censorship, it affects you and me...

Reading the articles assigned for today stirred up turmoil inside of me. Censorship in China was nothing new to me since I have gotten so used to it. But censorship in America? Seriously? What about democracy? What about freedom of speech? What about all those nice things that America so proudly labeled itself as?

My bubbles about the infallibility of this great nation have constantly been punctured. America also has censorship. Big corporate medias in America collaborate with the government and the elite to produce news that are of little or even no values, as the independent medias are suffering from governmental oppression and the lack of understanding in the public domain. This is neither a healthy nor a sustainable model. People should not be fed lies.

I cannot believe journalist Matthew Lee’s “Inner City Press” was once “unsearchable” on Google and both Google and UN blatantly denied their involvement in this shutdown, using lies to cover lies.

Just on a side note, I have to say his web site is really sketchy and I have difficulties appreciating the values of his blog.

Google and Yahoo! Collaboration with Chinese government is no news to me. I was really disappointed to see large companies like them compromised their ethics to the unreasonable demands of Chinese government. But then again I shouldn’t be surprised, ethics and the greater good is already pretty far down the priority list in the realm of business. I heard from somewhere that it is American company that helped Chinese government to shut down facebook in China. It would be interesting to figure out which company it is.

I usually think to myself: even though medias in America are very problematic, they still enjoy freedom of speech to a certain extent; maverick journalists or independent filmmakers are still relatively free to voice different opinions and have themselves heard. Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 was allowed in cinema and sold massively; Outfox by Robert Greenwald also had great reception in American public. Sometimes I wonder if Americans are being overtly skeptical and cynical about the current state. But after reading all these, I realized the skepticism and the criticism are all very important. Who is it to say that America will not one day become a heavily censored country like China? It is in every government’s interest to have less trouble and exercise more control over the political narrative, censorship, in this case, is a great way to exert such power. If Americans do not fight for their freedom of speech, if Americans think these censorships are only transient therefore should not be paid close attention to, America could be the next en route to becoming the next totalitarian state. Look at the power that U.S. government possesses, and how effectively it has demonstrated this power all over the world. American people cannot be too comfortable with this discounted freedom and fight for its full extent. 

Voice of Revolution, voices of Visionaries

         Reading the first three chapters of “Voices of Revolution” sort of brought me to a dark place. I can never understand the ridicule of calling a respectable newspaper editor “bald head, miserable forehead, and comical spectacles” and calling Black Americans “thick-lipped, pig-faced, woolly-headed, baboon-looking negroes” by the mainstream the New York Herald. This happened in America, the land of freedom, where people are supposed to be free and treated with equality. And people at the time thought these crazy journalists were on the wrong side of history. It busted my bubbles of my imaginarily ideal American society.

         

         But on the other hand, I am glad. I am glad that there were still people, visionaries like William Heighton, William Llyod Garrison, Elizabeth Stanton and Susan Anthony, who saw the injustice that was so prevailing and felt they needed to do something. Their lives probably wouldn’t be any different if they did not choose to go down this path, perhaps they would be better off. Stanton was having a rewarding marriage and was financially well off, why on earth would she published this fanatic newspapers and got herself into so much trouble.

         I think that is precisely what the society is lacking nowadays. Less and less people are being kept up at night for what they see in their daily lives. As the book so cleverly points out: “If asked to identify the three most impenetrable issues facing American people today, many observers of contemporary society would still automatically list race, gender and class.” These problems still persist, and people choose to be oblivious about it.

         Actually I noticed something really interesting. I was talking to my friend, and his girlfriend was also there. It suddenly strike me that how quiet she becomes when a bunch of guys are talking, and her almost non-existing presence made me realized male is still has the dominant role in our society and some of the issues we read in the book are not that far away from us. The degree of extremities may vary, but fundamentally they are the same fun therefore they need to be addressed.

         I don’t want to spend too much words talking about how great these journalists are because that is the undebatable truth and they all had their shortcomings with no exception. I think a little bit of self-reflection could be more conducive. After reading these chapters, I decided to challenge myself to be more attentive to small little things around me. No grave crime against humanity is being committed on Ithaca College campus, but there are still things that people need to pay attention to. And I want to capture these small petty things, as people may call them. Hopefully I can write about these things and that would serve a purpose.

         One thing I really have problem with media nowadays, and something I want to avoid is reporting without compassion. All of the dissident visionaries reported with compassion and they really care about social justice. There would be no any other explanation for the work they have done. In the Hester Vaughan case, Stanton even went so far as to appeal to the governor to pardon her death penalty. That is something I see that’s lacking in the media nowadays, we talk about objectivity and neutrality everyday, but sometimes we lose sight of the social justice and humanity aspect as the reason why media exist. As long as one is not deliberately writing a story with the agenda with manipulating people’s emotion and twisting the fact, it is okay to report with compassion. But I still don’t see that as something that will happen easily in mainstream media, but very possible in independent media.

         Considering how easy disseminations of information are, our generation really has no excuse not to write more. We don’t have to have a huge subscriptions base to keep our writing going (at least for now,) all we need to do is to write, and hopefully someone will read it and be informed.

         These readings, as the semester progresses, are constantly challenging my stereotype and traditional understanding of the media. These readings have also help me forming a clearer and clearer picture of what a true media person should do. Sometimes I think this course is what helps us shape our own journalism ethics.