Media Nipple - Visual Communication

MEDIA NIPPLE IS DEAD -- LONG LIVE MEDIA NIPPLE

farmer@culturalfarming.com (Cultural Farmer) — Wed, 1 Apr 2009 17:17:00 -0600

Media Nipple was a daily blog for reconsidering TV content as a means of critically contextualizing and analyzing its production of cultural messages and meanings. It was first published here, in June 2005, through Google’s Blogger application.

Over the course of 3 years, Media Nipple garnered 600,000 page visits from viewers across the globe and ultimately contained almost 600 daily posts with almost 2,500 individual videos; a monumental effort for a solo blogger.

However, in September 2008, Google slapped Media Nipple with a CONTENT WARNING (read below). Apparently Media Nipple’s content had somehow become too controversial to some viewers.

Rather than allow Google to interfere with accessibility, I ended the Media Nipple experiment, bought the URL, and I am now rehosting the best content there.

CLICK for Cultural Farming’s aggregation of Media Nipple’s most comprehensive posts... of the TV news content we continue to suckle everyday.

And as always: Please consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.

deaf, blind, and dumb

farmer@culturalfarming.com (Cultural Farmer) — Mon, 8 Sep 2008 17:00:00 -0600

On 21 August, Google and Blogger choked off Media Nipple from unfiltered public view. This site, which examines visual communication, media literacy, and critical citizen commentary is now marginalized with the Google WARNING prompt shown above.
- Why now - after almost four years?
- Why now - after 600 posts and 600,000 page views?
- On what grounds?
- From what principle?
- With what recourse?This simple, yet scary, 'censorship firewall' essentially strangles open-access from many computers; discouraging most viewers from visiting. Think about this for a minute. A free internet? Freedom of expression? The ability to discuss educational media issues openly? The right to use common media (boobs and all) for the explicit purpose of critical media examination?....Whatever Google (or a few of the 600,000 viewers of these pages) deemed offensive within Media Nipple pales in the face of network television content which is endlessly streamed into most every home in the United State everyday. Critical media education is power. However, as Jack Nicholson succinctly stated long ago, "If you suck on a tit the movie gets an R rating. If you hack it off with an axe it will be a PG."

And Cultural Farming would add here... if you attempt to re-mediate broadcast content for public educational/intellectual purposes, be prepared to face a public utterly unprepared to distinguish porn from purpose. After all, isn't this how FOX News, among others, re-interprets both media language and meaning for public consumption... right before our eyes... by exploiting viewer ignorance through bald-face invention and two-dimensional representation?

The deaf may never hear, the blind may forever remain blind... while the dumb get dumber still. I'm sorry you had to click-through Google's warning to read this. But fear not, intrepid readers, several new projects are coming soon. Peace.

panopticon surveillance

farmer@culturalfarming.com (Cultural Farmer) — Tue, 8 Jul 2008 07:40:00 -0600

Thirteen videos to illustrate how cameras are everywhere, recording our every move in everyone's life. But this is America, right? We have privacy laws. We don’t spy, we simply watch… for security purposes – OK, and maybe for entertainment, too.

(Click image - and all links - to view Quicktime video.)

In London, it is estimated that approximately 300 security cameras record the average citizen each day. Why, and to what effect? Who is hired to watch all that video. What are they trying to see? And what is the difference between security and spying? What are our rights to privacy? Who is exempted from being seen? Why can’t we zoom in and watch those who are watching us? Maybe Cornell University will let us know.

Before long “others” will be watching our every move, and they will claim is for our own good. What happens to a society when we realize there is no privacy, and cameras exploit every relationship? But then, cameras have always been alive in our world.

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

journalism and citizenship

farmer@culturalfarming.com (Cultural Farmer) — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 13:35:00 -0600

Ten videos about journalism and citizenship, and their code of ethics. But what are ETHICS? Why are they important? Who should obey them? In a world where egregiously bad reporting is growing at every level, will Citizen Journalists (Is there such a thing?) do any better? The future looks dark, unless we gain a full understanding of how the purpose, principles, and practices of the craft of journalism are easily fouled.

(Click image - and links - to view Quicktime video.)

Media Nipple suggests there is no such thing as Citizen Journalism. Why? Journalism is not a profession; it is a craft. There are no rules and regulations, and no governing body. But there are, indeed like citizenship, codes of ethics. While Citizenship and Journalism are not mutually exclusive, they are also not mutually inclusive. One does not beget the other. If you are a citizen doing journalism as sketched below... then you are a Journalist... period. If you are a human attempting journalism, you MAY be performing acts of citizenship... maybe not. It is incorrect to imply citizen journalism encompasses everything other than SALARIED news and information production. Likewise, simply sending CNN a pic from your cell-phone does not make you a citizen journalist. Nor is journalism simply yammering on a public blog... like this one.

So then, what are the ETHICS of journalism... click the video links to see how established ethical notions are ignored, stretched, and manipulated in everyday broadcast production:

(From: Elements of Journalism)

1. Journalism’s first obligation is to the truth.
2. Its first loyalty is to citizens.
3. Its essence is a discipline of verification.
4. Its practitioners must maintain an independence from those they cover.
5. It must serve as an independent monitor of power.
6. It must provide a forum for public criticism and compromise.

7. It must strive to make the significance interesting and relevant.

8. It must keep the news comprehensive and proportional.
9. Its practitioners must be allowed to exercise their personal conscience.

Whenever engaging in discussions over citizen journalism... it is best to begin by defining the terms.

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

connectile dysfunction

farmer@culturalfarming.com (Cultural Farmer) — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 08:13:00 -0600

You knew it was coming, right? We love our iPods so much….let's have sex with ‘em. Yeah, baby, where’s the speed control? Maybe they’ll offer a nice pink, fleshy feeling sort of cover for it… never mind, they make it already.

(Click image to view Quicktime video.)

Technological sex is nothing new. What is new is the speed of its acceptance throughout western culture. Of course, we are used to seeing simplistic media warnings about sexual addiction, and even more TV that promotes Internet love. But what of these growing advances in technological sex? Forget minding the store - whose minding our bodies?

iPods and sex? Hey, kids love it! And why not? For $1.99... you can get media that loves to love you back! Come to think of it, get an iBuzz for your partner too…3-way sex with an Apple - just like in the Garden of Eden. Why not have entire banks of earphone-jack inputs... for group buzzing. It could be the newest orgy sensation. Blowing out your eardrums doesn’t seem so bad now. In fact, forget your partner, load an image of your face - and screw yourself into oblivion. iPod and fresh meat. Then again why bother at all... TV already provides every titillation we want.

Consider visual literacy and grow better communication media.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

neural editing

farmer@culturalfarming.com (Cultural Farmer) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 07:47:00 -0600

Two videos to illustrate how the language of editing is increasingly marketed simply to stimulate. The recent movie CRANK is a perfect example.

(Click image - and all links - to view Quicktime video.)

The trailer for CRANK, which is 30 seconds long, has approximately 120 individual edits – or 4 edits per second. Human cognition cannot process visual information at this speed…. but our involuntary human senses can.

Question: Then why do it?
Watch the CRANK video again in slow motion.

Editing is a classical form of montage - juxtaposing images to create new meanings. But Crank's editing is not about meaning. Our eyes can see the edits, but our brains cannot process the information. What is left is sensory overload. And so, our instinctive reactions become more primal. Emotional response kicks in. Flight or fight. The trailer is manipulating our emotions – it cares little for storyline or verbal text. This will simply be an emotional rollercoaster Action Movie.

Fast paced, quick-cut editing is only one way media corporations visually exploit viewers. When media is constructed this way we cannot look away. We are mesmerized by the extreme and strobing visuals. Our minds freeze as we instinctively try to grapple with our inabilities to piece together a message.

Answer: In this state of mental suspended animation, we become primed for still other messages and influences. Try to remember to look away.

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

fighting like girls

farmer@culturalfarming.com (Cultural Farmer) — Mon, 2 Jun 2008 06:42:00 -0600

These eight videos visually discuss outward expressions of violence in a mediated world endlessly saturated in deviant behavior.

Why do girls fight? Is it because, as big media always loves to suggest, most women are Lesbians? Is it because men historically attack them first? Most likely, women fight for exactly the same reasons boys do. But today, while cameras are involved in almost every aspect of adolescent life, we see cameras being used to both record and encourage these performances. Examine this Bum Fights video.

(Click image - and all links - to view Quicktime video.)

While it is unlikely that these schoolgirls performed their violence for the security camera on their bus, is it a stretch to suggest that real violence can be physical expressions of violent behaviors consumed through media? Is there ANY validity to media effects?

We are witnessing more extreme forms of violence by children. Some of it is simply caught BY cameras, and some is being constructed FOR cameras. If audiences create content… can content create audiences? Subsistence Living in a Mediated World sometimes means consuming exactly what you grow. It also means learning to read corporate media oppositionally, in order to see how these issues are typically framed in news programming

media as capitalism

farmer@culturalfarming.com (Cultural Farmer) — Mon, 2 Jun 2008 06:25:00 -0600

The twenty videos below are just a few obvious examples of how broadcast television has transformed from a communication device into a "desiring machine" - with its content constructed for the sole purpose of serving as the mouth-piece for corporate capitalism. Television has become the ironic national anthem of seductive exploitation for constant consumption. Nothing is sacred when profit is king:

(Click image - and all links - to view Quicktime video.)

2. Punk Capitalism
3. Zen Capitalism
4. Communist Capitalism
5. Pakistani Capitalism
6. Black Capitalism
7. Hippy Capitalism
8. Socialist Capitalism
9. Feminist Capitalism
10. Peace Capitalism
11. Christmas Capitalism
12. Bush Capitalism
13. Kid Capitalism
14. Parody Capitalism
15. Jesus Capitalism
16. Catastrophe Capitalism
17. Pet Capitalism
18. Pregnant Capitalism
19. Girlfriend Capitalism
20. Iraqi Capitalism

Is this all TV can be? Can there be a less exploitative, less corporatized, more democratic implementation? Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

flat reality

farmer@culturalfarming.com (Cultural Farmer) — Sun, 25 May 2008 10:15:00 -0600

Flat Daddy. Flat Mommy. Flat reality. These four videos examine how image representation is increasingly inter-changed with human reality.

(Click image - and all links - to view Quicktime video.)

Of course, coping in times of great stress, like having your loved ones shipped off for war, family psychological demands can manifest in unlikely and abnormal behavior. But we are also clearly seeing deeper examples of images being accepted, even encouraged, as the real thing.

Photo images, in these cases, are not merely hung on walls or mantles for respect and refection. These images of loved ones are not being honored or revered like posters hung on a teenager’s bedroom walls. These life-sized images are also not doll substitutions. Instead, these images are mentally transformed into human reality. The picture is the Daddy - for child and adult. Whether this image replacement is done in 2D or 3D, are we increasingly interchanging human existence with image representation – with a “screen reality? Do we prefer to view reality through images and screens? Can we tell the difference?

Media Nipple Vlog #2: Screen Realities

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

killer kids

farmer@culturalfarming.com (Cultural Farmer) — Sun, 18 May 2008 09:49:00 -0600

Twelve videos for discussion. We teach our children. The world teaches our children. Our media teaches our children. What are they learning? Are children learning to kill - or just the opposite? Or, are kids learning something else entirely?

(Click image - and links - to view Quicktime video.)

In our mediated world, which media are we studying? Is the Koran more powerful that the computer? When children focus their studies on one thing from childhood, does it affect them? Unfortunately, media effects and technological determinism are the whipping-posts within post-modern communication theory. But look around… can media indoctrinate? Does it influence? Should we be revisiting media-effects scholarship?

What messages do we study? How - and what - do our messages disseminate? Is video more powerful than on-line gaming? Do religious Madrassas have any similarities to LAN parties? Is one more REAL than another? If so, how? Do suicide bombers kill significantly differently than the endless slaughter within violent video games? Can children tell the difference? Do we teach them the difference? Is there a difference to teach?

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

news promotion

farmer@culturalfarming.com (Cultural Farmer) — Mon, 12 May 2008 08:13:00 -0600

These videos ask several important questions – What is news and how should it be promoted?… or more exactly, what is broadcast journalism becoming? When everything in our mediated world is branded and hyped, are we forgetting the very notion of old-school hard-news?

(Click image - and links below - to view Quicktime video.)

This re-edited MSNBC promotional video focuses on several key words within the text. The “future of news," apparently, is where factual content and straight reportage is seldom mentioned. Instead misguided righteous claims of TRUTH are hypocritical at best, and content and presentation are exploited for the purposes of entertainment.

Is it any wonder we see so many parodies of broadcast news? Watch the extended version of the first MSNBC video again ...and then observe the following promotions. The REAL news for this network is visual sensationalism. Puffery and journalism? You can't have it both ways... but it is apparent constant promotion is here to stay.

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

blackness in the media

farmer@culturalfarming.com (Cultural Farmer) — Tue, 6 May 2008 21:24:00 -0600

Today's post is for Dr. Eric King Watts at UNC Chapel Hill... and for any TV viewers out there who might think we are in a post-racial context. But, instead of concentrating on just the exploitive media coverage of Barack Obama's primary campaign (or even Coco Tea), let's take a good look at all of TV.

(Click image - and all links - to view Quicktime video.)

Today, racist visualization on TV goes a bit further than Danny Bonaduce and the Partridge Family. Even well-intentioned advertisements are constructed with visually racial (anthropological?) overtones. No child has only two choices as suggested by this public service advertisement ad. Inevitably getting gunned down on a street or staying in school is a false premise - but this kind of constant racial exploitation remains.

Blacks are typically portrayed in the media as underprivileged, backward, and technologically ill-suited for the modern world. Even when cable news rushes in to expose the travesty, it is difficult to judge if CNN is explaining the predicament or promoting it for profit. Jim Crow lives, even when individual citizens try to take matters in their own hands. While Don Imus get's publicly linched for "nappy headed ho's" - corporate visual exploitation continues at every turn. And if you don't believe it, check out some of that good 'ol BET programming. As the good Doctor says, just "look at the coverage."

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

Labels: ethics, ethnic, exploitation, media, profiling, racism

media nipple - cultural farming

farmer@culturalfarming.com (Cultural Farmer) — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 11:18:00 -0600

Occasionally Media Nipple must remind viewers why an image of a female breast is used in every post. Anyone who watches television can see for themselves that TV content today is filled with visual exploitation.

(Click image and ALL links to view Quicktime video.)

However, what is the preferred object of objectification...? It is the female breast, of course. And, if you really want to be specific, it is not the even actually the breast, it is the brownish-pink spot called the nipple. Apparently, they are worth their weight in gold. Entire media industries are built upon this 'scintillating, sexual, shocking' little pink spot. TV viewers just can't get enough of it. Indeed, the breast is used to sell virtually everything in visual media. And so this situation is re-emphasized daily, as parody, in this blog... to remind viewers to never accept any image at face-value, particularly in media.

Again, this video blog is about visual literacy and broadcast TV. The primary intention here is to encourage viewers to more actively and critically participate in our mediated world. Hence, the first step in media education is to continually identify the most repeated icons of commercial exploitation. The female breast is one primary example.

Anatomically, of course, the female breast is little different than noses or elbows. But boobs have been spectacularized into a precious commodity. It is a viable currency used in all visual media. When you see this kind of stuff on TV... turn the channel. It is one sure way to register your understanding. Then again, since we can't EVER seem to get enough boobs... maybe this will help to inoculate. Feast you fools.

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

insidious product placement

farmer@culturalfarming.com (Cultural Farmer) — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 07:36:00 -0600

Twelve videos that illustrate the insidiousness of product placement in our world today. Does Barak Obama really love Abercrombie & Fitch? Doubtful. But A&F certainly loves any opportunity to strategically position 3 students for the cameras wearing branded T-shirts as free advertising.

(Click image - and ALL links - to view Quicktime video.)

Yes, the shock is over, even with KFC. We are accustomed to cross-branding on everything, everywhere - especially our bodies.... our sexy bodies. Of course, in a mediated world, advertisements are not only ubiquitous, they are becoming us. We can sell our own body space for profit. Nothing can escape its inherent marketing potential. But this is nothing new.

What is different is our rush to acknowledge and accept this advertising into every facet of our lives. This is more than symbiosis; it is a cultural embrace of insidious monetization. Every thing is for sale – particularly the human body. The image of the future is the image of product. Our bodies are being bought and sold into corporate slavery.

UPDATE: 24 April: Coincidence?
UPDATE: 6 May: Fixing the product?
UPDATE: 6 May: Visual polysemy?

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

giving kids visual hallucinogens

farmer@culturalfarming.com (Cultural Farmer) — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 08:48:00 -0600

Today's post is about legally offering psychotic and hallucinogenic visuals (drugs?) to children. It is done everyday on TV, and in this case, PBS is the pusherman. This Boohbah video is just the program introduction. Question: Why do it this way?

(Click image and all links to view Quicktime video.)

If there is a drug epidemic in the world could it, just maybe, result from TV programming like this? That is doubtful, of course... but also inconclusive. And so the question remains, why make this - is it stimulating education or profit?

Are the visuals in BoohBah any different than the oil-and-water-in-a-glass-pie-plate-on-an-overhead-projector variety used at Fillmore West to jack up that LSD dropping crowd spinning in front of Grace Slick? Why not simply show kids everything available on TV... never mind, we do already.

Or how about those sweat-drenched days of ecstasy and poppers at the gay dance clubs, throbbing to the big-screen digital psychedelics projected onto every wall. In a mediated – VISUAL WORLD - these mushroom induced, rave style, Bjork-ish phantasmagoric images could be fun, harmless, even educational. But could these visuals also be seducing, or addicting, or stimulating and simultaneously numbing to toddlers?

Answer: Look around at how children are behaving today. Even if there seems little connection, why offer such unnatural, sophisticated visuals like these to children? Do we understand that any image can also be employed as a form of visual terrorism? Why do we not openly ask these questions more often?

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

virginia tech massacre - fair and balanced

farmer@culturalfarming.com (Cultural Farmer) — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 18:58:00 -0600

It has been exactly one year since CNN announced the breaking news of the shootings at Virginia Tech. That day, CNN was elated by their 'lucky' ratings spike and moved quickly to monopolize the event by endlessly rebroadcasting the cell phone video of Jamal Albarghouti.

(Click image - and all links - to view Quicktime video.)

Shortly thereafter, a media package from Seung-Hui Cho promoted MSNBC into the international spotlight. This exclusive 'visual gold mine' was theirs alone to distribute. And they knew exactly how to exploit it.

From there, FOX News jumped into the wall-to-wall coverage extravaganza and eventually contorted the event into a perverse call for allowing all students to carry guns on campus. Which still carries ramifications today

Each network remained true to their primary agenda: PROFIT ABOVE ALL ELSE. In all, it was clear that the cable news coverage of Virginia Tech actually re-massacred everyone involved. What have we learned over the last year? Nothing.

Today, one year later, we see that cable news coverage is worse still. TV 'news' networks are today's media exemplars of perverse, ego-maniacal, money-grubbing. Indeed, they are corporate pedophiles - hell bent on sensationalizing anything in its path, while denying culpability at every turn. And all the while they scream their lies over and over about being "fair and balanced"; only to scream it all again... 4 minutes later... until we seem to believe it is true. Why does this continue? It is because viewers continue to watch - instead of participating. We have forgotten how to exercise civic responsibility, how to protest publicly. We feel helpless; that there is is no way to respond or to talk-back to our media.

Click here for numerous examples illustrating how average citizens, using only common, cheap video tools, can begin to reclaim our citizen media voice. For we must always remember, the broadcast spectrum belongs to the people. We rent it to corporations who then turn around and exploit us for profit. This can change. But it will take a concerted effort. We can make our own media, using our own voices, telling our own stories. We can make more healthy media. But we must begin now.

Media Nipple Free Video Blog #2: Cameras or Guns: How Cable News Coverage (re)Massacred Virginia Tech

fun with guns

farmer@culturalfarming.com (Cultural Farmer) — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 04:52:00 -0600

Remember back to the time when Vice President Dick Cheney shot his friend in the face. Remember the media jokes? Remember the glib, cynical media coverage. Why would this happen?

(Click image - and all links - to view Quicktime video.)

Guns are commonplace. We simply no longer feel gun violence is surprising, indeed it is interwoven into the very fabric of our lives. Whether you actually own a gun or not… you probably DO own a MEDIA GUN. Right? Admit it... you DO shoot media people every day. And if not, you DO you experience media enjoyment watching the killing of media people. But a question remains. Can we tell the difference between real and fake guns? Most every evening broadcast on network TV contains guns, murder, rape violence. We seem to like it, since we certainly watch it all everyday.

In our mediated world, where lines between REAL and IMAGE are blurring… maybe we DO love gun fun. Maybe we DO want to kill everything in our path.

Media Nipple Free Video Blog #2: Cameras or Guns: How Cable News Coverage (re)Massacred Virginia Tech

media: pay, steal, or share

farmer@culturalfarming.com (Cultural Farmer) — Sun, 6 Apr 2008 04:32:00 -0600

We swim in media. It is everything and everywhere. It is the ether of our existence. So we find ourselves in a media dilemma. Who pays for our mediated world? This is a matter of human survival.

(Click image - and links - to view Quicktime video.)

1. Will citizens rebel against being forced to pay for the very (media) air we breathe?
2. Or will media become more like selling water ? That is, will we be able to get free media whenever we want, even though we prefer to pay for bottled water which we believe is healthier? ...Even though most bottle water is more expensive than gasoline?
3. Or do we try to grow, steal, or share whatever we want-need to survive? ...Understanding full well that we all pay mightily now, at every turn, and at every step of of the distribution process for mere access - and questioning why these multiple payments never lead to viewer ownership?

This much is true: we will be paying more for media in the future. And soon we may be paying so much, video blogs like Media Nipple will become too expensive to produce or watch. Consider visual literacy communication and keep your media clean and healthy.

tags: VLOG, visual LITERACY, television MEDIA, communication CULTURE

images, propaganda, and war

farmer@culturalfarming.com (Cultural Farmer) — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 08:45:00 -0600

Five videos. In this series of video clips from FOX News, we are reminded of not only the individual casualties of war, but also of the importance of visual propaganda. But there is one slight problem – is the US military telling the truth about the death of Al-Zarqawi?

(Click image - and links below - to view Quicktime video.)

First there was “visual identification” of Al-Zarqawi’s body after two 500 pound bombs were precisely dropped with laser guidance. Scars, tattoos, and fingerprints… but no DNA?

Then, plastic surgeons reconstructed Al-Zarqawi’s face? Was there ever any corroborative evidence or additional eyewitnesses?

Then, FOX News obfuscates the most fundamental issues of legitimacy by focusing on tenets of the Geneva Convention, while maintaining that images are truthful, and vital for convincing our enemies. Moreover, FOX utterly fails to consider how the very nature of TV constructs an endless spectacle parade of human images - dead and alive. Can Al-Zarqawi’s face be any different?

Then, still more TV experts are enlisted by FOX to muddy the facts further by mentioning morticians, and that there might only be Al-Zarqawi’s head.

What’s the problem here? Any high school student, proficient in Photoshop, could easily manipulate a grainy image of a dead, swollen, deformed face of an Iraqi soldier to resemble Al-Zarqawi's. It is even easier to take an existing image of Al-Zarqawi and make it appear to be deceased and bloodied.

So then, couldn’t military experts do the same digital manipulation - particularly when its existance is so crucial to the US visual propaganda machine? And conversely, hasn’t the entire world seen cinema and TV programming where identities are disguised this easily? How can citizens from either side of this conflict believe this method of visual verification? Two months after Al-Zarqawi’s “capture”, does the public know any of the true facts?

Remember, images lie – just as easily as words do.

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTUREFive videos.

you tube news channel

farmer@culturalfarming.com (Cultural Farmer) — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 20:07:00 -0600

When 24 hour news organizations are motivated primarily by profit making – everything becomes newsworthy, even YouTube. When foreign bureaus are closed, international reporting curtailed, and visual content is ratcheted to ever-higher levels… newsrooms begin to steal from amateur video bloggers from around the globe. And what better place to find eyeball catching content than YouTube.

(Click image - and link below - to view Quicktime video.)

But deep problems exist with this kind of reporting, and CNN even acknowledges some of them here:

1. “CNN cannot independently confirm the authenticity of the origin of this material (nonetheless it is pretty compelling stuff)…apparently from a 14 year old.”

2. “This apparently taken from Haifa…the video quality on some of these is not great and you can see that just looking at it, it’s a bit grainy.”

3. “The fact that is so easily recorded, posted on the internet, and of course the quality not so great. But, some pretty amazing stuff that’s able to be captured pretty easily.”

4. “Some pretty amazing stuff, and this apparently taken from a rooftop in Beirut.”

What happens to journalism when YouTube performs as a ”funnel, and the filter.” YouTube, interestingly, is not responding to how “they are dealing with some of this video, whether they are filtering it, what they are taking down, where they draw the line in terms of how gruesome some of this video is,”

Video blogging is not journalism. And journalism is not rebroadcasting content from YouTube. So then, what is valid accurate news today? And from where does it come? If news organizations do not adhere to their own tenets of journalism – who will? Citizen journalists? Doubtful... but it is happening more and more.

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

ides of march

farmer@culturalfarming.com (Cultural Farmer) — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 08:19:00 -0600

CICERO
…Why are you breathless? and why stare you so?

CASCA
Are not you moved, when all the sway of earth
Shakes like a thing unfirm?
O Cicero, I have seen
tempests, when the scolding winds
Have rived the knotty oaks, and I have seen
The ambitious ocean swell and rage and foam,
To be exalted with the threatening clouds:
But never till to-night, never till now,
Did I go through a tempest dropping fire.
Either there is a civil strife in heaven,
Or else the world, too saucy with the gods,
Incenses them to send destruction.
….A common slave -you know him well by sight-
Held up his left hand, which did flame and burn
Like twenty torches join'd, and yet his hand,
Not sensible of fire, remain'd unscorch'd.
...Against the Capitol I met a lion,
Who glared upon me, and went surly by,
Without annoying me: and there were drawn
Upon a heap a hundred ghastly women,
Transformed with their fear; who swore they saw
Men all in fire walk up and down the streets.
And yesterday the bird of night did sit
Even at noon-day upon the market-place,
Hooting and shrieking. When these prodigies
Do so conjointly meet, let not men say
'These are their reasons; they are natural;'
For, I believe, they are portentous things
Unto the climate that they point upon.

CICERO
Indeed, it is a strange-disposed time:
But men may construe things after their fashion,
Clean from the purpose of the things themselves.
…Good night then, Casca:
this disturbed sky is not to walk in.

teaching with television

farmer@culturalfarming.com (Cultural Farmer) — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 08:58:00 -0700

Twelve videos. Can network TV be used for education? Certainly, there are examples of excellent educational TV: ... but, are the Muppets any different than: ABC Kids, or Comcast, or Disney, to name only a few. What and how, exactly, does TV teach our children?

(Click image - and all links - to view Quicktime video.)

What kind of education does network TV actually provide? Since network television’s main purpose is to promote consumption via entertainment, will it create classroom content for kids any differently than for adults? Do educational products simply encourage another kind of insidious TV consumption?

Watch TV advertisements for student programing... and ask yourself: Is this what children really need? Will CNN “student” news be any different than an American Express ad? Do books today balance our desires for TV education and consumption. Do our schools work? How do we educate our children? And HOW do consumer practices dictate WHO gets to educate them?

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

homosexual humor

farmer@culturalfarming.com (Cultural Farmer) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 08:35:00 -0700

Twelve videos. If there is one acceptable style of humor in media today – it’s gay (or lesbian) bashing. Gay humor apparently appeals to every audience. Arab jokes are falling to a distant second. And African-American and quadriplegic humor have run out of gas completely. What gives?

(Click image - and all links - to view Quicktime video.)

Gays are rarely represented normatively on network television. They are portrayed as exotic, mysterious, dangerous... and always good for a joke. Maybe even George Bush is gay?

Media Nipple scans a lot of TV, and it is our humble opinion that Conan O’Brian regularly airs the most "gay innuendo" humor. That big gorgeous redhead from Massachusetts always offers a heaping helping of homophobic humor several times every night. Can it be that funny? Pick it up a notch, Conan. Click here: and see typical excerpts from ONE (Late Night with Conan O’Brian) show for yourself. A more gendered visual representation scholarship is obviously necessary. But are our ideas of gender researchable?

Media Nipple Vlog #2: Brokeback Disconnect?

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

obesity tv

farmer@culturalfarming.com (Cultural Farmer) — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 07:40:00 -0700

Eleven videos. Does television make us Fat, Stupid, and Ugly? That's debatable. But mass media, body image, and consumption are certainly interconnected. As network TV searches for the most extreme images to stop channel surfing, viewers comply by pausing to gawk at the oddities... and still we binge through every program.

(Click image - and hot links - to view Quicktime video.)

This is the intention of broadcast marketing: Bait and switch - and then bait some more. Under the guise of fitness-for-health, the NBC show "The Biggest Loser" is also an infomercial that promotes consumption and obesity. And so, TV informs in contradictory ways. TV tells us that being grotesquely proportioned is fun, acceptable, and can even get you on TV - however, it is also important to hate your body image and then re-consume for glamorous change. The healthiest fitness advice for viewers would be to turn OFF the television and go outdoors. Or, if visual communication like this appeals to you, at least lie on your fat couch and try to parse this silly entertainment from targeted psycho-marketing. Either way, if you do not like your public image, no problem, simply visualize yourself under the surgeon's knife. What, exactly, are TV images telling us? But then, would we even care if we knew?

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE

when media blames others

farmer@culturalfarming.com (Cultural Farmer) — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 07:59:00 -0700

Seven videos building from the last post. Television continually blames other media for our social problems. Explicit fashion magazines, the music industry, Hollywood movies, MySpace, Facebook, YouTube - everything, apparently, is conspiring to hurt our children EXCEPT television.

(Click image - and links - to view Quicktime video.)

Regardless of how much children participate in their mediated world, chances are TV is still the fattest pipe, the most saturating media source they consume. And, it is fair to suggest that most all media and its distribution, in their own way, are trying to become a form of TV - iPods, cell phones, computers, newspapers, GPS... all feature video screens with moving images.

But TV informs and reforms our children more than any other source. Any hope we may harbor of reforming television - as with any other junkie in rehab - begins with awareness. But awareness is not a part of TV's demeanor. Everything else is the problem. And so, most of big media is a form for corporate pedophilia. Listen to the sales pitch again from the last post... "we wouldn't sell it if the kids didn't want it...". This is the same party line in television... "don't blame TV"... you can just turn it off... right?

Look and listen again.... everything sexualizes our children EXCEPT television content...

Consider visual literacy and grow better media communication.
tags: VLOG visual LITERACY television MEDIA communication CULTURE