Closing Plenary by Noam Chomski at ICA Virtual Conference

The title of the closing plenary was "Democracy, the Media, and the Responsibility of Scholars." The Chair of the conference was Larry Gross, U of Southern California, USA
Rationality/Science, by Noam Chomsky. Z Papers Special Issue, 1995

Noam Chomski (wikipedia)

On Language and Culture. Noam Chomsky interviewed by Wiktor Osiatynski
In Wiktor Osiatynski (ed.), Contrasts: Soviet and American Thinkers Discuss the Future (MacMillan, 1984), pp. 95-101

Interview to Professor Chomski(made via Skype by Laureano Ralon and Alex Eljatib on December 17th, 2010)

The International Communication Association's Virtual Conference (Session III)

Virtual Conference Session III
Sunday 15:00-16:15 Harbor Ballroom I
Chair: Larry Gross, U of Southern California, USA

Great virtual Conference experience where, appart from having the opportunity of listening to the presenters, an interesting dialogue brilliantly conducted by Larry Gross was held, and we shared about different issues such as the uses of mobiles for taking pictures (which then are published online)and their possibles consequences, or about how the politicians image are built.

This Virtual Conference uses a device of Adobe which allows to see and to listen on live to the speakers, apart from asking them by chat. In this regard, the role of the moderator is very important. He communicated the questions and comments of the virtual participants to the presenters, facilitating the interaction and making possible that virtual participants felt as if we were present at the event.

Jacques Derrida (July 15, 1930 – October 9, 2004)

Deconstruction. Stanford Presidential Lectures in the Sciences and Arts

Deconstruction. New World Encyclopedia


Definition of Deconstruction by Elif Ayiter

Deconstruction is a term which is used to denote the application of post-modern theory, to a "text". A deconstruction is meant to undermine the frame of reference and assumptions that underpin the text. Jacques Derrida, who coined the term, argued that the existence of deconstruction implied that there was no intrinsic essence to a text, merely the contrast of difference. This is analogous to the scientific idea that only the variations are real, that there is no established norm to a genetic population, or the idea that the difference in perception between black and white is the context. A deconstruction is created when the "deeper" substance of text opposes the text's more "superficial" form. According to Derrida, one consequence of deconstruction is that the text may be defined so broadly as to encompass not just written words, but the entire spectrum of symbols and phenomena within Western thought. To Derrida, a result of deconstruction is that no Western philosopher has been able to escape successfully from this large web of text and reach that which is "signified", which they imagined to exist "just beyond" the text.

The more common use of the term is the more general process of pointing to contradictions between the intent and surface of a work, and the assumptions about it. A work then "deconstructs" assumptions when it places them in context. For example, someone who can pass as the opposite sex is said to "deconstruct" gender roles, because there is a conflict between the superficial appearance, and the reality of the person's gender.

More about Deconstruction. Source: Derrida and Deconstruction

"We can understand how deconstruction operates if we examine Jacques Derrida’s reading of Levi-Strauss, which is exemplary. A much-republished essay from 1968, called “Structure, Sign and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences,” has contributed to a widespread understanding of Derrida as a key “poststructuralist” thinker. Derrida’s writing has certainly contributed to the critical revision of structuralism that has occurred over the years, but his own work is more wide ranging than the term “poststructuralism” suggests.


In The Savage Mind Levi-Strauss had made the following statement: “Science as a whole is based on the distinction between the contingent and the necessary, this being also what distinguishes event and structure” (21). Derrida begins “Structure, Sign and Play” with the following observation: “Perhaps something has occurred in the history of the concept of structure that could be called an “event,” if this loaded word did not entail a meaning which it is precisely the function of structural--or structuralist--thought to reduce or suspect” (278).

So Derrida begins by drawing attention to the popularity of structuralism (in the 1960s) as an event in the history of the concept of structure. But the meaning of the word event is something that structuralism would need to contain as an element within a structure or at least exhaustively determined by a structure. In the same way that science must contain all contingencies (chances, accidents and secondary causes) within the thought of what is necessary, all events should be contained as parts of a comprehensive structure.

The reference is to the structuralist model that contrasts La Langue (the system or structure) to parole (the event of speech or the utterance). So strictly speaking, and according to Levi-Strauss, the concept “event” is opposed to the concept “structure.” Once again the model is a version of empirical/ transcendental difference.


The logic is as follows: The event of structuralism is a “rupture” in so far as the break between classical thinking in the human sciences and structuralism is like an overturning of old ways of thinking by new ones. But the concept of structure is itself a classical concept and its meaning belongs to ordinary ways of speaking. Furthermore its meaning is something like “that which determines and makes possible all events.” The concepts “event” and “structure” must have been determined by the field that structuralism sets out to explore and explain, that is, structure (rather than event)"

Actors and Links in the Media System: Applying a Network Perspective to the Study of Media Production, Content and Audience, by Katherine Ognyanova

Astract:

"This work looks into the network mechanisms which underlie the three major parts of the media system: the industry, the content and the audience. It identifies key theoretical frameworks that can be used to explain the formation and dissolution of ties in each of those three areas. The paper outlines a relational interpretation of classic media studies theories and advocates for the use of a network approach to their application in research.
The first three sections of the paper discuss the network structures behind media production, content and consumption. Section one looks into interorganizational ties (industry level), section two deals with semantic relations (content level), while the third section surveys social bonds (audience level). The last part of this study lists five framework packages (or combined approaches) which allow for a comprehensive relational analysis at all three levels of the media system"

Presentation recorded
After reading this work,I find five framework packages really interesting but I do not understand well why the object of study is appproached as a system neither why people are approached as audience.

Internet Experience and Time Displacement of Traditional News Media Use: An Application of the Theory of the Niche, by Louisa Ha & Ling Fang

Interesting text that, in a way, forecast the future of television (understood as the machine which is just for seeing the contents which are streammed by channels on it) and printed newspapers.

After reading the full text, one question comes to my mind. Is just that the users tend to remplace televison with Internet or is also that the concept of “information” is changing? and, therefore is now understood more as an adjective, instead of as a noum.

Niche paper ica.2011

View more presentations from louisaha

Where in the World? - A panel for the International Communication Association on the uses and possibilities of Geographic Information Systems in media

Where in the World? on Prezi

The Online Author’s Survival Guide

The Online Author’s Survival Guide, by Kivmars Bowling
Senior Managing Editor, Compass Journals, Wiley-Blackwell.

Very clear and useful text. I like very much with the proposal about sharing the links to the text published by using environments as Second Life. This procedure seems specially adequate when the topics covered by our texts are related to virtual environments.I did not know that Wiley-Blackwell has a place at this Virtual World.This allows you to be teleported to there.

cabemos todos, os necesitamos a todos

Via Enrique Dans

Join the Spanish revolution

talking about a revolution

Don't you know you're talking about a revolution. It sounds like a whisper
Don't you know they're talking about a revolution. It sounds like a whisper

While they're standing in the welfare lines. Crying at the doorsteps of those armies of salvation
Wasting time in unemployment lines. Sitting around waiting for a promotion

Don't you know you're talking about a revolution. It sounds like a whisper

Poor people are gonna rise up. And get their share. Poor people are gonna rise up
And take what's theirs
Don't you know you better run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run
Oh I said you better run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run

Finally the tables are starting to turn. Talking about a revolution
Finally the tables are starting to turn. Talking about a revolution oh no. Talking about a revolution oh no

While they're standing in the welfare lines. Crying at the doorsteps of those armies of salvation
Wasting time in unemployment lines. Sitting around waiting for a promotion

Don't you know you're talking about a revolution. It sounds like a whisper

And finally the tables are starting to turn. Talking about a revolution
Finally the tables are starting to turn. Talking about a revolution oh no.
Talking about a revolution oh no. Talking about a revolution oh no

campings revolutioning around the world (map)

campings revolutioning around the world (map)

A Defiant 'Spanish Revolution'. MAY 20, 2011. The Atlantic

Popular Inicitative (Spanish Constitution)

In the assambly which is being done at Madrid, people are encouraged to mantain theirselves on the Squares after the elections day, in order to get the signatures needed for asking for a change of the electoral law.



En el artículo 87.3 de la Constitución se contempla la posibilidad -regulada por la Ley Orgánica 3/1984-1 de que los ciudadanos hagan propuestas respaldadas por un mínimo de 500.000 firmas, propuestas denominadas por ley ILPs (Iniciativas Legislativas Populares). Sin embargo, estas iniciativas, tienen una serie de limitaciones:
No pueden reformar ley Orgánica alguna, ni regular materia propia de ley Orgánica, lo que excluye el Código Penal, los Estatutos de Autonomía, la Ley Electoral, la del Defensor del Pueblo, la del Tribunal Constitucional, la de Educación, la del Derecho de Reunión, la de Libertad Sindical, la de Libertad Religiosa, la de Partidos Políticos, etc
No pueden reformar ley tributaria alguna, lo que excluye la Ley General Tributaria, la Ley Reguladora de las Haciendas Locales, la Ley sobre el IRPF, la Ley del IVA, etc
No pueden reformar ley alguna de carácter internacional.
Partiendo de dichas iniciativas no puede elaborarse ley alguna referente a la prerrogativa de gracia, el indulto, que según el artículo 62.i de la Constitución corresponde al Rey, con arreglo a la Ley.
No pueden reformar ni el Consejo Económico y Social, ni los parámetros de redistribución de la riqueza, ni la armonización entre regiones, ni la planificación de la actividad económica; tampoco pueden proponerse los Presupuestos Generales del Estado ni enmiendas a éstos.
Además, según el artículo 166 de la Constitución, sólo puede reformarse la Constitución por los apartados 1 y 2 del artículo 87, por lo que la ILP queda excluida como vehículo para la reforma constitucional.
A lo largo del periodo democrático español iniciado en 1978, tan sólo nueve ILP han pasado el filtro de la Mesa del Congreso, mientras que únicamente una Iniciativa Legislativa Popular ha sido aprobada por el Pleno, relativa a la modificación de la Ley de Propiedad Horizontal.
También cabe la posibilidad de presentar iniciativas legislativas en los diferentes parlamentos autonómicos. En este caso, los diversos Estatutos de autonomía recogerán las condiciones exigidas para ello. Los posibles plebiscitos para su aprobación habrán de ser autorizados por el Gobierno Central.

source: http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iniciativa_legislativa_popular

El origen de No Les Votes

Internet: Promoter of political activity by the citizens.

No doubt Internet is more than a media because allow us to communicate but also to communicate between us. Therefore, integrates the functions of diferent devices as television, telephone and mail but furthering their possibilities and capacities.

As happens with a product, which is not just a product, but also a type of behaviour practice,interest, Internet is not just technology, is also the culture which is emebeded into it, and into its different developments and by using them, all can have a voice, all can be in touch and build projects and initiatives born collectively.

Social media, network sites, individuals who create their own blogs, twitters, facebooks, linkediln. Individuals can now talk more freely and, the most important, they can join their effort to achieve a common purpose. The type of political participation performed by users in the virtual sphere emerges by endorsing the meaning which Aristotles gave to politic, understanding it as dialogue, a way for saying which is unfair and which is fair and has utterance by the performance of several actions that users are enabled to achieve as being informed, communicating, associating with others, demanding transparency, identifying the responsible of certain actions with more ease, reducing bureaucracy or communicating by anonymity

Knowing all that is happening now at Spain, I remember with a sense of hapiness a text I wrote, with enthusiam, in 2006 for participating at the IV Congress of Cibersociety. This text aimed to present Internet as a great motivator for the development of political communication done by citizens.

On it I identified seven of the features which makes Internet a very adequate device for motivating the participation of citizens at politic debate. This text encouraged a great online debat with participants about the participation of the society at political sphere, by using the Internet. Razon y Palabra published also the text in its 54 number.

Internet: Impulsor de la Actividad Política por parte de la Ciudadanía,Internet: Promoter of political activity by the citizens. Seven Actions that qualifies it. Razón y Palabra, 54, ISSN: 1605-4806. Razón y Palabra, 54. and it is cited in the following works:

La esfera pública en la blogosfera política ecuatoriana, by Consuelo Albornoz y María Belén Albornoz. Flasco, ecuador, 2010

Cambios en los modos de representación política (Universidad Javeriana)


All issues exposed in that text are alive. Spanish citizens claim for a reform of the electoral law, which beneficiates to the big parties and marginalizes to the small ones. The alternance in the government of the big parties facillitates the corruption and its protection. Now, spanish citizens are expressing not just their disconformity with the government but also a demand, which is based on common sense: the need of making a change in the electoral law, for allowing small parties to have more representants. This, implies, of course, doing changes in the Constitution.

Something must change (Electoral law, Constitution) for nothing continue as is.

Algo debe cambiar para que nada siga como está.

Spanish Revolution

Online TV Shows by Ustream

Spatial Social Behavior in Second Life.

Spatial Social Behavior in Second Life. By Doron Friedman, Anthony Steed, and Mel Slater

Neutralizing Identity: Exploring Language And Gender In A Virtual

Neutralizing Identity: Exploring Language And Gender In A Virtual World
Lynda Boudreault & Joseph Moser. University of Texas at Austin

Frame Analysis: Theoretical Preliminaries

Frame Analysis: Theoretical Preliminaries

Interview with Todd Gitlin April 1994 Todd Gitlin on "The Whole World is Watching", by Stephen Reese, Murfreesboro, TN

Herbert J. Gans. The Uses of Poverty: The Poor Pay All

Herbert J. Gans. The Uses of Poverty: The Poor Pay All.
Social Policy July/August 1971: pp. 20-24.

Participating at Discussions on Language and Gender in Second Life, conducted by Mats Deutschmann

Participating at Discussions on Language and Gender in Second Life, conducted by Mats Deutschmann

Uses and gratifications Research By elihu katz, jay g. Blumler, and Michael gurevitch

Uses and gratifications Research. By Elihu Katz, Jay G. Blumler, and
Michael Gurevitch. The Public Opinion Quarterly, Vol. 37, No. 4. (Winter, 1973-1974), pp. 509-523

Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann (1916-2010)

wikipedia

The War of the Worlds

Wars of the Worlds
This is a website mostly about the audio versions of the War of the Worlds, with reference to other mediums as necessary.

The War of the Worlds. COLUMBIA BROADCASTING SYSTEM.
ORSON WELLES AND MERCURY THEATRE ON THE AIR
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 30, 1938
8:00 TO 9:00 P.M.
Script

Claude Levi-Strauss

Claude Lévi-Strauss
T r i s t e s t r ó p i c o s
Prólogo de Manuel Delgado Ruiz