Lack of Empathy in the Media

Though it is a common thought that the age of the internet has spawned idiocracy in teenagers and college students across the country.  And laxadasical attitude has been formed by the quick search of pressing enter on google, or the hours spent on social networking sites such as facebook, then tweeting about it later.  The truth is, our generation have problably birthed more writers than any other generation since or before because of the advantages we've been bestowed upon through technology.

My hope is that in the future, my generation will reap the rewards of this.  In aligning this thought process with that of an artistic endevour one can speculate about the future of filmmaking, video art, and art in general.

The Distortion of Authority Through the Media

Having read the above reading it easy to understand how imperative it is that we as a country resolve the  authorial strucuture in the media.  Since the media has grown in size since it's initual inception, both the rules and grammar of the internet have been made and broke time and again.  We are now in a period of relative change, where the time tables of the how we are perceived is viewed on the web.

In this writer's opinion, the first thing that must be done is establish rules and regulations on the internet. Having said this, doing so is a tricky ordeal though.  We must stay on a thin line of rules and privacy.  This also plays into the idea of big brother and type of control the government has over the internet.  Although, if there is a way we can establish rules on the internet that blocks certain sites such as Wiki Leaks from exposing secret documents that are private, we may have found the key to the internet.  As it excists itself the internet is a source of none rules.  We are seeing more and more now with the creation of Facebook, Google, and other large media sites that rules have been established for them.  Rules that can be controlled by the viewer or blogger in charge of their page.  Having said all this, it is hard to think of something actually existing without a few major conglomerates controlling everything, which seems to becoming the case.

In the end, we can only hope that rules are established in the future that empower the user and not the companies that enlist these websites.  For that will be the way authority is controlled and abandoned on the internet.

The meaning of privacy......psychology and wikileaks

 Does Wikileaks violate the meaning of privacy?

Psychologist believe to understand the act of privacy we need to realize that we have many parts of ourselves. When your going to be broadcast ,  you prepare a version of yourself that fits the occasion , "your public self."Naturally we want to be able to control our self preservation.
 Privacy is the right to use and decide which version of your self will be known to others in a particular time and place. Privacy is a version of control. Does wikileaks violate the act of privacy of robbing diplomats the control of their self-presentation. Is there a difference between state secrecy and personal privacy. Is it ok for the state department to do any business if its limited to one version of itself. This type of state secrecy in our government has decided to withhold information from their own people. Could that be the government abusing its own power?

In this collage  the world represents our public self. How we want to me viewed by the world and how we go out of our way to make sure our public self is suitable for the situation. How does the united States project itself. Does the government have the right to withhold information to keep its reputation so to speak especially for international affairs. Hows does the world view each other in general. The 2 men represent how we communicate to each other.

                Wikileaks has officially broken the dam of confidential and secret government documents, flooding the internet with classified information as we speak. As more and more bits of truth reveal themselves through Julian Assange’s online creation, we will become more informed of what our government is doing. Security and control keep us blind of the truth and higher powers want to keep it that way, for whatever reason. Wikileaks challenges this government attempt to conceal information from the common people. In the case of Bradley Manning, a whistleblower who was put in solitary confinement for releasing government files to wikileaks, there are some really compelling phsycological questions to ask. To what extent will our Government go to keep secrets from us and why?

    Solitary confinement is quite a harsh environment to live in while waiting for trial. There are many different effects that this kind of imprisonment may have on a person’s mind. One student, Carley Fritner, wrote in a research paper that said "depression, despair, anxiety, rage, claustrophobia, hallucinations, problems with impulse control, and/or an impaired ability to think, concentrate, or remember” (1) were all possible outcomes. Fritner also noted an instance In 2003 when a complaint to the Connecticut Department of Correction revealed that solitary confinement caused prisoners to "lash out by swallowing razors, smashing their heads into walls or cutting their flesh." (1) The only reason I can associate with needing to hold someone in these conditions before their trial is having a necessity to change something. Bradley Manning is not just a prisoner; he is a political prisoner. He is awaiting his trial, while the government essentially tortures him and we have to ask why? They obviously want this pre-punishment in solitary confinement to have an effect on him before his trial. Is it that they are trying to make an example out of him for society, to show that the crimes he committed are absolutely unacceptable? Or is it that they are brainwashing him in order to somehow create a direct link

between Manning and Assange to get him as well?

What higher powers in our world perceive as necessary to keep secret is in many cases probably not what we want hidden from us. Recognizing the ambiguity between what we don’t know and what we fear, some people would just rather not know what’s really going on. However, regardless of the fear factor, I believe that everyone has a deeper desire for the truth even if it scares them. Why do Governments want so desperately to keep this information from us and like the case with Bradley Manning, is this the extend they will go to protect it.   

(1)

Fritner, Carly. "Lonely Madness: The Effects of Solitary Confinement and Social Isolation on Mental and Emotional Health." Serendip. N.p., Spring 2005. Web. 3 Feb. 2011.

The blending of intellectual and creativity

THE BLENDING OF

INTELLECT AND CREATIVITY

Bob King introduces us to his philosophy teacher, Macomber, who was his teacher at UCSB in 1971. Macomber made an immense impression upon him helping him to formulate his course, "Digital Media for the Artist".  King's story is a tribute, a personal story, a scientific, professional and technology story all in one. 

King's essay, "The Play of Mind on Mind" explains to us how Macomber viewed education.  Macomber believed that knowledge involves reading, writing and conversation and unlike most professors recommended Cliff Notes.  Cliff Notes would give you the main ideas on which to build a conversation.  Macomber points out that artists practice and perform.  He believed that liberal artists play conversation - it was their creative medium.  Macomber points out that you start elementary school by being told to be still and be quiet.  As one grows one has to re-learn conversational skills.  Macomber points out that students of the arts should see conversation as a creative activity, as a dance.  He says, "try picturing liberal arts education as noisy, talkative, comfortable, very creative and artful like dance".  King notes that Jenlink and Carr proposed different types of conversation, i.e. transacting, transforming and transcendent.  Macomber was ahead of his time by pointing out that people learn by building on what they already know.  King takes this further and calls it the "Katamari style" of learning.

In Kings' essay, "The Crux of the Matter", he describes Macomber's conflict with the Greek-Indo European and Christian/Semitic way of looking at life.  King further explains that Macomber believed that if you added emotion and sexuality to reading, writing and talking a life of the spirit would develop.

In "A Concluding Reflection"  King explains that there are four basic types of knowledge, scientific, aesthetic, intellectual and spiritual.  The common feature of them all is conversation.  He concludes his conversational telling of the story telling us about the next phase of writing a script and adding music.

Thien Nhat Hahn's passage uses the example of a poet who sees a cloud floating in a sheet of paper.  Basically, that nothing in this world is separate, everything is related.

Malcolm Gladwell's article, "the Physical Genius" describes how a sports hero, a master cellist and a renowned brain surgeon all have their imagination as a common denominator.

"Media Studies: A Field Guide" by King demonstrates how intellect and creativity are intertwined.  He describes the context, history, content and method of media studies.  He introduces various concepts from such well known writers as Marshall McLuhan, Walter Ong, Mimi Ito among others.  King shows that what one learns in higher education is "verticality".  It is an education that is higher and deeper enabling one to talk with intelligence and creativity.

Tron and Wikileaks: Comparisons

For a time when the internet and digital blogging and interfacing was a thing of the future, Tron predicted in a humble and entertaining way the future of our own security.  In terms of the uses of security and privacy on the internet, Wikileaks has opened a floodgate of controversy.  Watching the film you see how Flynn was an early hacker trying to foil a larger scheme of a cyber security fiasco.  Their similarities comes down to the privacy and security questions of how we hide and maintain secret information in large organizations.  It can be dangerous for documents to be leaked as the Secretary of State has pointed out repeatedly in response to the WikiLeaks phenomena. 

As the internet grows, there becomes more information to obtain.  Whether it's bad, secret, or dangerous information that could be detrimental to lives is in question.  Yet, there seems to be a rebellious cry from Americans who are distrust-worthy of the government and want to expose their secrets.  This is the dilemma that we are faced with.  How secret should we allow ourselves to be when it concerns to government information?  

Psychiatrist Kerry Sulkowicz discusses that the will to do "something good" is a driving factor in those who leak documents. 

http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2010/08/02/wikileaks-and-the-psychology-of-leaking/


"WikiLeaks controversy sparks cyber war"

http://nazret.com/blog/index.php/2010/12/08/wikileaks-controversy-sparks-cyber-war


Julian Assange's arrest is based on sexual charges but it is misleading to the public.  Writer Jamal Elabiad compares this reasoning of arrest to in 2003 when the U.S. invaded Iraq because it was believed that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and it turned out that Iraq did not have WMDs.  In other words the rape charges on Assange may or may not be true but they are used as a scapegoat to cover up for the government's own reasoning of arresting Assange.

http://www.talkmorocco.net/articles/2010/12/the-real-reasons-behind-the-arrest-of-wikileaks-founder/


Congressman Ron Paul believes that "what we need is more WikiLeaks about the Federal Reserve".   Paul goes on to say that the public would be outraged to see what the U.S. Federal Reserve is doing with the money.  He also states "In a free society, we are supposed to know the truth.  In a society where truth becomes treason, we are in big trouble."

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/12/ron-paul-what-wikileaks/