Following is my critique of an article on Chinese Cultural Sphere.

The Net is the world's only functioning anarchy but it could soon become a major tool for democracy. By allowing anyone, everywhere access to the information and opinions of anyone else, anywhere else, a morsel is being given to mankind with one instruction: "Eat Me, so that we may grow." (Fenchurch, 1994, p. 11)

Goubin Yang assistant professor in sociology at University of Hawaii in Manoa, who authored and presented a paper “The Internet and the rise of a transnational Chinese cultural sphere” at a conference in New York, on China's Environmental Discourse, makes case for two premises: one, that the internet for Chinese population, has facilitated global mass protest movements, and two, inside China, online ‘spaces’ have influenced civil society development. The paper appeared in ‘Media, Culture & Society’ (Vol 25, Issue 4, 2003) with the underlying assumption that online media have given birth to a transnational Chinese cultural sphere.

Read the entire article here.

Tags: Saswat, Academic, Media, China

The World Economic Outlook presents the IMF staff's analysis and projections of economic developments at the global level, in major country groups (classified by region, stage of development, etc.), and in many individual countries. It focuses on major economic policy issues as well as on the analysis of economic developments and prospects.

Click here to see it all...Its not worth reading it all, anyway....

Tags: Saswat, Economics, Imperialism, Capitalism

My mediocre review/critique of an excellent work of media research:

Kavoori’s work is unique from three standpoints: firstly, this is a comparative media study across five, instead of between two countries, secondly, it revisits the media imperialism theories with a changed premise and last but not the least, the dissertation deals extensively with globalization from an ethnographic perspective.

“Globalization, media audiences and television news: A comparative study of American, British, Israeli, German and French audiences”, is suitably titled, deriving research data from a four year “Global Newsroom” project.

Read the entire article here.

Tags: Saswat, Academic, Media

Matthew Rothschild, the editor of The Progressive discusses Bush, the performer.

A Scary Performance, and a Signal for Slaughter

George Bush's press conference on April 13 was a scary performance. Read More...

Tags: Saswat, USA, Bush

My arguments in favor of Castells:

When Will Durant attempts at making Shakespearean literature a canon in Philosophy, he uses two well known quotes: Of Touchstone asking Corin “Hast any philosophy in thee, shepherd?” and Hamlet’s “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” Durant tells us that if Shakespeare made a guess he kept it to himself, and perhaps thereby proved himself a philosopher.

But the confessed Shakespearean rival George Bernard Shaw refutes Shakespeare’s canonical status in Philosophy by claiming that there was no metaphysics in the latter’s works, no view as to the ultimate nature of reality, no theory of God. Even Shakespeare, according to Shaw, speaks with no reverence of professed philosophers and doubts that any of them ever bore the toothache patiently.

The full article can be found here.

Tags: Saswat, Academic, Philosophy, Media

By Saswat Pattanayak

Watching Bob Dylan at Warren Theatre (with Gloria) today was a unique opportunity: one could almost come to terms with how resigned life can be at times. The voice that once commanded, spoke with confidence; the words that were written with optimism and sung with amazing vigor; the celebrity that refused interview to Time magazine because it was elitist and the worker who sung paying tribute to Woody Guthrie when what Woody stood for had almost been forgotten.

Now, Bob Dylan could be the antithesis to all that he once used to be. Is he plain retired? Or is he mocking at the cynical past and contented present and predicting a gloomy future? Is he just singing for the sake of it?

Classical argument is all about it. A singer, after all, is a singer and can aspire to be a better singer. Arundhati Ray is a good writer and need not be an activist. She vehemently protests. But Dylan has been silent. Almost stoic.

Rolling Stone magazine would agree in its recent write up on him, when Dylan is said to be merely a songwriter doing his job of thinking what’s the next good song going to be. A singer who is just waiting to churn out another album.
What next? An entertainer hiring a band of secretaries to keep track of album sales and advertisement deals? To own a Dylan Mansion perhaps and call it Tambourine Land? Or to model for Victoria’s Secret?

I don’t know what he thinks, but it’s a fact that he was a voice of the spirited 60’s that went unbridled and sang unchained and attacked the establishment unabashedly. Dylan is no Dylan without “Time’s they are a changing.” The argument behind who should be the interpreter of the author’s work is still a Gordian knot to crack. But to say that the creator of the work alone is the sole authority would be a naivety. Worse still, to underrate the role of the audience/readers in catapulting the creator where he/she is now. When the matter is about glory, the audience are active participants in acquiring the said position for the celebrated. As participant, I have a role. And a question.

What has changed Dylan?

Tags: Saswat, Music, Communism