[Air-l] suggestions?

[Radhika Gajjala]

Charles - I'm sorry it took so long for me to reply to this one.

>To demonstrate that my background is in philosophy, not communication
>studies (for better and for worse)..


the issue you raise is not necessarily limited the discipline of 
"communication studies"



>.
>
>My my applied ethics class, we're reading an essay by Robinson A. Grover,
>"the New State of Nature and the New Terrorism," which argues that new media
>and globalization have brought about a new version of Hobbes' war of each
>against all, etc.


hmmm

>I attempted to buttress some of Grover's claims with the work of Cass
>Sunstein, his notion of "The Daily Me," etc.
>
>This inspired one of my students to ask: are there studies, etc., that
>suggest that the new media, by giving us greater communication with "the
>Other" works to make us _less_ fearful of the Other, and thus, under some
>circumstances at least, _more_ likely to engage in aggressive behaviors,
>including warfare?


my first response to this was - is this for real? Hasnt this person 
seen Television and Film portrayal of some "Others" all his/her life 
and seen how that can as effectively work towards building up fear 
and paranoia?

My general response is - depends on who's producing this "Other" and 
what context this "Other" is being permitted to speak/represent 
hirself - and what code of (contextual) behaviour and hierarchies 
this representation of the Other is placed.

In other words - yes - in a state of ignorance what your students 
suggests is likely to be true - but the media dont necessary help us 
not be ignorant ...

As for citations - I know postcolonial media theorists, critical race 
theorists and critical media theorists etc have written about this 
sort of thing.



>  That is, his thought is that in a state of ignorance of
>the Other, one is more likely to assume the worst - the Other is bigger,
>more powerful, etc., so I'd better stay home.  But once I see the Other on
>TV, the Internet, etc., I discover that this is not so...
>
>I thought it a worthwhile question - citations and suggestions?
>
>thanks in advance,
>
>Charles Ess
>
>Distinguished Research Professor, Interdisciplinary Studies
>Drury University
>900 N. Benton Ave.              Voice: 417-873-7230
>Springfield, MO  65802  USA       FAX: 417-873-7435
>Home page:  http://www.drury.edu/ess/ess.html
>
>Co-chair, CATaC'06: http://www.catacconference.org
>Co-chair, ECAP'06: http://www.eu-cap.org
>
>Professor II, Globalization and Applied Ethics Programmes
>Norwegian University of Science and Technology
>NO-7491 Trondheim, Norway
>http://www.anvendtetikk.ntnu.no/pres/bridgingcultures.php
>
>Exemplary persons seek harmony, not sameness. -- Analects 13.23
>
>
>
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-- 
Radhika Gajjala
Associate Professor
School of Communication Studies
Bowling Green State University
Bowling Green, OH 43403

http://personal.bgsu.edu/~radhik ; http://cyberdiva.typepad.com/teach/

http://www.cyberdiva.org
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