Lybia

After Tunisia and Egypt, Lybia is now revolting against his political regime. To express themselves, and their opinion, to tell the world what is going on and what is happening in the country, thousands of Lybian have decided to use ICT (information and communication technologies). Facebook and Twtter have been the main to communicate along with blogs.

Thanks to this, people have been able to talk from their point of view, along with Tv or journalist who couldn't always be everywhere, or even sometimes enter the country, the information flow wouldn't be stop because the population create here the information.

But what happened in Tunasia and Egypt had to happened also in Lybia, to prevent leaks or (uncontrolled) information to spread around the world, Internet acces, facebook and other way to communicate have been blocked or filtered. The first time happened between the 18^th and 19 of February and then the next night.

If we look closer we can see two nights without any activity but also that during the day the activity has really reduce. It's a double blockage preventing any person in Lybia to acess the Internet but also anybody body in the world to access a Lybian website.

This diagram from an article from lemonde.fr “ http://www.lemonde.fr/afrique/article/2011/02/19/la-libye-tente-de-couper-l-acces-a-internet_1482742_3212.html” comes with a question, was that only a test before really cutting the Internet ? So far nothing else happened but the future might change that.

Social network and moral panic.

In France in 2010, 3 women working for “SOS femmes” ( is an association helping women against abuse and violence) were fired because they had posted comments and sent private messages to each other on Facebook.

These messages were not “appreciated” by the administration. These messages contained offensive words. This is not the first time that people are fired because of what they are saying on social networks. 

The fact remains that 8 months after this happened, the three women are still unemployed. The public prosecutor's office didn't convict neither of the parties, but the women will maybe stay unemployed and their lay off will not be reversed.

They have decided altogether to strike back and claim that what happened on facebook between them are only their concern and are asking how did the employer got the “private” conversation. They want an expertise to find out if their facebook account was hacked.

Whatever the judgment is or will be, the same questions always remain.

Who is really guilty ? Is facebook a private area ? Are these women guilty of what they said ? Or is it the administration searching and spying on them ?

CATFISH !

Hum CATFISH what can I say ? Impressive, interesting, mind-blowing, confusing, funny and sad.

I guess my opinion is that I loved it. But it's very special because I can see 3 different way to see this movie. 

First if it's fake, if everything is fake, then it's a good fiction I think. Everything seems so real, the actors, the way it's filmed. And even if it's fake then it makes you think … a lot. Who's behind the screen, are the people always are what they say they are ? That is the message they want to send to people watching this movie.

Second, if it's half true and half fake. Because everything seems to be set so well, their timing is too perfect it's bizarre. When they arrive at the girl's house they open the letter box and they find his letters that seems to good to be true.

Third everything is true, and it is insane. Really, you have to see or to live it to believe it. Between the desperation of a women, trying to dream and escape her life to find a little bit of happiness. And on the other hand see how this man can get attach and fall in love with a girl if we can say, that he had never met or see.

I think what we have to learn from this movie/experience is that people can think differently if they are behind a screen.They would use this  anonymity to hide information, to change maybe what they really are.Most of the time it's to give a good image, or in this case trying to escape.It can sometimes also be for bad intentions.But with this tool we can be whoever we want and be dishonest and sometimes hurt people.

This movie shows us the impact and the effect on both side of social network can have on people, and we have to be aware about what can happen.

Community

What is a community :

A community is a group of person sharing something « common » like a religion, or ideas, a way of life, or music. Several decades ago a community was group of person sharing a common location (where they lived) but with new technology and in particular Internet new communities have been created.

Everybody is part of a community and sometimes several. Being part of a community can be a choice or not, you can be part of a community without “signing-up”.You are born in a community that was here before you, and you will die but this community will live on.

You can also find communities within a community for example if with take Internet which nowadays maybe the biggest community, we will find hundreds of communities within this one such as facebook, myspace, twitter ...

That is also why we can give geographical limits to communities, we can say that from a point A to a point B it's a community.People are part of this community but they will move, will leave where they are born.

But people are not the only one who can move a community can move like nomads.If the catle need another place to eat the community will always stay the same but they will move to another place.

Super heroes

To be a super heroe fan we'll have to start from the begining. Super heroes first appeared with comic books.Comics books also known as comics appeared for the first time around 1932, they are a narrative graphic history in the form of separated panels. When we say comic books today we usually think about super heroes comics and they, according to wikipedia “dominates the market in America”.

When we think about what type of person is fan of these comics, or what kind of person buy comics we often think about nerds, geeks …They are often caricatured without a social life, in their world, playing video games, having collectibles in the box to keep the value.

Now a super heroes fan reads comics but, a real fan is interested in every type of products, he can quote these comics and telling from which issues it is. He collects posters, figurines, Dvds and everything related to the subject, he will sometimes identify himself has his/her favorite super hero.

Their stereotype shows us someone without a social life but on the contrary these fan tend to be in a group with other fan.

Every year during 4 days in San Diego the Comic'Con takes place in San Diego. In this conference you will find every gender of comic but those fans will came especially for the 2 giants DC and Marvel. Thousands of comic books fan come to meet the author or buy collectibles often dress has their heroe.

The Tv Show “The big bang theory” caricature and deal sometimes with this subject. The main characters are super heroes fan and know all about super heroes. 

Moral Panic - Redheads !

« A moral panic is the increase in public perception of the possible threat to societal values and interests because of exposure to media texts .» www.medialit.org

I wanted to talk about a very serious subject, redheads. There has been many names : carrot top, ginger, gingy, beet head … But before our modern days and before the discrimination and the jokes, redhead were a serious problem. Back then media as we know them did not exist yet, the people were the media they were carrying the information.

In several societies redheads were rejected, or avoided. In the Egyptian society they were associated to the god Seth who had red hair also. To calm his anger red hair were sacrificed. 

During the middle ages, people taught that redhead were trading with the devil, and sorcery others taught they were werewolf.

What can we see in all the different societies is the same scenario. The representation of the evil in each society was always someone with red hair. We can say that here the medium is the representation of the god that transmits this message and this idea to the society and guide their anger and their behaviour.

The legend says that : if people make fun/despise/reject/hate reheads it's because they are taking their revenge against Chuck Norris.And one thing is sure people do not reject redheads in Texas.

Zazou

The Zazou is a french subculture from WorldWar 2.The name "zazou" comes from the name of the song Zaz Zuh Zaz, by Cab Calloway.

The Zazous can be recognized  with their very large jacket going down to their knees, their narrow and short trousers and a high collar.Their hair would be long and greased.
This clothing style can be found later on with the teddy boys and their suits.

Zazous gathered together to listen and dance to "black" music.They would met in café to listen to Jazz and dance the swing.