Pontification
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Funeral
She was buried on a Sunday in the final week of May in a grave beneath a headstone with her name, and with her dates The procession was perfection: sixteen cars behind the hearse. And the priest was very good, gave warmth and comfort with his words. Not much changed after her passing: she’d been…
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Narratives and Stories
This was originally posted on my old blog on 25 April 2017. The film When Harry met Sally is famous for That Orgasm Scene, where Meg Ryan’s Sally proves to Billy Crystal’s Harry that women can fake it, by faking it right there in a restaurant. I remember the film for something much quieter, but…
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I am not an idiot
This was originally posted on my old blog on 20 March 2017. Our boiler is one of those that directly heats water instead of warming a whole tankful. It’s been acting up for months, but it always managed to revive itself and work if you just left it a while and tried again later. We…
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You say Pu-tay-toe, I say Pu-tah-toe… (Conversationalisation)
This was originally posted on my old blog on 18 March 2017. I’m a sucker for the written word. I have been fascinated, since way before starting my studies, with how words are used to give subtle meaning to a written text, the reader not always realising they are being manipulated. Yet written text leaves…
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That Famous Paxman Interview
This was originally posted on my old blog on 6 March 2017. It was for an assignment for the Media Discourse and Analysis module in my final year of undergraduate studies. Media analysis can be extra interesting for me as an immigrant. I grew up and lived in a world far removed from the one…
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Preferred Meaning
This was originally posted to my old blog on 20 February 2017. Cultural theorist Stuart Hall suggested that mediated information must be examined through the lens of what he dubbed the Circuit of Culture: Image Source The circuit shows how every element influences and is influenced by every other element. Nothing stands alone, nothing escapes…
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The Narrow Gate (Newsworthiness)
This was originally posted on my old blog on 18 February 2017. It is impossible for any of us to know everything. Considering that there are 196 countries in the world, if only a single interesting thing happened in each of them every day, it would be a full time job to keep abreast. We…
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Is that an echo I hear?
This was originally posted on my old blog on 4 February 2017. The echo chamber effect works in two ways. First, it’s when you only get exposed to media which reflect your ideology, never challenging your already cemented views. Second, it’s when an opinion is uttered, and repeated in the media you are exposed to…
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The Wet Cat (Out-Foxed)
This was originally posted on my old blog on 3 February 2017. The successful reporter is one who can find a story, even if there is no earthquake or assassination or civil war. If he cannot find a story, then he must make one. These words perfectly explain the current flood of misleading or even…
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The Mirror (Reality)
This was originally posted on my old blog on 27 January 2017. We all live in the local, moving in and interacting with a limited part of the world. To form a view of and understand what lies outside our personal experience, we rely on the reports of others. In other words, mediators. Media –…