Jan 19 - ML, Ch. 1, 5 "Voldemort, Conspiracy and Representation"

Jan. 19 - ML, Ch. 1, 5

In my previous post I expressed a distaste for paradigms. Now I express my distaste for our book, Media Literacy by Donaldo Macedo & Shirley Steinberg. It has thoroughly convinced me that I should never, ever study cultural theory or studies, and that above all, critical theory is obsessed with power and who has it and who does not. "What is good? -- All that heightens the feeling of power, the will to power, power itself in man," says Friedrich Nietzche. Lord Voldemort, a character in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter novels, similarly claims, "There is no good and evil, there is only power...and those too weak to seek it." I'm trying to imply here that culturaly theory's justice and idealism is based on power distribution--not too differently from Voldemort.

If the analogy sounds far-fetched and conspiratorial, it's not too different from the second page of the introduction in which Donaldo Macedo easily dismisses American democracy and specifically the voting process as "theatrics" for a "bewildered herd," yet does not provide any proof of this or cite any election that was compromised or carried out in a way contrary to law that would deny the power of the vote to the people.

He also skews his facts when reporting the atrocities of American government in connection with terrorists. In less than 10 minutes, I've found that Macedo's arguments that President Bush (the father) gave a presidential pardon to Cuban terrorist Orlando Bosch are misleading. Macedo doesn't mention that Bosch was jailed in Venezuela and not charged there. He also claims Bosch was pardoned by Bush, insinutating between the lines that Bush condoned Bosch's attack on Cuba, when in reality Bosch was released due to political pressure from the Cuban-American community in Florida, of which son Jeb Bush is the governor. The other terrorist, Emanuel Constant, is also accused by Macedo as "living happily in Queens" but actually, even a year before the publishing date of the book, in legal proceedings to do with rape and fraud and has been ordered to serve 12-37 years in prison.
But back to power, the text depicts groups and individuals as combatants in a power struggle. There are "limited" and "dominant" groups; there is "equity" and "oppression." All of these are labels slapped onto complicated issues between people who do not necessarily view the world in the same way. What is the textbook's panacea? The text often cites "representation" as a source and cure for the ills of oppression. If we represent something more, it's fairer and better. Which is silly; for one of a thousand examples, consider the young cast of FOX's MadTV. MadTV is a comedy sketch show similar to NBC's Saturday Night Live. The MadTV cast is more racially diverse than SNL's. MadTV is half half women, has three African Americans, and Bobby Lee, a Korean American. However, SNL has one African American and four women out of 13 cast members. Yet, MadTV's humor is worse in general and is usually derived out of stereotypes; Bobby Lee is often referred to as "the Asian" or is referenced as Asian for humor, the African Americans poke fun at black programming, and the women portray popular female celebrities as prostitutes. Although not explicitly racist, MadTV attempts often to mock stereotypes yet perpetuate them. For example, during the 2008 presidential campaign, Bobby Lee played Asian reporter Connie Chung and Keegan Michael Kay as Barack Obama. "Chung" accused "Obama" of being a Muslim several times during the interview with a strange accent, which Obama recasted as "I'm not a Muslim," yet the harping on the issue was not very funny. MADtv was recently cancelled.