Culture Jamming Defined

Here’s a workable definition of Culture Jamming from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia -JS


Culture jamming is the act of transforming existing mass media to produce commentary about itself, using the original medium’s communication method. It is a form of public activism which is generally in opposition to commercialism, and the vectors of corporate image. The aim of culture jamming is to create a contrast between corporate or mass media images and the realities or perceived negative side of the corporation or media. This is done symbolically, with the “detournement” of pop iconography.

It is based on the idea that advertising is little more than propaganda for established interests, and that there is a lack of an available means for alternative expression in industrialized nations. Proponents see culture jamming as a resistance movement to the hegemony of popular culture, based on the ideas of “guerrilla communication”.

Culture jamming’s intent differs from that of artistic appropriation (which is done for art’s sake) and vandalism (where destruction or defacement is the primary goal), although its results are not always so easily distinguishable. See the rest at Wikipedia…

Prank You Very Much: The Etiquette of Hoaxing

Three generations of pranksters: Self portrait of Caroline Weber with Nancy and Rose

In my natal family, the holiest of holidays were April Fools, Valentine”s, Halloween, and the first night of Passover, in that order. To joke was to love was to entertain was to celebrate liberty. My friends were brought up to take praying seriously; my brother and I, to take playing seriously. Continue reading “Prank You Very Much: The Etiquette of Hoaxing”

The First Amendment to the United States Constitution

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

Natural Born Faker (Article is in Spanish)

This article, previously published in Cultura/s in June 2003, is about Michael Born, a German television reporter who made up his stories. He was far more extreme than Jayson Blair at the New York Times. He created events with actors, tomato sauce blood, etc. and sold them to German cable channels in the 1990’s.

The real question is whether Born is the only one culpable, as the court decision decreed, or were the buyers of the stories equally guilty for not checking them out. -JS


El caso de Jayson Blair y sus artà­culos falseados y/o inventados en The New York Times ha supuesto un nuevo impulso para la instauracià³n del “fake journalism” –o como lo define el gran Tom Kummer, “borderline journalism”-, como género en sà­ mismo que tarde o temprano se estudiarà¡ en las facultades de periodismo. Continue reading “Natural Born Faker (Article is in Spanish)”