Disillusioned by the mainstream media’s lack of in-depth knowledge and coverage of India’s marginalized communities or ‘Dalits’, members of the group are turning to citizen media to tell their stories. Dalit Camera aims to document and chronicle their lives, conditions and struggles.
Here Dalit Camera visits a Dalit colony in Kottayam Kerala, along with Prof. Yesudasan, English professor at Kottayam’s CMS College.
Submission.
Could you give any advice to authors who want to write disabled characters without Unfortunate Implications? The story I’m working on has a few — but they’re busy having an adventure and most of their drama comes from personal issues that don’t have much to do with them being disabled. (for example, one character is injured in an accident and is an amputee as a result, but their angst comes entirely from the fact that they made a bad decision that got some of their friends killed and now have to live with the guilt. I just realized that realistically, there would be no way they could survive without losing some body parts)
At the same time, their disability isn’t a facet of their character that can be ignored, and I want to strike a good balance between showing how it affects their characterization and not having it be the be-all, end-all of their character.
You seem to be doing a very good job so far, you’re aware and asking questions and that’s great. I’m not sure if you already have, but there are other tumblrs centered around disability education as well and having multiple opinions is great.
My biggest suggestion is that pwd don’t have to be cured. It’s not a realistic stand point, even though many pwd presented in the media are cured or ‘fixed’. A character can be full and well developed without being cured of their condition. However, it seems like you understand all of that. You’re very right in saying that the disability can’t be ignored but it also shouldn’t be their entirety.
If you’re going to show your characters interacting with normal society, and you decide to show some of the hardships they face as a result of their disability just make sure that the people who discriminate against them are displayed in a negative light. They don’t have to be an evil character or even a significant character, but I would just try to make it clear to the reader that this is an inappropriate action. Although, since it sounds like your characters are more on their own and on an adventure this might not be applicable.
Do any of my followers have any suggestions or opinions on this?
** Signal boosting here - reply at source if you have info as requested **
37 more days left and $21000 to go for "The Unwritten Rules"
Black voices need to be heard!
Donate today and help Black people solidify their place in the media!
“the Unwritten Rules” Web Series
When I wrote the book, ”40 Hours and Unwritten Rule: The Diary of a Nigger, Negro, Colored, Black, African-American Woman” in 2003, I wanted to create a voice that had been silenced, judged, and disregarded. And eight years later, that voice was resurrected with “the Unwritten Rules”.
“the Unwritten Rules” is a web series based on the book, “40 Hours and Unwritten Rule” (Butterfly Ink Publishing, 2004). The series follows a Black woman’s, Racey Jones, journey in a predominantly white workplace with real situations, truthful thoughts, and honest reactions. With Season 1, the voice was heard globally (ie. US, the UK, Australia, South Africa, the Caribbean) and embraced by Black & White and Young & Old. And for Season 2, we want to speak louder! But we can’t do it without your help.
“the Unwritten Rules” stars Aasha Davis (‘Pariah’, ‘South of Nowhere’, ‘Friday Night Lights’), Balbinka, Sara Finely, David Lowe, Kayla Ibarra, Ebenzer Quaye, and Antonio Ramirez. The series is Written and Executive Produced by me (Kim Williams). I have 16 years experience in Television and Film Production working as an Associate Producer/Post Supervisor. I’ve also written two novels (butterflyinkpublishing.com), as well as, Co-written and Produced the theatrical play, “Bitch” (bitchtheplay.com). Aasha Davis and Michelle Clay also serve as Producers on the series.
The web series has received an overflow of positive response and has been featured on The Grio.com’s 6 Web Series to Watch List, Sister 2 Sister’s 9 Web Series to Watch List , clutchmagazine.com, The Urban Daily.com, Womanist Musings Blog, Aol.com, and many more.
To watch Season 1 episodes, go to www.theunwrittenrulesseries.com
Kim Williams (Creator, Writer, Producer)
I also think it’s important to build particular aesthetic walls around black art to stop whiteness from seeping in and making attacks.
because we already have to deal with enough of the bullshit we’ve internalized, we shouldn’t have to deal with shit-flinging as well.
which is one of the reasons I always side-eye when non-black people start making sweeping aesthetic declarations on art created by black folks.
Disillusioned by the mainstream media’s lack of in-depth knowledge and coverage of India’s marginalized communities or ‘Dalits’, members of the group are turning to citizen media to tell their stories. Dalit Camera aims to document and chronicle their lives, conditions and struggles.
Here Dalit Camera visits a Dalit colony in Kottayam Kerala, along with Prof. Yesudasan, English professor at Kottayam’s CMS College.
“It’s a little complicated, but we were expected to do somewhat unbalanced news, politically, in general.”Maine news anchor team resigns on air over ‘unbalanced news’ (via The Raw Story)
Syria: As West's narrative unravels, cognitive infiltration begins
By Tony Cartalucci
US, UK, NATO, Saudi, and Israeli backed terrorists carrying out a campaign of systematic atrocities in Syria have finally been acknowledged and reported on by Human Rights Watch, who has for nearly 2 years intentionally portrayed the conflict as one-sided violence carried out by the Syrian government alone.
With evidence and admissions emerging that the so-called “Syrian rebels” are in fact Libyan terrorists, armed, funded, and flown in by NATO to cross into Syria and attack government troops, organizations like Human Rights Watch have faced deteriorating legitimacy, even with watered-down admissions like their most recent report titled, “Syria: End Opposition Use of Torture, Executions.” In the report, Human Rights Watch admits that “armed opposition groups have subjected detainees to ill-treatment and torture and committed extrajudicial or summary executions in Aleppo, Latakia, and Idlib.”
Much of the torture described by Human Rights Watch involves obtaining false confessions by victims, admitting tat they are “shabeeha” militia men. The Western media has long excused terrorists operating in Syria for their atrocities, claiming that the victims were “suspected” shabeeha. It now appears, as was suspected all along, these victims were innocent, and the Western press, the BBC and CNN in particular, were complicit in covering up egregious crimes against humanity.
Human Rights Watch also acknowledged that those carrying out the atrocities are indeed the same groups being financed and armed by Western nations, and “urged countries assisting opposition groups to condemn publicly the human rights and humanitarian law abuses by those groups.”
Of course, despite the West using reports produced by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International – and other faux-NGOs funded and directed by the very interests arming terrorists in Syria – to justify the violent subversion of the Syrian government, it is already evident that reports illustrating that human rights abuses are being carried out by Western-backed terrorists will incur no condemnation, nor affect in any way the continued supplying of arms, cash, and covert military support.
Ahh my tumblr famous followers (and my not so famous followers)
Ajam Media Collective launched its tumblr a couple weeks ago—can y’all help me get the word out? Follow them, reblog them, anything! Just so that people can learn about this really awesome resource on the net.
The Ajam Media Collective is an online space devoted to documenting and analyzing cultural, social, and political trends in the diverse Iranian, Central Asian, and diaspora communities. We unite authors from various backgrounds and disciplines to promote diverse critical views of the region and seek to emphasize the region’s importance as a thriving cultural center whose multiple realities are too often obscured by the popular Western and global media.
Soooooooo…can you all follow AjamMC? Please pretty please thanks!
In 2006, Fox News had a pretty decent segment on asexuality.
Recently they picked some loud jerk to discuss it because of the release of the new book Understanding Asexuality. And a panel of other loud jerks. (I won’t even bother with a link to the clip)
Why the step backwards!?
Introductory Post: What is This Blog All About?
Well mainly I am targeting journalists who have written, are writing, or might in the future write about trans* people and/or gender diversity. Journalists who, we might say, are lost when it comes to issues of gender transition.
It is rare that a trans*-focused (or even trans*-related) story or article is published in mainstream media without inaccuracies, reporting errors, misunderstandings about gender identities, offensive terminology/phrasing, poor pronoun use, and other missteps. Almost always this is out of ignorance on the part of the reporter and almost always it is a serious disappointment.
As trans* people and issues get increasing amounts of coverage in mainstream and popular press, society is gaining exposure to gender diversity. It is through these news stories and reports that journalists have the opportunity to really provide accurate and respectful information to people who would otherwise know nothing about the topic. However the increased amount of coverage has not been coupled with an increased amount of effort by journalists to meet this accuracy and respect standard, and many articles that could have been beneficial to the trans* community have been detrimental. Even seemingly positive articles have the harmful effect of othering or marginalizing trans* people when common mistakes (such as incorrect pronouns and use of words like “feel” when speaking about gender identity - more on all this later) are made, so that even as non-trans* people start to accept trans* people it is not in a true understanding of trans* people and identities nor in an understanding of the greater issue of gender diversity, and instead is set up as the “normal” people being okay with the “abnormal” people.
And often when these mistakes are made, those of us “in the know” react with anger or condemnation and a YOU SHOULD KNOW THAT approach, taking to comments sections or social media.
What I’d like to do is have a space to dissect mainstream and popular coverage of trans* people and issues, breaking down where they went wrong, and suggesting how they could have done better. I will supplement specific critiques with occasional posts explaining why some of the common mistakes are mistakes - e.g. why a reporter (especially a non-trans reporter) should never explain trans people as a person born one way who feels another. My hope is that eventually this will expand to be a guide so that journalists can no longer claim ignorance and will use their medium to accurately reflect the lives and issues of trans* people.
Activate the Mechanism!: How Neutral Reporting Becomes Biased: by reporting political truths and lies equally, the media creates a...
Water is wet and white people are slow to pick up on these thingsThe mainstream media in the United States currently prizes neutrality in their reporting over virtually all other values. The American media’s neutrality in reporting manifests as their giving equal credence, focus and criticism for all sides of an argument, without passing judgment as to the…
1. This is something I’ve been aware of since at least the Clinton administration (which is around the time I started paying attention to these things) in fact one of my favorite items on this comes from former Clinton press secretary Dee Dee Myers who once opined that if Clinton and Dole had a debate, and Dole claimed that the moon was made of green cheese while Clinton pointed out that it was made of rock, the headline would read, “Clinton, Dole debate moon content”, and completely ignore how ridiculous Dole’s claim was.
2. Just because a bit of information may seem like common knowledge to one person does not mean that the information in somehow useless or irrelevant.
This may not be common knowledge to some, or may be something that helps to reinforce a suspicion that this is why extreme ideas get so much credence in the media and spread like a meme throughout the population - or it could even be a connection someone had not made before, after all, ignorance in itself is not stupidity, it’s simply not knowing (willful ignorance is another story) . Without spreading this information, how else will people that don’t understand/know about it be informed?
Sorry to get ranty, and this is nothing against you personally, it’s just something that touched on a pet peeve of mine - I feel valuable information like this is worth spreading, because I really wish I had a resource like blogs and the internet back when I first stared getting interested in politics, I would have learned a lot more a lot quicker.
Poly in the Media: Polyamory TV Series on Showtime!
Starts July 12th! Sure wish I had Showtime!
“Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed. Everything else is public relations.” - George Orwell
China: Tiananmen Square ‘massacre’ was a myth
By Deirdre Griswold
How many times have we been told that the U.S. is an “open” society and the media are “free”?
Usually such claims are made when criticizing other countries for not being “open,” especially countries that don’t follow Washington’s agenda.
If you live in the United States and depend on the supposedly “free” and “open” commercial media for information, you would without a doubt believe that the Chinese government massacred “hundreds, perhaps thousands” of students in Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989. That phrase has been repeated tens of thousands of times by the media of this country.
But it’s a myth. Furthermore, the U.S. government knows it’s a myth. And all the major media know it too. But they refuse to correct the record because of the basic hostility of the U.S. imperialist ruling class to China.
