Witnessing the War

"The Iraq War marked the beginning of the end of network news coverage.  Viewers saw the juxtaposition of the embedded correspondents reporting the way as it was actually unfolding and the jaundiced, biased, negative coverage of the same events in the network newsrooms."  -Dick Morris How are we as citizens of America really suppose to know what is going on out there, especially during the war on Iraq, when all we see is carefully crafted information displayed by news outlets??

Iraq War- Witness

The Iraq war perpetuates an idea that the soldiers are serving their lives for the beauty of the Country and even the World. The media that we are shown today shows the public the scarifies that the soldiers are making, and the beauty in death for the country. The media shows the American Soldier as a heroic figure, and it is a one sided story, where the stories of the Iraqi civilians are dismissed and ignored. The picture that I found shows an American hero and Iraqi children following the America hero, as if he is protecting them from harm and suffering and they even look happy, even though he is carrying a gun. We are only witnessing the war from the American media, and we are not seeing the tragedies from the other side of the story.

Surveillance

"The Discipline of Watching" is an article written about the concept of surveillance.  A technical definition of surveillance can be understood as "close observation."  This article deals with the in-depth concept of all facets of surveillance.  Surveillance can be understood through television shows like MTV's Room Raiders, social media outlets like Facebook and day to day surveillance through observing those around us.  It makes one wonder, if we were to take away all these technological advances, would it allow us to live a more private life?

Power of Law Enforcement

After reading the article "The Discipline of Watching" by Andrejevic, I have thought about the power that surveillance gives to authority figures in our society. For example, our law enforcement has an abundance amount of power over us citizens, and we are highly subjected to surveillance at any point in our daily lives. As much as we would like to think that our law enforcement is protecting our society there has been much controversy about how much power we allow them to have over us. Our law enforcement watches over us at all times when we are in public, and they have the right to enter our homes at anytime. Unfortunately, our society has been known for having mass amounts of corruption at times, and we have our power stripped away from us. We are told they are protecting us, but how can we tell? If the police have no warrants, rights or suspicion, it is hard to believe that they can have the right to come into our personal lives. Many people have been upset with the law enforcement and the government power that they have received over them. It is hard for me to have a position on this controversy because on one hand I want to believe and hope that the law enforcement is there to protect us, but I can also see that they have too much power to surveillance our society.

 http://articles.petoskeynews.com/2003-09-18/subpoena-power_24040274

How Facebook Makes Creepy Behavior Normal

After reading Andrejevic's The Discipline of Watching, I started to think more about the different ways we are all surveilled. I found a really interesting article that talks about Facebook and how it is changing the rules of social surveillance. The main premise of the article is that, through Facebook, we both surveil and are surveilled. Facebook allows us to identify with both roles, making it more common for us to follow or research people online. The article also mentions the panoptic prison scenario that we talked about in class. An important question that the article asks is, when are we okay with creeping and being crept on?

We all definitely have boundaries when it comes to surveilling and being surveilled, but where are they?

How Facebook Makes Creepy Behavior Normal

Abu Ghraib vs. WWII

I thought today's reading, Invisible Empire: Visual Culture, Embodied Spectacle, and ABu Ghraib by Nicholas Mirzoeff, was really intriguing. The censorship that occurred with these photographs reminded of what the government did during WWII. During the second World War the government kept a lot of information and pictures from the public in order to control the narrative of the war. Here is one of the pictures that was released after the war. Images like this strayed from the idea that America was dominant and noble. These images are almost degrading, which is why they were censored. I find the parallels between this and the Abu Ghraib photos very interesting.

Why are we as an American society so mesmorized by individuals, like the Kardashian family, that are famous simply by being wealthy?