Zulumathabo on the Internet Joins MBA
By Vusi Moloi © 2009
A notification to the readers of Zulumathabo on the Internet that there is an important change on this blog which can be seen with the MBA logo at the top. This signifies a membership with the Media Bloggers Association known by its acronym MBA. Professor Robert Cox formed the MBA in 2004 after successfully fending off a legal clampdown by the New York Times newspaper as a result of his blog.
Bloggers Facing Harassment and Intimidation
There has been an increasing number of blogs and bloggers facing harassment and intimidation by the establishment. Some have been driven to the ground by the fire of the big dragons of the establishment. It was on this basis that Zulumathabo on the Internet made this important decision of becoming part of the pact of mutual defense because citizen journalism is an important evolutionary change towards the enrichment of free debate of ideas in what has been an iron grip by the traditional media moguls who have consistently discounted an African point of view in favour of the Anglo-Saxon perspective.
Traditional Media is WASP
The traditional media has used the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (also known as WASP)society as a standard by which the non-English get measured and judged. The non-English always fall short in this system of metrics. For their part, some non-English have increasingly adopted the WASP way of life to gain acceptance in what is kind of a lost cause because the English strategic interests are predicated upon a master servant relationship (MSR) between the themselves and the non-English where the non-English are expected to serve the economic interests of the English establishment. MSR is a model that has served the English well and will continue to be going forward.
Media Law Course
One important precondition of the MBA membership is a successful completion of an online medial law course Online Media Law: The Basics for Bloggers and Other Online Publishers offered by the News University an online project of Poynter Institute. The President and Founder of MBA Professor Robert Cox who is also an Associate Professor at Columbia State University conceived the course. Respected experts in media law from esteemed universities teach the course like Professor David Ardia of Harvard University and Professor Geanne Rosenberg of City University of New York's Graduate School of Journalism. Professor Rosenberg has authored and produced Top Ten Rules To Limit Legal Risk for the Knight Citizen News Network among others. The course assessment instruction is carried out by Professor Scott Swift an expert on risks and media insurance.
Needless to say this was a great refresher for me considering that I graduated from Journalism and Professional Writing many years ago in England where I learnt Libel and Slander among others. Learning media law as it applies to North America was a natural progression.
This is an important step in the evolution of blogging because it gives the starving blogger the ability to analytically write and report on what matters to society without a fear of being harassed or intimidated by those who seek to suppress dissent or viewpoints which are not to the liking of the establishment.
Professor Cox made news headlines in 2004 when the New York Times, as a result of a posting in his blog sued him. Cox prevailed in that case despite a temporary shutdown which led to the New York Times amending their correction policy. The well-financed legal machinery of the New York Times could have easily buried Cox but he was fortunate that a group of lawyers offered to fight his case pro bono. Even though the New York Times is a news organization that is supposedly on the same side as the small time media; it [New York Time] decided to exercise corporate censorship to squelch a starving blogger. It is out of this harsh experience that the Media Bloggers Association came into being almost like being born out of ashes.
Fighting Fire With Fire
As a result of MBA it means that when the blazing dragons of a livid establishment spit fire upon a small starving blogger he or she will be able to fire back thanks to MBA. Dragons don’t like to receive fire but will exhale harsh fire upon others and by knowing that they will taste their own fire they are more likely to back off.
Kowtow Philosophy
Some of my African brothers and sisters have subscribed to a self-defeatist philosophy that says that if you remain subservient and adopt a kowtow position towards the WASP masters your life will be enhanced and will live happily ever after. Nothing could be further from the truth.
We must take a page from the University of the African Jungle. The African jungle teaches us that when the great African buffalo is attacked by a group of lions he survives if he successfully carries one lion on his powerful horns and throws him into the air. That is because that lion will run to the nearest corner of the jungle after crash landing on the hard ground. When other lions in the pack see this physical prowess of the African buffalo they too will take cover leaving the buffalo to go on with his business of living. If the buffalo decided to adopt a kowtow position the lions would deliciously and judiciously enjoy him while dancing around his dead body. In an English capitalist society which is based on racial capitalism there is no such thing as merciful love towards the oppressed. The agenda of the establishment is their bottom line and that means aggressively and sometimes brutally defending those interests at the expense of others.
Suppression of Ideas
As a result of the establishment, many truths have been suppressed (suppression resulting in death among some) and continue to be in a bid by the establishment to control the learning, publishing and dissemination of ideas. A blogsphere is a new front in the reopening of the avenues of unfettered dissemination of ideas.
About the Author
A former South African Television Journalist, Vusi Moloi is a published author of a contextual poetry book, A Goodbye To My Little Troubles, and maintains a blog, Zulumathabo on the Internet.
A notification to the readers of Zulumathabo on the Internet that there is an important change on this blog which can be seen with the MBA logo at the top. This signifies a membership with the Media Bloggers Association known by its acronym MBA. Professor Robert Cox formed the MBA in 2004 after successfully fending off a legal clampdown by the New York Times newspaper as a result of his blog.
Bloggers Facing Harassment and Intimidation
There has been an increasing number of blogs and bloggers facing harassment and intimidation by the establishment. Some have been driven to the ground by the fire of the big dragons of the establishment. It was on this basis that Zulumathabo on the Internet made this important decision of becoming part of the pact of mutual defense because citizen journalism is an important evolutionary change towards the enrichment of free debate of ideas in what has been an iron grip by the traditional media moguls who have consistently discounted an African point of view in favour of the Anglo-Saxon perspective.
Traditional Media is WASP
The traditional media has used the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (also known as WASP)society as a standard by which the non-English get measured and judged. The non-English always fall short in this system of metrics. For their part, some non-English have increasingly adopted the WASP way of life to gain acceptance in what is kind of a lost cause because the English strategic interests are predicated upon a master servant relationship (MSR) between the themselves and the non-English where the non-English are expected to serve the economic interests of the English establishment. MSR is a model that has served the English well and will continue to be going forward.
Media Law Course
One important precondition of the MBA membership is a successful completion of an online medial law course Online Media Law: The Basics for Bloggers and Other Online Publishers offered by the News University an online project of Poynter Institute. The President and Founder of MBA Professor Robert Cox who is also an Associate Professor at Columbia State University conceived the course. Respected experts in media law from esteemed universities teach the course like Professor David Ardia of Harvard University and Professor Geanne Rosenberg of City University of New York's Graduate School of Journalism. Professor Rosenberg has authored and produced Top Ten Rules To Limit Legal Risk for the Knight Citizen News Network among others. The course assessment instruction is carried out by Professor Scott Swift an expert on risks and media insurance.
Needless to say this was a great refresher for me considering that I graduated from Journalism and Professional Writing many years ago in England where I learnt Libel and Slander among others. Learning media law as it applies to North America was a natural progression.
This is an important step in the evolution of blogging because it gives the starving blogger the ability to analytically write and report on what matters to society without a fear of being harassed or intimidated by those who seek to suppress dissent or viewpoints which are not to the liking of the establishment.
Professor Cox made news headlines in 2004 when the New York Times, as a result of a posting in his blog sued him. Cox prevailed in that case despite a temporary shutdown which led to the New York Times amending their correction policy. The well-financed legal machinery of the New York Times could have easily buried Cox but he was fortunate that a group of lawyers offered to fight his case pro bono. Even though the New York Times is a news organization that is supposedly on the same side as the small time media; it [New York Time] decided to exercise corporate censorship to squelch a starving blogger. It is out of this harsh experience that the Media Bloggers Association came into being almost like being born out of ashes.
Fighting Fire With Fire
As a result of MBA it means that when the blazing dragons of a livid establishment spit fire upon a small starving blogger he or she will be able to fire back thanks to MBA. Dragons don’t like to receive fire but will exhale harsh fire upon others and by knowing that they will taste their own fire they are more likely to back off.
Kowtow Philosophy
Some of my African brothers and sisters have subscribed to a self-defeatist philosophy that says that if you remain subservient and adopt a kowtow position towards the WASP masters your life will be enhanced and will live happily ever after. Nothing could be further from the truth.
We must take a page from the University of the African Jungle. The African jungle teaches us that when the great African buffalo is attacked by a group of lions he survives if he successfully carries one lion on his powerful horns and throws him into the air. That is because that lion will run to the nearest corner of the jungle after crash landing on the hard ground. When other lions in the pack see this physical prowess of the African buffalo they too will take cover leaving the buffalo to go on with his business of living. If the buffalo decided to adopt a kowtow position the lions would deliciously and judiciously enjoy him while dancing around his dead body. In an English capitalist society which is based on racial capitalism there is no such thing as merciful love towards the oppressed. The agenda of the establishment is their bottom line and that means aggressively and sometimes brutally defending those interests at the expense of others.
Suppression of Ideas
As a result of the establishment, many truths have been suppressed (suppression resulting in death among some) and continue to be in a bid by the establishment to control the learning, publishing and dissemination of ideas. A blogsphere is a new front in the reopening of the avenues of unfettered dissemination of ideas.
About the Author
A former South African Television Journalist, Vusi Moloi is a published author of a contextual poetry book, A Goodbye To My Little Troubles, and maintains a blog, Zulumathabo on the Internet.
Labels: Not Yet Uhuru
posted by Vusi Moloi at
7:51 AM
1 Comments:
it's good to see this information in your post, i was looking the same but there was not any proper resource, thanx now i have the link which i was looking for my research.
MBA Dissertation Proposal
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