Zero Consciousness Zone

(1) These were my thoughts as a senior on his graduation:

( Tribute: A memory of encounters )

(2) These are my thoughts as a teacher on his students' graduation:

...then it might not hurt to go a little green. :)


The DLSU-Manila Department of Communication and TeamComm present:

Framing the Other: A Media Literacy Forum on Ethics and Photography

06 March 2009
2:30-4:30 pm
Tereso Lara Seminar Room
De La Salle University-Manila

In our increasingly mediated world, photographs play a central role in the way we understand both the near and the distant Other. At times, these images allow us to rediscover our shared humanity, whether in collective triumph (e.g., photo essays of the 1986 EDSA Revolution) or in collective grief (e.g., photojournalistic records of the 9/11 tragedy). At other times, these hinder us from recognizing each other, whether at the level of groups (e.g., spurious depictions of "virgin tribes" from  the Amazon) or of individuals (e.g., disturbingly intrusive paparazzi shots of Britney Spears). Indeed, as the media scholar Roger Silverstone has argued, these images reveal as much as they conceal.

In light of the above, this forum, entitled "Framing the Other," brings together (a) scholars and students from DLSU's Department of Communication and  (b) renowned professional photographers. In this dialogue, they shall attempt to examine the power of photographs to enable and disable our understanding of our fellow Filipinos and of other peoples.

The seminar will feature:

1. JASON CABANES (Asst. Prof. Lecturer, Comm. Dep't., DLSU), who will present Roger Silverstone's notion of Proper Distance in both producing and consuming media texts.

2. VEEJAY VILLAFRANCA (Freelance photojournalist and Ian Parry 2008 Awardee) and JIMMY DOMINGO  (Coordinator, ACFJ Diploma in Photojournalism), who will  talk about the how norms of journalism have influenced the way they have dealt with their photographic subjects.

3.  MARIA ANGELI DIAZ, PH.D. (Chairperson, Comm. Dep't., DLSU), who will serve as chair of the seminar.

Official webpage: http://www.dlsu.edu.ph/announcements/default.asp?id=570

Jon has long held that my classroom humor is akin to that of Conan O'Brien: nerdy, hyper-reflexive, and self-deprecating. I reckon that it's a defense mechanism; I prefer laughing at myself before others can laugh at me. To be sure, I've always been afraid of public opinion about me. I imagine there would be many great intellectuals who would tell me off for caring too much about it. The list might include:

Conformity can be fun. :) So here goes mine...
( Read more... )

...but I'm sure she'll be an amazing PhD dissertation adviser. This is one of the most momentous days in my life. :)

In conceiving the Two Step Flow Model of Communication, Elihu Katz and Paul Lazarsfeld make the mistake of dividing people into two distinct categories: (a) opinion leaders and (b) opinion followers. I certainly agree with them that our understanding of media content is filtered by certain people whom we trust because of their competence, values, and connections. But then it is also true that we filter other people's understanding of media content. So contra what Katz and Lazarsfeld have argued, we are actually BOTH opinion leaders and opinion followers.

Despite Katz and Lazarsfeld's booboo though, I find their notion of opinion leadership analytically valuable. This is especially true when I attempt to make sense of why I do certain things that I do.

For instance, why the heck do I wear too-cool-for-me outfits on certain occasions, when I usually wear frumpy stuff when I am left to my own devices? It's because of my fashion opinion leaders: Jon and Kuchie.  As the former constantly reminds me of the need to be fashion vigilant, the latter tirelessly prods me to try on new things (the newest projects: contact lenses, facial moisturizers, eye creams, and--by January--a new haircut)

To be sure, this has been the longest ongoing journal that I've had. But as is obvious in the dwindling number of entries that I have written this year, I've grown rather weary of updating it. Perhaps it's because I've lost all my previous reasons to write:

(1) I used to be Lonely Boy (N.B. I make no claims of being as cool a Lonely Boy as Dan Humphrey...but that makes me a lonelier Lonely Boy than him! So there!), pining for the girl of my dreams. Kuchie has made sure that I no longer pine for any other girl.

(2) I used to be a diasporic scholar, eager to share my Lion City stories with my friends (my blog's partner then was my Multiply photo album, kindly created by Meggie _piquant...oh no...I haven't updated that too :| ). My anxious wait for a place at Western Sydney, Leeds, and Cambridge has made sure that I'll have none of that for the time being.

(3) I used to be an MA student, which meant that I had lots of academic papers to upload (I remember scheduling their releases, just so my Livejournal continued to be a Livejournal. Talk about rationalized distribution techniques. :D ). My full-time part-time status has made sure I that I have very little time to write essays now.

But but but, I've finally found a new reason to keep chugging along. The theme of Zero Consciousness Zone 2.0: Comm Theory for Everyday Life. Coming soon! :)

I looked at the mirror this morning and realized how bloated I have become over the past few months (damn you coffee and whipped cream...among other things that I've consumed :P). I also noticed that I have slipped back into the habit of not fixing up my hair (or what's left of it anyway). And it dawned on me as well that I the last time I wore a really good outfit was during my botched audition to Philippine Idol (and Jon had to pick pa for me! Haha!). Looking at myself can really be harsh sometimes. Indeed, there is despair in representation.

( More self-centeredness... )

Yesterday, I went online as a gay man looking for a high school boy. Yes, you read that right. But no, I haven't decided to be a "curve" (as my students put it) and, God forbid, a predator. It was just for this super fun experiment on online identities we did for my Information Age class. Indeed, while I was busy performing gayness, my nine students also had their hands full portraying an online prostitute, a pedophile, an innocent teen girl, a conservative mother, a hot playboy, a lesbian grandma, among others. And when we were done, we theorized about the complex relationship between the online and the offline world.

No doubt, I have a new approach to my media studies classes. If there's anything I learned last year (cf. Ayee, Franz, and Tami :P), it's this: Academic texts are important, but experiences are too. Hence Media Studies: Interactive Edition. For the coming semester, I'll be offering two of my older classes, now freed up from too many readings and spiced up with what I have termed "critical explorations."

Spread the word! Thanks! :)

1. Com 110.2: Political Communication

The late media scholar Roger Silverstone said, in the end, “We study the media because we are concerned about their power: we fear it, we decry it, we adore it.” This course critically explores Silverstone’s assertion by examining how, in the quest for power, the media control and are controlled by political forces.

The opening block of the course introduces you to the debates about what the field of Political Communication really is about. The next block considers the issues of mainstream political communication through the prism of media (a) institutions, (b) texts, and (c) audiences. The subsequent block approaches political communication from a more practical angle, as it expounds on how (a) political speeches, (b) political ads, and (c) political campaigns are crafted. The penultimate block presents issues of political communication from the radical angle, showing how power plays are communicated in things such as (a) Filipino food and culture, (b) beauty pageants, and (c) sporting events. Finally, the closing block argues that all of us are implicated in the constant struggle for power that defines the relationship between those who produce and those who consume the media.

( View syllabus )

2. Com 106.1: Audience Studies


The late media scholar Roger Silverstone said, “while it is perfectly possible to privilege those mass media as defining and perhaps even determining social meanings, such privileging would miss the continuous and often creative engagement that listeners and viewers have with the products of mass communication.” This course delves into the studies regarding these listeners and viewers—the so-called media audiences—to see how they have been conceived and reconceived over time. To do this, it approaches them from three different perspectives: industry, media studies, and politics/journalism.

The first block of the course looks at audiences from view of media organizations, considering both the strengths and weaknesses of considering them through the prism of media ratings and target markets. Next, it takes the perspective of critical and cultural studies, tracing how the understanding of audiences has moved from being passive to having constrained creativity. Then, it moves into the realm of the political, examining the audiences as citizens, whose degree of public/civic engagement is enabled/disabled by the media. Finally, it closes on a moral (not moralistic) tone, discussing how audiences are implicated in the imperative to establish a global space of appearance that is welcoming of the Other. 

( View syllabus )

Now that Kuchie has her camera back, she can't seem to stop herself from taking an insane amount of photos. And although I seem oh so happy in them, rest assured that there is a much more complex socio-political struggle behind all that (Kuchie, don't hurt me! Heeeee! :P). But they're interesting photos anyway, especially since they reveal the discourse she constructs about my friends and I. Haha! So, here they are. Presenting the Kuchie Press Photo Exhibit (note to self: do not let Kuchie view next year's World Press Photo exhibit):

When I logged on to ESPN this morning to check who won Wimbledon this year, I couldn't help but give a loud whoop when I saw a huge photo of Rafa hositing the most glorious trophy in tennis. Good thing I was the first person inside DLSU's Communication Dep't. Otherwise, they might've thought that their Atenean professor was loony (or was cheering because ADMU trounced them in last Sunday's basketball game. In that case, I'd get fired! Animo forever...or something like that. Haha!). Really though, the reason for my ecstasy was that finally, the longstanding world no. 2 trounced the longstanding world no. 1 in grass. The Federer Express derailed...in his own kingdom to boot! And to me, it's always inspirational when the underdog wins. Perhaps this is because, in my academic life, I've always been only second best as well.

Note to self: There shall be a moratorium on eating out (unless it's a monthsary), on new books (unless they're from the infamous "UP Press"), no new clothes and shoes (unless they're gifts from Kuchie...haha!), or any other extra expense until I have enough money for:



Available in the Philippines soon! Via Globe Telecom! Droooool! 

Dear Silverstone's Army,

Spread the word! Tell the yet uninitiated to sign up for one (or both!) of the following media studies classes:


(1) COM 109: The Information Age
Lecturer: Jason Vincent A. Cabañes (MA Communication Ateneo de Manila U,  ASEAN scholar)


We live in a world where information technology seems to be a central component of our lives; from something as familiar as our mobile phones to something as dazzling as satellite communication systems, information technology does appear to be intertwined with the texture of our everyday experience. Some take an unbridled celebratory approach to this so-called Information Age (e.g., Toffler, 1996), depicting it as nothing short of a digital nirvana. Meanwhile, others have argued for a more cautious stance towards it (e.g., Robbins & Webster, 1999), saying that it may be nothing more but a variation on the same inequality-plagued society that we have always had.

This course participates in the great debates about the relationship between technology and society. It begins by examining the various approaches to this topic. Then, it delves into the plethora of issues related to it: from the economic (e.g., the call center industry boom in the Philippines), the political (e.g., the censorship of Yahoo! In China), the cultural (e.g., the increasing popularity of Second Life), and, most importantly, to the moral (e.g., the Internet as a forum for the Global South). In the end, it is hoped that the students of this class will come to understand that since technologies are part of our efforts to conquer the unknown, they will always be suffused with our own paradoxes and contradictions (Silverstone, 1999).  Ultimately then, our attempts to understand them are attempts to understand ourselves too.

(2) COM 110.10: Media and Globalization
Lecturer: Jonathan Corpus Ong (PhD Sociology Cambridge U, Bill Gates Scholar)


“The anthropologist arrives in the city on foot, the sociologist by car and via the main highway, the communications specialist by plane” (Garcia Canclini, 1995).

Media studies scholars have been criticized in the past for being elitist, detached, even corrupt for celebrating American (global?) popular culture. The course Media & Globalization is a critical intervention in academic discourse by highlighting the social, political, cultural, and ultimately moral relevance of understanding the media’s role in processes of globalization. According to bestsellers, communication technologies are key to the “death of distance” and the “flattening” of the world. But this course stresses that the media are enabling and disabling, they include and exclude; the mediated “global village” is not open to all. Media & Globalization is then global in scope (we study CNN news, American Idol, Benetton print ads, Korean soaps) yet simultaneously local, if not always-already personal (we ask ourselves, “How do I contact my relatives abroad? How did I react to the tsunami disaster? When do I feel Othered?”). The aim is to enable students to critically evaluate the media’s capacity to make visible distant others as well as recognize their own duty to be responsible consumers and producers in today’s world.

This elective, on its second year, emphasizes both theoretical and creative work, and welcomes students from all tracks/courses, especially those who are active media users/pop culture fans. Exciting plans for MAG 2.0 include a visit to GMA Network, dialogue with renowned journalists and advertisers, a student-run version of MediaTalk@admu, and a guest lecture from a Pakistani journalist. The course is designed and taught by Jonathan C. Ong, who will arrive from Cambridge by plane.

I'm moving out of my house and looking for a place to stay (the why of this is for another entry at a time when I have regained my bearings). And I must say, it's an unbelievably difficult thing to do! Friends, if you can help me with the following, I shall be eternally grateful to you:

(1) I'm on the lookout for a nice and reasonably priced place (i.e., around 3-5K) that's near Katips, in Proj. 3 or 4, or near any LRT2 station.

(2) Alternatively, be my roomie and share the rent for a nice condo, like Burgundy or Regina. Not only will I be the neatest roomie ever, you'll also have an instant Social Sciences query database (i..e., me) right at your pad. And oh, ADMU rules DO NOT apply. Do whatever (that won't get us in jail) and I'll keep mum about it all. :D

Heeeeeelp!

(1) I didn't expect it to be this way (what with my string of wonderful classes since I've started teaching--block A3 08! block A 09! PolComm 07! Awwww...), but my return to teaching this semester has been, well, rough at the very least. Apparently, my usual pedagogical style didn't work  this time around. At least that's what I hear from the grapevine. With all preparation I've poured into my classes, I can't help but be heartbroken. And also start thinking about whether this vocation--with all its attendant sacrifices--is really worth the effort.


(2) Thes-is killing me. I haven't had a proper sleep in days, what with the tremendous preparation needed for my oral defense on Monday (which coincides with the deadline for my Canada conference paper! gaaaaah!) and the submission of  the final bound copy only a week after it.  So far, the only fun part has been preparing the cheese platter for my panelists (Havarti! Camembert! Danblue! I sound cultured! Haha!), which I've been doing together with Kuchie. Thanks love! :) And oh, I'm excited about my slides. I have Maitel to thank for my migration from Powerpoint to Keynote:


(3) For all the stress that I'm undergoing now, at least there were two pieces of good news recently.

First, I finally secured my first journal publication, with the acceptance of my survey of audience theories to the Loyola Schools Review. It's really not that much of a journal, but hey, baby steps still count. I plan to submit a distilled version of my thesis to an international journal though. I hope I make it internationally too.

The other thing is that, according to Tin, which she said was according to Jon, my photo (together with the other ASEAN scholars) appeared in the official newsletter of the Asia Research Institute (ARI) at the National University of Singapore (NUS). As with the above, baby steps. Next time, I'll get my own blow-up. Haha!

The first ever Comm theory class I taught will be graduating in a few weeks time. And I'm really feeling emo about it. Guys, I'll super duper miss seeing you around the Department! No more hilarious stories from Mac, Parel, and Neil, no more intellectual battles to fight with James, no more heart attacks induced by Juliane, no more chismisan with Myka, no more vitriolic outbursts from Kryng, no more witty movies from Gino, no more theory bashing sessions with Tin, etc, etc, etc. *sniff-sniff*


I'm sure though that my emo-ness is nothing compared to what you guys are going through now. So, just to encourage you to continue prodding forward despite how daunting the next few months may seem, below is a reminder of why you want to leave college. Think about it. You'll no longer have to suffer things such as my torture instrument for my present Com 101 class:

FINAL ORAL EXAMS: THESIS STATEMENTS

1.  Roger Silverstone asserts that the media are central to our everyday lives. Indeed, he says that the endeavor to study it must move away from the significant and move towards the mundane, where we can see how implicated these are in our understanding of (a) common sense, (b) space, and (c) reality.
 
2. One of the most important contributions of post-modernism is reflexivity To be sure, this has led to a greater awareness of the ontological and epistemological suppositions of the three major camps in the social sciences: (a) positivists, (b) interpretists, and (c) realists.
 
3. The study of media organizations reveals the complexity of the decisions that media practitioners confront in their field. In specific, Gerhard Maletzke says that they have to deal with both (a) their self- image, personality, and social environment and (b) the pressures and constraints of the media’s public character.
 
4. Nick Couldry argues against Daniel Dayan and Elihu Katz, saying that their notion of media events only reinforces the ideological myth of the social center. Moreover, he takes a critical approach to liveness and reality tv, saying that these serve as rituals that add another dimension to the abovementioned myth, making it the myth of the mediated center. 
 
5. Semioticians describe the process of signification as arbitrary and, therefore, political. The changing ideas about this can be traced from the thoughts of (a) Karl Marx (ideology), (b) Louis Althusser (signification), and(c) Antonio Gramsci (hegemony).  
 
6. Discourse analysis involves the process of examining the construction of social reality that dominates media talk. Through it, we can be more cognizant of the issues of the problems raised by media representations of both (a) gender/sexuality and (b) race/nation/ethnicity.
 
7. The scholars working within the Effects Tradition moved from conceiving the media as having (a) direct effects, (b) to limited effects, (c) to minimal effects, and finally (d) to powerful effects. Although distinct from one another, these approaches all subscribed to the suppositions of
information theory.
 
8. Stuart Hall’s Encoding/Decoding model eschews both the notion of a powerful media and a powerful audience and instead argues that there is a skewed but dialectical relationship between the two. This can be seen in its key concepts of the (a) preferred reading and (b) various decoding positions.

Although I'd be in cloud 9 if you could still discuss in-depth any one of these (no prizes though! haha!), what'd make my day as your former teacher is for you  to approach whatever endeavors you pursue with a critical stance. Don't succumb to the ossifying ways of the grown-up world (Indeed, the very word grown-up seems to say that one cannot grow any further! Boo!). Always, always, always ask: What is not being said?

Oh, and since I'm finishing my MA as well, I hope to see all of you come graduation day. So that we'll all march together.

P.S. My parents won't be around during grad. So I'm relying on you guys to be my family. When I go up the stage, don't forget to clap. Hahahaha! *hugs for everyone* :')

Context matters. Pizza, pasta, chicken, and wine chilled in a plastic pitcher may not be much. But when you're with your beloved, they're all it takes to make a perfect Valentine's Day. Heeeeeeee! :)

The five lines I would like to sing to my Kuchie:

(1) "Nothing's gonna harm you/ Not while I'm around..." (Nothing's Gonna Harm You, Sweeney Todd OST)

(2) "It starts in my toes/ And I crinkle my nose/ Where ever it goes/ I always know/ That you make me smile/ Please stay for a while now..." (Bubbly, Colbie Caillat)

(3) " [Kuchie], I'll be yours forever/ 'Cause I never wanna be / Without love/ [Kuchie], never set me free..." (Without Love, Hairspray OST)

(4) "Because a life without love would only be a living hell/I don't wanna be alone and I don't want no one else..." (Dream  Myself Awake, Taylor Hicks)

(5) "Whatever comes our way/ Oh we'll see it through/ You know that's what our love can do...Coz you're my everything..." (Everything, Michael Buble)

I miss you soooooooooo much. My princess. :(
 

Thanks to Pat Evangelista, the despair of speaking into the air during MediaTalk3 was transformed into the joy of speaking into the airwaves (well actually, cable TV...haha!) for Media in Focus. I'm so happy that they gave me an opportunity to talk about the finer points of understanding the realtionship between media institutions and media audiences in relation to the issue of shock jocking.

Please do watch the replay of my guesting at 5pm this Saturday on ANC. And once I get a copy of it, I'll post it as well.

World, hear us!!!