Filed under: anne, media everyday media, theory | Tags: body, discourse, foucault, health
This question seems to become increasingly important within everyday life, not only as a polite way of starting a conversation, but even more so for media and public bodies to check on the nation’s health. TV shows on public and private broadcasting showing the daily diet of a 150 kg man chewed up in a see-through tube or the likely development of an overweight child in a more than disturbing computer simulation have become daily family programme.
Discourses surrounding a person’s body and how to stay fit and healthy have not only swamped tv, but also pretty much any other medium I can think of. One recent, rather funny element of the whole health frenzy, I think, is Nintendo’s wii console where people can exercise playing virtual golf or doing a boxing exercise. The pinnacle, however, is the new wii balance board, enabling people to do pushups in their living room on this board while keeping the balance and, at the end of the exercise, measure their weight “more accurately than with a typical bathroom scale.” You can ski on the board, too. What once was a game console for people / teenies and 20/30 somethings has evolved into a DIY fitness studio.
Filed under: aristea, human rights, media everyday media | Tags: bloggers unite, disability, human rights, waterboarding
Today is the day of blogging for human rights and apart from reminding people that women are humans, I would like to urge people towards a campaign. It is the Amnesty International Campaign called Unsubscribe-me: Unite against Human Rights Abuse in the war of terror and
Right now all unsubscriber eyes are on the practice of waterboarding. President Bush says it is an acceptable ‘enhanced interrogation technique’
So far 32639 people have un-subscribed. Another issue is
The bill to extend pre-charge detention to 42 days will shortly go to a vote in the UK Parliament. Please make a difference by dropping your MP a line.
And in a very different tone, the 37th edition of the disability blog carnival. Enjoy!
Filed under: aristea, media everyday media, space and everyday life | Tags: brighton festival, genre, multi-sensory experience, promenade performance, the bell
I went to the Wild Park at Moulsecomb last night and had a multi-sensory experience with the ‘Periplum with the World famous The Bell‘, which, for those who missed it, is repeated tonight. There is no way one person or small party of people, can have the same experience as another in this kind of event. Begginning with the way you reach the place the event takes place:
Filed under: aristea, culture, media everyday media | Tags: animal rights, fingerprint, kfc, murder, PETA, squid, stupidity, Te Papa, vegeterianism
Two signs of immense stupidity for today, one is the “world’s largest eye” and the other is the “finger lickin’ campaign”.
The later is apparently coming back, not that I noticed the first time, but this time I just could not ignore the huge poster ads on bus stops. while cycling by. That is from Falmer to Brighton and you can see there the impression of a chicken leg in a bloody backround. KFC, who did the ad, has a history of unethical treatment of animals and of cruelty when the Kentucky Fried Cruelty campaign launched some years ago, with Pamela Anderson as their animal rights activist and some lettuce over her bosom. I have difficulty in grasping the meaning of ethical in farming little birds who are captured and can’t fly, fed to death and then slaughtered and dismembered, their limbs sunk into pulp and fried. I really can’t locate where the ‘ethical’ could be placed in this chain of events, cause it seems to me that the problem in this process is not if the bird was happy during its life but the fact that you murder it.
Filed under: aristea, media everyday media | Tags: girls, pink, stereotypes, the guardian
There are two small girls in the park that my window faces, they are there every Saturday and they wear pink. Sometimes they are dressed alike, though not twins, but always with huge amounts of pink texture all over them. They play like crazy, they fall down, up and down the stairs, chasing the birds, they are fun to watch but the pink is disturbing. In the Guardian Family issue last Saturday(29.03.08), the front page says:’ Do you have a girl? Then read this’. I don’t have a girl(right now) but went on to read the article mostly as a media student. I was expecting something about how more clever girls are to boys and how they are over-achievers at school and some biology or genetics propaganda behind it. But not even close, not even that. ‘The tyranny of pink’ it was called, by Eleanor Bailey and its targeted to parents of little girls, whose world, apparently has inescapably turned pink.
Filed under: aristea, media everyday media | Tags: beackon, data-mining, facebook, surveillance
(last part)
A short story first
Facebook, originally called thefacebook, came into existence in February 2004. It initially aimed at college students and a University e-mail account was a prerequisite in order to join. This changed in September 2006 and, now, everyone over thirteen years old can join (Facebook.com, Terms of Use). The first investment of $500,000 (US) came by the end of 2005 and, later, Accel Partners invested another $13 million to the site, whereas Greylock Partners gave them $25 million. Microsoft adCenter became the exclusive provider of banners and sponsored links for Facebook from August 2006 (until 2009) . In July 2007, Mark Zuckerberg, the founder, appeared in the preliminary hearing of the lawsuit by ConnectU.com . In October 2007, Microsoft bought a 1.6 per cent stake of Facebook.com for $240 million (US) and, a month later, Facebook announced the controversial Facebook Beacon. After worries about privacy issues were expressed, a Beacon control feature was added to Facebook, which however does not entirely disable it.
So what happens to this information Facebook stores? Continue reading
Filed under: aristea, media everyday media | Tags: case, conspiracy, facebook, surveillance
This post is a summary of the existing conspiracy theories about facebook and lists some actual real life cases about people prosecuted due to their facebook activity. I have included a list of links to various cases published in mainstream media and to some conspiracy sites.
“We may be required to disclose user information pursuant to lawful requests, such as subpoenas or court orders, or in compliance with applicable laws. We do not reveal information until we have a good faith belief that an information request by law enforcement or private litigants meets applicable legal standards… This may include sharing information with other companies, lawyers, agents or government agencies” (Facebook Terms of Use 2007). Continue reading
Filed under: aristea, media everyday media | Tags: facebook, surveillance, survey, user
Facebook is a “social utility that connects you to the people around you”. In Facebook a considerable amount of personal data is voluntarily disclosed. Concerns have been expressed about the surveillance mechanisms of Facebook and the implications on user privacy. This post is a small part of paper that examines Facebook as an unsafe place for personal data and how surveillance is naturalized and accepted by its users. Continue reading
The advert says: “You know more about maths than you think you do.” Subline: Mathematics – it’s all that counts.
The advert was named “best creation of the day” by a German marketing magazine.
My comments on this a little later – I wanted to leave some room for imagination. I must say I quite enjoyed it; the way it’s made and also the effect(s) it has on the viewer.
.meandomedar
Filed under: aristea, media everyday media, print, semiology | Tags: christian, design, flyer, semiology
Sussex university campus has been full of them in the last week. 
You could see them on the pavement, on library desks, in the hands of happy distributers at Library square, at the Falmer bus stop benches, it was really hard to miss them. The ‘revolution’ flyers and the ‘revolution’ web site of the Sussex University Christian union Continue reading
in media res 