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Don #39;t Spy On Us: The fight against mass surveillance
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Don't Spy On Us: The fight against mass surveillance - Video
Hong Kong actor/director Jackie Chan and leading mainland Chinese director Feng Xiaogang made passionate pleas for less censorship of their films in China at a high-level Communist Party meeting in Beijing.
Chinas annual rubberstamp legislature, the National Peoples Congress, is taking place in the Chinese capital right now, and the two men are among a number of top industry figures on an advisory body to the parliament, called the Chinese Peoples Political Consultative Conferences (CPPCC).
Chan, whose action thriller Police Story 2013 recently topped the box office charts in China, is a Hong Kong delegate at the event, and he was unusually forthright in criticizing censorship.
PHOTOS: Inside Hollywood's Surprise Trip to China's Huading Awards
I know theres a risk to saying this, but I dont care now, because it seems normal that I speak inappropriately. If a movie is heavily censored, cutting all the sharp edges and corners, its box-office performance will suffer drastically, Chan said as quoted by the South China Morning Post.
The comments are a little surprising coming from Chan as he generally tends to toe the party line on cultural matters and he has angered people in Hong Kong by saying that they complain too much about China and talk too much about getting more democracy.
Chan said that censorship had disastrous results for its investors and producers.
I have a couple of director friends [who went] bankrupt because of poor box-office results," said Chan. "Last year, China box office earnings reached 21.7 billion yuan ($3.6 billion), of which 17.1 billion ($2.8 billion) was from domestic movies. Within five to six years, China will be the biggest market. However, if Chinese films dont take marketization seriously, it will hardly have the chance to surpass Hollywood."
He was speaking after his friend and colleague Feng, who directed movies like the recent box office success, Personal Tailor, as well as Cellphone and Assembly, and who last November immortalized his hands and feet in cement at TCL Chinese Theatre, called for more clarity in how censorship was applied.
Dont make directors tremble with fear every day like [theyre] walking on thin ice, Feng told a gathering on the fringes of the CPPCC, in the Beijing International Hotel.
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Jackie Chan, Feng Xiaogang Seek Less Censorship in China as Communist Leaders Meet
The recent arrest of Joaqun "El Chapo" Guzmn has thrown an international media spotlight on Mexican drug cartels and the acts of violence associated with them. What is less talked about, however, is how over the past decade increased access to the Internet, cellphones and other digital media have drastically changed the landscape of the so-called "drug war" in Mexico.
In a new article published in "Latin American Perspectives," Carnegie Mellon University's Paul Eiss examines how both sides of the drug war -- the cartel operatives as well as government and security forces -- have used and responded to digital and social media. Eiss, associate professor of anthropology and history in the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences, explores the nature and implications of what he calls the "narcomedia," forms of digital messaging that have become central elements of, and even motivations for, the horrific acts of violence that have become commonplace in Mexico.
In Mexico, "narcomensajes" or narcomessages, are handwritten signs left by drug traffickers, often accompanied by gruesomely disfigured human remains. They have been used by traffickers, like Guzmn's Sinaloa cartel, since 2006, and typically are interpreted as ways for rival groups to "settle the score" or claim territory. From the moment of their first emergence, the narcomensajes and "narcovideos" were clearly intended for digital reproduction and transmission to YouTube and other platforms, thus bypassing the control of traditional media in a time when more and more Mexicans were using the Internet. Access to the Internet among Mexicans increased from 5 percent of the population in 2000 to 33 percent in 2010.
Eiss traces the emergence and spread of the narcomedia throughout Mexico and uses a 2008 episode from Yucatan to illustrate how the use of diverse kinds of narcomessaging politicized the battle between the cartels and the government. He shows how in some cases the tactics of the narcomedia seem to have been adopted by government and security forces as well. For instance in 2009 security forces killed another cartel leader, Arturo Beltrn Leyva, and disseminated images of his symbolically desecrated body.
Attempts by the government and media companies to restrict the circulation of the narcomessages in mainstream media have caused a crisis in the news media as newspapers and journalists have been subjected to an unprecedented level of physical attacks by traffickers as well as police and security forces.
"I call my analysis of the narcomedia a 'reader's guide,' because it is meant to provide a different way to read the narcomedia, and by extension, episodes of drug war-related violence in Mexico," said Eiss, who also directs CMU's Center for the Arts in Society (CAS).
"Against depictions of the drug war in black and white, as a fight of good guys against bad guys, the narcomedia reveal the conflict to be painted in shades of gray -- leaving many observers asking 'Who is who'? Against rosy depictions of the social media as an engine of progressive social change, the narcomedia show them used just as powerfully as a tactic of violence.
"At the same time though, in a climate of censorship and open physical assaults on the press, the narcomedia -- or the blogs that mine them for information unavailable in the mainstream media -- paradoxically also offer an increasingly important resource for the Mexican public as it seeks information and critical perspective on the conflict, and ways to respond," Eiss said.
CAS is a research center in the Dietrich College and College of Fine Arts that explores the role of the arts in society. Eiss was inspired to investigate the Mexican drug cartel's use of Internet and digital media in part by the center's Media Initiative, which is focused in part on the role that new media -- digital, networked, computer-mediated and social media -- now play in social life, cultural politics and political mobilizations.
"I like to think that this project, like those supported by the center's Media Initiative, engages contemporary issues in new ways even as it draws deeply on the longstanding core concerns and methodologies of the humanities," Eiss said.
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How social media shaped the 'drug war' in Mexico
The Chennai District Election Office has set up a media cell and media centre to detect and control paid news in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections. Based on directions from the Election Commission of India, the media cell and centre, located at Ripon Buildings, commenced operations on Wednesday.
Starting this week, the media cell will screen all news stories in broadsheet newspapers and tabloids to spot news stories likely to have been influenced by political parties using monetary rewards. It will also track all news stories on electronic and social media ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. The members will include city-based journalists and district election officials.
The cell will send reports of paid news stories to the District Election Officer on a daily basis. News stories that favour a particular candidate during the elections are likely to be under the scanner for content associated with paid news.
The cell will also keep a record of all news on candidates. Estimates of money spent on elections will also be made based on the assessment of records.
The District Election Office will initiate action against violations of the model code of conduct by political parties. The media centre will include a helpline and call centre.
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Media cell in Chennai to track cases of paid news
Participation In Social Networking Sites
MCS 355: Social Media: Networking and Mobility. For academic purposes; fair use applies. Based on course reading of Danah Boyd #39;s Why Youth Heart Social Netwo...
By: Daniel Rotondo