Response to Ginsburg and Turner

Ginsburg's "Indigenous Media" discusses the positive and negative aspects of ethnographic film, in terms of letting the Indigenous people film themselves and represent their own culture through visual anthropology, without misrepresentation.However, the negative aspects of Indigenous Media include the adverse effects which television and new media has on the cultures, causing them to be lead astray from the true values of their original culture. The modernization of technology, and the introduction of new media to Indigenous people has created opportunities for new representations, however this can be seen in both a negative and positive light. Can ethnographic films about a certain culture filmed by the same culture give more of a sense of "truth" through visual anthropology, as opposed to an outsider filming their people?

The West views the modernization of technology as an advantage, but as Ginsburg discusses, there are some aboriginal groups that do not believe this is the case. Recently, there have been developments of media gruops in aboriginal communities in which they take advantage of the modern technology. Although many groups have adapted to the new technology for positive use, many still consider media such as television to have "distructive effects" (94). The positive uses for video recordings in aboriginal groups are helpful to "construct identities that link past and present in ways appropatie to contemporary conditions" (94). On one hand, the new uses of modern technology improve the lives of Aboriginal communities by giving them new ways to communicate with each other. On the other hand, new media can be seen as a "final assault on culture, language, imagery, relationship between generations, and respect for traditional knowledge" (96). Because much of ancient traditions is based on storytelling, and cultural practices and history are passed down from generation to generation, some see the new media as interrupting the traditional form of communicating knowledge of the culture.

Due to the fact that "knowing, seeing, hearing, speaking, and performing certain kinds of information are highly regulated; violation of norms can meet with severe sanctions," there is an extreme offense to the adaptation to modern technologies such as television to some aboriginal communities. While the new forms of technology may differ greatly from the customs of storytelling and face-to-face communication, the video recordings used by Aboriginals can represent a permanent history that is useful in broadcasting to a broader audience the history of their people. For Ginsburg, the Aboriginal Media is a positive step forward in the future of communication for the cultural groups in Austrailia. Because they are filmed by people of their own culture, the media recorded is not to represent the "Other," but to represent and communicate within their own community using "native social organization, narrative conventions, and communicative strategies" (99).

Turner's "Defiant images" comments on Ginsburg's article and continues to discuss the benefits of aboriginal groups adapting to use new technologies as a way to represent their cultural identies. Although there are problems that occur with the technologies (regarding money, the government, etc), both authors agree that the use of modern technology by aboriginal cultures helps to provide them with new means of communication within their own society, and between generations to record and represent their history.