Media

Jamaica Customer Service Association - Presentation

Below is an extract from my presentation to the Jamaica Customer Service Association.

Jamaica Customer Service Association

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Service Connection via Social Media

→ Social networking sites – Facebook, ?Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube

→ Internet Forums

→ Blogs (web logs) / Micro-blogs (Twitter, Tumblr)

→ Vlogs (video blogs)

→ Blackberry Messenger – Blackberry Blasts, Blackberry Groups

→? Podcasts

→ Photosharing (Flickr)
 

Prime Minister Simpson-Miller recognizes the work of Dr Marcia Forbes

The invitation was for me to be a part of a panel discussion pertaining to media images and violence against women and girls. This was the Bureau of Women’s Affairs’ educational thrust. The event was in recognition of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, to be celebrated two days later on November 25th. After the panel presentation I realized that my work in gender-related areas was to be formally recognized and ‘rewarded’.

UWI Professor endorses book about the influence of music on adolescents

Professor Patricia Mohammed, Professor of Gender and Cultural Studies, University of the West Indies, St Augustine, Trinidad has given Dr Marcia Forbes' book 'Music, Media & Adolescent Sexuality in Jamaica' a glowing review. The following has been excerpted from her review.

Music & Media Shaping Behaviours

 

The Bureau of Women’s Affairs in Jamaica partnered with the Blossom O’Meiley-Nelson Foundation to examine ‘The Impact of Public Images on Sexual Violence against Women & Girls’. The following is my presentation which specifically examined the influences of music and media in shaping behaviours. Some of the material here had to be cut from the presentation in view of time constraints.

The Power of Music & Media

Click, Sign On & Cash In

Recently the public relations students at the Caribbean Institute of Media and Communication at the University of the West Indies invited me as their Keynote Speaker to discuss 'The Future of the Business of Social Media in the Caribbean'. This fell under their broader theme which has been modified and used as my captioned title. Excerpts from that presentation are shared here.

CONTESTED VIEW OF SOCIAL MEDIA

Some would argue that the business of social media offers no sustainable model and that in fact social media is an obvious arm of marketing and any plans for the use of social media should be incorporated into a company's marketing plan.

Inner City Jamaican Boys Defy Mugabe

Boys Love the Internet

After Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe's recent piercing comments about Jamaican males, it was heartening to analyse responses from 57 inner-city males who attend non-traditional high schools in the island. These youths wrote their opinions in response to an open-ended survey question - 'What does the Internet mean to you?'

The Internet & Jamaican Inner-City Girls

A Love Affair

"The Internet mean a lot to me, without the Internet I can't survive. It's my life."

"The Internet is the part of the computer I love the most."

"The net is a new world for me that allows me to escape my problems and just talk and hang with friends."

"If I don't have it I would feel different, alone, left out."

"When you can't find information in book you can go to the computer and look up the information...."

What the Internet Means to Me

Public Interest versus Economic Imperative: State-Owned versus Privately Owned Television in Jamaica

Jamaica Jubilee Conversations

To have participated in one of the five Jamaica Jubilee Conversations hosted as a part of this island’s celebration of its 50th Anniversary as an Independent nation was an honour. ‘The Evolution of the Media Landscape in Jamaica’ triggered many memories and led to this article.

Sale of JBC TV (and most of JBC radio)

Media Matters, Jamaica 50 & London2012

The Vocal Minority & Jamaica50

There has been an outcry from those who perhaps represent the vocal minority that the Jamaica50 celebrations cannot only be about ‘jump-up’, ‘skin-out’, ‘wine up we body’. We argue that it must also showcase our capacity as a people to stop, reflect and strategize. After all, the past 50 years, while having achieved some successes, have also laid the foundation for numerous challenges in moving Jamaica forward on a growth path. A ‘freeness mentality’ pervades our society and productivity levels are dismal.

Media Freedom and New & Social Media

This article excerpts from my presentation at this week’s celebration of World Press Freedom Day. I was invited by UNESCO to speak on issues pertaining to media freedom in the context of new and social media.

Media Freedom can be examined from the point of view of the consumers that is -- the reader, the listener, the viewer OR from the point of view of the content creator and or distributor – The Media House/The Press/The Citizen Journalist. 

Mobile TV via Cell Phone in Jamaica

There was a great deal of excitement regarding the prospect of mobile TV via one's cell phone. This service was launched in Jamaica one year ago, in January 2011. This is what I wrote at the time. Today it seems the excitement has all but disappeared. The flavour of the day, March 2012, is 4G. Who knows what it will be tomorrow.

Content Drives Demand

Adele, Celine, Whitney - Melodies that Make Us Cry. Why?

Written Feb. 22, 2012

Lime v/s Digicel - The Battle Continues

Telecoms Way from Way Back When!

Daggering Dancehall

Dancehall daggering was all the rage in 2010. The book, Music, Media & Adolescent Sexuality in Jamaica, captures the many relationships teenagers hold with dancehall music and their accompanying videos. This Clovis image captures the phenomenon and is depicted at the start of the final chapter of that book.

Union of Jamaican Organizations in Atlanta & DeKalb County Honour Dr. Marcia Forbes

August 2011

The Social Impact of Jamaican Popular Music

Excerpts from July 2011 Lecture to Students from Temple University, USA 

What is Jamaican Popular Music?

What music are we talking about when we speak of Jamaican popular music? Is it music indigenous to Jamaica, created by Jamaicans or does it also include popular music consumed and enjoyed by Jamaicans?  And what about music created by Jamaicans living outside of Jamaica? 
In the research work toward Music, Media & Adolescent Sexuality in Jamaica, when asked to indicate which of 17 different genres they most enjoyed watching, 28.2% of respondents listed Dancehall.  Of note though is that 27% named Hip Hop as their first choice.  Reggae only attracted 17% of first choice votes.

How 'Music, Media & Adolescent Sexuality in Jamaica' made the List for CAPE, Sociology

Written by Marcia A. Forbes, Ph.D.
July 9, 2011

The Journey
The journey started long before July, 2011 and it did get me into trouble and a falling out with the University Press, partly it seems for insisting on CAPE students as a key market.  But, as mi Grandmother used to say, “if yuh waan good yuh nose haffi run!”  Music, Media & Adolescent Sexuality in Jamaica is a case study in dogged determination!! She also taught me that “is not everything good fe eat good fe talk” so I have nothing more to say about the UWI Press and this book.

Social Media & Governance - Crowdsourcing Can Help

September 20, 2011

Written by Marcia Forbes, Ph.D.

When The University of the West Indies, Department of Government asked me to lecture technocrats on social media and governance I thought, “Hmmnnn, does it mean they’re getting it?  Do they now realize that social media isn’t about to disappear and can actually serve useful purposes?”  Technology take-up lags even when use of that technology has proven benefits. 

Behind the Figures of ICT Indicators & Broadband Survey 2011

Greetings on this World Telecommunications Day!  I congratulate the Mona School of Business and specifically the Telecommunications Policy and Management Unit for this body of work in bringing us Jamaica’s ICT indicators and Broadband Survey. Professor Dunn has done an excellent job in presenting us with the findings. My job as discussant is to pull out some of the knotty issues as they relate to these findings. To explore the ‘So what?’ behind these statistics. To add granularity and tease out some of the implications for Jamaica as we plan our ICT future.

Kartel Lectures UWI – Tweets Compiled

Controversy accompanied Jamaica's popular DJ Vybz Kartel's 'lecture' at the University of the West Indies.  As soon as I got home from the event I posted a series of tweets.  Based on the numeorus references and retweets (well over 100 after first 12 hours) and requests pertaining to these tweets, I decided to compile them for posterity and clarity and to include all those posted between Thursday, March 10th through to Saturday, March 12, 2011.  They are numbered and presented in chronological order and represent my tweets only and not the various responses and comments to them.

Me & My Mobile -- Buju Live via Mobile Phone

Content Drives Demand

I heard it first on radio via talk show host, Ragashati, Mr. King of Mixup!! Good for LIME I thought, who better than Raga to make this announcement. After all, King Raga has afternoon radio locked into sorting, swiping and similar sexual stimulations. LIME was therefore guaranteed a large audience for the announcement that its trade-in offer of your old cell phone, from whichever provider, for one of its new mobile TV phones was sold out by Friday afternoon, January 14th. This came after only a couple days of the offer being publicized and from all reports was a great surprise for LIME—hence the fact that they ran out of instruments so soon, leaving many would-be mobile TV watchers very disappointed.

Memories of Egypt -- Cairo the City that Never Sleeps!!

Memories of Egypt—Cairo the City that Never Sleeps
After a few false starts I finally arrived in Cairo, Egypt. As one photo exhibition pronounced, “Yes, Egypt is an African country”. It’s situated right up there to the north of the huge continent. Cairo is one of the largest cities in Egypt and boasts anywhere from 15 to 18 million people, depending on who you believe.

Digital Overload & Shallow Brains

As social media gains traction in Jamaica, many question the value of networking tools like Facebook and are downright anti-online gaming by children and teens.  Cell phones are regarded as a nuisance in schools and Twitter is seen as benign time-wasting.  Yet, increasingly research findings are pointing to these new tools as ‘game-changing’, to use the new local buzz word.

Issues of Images & Identity - Cable TV & the Music Jamaica Adolescents Watch (Part 2)

Sunday, September 17, 2006
Written By: 
Marcia Forbes
Abstract: 

The survey established that the top three favourite music video genres for Jamaican adolescents were dancehall, hip hop and reggae, in that order. These three genres (dancehall, hip hop and reggae) were therefore specifically examined. Both dancehall and reggae music are indigenous to Jamaica while hip hop is primarily an American product. Throughout the week, Sunday to Saturday, foreign cable TV was the dominant mode via which adolescents watched hip hop and dancehall music videos, 53% and 40.2% respectively.

Last week I noted that although weekend days (Fridays and Saturdays) showed strong viewership of music videos via local cable TV, overall, Sunday through to Saturday, it is via foreign cable TV that most heavy viewers watched. What are the implications of this heavy viewership of music videos via cable TV? This question is somewhat answered by examination of a number of other factors, including whether heavy viewers were more likely to watch any specific video genre via any particular transmission mode. 

Dancehall Dilemma

Sunday, October 29, 2006
Written By: 
Marcia Forbes
Abstract: 

In response to the question, “If a boy and a girl were watching music videos to what extent would each of the following types make them want to try to have sex?” Almost 68% of boys and 65% of girls said Dancehall videos would do this either ‘often’ or ‘very often’. When asked specifically about them and even though some adolescents tried to escape the question, Dancehall still emerged as the type of video which most made them feel to have sex.

One Caribbean writer has gone as far as to name Jamaican dancehall music as a possible contributor to the rising incidence of HIV/AIDS stating,

Looking Jolly with the Lolly—Adolescents & Oral Sex

Tuesday, February 6, 2007
Written By: 
Marcia Forbes
Abstract: 

' What is sex?’, “Does oral sex qualify as sex?” American adolescents seem to have learned lessons from the ‘Lewinsky Scandal’ as we now hear that one in five U.S. teenagers say they have engaged in oral sex but many do not regard it as sex at all (Reuters, Oral Sex Safe and Not Really Sex, Say U.S. Teens, April 4, 2005). Based on my discussions with teenagers it seems that many girls from all types of schools across Jamaica are willingly performing oral sex without apparently considering it sex at all.

The mid 1990s ‘Lewinsky Scandal’ helped to redefine the meaning of sexual relations. This highly publicized expose was followed in the media by viewers, listeners and readers across the world. Although Monica Lewinsky admitting that she had performed oral sex on U.S. President Clinton, he nevertheless denied sexual relations with her, stating that he did nothing inappropriate. 

Issues of Images & Identity - Cable TV & the Music Jamaica Adolescents Watch (Part 1)

Sunday, September 10, 2006
Written By: 
Marcia Forbes
Abstract: 

Access to technology is one feature of the modern state. Some argue that this often comes at a high price. Within the small and developing countries of the English speaking Caribbean such as Jamaica, there is particular disquiet pertaining to the consumeristic and sexist messages portrayed via ‘American’ TV in general and music videos in particular. Against the backdrop of poverty and high levels of teenage pregnancies, the extent to which Jamaican adolescents have access to cable TV and how this influences their consumption of music videos is of more than academic interest.

Why Worry?

Big People Business Outta Road

Friday, December 15, 2006
Written By: 
Marcia Forbes
Abstract: 

Like boaters and gamblers, dancehall aficionados once subscribed to the belief that what happens in the dance is supposed to stay in the dance. Dancehall (the venue) and what happens there is ‘big people business’. ‘Pickney doan belong in big people business’. That has changed! I was fascinated by the way in which the ubiquitous video camera and camera-man became participant observers in the activities at Passa Passa. Not just capturing but also creating content as attendees performed specifically for the camera.

Jamaican boaters have a favourite expression, ‘What happens at sea stays at sea’. I believe they honour this adage. Similarly, we often hear, ‘What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas’. Gamblers and others who jet off to Vegas honour this tradition of silence. Like boaters and gamblers, dancehall aficionados once subscribed to the belief that what happens in the dance is supposed to stay in the dance. 

Message in the Music

Saturday, January 6, 2007
Written By: 
Marcia Forbes
Abstract: 

To tap into the extent to which our adolescents actually knew the lyrics of the videos they watched, I asked them to indicate this by way of a scale. Did they know all, most, some, a few or none of the words of the music videos they liked best? Almost three-quarters (72.5%) of them said they knew ‘all’ or ‘most’ of the words. Another 17.5% knew ‘some’ of the words, 8.2% knew only ‘a few’ while 1.4% said they knew ‘none’.

How often have we wondered just what some of the lyrics of these songs are saying? I remember sitting in a board room with a group of media managers trying to interpret the words of one of Missy Elliott’s songs. “If you’re worth it, let me work it” something like that. Those were the only few words of the song I actually knew but the rhythm was so infectious that I sang my own version of lyrics each time I heard the song.

Please Sir, I Want Some More!

Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Written By: 
Marcia Forbes
Abstract: 

Who will stand up for the youths of Jamaica.  They are not just our present but also our future!!

This was not a sexy event. The media was virtually invisible. But it was an important event and deserved more attention than it got. Such is the fate of matters of the youth –those who live in the liminal land of in-between -- Who constantly have to stand in line and ask for more! The future leaders we call them, while failing to recognition their today status and how this impacts all of us.

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