20-minute lecture for Oases Graduate School's unit on Media, Time & Consciousness. The lecture discusses Arjun Appadurai's 'mediascapes' framework; films that depict the conscientisation process, and a three-level analytical model to explore the relevant individual, group/organisational and global macro issues. These are my personal views only.
1. Alex Burns [email_address] Oases Graduate School ‘ Time, Media & Consciousness’ Unit 27 th April 2009 Version 1.0 Mediascapes & Conscientisation
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3. Arjun Appadurai’s Mediascapes Mediascape : 1. Situates media images , production and dissemination in global cultural flows . 2. Digital media artefact
4. Micro: The Moment of Insight [Fictional] Scottish doctor Nicholas Garrigan has a moment of insight , through information revelation , of Uganda’s idealistic utopia under ruler Idi Amin: a brutal, corrupt dictatorship
5. Micro: ‘Remorse of Conscience’ Lt. Gen. Romeo Dallaire was Force Commander of UNAMIR, the United Nations peacekeeping force in Rwanda , during the Hutu-Tutsi genocide in 1994
6. Micro: Whistleblowers Dr. Jeffrey Wigand, a former VP of R&D at Brown & Williamson, becomes a whistleblower and reveals to 60 Minutes producer Lowell Bergman some ugly truths about Big Tobacco research
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8. Meso: Feet of Clay Leaders The last days of the Third Reich in Hitler’s bunker, from the viewpoint of Hitler’s young secretary Traudl Junge , contrasted with the Allied forces’ capture of Berlin
9. Meso: Shadow Organisation Law firm ‘fixer’ Michael Clayton uses cunning ( metis ) to protect the unstable attorney Arthur Edens, in a class action suit against U-North, an agricultural conglomerate
10. Meso: Strategic Games Peter Morgan’s play depicts the strategic games and bargaining negotiations around David Frost’s 1977 television interview of former US President Richard Nixon
11. Meso: Ethics & Decision Traps Dr. Manhattan, The Comedian, Ozymandias and Rorschach illustrate different ethical perceptions of good and evil , and group decision traps in dealing with macro and civilisational threats
12. Meso: Group Dynamics Explores the group dynamics , radicalisation process and splintering of the militant activist group The Weather Underground including the ‘Days of Rage’ and ‘Prairie Fire’ periods
13. Macro: Shadow Globalisation The interconnectedness of Malthusian epidemics, environmental degradation, poverty, religiopolitical ideologies, and arms trade flows
14. Macro: Deep Politics University of Notre Dame’s Carolyn Nordstrom conducts ethnographic research on the deep politics of war, political violence and extra-legal international networks
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16. Sheldrake-McKenna-Abraham Trialogues ‘ Trialogue’: A method to facilitate discussion amongst three people which explores new vistas and complex problems