My name is Julia Stern, and I am a Senior concentrating in International Relations and Italian Studies. I was so excited to first learn about this course – and the Global Media Project at Watson – two years ago, but due to scheduling conflicts and being abroad last Spring, I was not able to enroll until this semester. I want to take this course (very, very much) because I am increasingly aware of the important role that media has assumed – in all its various forms – in the realms of politics, warfare, diplomacy, and so many other aspects of international relations. This first became evident to me five and a half years ago on September 11th when, like every other American that day, I was glued to the TV set in my tenth grade math class (which until then, to my knowledge, had never been turned on), trying to comprehend what had happened in New York City that morning. I remember vividly thinking (naively, I suppose) that it was a terrible accident, a plane crashing into the World Trade Center—until we were blasted with another round of news when the second plane hit, this time reporters confirming that it was in fact the work of al-Qaeda terrorists. The fact is, no one really knew the whole story until much later that day, and even then, those of us around the country who were fortunate enough not to have been in New York at the time, were at the mercy of the news stations, reporters, journalists, bloggers, and any other “carriers” of media to deliver us an accurate account of what actually happened. In this way, I think media is just as valuable as the actual event taking place, as it is our only liaison to global (and local) events when we are not able to be there firsthand.

While I have not taken courses directly related to media theory or production, I feel that it is so important to learn about in the context of international relations given the major responsibility and impact it bears on our daily lives—especially in the face of such a proliferation of new technology and thus new platforms from which to express news. In the current presidential election, I am struck by the way media is used to leverage candidates’ messages, disseminate important information, and gain visibility—all seemingly compelled to take advantage of the media/communication/technology craze, so as not to fall behind their opponents. Candidates all have websites (without question), Facebook profiles, send out text messages to potential voters’ cell phones, and even utilize YouTube to answer voters’ questions in the first ever “YouTube debate.” And yet even when candidates themselves (or their parties) seek to control or spin the information that is broadcasted, the media is increasingly a public institution—with blogs and other tools of the internet, literally anybody can publicize his or her opinions.

One thing I would like to further explore by taking this course is the fact that all media must be somehow operated by a human being, and it seems very difficult not to express (even sub-consciously) one’s personal views, whether through a blog, video, article, interview, even a still photograph—we are all at the whim of the person behind the shot. In various forums at the Watson Institute (most recently last semester “Front Line, First Person: Iraq War Stories”), it was so interesting to hear the stories of soldiers, embedded journalists, and filmmakers who all offered a different perspective on their take of the war. Also, in a class on politics in Israel I took last semester, I heard from a guest speaker that she picked up a copy of Time Magazine in the Paris airport with a headline about Palestine on the cover; but when she got to the airport in Chicago, the very same issue of Time made no mention of this story (not only was the headline replaced by celebrity gossip, but the story had been eliminated completely from the issue). This is such a poignant example of how media coverage changes so drastically from place to place, and how it inevitably influences public opinion in different ways. I’ve seen this myself when I’ve tried to watch news in other countries – even on more international stations like CNN – which pretty consistently portray a different slant of news (especially regarding American politics and foreign policy) than what we see in the U.S.

To me, this is a quintessential Brown course, offering us a hands-on, multi-faceted approach to learn about several aspects of media and the ways in which it plays such an integral part in international affairs. In fact, I transferred to Brown three years ago from a smaller liberal arts college precisely for this kind of opportunity. I come to the class with a completely open mind and passion to learn about global media, as well as my college experience thus far which has taught me to question and consider all the angles.

Turning to Barthes, I was struck by his passage on Method, and how it relates to his greater discussion of speech, writing, and the “laws” of each. He speaks of “the invariable fact that a work which constantly proclaims its will-to-method is ultimately sterile: everything has been put into the method, nothing remains for the writing…no surer way to kill a piece f research and send it to join the great scrap heap of abandoned projects than Method” (318). While he acknowledges the importance of being “lucid” and “responsible” in research (ensuring that your facts are sound), I think Barthes is encouraging those who teach to consider taking Method with a grain of salt; that sometimes one’s true message that they seek to convey can become obscured in the “rules” of writing. Speaking is somewhat freer, allowing the speaker to express himself with perhaps less constraints on form. Which relates to the passage on language and power: “No help for it: language is always on the side of power; to speak is to exercise a will to power: in the space of speech, no innocence, no safety” (311). As soon as we speak (and to an extent, write), we are exposing ourselves to the opinions and interpretations of our audience. The speaker wields great power in perhaps influencing others with his assertions (enhanced by the language he chooses), yet at the same time has little control over the way his speech is perceived. As students of this course, we will learn this firsthand by publicizing our own opinions on the Global Media Blog, and using other types of media platforms to express ourselves. I have never experienced this type of “sharing” in a course at Brown, and believe that I would benefit greatly from the input of others on my work, and the opportunity to consider how my words will affect an audience.