YouTube – ZERO ANTHROPOLOGY

Neocolonialism: It’s Post-Independence, Not Post-Colonial

Unintended Open Source Ethnography For as much serendipity as conventional, on the ground, ethnography is known to entail, the “approach” discussed here is barely an approach at all: it was unprovoked, unplanned, without coordination, being neither methodical nor systematic. It became a collaboration, out of mutual interest, from distinct and separate positions, but there was […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Human Terrain System in the Media

First, and in case you missed them, a series of YouTube videos produced by the U.S. military about the Human Terrain System: The U.S. Army’s “light touch with heavy impact…a non-lethal force multiplier” — “a Human Terrain Team working with the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment is comprised of military and civilian analysts who specialize in […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Punishing Publication, Banishing Ideas: YouTube Censors Your World for the CIA

This post, while actually written on 20 April 2011, is backdated to the time that the video in question below was uploaded to YouTube. The video, “Humam al-Balawi: Slayer of CIA Terrorists in Afghanistan,” was an unacceptable challenge to some, starting with the very title. Let’s put this in some perspective first. The video was […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Is this Taliban video of an “annihilated” U.S. base a fake?

Over the past couple of weeks there has been much discussion online of the Taliban’s Youtube channel: Istiqlalmedia. The greatest amount of content on that site is, arguably, that generated by a mass of mostly hostile comments by YouTube users who in many cases would like to see the channel deleted. Right now, by any […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Source Verification: Notes for Activists Using Photo and Video in Protests

Source verification of digital information has risen to prominence with the Iranian election protests that have been ongoing since Saturday, 13 June, 2009. This does not just apply to alleged information distributed through social media, of course, as it also applies to mainstream media who, like the BBC, have been found to use doctored photos […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Alien Abduction: Doing Calypso “the Right Way” in the USA

Another episode of “Monday Morning Madness” — and given all of the posts that dealt with Trinidadian “wining” (here, there, and over there), I felt it necessary to introduce some sense of balance, a sense of decorum, of good old fashioned propriety. I want to first send my big thanks and a big hug to […]