This is where the real meaning of this blog's title comes out. from the first 2 or three blog entries you'd probably have a certain impression of me. Forget it. i'm about to blow that out of the water.
Jess, Queen of the Nerds, is about to come to your computer.
Last night i went to a talk by Jeff Lewis and Peter Horsfield. Who are they? Jeff is the author of Language Wars:the Role of Media and Culture in Global Terror and Political Violence, about the interaction bewteen media and culture in a post 9.11 context and Peter Horsfield… well i have the pleasure of hearing peter talk every wednesday. Yes, Peter is my lecturer in Theories of Persuasion and Communication and i gave up my tuesday evening to hear him talk…. VOLUNTARILY. and not only that, but when i arrived another of my tutors, Terry Johal looked at me in surprise and said "yeeesss, one of my students is here.' Hmmf.
Well, apart from the content of the talk which was extremely exciting and thought provoking (see, i told you i was a nerd, it actually kept me awake last night), i found it a fairly amazing atmosphere to be included in such an intimate room (there were less than 20 of us) talking about the state of the media and the state of the world. i was way out of my depth in terms of knowledge and intelligence so i mostly shut-up-and-listened, but to be there for that converstaion was something else.
so what was it about? well go read the book!
Jeff had some really amazing takes on the way the media and the goverment and the society have framed the news events. His distinction from other theorists was that its not just those in power, but that we as a people have some responsibility and therefore some guilt in what has happened around the globe as well. much of his discussion is around the way language frames events, so that it is impossible to get truth out of a representation through language (i think that extends to audio and visual language as well. I'll stop now because i am mixing up what he said with other theorists so i'll have to check it up.)
But wow, here my documentary studies, my essay on Orientalism and my major in Asian media and culture all link and interwine around the same issues.
so ends the rant of the queen, next time i promise to take on the persona of someone much less boring, and much more attractive and interesting, but probably as equally out of line with your expectations!
My non-sequitur!
