Author Archives: TanyaGollapali

Hasan Minhaj’s Patriot Act episode on Saudi Arabia discusses the United States’ relationship with Saudi Arabia, following the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, and the crime’s possible connection to Saudi crown prince Mohammad bin Salam. In a witty yet comedic way, Hasan manages to bring about some common Islamic tropes and also joke about it in the audience as a way to reach out to them. The trope about Islam being a monolithic religion was highlighted the most followed by the religion’s ‘need’ to be sexist and excursionist.

When we talk about Islam being a monolithic religion, we automatically make an assumption that all those belonging to this religion think,act and behave in the same manner i.e. the actions of a certain subgroup within this religion is a representation of what the whole of Islam stands for. Minhaj rightly points out of how in reality Saudi Arabia is only two percent of the entire Muslim population, but whenever Saudi does something wrong, Muslims around the world have to live with the consequences. On the other hand, if something good happens, people like Mohammad Bin Salam get to speak with Oprah. Similarly, he made a comment about how ‘Muslims feel about dogs’, which generalizes the opinion of all Muslims further emphasizing on the monolithic aspect of the religion by almost saying that something as personal as opinions on dogs is fixed under Islam. What i noticed was that while all these instances were made in a humorous manner, he did address this seriously when he spoke of the relationship between Saudi Arabia and America.

Hasan Minhaj also talks about how Saudi in a way idolized MBS because he was one of the very few people in power who actually stood in support of women being able to drive, which is why it was so tough for people to actually antagonize him and blame him for the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. This also points towards how normalized and generalized these tropes have become in our everyday lives, so much so that we are ready to believe and follow something as negative as sexism, in the name of religion.

‘His First Day of School’ and ‘Her First Day of School’ by Dionne Paul are two large photographic representations of Canada’s dark history regarding the education system,placed in the Multiversity Gallery at the Museum Of Anthropology. A young boy/girl (depending on which art piece) stands in the center of the photo. His/her smiling face and lower legs are in color, while his/her torso and upper legs are surrounded by a rectangular black & white, X-ray type image on top of the the color picture. Inside the rectangle he is wearing a neat suit coat, pants and tie, hands joined behind his back while she is wearing a neat white buttoned jacket that reaches to her knees and hands clasped together in front.

“These two pieces juxtapose the atrocities of the residential school experience with the modern school experience” (Paul, MOA)

The artist’s statement talks about how the first day of school for most parents is filled with nervousness yet the good kind of excitement for their children,whereas the first day of school for First Nations was a heartbreaking and tragic experience for parents who were legally forced to send their children for the entire school year, The children were subjected to an extremely unsafe environment. Cases of malnutrition,sexual abuse and unwanted pregnancies were quite common.

Dionne Paul fits the definition of an “artist warrior”  (Kramer,173) as she is brave enough to create a work of art which explicitly depicts the atrocities faced by the young children due to inequalities in the education system for the indigenous people. And like explained by Robert Houle in his definition of ‘artist warrior’, this piece of art remains hung in a western and otherwise contemporary  museum, where it has the ability to bring about a strong cultural and political change.

Being an Indian myself ran chills down my spine to see the kind of atrocities faced by the indigenous Indians in Canada. I believe that displaying this dark piece of art among other  indigenous objects was a rather brave move on the part of the curation staff, because it shows how even the traumatic parts of history ultimately do end up making the historic indigenous culture. And by displaying it, i feel like they are accepting it and taking it in their stride.  

These two pieces are visual manifestations of the crimes against humanity committed in the 139 residential schools in Canada and are relevant imagery when discussing a community as it is important to acknowledge all aspects of the history of a community

Manuel Castells’ chapter, ‘The Egyptian Revolution’ focuses on how social media was able to bring about a sociopolitical change in the state of Egypt at a time of political instability and uncertainty.  I was assigned this reading and i was rebutting arguments in favor of the resolution. Since i always knew that i’d be presenting arguments in favor of the resolution, i read the chapter having THAT mindset. In my honest opinion, my perspective on the chapter didn’t really change much because i already agreed to everything Castells mentioned about the importance of social media the chapter.

Castells focuses on the crucial role of technology and social media platforms in what he deems the “internet age”(Castells,67). As his thesis, Castells proposes to suggest some hypotheses, grounded on observation, on the nature and perspectives of networked social movements, with the hope of identifying the new paths of social change in our time.He explores the roles that Facebook, Twitter and the internet play in disseminating information, organizing rallies, planning the occupation of public spaces, and forming collective agendas with which to address the respective movements’ goals.The occupation of public spaces organized through the use of internet and wireless technology over social media networks ultimately changed the traditional protest or demonstration into what Castells and many others call the new social movement. The hybrid nature of these movements is what made them different and arguably stronger than their traditional counterparts.

While listening to the opposing group didn’t completely change my opinion on the importance of social media to bring about sociopolitical change, it certainly did lead me to think about how in earlier times, traditional movements actually DID take place without the use of social media. There were some real life examples used by the opposition which did prove to be compelling arguments for eg. how the Chinese revolution was a massive success even though it was set in a time where social media wasn’t prevalent and how social media did prove to be a slight hindrance in the 2016 US presidential elections.

One major difference between Castells and Dean’s perspective on social media was how they viewed it. Castells believed that social networking platforms like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube were used to document the spontaneous demonstrations that erupted across the country to help spread the message for change, and to connect with fellow protesters. Using these mediums, they successfully organized the occupation of symbolic public spaces like the Tahrir Square.The combination of internet activism and thorough, non-stop coverage from Al Jazeera which worked with protesters in trading information together helped strengthen and magnify the movement. Dean on the other hand viewed social media as something that was extremely frivolous and believed that content on such sites were not taken seriously. While many social movements were touted as “raising awareness”, in reality, such movements help nothing but the egos of those running them. At best, they were hollow facades that advance nothing, and actively harm the movements they “support” at worst. By examining the flaws of the most popular social movements, it will be clear that social media was unable to effectively contribute to sociopolitical change.

In conclusion, this debate was an interesting activity that helped bring to life various contrasting views on social media and also helped expand one’s thinking horizon.

The #MeToo movement on social media always had a vision from the beginning- to address both the lack of resources for survivors of sexual violence and to build a community of advocates, driven by the survivors, who will be at the forefront of creating solutions to interrupt sexual violence in their communities.

In less than six months, the viral #metoo hashtag,led to a vital conversation about sexual violence that had been thrust into the national dialogue. What  started as local grassroots work had expanded to reach a global community of survivors from all walks of life and helped to de-stigmatize the act of surviving by highlighting the impact of a sexual violence worldwide.

Along with allowing a safe space for victims to open to up about their experiences,social media and it’s widespread influence also made notable changes in the workplace dynamic of multiple industries and companies.Before the movement was this prominent, the workplace dynamic for the accusers was characterized by the ignorance and the lack of explicit action on behalf of the coworkers. Social media boosted this campaign and in turn changed the mindset of the individuals within a workspace. Hundreds of tweets and thousands of instagram posts of survivors, led to a conscious effort on the part of the coworkers to identify any wrong doing in their surroundings and take justified action for the same to ensure that the victims have a safe space to work in. Justice and compensation was given in the form of the termination of the contract of employment of the accused or aid in the form of emotional therapy.

An example of this was the dissolution of the  ‘Phantom’ production house, which was a prominent part of the Hindi Film Industry.  One of the famous and strong voices who spoke against the accused CEO of the company- Vikas Bahl, was the actress Kangana Ranaut which led to the company ceasing their operations. Thus emphasising the function of social media and its effects on institutional spheres.#MeToo movement, being a campaign crafted on the infinitely expanding medium of social media, is able to have this prominent impact mentioned above.

The #MeToo movement garnered positive attention and led to the creation of multiple non-profit organisations that focuses on empowering silent victims of sexual abuse.

What has been more surprising is the support and trust that the readers place into the the victims story and believing it unquestionably.  Influential powers have also shown that the movement has spread like wildfire, making them take decisions that would determine the future of an industry as a whole as well as of an individual.

The development of digital technology has increased accessibility so that people all over the world can create contents easily which are a  medium to be connected with each other and produce other  additional contents.The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge demonstrated the power of social media and the audience  to influence cause marketing on a national scale.

The challenge was a perfect storm of media celebrity and grass-roots philanthropy, producing hurricane-strength viral social engagement during the  summer of 2014 (Forbes.com. (2018). [online] Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/steveolenski/2014/08/22/7-marketing-lessons-from-the-als-ice-bucket-challenge/#71474b6c7586 ) It originated from Pete Frates, a former Boston College baseball player, who got ALS and started to post his challenge to raise awareness and money for patients suffering from ALS. A huge number of participants  expressed their gratitude for getting an opportunity to participate in this meaningful challenge and uploaded their videos on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram.What about its effect? Was it small? No! as you know, it was massive. The process of the challenge was so simple, but its effects to the society were considerably massive. From their perspective, doing small thing led to super positive consequences such as raising awareness and money for the good cause.

This phenomenon is called ‘participatory culture’ which means “a culture in which private persons (the public) do not act as consumer only, but also as contributors or produces (prosumers; it is a combined word with producer and consumer) (“Participatory culture”).  According to Jenkins et al. (2006), major characteristics of participatory culture reflect audience’s perspective to participate in digital culture.(3rs-reduction.co.uk, 2018)

The campaign was completely organic and relied entirely on ordinary individuals. There was no big marketing blitz to numb the public — a public that is far too jaded from the over-abundance of media images in the internet age (Medium. (2018). The Success of the Ice-Bucket Challenge – PROVOCO – Medium. [online] Available at: https://medium.com/@Provocome/the-success-of-the-ice-bucket-challenge-269f1776122d [Accessed 1 Oct. 2018]). Ordinary people saw other ordinary people participate in the ice-bucket challenge. This was inspiring to others on a deep and intuitive level. The combined effect of regular people participating along with the celebrities doing the same things boosted the success of the campaign.The cause and effect of the challenge were clear and people were able to get behind it without any moral ambiguity. This feature also tended to give the good feelings people derive from doing something which benefits others. Those who saw and participated in the ice-bucket challenge saw a clear direction from what they saw on social media to their own ability to join in, and ultimately to the desired outcome of doing something good.

Overall, the ALS ice bucket challenge created quite a stir back in the day but it did help get us one step closer to bridging the gap between the audience and the various forms of media as well as show us how participation of the audience could really turn ideas into reality!