in a crazy quote from Bill O’Reily in there for good measure.

         In the article Horwatt quotes video artist Nam June Paik who states, “Television has been attacking us all our lives, now we can attack it back.”

         YouTube appears to be the perfect opportunity for this to happen. Many ‘vidders’ use these remixes to make a point with regards to often fabricated or just down right bad reporting that is done by channels such Fox News or CNN. One user, LiberalViewer has dedicated an entire channel on YouTube to ‘reporting’ on the fact and fiction on Fox News.

         I heartily encourage these types of remixing, ‘reporting’ and all round bashing of the manipulative and biased channel Fox News. After watching (against my will), many hours of it in my youth, I find it hard to believe that there are educated people out there who actually believe the shpeel that FN comes up with. It’s thoroughly disturbing.



1- Horwatt, E. (2010). 'A Taxonomy of Digital Video Remixing: Contemporary Found Footage Practice on the Internet'. In Smith, I. R. (Ed.), Cultural Borrowings: Appropriation, Reworking, Transformation. Scope 17.  Pp.88-108

Self/Other: Camera Frenzy.

In the article “Take back the Tube!” Buckingham, Pini and Willett make one very interesting point. They say, “One of the abiding imperatives in the publications [they] have reviewed is the need to distinguish between the serious or committed amateur and the more casual everyday user. The serious amateur is defined to some extent in terms of social class and gender, but also through the ‘othering’ of the naïve everyday user, who is seen to remain forever trapped within the unreconstructed ‘home mode’.”

At first read I thought that the term ‘othering’ might be too extreme a word in contrast to the self/other relationship to colonialism and orientalism. But then I think in the pure sense of self and other, this could not be truer. I’ve seen and experienced first hand what happens when one with no prior knowledge tries to engage in conversation with an amateur photography of filmmaker. I’ve received turned up noses, lectures and even ended conversations and friendships for reasons such; as not knowing what an iso setting is; what a Leica is; or thinking that a Sony could be better than a Canon.

My problem is when people get too proud of the product to see that their work is bad. Whether professional or amateur, the work you produce will always be better if you enjoy what you are doing. When you get too hung up on the quality of picture or the best optical zoom and you stop having fun, that’s the day that you have let down the camera.

Sex, Porn and Abuse: The dark side of it all.

         In the book Sex at Dawn, C. Ryan and C. Jetha discuss the history of sex; in juxtaposition to this C. Sarracino and K.M Scott speak about the history of pornography in The Porning of America. From the bashing of Darwinian theory to the arrest of “Deep Throat” star Harry Reems, it appears that the repression of sexually nature only fuelled the flames of the “sexual revolution.” In the 2005 film “Inside Deep Throat”, we can see that in the years following the release of the first scripted pornographic film “Deep Throat” there was not only an up roar from religious conservatives claiming that the obscenity was bad for society, but also feminist groups who claimed that porn subjugated women.


         Although I do agree that in many porn films, women are treated in a compromising fashion, I do not think that porn is responsible for the degradation of women’s rights nor that porn is bad for society. I feel however that after the sexual revolution, porn is just one type of media that shows us what has always been there, and what has always been part of human nature.
        
         What deeply worries me is the rise in child pornography and rape pornography. It’s clear from a reading of any legitimate history book that paedophilia and sexual abuse of men and woman alike has been around as far back as human history goes. The fact that these things are now becoming an industry unto itself literally frightens me. I don’t think that porn is necessary, but I feel it is a right to anyone of age to be allowed to have it. But when it goes to a level against all human rights, maybe it’s not worth it. If taking away all porn meant that innocent women and children didn’t have to get hurt anymore just so Mr. Pervert next door can get his rocks off, then I’m all for banning porn, but I know its not as simple as that.


         I don’t offer any solutions here; I just had to point out the horrifying side to the porn industry that shake’s me to the core. How do we stop it, without taking away the rights of free people? Maybe we can’t.