NWICO

New Word Information and Communication Order
In 1980 UNESCO set fourth the proposed demands for the media. Take a look and tell me if you have any objection to this:

(i) elimination of the imbalance and inequalities which characterize the present situation;
(ii) elimination of the negative effects of certain monopolists, public or private, and excessive concentrations
(iii) removal of the internal and external obstacles to a free flow and wider and better balanced dissemination of information;
(v) freedom of the press and information;
(vi) the freedom of journalists and all professionals in the communication media, a freedom inseparable from responsibility;
(vii) the capacity of developing countries to achieve improvement of their own situations, notably by providing their own equipment, by training their personnel, by improving their infrastructures and by making their information and communication media suitable to their needs and aspirations;
(ix) respect for each people's cultural identity and for the rights of each nation to inform the world public about its interests, its aspirations and its social and cultural values;
(x) respect for the right of all peoples to participate in international exchange of information on the basis of equality, justice and mutual benefit;
(xi) respect for the right of the public, of ethnic and social groups and of individuals to have access to information sources and to participate actively in the communication process.

(information came from Thussu, International Communication)

In my opinion (xi) seems extremely important for to keep in mind when studying the medias agenda.

My collage in action.... this is under construction

I was late on the one blog assignment I really wanted to put up but at the moment I do not have any paint programs.

These are the images that represent what it means to be an artist. Five words are represented that have effected my perspective.

Vision

Style

Culture

Natural Spirit
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Voyage

This idea of creative spirituality

It exists! I know it does, I'm from a place where all this seems to be always happening. That place is Ojai California just a little east of Santa Barbra. I feel like my home if it had a sloganized sign (it wouldn't because the city council would fight on who to what would to use) would somehow say "Ojai, home to the creative spiritualists". No kidding, I'm pretty sure that's why there is lack of sloganized sign.
Below is my process of trying to define terms within this idea of creative spirituality....


Spirituality to me is a place in oneself that is used for communicating on a higher level of existence, it's non-physical, it's emotional, it's both rational and irrational at the same time and it's a mental process that concerns the spirit within. I mean to me its something I feel inside when I make connections with nature and existence its this feeling that's complex but makes me personally feel whole when I connect to myself.

Religion and spirituality to me feel like they co-exist, I think of religion for some people as a tool to become spiritual. I sense we all have a different definition of what spiritual means to ourselves, this obviously is what makes us unique. I think that religion for some people, given for some reasoning, gives people the ability to get in touch with their spirituality. I feel for myself that since I never had just one religion to study and devote to, I found spirituality through a process of learning about religions and nature. I can't stress how important though that none of us see our spirituality the same way. It can be in common with other but its a unique experience for each individual so it must have different meanings and different existences.

Creativity, is one of my favorite words ever, in the entire world! It's Latin creatus means "to have grown". This word defines so many possibilities that generate and foster new or individualized ideas and object. Creativity can be going against the traditional ideology, it could also be this step into a brand new thought. I like the idea of creativity because its a beautiful characteristic to describe a positive and abnormal perception. It's this word that means there is something in action that will not be what you might expect and it's always pleasing to my ears to hear.

The Source of Creativity is within the self. Creativity is often defined for 'thinking outside the box'. So where does this source come from? It's taking everything you know and doing something with it because the spirit is inspired to. The inspiration for creativity is different which makes the outcome generated the self (the inner source of creativity) so incredibly creative & so different from the expected.

Coming Soon: Enjoying Horror

Horror and Humor

Noel Carrol’s “Horror and Humor” explains the subgenre of the horror comedy that has become just as prominent today as regular horror features. Think of movie like Beetlejuice, Death Becomes Her, and the Adams Family, these are the fusion of humor and horror that I vividly remember watching as a child and loving. These films are not scary but there are dark elements to them. Carrol says that the fundamentals of horror are represented in the horror comedy. Carrol quickly points out that they are opposite mental states and that being horrified seems as though it should preclude amusement.
Two psychological feelings associated with this genre (typically)
• With humor, there is a sense of release and sensations of lightness and expansion.
• With horror, there are feelings of pressure, heaviness, and claustrophobia.

The article entails just how odd it seems that the horror genre has become successful from past to present; there is “an intimate relation of affinity between the two.”
I can relate the “Why Horror” article’s reasoning of why a person seems to enjoy horror similarly to the horror comedy through Hume’s “subordinate passion”. The idea is also similar to what the author says about the horror story, it’s “driven by curiosity. It engages its audience by being involved in process of disclosure, discovery, proof, explanation, hypothesis, and confirmation.” The horror story is just as engaging if not more than a comedy. The mixture of the two I know… have been some of the most memorable and best stories I know I’ve read or seen. It seems to steadily allow us to enjoy horror even if only minuscule, you’re still allowed some enjoyment in the genre.

"Why Horror"

"Why Horror" is an interesting reading piece I found by author Graham Masterton. As a horror novelist the writer takes in the question as to why he enjoys writing horror and also where does his inspiration come from. The article was surprising because the writer has been studying tales of horror that date back centuries. I believe the author truly enjoys the writing challenge of horror because he put so much into the research and little aspects like the favorite drink called King's Death. Masterton writes, "Most of the time you can dispense with whole reams of description if you catch one vivid image; catching those images requires thought and research."
I relation between our class readings, what is horror without vivid imagery? The author takes the image of horror and writes in description. I find it very interesting to relate the article to Carol's interpretations about horror for enjoyment, "It engages its audience by being involved in process of disclosure, discovery, proof..." In the article is a first hand encounter of what the writer aims to do with his creativity process. Somehow I would be excited more to read horror than to watch new horror, I recently saw 28 Weeks Later and I felt that tension of clusterphobia and entrapment that I read about from Horror and Humor. Hopefully horror writings don't create so much intensity.


Works cited:
Carroll, Noël. (Spring 1999). Horror and Humor. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism. The American Society for Aesthetics. Philadephia, Penn.


Masterton, Graham.(Jul94) "Why Horror". Writer. (Vol. 107 Issue 7, p7, 3p, 1bw). http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=9406107820&loginpage=Login.asp&site=ehost-live

Personal Reflection

I often think if I look at me now, how would people perceive me? Do I seem “alternative” or “creative”? Do people even think I have personal style at all? I have always been raised to reflect personal style in my appearance to be creative and not afraid of those risks. My mother, being the creative person that she was always made new ways to wear old things and she was always sewing me something that was “Melissa customized”. I see now it was because she may have not been able to give me objects my father gave me, she did what she could to personalize stuff that gave it a uniqueness. When I was 18 I got my first tattoo after years of staring at them and drawing my own I got a yin & yang tattoo. My parents hardly cared and now they offer to help pay for more. This I suppose is the difference between my families values and say my boyfriends, his mother would cry and my mother would be plotting the next spiritual tattoo or lotus flower. Of course though, in an area that’s not too reveling.
So back to me, I realize that now at the age of 25 I’m pretty much where I wanna be and my style reflects that. I guess I can say the reason why I dress in bright colors is because I work at American Apparel, and I work there because I support the vertically integrated business. I used to work in a business office for 3 years as a secretary and receptionist for over 25 people. Throughout those 3 years there, there were only a small handful of people who asked anything about me until I started cutting my hair. I look back at those 3 years of working in that environment and I had little personal reflection of myself and not to vivid of memories. After leaving and job searching a bit I decided why not get the piercing I’ve been wanting since I was 17 so I got a Monroe (a piercing above the lip). I have no idea why I was hesitant to tell people, I just thought they’d notice or they wouldn’t and that would be it… My mom immediately noticed months later and was enthusiastic about getting a real diamond set in the stud, this was not the reaction I was expecting. I think I make the choices I do currently to reflect this point in my life. I am completely aware of looking professional & acting professional. I just feel that its easy to loose yourself in its mundane. I want to be a journalist and in my opinion a journalist should reflect some style of whatever their interest.

Gourmets and Foodies

In the article The Reluctant Gourmet the author is accused of being a gourmet, as the writer tries to understand why its so wrong to care about food. Mark Kurlanksy is out to dinner with true Basque gourmets when he begins to fully analyze the term gourmet. The author points out that a gourmet according to a dictionary is a judge of food and that the term is an Old French word stemmed from wine tasting. Gourmand however, is an Old French for glutton that also now seems to be associated with gourmet. In our modern times these words have become confused and people rarely now are able to take gourmet as a compliment. Throughout the article Kurlansky points out past authors who probably wouldn't have liked the term such as Plato and contrasts 1996 author John Lanchester who applauds intelligence to pleasure. By the end of the article the author concludes,"Being called a gourmet, I've decided, isn't necessarily a bad thing; it's the same kind of compliment-insult as being called an intellectual. I have to learn something about the prejudices of the person who is using the label before I can decide how I feel about wearing it."
I choose the article because I found the article interesting, the writer used a situation that occurred with two gourmets as he analyzed the meaning of gourmet. Kurlansky draws a lot of thought from other writings in magazines, philosophies, and books to interpret this interpretation of word gourmet. In class readings this contrasts with the idea of food as a minor art because these gourmets see their judging and eating food as a pleasurable experience. Certain philosophies are drawn that would disagree with food being an art but the author is technically tackling the subject of the gourmet and its association to positive or negative terms in society. It seems like being a gourmet is a food minor and the art is the food.

In What is a foodie, anyway writer Nicole Weston tries to briefly explain the term foodie and its evolution to the word. A foodie according to the dictionary is "someone who has an ardent or refined interest in food". This term is very similar to gourmet and epicure but the difference is as Weston puts it, anyone can be foodie. Gourmets are notorious for eating and judging ridiculosly expensive dinners while foodies follow a more basic guideline in their passion, "Generally, you have to know what you like, why you like it, recognize why some foods are better than others and want to have good tasting food all or certainly most of the time." Weston points out that foodies do not need to know the difference between a beefsteak or heirloom tomato, or that they don't need to shop at farmer's markets, they just need to learn about food and most importantly eat food.

First, this article contrasts with the previous by Kurlansky who tires very hard to try to take that negative connotation away from the term gourmet. Commentaries of the blog proved Americans find the word stuffy and snobbish when a comment said "epicure is alright". In previous class readings the term foodie doesn't actually quite fit the art term we talked about last week "to make special". A foodie is described more like a student of food, unlike a gourmet, a foodie is not a critic. In comparison to yesterday's class lecture, food to a foodie is a pleasurable experience but under Telfer's terms, the foodie's definition of food and guidelines would not help to get food out of the food minor category.

Sources:

Kurlanksy, Mark. The Reluctant Gourmet. Gevalia.com [On-line Article]. Retrieved July 2, 2007 from
Link: http://www.gevalia.com/Gevalia/explore/chefs/chef_the_reluctant_gourmet.aspx

Weston, Nicole. (Fed. 2007). What is a a foodie anyway? Slashfood.com [Blog]. Retrieved July 3, 2007 from Link: