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.

          

Harvest of Empire, very very long...

Tonight was time well spent, a 90 minutes film/documentary, "Harvest of Empire" that systematically unravel all my doubts and questions about illegal immigration here in America. On the other hand, it brings more questions and doubts I have about this nation, the United States of America.

My initial reactions towards illegal immigrants are somewhat similar to the ignorant TV commentators: "They came with criminality; they came here to steal American jobs." Not to such an extreme, but along the same line. I thought to myself: my parents spent $200,000 in total to get me a 4-year American College education, and there is no guarantee that I would be able to stay in the country legally after I graduated, if I don't get a job I will be rushed out of the country like a dog, even though I will by then hold a college degree and is decently knowledgable. At the same time all these South Americans who illegally entered the country, without a lot of education, are getting jobs and feeding their kids. I felt discriminated, I really did.

I also used to think they contribute very little to the prosperity of the country, because they are not well educated and a lot of them engage in illegal criminal activities such as drug trafficking. However, I failed to recognize when they were not granted the equal access and opportunity, when they are faced with humongous amount of hostility and prejudice, of course they could not live up to the expectation.

But, as the sentence "people don't leave their homeland unless they really have to." kept being repeated throughout the film, I understood why they came. Take examples of Puerto Rico, I used to think Puerto Ricans are lucky enough to be born with U.S. citizenship and are free to live and work in the mainland. I overlooked the fact that their poverty still exist and initially they were granted citizenship because U.S. needed troops for the WWI. I tend oversimplify things and look at it from just one angle. People in Puerto Rico, came to United States because of the destitute economic situation in Puerto Rico as a result of U.S.'s industrial exploitation. People in Guatemala, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic and Cuba came to the U.S. because their lives were threatened, they were being electrocuted and one woman from El Salvador even had a snake stuck in her rectum. The torture and pain that we cannot even began to imagine. Coming to the United States, to them is truly a matter of LIFE and DEATH. How many of the anti-immigrant activists actually acknowledge that? Or do they want to acknowledge that?

When U.S. are welcoming the loaded Chinese corrupted officials and successful individuals like Pierce Morgan or Ken Robinson with open arms, U.S. is also shutting the ice-cold gate to the immigrants fleeing for their lives. U.S. is giving out more greencards to businessmen who made significant investments than giving out political asylum. Are all these right especially when the U.S. government's hands aren't clean in all these atrocity, and almost every single one of the dictators had the help from the U.S.

At this point I have came to the end of my reflection from the film. However, this film brought me into thinking about something else, like the reason why I came to the United States. Even though China is not a free country, the severity is still incomparable to what's in the film.

Back home in China, I had no fear of losing my life as long as I keep my mouth shut and doesn't talk critical of the government in a public space. My parents aren't rich but they are taking vacations every year and don't have to work from 9 to 5, for the very least they have times and resource to provide the best educations and opportunities for their children. Coming to the U.S. for me it is a brand new experience for me and helps my personal advancement, but my starting point has already been set high, so that's it.

I don't understand, and I never will understand what these immigrants are going through, constantly living in fear and dehumanization even after they came to the U.S. However, there is something that I really appreciate about America, it is its people.

The people in the U.S. care about social justice, not just theirs but also others. There are always those Americans who don't categorize people by different race but by one human race. They see these problems and they address the problems and bring them to light to the public. To me, that is truly amazing. Seeing university professors supporting the cause of these people and having open discussions in a hundred people auditorium about issues that don't look good to the U.S. Government, this is AMAZING. This country is blessed with people full of talents and compassion to carry out their causes, their missions. That is something that China is lacking, we have grave issues, but we don't have the human resource and capacity to address them in such a powerful yet explicit way. We simply don't have those people, and I think I just found the cause of me being here in America and what I can do for my country, just like what Dr. Juan Gonzales and Prof. Jeff Cohen did for their country.

What an educational experience. That's what I like about America, not the prosperity and not the wealth, but this richly nurturing fields of inspiration and deliberation.

About me, Chengxi

My name is Chengxi Li(李成蹊), but everyone calls me Jeremy, it's easier that way. But I really appreciate those who get out of their comfort zone and address me with my real name.

I am from China, where media independence and credibility are so in ruin that I have almost lost hope of the prospect of media rising in China. Seeing the media corruption and impropriety even in countries like U.S. and France is even more disheartening. But I firmly believe there is still work to be done, and can be done, which is why I am here.

I am hoping to develop a niche in the world of media as an intricate intersection of my striving for social justice and my belief of Christianity, and see how I can go from there. It is a rather vague goal, the main title of the blog perfectly describe where I am at.

But I do have hope. Ask me again at the end of the semester, I would still be a voyager, however, with a compass.

Chengxi's "Spring"...

After reading the article "Mexico's revolution will not be televised", I became an admirer of the levelheaded and blood boiling Mexican youth who spontaneously rallied up to take measures to ensure the objective coverage of presidential election from Mexican TV network Televisa. This is what some will call "the Mexican Spring".

Social media does more than entertain, I mean, look at what we are doing with social media, I feel bad. Social media could be an extremely impacting mechanism that deter the authority from any attempt to hide the impropriety of their actions, it could also be a ruthless machine that's eroding away our ambition and valuable times. The latter one seems to apply to the American society. Days after days on Facebook I see example of two girls posting catchy phrases exchange like "awwww, love you <3<3<3"on each other's wall when they are in the same room sitting on the same table. Not that there's anything wrong with that, how is that constructive to our society?

Whereas the youth in Mexico, in Egypt and even in China are using social media to further the cause of social justice. They are using social media to tell the authority: we no longer need your permission to rally up and protest your wrongdoings, we can communicate through our own channel. And if you have something to cover up, fine, we will expose you with our own ways.

I am very glad to see these changes happening everywhere, people can actually get hold of their own fates and spread their own voices. Even though they carry great risks by doing so, they are able to combine their courage and ingenuity. It reminds me of a saying: "when there is a will, there is a way". We, as the hope of the future, we need to ask ourselves do we have a desire that is so strong that we are looking at every resource and channel that is available to us to be the medium to further the cause of what we are passionate about?

I was wrong, perhaps it is not the time to be pessimistic. This is a world full of opportunities for the brave, what we need to do is just to find out what we are passionate about and keep writing, keep telling the story, and our own "Spring" will come.