Unless you finish your sentence with the words “oh, and you are PO’s running dog” or “and by the way, whoever is after PIS is a communist” then whatever you have just said instantly becomes meaningless. Recently, politics in Poland are everywhere: in the newspapers, on tv, in your breakfast and behind the corner of the street. You cannot move without hearing a political opinion, or without making an opinion political.

The closeness of European Parliament elections even more dramatizes these issues. Political aspects MUST be a part of your worldview if you want it to count. Whether one likes it or not, this is the current discourse of the debate in the media. Politics are important, but essentially involving them into every aspect of one’s life may soon have negative consequences. There is only a limited amount of politicized opinions one can take. There will come a time, when people will be fed up with others adding a political stance to anything they say. For Poland unfortunately, these times haven’t come yet, and unless people are willing to give up their personal prejudices for the good of all, little will change.

For all those who have a little distance to politics, I recommend this video by Szymon Majewski. I personally think that it is hilarious and nicely made. It talks about politicians and politics, and makes fun of Tusk, yet in an intelligent and uncanny way. If you wish, you may say that Majewski used to criticize PIS much more, and that this video is not evenly criticizing PO. If you wish you can catcall Majewski himself, together with his ‘show’. If you wish you may use it as an argument in your political gibberish.

But for all those, who still have a sense of humor: enjoy.

Poland has responded with a harsh critique of the article, pointing out that without Germans there would be no Holocaust at all. The newspaper then answered in a somehow mocking tone, accusing Polish president of being too afraid to admit to these historical facts and trying to play the victim on the European arena. 

These quarrels between the Polish government and German newspaper, and the internal tensions between Polish newspapers (Dziennik and Rzeczpospolita criticquing Spiegel and Wyborcza critiquing Dziennik and Rzeczpospolita) had caused a great debate in the Polish public sphere.

Are we afraid of historical facts then, I ask? It does not take a historian to know that there were people everywhere in Europe who were strong Anti-Semites, and did what they could to help Nazis kill Jews. Anti-semitism is as old as Judaism itself, therefore denying these facts would simply be unwise. Yet, there is a difference between admitting that some Polish people were Anti-Semites, and between claiming that majority of Polish citizens actively took part in the Holocaust.

Der Spiegel mentions the experiment of Milgram, which showed how obedience makes people evil. The experiment shown that in the presence of an authority and without the possibility to discuss and reflect upon one’s actions, individuals are likely to do evil things, partly because they enjoy pleasing the authority, feel that they are a part of something significant, but most importantly because they do not find themselves guilty of their actions. The authority in their view takes the responsibilty on himself. Somehow, they feel as if they are the knife of the butcher: at the end of the day it’s the butcher who is charged with the death of an animal, not the knife. The newspaper seems to justify German’s and others’ actions saying that they were simply obeying the orders of Nazis.

Well, the truth is, that the journalists did not do their research properly. If they did, they would have traced a similar experiment to the one of Milgrams, the experiment of Gamson et el, which researches the question of rebellion. Gamson found out that wherever the group is involved, because people are able to communicate with each other, discuss and reflect upon their actions, they are more willing to rebel towards authority. Der Spiegel’s use of Milgram experiment to justify Anti-Semitic actions of groups of non-German nationals is therefore mistaken. In Poland there were many people who did not obey German orders and hid Jews in their homes, risking their own lives. If one wants to seem smart then it would be much more appropriate to use Gamson’s experiment to show how with the help of non-German nationals some Jews actually survived the Holocaust, than with the use of Milgram’s experiment try to prove why some people were Anti-Semites. 

Finally, calling Poland ‘hysteric over history’ and afraid of facing historical truth is simply ridiculous. We are being acused of over reacting to the expressions such as “Polish extermination camps” and over reacting to the articles like the one in Spiegel. I find such accusations pathetic. Poland has a right to protect its history. Because one of the most horrific events in the history of humanity happened on our land, we have every right to make sure that the truth stays the truth, and reject such accusations. Der Spiegel can call it however it wants – yes, we may be over reacting, but the bottom line is – soon there will be no witnesses of the horrors of Holocaust, as most of people who survived it are now very old. Who then will be able to tell us the true story? The newspaper articles and hisotrical books. And since newspaper articles, apparently, as the example of Der Spiegel have shown, tend to attract much more attention that credible historical books, we need to be over reacting. Articles are written by journalists, who do not always check sources, who do not always provide perfectly correct information. If the history will be build on the basis of such articles, our children and grandchildren may believe that the Holocaust was the invention of the whole of Europe, and we are all guily of the murders in concentration camps. In a way we are, because we did little to prevent it, but this is a different type of responsibility than the German one. The distinction between the two should be made clear.

The issue of Poland having problems to admit that some of its citizens were Anti-Semites is a different story. Important to sort out, but having nothing to do with making sure that nobody revisions the history. We are no perfect nation, but we did not take an active part in Holocaust, and neither did other nations of Europe. It was the invention and the project of Nazis, majority of which were Germans. Making Holocaust an European project therefore, is a dangerous historical revisionism, which should be taken care of. 

For those who know Polish and want to read the article for themselves:

http://wyborcza.pl/1,97849,6640582,Ciemny_kontynent___niemieccy_zbrodniarze_i_ich_pomocnicy.html?as=5&ias=8&startsz=x

Most of us remember the widely publicized campaigns against anorexia, for example the one by Oliviero Toscani, who photographed a nude anorectic woman, and put the picture up on the billboards. This happened quite a while ago, and one could think that such an over-reported topic will not come back soon. Yet, to the surprise of many, anorexia is controversial enough to secure its share in the reporting of fashion around the world.

Countless times I have stumbled upon the coverages of fashion shows, written explicitly along the discourse of anorexia. One could even think, that the mere presence of models makes some journalists rush for their pens and write passionate articles against these socially condemned girls, without even taking a look at them.

And so, in an article, a young model, aged anything between 17 and 22, who wears sizes 32-34 is immediately criticized for being anorectic, and in need of immediate medical help. The discourse of this illness of the XXI century is so powerful that some people get lost in the anorexia ‘craze’ and are ready to call any slim and thin young woman a sick one. Moreover, to help the good citizen spot such a sick puppy, the reader is offered a series of pictures representing girls who are anorexic. Or at least, that is what the reader thinks while looking at the pictures. The fact that these pictures are chosen by some editor in some newsroom, the process of production, is alienated from the final produce, and instead of realizing that these girls are only considered by the author of the article to be anorexic, they are received by the public as indeed being sick.

The comments under such articles best illustrate the powerful effects of this particular media discourse. The article named “Anorexia – a models career sickness” (Anoreksja – zawodowa choroba modelek), a Polish writer shows a series of pictures of female models.
And so, this woman:

is considered by the public as a former Aushwitz prisoner, with ill-looking face, caused by lack of proper nourishment.
A bolded caption above the picture, suggests the interpretative framework within which, a healthy and good citizen should comment on the look of the girl. Opposing the general reception of this woman’s appearance, therefore stating that she does not look anorectic, risks being condemned as an anorectic yourself, and being criticized as supporting the anorexia, and although such comments do appear, they represent a visible minority.

There is much debate within the media studies nowadays, about the role of the audience in the reception and interpretation of media texts. There are many views on the issue, and recently the ones stating the active participation of the audience in making sense and decoding media texts are the prevailing ones. However, there is much evidence available which exposes the underestimation of discourse and media frameworks influence on the interpretation of texts.

This picture of a similar woman, equally slim and tall, was taken from the same website, only from the section addressed at men.
This woman is presented by the author of the article as a super sexy, tanned babe. Nobody even thinks of bringing up anorexia, because the context of the image suggests a different interpretation. It’s amazing to see how people are being subtly guided by the authors of the articles, and how certain interpretations are encouraged and others are not. If these girls walked out on the beach, most men heads would turn after them, with a clear expression of “she’s hot”. The same men, later, on the internet forum express their disgust on seeing such bony and ill-looking girls like the ones above. 

The theoretical analysis of the role of audience has still a long way to go, as the often idealistic view, that ‘in order for the reader to emerge, the author must die’ is still often undermined by the reality of media. I would like to see more critical and skeptical approach to the content of media coverage, and although there are increasing numbers of voices not afraid to speak against the generalized and standardized interpretations of media coverages, these voices are, in most cases, sadly a minority.

And finally there is a question of gender. Both men and women criticize anorexia, but it appears that the illness affects only females. Men also can have anorexia, but somehow this is never the case in the media. Is this another example of the patriarchal system we live in? No, I am not a feminist, but the problem of anorexia is clearly a gendered one.

August: Warm welcome at the airport. Polish flag not held upside down. Lucky bastards, it’s probably by a mistake. We arrive at the house in the middle of the night. “Don’t worry darling, I will wake you up at 8am. You need to get used to getting up early”. I am the personification of misery.

September: School starts. I learn all the presidents and their wife’s names. I get a job at the horse farm across the street. Animals like me. So do the neighbours. Entire family gathers for my late birthday party. Nobody knows me but I am kissed and hugged by everyone. Cards, presents, pictures with the cake. Later that night a hurricane comes. “If the roof goes off get into a tub and stay there until it’s over”. I desperately locate bathrooms. Nothing happens. 

October: I make friends at school. Language and weird accent are not a problem any more. I learn to say “yall”. We make a Halloween party. We decorate the house. All my friends come. I dress as a vampire. We dance, and eat and curve pumpkins. 

November: I gain weight. Mexican food is killing me. I join the soccer team of my school. Half of the goals we scored in the season are mine (2). I learn softball. They know it by heart. I give up softball. I learn country dances. 

December: Christmas. All members of the family come. We have long talks in front of the fireplace. We go see the house which won this year’s contest for the biggest number of Christmas lights on the porch. We eat more mexican food than any of you could think of. We exchange presents. Everyone sings carols. Children play. I am happy. “Family”, I think, “the greatest gift of all”. It’s 25 degrees outside. 

January: I move. Ideological differences couldn’t let me stay. I do not think that the picture of a white woman having sex with a black man is a disturbing one. I get a new family, and two sisters. 

February: Younger sister’s birthday. I am here only couple of days but already feel like a member of a family. I get presents. Although it’s her birthday (but she gets some too). I bond with my sisters.We gossip a lot, spend time at school together and drive around the city singing. It’s getting colder. Only 20 degrees. 

March: I am an important part of the family now. I get to make decisions and have a say. I get to drive Dad’s car, shop with Mom, and I am even taken on my sister’s first date. We go to the lake. We swim, eat, and enjoy ourselves. I learn to fish. 

April: I learn to hunt. I shoot a paper lion, a paper bear and a paper dolphin. We go driving four wheelers in the woods. We dance in the rain. I love country music. We go to the bar to sing karaoke. I am a good singer now. “Hell yeeeeeeah”.

May: Airport. I turn around with a twisted heart, to once again, for the last time wave at my family. They cry. I try not to. I fail. My exchange is over. My heart broken. I leave the most sincere and lovable people in the world. I’m going back to Europe.

This report was written following my recent trip to the North East of United States. I was struck by the range of unimaginable stereotypes about people from the South. Oh boy, we all have stereotypes, but do believe me, these were some interesting ones. As I was lucky enough to spend a year of my life in the South, I felt that I must take a stance. Although there is much prejudice in the South towards certain groups of people, most of the so-called ‘rednecks’ are very peaceful people, who live their lives without hurry or stress. They take out their guns only if you offend them for no reason. They admire nature and pay attention to the small things in life, such as valuable friendships and good family relations. They are the most open, sincere and lovable people I have stumbled upon. Big ‘hell yeeeah’ for my American family from the mysterious dumps of Louisiana!

Gender is a very, very difficult topic to deal with. Not only because one can’t really step outside of one’s gender and objectively asses things from an uninvolved position, but more importantly, because it is still a taboo to talk about gender. Yes, I am talking about ‘our’ modern, western world. We, the people of that world are simply afraid of such topics.

Afraid of what, you ask? Well, lets consider some questions. Is gender a given, something that determines us or is it us who determine our gender? Which side is stronger in this conflict? Is it even a conflict? Does following traditional, stereotypical gender roles makes the division between gender clearer? Is a boy who wears a dress and looks like a girl still a boy? Or is it a girl? Or a fake girl perhaps? What does make a girl fake? If you can’t tell if the girl is really a boy, because of both feminine appearance and feminine behavior, does it matter that s/he has a penis? What is feminine behavior? Does the fact that I like football makes me less of a woman?

Now you know what I mean! People are afraid of those answers, because they touch upon a very fundamental question: is gender the product of who we are, or are we the product of gender? If you represent the latter statement, then clearly, transgendered people are considered as psychologically unstable, mental, and being unable to accustom to the given reality. They are simply ‘confused’ individuals who force themselves into the belief that they are what they are not.

However, if you represent the former statement then things get complicated. If it is us who determines our gender, by the set of practices and beliefs we chose to adopt, then transgendered people should be seen in a quite different light. Most of us accept our gender, being born a female or a male. Most of us then, adopt the codes of behavior usually identified with being female or male. We are further encouraged to do this by the family and society. Thus, a girl is raised like a girl should be in most families, wearing dresses and playing with dolls. But if I decided that I want to be a man, cut my hair, dressed and started acting according to the codes identified with males, would I be a woman or a man? Are we always limited to our own bodies when it comes to the construction of self-identity?

I will leave you with that. And with the following coverage which I found on a Polish news site, but which was originally a CNN coverage. I have mentioned very generally the issues of gender, but if you looked for specific answers, then I must disappoint you. Some questions don’t need clear answers, as long as they are asked.

Sorry, currently experiencing problems with posting the movie, here is the link for now:

Transgendered child

]]> http://mediahotel.wordpress.com/2009/05/19/if-boys-wore-dresses/feed/ 1 mediahotel Gender http://mediahotel.wordpress.com/2009/05/18/the-story-of-the-day/ http://mediahotel.wordpress.com/2009/05/18/the-story-of-the-day/#comments Mon, 18 May 2009 15:49:17 +0000 mediahotel http://mediahotel.wordpress.com/?p=61 ]]> I actually came to the conclusion, seeing the rain outside (yes it’s raining again), that the world today is too gloomy to be fed another portion of ill-chosen stories, exposing corruption, crime and generally underlining the negativity of our beautiful world. So I though to myself, why not give people something that will actually make them smile, something that won’t make them go ‘those darn politicians! what do they know!’. I strongly believe that we need more positive news! More happy news! I know that this vision is highly unrealistic and no news station will ever report about something good happening unless it has consequences for the elites of this world, simply because these stories do not sell. We are accustomed to hearing negative stories, and such dramatic change could disturb our neatly organized lives. My grandmother once told me that when she was younger there was much less catastrophes and plane crashes. Much less misery in general. Well, the conclusion might be that the world is coming to an end and we will all die soon so please after reading this post let your loved ones know that you care for them. In fact, everything is just a question of subjectivity, world seems worse and more dangerous because only bad and disturbing stories are reported. Why would someone really care about something good happening on the other end of the planet, if instead we can listen to the reports of natural disasters and make ourselves believe that maybe, after all, we are not as unfortunate as we think?

But can a good story make our day? Put a smile on a face, and give us faith that this world is not coming to an end YET? Sure it can. And we should be allowed to hear such stories. If you do not believe that this would change anything, wouldn’t it be nice to hear one good story among the many that have tragic consequences? We ourselves chose the colours in which we paint our world. Today, I want mine to be bright and cheerful. Not grey, for once.

This I found on the BBC page, deep between the less important news, among ranked lowest “Also in the news” section which, no doubt after such publicity attracts millions ;]. I thought I would share the little story with you, and maybe, just maybe, make your day.

Poor little kangaroo, perhaps in the pervasive attempt to commit suicide, or in a wrongly calculated decision to catch a few waves, appeared to have decided to swim deep into the sea. Enjoy




Why do you think this poor sweetheart run into the sea? Comment and share your vision of the story !

]]> http://mediahotel.wordpress.com/2009/05/18/the-story-of-the-day/feed/ 3 mediahotel http://mediahotel.wordpress.com/2009/05/17/201/ http://mediahotel.wordpress.com/2009/05/17/201/#comments Sun, 17 May 2009 22:31:31 +0000 mediahotel http://mediahotel.wordpress.com/2009/05/17/201/ ]]>

Witam, Hi and welcome to my page,

Having no idea what I want to do in life, but being interested in journalism and media, a year ago I decided to just go along with what I like. There’s a growing number of  universities that offer this useless, banal and not-academic-enough subject. Having considered that, I chose one of them, and I ended up in a big city, where it rains 8 days a week, studying my dream course. 

I did enjoy reading newspapers and watching news before I started studying media.  I wasn’t a newspaper addict, but I did get to read them from time to time. Having said that, after a year of study I can’t look at newspapers and news anymore. Not that my course discouraged me, I guess I simply became more aware of bad journalism, which is just oh-so-visible on most news pages.

After all, journalism is a very old profession, but nowadays, mostly because of the crisis and partly because of laziness and falling standards, there is less good journalists and more copy and paste workers. And I am fed up with this. It’s not my personal mission to expose the bad practices, I also do not consider myself a good journalist, not even a journalist (yet), I guess it’s just my recent hobby to get annoyed by media coverages, that have nothing to do with the issue they cover. 

I would write in Polish, which is my first language, but since my computer for the reasons known only to himself, does not allow me to use Polish symbols, (yes, it’s like shaving with a bowling pin), and since I am too lazy to download anything that would allow me to use them, I will just stick to English. So sit back, relax and enjoooooy the ride.

 


]]> http://mediahotel.wordpress.com/2009/05/17/201/feed/ 0 mediahotel