Download - Beyond Distraction
Beyond Distractionthe need for media activism in the 21st century
urgency!
‘the next 20 years are going to be nothing like the last’
Chris Martensen’s Crash course
limits in the 3 E’s
http://www.peakprosperity.com/crashcourse
Jerry Mander
How do you respond to the argument that technology is not inherently good or bad, it’s how we use it that matters.
That's the major homily of our time. And it's a very serious mistake. The idea that technology is neutral -- that it doesn't have social, political and environmental characteristics -- is really dangerous.
Consider nuclear power and solar power. Both are energy forms, but they have entirely different effects on the system. Nuclear power is an inherently centralized technology. It requires centralized military-industrial institutions. Nobody knows what to do about 250,000 years of dangerous wastes. If we were to judge energy only in terms of who uses it, that would be like saying, "Well, if some good people got together and ran the nuclear power industry, the wastes wouldn't have to be safeguarded for 250,000 years." But these things are intrinsic to the technology. It's not a question of whether good people use them.
Solar technology is the exact opposite -- it is inherently localizing. A couple of people can easily put it together, it's not expensive to use, the community can run it without having to hook up to the grid, and it has no lasting negative effects.
Noam Chomsky
Consensus Trance
manufacturing consent
The Propaganda Model of Media
http://www.chomsky.info/onchomsky/2002----.htm
Neil Postman
amusing ourselves to death
technopoly
Neil Postman
AL Goreinconvenient truth
hockey stick graphs
peak oil
What a way to golife at the end of empire
http://www.whatawaytogomovie.com
Richard Louv
last child in the woods
generations raised seperated from nature
consuming kids hockey stick resource
journalism & democracy
Jeffersonian Ideal- Democracy requires informed citizenry
last reporter please turn out the lights
downsized record and film industries
implications of web
changes in higher education
Richard Dawkins
MEMES
Building academic programs that recognize the degree to which mainstream media shapes the dominant consciousness, and the ways in which alternative media can lead to new ways of thinking is an appropriate response to changing paradigms of communication, education, journalism, and democracy.
Media Activism generates citizen-producers committed to creating a more critically engaged public sphere.
Media Activism can include work spanning Graphic Design, Journalism, Multimedia Production, Documentary, Advocacy and Activism. It combines critical analysis with the theory and practice of making media. A degree in Media Activism prepares media makers to enter into the necessary public conversations that generate critical thinking and dialogue.
Media Activism
Media Activism teaches people to be active audiences as well as producers. With new, more participatory technologies, the line between consumer and producer is blurring. To be truly media literate now also means to be production literate.
The BA in Media Activism at Burlington College is conceived explicitly for those who want to become media activists. Through technical training rooted in history and theory, students are encouraged to apply media making technique, craft, and art to issues of advocacy, activism and social change.
What does a Media Activism Major look like? What courses might it include? and what do students learn and produce? Join us to expand the conception of a future that calls media activism into being. Add your insight and vision to a session that includes work from media activists who are engaging with today’s pressing issues and making their own media and cultural inroads.
Media Activism