Seriousness

I found the google article by Lisa Parks very intriguing in that there were many correlations to past articles that we have read. The concept of the interpreted image appeared many times, twice on page 7:

"The satellite image is a site/sight that must be read...by clicking on a camera icon you can view a photo with the caption..."

I think this more than exemplifies the role of the myth as defined by Barthes for in this case it is clear that the image is being manipulated via missing dates and purely violent, stereotypical contents which "are as much the invention of Western imaginary and ways of understanding world conflicts as they may be accurate descriptions of conditions on the ground"(7). 

This also reminded me of the Snead article and how the portrayal of blacks in American/Western media has historically contained negative and subjugate connotations. That even in the image of starving African children, or savagely murdered African people, created to generate pity produce a feeling of civil superiority in the viewer. This was further demonstrated on page 4 when Parks lifts a quote from the Washington Post which read "This tool will bring a spotlight to a very dark corner of the earth" which resonates Africa as the "Dark Continent," a very dated and orientalist conception. 

Keenan's article on image overload also popped into my mind on Publicity and Indifference in which image overload creates the reverse of the desired effect.  Parks cited campbell who explained that the the images created to create response, "because of their familiar forms--just as easily lead to inattention and indifference..."(7) This revives a thought I might have shared earlier:

Do the powers in control utilize their understanding of media to impede humanitarian efforts, or anything in that matter? Does this transform the media into a form of surveillance?

 I think the article makes a good argument for this. In terms of the films, I enjoyed The Conversation in that the eye is replaced by the ear, hearing is the equivalent of seeing and there were many correlations, I thought, between this film and Rear Window in terms of public versus private. The soundtrack was very well done in that it seemed that the piano music in the beginning was very sharp and defined and as the movie progressed the sound and music sounded muffled and echoey. Mr. Call represents a collector of the public, he captures the public domain via private means and this makes him powerful yet he himself is a very timid and frightened man, an analogy for modern society. The surveillancer becomes the surveillanced identifies with Keenan, the panopticon, and the other readings for this week. 

Enemy of the State seemed to be a more literal demonstration of Park' article in which the surveillance for security and protection becomes a weapon of political and economic interest. One very powerful man attempting to maintain a secret, a fear, which ends up destroying him, similar to Mr. Call's situation. This film seemed to play up more the voyeuristic aspect of surveillance, there were a few Ms. Torso moments. Both films seem to relay the concept that surveillance is derived from fear of the hidden, more so the internal than the external.