The value of video

In her essay 'Indigenous media: faustian contract or global village?' Faye Ginsburg discusses the use of video as cultural mediation by Indigenous people in Australia and Canada. Ethnographic filmmaking is a practice associated with Anthropology. Some filmmakers began addressing questions of ethics and agency in the 1950s and 60s. Indigenous people in Australia and the U.S. Began making their own film and media in the 1970s. The popularity of VCR's and the launch of communication satellites in the 1980s brought Western mainstream media into remote Indigenous settlements in Central Australia and Alaska. These communities used the technology to insert some of their own cultural content into the programming. (Ginsburg 1991)

Small community media groups (Warlpiri) and larger organizations (CAAMA, Imparja) began programming Australian Indigenous content in the 1980s. Works being produced were addressing historical injustices, dreaming stories, dances, music, food hunting techniques and biographies of elders. The vision and audience is local and the culture includes contemporary life. Ginsbergh (1991 105) proposes that in this way culture is preserved and also evolving at the same time.

“They [Australian indigenous produced films] are not based on some retrieval of an idealized past, but create and assert a position for the present that attempts to accommodate the inconsistencies and contradictions of contemporary life. For Aboriginal Australians , these encompass the powerful relationships to land, myth and ritual, the fragmented history of contact with Europeans and continued threats to language, health, culture, and social life, and positive efforts in the present to deal with problems stemming from these assaults.”

Francis Jupurrula Kelly is one of the key founders of Warlpiri media and he is still producing work there today. This clip shows him directing actors for a documentary co-produced by PAW media and Rebel films. He speaks two languages on set and has his own vision of how the story will be recreated. The resulting work 'Coniston' is very powerful because many people got to tell their story of the 1928 massacre for the first time. A historical crime is told from an Australian indigenous perspective. This is part of the process of identity construction through culture.

Co-writer/director Francis Kelly interviews one of the descendants of the survivors of the Coniston massacre. Ginsburg, F. (1991). "Indigenous media: faustian contract or global village?" Cultural Anthropology 6(1), 92-112.

Different ways of thinking

I've been reading 'A Confucian Perspective on Learning to be Human' by Tu Wei Ming (1985) for the subject 'Understanding Asia'. It explains the Confucian 'faith'. The Confucian scholar or ju is similar to a modern day scholar in the humanities. However they are also engaged with the community and interested in the well-being of humanity.

"This critical self-awareness, informed by one's openess to an ever expanding circle of human relatedness, is the authentic access to one's proper destiny." (Tu Wei-Ming p.63)

Its liberating to learn about other religions and philosophies that are so different to a western, christian tradition. It will be interesting to see the effects on the media that come from China's growing economic power.

Reference: Tu Wei-Ming, " A Confucian Perspective on Learning to be Human", Confucian Thought: Selfhood as Creative Transformation, Albany: State University of New York Press, 1985, p. 67-80.

Media Watch - The Kyle and Jackie O episode.

‘Media Watch’ Hosts (top from left) Paul Barry, Jonathan Holmes, Richard Ackland, Monica Attard, David Marr, Liz Jackson and Stuart Littlemore; targets and stories included (clockwise) the Cronulla riots, Naomi Robson, Jonathan Shier, Janet Albrechtsen, John Safran, Ray Martin, Shane Paxton, Alan Jones and John Laws. Graphic: Colin Hamilton

I watched an episode of 'Media Watch'(ABC1, Monday 9.20pm) on Monday (3 Aug). The presenter Jonathan Holmes commented on the incident that happened on the Kyle and Jacki O show at radio2day FM in the previous week which involved the presenter's insensitive questions to a fourteen year old girl. He questioned why the ACMA (the regulatory body for radio) rarely investigate breaches of broadcast law.

Holmes also showed a clip from another segment of Kyle and Jacki O's show from last year which involved reuniting a niece(19 yrs old) and her aunt. There was a surprise twist to the show when Kyle threatened to send the niece back to the U.S.A without meeting her aunt. The manager of the show suggested to the niece that she beg Kyle to let her stay. The subsequent film footage of the emotionally distraught women crying and begging Kyle to unite them was displayed live on the stations website. Afterwards the niece indicated she felt cruelly exploited by the shows team.

Holmes implied that this type of broadcasting is tabloid journalism at its worst and that it exploits peoples emotions and dignity to get good ratings. He concluded by stating that with the latest episode of Kyle and Jacki's antics Australian radio has sunk to a new level of grubbiness. It will be interesting to see what results/changes arise from the investigation (if one actually occurs).

Media Watch is a great show because it provides critical comment on current media and exposes inaccuracies and breaches of media regulations and law.There seems to be a problem with the broadcast laws about what constitutes public decency. They are too vague and thats why these kinds of shows are allowed to air. One part that could be made more specific is to protect the rights of children.

Reference: Holmes, J, Media Watch, ABC1, 3 August 2009.
Available at:
http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/video/default.htm?program=mediawatch&pres=20090803_2120

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