I hope everyone is staying as safe as possible during this global pandemic. This episode’s main focus is on media representations and how they are more complicated than just the reflections of subjects. This is primarily because the more we home in on a subject, the more we see the many multifaceted ways that subjects exist in dialogue with their surroundings. The dynamic potential of subjects is often reduced by way of how they are mediated, since there is no one fixed subjective reality, which reveals that recognizing the power over that mediation is crucial to understanding how subjects are constituted in society. Along the way, we’ll talk about the unraveling of the global pandemic and highlight with music from fónes.
Welcome to our third episode! This episode’s main focus continues the conversation of media narrative analysis from episode 2, focusing on the internal negotiation of subjectivity and the process of reading and engaging with subjects. Primarily I confront narrative simplifications. Narrative simplifications of subjects are the mediated frameworks that can enforce hegemonic, linear, and binary presumptions of existence as subjective points of reference. Queering subjectivities dismantles these presumptions.
Also today, I highlight a band from Seattle, NAVVI, who released an EP and album this past August, and I briefly introduce #QueerCinemaForPalestine, the group spearheading the boycott of this year’s TLVFest.
Our second episode’s main focus centers around media analysis, particularly the type of analysis that facilitates a more diverse approach toward understanding and framing media subjects within various narratives. To that end, I explore the concept of the “chronotope,” offering some origins, definitions, and uses of the term, qualifying its use in media narratives and offering a contrasting comparison with the concept of the “archetype,” which is somewhat more popularized in global literature and media conversations. This analytical deep dive gets to the heart of how I approach media study.
Along the way, I highlight a band from Belfast, Northern Ireland, Strange New Places, who released an EP this past October, and I briefly discuss #WetsuwetenStrong, recent settler colonial mistreatment of Indigenous rights and sovereignty, and misrepresentation of Indigenous people and current politics as visible in media.