Title: BLOG DISCUSSION on Culture Jamming

MARK DERY, “Culture Jamming: Hacking, Slashing and Sniping in the Empire of Signs.”

Summary: Mark Dery popularised the term “culture jamming” in 1993. His 2004 blog entry essentially provides a history of “culture jamming” and how it has evolved over time. The blog is split into two halves: signs and culture jamming. It is the second half of the blog which has the most relevance to the unit. He explains we all have the potential to be culture jammers. An example, is using your own camera recorder to document police brutality or government corruption. There are just so many examples. In Australia once a week on the ABC we have the short program Media Watch which disseminates all media outlets for the quality of information they provide.

Mark concludes by saying that many of us in the western world exist in an artificial environment which “culture jamming” has had to adapt to. Essentially, the desire of “culture jamming” is to create a dream community which is based on more than just luxury goods which are controlled by corporate organisations. He emphasises that “jammers insist on choice” which is not controlled by the corporate media.

Relevance: This blog has great importance to this unit WOMN2205. Especially, in which 9 when there was a huge emphasis on “culture jamming”. It takes a slightly different historical approach of jamming compared to the week 9 reading by Christine Harold “Pranking Rhetoric” by providing more of a history lesson. I would use both sources as they complement each other using many of the same examples like Joey Skaggs “Cathouse for dogs” example of culture jamming.

Credibility: The credibility of this blog shows in the excessive use of endnotes which is great for an academic source. Mark Dery provides a source for all the points in his article which shows he has done in depth research for this blog. He provides a consistent endnote bibliographic style which shows he understands the importance of consistency for referencing. At the end of the blog he thanks Bill Mullen, a professor at Youngstown Unveristy, which shows he has had at least one objective reader review his work. Also, Mark is a well known scholar he has lectured all over the world, even in Australia, on this idea of “culture jamming” and the new media. He continously writes articles for academic journals and edits books. At one point he was a professor in the Department of Journalism at the prestigious New York University. Essentially, he is an expert in this field of journalism and jamming. He would be a reliable source because of his long academic record which proves he has dedicated his career to researching jamming and media culture.

REFERENCE:

Dery, Mark. “Culture Jamming: Hacking, Slashing and Sniping in the Empire of Signs.” Mark Dery’s Blog, October 10 2004. http://www.markery.com/archives/books/culture_jamming/(accessed 8 October 2010).