Someone mentioned this to Piotr the other day and I rather liked the optimism of it. Summer seems an optimistic time this far north: The big, bright afternoon sunshine smiles on the Finnish soul and here in Tampere the locals gather on the riverbanks as if drawn to an emotional photosynthesis.
We've only got a few hours left in our "good future" here, but the program and experience already occupies a good past. Finland has been a place of crisp, vivid tones: the rich red of lingonberry jam that greets us in the morning on our pancakes; the tall, thick forests which color the countryside green; glittering blue lakes; a shock of blond hair that flutters past on the street. But enough rhapsodizing with the Lonely Planet-isms - what of Finland historically? Politically? Anthropologically?
Such were the questions that kept us busy during our SummerCulture stay. Certain themes persisted throughout: A nation delicately threading its geopolitical strategy between the West and Russia. A Nordic welfare state creeping toward a potentially calamitous date with demographic destiny. A civil war 90 years unresolved in memory. A global brand identity both omnipresent and unremarkable to locals. Consensus and humility. A communication culture (in the literal sense) undaunted by silences. Oh, and boozing.
To these lectures and explorations, we added a sprint through St. Petersburg (also in the literal sense). There I was struck by a city aiming for grace but achieving something more brutally modernist. The scope of St. Petersburg makes you feel small: Inhuman blocks, streets that stretch endlessly to the horizon, metro station-cum-bomb shelters burrowed almost miles underground. With planning like this (Peter... the Great?), you get the sense that as far as you've walked, you've not made all that much progress toward your destination. Nonetheless, it's European pretensions are not hard to miss: Amsterdamian canals (but bigger); courtly architecture (minus the grumpy Soviet holdovers); and a self-regard that considers Moscow a "noisy crowded village" (as voiced by the feisty editor of a scrappy local paper). What an eye-opening rush of detail and experience!
To pack all this into just two brief weeks is a testament to those coordinating - many thanks to Barbie, Risto, Kaarle and the Finnish students who have been invaluably helpful and accommodating (and to Annenberg for funding this amazing opportunity). Like others in the group I suspect, I'm exhausted and invigorated. A good future, indeed - perhaps not in Finland but most certainly with Finland.
travel safe-
serazio
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Sundays are for Mexicans...
I know, I know- the title is a little cheesy- still it caught your attention, right? I sure hope so. My name is Christine Enid Nieves and I am a rising junior in the College of Arts & Sciences. I am majoring in Communication & Public Service with a minor in Consumer Psychology. Currently I am working for Pfizer (you may know them as the creators of Viagra) as a Pharmaceutical Sales Intern. My job is on the field-which means Pfizer pays for gas, provides the car & pays a regular rep’s salary (great benefits considering the state of the economy). I have to shadow other reps most days but every week I get a day to visit my own set of physicians. Because of the nature of the job, there is little administrative work to do and a LOT of hands on experience. Furthermore, I have been assigned an investigation project to understand the value that pharmaceutical representatives bring to a healthcare provider’s office in order to increase the time they devote to us. The remarks I have received fall all over the spectrum.
Now, my true investigation & passion is to understand how the underrepresentation and quality of stereotypes of Latinos on TV affect perception of self in the younger generation and its possible implications in a democratic society. I was awarded a fellowship from Penn to continue formative research for an educational TV show designed to help solve this particular concern of mine. Nevertheless, reading & writing papers does not fulfill my desire to be part of the solution immediately. For that reason I have been volunteering on Thursday nights at a local clinic called Puentes de Salud that treats the growing Mexican population in South Philadelphia. My interest is to help develop health communication interventions for common conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and obesity that will potentially help instill better lifestyles. Similarly, my Sundays are reserved for a language exchange program where I teach English to Mexican immigrants that are struggling with things as basic as the alphabet. It is challenging, yet highly rewarding.
My commitment and determination to look for more effective ways of destroying the glass ceilings over Latinos has taken me as far as to consider a career in television. Yet, with the digital era upon us, it is hard to know whether TV will continue to be the media channel of choice and influence - take YouTube as an alternative... Bottom-line is, in the last year that I have had the pleasure to take classes in Annenberg, my intellectual and professional perspectives have expanded at an unprecedented rate. Yet, the more I learn and know, the more I want to find out and discover. Hence the beauty of having two more years at Penn. The only thing I regret is not having the sunny beaches of Puerto Rico- my home. Maybe next time I will tell you how a mainland Puerto Rican ended up in an Ivy League university against the odds.
Until then…
CEN
Now, my true investigation & passion is to understand how the underrepresentation and quality of stereotypes of Latinos on TV affect perception of self in the younger generation and its possible implications in a democratic society. I was awarded a fellowship from Penn to continue formative research for an educational TV show designed to help solve this particular concern of mine. Nevertheless, reading & writing papers does not fulfill my desire to be part of the solution immediately. For that reason I have been volunteering on Thursday nights at a local clinic called Puentes de Salud that treats the growing Mexican population in South Philadelphia. My interest is to help develop health communication interventions for common conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and obesity that will potentially help instill better lifestyles. Similarly, my Sundays are reserved for a language exchange program where I teach English to Mexican immigrants that are struggling with things as basic as the alphabet. It is challenging, yet highly rewarding.
My commitment and determination to look for more effective ways of destroying the glass ceilings over Latinos has taken me as far as to consider a career in television. Yet, with the digital era upon us, it is hard to know whether TV will continue to be the media channel of choice and influence - take YouTube as an alternative... Bottom-line is, in the last year that I have had the pleasure to take classes in Annenberg, my intellectual and professional perspectives have expanded at an unprecedented rate. Yet, the more I learn and know, the more I want to find out and discover. Hence the beauty of having two more years at Penn. The only thing I regret is not having the sunny beaches of Puerto Rico- my home. Maybe next time I will tell you how a mainland Puerto Rican ended up in an Ivy League university against the odds.
Until then…
CEN
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Field Trip
I'm almost two weeks into my summer internship at Centro Pedro Claver. Admittedly, until now, things have been rather slow. Mostly I've just been planning--the survey, the interviews, etc. Many hours logged at the office in anticipation of many more hours to be spent on site or in the editing suite.
Today, though, I got out of the office for a little guided tour of the vicinity. The neighborhood is actually EasternNorth Philly, an area with a heavy Latino representation and a very high rate of violence, the latter being the subject of the summer youth program and survey. I scoured an eight block radius with two members of the center, a young woman from a neighboring community, and an elderly Puerto Rican man who loves to brag that he's circled the world seventeen times. (He was a sailor for much of his youth.) We walked around the streets, past people sitting on stoops, kids running through fire hydrants, and the ice cream truck making rounds and making noise.
We spoke with perhaps a dozen different clusters of people and told them our plans for the summer. Most were wary of the three-man crew (which later grew to five as a couple of kids latched onto the march) especially the camera-toting girl with the not-so-local accent. I started to recognize the drug dealers really quickly as the ones who covered their faces with their hands, their shirts, or even the bodies of whoever was standing closest. While not everyone was friendly, most people were opinionated and shared incredible stories about violence they had either witnessed, or experienced in some way. Though today was just the beginning, I can tell it's going to be an interesting summer.
Today, though, I got out of the office for a little guided tour of the vicinity. The neighborhood is actually EasternNorth Philly, an area with a heavy Latino representation and a very high rate of violence, the latter being the subject of the summer youth program and survey. I scoured an eight block radius with two members of the center, a young woman from a neighboring community, and an elderly Puerto Rican man who loves to brag that he's circled the world seventeen times. (He was a sailor for much of his youth.) We walked around the streets, past people sitting on stoops, kids running through fire hydrants, and the ice cream truck making rounds and making noise.
We spoke with perhaps a dozen different clusters of people and told them our plans for the summer. Most were wary of the three-man crew (which later grew to five as a couple of kids latched onto the march) especially the camera-toting girl with the not-so-local accent. I started to recognize the drug dealers really quickly as the ones who covered their faces with their hands, their shirts, or even the bodies of whoever was standing closest. While not everyone was friendly, most people were opinionated and shared incredible stories about violence they had either witnessed, or experienced in some way. Though today was just the beginning, I can tell it's going to be an interesting summer.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Summer University, Budapest Style
Greetings from Budapest! As a student of CEU's Summer University program, I've taken part in a two-week course centered around the theme of media, democratization, and civil society, co-sponsored by the CGCS at ASC, of which I am now halfway through.
Upon orientation I was thrilled to discover that I'd be part of a class of 35 students representing at least 20 countries, most of which are from Central and Eastern Europe and some from Latin America and Asia. Aside from being great company, some of their own shared stories have since placed my own rather abstract and piecemealed understanding of foreign histories and politics in mcuh more meaningful contexts. My peers at CEU also represent a variety of fields and occupations, including law, journalism and NGO advocacy work, bringing valuable insights to the course discussions and prompting me to consider very seriously the challenges of global and comparative communication studies.
Here are some highlights of the course thus far:
-Dr. Hakan Seckinelgin from the London School of Economics visited us on Tuesday, where he provided a detailed outline of the prevailing contemporary liberal theories of "civil society" and underlined some of their major criticisms and shortcomings. We then discussed the ambiguity of the concept of civil society, including the various interpretations of social relations denoted by the term as well as obstacles to operationalizing the concept due to its intangibility. Most debated were the prevailing definitions of civil society-- the class attempted to tackle questions such as the inclusion of violence as a potentially legitimate force in civil society, as well as the applicability of the concept outside of western contexts.
-On Thursday we took a field trip to the Open Society Archives where we viewed some original pieces of the Samizdat collection, the work of those who independently published and distributed materials using innovative technologies through clandestine networks in resistance to censorship under repressive Communist regimes throughout Central and Eastern Europe. My favorite part of the collection (probably in large part due to my inability to read Russian or Hungarian) were the stamps that were produced and distributed by groups such as the trade union Solidarnost, and, due to the popularity of the movements in Hungary and Poland, regularly accepted by the postal service.
Samizdat works is just one example used in our ongoing discussion of the role of alternative and radical media in the public sphere and civil society. Since the introduction of this topic it has also been hotly debated whether there exists of parallel forms of underground grassroots communication anywhere in the world today.
-We've had the pleasure of a two-day appearance by none other than ASC Dean Dr. Michael X. Delli Carpini during the week, who gave lectures on media effects on political and civic participation and the impact of entertainment media on news and 'civic cultures.' He offered us a historical overview of the changing notions of communicating information to publics, effectively suggesting that news and entertainment, as far back as the 17th and 18th centuries, were not inherently strictly delineated categories of media content. We also considered the possible risks and advantages of the breakdown of this "new" trend of 'entertaining politics.'
Later in the day we engaged in productive (and by that I mean frustrating) deliberation of how to best ensure that the ethical norms of journalism can be applied to entertainment media, which is clearly much the same as news media in its potential consequences (both beneficial and detrimental) for democratic discourse. We essentially concluded that in cases where the right to freedom of expression exercised in entertainment media may be at odds with the norms of democratic media-- such as verisimilitude (my favorite example of such a case being the television series "24")-- the most feasible and effective response is that of critical discourse that perhaps may provide an additional or counter narrative to those posed.
-Finally, the last three days of the curriculum have included student presentations of completed, current, or future research related to the course's theme. They have spanned a wide range of fields and subjects, including media coverage of the Zapatista movement, graffitti in Buenos Aires, online alternative media in China, blogging politics in Romania, and children's media literacy initiatives in Croatia.
On Friday I presented my most recent project, in which I explored the underlying normative and ideological assumptions behind prevailing academic and civic models of global and comparative media systems analysis. I examined Hallin and Mancini's model (2004) categorizing media systems in Western and Southern Europe and William Rugh's (2004) typology of Arab media alongside the annual global press freedom rankings published by international NGO's Reporters without Borders and Freedom House.
I somewhat forcefully insinuated that these academic models are just as normative as the rankings of press freedom, to which some responded with an expected and healthy dose of skepticism. Yet interestingly, and much to my excitement, some students explained their doubts that any of these models could agree with not only the structure of media and political systems in their regions, but also with the views of the people within them as to whether democracy itself is even the ultimate end goal. We then had a fruitful back-and-forth as a class on the feasbility as well as potential benefits and limitations and of bridging the gap between scholarly analysis and civil society.
Pursuing a daily itinerary packed with guest lectures, presentations, and field trips, and of course using the relatively little time left for sightseeing and fun-having, it is no wonder I've squashed my naively optimistic expectations of blogging on a fairly regular basis while here. I've had an awesome time exploring Budapest and learning about its history and culture, sampling its food, and going out with new friends in the evenings to wonderful open-air bars and clubs. The weather is hot but thankfully not as muggy as Philly, and the city has a few great outdoor baths, some of which are even open late-night. In fact, it's a lovely Sunday-- my only one here-- so I better get out now and enjoy it! Ciao!
Upon orientation I was thrilled to discover that I'd be part of a class of 35 students representing at least 20 countries, most of which are from Central and Eastern Europe and some from Latin America and Asia. Aside from being great company, some of their own shared stories have since placed my own rather abstract and piecemealed understanding of foreign histories and politics in mcuh more meaningful contexts. My peers at CEU also represent a variety of fields and occupations, including law, journalism and NGO advocacy work, bringing valuable insights to the course discussions and prompting me to consider very seriously the challenges of global and comparative communication studies.
Here are some highlights of the course thus far:
-Dr. Hakan Seckinelgin from the London School of Economics visited us on Tuesday, where he provided a detailed outline of the prevailing contemporary liberal theories of "civil society" and underlined some of their major criticisms and shortcomings. We then discussed the ambiguity of the concept of civil society, including the various interpretations of social relations denoted by the term as well as obstacles to operationalizing the concept due to its intangibility. Most debated were the prevailing definitions of civil society-- the class attempted to tackle questions such as the inclusion of violence as a potentially legitimate force in civil society, as well as the applicability of the concept outside of western contexts.
-On Thursday we took a field trip to the Open Society Archives where we viewed some original pieces of the Samizdat collection, the work of those who independently published and distributed materials using innovative technologies through clandestine networks in resistance to censorship under repressive Communist regimes throughout Central and Eastern Europe. My favorite part of the collection (probably in large part due to my inability to read Russian or Hungarian) were the stamps that were produced and distributed by groups such as the trade union Solidarnost, and, due to the popularity of the movements in Hungary and Poland, regularly accepted by the postal service.
Samizdat works is just one example used in our ongoing discussion of the role of alternative and radical media in the public sphere and civil society. Since the introduction of this topic it has also been hotly debated whether there exists of parallel forms of underground grassroots communication anywhere in the world today.
-We've had the pleasure of a two-day appearance by none other than ASC Dean Dr. Michael X. Delli Carpini during the week, who gave lectures on media effects on political and civic participation and the impact of entertainment media on news and 'civic cultures.' He offered us a historical overview of the changing notions of communicating information to publics, effectively suggesting that news and entertainment, as far back as the 17th and 18th centuries, were not inherently strictly delineated categories of media content. We also considered the possible risks and advantages of the breakdown of this "new" trend of 'entertaining politics.'
Later in the day we engaged in productive (and by that I mean frustrating) deliberation of how to best ensure that the ethical norms of journalism can be applied to entertainment media, which is clearly much the same as news media in its potential consequences (both beneficial and detrimental) for democratic discourse. We essentially concluded that in cases where the right to freedom of expression exercised in entertainment media may be at odds with the norms of democratic media-- such as verisimilitude (my favorite example of such a case being the television series "24")-- the most feasible and effective response is that of critical discourse that perhaps may provide an additional or counter narrative to those posed.
-Finally, the last three days of the curriculum have included student presentations of completed, current, or future research related to the course's theme. They have spanned a wide range of fields and subjects, including media coverage of the Zapatista movement, graffitti in Buenos Aires, online alternative media in China, blogging politics in Romania, and children's media literacy initiatives in Croatia.
On Friday I presented my most recent project, in which I explored the underlying normative and ideological assumptions behind prevailing academic and civic models of global and comparative media systems analysis. I examined Hallin and Mancini's model (2004) categorizing media systems in Western and Southern Europe and William Rugh's (2004) typology of Arab media alongside the annual global press freedom rankings published by international NGO's Reporters without Borders and Freedom House.
I somewhat forcefully insinuated that these academic models are just as normative as the rankings of press freedom, to which some responded with an expected and healthy dose of skepticism. Yet interestingly, and much to my excitement, some students explained their doubts that any of these models could agree with not only the structure of media and political systems in their regions, but also with the views of the people within them as to whether democracy itself is even the ultimate end goal. We then had a fruitful back-and-forth as a class on the feasbility as well as potential benefits and limitations and of bridging the gap between scholarly analysis and civil society.
Pursuing a daily itinerary packed with guest lectures, presentations, and field trips, and of course using the relatively little time left for sightseeing and fun-having, it is no wonder I've squashed my naively optimistic expectations of blogging on a fairly regular basis while here. I've had an awesome time exploring Budapest and learning about its history and culture, sampling its food, and going out with new friends in the evenings to wonderful open-air bars and clubs. The weather is hot but thankfully not as muggy as Philly, and the city has a few great outdoor baths, some of which are even open late-night. In fact, it's a lovely Sunday-- my only one here-- so I better get out now and enjoy it! Ciao!
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Public Service Announcement—
Hello? I’m Jasmine, a third year student in the PhD program at the Annenberg School for Communication. This is my first blogging experience, so bear with me. I agreed to try this blog bit out as a way to catalogue some of my summer travel experience—a perk that has come to characterize my time at Annenberg. This year my summer starts in Amsterdam for a two-week summer school course on Black Europe offered through the International School for Humanities and Social Sciences (ISHSS) at the University of Amsterdam.
Experiencing race abroad, punctuated by the study of race, seems especially blog-worthy. When sharing my travel plans with various people before I arrived, I was frequently told something like: “Race in Europe is very different” or “that’s interesting, ‘Black’ is not really the same in Europe as it is in the United States.” I would resound with an internal “hmph!” As the course is underway, I find that my scoff was entirely warranted. Skeptic that I am, I expected “Black” to be both convoluted and problematic in Europe, much as it is in the US. Moreover, in the raised eyebrows and cynical responses I received to my travel/study plans I often sensed the wrongful assumption that anti-Black racism was a problem solved outside of the US—which I then extend to assume (I like to assume) that a preoccupation with Blackness is an especially American preoccupation.
Wrong. Black in Europe is jacked up in all the ways colonialism jacks up everything. The dynamics of its jacked-up-ness are certainly contextual, and different from those of the American landscape, but not unrelated. So far I have learned that the legal system ensures the imbalance of power where race is concerned, and that part of the difficulty some people have in understanding why or how one approaches the idea of “Black” and “Europe” is very much related to language and the formation of the European Union. Interesting stuff.
Course work aside, Amsterdam is very cool. Very green—not just because of the bikes. A little chilly (weather wise), but a rather welcoming place. While in Europe I’ll be visiting a few other countries as well so stay tuned for more ranting.
One
Jasmine
Experiencing race abroad, punctuated by the study of race, seems especially blog-worthy. When sharing my travel plans with various people before I arrived, I was frequently told something like: “Race in Europe is very different” or “that’s interesting, ‘Black’ is not really the same in Europe as it is in the United States.” I would resound with an internal “hmph!” As the course is underway, I find that my scoff was entirely warranted. Skeptic that I am, I expected “Black” to be both convoluted and problematic in Europe, much as it is in the US. Moreover, in the raised eyebrows and cynical responses I received to my travel/study plans I often sensed the wrongful assumption that anti-Black racism was a problem solved outside of the US—which I then extend to assume (I like to assume) that a preoccupation with Blackness is an especially American preoccupation.
Wrong. Black in Europe is jacked up in all the ways colonialism jacks up everything. The dynamics of its jacked-up-ness are certainly contextual, and different from those of the American landscape, but not unrelated. So far I have learned that the legal system ensures the imbalance of power where race is concerned, and that part of the difficulty some people have in understanding why or how one approaches the idea of “Black” and “Europe” is very much related to language and the formation of the European Union. Interesting stuff.
Course work aside, Amsterdam is very cool. Very green—not just because of the bikes. A little chilly (weather wise), but a rather welcoming place. While in Europe I’ll be visiting a few other countries as well so stay tuned for more ranting.
One
Jasmine
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Dispatch 1: Montreal to Philly
Hello anonymous blogospherian reader-
Introductions up front: My name is Mike and I’m a third-year Ph.D. student here at Annenberg. I'm originally from
My academic research and journalistic reporting tends to be about popular and consumer culture (with a dash of religion and politics thrown in). Increasingly, I'm interested in focusing on the intersection of youth and technology - namely, how the character, values and behavior of this nascent "millennial" generation (vis-a-vis their new media and digital technology) is being represented in the press, constructed by media and marketing industries, and experienced by millennials themselves.
Although I won't likely find my way to a surfboard off the coast of
It was my first trip to an
This month (June), I’m busy with the first major undertaking of the summer: teaching a “Visual Communication” class offered through CGS at
So that wraps up dispatch one. Hopefully it’s in keeping with the tone and goal of the blog - a mix of formality and informality (much like summer itself, I suppose). Echoing into the cyberspace void is a funny thing (and one I’m new at): The abyss just stares back at you.
Anyhow, on the July horizon there’s further conference travel (
safe travels
-serazio
Friday, June 6, 2008
Hello there!
Nice to blog you. Allow me to introduce myself: My name is Heidi Khaled. I am a doctoral student finishing up my first year here at Annenberg. I received my B.A. in Political Science and Sociology from the University of California, Irvine in 2006, and moved to the East Coast shortly thereafter to begin my exploration into graduate programs. I must say that my experience at ASC and in Philadelphia has been wonderfully enriching and-- dare I say-- a lot of fun.
My research interests currently lie at the intersection between political communication and cultural studies, with a focus on civic engagement among youth via entertainment and music media. Thanks to ASC, I will embark on some heady travails this summer that are guaranteed to be nothing short of amazing.
In exactly a week I will travel to Budapest for a two-week course co-sponsored by our own Center for Global Communication Studies on Media, Democratization, and Civil Society. The course is part of the Summer University series at the Central European University, and I will be staying at their student housing facilities. Aside from myself, Angela Lee, another soon-to-be-second-year colleague of mine, will be there, along with Dr. Monroe Price, Director of CGCS and faculty emeritus at ASC, and Dr. Delli Carpini, the Dean of Annenberg. I am very pleased to be in great company, and of course very excited to see Budapest and enjoy some tourist time there.
Later in August I will fly to Denver and Minneapolis to cover the respective Democratic and Republican National Conventions! We have yet to receive our field assignments, but I will most likely be working for the DNC or RNC, a non-profit organization or media outlet. This is also a great opportunity afforded me by the school, and I feel very fortunate to be a first-hand witness to such momentous events. I also feel that my experiences there will inspire some ideas for interesting research on partisan political behavior and ideology.
In the meanwhile, I will be finishing up some research here in Philadelphia.
I look forward to documenting my adventures for myself as well as for my peers and colleagues, and anyone else interested. More to come once I'm in Budapest!
My research interests currently lie at the intersection between political communication and cultural studies, with a focus on civic engagement among youth via entertainment and music media. Thanks to ASC, I will embark on some heady travails this summer that are guaranteed to be nothing short of amazing.
In exactly a week I will travel to Budapest for a two-week course co-sponsored by our own Center for Global Communication Studies on Media, Democratization, and Civil Society. The course is part of the Summer University series at the Central European University, and I will be staying at their student housing facilities. Aside from myself, Angela Lee, another soon-to-be-second-year colleague of mine, will be there, along with Dr. Monroe Price, Director of CGCS and faculty emeritus at ASC, and Dr. Delli Carpini, the Dean of Annenberg. I am very pleased to be in great company, and of course very excited to see Budapest and enjoy some tourist time there.
Later in August I will fly to Denver and Minneapolis to cover the respective Democratic and Republican National Conventions! We have yet to receive our field assignments, but I will most likely be working for the DNC or RNC, a non-profit organization or media outlet. This is also a great opportunity afforded me by the school, and I feel very fortunate to be a first-hand witness to such momentous events. I also feel that my experiences there will inspire some ideas for interesting research on partisan political behavior and ideology.
In the meanwhile, I will be finishing up some research here in Philadelphia.
I look forward to documenting my adventures for myself as well as for my peers and colleagues, and anyone else interested. More to come once I'm in Budapest!
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