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I AM majoring in Supernatural, dammit! So go shove it!
Grr. I am SO SICK of the derision of popular culture that goes on in mainstream media (ironically enough) and society in Australia. More specifically, the dismissal of it as a valid field within which to base critical theory.
Every time I mention to someone outside of my field of interest that I’m studying – gasp! - television, their response is frequently one of scorn. Someone even questioned whether it was possible for “TV theory” to exist at all!
To which my response was: dude. It has such a huge influence on our lives, and you’re saying it’s not worth the time of day?
There is this tenaciously clinging assumption in Australian society that ‘real’ culture, the only culture that holds any value, is this classical (and at times, arthouse) European culture. There are huge literature, art history and history departments; people still kind of blink puzzledly at me when I say I’m majoring in “Media Theory”, or to dumb it down further – “Cinema studies”.
Popular culture is, of course, linked inextricably with American culture, as this article demonstrates:
For $25m cash, unis say: kick me
[From the Australian Financial Review, Rear Window p.54, 18th Sept 2006]
It’s high noon in the bidding war between Australia’s major universities to host the proposed United States Study Centre, which will attract a nice $25 million wedge to help whichever seat of learning is chosen to set it up.
This all relates to the announcement in May by Prime Minister John Howard of a plan to deepen Australian understanding of our oft-pilloried ally. The University of Sydney went public late last week to say it was making a submission before entries closed n Friday.
You won’t be amazed to hear that the University of Melbourne and ANU in Canberra are also understood to have thrown their hats in the ring. The winner is expected to be announced in November.
The real clincher in these cash-strapped days is that the chose university can expect the initial $25 million in funding to be doubled via corporate donations.
The revenue raising will be managed via the Australian American Association.
Out only concern is that the present wave of ‘blame the Yanks’ sentiment around the world, setting up such a centre in an Australian university is akin to pinning a note on your back that says ‘kick me’.
We’re not taking sides, but lets just say there may have to be a few security considerations.
The tone of which irritates the crap out of me again. The thought of a United States Study Centre at my university sends me into fits of delirious delight. The bulk of politically correct society in Australia may have little respect for George Bush, but the absolute conflation of American culture with American government is a big mistake to make. Just because our Prime Minister like to kiss the US President’s butt doesn’t mean that media texts produced by American artists (or whatever you’d like to call the creators of contemporary texts) should be dismissed and derided.
I agree that the volume of American culture in comparison to texts produced from other places (including our own country) is problematic. But I still say that regardless of ill will toward Administration or desire for more diversity, popular culture has a huge, huge influence on our lives.
I say, acknowledging that and working to be active within it and take our own interpretations of it is a more appropriate – if not necessary – course of action to take instead of covering our metaphorical ears and eyes against the nuclear blast and continuing to reminisce on the ‘good ole days’ of the Italian Renaissance, fer frick’s sake.
Not that there’s anything wrong with studying the Italian Renaissance, hell no. But claiming that that field of study is a more valid one than the field that concerns the material we consume on a daily basis is seriously screwed up.
This message brought to you by the fact that Star Wars creator George Lucas announced today that his private foundation will give his alma mater, the University of Southern California (USC), $US175 million ($A233.35 million) to endow and rebuild its School of Cinematic Arts in what amounts to the largest donation in USC history.
Meanwhile, my school is being closed down and dissolved into the wider “Arts” (or humanities) faculty, namely the English department. Bye-bye, school dedicated to both practical and theoretical creative arts disciplines.
Every time I mention to someone outside of my field of interest that I’m studying – gasp! - television, their response is frequently one of scorn. Someone even questioned whether it was possible for “TV theory” to exist at all!
To which my response was: dude. It has such a huge influence on our lives, and you’re saying it’s not worth the time of day?
There is this tenaciously clinging assumption in Australian society that ‘real’ culture, the only culture that holds any value, is this classical (and at times, arthouse) European culture. There are huge literature, art history and history departments; people still kind of blink puzzledly at me when I say I’m majoring in “Media Theory”, or to dumb it down further – “Cinema studies”.
Popular culture is, of course, linked inextricably with American culture, as this article demonstrates:
For $25m cash, unis say: kick me
[From the Australian Financial Review, Rear Window p.54, 18th Sept 2006]
It’s high noon in the bidding war between Australia’s major universities to host the proposed United States Study Centre, which will attract a nice $25 million wedge to help whichever seat of learning is chosen to set it up.
This all relates to the announcement in May by Prime Minister John Howard of a plan to deepen Australian understanding of our oft-pilloried ally. The University of Sydney went public late last week to say it was making a submission before entries closed n Friday.
You won’t be amazed to hear that the University of Melbourne and ANU in Canberra are also understood to have thrown their hats in the ring. The winner is expected to be announced in November.
The real clincher in these cash-strapped days is that the chose university can expect the initial $25 million in funding to be doubled via corporate donations.
The revenue raising will be managed via the Australian American Association.
Out only concern is that the present wave of ‘blame the Yanks’ sentiment around the world, setting up such a centre in an Australian university is akin to pinning a note on your back that says ‘kick me’.
We’re not taking sides, but lets just say there may have to be a few security considerations.
The tone of which irritates the crap out of me again. The thought of a United States Study Centre at my university sends me into fits of delirious delight. The bulk of politically correct society in Australia may have little respect for George Bush, but the absolute conflation of American culture with American government is a big mistake to make. Just because our Prime Minister like to kiss the US President’s butt doesn’t mean that media texts produced by American artists (or whatever you’d like to call the creators of contemporary texts) should be dismissed and derided.
I agree that the volume of American culture in comparison to texts produced from other places (including our own country) is problematic. But I still say that regardless of ill will toward Administration or desire for more diversity, popular culture has a huge, huge influence on our lives.
I say, acknowledging that and working to be active within it and take our own interpretations of it is a more appropriate – if not necessary – course of action to take instead of covering our metaphorical ears and eyes against the nuclear blast and continuing to reminisce on the ‘good ole days’ of the Italian Renaissance, fer frick’s sake.
Not that there’s anything wrong with studying the Italian Renaissance, hell no. But claiming that that field of study is a more valid one than the field that concerns the material we consume on a daily basis is seriously screwed up.
This message brought to you by the fact that Star Wars creator George Lucas announced today that his private foundation will give his alma mater, the University of Southern California (USC), $US175 million ($A233.35 million) to endow and rebuild its School of Cinematic Arts in what amounts to the largest donation in USC history.
Meanwhile, my school is being closed down and dissolved into the wider “Arts” (or humanities) faculty, namely the English department. Bye-bye, school dedicated to both practical and theoretical creative arts disciplines.
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