Media and The Lonely Deviant

Every time I consume mass media such as TV, podcast, newspaper, etc; I always have a battle in my main. The main question appears in my brain: 

Am I the “queen/king audience?” (who can be freely interpret the media and have full command to my mind), or Am I the “slave audience” who follows the representation in media message and follows the media interpretation power about the world? Frankly speaking, I do not like to be in the second choice because: “I’m (not) a slave for you (media)” (Britney Spears, 2001) but my resistant and rejection doesn’t mean that I am immune to media message injection. 

Orthodox media concern on “media polysemy and semiotic democracy,” which means that the audience will have diversity in understanding the media message. Diversity and resistant exist but it doesn’t mean that the audience is free, have power, and strengthen the idea of audience democracy. The second challenge is the audience is not necessarily always able to analyze, reject, or interpret the media. Therefore sometimes (for certain issues especially something that the audience have no direct connection with it) audience will get influence by the media. I have seen an interesting research when I was in high school. Someone put a glass of water which is labeled “HIV person has drunk from this glass, would you dare to drink from the same glass?” and no body dare to try it! After I ask whether they believe that HIV AIDS has no influence through saliva, and they say yes, but they just fell disgust and reduce any possibility of AIDS in their life. It means that active audience does not necessarily immune to media exposure (p.415) and inconsistency in interpretation and reaction occur.  

In my opinion, people tend to have stronger opinion to fight the mainstream media message if the issue is connected with their daily experience or the issue tend to jeopardize their communal believe. For example it is easier for Indonesian people to distrust the media message that Indonesia is the invader of East Timor (such as from the news of CNN, ABC or documentary film from Noam Chomski). They have personal experience from communal sharing or parental information that many people of East Timor want to be part of Indonesia but they are forced to be in East Timor or East Timor is poor and unstable therefore it is disadvantages for them to release from Indonesia, and all the idea that Indonesia “save” East Timor from problem by “in-vade-tegrate” them (Facebook response).

The resistant or diverse believe is strong because of the collective meaning has confirm individual believe. I think I am able to be resistant to media message or association for certain issue related to my life. However I am not the “strong queen”, I need various dependent variables to help me convince myself that my belief is true through communal validation (culture or behavior), alternative media confirmation (still media but at least it is not mainstream), and personal experience (which should be confirm by other’s experience). Those are all my excuse of being deviant. 
“I can be deviant but I do not want to be alone!”

"HOT" Ideas for future research:

a. Research in the variety of news/issues perspectives in digital media, such as YouTube, blogs, or website. For example: How Web 2.0 frames an issue, such as abortion, East Timor, tobacco campaign, etc. (choose one)

b. Research using FGD or interview about people's opinion on certain controversial news or news that is assumed as biased in mass media

c. The motivation of people looking for alternative information in digital media than conventional media.

Want to Vomit, Turn it off, or Vegetarian? Meet Your Meat Video

I am overwhelmingly drawn to video of “Meet Your Meat” in Youtube, which is posted by PETA and simultaneously sickened by them. For years I have been eating meat on my plate in various forms of food without thinking where and how this meat came from and how the animal is killed for the sake of delicious friend chicken, yummy steak, hamburger, etc.  Awww… I am hungry now.

The video portrays the undercover investigation of animal farm, to see how human treat animal during their life in the farm and how human finally killed this animal. The brutalization of the image in “Meet Your Meat” is often bravely shown blood, the painful voice of animal, violation action to animal, etc. (Don’t vomit, and keep reading, this pain will soon be finished). 

Thus, the video is not only shown slaughtering process of animal, but also the torture that human has done in order to give painful remark in every slice of meat. The conventions of scene in the video are disconcerting for me as “meat-tarian” and pushing me to change my life style to be vegetarian, to overcome my guilty feeling as a human who involved in killing the animal by consuming them. CONFESSION: Well, eventually I am still a meat lover, xixixixi.....

 The video from PETA is one of the videos in digital media, which uses persuasive approach through emotional appeal, to create certain sensation to their audience through the visualization of animal torture. The viewers of this video reach until 14.353.689 viewers (9/17/11). Through the development of Internet, individual or organization can easily upload video to gain their objective. 

The video of PETA has illustrated the idea of power and image.  This video has created a disturbance in audience cognition (Maybe you remember CDT, Cognitive Dissonance Theory by Festinger, 1957), vivid memory, and persuasive message in the same time. PETA wants to offer emotional attach to the audience with the issue they want to advocate in the public sphere. However, the use of visual rhetoric for emotional appeal may in lead into action, but also rejection, development of other emotional appeal, and confirmation of co-exist commitment.

“HOT” IDEAS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH:

Actually many researches have been done for PETA, because PETA is pretty “interesting” for scholars, but you still can have research on:

a.  Exploring the audience’s response on PETA video through quantitative research such as survey or FGD

b.   Research on other PETA’s persuasive message, because they have tons that pretty much similar. Maybe textual analysis or rhetorical criticism can be done

c.  Find out the visual pattern of vegetarianism through YouTube content analysis, Fun!!!