How To Use The Media For Social Change

Born into Brothels uses contrast, pathos and photographs to illustrate a struggle to find children a better future and the fact that they have a lot of potential even though they come from such a violent beginning. The use of these rhetorical strategies is, for the most part,

Prostitution is a well-known act of offering sexual service to an individual in return for payment. In the documentary “Very Young Girls” it explains a candid perspective of prostitution and sex slavery in New York City. This film allows the viewers to see the works of a former prostitute Rachel Lloyd. Rachel Lloyd started an organization called GEM (Girls Education and Mentoring Services) to meet the needs of victimized young women who escape their handler and find an alternate route of life. It shows teenage girls during different stages of their transition. Although this program would hope for a successful turnout some girls are sp psychologically damaged by their owners that they feel obligated to return. Using the material from the previous class periods, it will further explain the theories of human behavior. The eight perspectives from chapter two and the trauma/ maltreatment effects on brain development.

A documentary Born into Brothels, by Zana Briski and Ross Kauffman in 2004, about a non-profit foundation Kids With Cameras. The foundation teaches photography skills to the children in Calcutta. Zana a photographer from New York started taking photos of the prostitutes in the red- light district of Calcutta, India. While Zana was taking photos she eventually developed a relationship with eight children, both male and female, these children were fascinated with the equipment that she used. Over the years the children were able to learn through workshops with Zana, the children have created their own photographs with a 35mm camera. The children were able to create and capture the intimacy and color of everyday life within Calcutta.

The education system also has power upon the lower class society, as they make decisions about who is given opportunities. The worker in the boarding school tells Briski that the children have low chances to get enrolled as they are children of sex workers. Other than their family reputation and status in society, their physical appearance and talents depend on how they are represented. Briski mentions that Puja is from a family of prostitutes but it’s difficult to interpret because of her well groomed appearance. This confirms that wider society judges the appearance of individuals to give them a presentable identity. Also, Avijit is given the opportunity to represent India in Amsterdam because of his artistic talents, whereas the non-talented kids are set back in the country looking for other minor opportunities. However, despite the daily challenges and hardships the children and women face in the Brothels of Calcutta, they value their relationships with family and friends. The children are grateful for Briski’s attempt to help them benefit from education and escape the chaotic lifestyle of the Brothel, even if some of them didn’t benefit from this opportunity. Briski’s mission to help the lower class society suggests how much she values the connection she developed with the children over the years. Therefore, Zana Briski’s documentary, Born into Brothels, portrays the tough life the

This fascinating and informative documentary was researched and filmed in several different cities in India, as well as some small towns. The film focuses on two main groups of people dedicated to saving Indian children, mostly young girls, from the bondage of servitude and slavery. The first group featured is called South Asian Coalition on Child Servitude, or as most people call it, SACCS. This human rights organization is headed by activist Kailash Satyarthi. Mr. Satyarthi is also a member of a High Level Group that was formed by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization, always called by its acronym, UNESCO, and an agency of the United Nations. In one scene, Satyarthi successfully convinces Indian fathers to allow their daughters to go to school. The other group featured in the documentary is called STOP, and they mainly focus on rescuing girls from the sex trafficking trade. Rinku is the frontline activist who helps rescue girls on behalf of the STOP program, and takes the lead in running the shelter where she and the girls they rescue stay. She is a brave, young, 19-year-old girl, and was at one time herself, a victim of the sex trade. This documentary is different from other sources in that it focuses only on girls from India, but is extremely

“I am not a social worker. I am not a teacher, even. That is my fear, you know, that I really can’t do anything. Helping them to get and education is not going to do anything, but without help they are doomed (Born into Brothels, 2004).” Zana Briski made this statement in her documentary Born into Brothels, referring to the children of sex workers in Sonagachi. This statement exemplifies child saving, a dominant theme in children’s discourse, that portrays children as vulnerable, innocent, and in need of “saving” from poverty and immorality according to a view of a universal childhood (Wells, 2009, pg.28). Child saving efforts remove children from their homes and families and place them in new homes or schools to discursively separate them

An intense portrayal of life at the extremes, Born into Brothels is a movie that challenges our perception of human resilience. The documentary takes place in Calcutta, India, home to one of the oldest populations and religious doctrines in the world. India is a country with an extraordinary history, yet suffers from massive overpopulation, environmental degradation, extreme poverty, and religious strife. (https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/in.html) Calcutta is the second largest city in India and one of the largest in the world, the square mileage of its metropolitan area measured at 228.5 sq mi. Within this unforgiving landscape is the red light district, a city within a city, known to openly display many of society's

Indian culture before the transformation of globalization was a male dominated society with very little respect or regard for females. According to India’s constitution, women are legal citizens of the country and have equal rights with men (Indian Parliament), however due to lack of acceptance from the male dominated society; Indian women have suffered immensely prior to globalization (Tripod, n.d.). Indian culture after the transformation of globalization has had an innervation of mass media, most prominent being satellite television bringing images and dialogue from countless other cultures. This global influence has started to turn the tables in the marked sexist roles in Indian culture prior to globalization.

In the film, Born into Brothels (2004), British filmmakers Zana Briski and Ross Kauffman setout to present a perspective from the children of sex workers living in Red Light District of Sonagachi, Calcutta. This film, however incidental, demonstrate single narratives on the basis of morality, sexuality, and preconceived notions about the third world. Their attempt at filming an impartial ethnographic film that spoke of the true nature of life as a child in the Red Light District of Calcutta failed from their Western gaze and lack of insight about the community of Sonagachi to contextualize how the Red Light District and the poverty surrounding are a result of globalization. Acknowledging the “before” that Briski and Kauffman could never understand about the Red Light District because of their limited Western understanding about the third world, would’ve resulted in a more inclusive look into the subjective perspectives of the children. Instead, using footage and still pictures of the dirty allies, children covered in what seems to be oil, naked children chained like animals in a zoo, etc, as an aesthetic (lens) used to reproduce hegemonic narratives about the third world and objectively reflect reality. Additionally, these shots separate the people of the Red Light District from Westerners and establishes and “us” and a “them”, them being objects and not full established subjects.

As technology develops rapidly in the modern society, the broad social influence it brings is also widely discussed, especially about its effects on social change. In the past, social movements were raised without the help of technology, specifically without social media, whereas social media has recently played a non-ignorable role. The connection between social media and social activisms concerned, here come some different voices. Few people maintain that social media now has no practical influence on social change, while others hold the opposite view, thinking social media is already a crucial factor in it. Personally speaking, I agree with the second kind of view: it is true that social media is not able to create social movements by itself in today’s world, but it plays an important and essential part in making real social change.

The meaning of social action is addressing issues within society in order to spark awareness and result in change. Their main objective is to evoke an emotion to the public. Community Media is any form of media that is created and controlled by a community. The most popular form of community media is through radio as it is listened to by various groups within different communities and allows people to reach out and connect with the world 's poorest communities. Documentaries are used as a purpose of showcasing social action and community media.

The enormously high poverty rate, coupled with the crackdown on pedophilia in the western world makes Cambodia particularly vulnerable and child sex trafficking has become a lucrative way to exploit the country’s natural resources. One of the young girls featured in the film, Da-Lin, tells her story - “I sold my virginity to an old man for $500, I did it to help my family, my parents were sick and my brothers and sisters are young and had to go to school, my virginity was the only thing of value we had” (2:15). Another young girl explains how she suffered a stroke due to the abuse she endured. The stories go on and on, young children sold as child sex workers by their husbands, boyfriends, friends and family members. They cannot seek help from the authorities for fear of imprisonment, and they face exile from their villages due to shame.

Old media like broadcasting, print, and film created a consumer culture in the public. Participants would consume the media they could find, and that was the extent of their engagement with a piece of media. But during the digital age, participatory culture has exploded. Participatory culture is a concept coined by Henry Jenkins where consumers take part in both the consumption and the production of media. The advent of computers facilitates a low barrier of entry for creation of digital media and its propagation. With the availability of personal computers and consumer level software to manipulate media as well as the popularity of the internet to spread content, fans have become more engaged with the media they consume. In turn, participants can create forms of that media that comment and expand upon the original content. Participants who used to only consume media now have the avenues to become producers of media. In this essay, I will explore participatory culture through the lense of Lev Manovich’s Five Principles of New Media: Numerical Representation, Modularity, Automation, Variability, and Transcoding.

The Role of Media in the Society Media has always played a huge role in our society. For a long time media was one of the methods of controlling people and leisure. In ancient times when there was no newspapers and television, people used literature as source of information, some books like "the Iliad", and different stories about great kings, shows those people the information about them. Nowadays media is one of the main part of our lives and our society, because we use word media, to combine all sources of information. Average man is spending 4 hours a day on watching TV and reading newspapers.

Kamal explains that Media development takes on many different forms in different areas of the world. Rather than being a force for sustaining difference, the media is deliberately employed by media development organisations as a vehicle for challenging unequal gender relations. Women's rights and social justice are promoted in media content, and women's participation is often a precondition for funding for media projects. She