#MeToo, You Too and the Vanity of Women
A brief look at the role of diversity and feminism in media. My childhood was spent in art galleries. Not because I’m a particularly big fan of art (I’m not), or because I am an artist (I’m really not), but because my mother is an art historian who explained the world to me through paintings and sculptures. Effectively, through the media. When I was about 11, we stood in front of a painting of a naked woman looking in the mirror, and she said to me, “This was commissioned by a man, painted by a [...]
Democracy im Rausch der Daten
About Swiss director David Bernet provides with this very detailed documentary, an insight into the legislative process at EU level. The camera follows the actions taken at the level of the EU institutions by a handful of people who try to protect society from the dangers of big data and mass surveillance. The main players are the young German MEP from the Green party Jan Philip Albrecht and the experienced former Commissioner for Information Society and Media and now member of the EU Parliament Viviane Reding. Jan Philipp Albrecht and are trying to [...]
Edward Said: Framed: the politics of stereotypes
About Are we sure that the perception that we have about the East (and about the Middle East and the different struggles it is going through) is neutral and unbiased? The Palestinian academician Said advanced the hypothesis that the European perspective on the East, that has been shaped throughout the 18th and 19th centuries by Orientalism, a mystified vision of an exotic Elsewhere, symmetrically different from and characterised by the Irrational (as opposed to the West as cradle of civilisation and rationality), continued to be heavily influenced by this ideal. In his view, [...]
Noam Chomsky, The Consent Factory
About Are we really sure that concepts such as propaganda only apply to countries like North Korea or China, and that Western civilisation is, on the other side, the gatekeepers of freedom and democracy? The truth is that, even in the absence of a state media apparatus, phenomena like propaganda are present and very much alive. One of the core concepts of Noam Chomsky’s theory, explored in this video, is that the media manufactures consent in dictatorships as well as in liberal democracies. And the process is very much the same. Media not [...]
One More Thing: The EAVI Weekly Media Literacy Digest #3
A tranche of news this week from the US election, beef with Facebook, a useful password tool, a new privacy training nonprofit in Brussels and more...
How Did Hitler Rise To Power? (2016)
About A short (5 minutes) Ted Ed video that demonstrates the fragility of democracy when fears, unrest, ignorance and bigotry are stoked. Made by Alex Gendler and Anthony Hazard, there is also a lesson plan at the Ted Ed site here. Credits Lesson by Alex Gendler and Anthony Hazard Animation by Uncle Ginger
