Jacob C. Smith

[jacobsmithjwu-blog]

Blog Post #2: Innovations in Technology/Social Media

Today, our society is filled with new technology innovations, engaging media platforms, and technology tools to assist with daily interactions and task. As application softwares update, and the latest software edition is released, social media continues to be a leading edge invention to engage, interact, and captivate. 

From the perspective of how we engage with consumers, and the consumer engagement trajectory changing, brands will be more engaged than ever before with social media networking. This changing atmosphere of social media will include more brand engagements by through advertisements, integrated shopping platforms, and live interconnected web-based platforms to allow daily interactions to be much easier to navigate. 

[jacobsmithjwu-blog]

Blog Post 10: A Social Media Revolution

“What is embodied in a “fierce commitment to aesthetics?” I suggest that it is both a belief in the integrity of artistic discipline and a passion for the power of art to transform the world” (Kidd 228). In such a technological society, the ways in which we utilize technology has been both inspiring but also a little hopeless.

Today, we are dealing with sexual assault cases, systematic discrimination, police brutality, and the misrepresentation of women, African-Americans/minorities, disabled individuals, and the LGBT community. We must look at the ways in which racial frameworks and hegemony further pervades these overarching ideologies that Dick Hepdige describes in “The Cultural Studies Reader” of 1993. “On the contrary, ideology by definition thrives beneath consciousness. It is here, at the level of ‘normal common sense’, that ideological frames of reference are most firmly sedimented and most effective…” (Hepdige 362).

Understanding the frameworks set in place through social media to privilege the dominate class is an interesting aspect when discussing social media revolutions through hegemony. This will allow us to move beyond the margins in allowing our subculture resistance to not conform to the dominant ideologies. “Social media is a powerful new resource and a tremendous new well of artistic possibility, but a corporate controlled social media industry run by a cabal of the most privileged people in the world will never dismantle the matrix of domination.” (Kidd 229)

I would argue that social media has changed the way in which counter-hegemony is perceived, as mass media continues to shape the cultural sphere in how we communicate and exchange information. Through analyzing the structure of the media, there is an “elite” group that not only reproduces what they view as how society should look but also individually. For example, it’s extremely interesting how the media first perceived the Black Lives Matter movement and even the #MeToo Campaign. Language used signified norms and of those ideologies.

[jacobsmithjwu-blog]

Blog Post 11: Epilogue: “History Retweets Itself”

“Yet the history of media shows that this is just the modern incarnation of the timeless complaints of the intellectual elite, every time technology makes publishing easier, that the wrong sort of people will use it to public the wrong sort of things” (Standage 243).

The trajectory of the World Wide Web is interesting as it was originally designed and could only be assessible to the wealthy elite. This form of communication required special coding, technology expertise, and those who benefited, benefited through their own career field in manners such as academics. Standage discusses how this evolution began to become more public, and just like other communication forms as it became public the battling in understanding various individuals taking part in conversations through an online form. As these conversations emerged, the spread of gossip, false facts and political beliefs were further represented and “public” so other people were able to engage and share their own thoughts.

I would agree with Standage’ s notion in realizing how similar communication from ancient times is to today’s communication in a social media context. “A rather more mundane but widely expressed concern about social media is that the ease with which anyone can now publish his or her views online, whether on Twitter, on blogs, or in comment threads, has led to a coarsening of public discourse.” (Standage 421). Even before, there was still written dialogue with comments, governmental gossip and more that are still individual expresses.

The opposite today is the evolution of how the multimedia corporations, evolution of marketing practices, and media conglomerates that have such influential power in catering the content and the ways in which individuals perceive content on social media becomes a problematic aspect that is continually discussed.

[mestizaliyah-blog]

Blog Post 9: Objectification

The African American community has been portrayed in a very objectified and dramatic way in regards to both men and women. In many music videos, African Americans are portrayed to only have big butts and their bodies are sexualized. However, it is also used to attract those watching the video. From the male perspective, they have a false representation of women and are only attracted to the women wearing their skimpy clothing. Hill-Collins Booty Call, can be a very controversial article. It portrays men to only having increased sexual thoughts. They see women as more of an object as opposed to as a value. This means that they don’t respect women, but only see them as a good “hook-up”.  An example of this in the media stems from the movie Hairspray. Hairspray is a movie that deals with a racial divide. There was a scene in the movie that showed the African American community and how extreme their dancing is compared to how the Caucasian community danced with limitations. The African American women in the movie were portrayed as not having limits of how they should dance or dress. To them it was seen as a form of expression and thought of it as having fun. Famous African American performers have the advantage. People often admire the way that women dance, its more than just the body movements. In addition, another example in the media would be the singer Chris Brown. Among his music videos, he only showcases African American women dancing for him in the music videos. He doesn’t see these women as for who they are, but only care about their body and how good they look dancing for him. These examples show our need to change the view of African American women in media.

[jacobsmithjwu-blog]

Magazine Project

For my magazine project, I will focus on the problematic social order and social practices that have been embedded in the disabled community. My magazine will emphasize on the language utilized to portray the community, that evolves into ideologies that are practices in our mass media. As a queer individual, I will also explore the intersectionality of being a queer, African-America, disabled man in society.

I plan to utilize my voice as a disabled young individual to shed light on the socially constructed identities that shape our behaviors and expectations. Additionally, coming from a religious-minority family, various ideologies are being internalized, which explain why we continue to become oppressed even throughout own groups. Growing up, I didn’t even realize how critical it was for me to understand my identity, culture and beliefs. Instead, I continually strived for an identity that was needed to be “accepted” by the American values and beliefs.

Lastly, I will discuss how the mass media constructs perceptions of the black culture and black people. This perception continues to strive for the western ideologies that centers white-straight males as the dominant class and expect heteronormative behaviors on everyone. My entire intention of this magazine is to share how heteronormative behaviors are expected of a queer, disabled African-American individual, and how the battle continues as a cycle unconsciously.

Many problematic narratives rest today in our society and are initialized in which these “formulas” or “codes” are construed with the continual existence of power structures. Eventually problematic narratives are internalized that focus on ideological resistance, which is a strong tool for reassertation of power. “Hegemony fails when dominate ideology is weaker than social resistance” (Lull 41).

[jacobsmithjwu-blog]

Blog Post 10: Newspaper and Radio

The evolution of the newspaper and radio technology both had a major impact on the transfer of information and communication. The invention of the printing press allowed for multiple printing publications to be printed simultaneously to be shared to hundreds, in which it was used informally, political gain, as well as for intellectuals to connect.  

With the same goal to communicate news to individuals, the radio telegraph started off using Morse code to a transition to broadcasting, which was an invention that continually changed the way of communicating and sharing information through a much more commercialized. Guglielmo Marconi was a young Italian inventor who sought out to extend radio signals and soon traveled abroad to share his invention. Eventually, the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company was established and was the dominant provider of this equipment and service. What I find interesting about the evolution of the radio, is that it is so comparable to what we view social media today. We can broadcast anything in an accessible way to the public. “Initially, American amateur stations also tried their hand, but in December 1921 frequencies for broadcast entertainment were established to keep them clear of naval distress frequencies, and the next month amateurs were “temporarily” banned from entertainment broadcasting” (Standage 197).

Tom Standage notes at the beginning of the chapter how this evolution was inspiring to young individuals such as boys who wanted to experiment and would get them involved in this industry. Unfortunately, these amateur transmitters soon began to interfere with commercial and naval transmitters in which this eventually called for regulations. This was because of their accusations of hindering marine rescue operations. This caused regulation of 1912- Radio Act. This act required al transmitters to be licensed, sort of like the regulations of the newspaper. This gave agency to governmental official to shut down any stations that they wanted. Both the newspaper and radio are similar in which they were innovate for communicating, and were illustrating the power of new information age and the accessibility of information.

[jacobsmithjwu-blog]

Blog Post 8: “Booty Call: Sex, Violence, and Images of Black Masculinity” Patricia Collins

The article by Patricia Hill-Collins was not only eye-opening, but I connected to the pieces discussed as I grew up in a African-American household as a queer male, but more importantly someone who did not fit within the black heterosexual masculinity.

Patricia Collins discussed the black-male identities that are constructed to justify racial inequalities as well as nonthreatening under white authority through an analysis of the term “booty” portrayed in African-American mass media text. This term has constructed ideologies that suggest black masculinity in property violence, and “being tough and having street smart” (Collins 319).

We must understand the role that mass media has in constructing perceptions of the black culture and black people. My family has personally witnessed this in ways that Collins describes. I would be known as the “black buddy” . In contrast, My twin brother has always strived for western ideologies that depict black men as one who is always seeking this masculinity being strong, memorized by the physicality of women as being hyper-heterosexual, and continually seeking the validation of being a “man”. This was far from what my parents expected, but media was a prime example of how this identity became a “role mode” somehow in our household through an unconscious sense. Unfortunately, I’ve seen the ways in which this sexual prowess leads to depression, violence, and a lost identity if that is not found.

“Racial profiling is based on this very premise – the potential threat caused by African American men’s bodies. Across the spectrum of admiration and fear, the bodies of Black men are what matters” (Collins 320).

I never listened to rap, hip-hop or anything that individuals would deem as “black music culture” besides Jazz music. Therefore, I was surprised to understand that this is a form of deviance to the social norms constructed and how the thug and gangsta identity has been contradictory, but profits from the marketability of Black Masculinity discussed earlier. I have no place to bring up examples as I don’t know much music myself. I do although have witnessed this in interacting with those of my color. We find it liberating to express ourselves in a gangsta identity because we can “own” it, but it is marketed to us and sold. We look up to those we see in movies, but don’t realize how it may further stigmatize us, and provide a class-specific representation.

No matter what identity it is, if it is submitting to white authority and extracting the agency of the African-American Culture, it is problematic. Furthermore, because we are unconsciously internalizing these powerful mass media images that construct how we perceive, identify and perform as a black man.

[jacobsmithjwu-blog]

Blog Post 8:  “The ‘Rich Bitch”: Class and Gender on the Real Housewives of New York City

“Class, especially in the context of television, is also a performance, a social script involving, among other things, language use, mannerisms, and dress” (Grindstaff). Popular televisions such as the Real Housewives of News York City illustrates the socially accepted ideological framework that is so embedded in our media. Because of our relationship with the media consumerism, we tend to not even realize the unconscious influence in perceiving the intersectionality of gender, class, race and identity.

Hegemony plays a major role in the reality TV, in which producers employ and define an effective mother or ineffective mother; especially through their relationship with their children. This relationship perpetuates power, wealth and status through their own reality. I’ve never seen the show Real Housewives of New York City, but I find it so interesting to know now that I have friends and family who watch this show and don’t even seem to question the forced unconsciousness, in which viewers accept the dominant ideology as normal reality. This normal realized marginalized and provides a false reality. Choosing between a “good” mother and “bad” mother.  This has opened up eyes to reflect on the demeaning language I utilize and my expectations of a month, without even realizing it. That is why the relationship between ideologies and social action are so important to the critical challenging of the media industry. To me, I have find the dialogue so problematic that it’s almost like it is scripted as being sarcastic. I may view that sarcasm because of what I have personally internalized without having the tools that I do now to understand this.

Many problematic narratives rest today in our society and are initialized in which these “formulas” or “codes” are construed with the continual existence of power structures. Eventually problematic narratives are internalized that focus on ideological resistance, which is a strong tool for reassertation of power. “Hegemony fails when dominate ideology is weaker than social resistance” (Lull 41).

[jacobsmithjwu-blog]

Blog Post: The Rise of Media

In “Writing on the Wall”, Tom Standage discusses the media environment and the power of resistance during the French Revolution that impacted laws,policies, and the development of political advocacy groups.  Earlier in the 18th century, individuals advocated for a more democratic process that enabled freedom and collective decision-making through the implementation of free press.This could be by having a more engaging conversation with the government. “Brissot regarded the press as “the great tribune of humanity,” a great instrument for distilling and giving voice to public opinion and thereby ensuring that politicians in the assembly could remain in tune with the people who had elected them” (Standage 164).

One of the more intriguing stories out of the French Revolution was the establishment of the Cercle Social with Brissot, Condorcet, and Lavicometerie. This group of intellectuals set out to provide a platform for individuals regardless of class to have conversations about current political agendas, laws and policies, and current news in the government. I find this interesting as it correlates to the coffeehouses in people continuing these political conversations, but was rather a form of expression with mainly intellectuals who were soon regarded as dangers to the conservative authorities. 

The Cercle also printed pamphlets with leading members, which I thought was why it initially was banded and never started back up. This brings up the discussion regarding “Freedom of the Press” and “freedom of speech”. In this sense I would think that more fear comes with the political collectives of like-minded individuals.  

[jacobsmithjwu-blog]

Blog Post 6: “Sex/Gender and the Media: From Sex Roles to Social Construction and Beyond”

“However, interpretations is not infinitely open, as mass media messages are structured by the ideological frameworks of media institutions that, for the most part, conform to the dominant power structures in society” (Carter 374).

In “From Sex Roles to Social Construction and Beyond”, Cynthia Carter examines the ways in with theorist have sought to make the sex and gender distinctions. Interestingly, the basis of this research utilizes the notion that sex is defined biologically, while gender is socially constructed, performed, or culturally constructed.

Forms of media have sought to affirm the idea of sex and genders being connected based on the values and ideals that portrayed in which we internalize and audiences and “social media freaks”. Further explained, this western ideology is embedded in the way in which media serves as an agent of socialization. Our gender is defined as being culturally constructed, but disregards to the fluid constructions of gender and separates based on sex.

I find Carter’s anaylsis interesting in that no matter how we identify gender being socially constructed, the portrayal of gender with men and women will continue to be focused on heteronormative norms and values because of such strong ideological frameworks that are coded in our media communications. Carter emphasizes the societal framework that has been defined for “gender” and the oppressive identities that come with such identification. This is proven again and again in how women are portrayed in the media and how that influences the treatment of media in family settings as well as in the American workforce. Additionally, this connects directly with Queer theory in understanding the portrayal of the LGBT community in the media and how heteronormative roles are further illustrated.

“In my view, one of the most pressing concerns today is the need to acknowledge the ways in which mainstream forms of feminism have tended to advance the position of certain women….”(Carter 376).

[jacobsmithjwu-blog]

Blog Post 7:The Liberty of Printing

In “Writing On the Wall”, Tom Standage discusses the evolution of how information spread in North America in the 16th and 17th century. The text explains how Benjamin Harris published a newspaper and was indeed caught for having an influenced publication. During this time of the 1620s, Massachusetts had already connected their religious believe to the idea of controlled printing.

“For learning has brought disobedience, and hersey, and sects in to the world, and printing has divulged them, and libels against the best government. God keeps us from both.” As a result, the colony’s laws were recorded in manuscript form” (Standage 125).

What I find in this chapter is how connect the evolution of the postal service is so similar to today’s form of communication online. The text discusses how the control of printing in the colonies was a regulation, but nothing that would stop the individuals from publishing and circulating information to receive and pass on.

The extensive network of newspaper groups or rather correspondents grew, and publishers like John Cotton Jr. and John Campbell who frequently copied information from other newspaper to add to their own specific newspaper, as well as report on other items of interest. This form reminds of how our we curate Facebook and our online identity that we shape through the information that is given to us.

“But it also contributed to the dynamism, vitality, and unity of the American colonies’ emerging information ecosystem, with its constant traffic of letters, pamphlets, and newspapers.

[jacobsmithjwu-blog]

Blog Post 6: “And So to the Coffeehouse: How Social Media promotes Innovation”

“With their promise of a constant and unpredictable stream of news, messages, and gossip, coffeehouses were an alluring social media platform for sharing information” (Standage 109).

Dustin Kidd provides historical context regarding the emergence of “coffeehouses” in western Europe. These coffeehouses were an informal place where all information could be shared and discussed, which was extremely faster in receiving information than the traditional form of mailing pamphlets and other print publications with the printing press. Soon the coffeehouse became a hub for educational discourse and leisure gossip.

In comparing coffeehouses to our current forms of social communication such as Facebook, twitter and Instagram, public conversations and discourse continues to happen. Just like the coffeehouses, information is shared and discussed in an atmosphere that accepts the freedom of speech. What I find is interesting about today’s social media is that we still have much class and economic division demonstrated. On Twitter, you have to have a certain amount of likes or be a public figure in order to become verified, and on Facebook the majority of opinions are not shared unless a public figure picks it up and informally endorses. With social media today, our public posting is what drives the network, not the information.

“No doubt there was some time-wasting in coffeehouses, as their critics claimed.  But coffeehouses also provided a lively intellectual and social environment in which people could meet and ideas could collide in unexpected ways, producing a stream of innovations that shaped the modern world” (Standage 116).

[jacobsmithjwu-blog]

Blog Post 5: Disability Perspectives on Social Media

In “Social Media Freaks”, Dustin Kidd recognizes the disability perspectives and how such perspectives are problematic in reflecting the meaning of being disabled. Dustin notes, “His statement reflects a widely held notion in American culture that there are two different kinds of disabled persons. Those who are being disabled have real conditions that are part of the essence of their bodies….Those who are drawing disability are frauds who fake their disability for the sake of government benefits” (Kidd 102).

Considering the power of social media today in allowing various marginalized groups to express their creativity and invest in such a powerful tool, unfortunately, social media continues to marginalize the disabled community. Unfortunately, the language and images used in social media networks create false perceptions about the disabled community, which can’t be changed through an interface but rather must be targeted through individuals in their perceptions.

Back in 2015, Donald J. Trump mocked a reporter from the Washington Post who suffers from a chronic condition that affected his arm movements. The manner in which President Trump brought up the reporter was a prime example of how we  tend to perceive disabled individuals culturally and politically without even recognizing the internalization.

(https://www.facebook.com/NowThisNews/videos/950440418379416/)

“In other words, American popular culture tends to treat leisure and celebration as a privilege that is earned through financial success.” I begin to think about various videos on Facebook and Twitter where someone is testifying about the kind-heart that they must give back to a disabled individual. Most of the time, the disabled individual is perceived to not be well-off, low-income, and not as intelligent as the giver.  Not only does this signify the social structures that are given in society, but also enable the audience to internalize such actions and resonate the image and insecurities of the disabled individual.

[jacobsmithjwu-blog]

Blog Post 4: Sexuality Perspectives on Social Media/The Lesbian’ on Sho.Com’s The L Word Site

On June 26, 2015, the Supreme Court of the United State of America guaranteed same-sex marriage, allowing same-sex couples to exercise the right to marry in all states. Although this was a great accomplishment, considering the modern western culture that we still live in, such ideologies for perpetuating a heteronormative sexuality.  

In a society where we are so technologically advanced, our identities whether gay, straight, bi or trans is based through an online identity, where we engage in a public space to connect with alike individuals and form bonds that may led to social justice and creating an identity for an act of resistance. This resilience seems daunting as marginalized individuals are not only fighting for equal rights and destigmatizing the role of “queer” individuals. As Queer Theory suggest, individuals must not only challenge the heterosexual order, but also the power relations it produces and how it structures our reality.

Most of those siting in positions that produce our content for television, radio, and movies are those of white high-class Americans who are not from a marginalized group that Identifies with race, disability, sexual orientation, and even those who are not from America. This becomes problematic simply because these companies are instead producing what is familiar to them, or creating “stock” characters that are not a reflection of our own reality. Companies have utilized this market strategy to further allow viewers to internalize these ideologies and stereotypes, which soon creates a consumerism market for the marginalized – specifically those of the LGBTQ community.

We eventually begin to seek for the “empire of images” shown in our queer television shows, apps, and social media sites to reinforce a packaged community. Sites apps such as Grindr, Jack’d, and even shows like “The Lesbian” and the L Word Site produces a culture that is completely visually and mechanically designed to embody a particular mainstream image, which is heteronormative and unrepresentative of an inclusive community.

“Instead of welcoming such promised inclusiveness, however, its complex and limited interface and money reliant culture ultimately reinforced qualities critiqued about the show and embraced the characteristics of the “good gay” – attractiveness, youth, wealth, leisure, and education” (Kessler 604).

[jacobsmithjwu-blog]

Blog Post 5: “Let Truth and Falsehood Grapple”

In “Writing on the Wall”, Tom Standage explores the problems of the emerging printing press, and the implications of a public open space for debate and discussion. Newsbooks that started in the late 1640s where designed to publish weekly domestic public news, which was the first specific political news in print. “Supporters of both king and Parliament took advantage of the freedom of an uncensored media environment to justify their actions, attack their enemies, and appeal to public opinion” (Standage 94).

A perfect example today is our current President Donald J. Trump and his popular twitter account. President Trump utilizes this social media platform to share his personal viewpoints about current political topics, as well as express his thoughts with others whether personal or business. Understanding his language through social media is important as he is a representative of the Government. His actions have become viral and we now as a country feed off less than 140 words whether positive or negative.

Our access to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or even Tumblr seems as though we have the personal freedom to post and publish anything that we would like. Our internet culture has been developed to allow us to feel as though our published work can go “viral” or become known just as much as anything else, but that is not the case. Social media is governed through a framework that focuses on the “elite” in which, our social power structures are further illustrated.

As far as our current news and media system, we receive information via news sources that continually have a specific “agenda” they are trying to convey. Whether left or right sided on the political scale, our information is only censored to a certain extent; again, through the powers of those who control the same frameworks through social media.

[jacobsmithjwu-blog]

Blog Post 4: Sexuality Perspectives on Social Media - Fear of a Queer Planet

In “Fear of a Queer Planet”, Michael Warner explains the frameworks of Queer Theory and its relationship to the role of non-reproductive sexualities and how we live and internalize ideologies in a modern western culture. Warner makes it clear that the identity being queer is directly stigmatized with one’s individual freedom and how they are viewed in every aspect of life. As such marginalized individuals are stigmatized and understand this self-reflection, they are challenged to question themselves and their operation in society.

Dustin Kidd illustrates this with the two individuals: Chris Crocker and Brendan Jordan, who were both social media starts who were representatives in the media from the LGBT community. Warner discuss the invisible heteronormativity of our society and how such form of power normalize homophobia and further marginalize queers. He notes, “the more lesbian and gay men elaborate our positions in this political environment, the more we are called upon to consider our resistance to normalize sexuality in terms that are not always initially evident as sex-specific” (Warner 7).

Additionally, Warner brings up the notion of sexuality and how our culture embraces an ideology of sexualities that do not reproduce jeopardize our population and the future of generations. Also, an identity that is based solely on traditional models of white-middle-class men.This ideology is so embedded in how we even understand sexuality, that other meaning of sexuality is wrong and should be condemned.

I took time to watch Brendan Jordan’s first Youtube video and how that was shown in the media in 2014. Brendan never actually bluntly said that he was gay in the video, but rather made it obvious that he found the questions extremely annoying and pointless. This video today has over 2.7 million viewers (with Youtube showing an ad before the video about PREP/HIV Risk-and Perceptions—WoWWWW).

[jacobsmithjwu-blog]

Blog Post 3: Poetry In Motion

By the middle of the sixteenth century, the printing press was now one of the most popular methods for copying and sharing documents. As the ability to read and write because more known, the written form of poetry emerged mostly in the elite realm of the Tudor court. In Writing One the Wall, Tom Standage provides a multitude of examples in how poetry was utilized during the 15th and 16th century. For some, it was an opportunity to share encoded messaging that reflect love stories, gossiping, flirtation, and even for political advancement. The text notes, “In subsequent poems he expresses steadfast love for his “swete wife” and his optimism that his captivity will be brief and make him strong”. During this time period, it was important to ensure that they follow all of the king’s orders and get permission for marriage. Luckily, poetry took a form of self-expression that was encoded at times, where they could use their language in writing to provide “humorous” text that still signified their love and commitments personally, but maybe not in the eyes of other readers.

Like other forms of writing, poetry was transcribed from manuscripts and even shared where others could provide comments, share and read. This channel communication further illustrated the commitment that was needed for communication so that there could be different meanings, which is similar to social media today. “Although individual poems might appear to describe a universal sentiment – the pain of love denied, the fickle nature of fortune – they were often written in response to specific goings-on at the time, and the joke was to tease out this hidden meaning” (Standage 69). Additionally, not only did poetry serve for more interpersonal communication, there were various examples brought up in the text that explained the “Saucy” behavior, which might have been more ridiculed than it is today. I would compare this to the modern Donald J. Trump, who uses social media to explore his rants, humor and tease with others, knowing that those people will see, along with many others.