Director Billy Jackson & "Enough Is Enough"

This week Mass Comm/Soc 109 students screen Billy Jackson's "Enough Is Enough" (click here to view the trailer) . It's a documentary about the Johnny Gammage case in Pittsburgh and the issue of police brutality, the criminal justice system and African Americans. Tuesday's screening of the documentary will set up a visit from director Jackson (the man behind Nommo Productions) on Thursday. Students will have a chance to hear from him on issues of authenticity and voice in producing such projects. They will also have an opportunity to discuss his film and how it may relate to topics, theories, practices and discussions from both the mass communications course and the Sociology class.

One way for students to begin reflecting on Jackson's film is to consider how some of the people we've studied in class would see the film. What might Toni Morrison say about it? Or Native American filmmaker Chris Eyre? Or how might scholars and theorists react? Consider folks like Gerbner, McCluhan, Meyrowitz, Baudrillard and others discussed in either class.

Watching Smoke Signals

This week students screen Chris Eyre's 1998 Miramax film "Smoke Signals." This is an interesting film to view in the wake fo the Don Imus media mess. The media buzz is now focused on the discussion about how pop culture and media seem to normalize negative stereotypes. The public is asked to consider the impact of degrading imagery and speech on marginalized audiences. While this discussion centers around how stereotypes are perpetuated by language and media, consider how Native Americans continue to suffer thanks to popular culture and media via the mascots for sports teams.

Another consideration to weigh while viewing Smoke Signals is the issue of cultural identity and authenticity in media. Chris Eyre is an up and coming Native American filmmaker. He writes compelling screenplays about his own struggles and he uses Native American actors to bring the stories to life. Watching "Smoke Signals" is another way of challenging the stereotypes perpetuated by old TV shows and Westerns. One line in the movie presented by the charcter of Victor resonates with a bitter truth.

"There's nothing more pathetic than Indians on TV than Indians watching Indians on TV." Thomas Builds-A-Fire (Evan Adams), Smoke Signals (1998- Miramax).

If we make a media-savvy effort to engage in selective exposure of media and attend to stories created by and representing marginalized audience, imagine the richness of our experiences in understanding the world outside and broadening the "pictures in our heads."

Click here for the Smoke Signals trailer on CNN.
Click here for the review of Smoke Signals on CNN.

Al Gore & Inventing the Internet

This week the class has finished reading Chapter 10 in the Hanson text. However, Hanson did not address the myth that Al Gore claimed to invented the Internet. We'll definitely address that in class.




It would appear Gore never claimed to have invented it-- but he puffed himself up during the campaign in 1999 as having the vision to serve as a founding father for it. The myth that he claimed to invent the Internet seems to come out of a CNN interview he did in with Wolf Blitzer when he was asked how he was different from another candidate.

While political ads and commentaries perpetuated the claim he made such a statement, Gore went along with many of the jokes about it. He often parodied himself on Futurama (his daughter was a writer on the show). Here's a YouTube clip of an episode where he was introduced as the inventor of the environment and the First Emperor of the Moon.

Documentary Showcase Scheduled

Student Documentary Showcase
Addressing Stereotypes, Media & Marginalized Audiences
Presented by The Mass Comm/Soc 109 Cluster Students
Thursday, May 3 & Tuesday, May 8
12:45-2:00 p.m. in the Mueller Theater
McKelvey Campus Center/Westminster College
Free & Open to the Public
“We are all captives of the picture in our head -- our belief that the world we have experienced is the world that really exists.”- Walter Lippman

Students in the Mass Comm/Soc 109 Cluster will present public premieres of their documentary projects. Three documentaries will debut on May 3. Four others will premiere on May 8.

May 3 Schedule
Confidence: The Man Behind the Bench
Teck Productions-- Elisa C., Kirsten D., Catharine H. & Thomas M.

Poetic Justice
Fighting Tulips Productions-- Steve K., Julie M., Aidan Mewha & Charlie N.

Believing Without Seeing
LEJJ Communications-- Jess C., Elizabeth F., Jess H. & Emily S.