This week’s episode had an interesting interview with musician and filmmaker, Vincent Lamberti (no website available), a former Melbournian who now lives and work in Alice Springs, which is way out in the desert lands of the iconic Northern Territories. Among other things, Lamberti works with InCite, a youth arts organization, and he is somehow affiliated with an Aboriginal Media group called CAAMA.

Acording to the interview, Lamberti is directly involved in a film program specifically designed for indigenous youth (also no website available). I don’t know much more about this program, naturally, as I neither live in Alice Springs nor am I familiar with the organizations metioned in the show. Actually, I don’t know much of anything about the Australian youth media environment as a whole. A fact I hope to remedy soon enough.

But from what I can garner from the Jumpcut interview, Lamberti and his colleagues are particularly concerned about the economic realities surrounding their media initiatives in Aboriginal communities. At one point, Lamberti said:

“The whole idea of economic, sort of, empowerment is paramount, I believe, in trying to solve some of the social problems that are present in Alice Springs. Particularly in the town camps. Because people are basically struggling for survival…And so money and where your next meal is going to come from is paramount.” 

This unfortunate sentiment I can appreciate whole-heartedly. On top of the everyday burdens of the program participants, I am especially mindful of the economics of creating media itself. It is what I refer to as a ‘multi-tiered’ barrier. For media programs among marginal individuals, there are many constraints. Even if one is able to overcome the great obstacles of covering rent, bills, transportation, food, education, etc., then he/she is met with the challenge of obtaining technology and training. All of this costs money.   

I will be following InCite and CAAMA from afar, and hopefully someday I can keep up with the professional endeavors of Mr. Vincent Lamberti (assuming he gets a web presence). I’m even considering trying to contact the Alice Springs folks to see if they need a Winter (american Summer) volunteer or something. It would undoubtedly be informative to see life as it’s really lived in the famous Australian Outback, and even more so if I could get involved, maybe engage with a progressive youth media program.

Anyway, last week there was a particularly intriguing interview with Janice Peck, an associate professor at the University of Colorado who recently published a new book entitled “The Age of Oprah: Cultural Icon for the Neoliberal Era.” Basically, Peck aligns Oprah’s success (she’s an absolutely massive media presence stateside) with the rise of neoliberalism, an economic ideology that became a significant political force in the 1980’s, and with sweeping consequences on/for the globalization of today.

Having not read the book I cannot comment on its quality. But the interview on Media Matters was fascinating predominantly because it was one of the first, really articulate, well-constructed criticisms of the Oprah machine I have ever heard. And it is most definitely a machine–an empire of television, magazines, books, websites, and so on, each churning out Oprah’s particular brand of ‘informed’ public discourse. This media goliath, supported mainly by suburban, middle-class white girls, is very, very lucrative. According to Peck, Oprah Inc., if you will, is worth over two billion dollars!  I suppose it’s actually quite amazing, in a horrific, overdose of snake-oil kinda way.

On that note, I must admit that I enjoyed Peck’s criticism because it also vindicated me for much of what I have felt about Oprah for years, ever since I was a kid back in high school, when I was just starting to develop a more sophisticated socio-economic and political consciousness. Painfully, I distinctly remember being forced to listen to some of my least-inspiring instructors, even up through college, laud Oprah with near religious zealotry for the now very popular Book Club, which they believed would eventually do more for American literacy than the classroom ever could.

“Hmph,” I would grunt.  Even then I could smell the cow manure of idolotry.  

In any case, Oprah is certainly a force with which to be reckoned. I hope Ms. Peck’s text will go a long way in expanding the conversation to include larger cultural (read: economic and political) trends.  Though, honestly, I suspect it’s just going to piss off advertisers and housewives alike.

NOTE:

I did not include any links in this post to Oprah’s many (business) web ventures. You’re gonna have to do that on your own.