Abul Abedi: March 2018

Mario Vargas Llosa is a Peruvian writer, Journalist, essayist and college professor. he is one of the Latin American's most significant novelist and essayist, one of the leading writer of his generation. Some critics consider him to have had larger international impact and worldwide audience than any other writer of the Latin American Boom. In 2010 he won Nobel Prize in Literature(Wikipedia).

This man belongs to school of thought that believes in individual as an autonomous and responsible being and freedom as the supreme asset. He debated about political ideology like nationalism, democracy, communism, Liberalism, populism, intellectual honesty, Literature and morality, political correctness and freedom and technology.

Liberals: liberal thought means who think freely and want freedom, why it has been targeted by ideology so, we can say that ideological people believes that liberal thought may harm our ideology like in India many ideological group attacked those people who celebrating Valentines day. Because, they think that this kind of liberals activity harmful to culture.

Nationalism: Llosa speak about Nationalism as a kind of racism. He says that, if we believe that belonging to a certain country or nation or race or religion is a privilege, a value in itself, we believe are superior to others. E.g we can see Nationalism in India that power or ideology strictly follow nationalism. nationalism is good but you can not ask anyone to follow the ideology of nation because that is oppose to freedom like National Anthem in cinema.

Political correctness is the enemy of freedom: Political correctness means one must speak in favor of power, if you speak against power and ideology then you may targeted or become anti-national or may be killed also. So, Political correctness is the enemy of freedom.

Intellectual Honesty: Llosa also states that blindly intellectual have always seen democracy as a mediocre system that lacked the beauty, perfection and coherence of big ideologies, and this blindness is not incompatible with great intelligence. Ideology may not consider intellectual honesty's ideas, work they may be killed like Gauri Lankesh or those who raise their voice against ideology or power.

Populism: The issue of populism us being challenged by the democracy, Populism shatters democracies from within, populism connected with right and left.

Technology: technology is good but now a days it is spoiling by fake news and post truth. Now a days technology used to serve lies and post truth thus, this is targeted by enemy of freedom.

Tuesday, 6 March 2018

Cultural Study: Power and Media

Thinking activity on Power and Media.

Culture is all about power or culture is produced. Cultural studies focuses on mass or popular culture next question raises that what is power? power is the ability to make others do what you would have them do. it can be family, work place, relationship. The dynamics of power are never static. Power is not like evil, from which we have feel some anxiety, but it's like a fire.

the study of cultural study is not complete without the study of power. meaning are governed by power relation. Power since each artefact practice acquires legitimacy and value. Cultural issues and then are mediated through questions of economy and politics. Culture is therefore about power.

Power:

There are six main sources of civic power:

1) Physical forces means power of Police

2) Wealth means corporate world we can say in our India that Mukesh Ambani cheated other telecome company in the name of digital India with the help of power, broken all rules and regulation of TRAI and made his Jio company.

3) state action: means state government who decide what to do or not either they elected or dictatorship.

4) Social Norms: Social norms govern the behavior of the members of society

5) Ideas: means power generate idea and and suggest to people to do as power like.

6) Number: means majority of thinkers who create power by expressing collective intensity of interest.

After that we will get idea that how power operate, there are three laws of power.

1. power is never static

2. Power is like water

3. Power compound

Media: Noam Chomsky gives five types of filters about mass media:

1. Media ownership: The endgame of all mass media organisation is profit. It is in their interest to push for whatever guarantees that profit.

2. Advertising: Media costs more than consumers will pay:Advertise fill the gap. What do advertisers pay for? Access to audiences. It isn't just that the media is selling you a product. They are also selling advertisers a product you.

3. Media Elite: Journalism cannot be a check on power, because the very system encourages complicity. Governments, corporation, and big institutions know how to influence the media. The feed it scoops and interviews with supposed experts. They make themselves crucial to the process of journalism. if you want to challenge power, you'll be pushed to the margins, you won't be getting in, you'll have lost your access.

4. Flack: When the story is inconvenient for the powers that be, you'll see the flack machines in action: discrediting sources, trashing stories, and diverting the conversation.

5. The common Enemy: To manufacture consent, you need an enemy, a target; communism, terrorists, immigrants, a boogeyman to fear helps corral public opinion.

So, in this way one has to know about role of media and power as cultural human-being or literature students.