[Air-l] suggestions?

[Charles Ess]

Hi Radhika -

> Charles - I'm sorry it took so long for me to reply to this one.
always a pleasure - always more than worth the wait!
> 
>> 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"
> 
no quarrel!
>> 
>> 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?
Um, yes, it's for real - indeed, it's precisely against the background and
experience of this far more "normal" (in at least a statistical sense)
portrayal of "Others" that the student's question caught my attention; it
was a line of thinking I'd not really encountered before, at least not
phrased in this way - i.e., as it heads in the opposite direction of this
more "normal" re-presentation of "the Other" (see more below).
> 
> 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.
Right.
> 
> 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 ...
Again, no quarrel - but this seems to leave us with the original question,
perhaps now highlighted even more clearly (at least in my tiny little mind):
_given_ precisely the tendency of media portrayals of "the Other" to head in
clearly negative directions, i.e., to emphasize the strength, power,
aggressiveness, irrationality, and/or any other dimension(s) that suggests
that "the Other" is dangerous and to be greatly feared (i.e., building, as
you say so rightly, fear and paranoia)
(re-presentations that might well trigger aggressive responses - but might
also engender sufficient fear that folk decide just to stay home, rather
than confront a potentially overwhelming enemy)
- might there be (striking) counterexamples of re-presentations of "the
Other" that emphasize instead a comparative weakness, vulnerability, etc. -
so as to encourage, rather than discourage, aggressive response?
> 
> As for citations - I know postcolonial media theorists, critical race
> theorists and critical media theorists etc have written about this
> sort of thing.
This would be terrifically useful!  Thanks in advance for any citations you
can share.

Let me also acknowledge great gratitude to Denise Rall, Randy Kluver, Phil
Howard, and Pei for your comments and resources.  Just another set of folk
and reasons as to why AoIR is such a great organization.

rock on! (smile)

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