Racism in Olympic Coverage
Gabby Douglas’ hair, female Chinese athletes as stoic automatons, ‘plastic Britons,’ and advertisements featuring monkeys on gymnastic apparatus—if one thing has characterised media coverage...
Category: Politics
Attacks in Sinai Lead to Complete Closure of Gaza
On Sunday, 35 militants attacked a border post with automatic gunfire and grenades in the Sinai Peninsula—killing 16 Egyptian soldiers, and injuring seven others. After attacking the soldiers, the...
Justice in Queensland: Protecting Whom, Exactly?
Sometimes, living in a relatively safe country like Australia, one becomes complacent in expecting one’s government to be out to, you know, do justly by its citizens. (If not its non-citizens; hi,...
Taking on the media: Mexico’s unprecedented protests against Televisa
Something unprecedented has been happening in Mexico for the past eight weeks: thousands of students, workers and peasants are taking to the streets to protest the media legitimization of what is...
The Happiest Place On Earth: Racist Police Violence in Anaheim
Southern California in July can be suffocatingly hot, the kind of intense heat that drives you indoors for much of the day and leaves tempers simmering at a low boil, waiting for a reason to bubble...
Why Political Animals Lacks Bite
With Veep, 1600 Penn, Scandal, The Good Wife, and Political Animals, fictionalised versions of sex, politics, power, and Washington are taking over the airwaves this year as the real Washington gears...
What about the Politics? On American Denial in the Wake of Human Suffering
The past week has seen examples of some of the meanest and most pathological aspects of American culture in spades. Between vocal Penn Staters who prize their beloved football program above their...
Spain’s New Summer of Discontent
On July 11, thousands of people took to the streets of Madrid to support the coal miners from the Northern Asturias region that had marched into the country’s capital to protest the reduction in...
Alan Chambers and Exodus International Abandon “Ex-Gay” Talk but Keep the Politics
Last month, Alan Chambers, president of Exodus International, the largest ex-gay organization in the world, had a coming out of sorts. That is, he posted a letter at the organization’s website...
Aaron Sorkin and New Media: Why Newsroom Rings Hollow
The pilot of The Newsroom on HBO was an artistic, factual, and an ideological failure, and critics are not responding favourably. Particularly young critics in new media, the very content management...