Did the torture ban pass the Senate?
The U.S. Senate voted 78-21 to pass an amendment prohibiting the use of torture across federal agencies, including the military. Several Republicans, including Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell (KY) and Lindsey Graham (SC), opposed the amendment for national security reasons.
California Spends Six Times More On Prison Inmates Than On College Students
According to Scott Graves of the California Budget Project, California is expected to spend more than $62,000 on each prison inmate in 2014-15--almost 7 times the $9,200 it will spend for each K-12 student. Over the past two decades, California spending per prisoner has increased nearly three times faster than spending per K-12 student.
War on Drugs Hasn’t taken back a single corner Community folks (who vote) complain about drugs Local government reacts Fed and State government can’t be honest about how
ineffectual the war on drugs is Arrests and convictions for violent crimes, rapes,
burglaries, and armed robbery goes down So many resources go to generating stats about drug
crime Leads to police brutality
Bad morale: hate between police and corner kids Leads to meaningless arrests for things like loitering
Prop 47 CA public safety measure to reclassify low-
level crimes including drug possession.
Epistemology the study of the nature, origin, and
limits of human knowledge. How do we know things? How do we understand something to be
the truth?
Media as Epistemology Epistemology is concerned with the
origins and nature of knowledge Definitions of truth and the sources
where such definitions come Resonance: metaphor is a generative
force—that is, the power of a phrase, a book, a character
There is no universal way to know truth, but rather that a civilization will identify truth largely based on its forms of communication.
primitive oral culture great stock in a man who
remembers proverbs, since truth is passed on through such stories
What is your experience of hearing a story told through spoken word?
Proverb A proverb (from Latin: proverbium) is a
simple and concrete saying, popularly known and repeated, that expresses a truth based on common sense or the practical experience of humanity. They are often metaphorical. A proverb that describes a basic rule of conduct may also be known as a maxim.
culture of the written word The rationality of written arguments
would be considered superior to a proverb in a culture that values written word
Perhaps, rationality and reasoning can override “common sense”
Congrats Reg Cathey!
Television limited our discourse to where all of our
serious forms of discussion have turned into entertainment. Television has influenced the way we live off the screen.
How has TV and other forms of entertainment influenced the way you live off the screen?
Metaphors that Resonate Athens=intellectual excellence Hamlet=brooding indecisiveness
Media as Metaphor A medium has the power to fly beyond its
material context into new and unexpected ones, because of the way it directs us to organize our minds and integrate our experience of the world
Different media resonate in different ways
Resonance is metaphor writ large
Medium of TV Creates new forms of truth-telling According to Postman, the epistemology
of TV is inferior to a print based one Amusement (and pleasure) is how TV
communicates Ironically, in the late 90’s David Simon
turned away from print journalism and to TV, because the former had gone the way of entertainment (as Postman predicted)
Emotional Power of TV Postman does not deny the emotional
power of TV, because it could arouse sentiment against the Vietnam War or against racism.
“We must be careful in praising or condemning a medium because the future may hold surprises for us”
(enter The Wire) Superior Serial Melodrama and multi-sited ethnography
Simon Uses emotional resonance to inform
people of the negative systemic issues of the American inner-cities
Melodrama as a means to communicate and possibly persuade
Multi-Sited ethnography (EX: “I don’t care where money comes from if they are giving it away”) Namond and Senator Clay Davis
Literate Culture Common Sense by Thomas Paine
published 1776 The popularity of that book at the time
is close to an event like the Superbowl Different classes were all interested in
reading about a variety of subjects Printed matter was all that was available America was founded by intellectuals
Literate Culture Approaches the world from a rational
perspective based around a series of rational
propositions that challenge a reader or audience to judge them as true or false, the entire society was founded around the idea of rational discourse.
(Going back to the telegraph) “Peek a Boo world”
“The Age of Exposition" defined Typographic America Exposition: a comprehensive description and
explanation of an idea or theory. replaced by a spectacle that prizes flash and
entertainment over substance. The message itself is less important than the
entertainment value of its delivery. The Wire is all about exposition The Wire addresses its subject matter in a
complex multi-sited way
TV demands rapid-fire editing, non-stop stimulation,
and quick decisions rather than rational deliberation Also, the pleasure of an ending that ties everything
up into a bow No spoilers either! The pleasure of a surprise
ending. The Wire has shorter beats, but its editing is quiet—
allowing the viewer to experience the naturalism of each location
The Wire, uses no flashy effects or even a musical score
Serial: The Alibi (Exposition) Jay recounts the entire day of the
murder the entire case hinges on just 21
minutes the window of time in which Hae is killed About those 21 minutes, precious little
is known. "The Alibi," lays out the day of the
murder and Adnan's alibi that would clear him of killing Hae.
As a crime reporter or a lawyer Question the truth of Jay’s statement Find out reasons why Jay would lie Point to moments in his testimony when he has
implicated himself in a large crime Have the detectives been involved in other
cases where false testimonies have been made?
Interview many people about the timeline Jay gives
Point to the many times Jay changes his story
To write a crime story You introduce intriguing characters You delay the listeners access to
information You introduce information that makes a
central character look either guilty or innocent (in Serial—week to week wavering from one to the other) forcing the audience to make hypotheses
What is the exposition setting the listener up for? The groundwork for finding the truth? The groundwork for a good story?
The groundwork for a good story Did Serial start the story by investigating
Jay and why he would give that testimony? Past trouble with the law? Reward money? How the investigators get him to cop to
accessory (punishable by the death penalty)
Did Serial look at how the investigators focused primarily on Adnan?
They were not building the foundation for finding the truth
Serial sets up an amazing structure where each week we have certain aspects of the case revealed that lead us to question either Adnan or Jay
The story she is following, is the story of the investigators and the prosecution
That story is slanted and flawed It is incomplete
Arousing Suspicion Sarah gives the listener her story of
being conflicted between the state’s (incomplete and flawed) investigation and her perception of Adnan
Humanization of the Invisible In traditional crime stories characters
like Adnan are not so richly humanized This is the most truthful aspect to the
Serial Podcast
Conventions Conventions are the generally accepted
ways of doing something. There are general conventions in any medium, such as the use of interviewee quotes in a print article, but conventions are also genre specific.
Story Conventions
Closure, Safety, DiscourseStructure of CSIStructure of Law and Order What do those shows mean?What are they saying?
Causal Connections People are less likely to keep events
straight if a story is not causal and merely sequential
Many times when causality is not part of a sequence of events—it will be supplied by the viewer/reader
Canonical Story Format Introduction or Exposition: Explanation
of setting, basic character attributes, equilibrium
Complication Action: Introduction of conflict, obstacles,
Ensuing Events dealing with conflict Conclusion, outcome, ending.
Primacy Effect Initial information establishes a frame of
reference to which subsequent information is subordinated as far as possible
Ex: When a character is presented as virtuous they will tend to be considered so even in the face of some contrary evidence
Ex: When we are hearing the state/prosecution’s story as the truth—we are led to believe that’s how things really happened
Delayed Gratification (Retardation) Essential to narrative structure Expository interruptions Blocked expectations balanced with immediate
ones Delay in satisfying hypothesis can be exploited
to trigger new expectations A viewer’s hypothesis can be clearly validated,
invalidated, or left dangling Perceptual hypotheses tend to be vague and
open ended and they are seldom disconfirmed
SIN MURDER AND NARRATION
Transtextual motivation is a strong factor in determining a story’s narrational options.
The Detective film (Serial) The Melodrama (The Wire) Detective Film: Serial
Crime
Cause of Crime Commission of Crime Concealment of Crime Discovery of Crime
Investigation
Beginning of investigation Phases of investigation Elucidation of crime Identification of criminal Consequences of identification
The detective film justifies its gaps and retardations (delayed story development)
Controls knowledge The genre aims to create curiosity about
past story events Suspense about upcoming story events Surprise with respect to unexpected
disclosures about the story We learn what the detective learns
when he or she learns it
We are not allowed access to the detective’s inferences until he or she voices them
The activity of piecing together cause and effect in the crime plot constitutes the central formal convention of the detective tale
Privileged access to his character and motives
Romance becomes another factor. The detective is attracted to the Femme Fatale even if he suspects them of deception, betrayal or even worse (Could be why listeners interpret Sarah as “in love” with Adnan.)
Ethnography A method of nuanced qualitative social
research “in which fine grained daily interactions constitute the life blood of the data being produced
Simon’s work from back to the Baltimore Sun could be described as ethnographic from the beginning
Methodology for The Corner Long-term, one year stay in the field
where a particular set of social relations can be observed
The observer learns the visuals and the habits of the culture by following selected individuals in their work and daily lives
Police culture and drug culture Stand-around-and-watch-journalism
George Marcus Inherent problem with the ethnographic method Concentrates on a specific location of study “single site” ethnographers have recourse to a larger
whole that has not been studied in so deep a systematic fashion
Researchers do not have data for the whole This amounts to an abstraction: “the state, capitalism
and so on. Enables some sort of closure He and others developed an ambition to undertake a
multi-sited ethnography One that can approach the system as a whole
The problem… No single ethnographer has enough
knowledge of enough worlds or enough time to map this constantly evolving world system
“ethnographic imaginary” World enough and time
Simon’s unique fabrication of ethnographically informed serial television melodrama speaks to this according to Williams
Makes arguments, sets up contexts that could not be managed in journalism alone
Serial television melodrama, according to Williams, makes possible the larger canvas of the ethnographic imaginary
Combined factual, ethnographically observed, and detailed worlds of cops and corners into one converged fictional world
With the exception of Spike Lee’s 1995 adaption of Richard Price’s novel Clockers there had never been a film that had given equal time to both sides of the law
Season 1 Breaks crime story conventions Introduces a crime A cop who pursues solving the crime Higher ups who have no interest in solving
the crime Doesn’t stay with the cop, but moves to the
complex world of the committer of the crime Humanizes that character as well Equally important procedures of cops and
dealers are introduced
Comparison between two microsites Cops who want to be good and cops
who just want to bust heads Competent drug dealers vs. ones who
lack the discipline to avoid capture
Complexity of the Series’ microsites (plotlines) Politics Different police details Education Co-ops War on drugs and “Hamsterdam” Etc.
The vivid and interlocking stories from so many concrete ethnographic sites is what fiction affords, what ethnography aspires to, and what newspaper journalism can rarely achieve
Multi-sited ethnographic imaginary that no longer needs to depend on allusions to abstract ideas of “the state,” “the economy”, or “capitalism” as its “fiction of the whole”
The many sites reveal a vivid picture of that “whole”
Simon had to quit the business he loved and turn to television
Hasn’t fully embraced the form Hence the comparison to Greek
Tragedy?
John Carroll and Bill Marimow From Baltimore Sun (criticized “The Metal
Men—1995” Said it was too much like “The Corner” and
that it wasn’t hard enough on the thieves Simon believed that newspapers should
adopt a wide sociological approach to the city’s problems
His editors thought he should be more clear and focused on right and wrong
Rifle-Shot Journalism One story is small and self-contained and
has good guys and bad guys The other is about why we are where we are About who is being left behind Harder to report Carroll and Marimow saw them as
performing a public service that can’t reach for the larger ethnographic complexities
Rifle-Shot vs. Multi-Site Rifle shot is like a half hour of episodic
television whose world is necessarily narrow and whose time is limited to a half hour or hour
In contrast, Simon’s reporting presented an expanded world view
Transforms a social “type” to a human being
White Middle Class Editorializing In The Corner, his editorializing has an
identity In The Wire he shows instead of telling (Which is more truthful?)
In place of the five-paragraph rifle-shot story he would eventually create a five- season cumulative serial whose primary outrage-a futile war on drugs-encompasses myriad others
Serial melodrama can show us, in a way sociologists and ethnographers cannot, how much as Detective Lester Freamon puts it, “all the pieces matter.”
Crime Story vs. Melodrama
Controls knowledge The genre aims to create curiosity about past
story events Suspense about upcoming story events Surprise with respect to unexpected disclosures
about either story or plot detail We learn what the detective learns when he or
she learns it Focus tends to be on finding out who
committed a crime Closure—leading towards full knowledge
Story can rely on broad emotional impact
Evokes pity, sometimes irony or distanciation. Sirk and Bertholdt Brecht
Maximizes the viewer’s urge to know what will happen next—and, especially, how any given character will react to what has happened
The emotional expressiveness of the film issues partly from the narration’s tendency to be omni--communicative
To wring every emotional drop out of the narration employs omniscience
Various characters discover what viewers already know
Unrestricted knowledge: of multiple storylines
Crosscutting different plotlines
Following several characters from one locale to another
Expanded range of knowledge
Plot will inform us of initiation of a chain of action and then skip over some time or move to another line of action