FYS Social Justice and Digital Media – The Digital Divide November 16, 2012
Assignment over for
Monday, November 19, 2012:
This is a 40 minute video of a presentation on the Worldwide
Digital Divide by Michael Graham
We will be discussing this video on Monday. In preparation, please answer the following
questions:
1.) Compare
the topic of discussion in this video to the issues that we addressed during
our discussion of the KONY 2012 video.
a. This
video mainly discusses the limit of knowledge in countries that don’t largely
have internet access. Here in the United States, most people have constant
access to the internet. That is not the case in many other countries. The lack
of access to the internet creates a barrier against knowledge and they are
unable to have the same access to knowledge that we do here. With KONY 2012, the
people of Uganda have a limit of knowledge, but a different type of limit. The
children are not largely educated, and often the boys are abducted to be in a
child army. Regardless, they are not able to access any sort of outside
knowledge and only know what they have grown up with.
2.) Does
the example Graham makes using the oldest map in existence about the limits of
knowledge apply to the modern maps in the video?
a. I
found this example really interesting. He used the map to describe the limit of
travel accessibility as well as knowledge. Later in the video, as he describes
the amount of print journals, newspapers, and whatnot, he uses modern maps to
describe a similar limit of knowledge. The United States has a huge availability
to knowledge, as do Switzerland, France, and Germany, yet, most countries do
not. So yes, the example of the oldest map does indeed apply here.
3.) He
makes the point that one obstacle to digital literacy is basic literacy. Is it possible to use the internet without
being literate? What is your reaction to
the gender disparity of literacy?
a. I
don’t think that it is realistically possible to use the internet without being
literate. One has to be able to read. Without said literacy, one cannot use
search engines, type in web addresses, nothing. Really, the internet cannot be
efficiently utilized without basic literacy. As for the gender disparity, it
goes to show that in those countries, women are far less educated and are thus,
more illiterate. That’s horribly unfair… I feel like that should be the case.
4.) There
are three anecdotes at the end of the video that address the claim that
technology alone can have a positive impact on the digital divide. Write a blog entry based on one of them
according to your last name. The blog
entry should take the 2-4 minute segment of the video as a starting point about
the general topic being addressed. Your
blog entry should start with referencing the clip, but you should bring in
additional material that you find on the subject to support or reject the point
being made in the larger context.
a. A-G
Makmende Amerudi!
b. H-M
Feodor Vassilyev
c. N-Z
Kenyan Conference in Nairobi
Makemende Amerudi
In this
video, Graham references Makmende, who is a fictional character who became a
viral internet sensation in Kenya. As people attempted to make Wikipedia pages
for him, the page would get deleted supposedly because it was irrelevant and
focused on someone that isn’t even a real person. In reality, the page editors
were not from Kenya and could not understand the importance Makemende had in
that region. It wasn’t until national news bases reported on the issue that Makmende’s
page would stay online without it being immediately deleted. On the Wikipedia
page for Makmende Amerudi, it explains that the name Makmende is a mispronunciation
of Clint Eastwood’s line in “Sudden Impact”, “make my day”, which resonates with
people all over the world. This symbol grew to stand for people everywhere doing
the impossible task, and it had a huge resurgence in recent years, originally
brought on by the musical group Just A Band in their music video for their song
Ha-He in 2009. “Makemende Amerudi” is Swahili for “Makemende is back”, and the Makmende
website was the most visited website by Kenyans in 2010.
In watching
the Ha-He music video, despite the fact that the music is rather catchy, I can’t
lie; I don’t really see the relevance that Makmende has. I don’t really grasp
why he has such a strong following in Kenya. However, I understand that this is
because I obviously don’t live in Kenya and I’m unable to comprehend why
Makmende resonates with Kenyans. My lack of appreciation for Makmende does not
make it irrelevant. I don’t understand why popular figures in America such as
Justin Beiber, PSY, Carly Rae Jepsen (Ironically, none of these artists are
even FROM America, but the point is still made) have such a huge following but
that doesn’t mean that they are irrelevant. Just because I don’t understand, or
a group of people does not understand, does not mean that a webpage promoting
the person should cease to exist. It’s rather inspiring that a group of
internet-literate Kenyans were able to make a webpage for Makmende and every time
it got deleted, they kept remaking it and remaking it until it got media
attention and was able to stay online.
