Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id OAA00925 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Tue, 20 Nov 2001 14:23:18 GMT Message-ID: <2D1C159B783DD211808A006008062D3102A6D139@inchna.stir.ac.uk> From: Vincent Campbell <v.p.campbell@stir.ac.uk> To: "'memetics@mmu.ac.uk'" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Subject: RE: Wade's last week's phrase of the day... Date: Tue, 20 Nov 2001 14:18:42 -0000 X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2650.21) Content-Type: text/plain Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
<Hi Vincent, thanks. I don't doubt the 85% return figure, but do the
> description of seductive debauchery. That does not square at all with my
> own
> experience of the Amish.>
>
Ah right, I see what you were critiquing. Sorry, I misunderstood
you.
<As for suing the programme...that would be for the Amish, the
harmed group,
> not me; knowing the Amish, they wouldn't bother, though. I do believe
> strongly in freedom of speech, but wouldn't it be nice if we each had a
> penny for each time a journalist deliberately exagerrated or slanted their
> story, in order to get attention paid to it? :-)>
>
Well, whilst some journalists deliberately do this, many do not and
yet the distortion still, or appeasr to still, occur, but this is as much to
do with the inherent problem of mediation, in other words as soon as you try
to capture "reality" in some mediated form it becomes distorted. So,
sometimes I think that people are all too quick to condemn news media for
mirepresentation when the possiblity of an absolutely 'correct'
representation is impossible. That's not to say that the programme-makers in
this case didn't make the decision to follow the lad who got himself into
trouble with drug dealers, as opposed to the Amish kids who didn't. At one
level though, what's interesting is the extent to which some of the Amish
kids appear to be allowed to go as far off the rails as they like by their
otherwise very orthodox parents. Those kids are interesting for a
documentary.
The same applies in much fiction. I wonder if 'American Beauty'
would have been such a success if it had been an unknown actor rather than
Kevin Spacey, in what was otherwise a very straightforward tale of middle
aged mediocrity. I think it worked because it was a 'Kevin Spacey plays
ordinary man shock!' kind of film.
As the saying goes- dog bites man isn't news, but man bites dog is.
Vincent
===============================================================
This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Nov 20 2001 - 14:29:08 GMT