Moral Panic

The Independent ran an interesting article about Jamie Brewer modelling. It adds to the ongoing social model of disability.

Social media is evolving into a cold and reactionary place. An echo chamber where what we believe is constantly reinforced by people who believe the same thing, and when people step out of line in the smallest ways we destroy them leading to endless flame wars and accusations of trolling. As we become locked into our social media Eco-sphere we find ourselves trapped within a bubble of our own creation. Search Engines provide us with the answers they think we want and we are complicit in this by spasmodically liking and following anything that reinforces our view point. As more of us gain our 'news' from Twitter we find ourselves in danger of losing any challenges to the status quo.

The Century of the Self is a 2002 British television documentary series by Adam Curtis. It focuses on how the work of Sigmund Freud, Anna Freud, and Edward Bernays influenced the way corporations and governments have analyzed, dealt with, and controlled people. This certainly should inform our understanding of digital Britain and who really benefits, audience or institution.

Happiness Machines. Part one

The Engineering of Consent. Part two

There is a Policeman Inside All of Our Heads, He Must Be Destroyed. Part three

Eight People Sipping Wine In Kettering. Part four

Try to catch Adam Curtis' Bitter Lake on Iplayer. It goes some of the way to explaining our postmodern, post 9/11 disconnect.

The Guardian has a couple of interesting articles bout the changing face of self promotion for musicians.

Sampomedia's case study on Up There

A field in England

A late quartet

Borrowed time

What Maisie Knew

A series of case studies into American independent film

A list of BFI case studies into unusual distribution models

A very considered and thoughtful insight by George the poet into the excesses of construction of identity by marketing on 5 live.

... and David Oyelowo speaks about the worsening 'white wash' in British broadcasting.

The Social Model of disability

Stella Young's intriguing take on the social model of disability

There is a interesting article about actors 'crippling up' in the guardian

Victoria Modesta Prototype Channel 4 Born Risky

The making of...

The Mandeville sisters respond to Prototype

Para-olympic closing ceremony featuring Modesta

The Guardian's response can be found here http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/dec/20/-sp-amputee-pop-star-viktoria-modesta

and here http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/dec/11/channel-4-x-factor-viktoria-modesta-prosthetic-riposte

Hollywood have a poor track record with race with the casting of white actors in non-white roles. Way back in 2010 Paramount made the baffling decision to adapt Avatar: The Last airbender with an all white cast. Considering that the cartoon had characters of a largely pacific rim and Asian ethnicity this made no sense whatsoever. Only after massive pressure from Fans and the then newly founded Racebending.com did Paramount make any concesssions, casting Dev Patel star of Slumdog Millionaire in the role of Prince Zuko. In the cartoon this was an ambiguous role as Zuko was sometimes a villain and sometimes a hero. In the film advertising he became out and out evil, a binary opposition which is all the more troubling with the whitewashing of the rest of the cast. While fans were able to exert some pressure on the studios, the institutions seem remarkably resistant to change even if it ends up costing them at the box office. This has resurfaced recently with Exodus: Gods and Kings but has been simmering for some time with a spate of anime film remakes. Last year we saw All you need is Kill remade as Edge of Tomorrow transferred to an all white American cast and Tom Cruise in the lead role. This year we see Joel Edgerton as Rameses II and Christian Bale as Moses in Exodus: Gods and Kings. Hollywood still hasn't quite got the idea that a layer of bronzing is no longer appropriate.

Ridley Scott has defended his casting robustly if somewhat disingenously arguing that the film wouldn't be made without a hot property.

The less said about Murdoch's tweets the better.

This is a particularly spurious argument considering Disney have cast the relatively unknown John Boyega in the Force Awakens. I'm sure that Scott would argue that Disney have an existing franchise to draw upon which lessens the "risk" of using unknowns. Ultimatley this argument doesn't really hold water, it is simply an example of the institutional racism that has become all too familiar excused by economic necessity.

Racebending.com where interviewed about the issue by CNN, Is Hollywood whitewashing Asian roles.

This sad tendency appears to be continuing and Racebending has a currently active campaign trying to put pressure on Warner Bros to reconsider their ill conceived casting, location and scripting decisions.

Even TV still remains monolithically white, with hot properties like Game of Thrones being roundly criticised for its predominantly white cast and some uncomfortable racial overtones recent seasons.

We can see some light at the end of the tunnel Netflix have just released their historical epic Marco Polo , which is full of unknowns.

Radio 4 programme 23 Amazing Reasons This Radio Programme Will Change Your Life explores the ways that social media are distorting traditional journalism and news consumption.