Oh, Those Poor Islanders and Threats to an Idyllic Life on a Beautiful Island!

Abstract

Anthrophologists may argue that indigenous groups are not passive pawns at the mercy of outside forces but active agents who creatively incorporate outside institutions for local purposes and influence the course of their lifeways (e.g., Sahlins 1999), but as Lutz and collins (1993) indicate with National Geographic photographs, popular media representations are another matter. Such representations tend to reveal more about the cultural beliefs and attitudes of the media and its audience than they convey about the reality of another way of life (Desmond 1999; Kahn 2011). This is certainly the case for internet information, blogs, and news articles about Pollap, a Micronesian atoll in Chuuk State. These are the sites people would find by conducting a basic, nonacademic, nonscholarly search for information about the place; collectively they present a composite representation of the island through popular media. This is a relatively new source of representation; previously, information about this part of the Pacific for general audiences would have been available largely through National Geographic and perhaps occasional newspaper articles. Visitors could share photographs and stories with a circle of friends and acquaintances, but now these can be widely disseminated over the internet. Furthermore, islander voices and their own representations can be shared and communicated to fellow islanders scattered throughout the United States as well as to outsiders.