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Our conversations this week about resistance, social change, and the cooptation of alternative media got me thinking (unsurprisingly) about the ‘politics’ in the politics of media. I realized that I have spent a lot of time reflecting on the different uses of the term ‘media’ in the class thus far (along side the various forms, … Continue reading How do we mean by ‘Politics’ of Media?

The Get Me Roger Stone documentary was quite baffling to me, not particularly because of the content or its titular character, but primarily its tedious form and uncritical production. As Nick mentioned in class on Wednesday, the documentary’s exposé form seems to be generated by the filmmakers’ excitement about their unprecedented access to the interviewees … Continue reading Montaging News Clips in Get Me Roger Stone

I found two threads in Hebdige's "Subculture: The Unnatural Break" chapter particularly interesting: a) the popular desire to link semiotic breaks (subcultural fashion, music, art, etc) with deviant behavior (crime and violence especially) and b) the relationship between subcultural subversion and its absorption into the commodity circulation process. I still take issue with Hebdige's conception … Continue reading Chief Keef and subcultural violence-realism in the system of commodity production

As someone who didn’t grow up in America, my knowledge about Roger Stone prior to watching the documentary was limited to Twitter roasts of the outfit he wore to Trump’s inauguration. In all seriousness though, the comparisons to the Babadook or Snidely Whiplash seem apt because they conjure an image of the boogeyman, the perennial … Continue reading Image Management in “Get Me Roger Stone”

Reading Mary Celeste Kearney's writing on the "networked media economy" of Riot Grrrl reminds me how much the world I grew up in was shaped by the legacy of that particular subculture (and those it overlapped with). The all-ages clubs, the DIY spaces, the church halls, the free concerts in parks—in the mid-00s, the landscape … Continue reading DIY / IRL

The games we have played and discussed seem to depict a range of settings and gameplay from fantasy (Braid), to abstraction (Problem Attic), to mundanity (the Sims in Wark’s piece). Reading this coming week’s reading on television by Aniko Bodroghkozy, in which she talks about the earliest shows that depicted African American families, prompted me … Continue reading Depictions of Everyday Life

Two of the three games we played for this week manipulate time in ways we don't usually experience in real life. Linking it back to Galloway's discussion of the formal differences between conventional video gaming and counter gaming, the games are fundamentally challenging the natural physics versus invented physics. The embrace of counter gaming elements … Continue reading Invented time in unconventional gamings

In “SMALL CHANGE”, Malcom Gladwell pushes back on the notion that Twitter and other forms of social media fundamentally change how protests and revolutions are organized. Drawing on the distinction between strong ties and weak ties, Gladwell argues that social media cannot provide what is essential for a successful social movement – strong tie among … Continue reading On Social Media and Activism

I must confess that I found Liz Ryerson's Problem Attic tiresome and frustrating to play, and I gave up quickly on the third or fourth level when I simply couldn't complete an annoying level that requires you to jump onto moving lines after attempting to do so for 20 minutes (this was before I read … Continue reading Gaming, Activism, and Value

In response to our discussion from Wednesday I'd like to dive a little deeper into the experience of "The Return of Obra Dinn" and do my own attempt at a cursory close reading. Our discussion on Wednesday touched upon a few topics that I've been mulling over and would like to explore a little more … Continue reading A tentative close reading of “Obra Dinn”