Through the lens: Aboriginal Australians in Public Policy debate

Through the lens: Aboriginal Australians in Public Policy debate
“By the look of the Other I have been made an object for his subjectivity, and he knows me only as object, never as subject. In the same manner I know the Other as object, never as subject.” (Satre, 1973)
In 1990, from the tiny village of Kuranda, near Cairns, a group of enterprising entertainers from the indigenous Tjapukai community joined Australian Tourist Commission, Qantas and Ansett on a prolific tour (Tourism Australia, 2006) in an international tourism recovery campaign. Through the new millennium, Tjapukai’s multiple award-winning performances have won over visitors from all over the world with their unique appeal, contributing to 3.7% of Australia’s GDP (Tourism Australia, 2007). This successful positioning of Australian culture however, is unacknowledged and disassociated in ‘mainstream’ Australia as local media is strife with negative Aboriginal images and reports (Meadows, 2001).
An estimation of 69% of indigenous people live outside of major urban centers, yet they are over-represented in the prison system. 90% reported participating in community-building social activities and have access to support outside of their households in times of crisis, yet a quarter of indigenous people are victims of physical violence (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2003). This suggests the Hawthorne Effect (Landsberger, 1958), meaning that outcomes are represented through a reaction of being observed, that occurs bilaterally between Aboriginals and the Government policies. This alludes to ‘mainstream’ Australia’s passive-aggressive stance at tackling Aboriginal issues.
Census figures show that the indigenous population makes up only about 2.5% of the total Australian population (Scott, 2009, p. 33). Yet negative media coverage on indigenous issues far outweighs this ratio. What led to the rampant disparity of Aboriginal representation in local and international media? And how has public policy, Aborigines and ‘mainstream’ Australia been adversely affected by it? The questions posed present the dialectical dilemma of media representation in the indigenous debate where stolen generations leave whisperings in our hearts amidst a lifetime of nation building.
An estimation of 69% of indigenous people live outside of major urban centers, yet they are over-represented in the prison system. 90% reported participating in community-building social activities and have access to support outside of their households in times of crisis, yet a quarter of indigenous people are victims of physical violence (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2003). This suggests the Hawthorne Effect (Landsberger, 1958), meaning that outcomes are represented through a reaction of being observed, that occurs bilaterally between Aboriginals and the Government policies. This alludes to ‘mainstream’ Australia’s passive-aggressive stance at tackling Aboriginal issues.
Aboriginal Australians have long been presented in one of two ways in the media: as an exotica or a valid threat to society. Never in history has Aborigines been accepted successfully as part of ‘mainstream’ Australia. From the subjugation by British colonialists in 1788 (Meadows, 2001, p. 33), to Hasluck’s post-war assimilation plans (Manne, 2007), to the grassroots-led “awakening consciousness” of 1960s (Clark, 2008, p. 79), to the “process of reconcilliation” in the 1990s (Scott, 2009, p. 35), to Howard Government’s Northern Territories Intervention in 2007 (Australian Human Rights Commission, 2009) that eventually led to Rudd’s monumental 2008 speech ‘Apology to Australia’s Indigenous Peoples’ (Prime Minister of Australia, 2008), the progress of public policy reflects on external factors such as shifts in international political paradigms, exposure to free press and actors that are resistant to change.
Early Australian media expounded white supremacy ideologies under the guise of civic journalism. Australian newspapers aimed at the working-class such as Queensland colonial newspaper Progress validated “the invasion and subsequent dispossession” (Meadows, 2001, p. 42) of the indigenous communities by stereotyping Aboriginals as dangerous savages. Photographers and cinematographers in the 1940s captured images of Aboriginals as romanticized victims of consequence (Meadows, 2001).
These media representations choose to focus on effects of rather than the cause of indigenous displacement: the brutal insensitivity and disregard of Natives and their lands by white settlers. It advertised hegemonic white ideologies by placing considerable distance between the subject and the audience through a conscious disengagement with the subject. This demonstrates a lack of accountability on the part of those that have benefitted and are continuously benefitting from the invasion.
In the 1960s to the 1970s, the Aboriginal movement was captured in an international wave of civil rights movements that resulted in an increased awareness of the impact capitalism had on indigenous communities. University students were a crucial catalyst in addressing Aboriginal issues through initiatives such as the Australian Freedom Ride organized by the Student Action for Aborigines (SAFA) and led by Charles Perkins (Clark, 2008). This movement is significant as it created a much larger audience through its active involvement by non-indigenous Australian (mainstream) students. The students were savvy; using mass media to great effect by ensuring press coverage through television to bring “the issue of racial discrimination in country towns to national attention” (The National Museum of Australia , 2007).
Through the 1967 referendum that granted Aborigines citizenship, the notion of what it meant to be Aboriginal and Australian is questioned. W.E.H Stanner found that Aborigines are plagued by a “history of indifference” (Meadows, 2001, pp. 18-20), and this is reaffirmed by ongoing media representations that lack engaging dialogue between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people. For instance, in April 1986 the Australian national magazine, People, quoted defamatory racist remarks targeted at Aborigines made by Senior Sergeant Vern Timm in an article, leading to a hundred members of the Cairns Aboriginal communities to march to the station demanding Timm be fired. With only two stories published criticizing People, 28 news stories covered the incident with antagonistic repetitions of the offending quotes with reporters referring only to non-Aboriginal sources (Meadows, 2001).
The 1970s presented a ray of hope for Aboriginal representation in Australian politics through Liberal Party Senator Neville Bonner (1922-1999), a half-caste indigenous politician born in New South Wales. Bonner campaigned for a policy of self-determination over the current policy of assimilation. But by standing his ground in Parliament, it caused him a 1982 demotion that led to his subsequent resignation (Australian Biography, 2009). This suggests that Bonner’s voice was simply a token representation that ‘progressive’ Australia had tolerated, suggesting the inability of the Government to engage Bonner as an equal.
Tensions peaked in the 1980s, when the Hawke Labor federal government withdrew its support of legislated land rights policy (Meadows, 2001) in the lead up to the celebration of Australia’s bicentenary in 1988. While press were centered on assimilation, the booming mining industry questioned the present Land Rights Act which legislated that companies provide indigenous communities such as the one in Ranger (a uranium mining area in the Northern Territories) compensation in exchange for the commercial use of native land (Meadows, 2001). A propaganda campaign, Chamber of Mines, was launched controversially in 1983 by a coalition of West Australian mining companies to challenge the validity of native land ownership (Meadows, 2001). This sparked a national debate on national identity that demonstrated the growing tension between liberalism and democracy as the campaign pushed the agenda of ‘equality’. However, ‘substantive equality’ was not what the miners were after, rather it was the “ideological counteroffensive” of ‘formal equality’ (Greg, Lewins, White, & White, 2003, p. 248).
Several interest groups such as the Aboriginal Development Commission, church, industry and social science organizations, the Liberal Party and the federal government were “vocal participants” in this debate (Libby, 1992, p. 72). Ultimately, in 1992 the Mabo High Court decision swung in favor of Aborigines through the rejection that Australia was terra nullius (land belonging to no-one) at the time of European settlement and stated that native title would continue to exist (Aboriginal Law Bulletin, 1992). Although this period signified a move away from paternalism that prevailed in the decades before, it parallels the political paradigms in America (Libby, 1992) where indigenous relations are consistently stigmatized by similar parochial attitudes.
In the late 1990s, ‘mainstream’ Australians were exposed to reports of the Stolen Generations. Referring to the policy under Aborigines Protection Board (APB), the Stolen Generations are indigenous children that were forcibly removed by the Government, churches and welfare bodies from their families without a court order from 1909 to 1969 (ReconciliACTION Network, 2007). Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) addressed the devastating impact of this policy by publishing the Bringing Them Home report in April 1997 (Australia Human Rights Commission, 1997).
The report, brought into public domain, displayed the failure of assimilation. High Court Judge Sir Ronald Wilson, who headed the inquiry, likened the policy to ‘genocide’ (Innes, 2002) through revelations that the Stolen Generations were subjected to widespread physical, psychological and sexual abuse. Even during the lifetime of the policy, claims that it represented ‘genocide’ were expressed. As far back as 1949, the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs ignored a letter describing the abuse of the Stolen Generations by government secretary Leyden who wrote on behalf of a witnessing Northern Territory Patrol Officer (Schaffer, 2001). In 1969, the National Tribal Council in Brisbane issued a manifesto that saw the policy as “cultural genocide” (Schaffer, 2001). The disengaged distance placed between the interests of Aboriginals and non-Aboriginals reinforces the discourse of the Other.
Despite publicized details of the mistreatment that Stolen Generations suffered in the hands of the enforced policy, the Howard Government (1996-2007) rejected scrutiny by interest groups and bodies such as the United Nations (UN) and distanced the present Government from previous ones, preferring “practical reconciliation” (Scott, 2009, p. 37) over taking accountability for deep-rooted issues harking back to the negative impacts of Australian colonialism on indigenous communities. Howard’s position contrasted sharply with Paul Keating’s liberal use of the word ‘We’ in the landmark Redfern speech in December 1992 (Scott, 2009, p. 40). In the speech, Keating acknowledged and accepted responsibility over the mistreatment subjected to natives by what is now ‘mainstream’ Australia. In an ironic twist, a highly publicized 2004 Redfern incident involving the accidental death of a young Aboriginal pursued by ‘zero-tolerance style’ police caused riots in the Sydney suburb, reflecting “a depth of collective anger” at the prevailing justice system (Day, Nakata, & Howells, 2008, p. 42). This displays the conflict between liberal and democratic ideologies present in the government.
In another controversial move, the Howard Government descended upon the Northern Territories in June 2007 in a federal intervention to tackle the issue of abused children in the area (Meadows, 2001). While there was some credible support for the intervention coming from indigenous leaders, many voices expressed skepticism. Critics claimed that the intervention was a political tactic by the flagging Coalition Party and more importantly had the “underlying purpose to remove the foundations of the Northern Territory Aboriginal Land Rights Act” (Scott, 2009, p. 42) by undermining Aboriginals’ abilities to self-govern. One year later, critics remain skeptical of the intervention (The Sydney Morning Herald, 2008).
In a widely covered 2008 event, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd issued a public apology to the Stolen Generations, drawing a fair share of support and criticism (The Australian, 2008). In light of its departure from the previous administration’s stance on accountability, Rudd’s reinforces policies centered on self-determination that was established in the 1960s. Leading up to the telecast, BBC Online published personal tales of the Stolen Generations (BBC News, 2008), encouraging dialogue between Aboriginals and non-Aboriginals. This is further balanced by the contribution online users from every political persuasion make on websites such as Green Left Online or European Network for Indigenous Australian Rights (ENIAR).
With history proving a bias against Aboriginals, mainstream media played devil’s advocate to the hegemonic ideologies that created an objectification of the Aboriginal stereotype. While it captures a ‘reality’ from the perspective of a subject looking at the Other, this conservative one-way model of communication hinders efforts to bridge the divide. With new media allowing supporters of Aboriginal rights to reach a wider public, policy adjustments favorable to Aboriginals however is slow. This questions the government’s sincerity to absolve long-standing tensions that exists between ‘mainstream’ and Aboriginal Australians. One simultaneously wonders too if an ancient culture practiced by a micro population can tangibly withstand the constant tide of hegemonic ideologies.
Aristotle argues “people can only fulfill themselves by being actively involved in decisions affecting their lives” (Scott, 2009, p. 67). Drawing on Satre’s concept of ‘the Other’, Aboriginal Australians will be outsiders in their countries as long as they are excluded from participatory democracy. David Gulpilil, a noted actor from Ramingining in the Northern Territory was reported as being in limbo as he juggles his “double life” as an Aboriginal and a well-known movie figure (The Age, 2002). This demonstrates the paradoxical, and largely negative role of media as it proved that Aboriginals are capable of ‘crossing over’ but risk losing native identity.
The disparity between local and international representations of Aboriginals has narrowed over the years due to new levels of communications being available through cyberspace. While this presents Aboriginals with better media representations, Aboriginals must still come across as relatable to ‘mainstream’ Australia if positive change is the goal. While media outputs and channels have increased over the past sixty years, the consolidation of media conglomerates in Australia encourages ignorance of the Aboriginal voice. With News Limited and Fairfax Group monopolizing on media ownership in Australia (Yu, 2005), it comes as no surprise that neoliberal ideas permeate through a majority of mass media. The hegemony of the neoliberal ideology in mass media is simultaneously strengthened by mutuality with liberal-democratic governments internationally.
In 1989, Nugget Combs wrote about the necessity of “Aboriginal mechanism” and this is eventually heard by the federal government through its funding of Outback Digital Network (ODN) a decade later (Landzelius, 2006, p. 43). The project however faces many challenges including a suggestion that it “simply entails a further cooption of indigenous communities to Western hegemony through knowledge control and the processes of ‘globalization’” (Landzelius, 2006, p. 44). However, this represents a socialist shift in government policy when compared to previous decades.
Beyond existing grassroots efforts, it may be suggested that future media representations aim for impartiality and active engagement when presenting on issues that parallels those of non-indigenous Australians. For instance, the February 2008 speech by Indigenous Affairs Minister, Jenny Macklin, at the National Press Club received support by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Tom Calma. He shared on ABC Radio how heartened he was by the Minister’s emphasis on partnership (International Committee of the Fourth International, 2008).
Aboriginals must also rise up to the challenge by conducting an effective “counter counter-insurgency”, meaning “talk back to power using tools of power” (Landzelius, 2006, p. 28) to encourage inclusivity as opposed to exclusivity. By breaking the glass wall between ‘mainstream’ and Aboriginal Australians, the possibility that both parties co-exist without compromising on core values is a positive step towards the construction of agreeable policy options. While media representations have some way to go in portraying Aboriginals as equal members of Australian society, the biasness that is inevitable to any form of journalism (Landzelius, 2006) would hopefully sway closer in favor of indigenous communities in time.

Synergy and its web of lyrical deceit

Synergy is an important strategy as it facilitates, with its flexible style of maximizing commercial influence while segmenting creative variety, the growth of an industry that is already populous in nature. Synergy is a subtle and passive approach to “world domination” and globalization. It is a strategy that allows conglomerates to be multi-faceted in supply with the advantage of funneling resources back into the company. By spreading the risks through synergy, large corporations as well as indie labels, lower overall operational costs. Therefore, a higher profit margin as well as a more controlled contribution to media consumption is witnessed.

Globalization is an extension of synergy, and it could be termed as modern colonialism. According to UNESCO, there are four principle features of globalization :

1. Integration of world markets into national economies

2. Transition of “high volume economy” to “high value economy”

3. End of struggle between socialism and capitalism

4. Configuration on new trade blocs

However, globalization also causes an undesirable homogenization of cultures, leaning towards the Anglo-centric as English becomes the preferred language between the multinationals and the local businesses. The problem with the dominance of “anglo-american” music is that as other languages are pushed out due to the monopolization of conglomerates, a disrespectful disregard of the Other displaces traditional cultures.

Entertainment corporations seek to maximize copyright revenue by applying intellectual property laws to the use, reproduction and performance of recordings to the virtual world and undeveloped markets. Interestingly, a backlash from recognized musicians such as Radiohead is a perfect example of micro-synergy meets anti-establishment. Without alienating its fan base or snubbing MTV, Radiohead successfully launched an album online and communicates almost directly with its listeners, doing away with the management of a record company. Other bands such as Metallica are following suit .

While decentralization is crucial in ensuring an organic journey of the music industry, it ultimately lowers financial risks for businesses. The multilayered web of majors and minors reflects on the homogenized heterogeneity of globalization. Radiohead was able to pull off their independent launch online because the band gained previous exposure through EMI/Capitol. This shift to online ‘independence’ would surely mean that the majors would come sniffing around very soon, if they have not already.

Commercial originality: Does it exist?

With the homogenization of popular music, the struggle of its origins (rock) against hoi polloi remains fraught. Record companies influence music consumption to a great extent, through the conglomeration of media entities that includes radio and television stations, publishing houses as well as acquisitions of other ‘boutique’ companies.

This ‘Mcdonaldization’ of culture, as capitalism grows to be the No.1 religion of Western societies, created an oligopolistic industry that is far from the competition amongst 1950’s radio stations that had wanted to “capture the local market”. The role played by BMI when it protested against ASCAP’s market monopolization encapsulates the initial rebellious spirit of popular music. However, while the competition was relatively healthy in fostering new or expanded genres, it questions the cliché of “suffering for your art”.

However, the homogenized marketing of popular music has created an unsavory blandness in the music landscape, where one artist sounds, performs and looks like the other. The most commercially successful artists are not the ones that are most lauded for distinctly exceptional work in singing or song-writing but rather for their ‘entertainment value” and hype factor. Additionally, the stamping of a celebrity producer’s signature sound on an artist’s latest album has emphasized the role of ‘the celebrity’. This causes a recycling of musical genres that leads to smaller cycles of creativity akin to a coiling effect.

While music has often been used as a definition of a group or era, it parallels as a class separator. The emergence of popular music during the baby-boomer era demonstrated the alternative environments created as a form of escapism from their everyday post-war family values. However, a growing collective interest in the genre caused it to be widely accepted to the point that is not a valid expression of rebellion any longer. Therefore, while ‘alternative’ artists have often been accused of “selling out”, and being transformed into profit-making puppets of major record companies, one could question the consumers’ desire to intentionally be alienated so as to make sense of the idea of identity and existentialism within their personal sphere.

Kev’s “little red book of Chairman Mao”

Today in Parliament, the PM was bombarded by the Opposition in regards to the decision his team made on implementing a new tax on the guarantee of Australian deposit. Malcom Turnbull mocked Kevin Rudd and his cabinet, spouting quotes such as,

this control freak of a Prime Minister

the Prime Minister is well known for his cliches

So much for copying Asian Values

and

The Prime Minister’s little red book of Chairman Mao

Rudd fired back by reiterating the problems with “democracy” within Asia and defended his leadership amongst a rowdy Opposition,

we acted and we are proud of the action we took

he’s saying they are responding to mere hype

fear and anxiety are not a product of hype

We’re Socially Free!

With the US buying stakes in large financial institutions as an attempt to rescue the idea of a Free Market, one needs to question the method used that harks back to socialism.

Capitalism works when there is a one-way model of communication, where a top down approach reaps benefits that flow back into a central bank. With power shifts occurring due to hegemonic battles, capitalism fails in the ways it was meant to save. This exposes the idea of capitalism and the Free Market, as flimsy players on the world stage.

Will the US need to be rescued from its own doing?

Is China the saviour? http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7671482.stm

Does liberty exist?

This article explores the concept of liberty in the current political climate in a globalized perspective, using press systems of Malaysia and USA as comparative models.

Is liberty dead? Does it exist? Is your liberty also my liberty? Or is all just a power struggle? Is it all about what we can have for ourselves?

Has the idea of liberty been kicked into the world of marketing jargon?

Struggle for hegemony: A discourse of the press systems of USA and Malaysia

“Exploit us, but exploit us fairly.”(CNN, 2003)
–    Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Ex-Prime Minister of Malaysia for 22 years, October 2003

Advocates of the ‘Western-style liberal press system’ argue that models that vary from it are not conducive to the universal benefit of society (Rothbard & Hoppe, 2003). The economic rise of Southeast Asian countries in the 1990s, including Malaysia, saw alternative models of press systems, dissimilar to the liberal model, being born. This has caused an interesting display between the West and Asian countries in the struggle for hegemony within a local as well as international context. Malaysia presents an interesting case study as it is refuses to be resolutely defined by the typical characteristics of either a liberal or authoritarian press system. This reflects on the sophisticated complications that arise from the effects of globalisation as well as the differentials in perspective when countries exert hegemonic power.
This essay will use Social Dominance Theory (SDT) (Sidanius & Pratto, 2001) to conduct a comparative analysis of USA’s liberal press system to Malaysia’s press system. This analysis will enable an exploration into what motivates this power struggle, and how countries that shun the classic libertarian values shared by an influential, powerful portion of the post-Cold War world achieve their goals.
The end of the Cold War is significant in the Asian region for a number of reasons. For one, the focus shifted from the struggle for political power between democratic USA and communistic USSR along with their respective allies, to the interest in the increasing economic development within the region. This caused a surge of extraordinary economic growth in Asia, coupled with sudden introductions to new set of social and technological infrastructures catered for an increasingly capitalist environment. SDT states that “major forms of intergroup conflict, such as racism, classism and patriarchy, are all basically derived from the basic human predisposition to form and maintain hierarchical and group-based systems of social organization” (Cambridge University Press). Malaysia’s constant battle for social dominance within a local and international context displays its constant need to establish its identity within this chaos of economic and social change.
The liberal press system is deemed as the benchmark of a progressive world as its advocates have been at the top of the global food chain, in an economic and political sense. Hence, liberal values and ideals are exerted to create a larger influence globally and maintain power, which then leads to a reduction of political and economic threat. Libertarians, stemming from England and spreading into Europe and America, are characterised by the rationale that its publics are independently capable of making sound choices should they have open and unrestricted access to information and self-ownership (Stamford Encylopedia of Philosophy, 2006). USA’s liberal press system, for instance, is influenced by its ideas of democracy. It functions as a watchdog, encourages freedom of speech, is privately owned and provides both entertainment and information.
The Western-style liberal press system achieves a high social dominance orientation (SDO) through its success in four key factors (Jost & Sidanius, 2004):

1. The liberal press system of USA belongs and identifies with “arbitrary, highly salient and hierarchically organised arbitrary-set groups” (Jost & Sidanius, 2004), being that USA is deemed as a superpower for its leading position internationally, especially post-Cold War.
2. The role it plays in bringing about information in regards to current affairs enhances  “socialisation experiences” (Jost & Sidanius, 2004) locally and internationally.
3. The US press system increases its SDO through its lack of empathy, when it sensationalises subjects that are easily capitalised, such as its coverage of Saddam Hussein’s capture.
4. Through the invariance hypothesis (Oskamp, 2000), it shows that the US press system is dominated by the male gaze (Felluga, 2002). This is demonstrated through its extensive coverage of topics of aggression such as wars and a focus on the sexualisation of the female form through its portrayal of American celebrities such as Pamela Anderson and Paris Hilton.

However, with the economic rise of the Asian region, USA’s high SDO is being challenged by China, an emerging superpower, followed by other regional countries, such as Malaysia, that do not share nor approve of the libertarian and religious values of the US. Malaysia’s political landscape is a complex amalgam of authoritarian values mixed with the semi-democratic and technocratic (McConnell, 2003). A focus on building up the nation through its interpretation of ‘social democracy’ is evident in its treatment of the press system. Its media is primarily state-owned and functions on many occasions as a propaganda tool for the government. Although the press system does not follow the classic autocratic model, often, it is the voices of the Malay-Muslim citizens that are heard above those who practice other faiths. Like USA, Malaysia’s press system displays a high SDO.
Uniquely, Malaysia practices a form of legalized racism (Eguiguren, 2000) through its implementation of Article 153 in the Malaysian Constitution. Article 153 compromises of subsidies and preferential treatment of Malay-Muslims citizens, known as bumiputera (translates as ‘son of the soil’), that includes education scholarships, land ownership at discounted rates and public service positions over other non-bumiputera citizens. Despite the assistance, it is the non-bumiputeras, such as the Chinese Malaysians that have flourished, dominating the middle to upper classes of society (Kahn, 1996).
By understanding the motivation behind Article 153, we can apply it to a macro scale as to how Malaysia attempts to position itself on an international platform. Article 153 is an example of the extreme protectionist approach that Malaysia, with its high SDO (Sidanius & Pratto, 2001), takes to safeguard itself against the Other (Williams, 1992). In this case, non-Muslim and non-Malay citizens represent the Other. With the onset of capitalism bringing about a global village (McLuhan, 1964), there is a greater need for Malaysia, as it opens its doors to international trade, to exert hegemony over other countries. This reaction is similar to how it attempts to dominate non-bumiputera citizens who are viewed as more successful.
The Malaysian media has been used to implicate resistant opposition through the tactics of exposé. In the case of disgraced former deputy prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim, his charges of sexual misconduct (BBC, 2008) was reported salaciously in the local paper. Ibrahim was twice accused of sodomy, in 1998 and 2008. He was convicted in 1998 and spent six years in jail, despite maintaining his innocence. After his release, he focused on piecing together the new opposition coalition, and at which time the second wave of charges are simultaneously held against him and reported extensively through the local media. This displays how the Malaysian government uses the influence that it has over its press system as a propaganda tool for its political agendas.
How is this dissimilar to the propaganda campaigns of the US elections? During the period of the US pre-election campaigns, fellow Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton used the media extensively to further their causes through various tactics. The campaigns involved more then informational facts and figures required for democratic-style voting. For instance, the media coverage of Obama’s affiliation with his controversial former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, resulted in a five points dip in his ratings (Martelle, 2008). Clinton, on the other hand, is renowned for employing the media as a battleground against Obama’s campaign through constant attacks over his credibility (CNN, 2008) to lead the people of America.
This demonstrates that even within the heart of a country based on democracy, each party’s personal agendas, such as religious beliefs or political ambition, dominate over the idea of a liberal press system. With this in mind, it is debatable to discern Malaysia’s media as being influenced by the tactics used in the liberal US media, as what has occurred is a blurring between liberal and non-liberal press systems. The struggle for hegemony over the Other will constantly present barriers to the concept of liberty, as demonstrated by the examples above.
The Asian model of journalism challenges the openness of western systems, viewing it as “leading into chaos and degradation of society” (Richstad, 2000).  Therefore, with “the transfer of control from colonial interests to the new authoritarian governments” (Richstad, 2000) in countries like Malaysia, governments assumed responsibility of the press as part of its nation restructuring strategy. Malaysia enforces self-censorship of press in line with the Asian model of journalism (Richstad, 2000), especially when an article involves defamatory material. It flexed its muscle in September this year, arresting a prominent political blogger, a local journalist and probing three newspapers under its Internal Security Act, in claims that the works produced were promoting racial dissent (Reuters, 2008).
Interestingly, The Star, a major daily in Malaysia that runs an online edition besides its broadsheets, was allowed to print articles regarding and following the arrests. In an article, ‘Detention of journalist an act to intimidate media’ (The Star, 2008), published on 13 September, the National Union of Journalists argued that the government’s unfair treatment of the arrested journalist inhibits journalistic duties. Therefore, even though the government acted autocratically towards the press, it also allows for an opposing voice. This shows that Malaysia’s press system does not function entirely from the top-down approach. The acknowledgement that opposing comments will be made, especially with the democratic tool that is the Internet, shows that Malaysia is unable to entirely escape the liberal idea of freedom of speech.
Looking at the US press system and its concept of freedom of speech, it could be regarded as a watchdog not only for one party, but for a diverse range of opposing parties. For instance, an article from a Democratic media watchdog group disputes and challenges the claims of a Conservative-based study from Media Research Centre stating that the US media has a “liberal bias” (Media Matters for America, 2005). This exchange of opinion is conducive to the liberal ideology of using freedom of speech to create a balanced argument.
On the other hand, the liberal press system does not entirely champion an unbiased point of view (Rasmussen, 2007) simply because freedom of speech is exercised. The liberal press system propagates the politics of a country in the instance of USA and its War on Terror campaign. Americans are constantly bombarded with disturbing material in their local media leading up to the war in Iraq, as part of a shock tactic to instigate nationalism and paranoia (Klein, 2007). This shows that despite the liberal press system being regarded as being impartial, politics trumps libertarian ethos.
The question now is, do non-Western nations that do not subscribe to libertarian ideals require the blessings of Western nations to legalise propaganda? The idea of media imperialism is another factor that demonstrates the influence of liberal press ideas in Asia. As part of an increasingly capitalist world, critics argue that media imperialism is a way for the First World to exert and promote its cultural values in order for the continuation of consumerism of First World products to the Third World (Boyd-Barrett, 1977; Golding, 1977).
That said, the content of Malaysia’s online news portal, The Star Online, is catered for the local reader even when it reports on international current affairs. This demystifies the hypodermic model of media effects (Chadha & Kavoori, 2000) that comes from the West to Asia. A majority of media content from the West, however, is produced and shared internationally in comparison to Asian content. Even though popular media channels such as MTV have been glocalised for the Malaysian market, the framework of executing the show as well as the marketing techniques down to the delivery by the presenters follows the Western model. This synthesis of localising foreign content supports the media dependency theory in which the “more dependent an individual is on the media for having his or her needs fulfilled, the more important the media will be to that person” (Ball-Rokeach & DeFleur, 1976). Therefore, not only are Asian countries not able to free themselves from the liberal press system, it is also dependant on its frameworks for its local context.
From that basis, the concept of Asian values seems to be a reaction by South East Asian governments against the dependency that Asian press systems have on liberal press systems. Asian values are defined through its “emphasis on group orientation”, “frugality” and “respect for authority and hierarchy” (Richstad, 2000) in an effort to achieve collective success.
Malaysia challenges the concept of frugality by spending US$1.2 billion to build the Petronas Twin Towers (Ministry of Tourism, Malaysia) in 1997 and promoting it extensively and internationally through press releases in various publications and websites, print and online advertisements. Yet Malaysia proves that it does not conform to one set of beliefs when it displays its skill of hegemonic control through social democracy. The most viewed business news on 19 September 2008 on The Star Online are “Fresh hopes push KLCI above 1000” and “Banker: Malaysia will pull through financial storm”. This demonstrates that the media is collaborating with the government in projecting a positive outlook to prevent widespread panic, in reaction to the monumental news of the tumbling of Lehman Brothers (The Wall Street Journal, 2008), an important American financial institution.
Dissidents argue that Asian values are in fact universal and are not unique to Asia. The US media emphasizes group orientation through its extensive coverage of natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina. This coverage induced the US public to donate approximately US$587 million in aid, “more than initial donations for 9/11 and the Asian tsunami” (BBC, 2005). This shows that hegemonic control can be achieved from a variety of tactics depending on the situation at hand.
The above examples show that although Malaysia’s press systems are influenced by the liberal press system, the current liberal press system is failing to distinguish itself as a universal model. This is primarily due to the growing effects of contemporary globalisation, of which the ideology that the West dominates the rest of the world, in a social and political context, is fast becoming extinct. Even though it is fair to assume that no nation can free itself from the universal influence of a Western-style liberal press system due to its widespread practice across many countries, what dominates the argument is the constant struggle to dominate the Other. This creates the drive that propels countries towards creating alternative press systems and it is inevitable that liberal press systems alter in reaction towards other dominating systems.
Ironically, an emergent concept of a homogenised heterogeneity (Niessen, Leshkowich, & Jones, 2003) whereby individualist qualities are celebrated as part of the total sum of a larger community is fed ironically by libertarian values such as capitalism. Malaysia has grasped the idea of homogenised heterogeneity through the quote given by Dr Mahathir Mohamad at the start of this essay. Malaysia recognizes its identity within a global community and it aptly uses that position to propagate its dominance over other countries. The desire for political, social and economic domination has spurred Malaysia forward utilising a powerful combination of indigenous and foreign ideologies. This exposes the West to increasing hegemonic challenges of which libertarian ideals are compromised in an effort to regain dominance. The theory of SDT is one that will be relevant to the study of press systems or any social studies as long as the existence of a dominant and a weaker force is in play.

Reverse terrorism? Renegade controllers manipulating air safety for a better life

In THE AGE today, the breaking news was about how a Qantas flight was jeapordised by the irresponsible acts of a group of traffic air controllers. The controllers are acting to push ahead their agenda “to an industrial campaign for big wage rises”.

While the Western world wage a war against terror, it has failed to observe how its very system expounds and encourages rebellion as a means to achieve goals. Additionally, this very version of proving a point is rewarded through the acceptance or awareness of organized protests. 

How can the human race fight terrorism in countries far flung, strange and misunderstood, when the very acts of terrorism are happening within our familiar environments? While some renegades fight for the very survival of being able to walk down a street without the threat of being gunned down or for the right to practice and celebrate their humanistic differences, societies higher up the Maslow pyramid are displaying the most basic of flaws- greed, selfishness and sheer stupidity.

Is the medium the message?

A critique of the theory of Marshall McLuhan in relation to the American dollar

 

Act II, Scene 1

Gonzalo:When every grief is entertain’d that’s offer’d, Comes to th’ entertainer -

Sebastian:A dollar.

Gonzalo:Dolour comes to him, indeed: you have spoken truer than you purpos’d.

The Tempest, William Shakespeare (Shakespeare & Holland, 1999)

 

 

The effect that the American dollar has on society can be drawn back to McLuhan’s study of mediums and medias in his 1964 book, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. By simultaneously applying the tetrad of media effects (McLuhan & McLuhan, Laws of Media: The New Science, 1988), a study of the historical to present relationship that the American dollar has with society can be observed.

The American dollar is far more then a mere token of currency used to trade goods and services. It has been transformed, through its medium, as a prime representation of the existing globalised world, and through that, the unprecedented influence America has over popular culture and the way the medium of the dollar shapes the psyche of society.

The phrase “the medium is the message” is one that McLuhan is most well known for. McLuhan argues that the articulation of culture is not through the contents of a message, but through which medium it is being transmitted from (McLuhan, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, 1964). Additionally, McLuhan observes that the effect that mediums have on society reshapes it based on a symbiotic exchange of“extensions” and “amputations” (McLuhan, 1964).

In 1729, Benjamin Franklin published a paper, A Modest Enquiry into the Nature and Necessity of Paper Currency (Department of American Studies, University of Groningen, 2003). In it, Franklin expounds the many virtues of converting to paper currency, from coins of gold and silver, which includes the convenient ability to mass-produce it quickly and hence, plentifully. The rationale behind this is that by being able to produce a large amount of paper currency, America will be able to employ, retain and maximize the skills of its local artisans and increase domestic trade:

“And since a Plentiful Currency will be so great a Cause of advancing this Province in Trade and Riches”(Department of American Studies, University of Groningen, 2003)

Applying McLuhan’s theory to the early beginnings of the American dollar, one could conclude that the message communicated through notes of paper currency is, for one to succeed in enterprise, one has to engage in protectionism and be able to offer services on a mass-produced scale that provides instant gratification.

In contemporary culture, mass-produced goods and instant services are one of the identifiable traits of American and Americanized societies. Terms such as “Coca-Colonization” (Wagnleitner, 1994) and “McDonaldization” (Ritzer, 1993) portray the values America is known for, and this supports the theory that cultural shaping occurs through society’s interpretation of a medium’s message (McLuhan, 1964).

The “extension” of human productivity through the exchange of services for money “amputates” the ability of an individual to take personal pride in the quality of the service offered. Instead, there is a biased focus on the quantitative over the qualitative; value of skills is pegged against the amount of dollars earned and exchanged from it.

For instance, big productions in media, and even government bodies, boast of how worthy they are by disclosing and at times featuring the budget of their projects publicly. Occupations dealing directly with money such as traders, brokers and bankers receive much higher salaries compared to occupations related directly to human interest and services such as teachers and counselors (Olsaretti, 2004).

Additionally, the medium of the dollar encourages an engagement of the senses. For example, the Spaghetti Western movie entitled A Fistful of Dollars (Leone, 1964) draws the image of holding onto an actual object physically. This connotes the idea that money is part of physical reality, and not simply a representation of value. It is with this imagery of “the character of the medium that is its potency”  (Federman, 2004) that causes a belief in society that the attainability of physical possessions is “within grasp” through the acquiring and exchange of dollars.

American cliché phrases such as “Put your money where your mouth is”,  “Money hungry” and “Money burns a hole in his pocket” reaffirms the notion that money and human senses are relational to one another. Hence, the “result from the new scale that is introduced into our affairs by each extension of ourselves” (McLuhan, 1964) creates a society that solidifies the mystique of the value of the dollar as a physical reality crucial to human life and expression.

However, the two dimensional piece of crisp paper that is the medium by which is the American dollar does not ‘fulfill’ society. Rather, it ‘compresses’ it. With every identical dollar, save for its individual production serial number, the message fostered to society is that the power of mechanical machinery to produce exact,generic clones triumphs over the imperfect, unique, production of physical human labor.

This message is especially crucial in shaping a society that is pre-disposed to the belief that more money equates to a more complete life (Diener & Suh, 2000), giving rise to both Industrial Revolutions which saw a transfer of production from small, family-based artisans to large-scale factories and faceless corporations. Therefore, culture is transformed through the ‘compression’ of human skills in favor of the replication by machinery, in relation to the message sent out by the medium of the dollar.

Consequently, the medium of the dollar is also responsible for its ‘disposable’ characteristics. Due to its generic form, society has not fostered deep enough a relationship deep with the dollar to treat it with the respect reserved for objects that are irreproducible and one of a kind (Mohr, 1985). On top of that, the dollar’s easily produced medium finds common ground with all classes of society to the extend that it serves as a form of political expression.

In the music video,Blue Magic (Jay-Z, 2007) of hip-hop impresario Jay-Z, reams of five hundred euro notes replaced American dollars atypical to American rap and hip-hop music videos. The video, inspired by the movie American Gangster (Scott, 2007) about the trappings of the American Dream (Travers, 2007), was shot in New York City and featured euro notes four times over the four minute long footage.

What is being implied by replacing the dollar with euro notes is that the dollar is unworthy compared to the euro (CBS, 2008). This political statement in popular culture is a backlash to the current downturn of the American economy amidst soaring oil prices and the war in Iraq. Through the message of the medium, Americans are nurtured to regard one of the representations of an independent United States of America (Davies, 2002) and by “extension”, American values and lives, as easily replaceable and unreliable.

Is the medium the message?

Applying the questions posed by McLuhan’s tetrad of media effects, the medium of the dollar enhances social interaction by appealing to human senses. The convenience of its availability and penetration into acquiring daily necessities means that the medium is exchanged through many individuals.

Paradoxically, the medium also limits social interaction by making individuality obsolete. This is due to the medium’s ability to be reproduced indistinctly through machinery, causing society, though the relationship of “extension” and “amputation”, to be alienated.

The medium retrieves the idea of democracy through its consistently uniformed copies. This pushes society to explore the innovation of machinery to ensure each individual receives exactly what the other possesses in goods. At the same time, the liberalized amount of the medium is portrayed as a sinful desire working against humankind in the phrase, “Money is the root of all evil”.

When pushed to extremes, the medium flips into a symbolic denomination through the exchange of virtual money. Furthermore, the medium is converted and used to purchase virtual possessions, financing a virtual economy (Ruff, 2008). Therefore, although the medium demonstrated its influence in shaping culture, it is not bound by its physical characteristics.

Hence, although it makes a fine argument to assume that the medium is the message, societies have the ability to transfer the meaning of a medium into another medium without cannibalizing the context of it. That said, McLuhan did stress that the message is “massaged” slowly over time (McLuhan & Quentin, The Medium is the Massage: An Inventory of Effects, 1967).

To conclude, the theory that the medium is the message is viable if each progression of culture is wrapped around the ideology of the relationship society holds with a medium. McLuhan foresaw the reliance society had on media and that became the basis of his studies.

However, society has a tendency to rebel against existing cultural norms and a rejection of mediums does not mean the message is lost. Society has a capability to think beyond their immediate environment and the receptors of which makes up culture. Hence, although mediums do influence culture in a large way, it is but one of many elements within society that does.

Love and War

http://www.loveandwar.se

Une Théorie du Goût

Food, when taken to the ether realms of performance, produces an altruistic glow that emanates from the beginnings of the roots of the gut of the soul.  It nourishes, not from the mouth down, but upwards, sideways, through, over and under.

For many recent years, Madrid has been the epicenter of La gastronomie moléculaire et physique. Sitting on top of the sugar hill is Ferran Adrià of El Bulli in Girona, who among his contemporaries such as Wylie Dufresne in New York and Heston Blumenthal in Bray-on-Thames, wonder and amaze beguiled diners-turn-actors who consume the heart of their memories, nightmares and desires with each dramatized piece of conception laid before them, with much thanks to French scientist, Hervé This.

A postmodern interpretation of food might, like a jack in a box, shock and surprise initially, but is there an anchor to the substance on this latest take on haute cuisine?

How does one promote without poisoning? While pioneers claim that “molecular gastronomy is dead”, are they simply expounding a postmodern cliché to ward off the copycat flies that swarm to replicate?

While nourishment shifts up Maslow’s pyramid in this movement, could it be possible that the juxtaposition presented by the dominance of concept create a vacuum too far removed from the reality of food?