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I think I took away a lot from this course in terms of investigating various case studies from rhizomatic thinking and rhizomatic sources of media. These are described as non linear, anarchic and nomadic types of media that often come from local societies away from authorities. Political humor is a form of rhizomatic thinking because it is always used by an alternative media that is rebellious when it criticizes the authorities of power. This can be anything from political cartoons to caricatures, graffiti signs or posters.
A type of rhizomatic media is in the form of blogging. Despite Tunisia being the first Arab country that had access to the internet in 1992, Egypt has used online spaces to blog by massive amounts. Over 40,000 blogs had been created in 2006 with the topics of local and global issues regarding politics and religion.
One of the more interesting themes through a case study we looked at was the silencing of Kurdish media as we watched an Al Jazeera video about the issue of the Goulah movement. 25 media outlets were ordered to be closed in Turkey, and the Kurds take up almost 20% of the Turkish population. In the history between those countries, the Kurds who have lived in Turkey have been through a Guerrilla war with the Turkish State for years. Journalists of Kurdish descent were considered enemies of the state and were faced with about 100 arrests and jails; even more, 2500 had lost their jobs. It is clear that certain authorities develop a bias and can develop discriminatory behavior towards individuals because of their ethnic identity, which can silence local media, feed the drive and fire the catalyst for alternative media to bloom.
Works Cited:
(Social Media and Revolution in the Arab World. The Stream. Feb 19, 2011)
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