culture jamming

Community radio stations have an obligation to give you airtime to rebut what you have heard.

How do you get a rebuttal aired?

You have to contact the radio station management and explain what you want to respond to and request airtime.You will want to put time and thought into preparing a well-researched and written reponse. You will also want to rehearse speaking it. You should read it out loud to friends with a stopwatch for feedback and timing. Make sure your presentation fits into the time the station allows you.

Radio Rebuttal Examples

Refuting The Rooster

"I heard 'The Rooster' on KCSB 91.9FM in Santa Barbara saying all kinds of racist things against immigrants and moslems so I decided to tackle the immigrant issue.

I contacted the radio station manager and asked him to schedule airtime for my rebuttal. I went on the web and did a lot of research and wrote a 4-page speech full of links comparing myths to reality. Then I read it on the air over the phone. The following week, 'The Rooster' went on the air during his regular program and said that I must not have written the speech and that it was written by some political group behind me. He said that I had not mentioned his name personally, which was due to what lawyers call an abundance of caution on my part because the station had asked me not to attack him personally.

I listened to him say this and I immediately called the station and asked the manager for time to set the record straight. The program following the rooster was DJd by a friend who agreed to give me five minutes of his airtime immediately after The Rooster's show in order to respond to his racist assumption that a person with a spanish accent cannot write something intelligent.

So I went on the air with The Rooster looking at me through the glass sitting in the next studio and I said, "I researched and wrote it myself. I was obviously reading it because it is a 4 page paper. I told him that I was very capable of writing eloquently in 3 languages (Spanish, English and French) and that I did not have the Democratic Party nor the Green Party nor the Cuban Communist Party behind me.

As far as not mentioning his name, I had no problem telling the world what a racist The Rooster is. I noticed he did not address a single point I made and just limited himself to attacking my character. Immigrants contribute far more to society than they take." And that was it."

—Luis Prat

Subvertising, a portmanteau of 'subvert' and 'advertising', is a subset of Culture Jamming in which corporate logos (and/or slogans) are altered in ways which alter the meaning, in order to make a statement.

How To Subvertise

Obtaining High Resolution Corporate Logos

It helps if you have a high-quality vector version of the logo you want to spoof. If you cannot obtain a file on the Net, scan one in and trace it in a program like Illustrator.

Subvertising Examples

Adbusters Corporate Flag

Flickr Subvertising Photo Pool 

Droplifting is the act of inserting one's own (often homemade) media into media distribution facilities (such as retail outlets).

The Anti-Shoplifting

Getting your ideas, your voice out there is hard sometimes, in the face of mainstream media super-powers.  Droplifting provides an interesting method of introducing people to new media, because they simply stumble across it (often while they are operating in hard-core consumer mode).  

Getting the Drop

Droplifting could be classified as a covert channel because a resource is being utilized in a way it was not (specifically speaking) designed to function in.  It could also fall under the heading of Culture Jamming, as it is using corpolitical resources to spread alternative messages and memes.   

Droplifting Examples

Banksy Punks Paris Hilton

—YouTube Video

Banksy Guantanamos Disneyland

—YouTube Video

Banksy Exhibits In Museums

—YouTube Video

Stenciling is a way of doing graffiti quickly by cutting a predrawn template and spraypainting through it.

Stenciling Examples

Banksy

Stenciling Guides

The Walls Are Alive