Dr. Susan P. Mains Geography GE21001 Dynamic Human Worlds Media and Geopolitics, Lecture 9 Blog: http://dynamichumanworlds.wordpress.com Dr. Susan P. Mains Geography

Media and Geopolitics Lecture Outline: Access to media Media and knowledge Forms of media

Understanding Media A key source of information Provide depictions of many places, political events that may be far removed physically Varying access to different forms of media

Media and Knowledge Various forms of popular media may help to shape opinions and policies Media images also reflect viewpoints Media may be used to challenge popular ideas and/or stereotypes Different kinds of media may be accessible in different kinds of ways E.g., print media (newspapers) Lined to Benedict Anderson’s idea of an ‘imagined community’ Mass produced, collective information Prior to this: town hall meetings, travel writing, novels Many elitist (e.g., literacy needed)

Marcus Garvey, UNIA --Black transnationalism, --Pan-Africanism Robert S. Abbott, African American Newspaper

Radio Connects with oral traditions of storytelling One of the mpst accessible media forms Public announcements Serial programmes Later, increasingly interactive e.g., call-in shows on-location reports

Radio Recognizabe formats News, public announcements, entertainment (musicals, dramas) What happens when these are challenged? War of the Worlds, Orson Welles

War of the Worlds Broadcast http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs0K4ApWl4g Transcript http://jeff560.tripod.com/wotw.html

The Aliens Have Landed…? Political context Anti-communism in US and Europe Aliens as metaphors for feared ‘others,’ borders Growing US imperialism Emerging technologies Growing interest in travel possibilities, Mars H. G. Wells (1898), science fiction immigration

The Aliens Have Landed…?

The Cold War & Media Newspapers and radio, later tv ‘Loose lips sink ships’ Strategically ‘fictional’ factual stories Fake military sites—e.g., through photography

Operation Fortitude -World War II ’deception operation’

Photography & Documentary Film Photography: can also be used to challenge caricatures Social documentary Links to visual anthopology War photography ‘Indigenous’ cultures E.g., Nanook of the North

Robert Flaherty, 1921 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4kOIzMqso0