(Semi) Stream of Consciousness Blog Post

I am not completely sure what I want to talk in my last blog post. I always approach these assignments without knowing for certain what I will talk about. I let the words flow and my thoughts gather as I go, almost in a "stream of consciousness" style. It is a bit sad to think this is the last post, and I feel like there is nothing I can talk about that will be good enough for a finale.

Well! Concerning the last authors we saw, I have to say I really liked them! Herman and Chomsky and Bourdieu have similar lines of thought. They critic how our current media is being produced, and the effects of that form of production. These two texts might have been my favorites of the entire semester. Although I am a big fan of Althusser and Marx (and their founding principles and analysis of the capitalist system), I enjoy how Herman and Chomsky and Bourdieu go further. They use previously stablished concepts to analyze "current" processes and how our media is evolving within the system.

Foucault was extremely interesting as well. His language reminds me a bit more of Zizek. But they have one important distinction: while Zizek envisions our society as one os spectacle, Foucault sees us as beings of surveillance. The discussion in class on this subject was extremely interesting as well. As this surveillance evolves, and we start to keep tabs on each other, it seems that the definition of surveillance and spectacle start to get more entangled. What is a reality show, surveillance or spectacle? Maybe we have become so accustomed and addicted to the surveillance mode that now we crave it. Perhaps we want to be observed. Is this a natural condition? Or have we been programmed to feel this way? (I believe Bourdieu would agree that media and the systems conditions us; after all, ratings are not democratic because we are being conditioned to want to watch certain material. Or desires are not natural in our controlled environment).

This class has made me reflect about several aspects of contemporary life. I believe this critical foundation will be useful in many aspects of my academic and my professional life. We are CMC majors for a reason; we are here to look at the world critically.