The Unreal of Real

Being (visual) media literate in the 21st century will mean having to tackle the unreality of "reality" shows. I never thought much about these shows or their snowball effect trendiness until very recently. Both cable and network TV offer a plethora of shows dedicated to showcasing the "reality" of people's lives, impacting the way we feel and view reality. This dissection of reality gives us a surreal vision of what we are supposedly thinking, feeling, doing, and saying, thereby creating a detachment (maybe even confusion) from what is real.

Sure, I *heart* PROJECT RUNWAY & TOP CHEF as much as the next viewer, even letting a part of me believe in the "realness" of them, but at the end of the day I hope that the ECONOMIST reading, foreign & independent film watching, undying skeptic part of me (call it my discerning, rational side) understands that the only real thing about these shows is how good they are at marketing themselves and garnering large fan bases.

And not only do we have to be aware of this irony/paradox when watching shows/movies, we also have to be aware of how advertising and marketing affect our thoughts and actions. Yes, we are consumers and we buy things, a lot of things, and, yes, we become loyal to brands as much as to the thing itself--thus our role in the cat and mouse scenario of "branding": companies want us to feel a certain way about their products so we will remain loyal to it forever and so they try to find out why and how we buy what we do e.g. Jiwon buys Tom's of Maine toothpaste because it's not too sweet and she remembers her Mom used to buy Tom's of Maine products growing up...

I think there is such a thing as manufactured authenticity and it's okay to be suspicious of it.

From the depths of the medium!

Okay, I am willing to concede the melodramatic tinge in my urge to reference the Golem in this dialogue on the "medium" (and at some point, "media literacy") but maybe there are one or two common themes(?):

both are human creations

both can get out of control

both are fueled by human will

Well, so I can envision three...

I suppose I have a habit of relating in figurative terms and cannot always produce literal meanings or translations of things. If I acknowledge (and I do) that I exist within the parameters of the "medium" I am speaking more figuratively, but if I can acknowledge that I utilize tools of the "medium" to communicate and for self-expression, then I am speaking in more concrete terms. You can easily parse the difference between being and using in context of passive and active, but I digress...


I recently recalled the popularity of John Edward, psychic, some years back and his claim that he could communicate with your loved ones who had "passed on". He was proclaiming that he could cross over (and that was the name of his show, CROSSING OVER) from this world into the spirit world and put you in touch with the dead, essentially navigating one medium into the next. He refers to himself as the "psychic medium" and on his website there is info on how to receive "mediumship" readings. I knew someone whose family went on this show in hopes of connecting with a young family member killed in a car crash. I watched the clip where John Edward is "crossing over" to seek out this dead young man, and the one thing that emerged as true from this dog and pony show was that people have a heartrending desire to believe.


And I digress again...

To be in or not to be in the medium...

Monday Night, Medium (Rare)

In having the opportunity to talk with fellow education/library professionals on ideas instigated from Postman et al, I am glad to be able to have a sounding board for my own musings, as well as to hear others' point of views. Our dialogue encompassed everything from first time blogging to dilemmas of how much to reveal or discuss on our blogs to high school musical to cheetahs to marketing insinuating its tentacles into different aspects of our lives.

Through our verbal interchanges, we revealed just how quirky our thinking is and how most of us are still working out our theories and evolving our beliefs on the order of things. And of course we do so not in a vacuum, but in the world. We do so in the medium of our modern times.

The process of integrating Postman's themes into my own daily thinking/living takes some doing. For example, when he writes that new mediums "changes the structure of discourse", I don't disagree, but I do wonder how this impacts upon my own experience and history. Then I have to ask myself "Have I already been acted upon by the "new medium" without my knowing because I take it for granted and cannot view it with objectivity?" So is it me thinking what I think, or is it the new medium telling me what to think?

Or maybe the new medium is like the Golem. The Golem, a creature conjured by a rabbi to protect his people in a Prague ghetto, becomes increasingly uncontrollable, goes on rampages as the rabbi loses control over it.

Okay, maybe that's too melodramatic...

Contemplating Second Life at work...

From our previous LIS680 discussion encompassing Freire, Elmborg, and Gee, and in trying to keep up with the fast-paced classroom dialogue, what stuck with me was how loaded the word "literacy" can be and how the idea of "community" is much more diverse than even I imagined.

The idea of an online community is not foreign to me, in fact, I have a Facebook entity, a cautious one, but it's there. But the ways in which adults and YA's might interpret that will be unique to their needs, age, environment, etc. I am intrigued by the ways and means teens might seek out a community online.

By happy coincidence, I just found an article in YOUNG ADULT LIBRARY SERVICES magazine about how teens in a juvenile detention center are embarking on projects that will help their communities and using Second Life as a means to come together and brainstorm ideas on how they can change and challenge some of the bad things going on in their neighborhoods.

And I apologize in advance for such a bad picture quality. And I apparently am using a very old computer at work!

Chomp, chomp, chomp!

And what about the ALA/YALSA campaign to highlight the edgier side of YA literature? Their BOOKS WITH BITE campaign (as a part of teen read week) seems like smart marketing in their efforts to pique teen interest in reading some books that might veer off the beaten teen path...

I think there has always been a fine line between books written expressly for teens and books that teens pick up that are not necessarily meant for them. Although there are lots of titles in the former category that will resonant strongly with YA's, I can't help but think that some teens may find the lure of books with real "grown up" themes that much more irresistible.

Here are the ten books that won in 2008:

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Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer
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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling
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Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney
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Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead
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Maximum Ride: Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports by James Patterson
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City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
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The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray
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Extras by Scott Westerfeld
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Before I Die by Jenny Downham
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Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson

I wonder what the common denominator is?

What would our BOOKS WITH BITE list look like? What would you put on the list?

I'm going to start it off with a book I'm reading right now:

BLOOD AND CHOCOLATE by Annette C. Clause (and it's purely coincidence that I'm using this bookmark for this book)