I would like to say I learnt alot while studying this course and this course really broadened my knowledge about many topics but none more so than Dignity and how peoples dignity is affected.
I would like to thank Thembisa Waetjen and Prinisha Badassy for all their help during this course, as i took Inst102 as an elective this semester.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
My Final Project - Essay
Last week was a very busy week for me trying to finish my movie project, and on Monday when I was trying to upload it to my blog and it wasn’t working I will be honest I was stressing, but I managed to get to UKZN and upload it just a few minutes before the deadline.
This week I will be working on my essay. This essay is really helping me broaden my knowledge about firstly what dignity is and secondly how peoples dignities are impaired.
My essay will be following on from my movie on the topic of poverty and I will be referring to the two articles by Appiah and Ramphele and using their ideas of a perfect society.
With exams just around the corner I am hoping to finish my essay and get it out the way as soon as possible so I can concentrate on my Internet studies test on Wednesday and my exams starting on the 8th.
This week I will be working on my essay. This essay is really helping me broaden my knowledge about firstly what dignity is and secondly how peoples dignities are impaired.
My essay will be following on from my movie on the topic of poverty and I will be referring to the two articles by Appiah and Ramphele and using their ideas of a perfect society.
With exams just around the corner I am hoping to finish my essay and get it out the way as soon as possible so I can concentrate on my Internet studies test on Wednesday and my exams starting on the 8th.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Lecture Notes For October
1 October 2008
How do technologies of the internet change our social and political landscape?
New field in scholarship: e.g. effect of new generation or ‘digital natives’
What about the effects of democracy? E.g. political campaigning and voting?
But other basic questions about democracy currently at stake:
Can democracy thrive in a one party state?
Does democracy mean that two parties in one powerful nation can vote over whether to bail out bank failures that have potential global effects on finance markets all over the world?
Is floor crossing a betrayal of democratic practice?
What if everyone has the right to vote, but no one cares?
OR, what if no one cares enough to read the news to see what the issues and debates of the day actually are?
Does democracy mean that you can invade other countries and create war to force them into setting up democratic governments?
Our question last term: what kinds of social networks are created through different technologies of communication?
Writing as technology: script, paper, printing
Relevant theorists - Anderson, De Tocqueville, Habermas
Critical model also has important things to say: From a Marxist School of scholarship – The German Ideology
“Dominant ideas will be those that favour the interests of the ruling classes and those with power”
Example of theory from this perspective
Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman, Manufacturing consent: The political economy of the mass media 1988
“Propaganda model” (Us Case study)
Basic argument:
Mass media is a business and what it sells is not just news but also readers and audiences to advertisers. Its goal is to try to get people to read its papers and watch its programs so that it can attract advertising sponsors
Therefore the media create systematic biases
Filters
ownership
funding
sources
flak
ideology
Does this mean that no news is worth reading? No! but you must be an active agent, not passive of consumer of news
So, what about the internet society? How does the internet change things, if at all?
New technology: what are its properties?
virtual, not paper and ink
imagination – global not national
new form of literacy
new technologies – digital divide
3 October 2008
Chomsky and Herman’s propaganda theory of news media
Filters
Ownership
funding
sources
flak
ideology
Case of US media as industry: 6-10 companies own/control almost all the media
E.g. Sony
Who are the ‘big 10’?
Powerful media moguls: Rupert Murdoch
Robert McChesneys argues that media monopolies in the USA are a threat to public interest. I.e. a threat to free press that is concerned with debate, and therefore, to democracy
Others say that mass media benefits from competition and large scale dissemination, news syndicates, etc. Also that it is pointless to criticize this process since this is the way monopoly capitalism works.
Who owns SA newspapers?
independent newspapers
Johnnic Communication
Media 24/ Naspers
Caxton
When a state owns and controls the media, there are certainly issues about the free press and democratic debate. Patterns of ownership of the press in capitalist societies pose different challenges and different solutions
But, how do we know whether there are stories that the public has the right to know, but which are not reaching that public?
Civic initiatives: Project Censored
How do they define censorship?
As project censored, we examine the coverage of news and information important to maintenance of a healthy and functioning democracy. We define modern censorship as the subtle yet constant and sophisticated manipulation of reality in our mass media outlets.
8 October 2008
Internet news and democracy
A few more issues that we can consider
© Access and availability of technologies (digital divide)
© Censorship and filters
© Uses towards development and by grassroots democratic movements
© Commodification of news
Headlines that sell
è Sex, violence, traumaè Deviance
è Personal dramas of public figures
è Celebrity and royalty and politicians
è Emotion
è Disclosure of secrets
è Scandal
è Confessional narrative
What is the potential impact of the commodification of news on democracy?
Theorist: Richard Sennet
è The fall of public man, 1986
è Argues that contemporary culture has eroded the boundary between public life and private life. ( The boundary which Habermas said was crucial for rational – critical debate )
è Public concern has been replaced with a desire for intimate knowledge
è We are taken to be ‘good’ and ‘honest’ if we tell people everything
è Disclosure of feelings and internal lives – daytime tv, talk shows, tabloids
è What counts as insight and analysis?
è This kind of culture deprives us of having much in common with each other except secrets, confessions, mundane details of personal and internal landscapes
è News companies have to please sponsors or they lose funding
Is Sennet right?
è Entertaining and expensive
è But, they appeal to the enjoyment of gossip
è The verification of their truth is therefore not always important: their articles are more emotion than opinion
è They invite us to apply judgement or derision
è They offer a feeling of moral high ground to the reader
è They celebrate improbable content
è They bring the rich, powerful and famous down – levelling
è They trade in the economy of emotion
è They evoke a world with few real life consequences for the reader
è They appear to disclose secrets
è Revel on conspiracy secrets
è Relish confessional tell all narrative and exclusive disclosure
è Generate and sustain celebrity cults
Why this quest for disclosure
© Historical form of the diary – arose at the same time as the newspaper as a genre of writing, record of the self
© Diaries are where individuals recorded mundane thoughts and things they could not tell others
What is a personal blog?
Often a personal diary that is available to the public
Performance - like reality television, people play to the camera to create a drama of their emotions and lives.
Personal blogging reflects the new culture of disclosure and pseudo-intimacyDisclosures and exhinitionists
How do these forms affect Habermas’s notion of the public sphere?
Several views
Harmless and entertaining
Escapist
Is hard news becoming more tabloid like?
Stories that indulge in the gruesome and morally repugnant
Stories that focus on dramas of single case to highlight an eventLanguage framing
Is language of ‘real news’ always neutral and objective?
Can newspapers influence how the public behaves? Can it contribute to xenophobia and other forms of fear and hatred?
Can newspapers help appeal to the best and most generous parts of human nature?
15 October 2008
Reporters without borders 2007 Press freedom rankings
Shows restraints that some countries have. The press and freedom of press that some countries have or government restrictions that countries have.
Government censorship of the Internet vs. Grassroots Internet democracy
The case of Burma – Myanmar
What happened there?
mass [non-violent] protests by pro-democracy groups, including Buddhist monksviolent repression of protests by military groups
* Tourism is one of its major industries
* But has been growing concern about repressive and authoritative government, and human rights violations.
Brief history
Was a British colony until 1948
1948-1962 Democratic republic – ‘Union of Burma’
1962 – 1988
1962, democratic rule ended by a military coup d’etat
1988 saw a new political opposition to a government, because of a falling economyAaun Sun Suu Key, influenced by Ghandi she adopts a non-violent approach to protestsShe is the ‘Nelson Mandela’ of Burma
Pro-democracy – refers to the country as Burma
Military – refers to the country as Myanmar
1990 – Aaun San Suu Key is put under house arrest
-- is still there today!
-- won the Nobel peace prize in 1991
Recent context
Government raises petrol by 500%
Monks are killed and tortured
Government shuts down internet accessJ
ournalists are warned not to report regarding the protests
Evidence provided by the ONI
Open Network Initiative
2005 – does not cover current events
Still provides a prospective regarding restrictions and content filtering
Burma – Most restricted regime on censorship and content filtering
Censorship of internet parallels a policy that limits freedom of speech
Internet is very costly and access is mainly to internet cafes
State peace and developmental council uses software to regulate filtering
Access to 11% of content of the internet was denied
Access to 85% of email provided was filtered
Access to pornographic content was restricted and filtered by 65%
Information on the Burmese state was restricted by 80%
Fortinet – Politics of profit at any human costs
Internet provider – tags and firewalls
General censorship laws in BurmaGeneral media regulation
-- everything needs to be presented to a security board before printedOutside communication had to be registered
-- if not, the prospect of jail for 7-15 years
Broadband is too expensive
Dial up internet is far too slow
Facebook as a mobilization tool
Group – “Support the monk’s protest in Burma”
Membership – Half a million
September 29 100000 joined in one day.
4 October - International Bloggers Day for Burma
Human rights watch says that it has sources that can verify that more people are arrested than the government admits.
Burma is a case that demonstrates
Powerfulness of the internet
Availability of information technology
22 October 2008
Photography and power
Propaganda, persuasion and contemporary photography
the photograph as a major technology of the 20th Century
Shaping understanding of news
Iconic photographic images and our understanding of past events
War and photograph today
photographer’s strategies for reportage and persuasion
effort at control and censorship
But why trust photographers?
Why?
Why not?
Contemporary photographic alteration and manipulation
July 22, 2006
August 5, 2006
Same woman, 2 different dates, same situation
All photographs are ambiguous … yet it might be that the photographic ambiguity, if recognized and accepted as such, could offer to photography a unique means of expression.
…Full of meanings, [the photograph] is a dense text
Censorship and the power of photography in the age of the electronic image
Embedded journalism and the US military {Iraq 2003}
*Photos of USA fatalities rarely published
* Photos of USA torturing Iraqi civilians
24 October 2008
Dilemmas in social photography
Sex and violence sells papers
Social commentary – voyeuristic gaze onto other people’s experiences
Ernesto Nhamvuave
No one truly knows this person
He was burned alive with xenophobic violence that was in South Africa
Don’t know the individual itself
Photos (Domestic violence)
Portray violence
Hard to concentrate on the individual face
We see the problem that she represents
The first image
At first glance it is domestic violence
“just another victim”
We see through the lens of a social issue
Beautiful suffering
Photography and the traffic in pain
Photographers dealing with the issues that are present in the social realm
Berger- Mohr
A seventh man
Migrant workers in the UK
Invisible people
Temporary on visas
Generic image
Alex Kayser
Of soldiers and bankers
Formal men – bankers
Dressed in suits and sitting down
Showcasing authority, individualism and confidence
Soldiers
Start with a close up of one soldier
Sad eyes, blank expression
Showcasing vulnerability
No individualism
Gets lost when with all the other soldiers
How do technologies of the internet change our social and political landscape?
New field in scholarship: e.g. effect of new generation or ‘digital natives’
What about the effects of democracy? E.g. political campaigning and voting?
But other basic questions about democracy currently at stake:
Can democracy thrive in a one party state?
Does democracy mean that two parties in one powerful nation can vote over whether to bail out bank failures that have potential global effects on finance markets all over the world?
Is floor crossing a betrayal of democratic practice?
What if everyone has the right to vote, but no one cares?
OR, what if no one cares enough to read the news to see what the issues and debates of the day actually are?
Does democracy mean that you can invade other countries and create war to force them into setting up democratic governments?
Our question last term: what kinds of social networks are created through different technologies of communication?
Writing as technology: script, paper, printing
Relevant theorists - Anderson, De Tocqueville, Habermas
Critical model also has important things to say: From a Marxist School of scholarship – The German Ideology
“Dominant ideas will be those that favour the interests of the ruling classes and those with power”
Example of theory from this perspective
Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman, Manufacturing consent: The political economy of the mass media 1988
“Propaganda model” (Us Case study)
Basic argument:
Mass media is a business and what it sells is not just news but also readers and audiences to advertisers. Its goal is to try to get people to read its papers and watch its programs so that it can attract advertising sponsors
Therefore the media create systematic biases
Filters
ownership
funding
sources
flak
ideology
Does this mean that no news is worth reading? No! but you must be an active agent, not passive of consumer of news
So, what about the internet society? How does the internet change things, if at all?
New technology: what are its properties?
virtual, not paper and ink
imagination – global not national
new form of literacy
new technologies – digital divide
3 October 2008
Chomsky and Herman’s propaganda theory of news media
Filters
Ownership
funding
sources
flak
ideology
Case of US media as industry: 6-10 companies own/control almost all the media
E.g. Sony
Who are the ‘big 10’?
Powerful media moguls: Rupert Murdoch
Robert McChesneys argues that media monopolies in the USA are a threat to public interest. I.e. a threat to free press that is concerned with debate, and therefore, to democracy
Others say that mass media benefits from competition and large scale dissemination, news syndicates, etc. Also that it is pointless to criticize this process since this is the way monopoly capitalism works.
Who owns SA newspapers?
independent newspapers
Johnnic Communication
Media 24/ Naspers
Caxton
When a state owns and controls the media, there are certainly issues about the free press and democratic debate. Patterns of ownership of the press in capitalist societies pose different challenges and different solutions
But, how do we know whether there are stories that the public has the right to know, but which are not reaching that public?
Civic initiatives: Project Censored
How do they define censorship?
As project censored, we examine the coverage of news and information important to maintenance of a healthy and functioning democracy. We define modern censorship as the subtle yet constant and sophisticated manipulation of reality in our mass media outlets.
8 October 2008
Internet news and democracy
A few more issues that we can consider
© Access and availability of technologies (digital divide)
© Censorship and filters
© Uses towards development and by grassroots democratic movements
© Commodification of news
Headlines that sell
è Sex, violence, traumaè Deviance
è Personal dramas of public figures
è Celebrity and royalty and politicians
è Emotion
è Disclosure of secrets
è Scandal
è Confessional narrative
What is the potential impact of the commodification of news on democracy?
Theorist: Richard Sennet
è The fall of public man, 1986
è Argues that contemporary culture has eroded the boundary between public life and private life. ( The boundary which Habermas said was crucial for rational – critical debate )
è Public concern has been replaced with a desire for intimate knowledge
è We are taken to be ‘good’ and ‘honest’ if we tell people everything
è Disclosure of feelings and internal lives – daytime tv, talk shows, tabloids
è What counts as insight and analysis?
è This kind of culture deprives us of having much in common with each other except secrets, confessions, mundane details of personal and internal landscapes
è News companies have to please sponsors or they lose funding
Is Sennet right?
è Entertaining and expensive
è But, they appeal to the enjoyment of gossip
è The verification of their truth is therefore not always important: their articles are more emotion than opinion
è They invite us to apply judgement or derision
è They offer a feeling of moral high ground to the reader
è They celebrate improbable content
è They bring the rich, powerful and famous down – levelling
è They trade in the economy of emotion
è They evoke a world with few real life consequences for the reader
è They appear to disclose secrets
è Revel on conspiracy secrets
è Relish confessional tell all narrative and exclusive disclosure
è Generate and sustain celebrity cults
Why this quest for disclosure
© Historical form of the diary – arose at the same time as the newspaper as a genre of writing, record of the self
© Diaries are where individuals recorded mundane thoughts and things they could not tell others
What is a personal blog?
Often a personal diary that is available to the public
Performance - like reality television, people play to the camera to create a drama of their emotions and lives.
Personal blogging reflects the new culture of disclosure and pseudo-intimacyDisclosures and exhinitionists
How do these forms affect Habermas’s notion of the public sphere?
Several views
Harmless and entertaining
Escapist
Is hard news becoming more tabloid like?
Stories that indulge in the gruesome and morally repugnant
Stories that focus on dramas of single case to highlight an eventLanguage framing
Is language of ‘real news’ always neutral and objective?
Can newspapers influence how the public behaves? Can it contribute to xenophobia and other forms of fear and hatred?
Can newspapers help appeal to the best and most generous parts of human nature?
15 October 2008
Reporters without borders 2007 Press freedom rankings
Shows restraints that some countries have. The press and freedom of press that some countries have or government restrictions that countries have.
Government censorship of the Internet vs. Grassroots Internet democracy
The case of Burma – Myanmar
What happened there?
mass [non-violent] protests by pro-democracy groups, including Buddhist monksviolent repression of protests by military groups
* Tourism is one of its major industries
* But has been growing concern about repressive and authoritative government, and human rights violations.
Brief history
Was a British colony until 1948
1948-1962 Democratic republic – ‘Union of Burma’
1962 – 1988
1962, democratic rule ended by a military coup d’etat
1988 saw a new political opposition to a government, because of a falling economyAaun Sun Suu Key, influenced by Ghandi she adopts a non-violent approach to protestsShe is the ‘Nelson Mandela’ of Burma
Pro-democracy – refers to the country as Burma
Military – refers to the country as Myanmar
1990 – Aaun San Suu Key is put under house arrest
-- is still there today!
-- won the Nobel peace prize in 1991
Recent context
Government raises petrol by 500%
Monks are killed and tortured
Government shuts down internet accessJ
ournalists are warned not to report regarding the protests
Evidence provided by the ONI
Open Network Initiative
2005 – does not cover current events
Still provides a prospective regarding restrictions and content filtering
Burma – Most restricted regime on censorship and content filtering
Censorship of internet parallels a policy that limits freedom of speech
Internet is very costly and access is mainly to internet cafes
State peace and developmental council uses software to regulate filtering
Access to 11% of content of the internet was denied
Access to 85% of email provided was filtered
Access to pornographic content was restricted and filtered by 65%
Information on the Burmese state was restricted by 80%
Fortinet – Politics of profit at any human costs
Internet provider – tags and firewalls
General censorship laws in BurmaGeneral media regulation
-- everything needs to be presented to a security board before printedOutside communication had to be registered
-- if not, the prospect of jail for 7-15 years
Broadband is too expensive
Dial up internet is far too slow
Facebook as a mobilization tool
Group – “Support the monk’s protest in Burma”
Membership – Half a million
September 29 100000 joined in one day.
4 October - International Bloggers Day for Burma
Human rights watch says that it has sources that can verify that more people are arrested than the government admits.
Burma is a case that demonstrates
Powerfulness of the internet
Availability of information technology
22 October 2008
Photography and power
Propaganda, persuasion and contemporary photography
the photograph as a major technology of the 20th Century
Shaping understanding of news
Iconic photographic images and our understanding of past events
War and photograph today
photographer’s strategies for reportage and persuasion
effort at control and censorship
But why trust photographers?
Why?
Why not?
Contemporary photographic alteration and manipulation
July 22, 2006
August 5, 2006
Same woman, 2 different dates, same situation
All photographs are ambiguous … yet it might be that the photographic ambiguity, if recognized and accepted as such, could offer to photography a unique means of expression.
…Full of meanings, [the photograph] is a dense text
Censorship and the power of photography in the age of the electronic image
Embedded journalism and the US military {Iraq 2003}
*Photos of USA fatalities rarely published
* Photos of USA torturing Iraqi civilians
24 October 2008
Dilemmas in social photography
Sex and violence sells papers
Social commentary – voyeuristic gaze onto other people’s experiences
Ernesto Nhamvuave
No one truly knows this person
He was burned alive with xenophobic violence that was in South Africa
Don’t know the individual itself
Photos (Domestic violence)
Portray violence
Hard to concentrate on the individual face
We see the problem that she represents
The first image
At first glance it is domestic violence
“just another victim”
We see through the lens of a social issue
Beautiful suffering
Photography and the traffic in pain
Photographers dealing with the issues that are present in the social realm
Berger- Mohr
A seventh man
Migrant workers in the UK
Invisible people
Temporary on visas
Generic image
Alex Kayser
Of soldiers and bankers
Formal men – bankers
Dressed in suits and sitting down
Showcasing authority, individualism and confidence
Soldiers
Start with a close up of one soldier
Sad eyes, blank expression
Showcasing vulnerability
No individualism
Gets lost when with all the other soldiers
Monday, October 27, 2008
Friday, October 17, 2008
Notes for the month of September
These are all my lecture notes for September
17 September 2008
News under repression
When: 1970 and 1980s
Where: Apartheid South Africa
Repression
violence
detention
trials
information control
Bantustan policy
Contestation
unions
youth
UDF/ Inkatha/ Unity movement
ANC/PAC/ Black consciousness
Response to information control
How?
Marginal/ underground
cheapcontrol process
gathering information
production
dissemination
What?
research
utilize what is there – courts, lanour
Problems
banning of publications
banning of people and organizations
distribution
money
10 September 2008
Alternative press in South Africa
In the 19th C, states and independent African Kingdoms
But community is increasingly imagined and organized as unitary and national with the rise of mineral revolution and SA war
Politics and publications.
Circulation
Literacy among adult African people rise steadily
1930s economic crisis and political repression destroyed alternative efforts to publish. Socialist journals the exception. Inkululeko and the Guardian
Commercial pressures and white ownership
Four phases in the history of alternate press
The African mission press – 1830s – 1880
the independent protest press – 1880s – 1930
searly resistant press – 1930s – 1960s
the later resistance press 1960 –
Focus on second phase
Eastern Cape – Tengo Jabavo and Imvo Zabantsundu
John Tengo Jabavo – 1959-1921
King Williams Town, Nov 1884. Imvo Zabantsundu launched: Sought to articulate and unify the interest of the emerging African Christian middle class
1887 – The parliamentary voters registration act
1892 – the franchise and ballot act
Northern Cape – Solomon Plaatjie Plaatjie and Koranta ea BecoanaSol Plaatjie
– 1876-1932Early education and work in Mafekeng and Kimberley.
Coverage of siege of Mafekeng – beginnings of his journalistic career.
On August 1901, Koranta ea Becoana (Bechuana Gazette) was launched.
News exchange from other countries and regionsLike Jabave, Christian, critical of Africans who did not give up traditional ways to become ‘civilised’ i.e. liberal-conservativeTsala ea Becoana
He joined the South African Native National Congress SANNC that formed in 1912 and was elected as Secretary General
Natives’ Land Act 1913Tsala’s circulation rose to 4000 by early 1914.
Plaatje= most widely read black journalist of his dayDelegation to EnglandNatalOne example is John Dube’s illanga Lase Natal, started in 1903.
Condemned slaughter rebels during Babbatha uprising.
But generally conservative in viewAnother example: Mohandas K Ghandi and Indian Opinion. 3 individuals founded Madanjit Viyavaharik, Mansukhal Hiral Nazar and Ghandi
In English, Hindi and Guajarati, Urdu and Tamil1st issue 4 June 1903 : 3paims of newspaper: imperial values, create unified Indian community out of extremely diverse populationremained elite in outlook, but did condemn indenture as a system of cruelty and evil
in 1907 the Transvaal government passed the Asiatic Law Amendment Ordinance resistance and goal – newspapers praised those in goal and condemned collaboratorsIndian opinion published inspiring quotations from authors such as Henry David’s Thoreau’s “on the duty of civil disobedience”
Satyagathra and Gandhi
All these examples use platform of newspapers as platform for civic engagement, to unify community opinion, to transform conditions in their world. All had hopes for change and believed in the principles of existing parliamentary system. Advocated for inclusion.
17 September 2008
News under repression
When: 1970 and 1980s
Where: Apartheid South Africa
Repression
violence
detention
trials
information control
Bantustan policy
Contestation
unions
youth
UDF/ Inkatha/ Unity movement
ANC/PAC/ Black consciousness
Response to information control
How?
Marginal/ underground
cheapcontrol process
gathering information
production
dissemination
What?
research
utilize what is there – courts, lanour
Problems
banning of publications
banning of people and organizations
distribution
money
10 September 2008
Alternative press in South Africa
In the 19th C, states and independent African Kingdoms
But community is increasingly imagined and organized as unitary and national with the rise of mineral revolution and SA war
Politics and publications.
Circulation
Literacy among adult African people rise steadily
1930s economic crisis and political repression destroyed alternative efforts to publish. Socialist journals the exception. Inkululeko and the Guardian
Commercial pressures and white ownership
Four phases in the history of alternate press
The African mission press – 1830s – 1880
the independent protest press – 1880s – 1930
searly resistant press – 1930s – 1960s
the later resistance press 1960 –
Focus on second phase
Eastern Cape – Tengo Jabavo and Imvo Zabantsundu
John Tengo Jabavo – 1959-1921
King Williams Town, Nov 1884. Imvo Zabantsundu launched: Sought to articulate and unify the interest of the emerging African Christian middle class
1887 – The parliamentary voters registration act
1892 – the franchise and ballot act
Northern Cape – Solomon Plaatjie Plaatjie and Koranta ea BecoanaSol Plaatjie
– 1876-1932Early education and work in Mafekeng and Kimberley.
Coverage of siege of Mafekeng – beginnings of his journalistic career.
On August 1901, Koranta ea Becoana (Bechuana Gazette) was launched.
News exchange from other countries and regionsLike Jabave, Christian, critical of Africans who did not give up traditional ways to become ‘civilised’ i.e. liberal-conservativeTsala ea Becoana
He joined the South African Native National Congress SANNC that formed in 1912 and was elected as Secretary General
Natives’ Land Act 1913Tsala’s circulation rose to 4000 by early 1914.
Plaatje= most widely read black journalist of his dayDelegation to EnglandNatalOne example is John Dube’s illanga Lase Natal, started in 1903.
Condemned slaughter rebels during Babbatha uprising.
But generally conservative in viewAnother example: Mohandas K Ghandi and Indian Opinion. 3 individuals founded Madanjit Viyavaharik, Mansukhal Hiral Nazar and Ghandi
In English, Hindi and Guajarati, Urdu and Tamil1st issue 4 June 1903 : 3paims of newspaper: imperial values, create unified Indian community out of extremely diverse populationremained elite in outlook, but did condemn indenture as a system of cruelty and evil
in 1907 the Transvaal government passed the Asiatic Law Amendment Ordinance resistance and goal – newspapers praised those in goal and condemned collaboratorsIndian opinion published inspiring quotations from authors such as Henry David’s Thoreau’s “on the duty of civil disobedience”
Satyagathra and Gandhi
All these examples use platform of newspapers as platform for civic engagement, to unify community opinion, to transform conditions in their world. All had hopes for change and believed in the principles of existing parliamentary system. Advocated for inclusion.
My Lecture Notes For August
These are most of the lecture notes I took in August
29 August 2008
Importance of the free press
News media as a way of speaking truth to power
Public sphere as a place of debate and free exchange of ideas
A check on state abuses of power.
Example
McCarthyism in the US
CBS – Columbia Broadcast News
Edward R Morrow and news team
Film: Good Night and Good Luck
Nominated for Oscar Awards
McCarthy’s “rooting out communists” has been compared to Bush’s War on Terror in which people are targeted if they are not “native” American.
The McCarthy era
McCarthyism
Late 1940 – early 1950
Context of Cold War
Soviet Union tests atomic bomb in 1949
Execution of Rosenberg’s’ in 1953
Communist party in early 20th C
Questioning loyalty and accusations of espionage
Loyalty letter
“Are you now, or have you ever been a member of the communist party of the US?”
Hollywood – Black list – pressure to name names
HUAC – House Un-American Committee
27 August 2008
Research ethics
Issues
power of the researcher – making private things public
“informed consent”
Vulnerable populations
Children
Prisoners
Mentally ill or disabled
Victims of trauma
Refugees and those without legal status or in danger of arrest
Potentially stigmatized individuals
sensitive information and confidentiality
Principles
Protection and respect – do not harm
Will my interviews create harm, confusion or embarrassment?
Will the fact of my interview place my subject in danger?
Will revealing my identity of my source compromise their well-being in any way?
Is this person in a position to give informed consent?
Does this person I interview believe that they do not have a choice?
Are they under the impression that they will be rewarded if they answer or punished if they do not?
Transparency
contact details
research description
how data will be used?
Professional ethics
agreement to represent the best aspects of academic professionalism (conduct)
representing the UKZN community
ensuring your work is original – not plagiarized
issue of faking the data – accountability issue
Permission/ informed consent
photographs
use of names
avoiding terribly personal questions
22 August 2008
Community
The people who are most local and central to you represent your community
This does not represent the notion of a political community as that involves the nation
Newspapers and nations
Community
Various meanings and realities
Examples, intimate vs. abstract
Political community and the contemporary and normative idea of ‘the nation’
Benedict Anderson (1936- ) wrote a book called Imagined communities 1983
Asked:
Why are the people ready to die or kill of behalf of the nation
What explains nationalism and patriotism?
Why are people so committed to nations?
Why do people think that their personal interest is the same as the interest of every person in the country?
Often it is a voluntary matter that people choose to take up arms and kill/die for their country.
Proudly South African
products made in SA by SA people
the flag
the national anthem
Heritage day
Olympics
Embassies
National community must be imagined and imaginable to population at large
A nation is an imagined community
Not unreal
Even though there are different people who look different from us – they still share part in the nation
Print capitalism and the role of the newspaper
time and simultaneity
nationalizing space
standardization of language
Things that show we are part of a nation
maps
Story books
History books
Televisions
Laws
Police
Institutions
The primary tool of joining people to the nation – is the newspaper
it shows us what goes on in the world and in the country
It shows us that a lot of people have the same stake on the world.
How is this nation affected?
15 August 2008
At least four major historical conditions that are important in the history of newspaper:
the technology of script and writing invented
materials and technology for producing a newspaper
Mass literacy [lots of people who know how to read]
social institutions and ideas about politics that make newspapers marketable prospect, something that people are motivated to buy and read [e.g. state, market economy, civil society and mass education]
Paper society is not really that hard to produce
China made paper – 2nd Century BCE
Only produced in Europe – 12th Century AD
Papyrus, clay, animal skins, rocks and wax tables are mediums of what was used before paper was invented
Mass produce theory – printing processes
Block writing – full page of text
China – moveable type
Block of each letter
China used Ceramics
Europe
developments of a moveable type
Johannes Guttenburg
1440
Germany
The printing press
Metal and oil based ink
Paper manufacture in England
Craft guild as manufacturers
Single sheet
Fibers - rags etc
Frames with dry screens
Textiles and automation
“Spinning Jenny” 1765
Implication for production and social relations?
J.N.L. Robert, 1798 paper making machine
Wood pulp and chemicals 1831
Craft guilds out of business or had to adopt and build their own paper mills
Distribution: the importance of Postal services and networks
Newsletters
Apprentices would be children up to the age of 7 and spend their time picking apart the rags and wood that would be used to form the paper
James Hargreaves – Spinning Jenny
A lot of new materials are coming form the ‘new world’ – North and South America
1798
J.N.L. Robert
The mesh paper making machine that can make a role of paper
This put the craft guilds out of work
The business of making paper has sprouted other businesses as well
For distribution of paper you need some sort of transportation systems
The post office carries the news in the 18th and 19th Century
Newsletters
merchants, noble men and Kings
commodity prices, exchange rates
uprising in a particular area
fires and weather conditions
gathering information
were sold by subscription
goings on in the world
What about mass literacy? And what socio-political institutions make the newspaper a marketable and useful prospect?
History of Capitalism, the history of the public sphere and the history of the Nation –state. Intertwined
England
Pre-industrial England
‘enclosures’
In 1688, Parliament form, men of property
Class bourgeoisie and proletariat
Urbanization and factories
Ideas changing: “the enlightenment”
Monarchy ruled over pre-industrial England
Country is divided in class
Merchants did trade in between colonies and also had the newsletters
People started to debate in public forums through the medium of text
Enclosures were where the landless people could make their living and let their animals graze
These enclosures were covered with fences
They became privatized
Glorious revolution
Dutch King
Law making came into the hands of the property owning elite
Voting remained to the free English men who owned property.
A need for unskilled labour
The landless people became the working class because they had jobs in the factories
Urbanization took place because the landless people now had jobs
6 August 2008
Orality and literacy
Changes in technology do have changes in society
Not all changes in technology impact changes that take place in society
Changes in technology that impacted society
electricity
cellphone
television
radio
cars
guns
stone tools – farming
technology and historical change
writing as a technology
oral cultures have quite often been societies without writing, as illiterate or pre-literate. But this is misleading. Bias
Literacy is essential
Schools are there to improve literacy
What is lost with the invention of writing
Plato 3BCE
Plato was not happy with writing things down – the proper place was in your head
People who are born into oral cultures have a much greater capacity for memory
Writing is held in text and it can be archived
People who have been exposed to writing can only with great difficulty imagine what being in an oral culture is like.
Mega memory
Visual word is different than the visual object
Sound only exists as it is almost gone
Word as sound – word as events
Speech as action
Weight of words in oral cultures
Writing things down can be anonymous
Oaths and pledges – oral cultures
Ceremonial – ritual and religious utterances
Magic words – words as power
News in oral cultures – what you know about the world is told to you
Knowledge is then what can be recalled, remembered, passed down from one generation to the other
Memory aids – mnemonic devices
Thoughts in rhythmic, balanced patterns, in repetition, alliteration, rhyme, formulas, clichés
Story telling vs. story writing
Oral cultures have skills that have been lost, or are threatening to become lost
Formulas for knowledge – proverbs
Orality is participatory – interactive, communal
Writing can take place removed from people, so it can be solitary
Willlem Boshoff
Artist
Used words in art to express himself.
13 August 2008
Literacy and power
Invention of writing has an impact on how a society works
Also a focus on how a political society functions
to expand communication networks
to rationalize social institutions
When a useful and new technology is developed it may affect the whole society as well as the power structure that the society has. Also, it will affect how the society is seen in the eyes of the world.
Literacy emerges among the elite
origins of class and inequality relevant to the history of literacy
Neolithic revolution, about 10 – 13 thousand years ago.
Begins in ‘fertile crescent’ also China, Egypt, and Mexico. Domestication
Impact?
Societies settle, dwellings become more permanent
Changes in land use patterns through cultivation and grazing
Elite
the rich and powerful
it emphasizes the inequalities that were found in Historical context
Kings, Priests and States
Literacy
Is a tool in political and economic power
Neolithic revolution
Neo – new
Lithic – stone
The most important revolution
The birth of farming
Writing and farming began in ‘fertile crescent’
Farming
Domesticating certain plants and animals
Domesticating
The art of growing and bringing things into your own home range
Significance?
Changes occur with farming
Hunter-gather society
Follow the herd – seasonal
Follow the plants and the route that it grows
Nomadic community
Easy to move
Small communities
You just have what you own and can carry with you
Oral culture
Information is passed down from generation to generation in an oral manner
Neolithic revolution
societies settle down
changes in land use
surplus food
Population growth with the extra food.
Land becomes privatized
Storage of food becomes possible
Change in technology and food
Private property emerges; and with it inequality [rich and poor]
Organized trade of surplus
Division of labour: hierarchical forms of social organization
Political classes: Chiefs, Kings, ruling classes, priests
Technological and intellectual innovations
Labour: Serfs, slaves, indentured labour
Military power, standing armies
Why is this history relevant for a history of literacy?
Social divisions and hierarchies
Separation is bolstered by writing
Literacy of royal courts, a specialized skill
Empires
Military command from a distance
Population registers. Taxes, Tribute etc…
Bureaucracies
Theories of rule, theories of war etc…
Loans and debts, charters and enterprise
Territorial expansion and economic networks
Law encodement
Capitalism based on private property and banking
Cultural divide between town and country
What about the non-elite majority?
“mass literacy” only recent:
Ideological reasons
Technological reasons
not yet a view that ordinary people or non elite people should make any opinion or voice in the political ideas that govern them
Riots or uprisings, but… not based on the idea that the people should rule.
Ideology and social structure not geared towards democracy
the origins of mass literacy coincide with a rise in an ideology moving towards a ‘democratization’ of politics
writing can be used to challenge power
how? Example – treason in the 18th century
Literacy, citizenship and civic action
“news media”
1 August 2008
New forms of delivery for news media
Relationship between readership and the news media
Blog
Web log
Web – world wide web
Log – journal/ record
Once a blog is published it can be edited and updated
Reasons for creating a blog
Advertise something you want to sell
Expectations of a blog
Blog needs to have a title
Blog needs to have a subtitle
It needs to be catchy
Every entry has a date
Most recent entry at the top
Each entry has a title
It can have photos
It can have hyperlinks
29 August 2008
Importance of the free press
News media as a way of speaking truth to power
Public sphere as a place of debate and free exchange of ideas
A check on state abuses of power.
Example
McCarthyism in the US
CBS – Columbia Broadcast News
Edward R Morrow and news team
Film: Good Night and Good Luck
Nominated for Oscar Awards
McCarthy’s “rooting out communists” has been compared to Bush’s War on Terror in which people are targeted if they are not “native” American.
The McCarthy era
McCarthyism
Late 1940 – early 1950
Context of Cold War
Soviet Union tests atomic bomb in 1949
Execution of Rosenberg’s’ in 1953
Communist party in early 20th C
Questioning loyalty and accusations of espionage
Loyalty letter
“Are you now, or have you ever been a member of the communist party of the US?”
Hollywood – Black list – pressure to name names
HUAC – House Un-American Committee
27 August 2008
Research ethics
Issues
power of the researcher – making private things public
“informed consent”
Vulnerable populations
Children
Prisoners
Mentally ill or disabled
Victims of trauma
Refugees and those without legal status or in danger of arrest
Potentially stigmatized individuals
sensitive information and confidentiality
Principles
Protection and respect – do not harm
Will my interviews create harm, confusion or embarrassment?
Will the fact of my interview place my subject in danger?
Will revealing my identity of my source compromise their well-being in any way?
Is this person in a position to give informed consent?
Does this person I interview believe that they do not have a choice?
Are they under the impression that they will be rewarded if they answer or punished if they do not?
Transparency
contact details
research description
how data will be used?
Professional ethics
agreement to represent the best aspects of academic professionalism (conduct)
representing the UKZN community
ensuring your work is original – not plagiarized
issue of faking the data – accountability issue
Permission/ informed consent
photographs
use of names
avoiding terribly personal questions
22 August 2008
Community
The people who are most local and central to you represent your community
This does not represent the notion of a political community as that involves the nation
Newspapers and nations
Community
Various meanings and realities
Examples, intimate vs. abstract
Political community and the contemporary and normative idea of ‘the nation’
Benedict Anderson (1936- ) wrote a book called Imagined communities 1983
Asked:
Why are the people ready to die or kill of behalf of the nation
What explains nationalism and patriotism?
Why are people so committed to nations?
Why do people think that their personal interest is the same as the interest of every person in the country?
Often it is a voluntary matter that people choose to take up arms and kill/die for their country.
Proudly South African
products made in SA by SA people
the flag
the national anthem
Heritage day
Olympics
Embassies
National community must be imagined and imaginable to population at large
A nation is an imagined community
Not unreal
Even though there are different people who look different from us – they still share part in the nation
Print capitalism and the role of the newspaper
time and simultaneity
nationalizing space
standardization of language
Things that show we are part of a nation
maps
Story books
History books
Televisions
Laws
Police
Institutions
The primary tool of joining people to the nation – is the newspaper
it shows us what goes on in the world and in the country
It shows us that a lot of people have the same stake on the world.
How is this nation affected?
15 August 2008
At least four major historical conditions that are important in the history of newspaper:
the technology of script and writing invented
materials and technology for producing a newspaper
Mass literacy [lots of people who know how to read]
social institutions and ideas about politics that make newspapers marketable prospect, something that people are motivated to buy and read [e.g. state, market economy, civil society and mass education]
Paper society is not really that hard to produce
China made paper – 2nd Century BCE
Only produced in Europe – 12th Century AD
Papyrus, clay, animal skins, rocks and wax tables are mediums of what was used before paper was invented
Mass produce theory – printing processes
Block writing – full page of text
China – moveable type
Block of each letter
China used Ceramics
Europe
developments of a moveable type
Johannes Guttenburg
1440
Germany
The printing press
Metal and oil based ink
Paper manufacture in England
Craft guild as manufacturers
Single sheet
Fibers - rags etc
Frames with dry screens
Textiles and automation
“Spinning Jenny” 1765
Implication for production and social relations?
J.N.L. Robert, 1798 paper making machine
Wood pulp and chemicals 1831
Craft guilds out of business or had to adopt and build their own paper mills
Distribution: the importance of Postal services and networks
Newsletters
Apprentices would be children up to the age of 7 and spend their time picking apart the rags and wood that would be used to form the paper
James Hargreaves – Spinning Jenny
A lot of new materials are coming form the ‘new world’ – North and South America
1798
J.N.L. Robert
The mesh paper making machine that can make a role of paper
This put the craft guilds out of work
The business of making paper has sprouted other businesses as well
For distribution of paper you need some sort of transportation systems
The post office carries the news in the 18th and 19th Century
Newsletters
merchants, noble men and Kings
commodity prices, exchange rates
uprising in a particular area
fires and weather conditions
gathering information
were sold by subscription
goings on in the world
What about mass literacy? And what socio-political institutions make the newspaper a marketable and useful prospect?
History of Capitalism, the history of the public sphere and the history of the Nation –state. Intertwined
England
Pre-industrial England
‘enclosures’
In 1688, Parliament form, men of property
Class bourgeoisie and proletariat
Urbanization and factories
Ideas changing: “the enlightenment”
Monarchy ruled over pre-industrial England
Country is divided in class
Merchants did trade in between colonies and also had the newsletters
People started to debate in public forums through the medium of text
Enclosures were where the landless people could make their living and let their animals graze
These enclosures were covered with fences
They became privatized
Glorious revolution
Dutch King
Law making came into the hands of the property owning elite
Voting remained to the free English men who owned property.
A need for unskilled labour
The landless people became the working class because they had jobs in the factories
Urbanization took place because the landless people now had jobs
6 August 2008
Orality and literacy
Changes in technology do have changes in society
Not all changes in technology impact changes that take place in society
Changes in technology that impacted society
electricity
cellphone
television
radio
cars
guns
stone tools – farming
technology and historical change
writing as a technology
oral cultures have quite often been societies without writing, as illiterate or pre-literate. But this is misleading. Bias
Literacy is essential
Schools are there to improve literacy
What is lost with the invention of writing
Plato 3BCE
Plato was not happy with writing things down – the proper place was in your head
People who are born into oral cultures have a much greater capacity for memory
Writing is held in text and it can be archived
People who have been exposed to writing can only with great difficulty imagine what being in an oral culture is like.
Mega memory
Visual word is different than the visual object
Sound only exists as it is almost gone
Word as sound – word as events
Speech as action
Weight of words in oral cultures
Writing things down can be anonymous
Oaths and pledges – oral cultures
Ceremonial – ritual and religious utterances
Magic words – words as power
News in oral cultures – what you know about the world is told to you
Knowledge is then what can be recalled, remembered, passed down from one generation to the other
Memory aids – mnemonic devices
Thoughts in rhythmic, balanced patterns, in repetition, alliteration, rhyme, formulas, clichés
Story telling vs. story writing
Oral cultures have skills that have been lost, or are threatening to become lost
Formulas for knowledge – proverbs
Orality is participatory – interactive, communal
Writing can take place removed from people, so it can be solitary
Willlem Boshoff
Artist
Used words in art to express himself.
13 August 2008
Literacy and power
Invention of writing has an impact on how a society works
Also a focus on how a political society functions
to expand communication networks
to rationalize social institutions
When a useful and new technology is developed it may affect the whole society as well as the power structure that the society has. Also, it will affect how the society is seen in the eyes of the world.
Literacy emerges among the elite
origins of class and inequality relevant to the history of literacy
Neolithic revolution, about 10 – 13 thousand years ago.
Begins in ‘fertile crescent’ also China, Egypt, and Mexico. Domestication
Impact?
Societies settle, dwellings become more permanent
Changes in land use patterns through cultivation and grazing
Elite
the rich and powerful
it emphasizes the inequalities that were found in Historical context
Kings, Priests and States
Literacy
Is a tool in political and economic power
Neolithic revolution
Neo – new
Lithic – stone
The most important revolution
The birth of farming
Writing and farming began in ‘fertile crescent’
Farming
Domesticating certain plants and animals
Domesticating
The art of growing and bringing things into your own home range
Significance?
Changes occur with farming
Hunter-gather society
Follow the herd – seasonal
Follow the plants and the route that it grows
Nomadic community
Easy to move
Small communities
You just have what you own and can carry with you
Oral culture
Information is passed down from generation to generation in an oral manner
Neolithic revolution
societies settle down
changes in land use
surplus food
Population growth with the extra food.
Land becomes privatized
Storage of food becomes possible
Change in technology and food
Private property emerges; and with it inequality [rich and poor]
Organized trade of surplus
Division of labour: hierarchical forms of social organization
Political classes: Chiefs, Kings, ruling classes, priests
Technological and intellectual innovations
Labour: Serfs, slaves, indentured labour
Military power, standing armies
Why is this history relevant for a history of literacy?
Social divisions and hierarchies
Separation is bolstered by writing
Literacy of royal courts, a specialized skill
Empires
Military command from a distance
Population registers. Taxes, Tribute etc…
Bureaucracies
Theories of rule, theories of war etc…
Loans and debts, charters and enterprise
Territorial expansion and economic networks
Law encodement
Capitalism based on private property and banking
Cultural divide between town and country
What about the non-elite majority?
“mass literacy” only recent:
Ideological reasons
Technological reasons
not yet a view that ordinary people or non elite people should make any opinion or voice in the political ideas that govern them
Riots or uprisings, but… not based on the idea that the people should rule.
Ideology and social structure not geared towards democracy
the origins of mass literacy coincide with a rise in an ideology moving towards a ‘democratization’ of politics
writing can be used to challenge power
how? Example – treason in the 18th century
Literacy, citizenship and civic action
“news media”
1 August 2008
New forms of delivery for news media
Relationship between readership and the news media
Blog
Web log
Web – world wide web
Log – journal/ record
Once a blog is published it can be edited and updated
Reasons for creating a blog
Advertise something you want to sell
Expectations of a blog
Blog needs to have a title
Blog needs to have a subtitle
It needs to be catchy
Every entry has a date
Most recent entry at the top
Each entry has a title
It can have photos
It can have hyperlinks
Friday, October 10, 2008
My Final Project
I have chosen to do my final project on the subtopic of Poverty and Equality
I will be trying to use images of extreme poverty stricken communities/landscapes, compared to the wealthy and rich communities/landscapes. The images used will try to portray the co-existence of two very different worlds that ironically live side by side.
Many people often shelter themselves from the reality of the paradoxical world we live in. This type of behavior is their coping strategy of dealing with, or understanding the world as it is today. By bringing the topic of inequality into images, its helps emphasize the affects of our ignorance as humans. This statement can be used by both extremes of wealth.
In my video I aim to use photos that indicate the patriotism of people even though they live in the poorest of circumstances. I also use photos to portray image of a scale. On the one end of the scale there are the 'rich' of the society - the people who have homes and wealth and are not afraid to spend their money. And on the other end of the scale there are the poverty stricken people - the people who have to live off of $1 or $2 a day. In doing this, I am able to highlight that there are definite impairments to dignity when referring to the ways in which people choose to live versus the ways in which people do not have a choice on how they have to live. This also emphasizes that there is a definite unfairness in relation to democracy when the image of the scale is invoked. The articles that we read bring forth a notion of cosmopolitan citizenship. How can everyone be equal if the country does not allow it?
The main theory behind my video is to elaborate on this unfairness and unequal ness that is found in the society on a daily basis.
Friday, October 3, 2008
Our Second news article
Our group decide to do our second news article, after a lawyer called Lee Stone, gave us the idea of the MTIX slut list.
As we did research about the MXIT slut list our story started to flow. We aimed our research on the basis that we were trying to find out how the people on the list were affected and how their reputations were in anyway harmed. We were also trying to find out the reasons why people firstly created the list and secondly how it spread so quikly.
It was an interesting topic but but at the same time a little bit frustrating because we were not able to find an original list, we also found out that there are actually a few of these lists as they are not all the same, it was also interesting to here the opinions of our fellow group members and as to how they would have been affected if their name or a person they knew whose name appeared on one of these lists.
This article also taught us a little bit about our fellow group members and how all our opinions can be put together to create our article, and because of that in was fun working on the article.
As we did research about the MXIT slut list our story started to flow. We aimed our research on the basis that we were trying to find out how the people on the list were affected and how their reputations were in anyway harmed. We were also trying to find out the reasons why people firstly created the list and secondly how it spread so quikly.
It was an interesting topic but but at the same time a little bit frustrating because we were not able to find an original list, we also found out that there are actually a few of these lists as they are not all the same, it was also interesting to here the opinions of our fellow group members and as to how they would have been affected if their name or a person they knew whose name appeared on one of these lists.
This article also taught us a little bit about our fellow group members and how all our opinions can be put together to create our article, and because of that in was fun working on the article.
Friday, September 12, 2008
The First news article for the e-zine
The news article that our group wrote is about the gender inequalities that is found within the workplace. We decided that to tackle the argument of dignity we would do interviews that would explain to us - from people in the workplace - what it is like to work in an environment that has males and females in it.
The right to dignity, as we found out today, is a very important right and it should be protected so our article is to find out whether people's dignities are in jeopardy within the workplace.
We were wanting to answer the questions as we really wanted to find out the other factors to consider other than the type of jobs that are actually out there. we were consentrating on poverty and the availability of jobs, aswell as gender inequalities and the stereotypes connected to certain jobs.
We were all responsible to interview two people as well as a online research article to use as a really good source of information for our newspaper article.
We used the interviews in our article that was done by Lindo and Amy. They interviewed people in the society, we also used newspaper articles that were found in the media 102 lectures written by Collen L Morna and maggie Wittstock.
We never had any problems, as everyone was willing to partake in our research. It was very easy research to do as our topic did not accompany any ethical issues. We chose very straightforward questions that did not require anyone to feel that their dignity might be impaired and so it was fairly quick that all our research was done.
The right to dignity, as we found out today, is a very important right and it should be protected so our article is to find out whether people's dignities are in jeopardy within the workplace.
We were wanting to answer the questions as we really wanted to find out the other factors to consider other than the type of jobs that are actually out there. we were consentrating on poverty and the availability of jobs, aswell as gender inequalities and the stereotypes connected to certain jobs.
We were all responsible to interview two people as well as a online research article to use as a really good source of information for our newspaper article.
We used the interviews in our article that was done by Lindo and Amy. They interviewed people in the society, we also used newspaper articles that were found in the media 102 lectures written by Collen L Morna and maggie Wittstock.
We never had any problems, as everyone was willing to partake in our research. It was very easy research to do as our topic did not accompany any ethical issues. We chose very straightforward questions that did not require anyone to feel that their dignity might be impaired and so it was fairly quick that all our research was done.
Friday, August 29, 2008
School Boy Intimidation Turns Into Respect
Throughout my primrary school days, I was small for my age and being skinny left me very vulnerable to the bigger boys who enjoyed picking on the smaller boys like myself. And so I like most boys in my position felt vulnerable and dreaded going to school.
At break time I would hang out with my friends but mostly with my one friend Bryce, who was the complete opposite of me as he was big for his age, and whenever I was with Bryce I had no problems with the bigger boys trying to intimidate me, but as soon as Bryce wasn't around I was picked on and laughed at for my size and my physique.
These boys intimidated me so much that i lost all my self confidence and I was scared to do anything, such as answer or ask questions in class, as I was scared of being laughed at and mocked which has made me a very shy person, until it got so bad that I just wanted to cry sometimes, but I knew that if I did that would just give them more reason to mock me and lower my self confidence even more. No matter how hard i tried to not let them get to me, I was just to vulnerable and cried myself to sleep some nights.
Until the day I was one of the stars in my schools cricket team, which included most of the boys who were intimidating me, they tried many things to try knock my confidence I had while playing cricket, but when they realised that there was nothing that could stop me from enjoying and loving cricket so much, as I was playing with such confidence, all of a sudden all of the intimidating, mocking and jeering stopped because they respected me as a star sportsman and they treated me like a normal person.
It really amazes me that people can't treat others with respect and as equals until they succeed in something.
Althouth all the mocking and jeering stopped i am still shy as they really dented my self confidence so much, and it makes me wonder wheather the intimidation and mocking would have ever stopped if it wasn't for me doing well at sport!
At break time I would hang out with my friends but mostly with my one friend Bryce, who was the complete opposite of me as he was big for his age, and whenever I was with Bryce I had no problems with the bigger boys trying to intimidate me, but as soon as Bryce wasn't around I was picked on and laughed at for my size and my physique.
These boys intimidated me so much that i lost all my self confidence and I was scared to do anything, such as answer or ask questions in class, as I was scared of being laughed at and mocked which has made me a very shy person, until it got so bad that I just wanted to cry sometimes, but I knew that if I did that would just give them more reason to mock me and lower my self confidence even more. No matter how hard i tried to not let them get to me, I was just to vulnerable and cried myself to sleep some nights.
Until the day I was one of the stars in my schools cricket team, which included most of the boys who were intimidating me, they tried many things to try knock my confidence I had while playing cricket, but when they realised that there was nothing that could stop me from enjoying and loving cricket so much, as I was playing with such confidence, all of a sudden all of the intimidating, mocking and jeering stopped because they respected me as a star sportsman and they treated me like a normal person.
It really amazes me that people can't treat others with respect and as equals until they succeed in something.
Althouth all the mocking and jeering stopped i am still shy as they really dented my self confidence so much, and it makes me wonder wheather the intimidation and mocking would have ever stopped if it wasn't for me doing well at sport!
Friday, August 22, 2008
''DIGNITY''
To me inherent human dignity means the right of each person to be respected as a human being, regardless of their skin colour, nationality, culture, physical appearance, physical capabilities, way of speaking and their beliefs. The world would be a far better place to be in if we all lived by this. There would be tolerance of each other.
Human dignity covers every aspect of our lives and i believe all of us at some point have failed. From an early age we are taught by our parents ''not to stare'' at someone who is physically disabled or ''not to mock'' at how someone speaks or acts but still we do this, usually when we are in a crowd no two people are alike and there is certainly no ''perfect person''. we say we accept this, but when we come across someone who is ''different'' we treat them differently, and as not always with dignity. (Not treating people with dignity can range from ignoring them, talking down to them, physically hurting them, verbally abusing them, mocking them ect)
An example of someone demonstrating human dignity would be the carers or nurses in an old age home, where my great gran was being looked after as she was too frail to stay with us at home. The nurses not only cared for her health but made sure she was bathed and dressed properly. They would listen to her ''ramblings'' and take interest in her as a person. They showed patience and understanding when she would try and get out of bed and attempt to walk unaided and became angry when she couldn't. Yes, these people are trained (and paid) to do this, but if everyone could show tolerance and understanding instead of intolerance and an unrealistic expectation of how the ''ideal'' person should b, then perhaps we would have more peace and happiness in the world.
Human dignity covers every aspect of our lives and i believe all of us at some point have failed. From an early age we are taught by our parents ''not to stare'' at someone who is physically disabled or ''not to mock'' at how someone speaks or acts but still we do this, usually when we are in a crowd no two people are alike and there is certainly no ''perfect person''. we say we accept this, but when we come across someone who is ''different'' we treat them differently, and as not always with dignity. (Not treating people with dignity can range from ignoring them, talking down to them, physically hurting them, verbally abusing them, mocking them ect)
An example of someone demonstrating human dignity would be the carers or nurses in an old age home, where my great gran was being looked after as she was too frail to stay with us at home. The nurses not only cared for her health but made sure she was bathed and dressed properly. They would listen to her ''ramblings'' and take interest in her as a person. They showed patience and understanding when she would try and get out of bed and attempt to walk unaided and became angry when she couldn't. Yes, these people are trained (and paid) to do this, but if everyone could show tolerance and understanding instead of intolerance and an unrealistic expectation of how the ''ideal'' person should b, then perhaps we would have more peace and happiness in the world.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
.JPG)