School's Out For Summer!!

After finishing up this cluster, I feel as if I will view the world much differently. I now know that many others view me as a white, middle-class, female. Automatically people may assume that I’ve had a lot of privileges and opportunities that they haven’t. I feel it is my job to be prepared for these uncomfortable situations and let others know that even though I may have experienced white privilege during my lifetime does not mean that I haven’t experienced my share of hard times or even discrimination based on gender. After learning and figuring out what sociological imagination is, I feel as if I have a better understanding of individuals. I know what my values are, I know what I believe, and I can bet that at some point my beliefs and values will be challenged, but it is up to me to draw the line. I know now that it is important to stay media literate as well as keep up-to-date with the news. How I choose to do this is my choice. I am my own gatekeeper. I can surf the channels, radio stations, and web as I choose. I will stay informed at my own free will. I am ready to be done with college and move into the ‘real’ world and be a grown up!


Audios Amigos!

You are educated. Your certification is in your degree. You may think of it as the ticket to the good life. Let me ask you to think of an alternative. Think of it as your ticket to change the world.
Tom Brokaw

The Consent is Yours to Make...

Walter Lippmann’s Public Opinion was a tough read, but he made some interesting and well made points throughout his discussions. I really liked the point that he made about how the media ‘manufacture’s consent’. I felt like he meant that by this the media manufactures consent from the everyday consumer. By tuning in and watching a certain media or by using a specific type of media you are in fact giving your consent to the manufacturers. By giving them consent their media continues to succeed so they continue to produce it. For example, by tuning into Channel 4 news, you are giving them the consent that you like their show so they in turn keep producing the show. I feel that Lippmann’s sums up this idea perfectly with this quote: “"the manufacture of consent...was supposed to have died out with the appearance of democracy...but it has not died out. It has, in fact, improved enormously in technique...under the impact of propaganda; it is no longer plausible to believe in the original dogma of democracy."

The flow of the consent has to start at the top and work its way down. Even though the everyday consumer, like myself, grants their consent by indulging in a specific media the gatekeepers still control what is shown. The control of what is shown by the gatekeepers starts at the top with the elite and works its way down.

In our class, I feel that a majority of the media that we’ve looked at have all required a gatekeeper as well as a manufacturer’s consent to keep them going. The thing I feel that it connects too most is the gatekeeping theory. The theory states, “The people who hold decision-making positions in our society actually select the information and ideas that will be allowed to pass through the ‘gates’ and be incorporated in our culture.” Therefore, although we give our consent to watch a certain media produced by a certain corporation we are in fact giving our consent to the gatekeepers. Our consent gives them more power to decide exactly what information is allowed to us through the specific media that we choose.

TECK productions presents:

"Confidence"

A story about the life of Judge George "Tookie" James

The First African American Judge in Beaver County

Come and view this documentary that is produced by TECK productions of the Mass Communications/Sociology 109 cluster.

When: Thursday May 3 12:45pm-2:00pm

Where: Mueller Theatre

Westminster College Campus

New Wilmington, PA

"Confidence"

Our documentary has been going well. We’ve made three trips out to see Judge and we have everything filmed that we want. We’ve gathered some old pictures that we are going to use in the documentary and if we need more we are going to find some old Westminster yearbooks since the Judge is an alumni. We’ve started creating our poster to advertise the showing of our documentary. We really just need to edit everything and get it the way we want it.

Fantasy or Reality...Maybe Both???...You Decide...

For this assignment I decided to watch TV shows that I normally don’t watch. I usually don’t watch too much TV so it wasn’t hard to pick. My evening started out with “Little People, Big World” on TLC. I had never heard of this show before but my roommate had it on so I decided to watch it. I also watched “Dancing with the Stars” and “The Bachelor” on ABC.

Little People, Big World, on TLC, easily exposed me to things the I do not experience in my own reality. This show is all about the Roloff family — an extraordinary family composed of both little and average-sized people. The family starts with the parents, who are both little people, they are diagnosed with dwarfism. They have four children all of whom are average size except for one. It was quite interesting to see how the family interacted with one another as well as with others. TLC follows the family around and you get to see what they do everyday. The Roloff’s live on a farm. By watching how hard the ‘little’ people worked to make their farm successful as well as raise their children, I learned a lot about their lifestyle. I have never lived on a farm or met a ‘little’ person, so this experience is something that I would have only seen on TV.

On Dancing With The Stars I ran into a cast of people who I normally wouldn’t “know” since most reality shows lead you to believe that you “know” these characters in some way. Most had achieved some sort of fame all the way from a former Miss USA, an undefeated female world boxing champion, to a former USA Dream Team Ball Player. Now I normally don’t watch this show nor do I normally go ballroom dancing with my friends, but I enjoyed the show. I am involved with dance and love dancing so this show really appealed to me. During our weekly Dance Theatre Tech classes we’ve even had a few lessons on ballroom dancing so watching it made me want to take some more lessons.

Now, I faithfully watched The Bachelor a few seasons ago during my freshman year of college. No matter how much I knew that the reality of something like this ever happening, I still enjoyed watching. I tuned in each week to watch the women fight over this man they claimed to love, that they’d only known for um about three weeks. Not to be a Debbie Downer, but how can you claim to love a man you barely know, especially when there’s hordes of other women trying to get to know him as well. Anyways, I watched the show and although I disagree with the point, I have to admit that I enjoyed watching the drama. This show defies reality as I know it. Now the fact that all of these people are searching for their true love, I can relate too. All the drama and one guy dating 16 women—not a reality that I know. The only other place I think you might find as much drama between women is either on a cheerleading squad or on a sorority suite.

After briefly talking about Meyrowitz and Baudrillard in our mass communications class, I began to see how some of their arguments make sense. Meyrowitz argues “that the very existence of television is an influence on society because it breaks down the physical barriers that separate people (Hanson, 2005, pg. 256).” For example, in Little People, Big World, I experienced life firsthand through the Roloff family. I learned what it entailed to run a farm and I also learned some of the challenges and obstacles that little people overcome everyday to live a normal life. Because of the ‘physical barriers’ in my life I never would have experienced this. TV broke down these barriers and showed me what someone else’s life is like. This influenced me so that now if I ever meet or know a little person or even someone who lives on and runs a farm I know a little bit about them, therefore influencing society. Although the barriers are being broken, the barriers are broken are through the media, which is controlled by the gatekeepers. In a sense then the gatekeepers decide what barriers are broken and what we see.

Baudrillard argues that we can no longer distinguish between fantasy and reality, especially in television. I have to go both ways on this. I can see where Baudrillard’s argument rings true. In most TV shows, the distinction between fantasy and reality is very thin. Especially to most of the people who are on the shows (The Bachelor). Another example: Grey’s Anatomy. I watch this show faithfully (even though it was not included in my prime time viewing from above) and the show seems very real. The viewer needs to take a step back and realize that although the ABC producers do a great job of making the show seem real, making these people seem like real surgeons, they are not. If you do not understand that, then I feel you are in danger. I also feel that I can argue against Baudrillard’s theory as well. In the Bachelor, at least for me, it is very clear to me that this in fact is not reality. Twenty five women all competing for a man, to fall in love with him, and marry him. Honestly how long do they think that marriage will last??

I feel that if a person has a good balance in their TV viewing they will be just fine. A person can learn a lot from TV by having their physical barriers broken down and experiencing something new (Meyrowitz). This person needs to take Baudrillard’s argument into consideration though. It is ok to learn something or experience something new from the television you watch, you just have to be smart about what you consider to be real.

The American Dream....NOT!

While reading American Sports, for my “Sporting Spirit” English class, I was learning all about how in the 1970’s people started this quest for fitness. They would jog, run, swim, cycle, walk, or play racquetball all while they smoked fewer cigarettes, drank less alcohol, ate less red meat and consumed more white meat. The most interesting thing that struck me was this sentence, “Being fat in America became the greatest single sign of personal failure.”

WHAT??? Today over half of the population of America is fat or obese. Yes, according to USATODAY 65% of adults are overweight (half of those are obese, meaning about 30 pounds or more above a healthy weight for their height). This just amazes me that only 30 years after this ‘fitness craze’ that so many of our citizens have become overweight.

The book does let on though, “Dieting had its negative side; a Gallup poll in 1986 estimated that three million Americans, most of them women, suffered from the eating disorders of anorexia nervosa and/or bulimia. If exercise and dieting failed to obtain the desired figure, the most affluent Americans increasingly resorted to plastic surgery.”

So obesity is not our only concern, today it is estimated that 8 million Americans have an eating disorder. To me, what I learned from this is that in our world today most of our citizens are either fat or they have an eating disorder. What kind of image does this promote to young children? Now wonder they grow up with distorted pictures of what they are to look like. I know that I am not obese, nor do I have an eating disorder. I wonder what percent of Americans actually live a healthy lifestyle by exercising and eating right like I do???

Grey's Anatomy

One of my favorite TV shows is Grey’s Anatomy. When I first started watching Grey’s it was on Sunday evenings at 10pm after Desperate Housewives (my other favorite). As of March 28, 2005 right after the show came out and was on Sunday evening’s the ratings proved that the show retained 67% of Desperate Housewives viewers and averaged 16.2 million viewers.

This season the show was moved to Thursday nights at 9pm. The ratings did not drop after the show moved to Thursdays, in fact, I think they may be higher than before, so it obviously seems like Grey’s has a lot of loyal viewers that would follow the show to any night or time slot. According to Zap2it , Grey’s is ranked third in the Top 20 Network Primetime Series: Total Households. Now for household ratings Grey’s is ranked 14/4/22.0 in ratings/share which is about a 16,008,000 household audience. Zap2it states that this is about 22,304,000 viewers. Grey’s seems to have a wide population of viewers, although CBS airs its show CSI: Crime Scene Investigation at 9pm on Thursdays. Seems to me as if Grey’s still does quite well airing at the same time.

Now I know that these numbers are not exactly correct. My friend watches Grey’s at its normally scheduled time and while she is watching it, she tapes it for me. I miss Grey’s every week due to dance practice so I watch it either later that evening or Friday morning. After I watch it, I usually have several other friends who will borrow the tape to watch it as well. I know that many other people do this because there are over 100 members in our dance organization who all miss Grey’s each week. Therefore, the recorded number of viewers is not always correct, because they can record that my friend is watching it, but then they cannot record how many viewers view my tape of the recorded episode.

Seeing how high the ratings are even though I know that they are not always accurate leads me to believe that Grey’s will not be cancelled anytime soon. The ratings have steadily increased since Grey’s Anatomy was first shown, so I have faith that the numbers will continue to rise and I will be able to view brand-new episodes of my favorite show for many seasons to come.

Don’t Judge a Movie by Its Title, How Cliché...

Not being one for scary movies, it took me quite a while to see this movie. The title really throws you and for the longest time I thought it was a horror film. After realizing that it is not a horror film, but more of a chick flick I decided to see watch it and ended up enjoying myself.

Now nobody actually dies in John Tucker Must Die, but I do think it is still a movie worth seeing. Yes, it is a stupid romantic comedy. Yes, the girls act like big bimbos. Yes, most of the guys in the movie act like chauvinist pigs. And Yes, some might think you’d have to be a teenage girl to enjoy it. But deep in all of the bimbo’s and chauvinist pigs, the creators of the movie push some underlying issues that I think are important to today’s youth, in a fun, comedic way.

John Tucker is the guy that all the girls in school would die to date and who all the guys would die to be. He’s that amazing guy who is a great athlete, knows just what to say to girls, and everything always seems to go his way. Three girls who belong to different crowds all find out that John Tucker was dating them at the same time from the ‘new girl’. They automatically befriend her and decide that “John Tucker must die!” Through various pranks and silly ideas these girls plan their revenge on John Tucker. Most of the time, the pranks don’t work and John Tucker just ends up with more girls and more popularity.

I feel that through the revenge these girls plot we can learn a few vital things. Most importantly I think that this movie teaches young teenage girls the importance of standing up for themselves. A young girl might strive for popularity by wearing the same clothes and doing the same things as everyone else is. This might include doing whatever it takes to date the most popular boy in school. A girl needs to realize that it is never ok for a guy to use her. I’m not saying that I agree with all of the stunts and revenge plots these girls pull in the movie, but it still goes a long way to showing teenage girls that it’s ok to go against the norm.

Brittany Snow, Kate in the movie, especially shows girls what can happen if you wind up moving too fast with the crowd. She ends up acting like a completely different person than she really is. She starts to dress differently, joins the cheerleading squad, and goes along with the revenge of John Tucker just because she finally thinks she’s found ‘friend’s’ in the other girls who are plotting the revenge. Kate finally realizes who she really is, and puts an end to the revenge. She still remains ‘popular’, but she is able to be herself. I think that is the kind of message that the gatekeepers need to be sending young girls—be yourself. If you are yourself, you’re still pretty, you can still have friends, and you will still find guys to date. I feel that Twentieth Century Fox and Betty Thomas do a great job of adding these underlying themes in a funny high school romantic comedy that most teens would enjoy! Even I enjoyed it and laughed throughout the movie and I’m not a teen!

Crash, Burn, and Learn...

“Moving at the speed of life, we are bound to collide with each other. (Crash)” “Crash” is a movie where just that happens. A group of whites, blacks, Latinos, Koreans, Iranians, and others lives will collide during the 36 hours portrayed during the film. Paul Haggis writes so well that the characters seem very real after only a few words, it’s almost like you know them. The way that Haggis also directs the film with close-up shots, makes you feel as if you are a character in this movie.

The movie “Crash” was written and produced by Paul Haggis. The movie won three academy awards for best picture, best original screenplay, and best editing. If you don’t know him for his work with “Crash” or “Million Dollar Baby”, you may Haggis from his TV work where he co-created the series Walker, Texas Ranger.

The movie starts and ends with the same scene. A car crash. In between, there are many ‘collision’s’ of life between all of the characters and many different races. Two black men complaining about being discriminated against for being black suddenly turn around and carjack a well dressed white couple. After the carjacking, the couple who happens to be the district attorney and his wife head back to their house. Sandra Bullock, the wife, criticizes the man who is replacing the locks on their homes because he ‘looks’ like he belongs to a gang and that his ‘homies’ are going to come back later to break into their home.

While all of this is going on two white cops make a so-called routine traffic stop where a wealthy black TV producer and his wife are humiliated to no end. We later see into the so-called Latino ‘gang’ members’ life that was repairing the locks earlier. He’s a family man who is trying to do well for his family so they don’t constantly have to hear gun shots. An Iranian man buys a guy although his daughter advises him not too. A black cop is having an affair with his Latino partner, while he tries to protect his brother from his life of crime. The story eventually twists and the two cops, in very different situations, end up finding themselves saving the lives of the black TV director and his wife.

I would recommend for anyone to see this movie. I would give it a nine on a scale of one to ten. The movie covers many themes and issues, with the most obvious one being race. There are many movies which depict race and try to show other ways to overcome race, “but "Crash" finds a way of its own. It shows the way we all leap to conclusions based on race -- yes, all of us, of all races, and however fair-minded we may try to be -- and we pay a price for that. If there is hope in the story, it comes because as the characters crash into one another, they learn things, mostly about themselves. Almost all of them are still alive at the end, and are better people because of what has happened to them. Not happier, not calmer, not even wiser, but better. Then there are those few who kill or get killed; racism has tragedy built in. Roger Ebert”

For me, the movie brought many concerns to mind. I try to think of myself mostly as a non-racist person who only believes in a few stereotypes. After watching this movie, it really made me think about who I am and what I believe. The way that Haggis writes the screenplay, it makes you feel as if you really are one of the characters in the movie. This movie with all of its coldness and cruelty makes you step back and consider how you live your life. Are you more racist than you thought? Do certain actions you make affect others of different races? I feel that if everyone watched this movie and tried to change at least one thing in their life like how they act or think about a certain race, the world would really be making progress. Step by step we could make progress until all racism in the world is obliterated. Crash helps us to begin these steps.

Of course I’m sure there are those of you out there who are skeptical, racism is too rampant, people have set beliefs, how is one movie going to change all that? We would never know the full impact that a movie like this could make in the world unless we each took a chance. So I urge you, watch this movie, learn something about yourself, and try to change something. Even if you don’t change the world, at least you’ll wake up in the morning knowing that you’ve done something to help prevent/change racism.

Wait...Should the World Revolve Around Me or You?

"We as a people, even among a common group, have problems. We have problems with teenagers, elders, obese, or thin people. Our biggest problem is “I”. I need to see that I am not the center of the world. If I accept that idea, then I can move on to understand that not all people live like me."
--Aurora Cedillo

I read this quote in an article for my multicultural education class....I thought it was interesting and tied in with a lot of the issues we dissus in the mass comm/soc class......just a thought that some people really might need to learn that the world does not revolve around them!

Who Is He????

Who knows who invented T.V.? I know for sure I didn’t. Philo Taylor Farnsworth is known for being the first person to demonstrate and patent a working electronic television system. How come you don’t know his name then? Because Vladimir Zworykin is the one who is credited with creating the first TV and was backed by RCA. Vladimir visited Farnsworth and basically stole his idea for the T.V. Since Vladimir was backed by RCA he had more power than Farnsworth. RCA went public with the TV, therefore gaining credit for it. But, after many lawsuits Farnsworth was awarded priority for the invention and RCA agreed to pay Farnsworth royalties (Time).

Farnsworth, a young Morman boy, had his vision to create what is now called television while working in the fields. “He [Farnsworth] wanted to send pictures over the air, like sound over radio. As the story goes, he had a vision in a potato field. He looked down at the tracks left by his disc harrow and imagined tiny electrons creating a similar picture, line by line (Farnsworth).” After undertaking the daunting task of trying to invent a device that would turn an image into a stream of electrons and a television tube that could turn a stream of electrons back into a picture, Farnsworth had a lot of work ahead of him. He had many setbacks and was constantly looking for people to finance his experiments, so that he could continue his work. Some bankers finally backed him with $25,000. Philo promised them a picture within a year. It took him a little longer than planned, but “the bankers were so eager to see some return for their money, that Phil decided to play a trick on them. So, he invited them to the lab and got them in the room where the broadcast would be received. And they had drawn on a piece of paper, a dollar sign. And as they were sitting, eager to receive this picture, on came this dollar sign, and this was his way of telling them that they would get their money back. And so, that was when this Mr. Gorrell, who was one of the backers, said, "The damn thing works!" (Farnsworth).”

Farnsworth’s battle with RCA demonstrates the powerful vs. powerless topic we’ve discussed in our sociology class. Basically the powerful people (the big guys) were RCA, while the powerless (the little guy) was Farnsworth. Farnsworth, the little guy, was only a farm boy from Utah who did not have extensive resources. RCA was powerful and wealthy, therefore, proving the fact that the dominate group always comes out on top. Farnsworth fought a good fight, but no matter how hard he fought, he was very likely to loose. Since the powerful people write history, acting as our gatekeepers, it is no wonder that many people have no idea who Philo T. Farnsworth is.

"Philo T. Farnsworth was always an outsider, a bright star blazing in the dawn of a new electronic age. His romance with the electron was a private affair, a celebration of the spirit of the lone inventor." -PBS

So You Want Blue Eyes? Well...I Have Hazel Eyes.

"Each night Pecola prayed for blue eyes. In her eleven years, no one had ever noticed Pecola. But with blue eyes, she thought, everything would be different. She would be so pretty that her parents would stop fighting. Her father would stop drinking. Her brother would stop running away. If only she could be beautiful. If only people would look at her."


Have you ever wished that you looked like someone else? Have you ever been made fun of or felt insecure? If so I suggest that you check out The Bluest Eye written by Toni Morrison. This compelling novel tells the story of a young girl who felt just that and the hardships that she faced. It will take you on a journey through all kinds of emotions. I couldn’t put the book down until I had finished it. This book is widely recognized as being a member of Oprah’s Book Club. The Bluest Eye also won the Nobel Prize in Literature, which Toni Morrison was the eighth woman and the first African American to win. Toni Morrison attended Howard University, obtained her master’s from Cornell University, and was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from Oxford University. Morrison has written many novels as well as children’s book. All of her novels portray African American characters and the issues they face in everyday life. I feel that Morrison is able to authentically portray these issues because she herself is African American. I know that if I tried to write a novel like this I would not be able to portray the issues and realities that are faced, because I have never actually faced or encountered them in my life being a white woman.

The Bluest Eye is a fictional novel that takes place in the small town of Lorain, Ohio where Morrison was born. Pecola Breedlove, an 11 year old African American girl, is the main character. Pecola’s story is told by others to keep her mysterious. Pecola is often picked on and made fun of at school for being ugly. She prays and wishes every day that her eyes will turn blue so that she can be as pretty as the blond, blue-eyed white girls. Although Pecola prayed for change, the change that occurs is very painful and devastating, not uplifting as she thinks she will feel with blue eyes. Pecola goes through many trials and hard times throughout the novel. At times, the hardships she faces are so tough, that I thought I could not go on reading. I kept reading, because I needed to know what happened with Pecola. After reading the novel, I felt this feeling that words can’t quite express. I felt angry, sad, upset, and knowing all at the same time. I feel that I learned a lot about the culture of the time and how this affected Pecola’s self image and hatred for herself. At the same time, it made me angry, sad, and upset because all of these things are still happening in the media today. The media picks one definition of beauty and keeps ‘advertising’ that image. Women see these images and become obsessed with looking like that. Every single person out there is beautiful in their own way, and I feel that the media should begin to portray beauty of actual images that are found in every day society. If only Pecola could have learned that beauty is only skin deep, she would not have to drive herself as far as she does.

The novel touches on many powerful issues and themes which include: race and white supremacy, women’s roles, beauty, culture, and self-hatred. Pecola thinks that if she was blond and blue-eyed that she would be pretty, therefore all of the troubles in her life would fade away. Everyone would see her and her family in a different light. Little does Pecola know that pretty and clean does not equal happy. The culture that Pecola lives in and even the culture today dictates to us what beauty is and how women should look. In Pecola’s world the media portrayed beauty as movie stars who had blonde hair and blue eyes. Even the Mary Jane candy that Pecola loves to eat has a girl with blonde hair and blue eyes on it. In today’s society the media and fashion magazines portray to us that women must be super skinny. In our world it drives women to eating disorders to obtain the unhealthy skinny that is portrayed as beauty. In Pecola’s world she drives herself crazy wanting to be a Shirley Temple look alike.

Although I did not fit the target audience that Toni Morrison had in mind when writing The Bluest Eye, I would highly recommend for anyone to read it. The novel touches on many issues that are still faced in today’s society. Any reader after enjoying this book will be able to look more closely at the issues that are faced by both African Americans and women in today’s society. I know for a fact that the images the media portrays for women today are hard to face and yet still be comfortable in your own image. I can only imagine how hard it would be to be both a woman and an African American dealing with image issues.

What is a documentary?

Before enrolling in this mass communications course my thoughts of a documentary were very limited. When hearing the word documentary I usually thought of something boring that you watched in class, usually with a lot of talking in monotone voices and dealing with ancient history. To me a documentary was not something fun to watch. Even when this class began and we were informed that we would have to produce our own documentary I was a little daunted by the project and kind of upset that we’d have to make such a boring video.

In today’s world where media is always changing, the documentary is evolving as well. Documentaries now range from 3 minute clips you can find on YouTube.com, television reality shows, and of course what I only used to think of a documentary as—films. The whole point of a documentary is to tell someone or something’s story. Anyone who makes a documentary has their own agenda, so each documentary varies in style and how the story is presented.

After discussing in class exactly what a documentary is and viewing various documentaries, I now have a completely different view of documentaries. Watching 30 days (a reality show), A Class Divided, and many other short clips of documentaries such as Campus Ladies have showed me the various forms and views that a documentary can take. Now that I understand the genre of documentaries, I am beginning to value and even enjoy them. I can now watch a documentary critically. I try to understand what the producers are trying to tell me and whose story they are telling. I’ve begun to notice some of the techniques that documentary producers use to engage their audience. Music is a big thing that can bring emotion and feeling into the documentary, which is a tool most producers use often and effectively. One thing that I still do not like about documentaries is when a person is being interviewed and they talk for a majority of the documentary with no pictures/video clips. Talking is fine and necessary, but I feel that a good documentary shows pictures of the subject to help tell the story while they are talking.

Webster's defines ‘documentary’ as: of, relating to, or employing documentation in literature or art; broadly : factual, objective .

I define a documentary as some type of ‘thing’ that can be viewed which informs you or shows you about something that you’ve never seen before. This ‘thing’ could be the actual subject talking, a picture slideshow with music, still pictures with a narrator, a television show or any combination of these. In producing our own documentary I feel that my group should strive to include a few important aspects. Our documentary should be unbiased—we should present the voice of our subject and not our own. If necessary, there may be a bit of narration or an introduction, but the subject’s voice should be heard more throughout the documentary than a narrator. Music should be included to share the emotion of our documentary and the subject. With all of these aspects, I hope that our documentary, when finished, will inform our viewers of something new or maybe change some of the previous pictures they had in their heads.

"No Human Being Is Illegal"

Tired of the long summer days? Sick of boring reality shows that seem scripted? Well, the cure for you is an original reality TV show. FX Networks presents their original reality series, “30 Days” on Wednesday nights at 10pm. According to the FX website for “30 Days”, the show “places an individual in a living environment that is antithetical to their upbringing, beliefs, religion, or profession in an effort to examine real societal differences that Americans face everyday.” Some of the issues that the show has tackled are immigration, outsourcing, jail, and pro-life/pro-choice. Morgan Spurlock is the series creator of “30 Days”. You may also know him as the Oscar nominee for his production of the movie, “Super Size Me”. Spurlock and his crew produce this show to reach out to all of the diverse viewers who watch TV. The show has been aired on Oprah’s talk show for some of the issues it tackles and has even been shown in more than 15 countries around the world.

In the episode of “30 Days” that I viewed, a minuteman, Frank George, was packing up for 30 days to live with a family of illegal immigrants. Frank believes that “illegal aliens are a plague on the country that need to be removed.” Frank is a legal U.S. citizen although he did immigrate to the United States from Cuba. He speaks fluent Spanish which helps him during his stay with the Gonzalez’s. All members of the Gonzalez family are illegal immigrants, except for two children who were born in the United States. For Frank to become an ‘illegal alien’ he had three rules to follow: leave all of his personal identification behind, move in with an illegal family and share their cramped space, and be put to work as a day laborer.

Frank spends time with the Gonzalez’s by eating, talking, and working with them. His days are spent by visiting areas around East Los Angeles, working as a handy man, separating recyclables, and going golfing. Armida, one of the Gonzalez children, also takes Frank to a vigil of illegal immigrants that is supporting a new bill from the Senate that, if passed, would give all of the Gonzalez’s documented status. Another thing that Frank did during his 30 days was to visit Mexico and see some of the Gonzalez family and their condition of living before immigrating. At the end, although parts of Frank’s stay were rocky, there is a tearful goodbye.

Throughout the episode I noticed two really important issues that were highlighted. The first was illegal immigrants. Frank George had some very strong views towards illegal immigrants. He stated that he saw America as an ailing country and the sickness was illegal immigrants. He described how he protests illegal immigrants after becoming involved with the minutemen after 9/11. Frank would travel to the U.S./Mexico border every weekend with his wife and his 9mm handgun with ammunition and would report any illegal immigrants to the U.S. border patrol. Frank had some very strong views about illegal immigrants, but after staying with the Gonzalez’s for a while he seems to be faltering a bit in his beliefs. When Franks is saying goodbye to the Gonzalez’s he says, “There comes a time when you love people for who they are, all politics aside.” I feel that because of his stay he got to actually know the Gonzalez’s and saw the poverty that they left behind in Mexico; I think he actually understands why people do cross the border illegally.

Another important issue is that Frank is Cuban and a minuteman. On the show while the Gonzalez’s were waiting to meet Frank they were talking about how they hoped he was blond and blue-eyed. They felt it would be acceptable if he was white, but not acceptable if he were Latino because he would be going against his own ethnicity. The Gonzalez’s were shocked when they saw Frank and heard him speak Spanish. A heated debate developed because of this. However, Frank explained that although he is Latino, he is a legal citizen. He supports people immigrating to the United States; he just wants people to do it legally.

I thought it strange that Frank had these hard set beliefs about illegal immigrants since he is Cuban. I feel that Frank was influenced in his opinion of illegal immigrants since he did not join the minutemen until after 9/11. Frank probably only got the pictures he had in his head from the news that the media supplied, which depict negative aspects of illegal immigrants in our country. Walter Lippmann states, "Thus there can be little doubt that the moving picture is steadily building up imagery which is then evoked by the words people read in their newspapers. (50)" I believe this means Frank saw all of these images that the gatekeepers applied through the media and let them build up in his head. When he finally saw an ad or an article for the minutemen in the newspaper, all these pictures came rushing into his head and he figured by joining he could help to make a difference.

I thoroughly enjoyed the show and was almost brought to tears at the end. The show was very interesting and helped me to understand some of the US Immigration issues. I would give the show an A+ because it is thought provoking and has a specific purpose. I would recommend for anyone to watch the show. The show was produced to give the average American more insight into an illegal immigrant’s life and examine real societal differences these immigrants face everyday.

Stereotype, Typecast, Label, Pigeonhole....It's your call...

When a person says the word stereotype, the pictures or thoughts that used to come to mind were either racial or negative stereotypes. I’ve recently come to change my thoughts and opinions on what I thought a stereotype is. The actual definition of a stereotype from dictionary.com is:
“a simplified and standardized conception or image invested with special meaning and held in common by members of a group.”
I used to feel that a stereotype was something derogatory about a group of people. After discussing stereotypes and their meanings since the beginning of the semester in various classes I now have a completely different understanding of stereotypes. A person can surely say that they are not racist or they never think about stereotypes when talking to or discussing other people. Where in reality, to me a stereotype is:
any type of thought or action that is thought about a single person or a group they belong to based on seeing the person, knowing a certain group the person belongs too, or by some action that person does.
A stereotype is not necessarily a bad thing, “what matters is the character of the stereotypes, and the gullibility with which we employ them (Lippmann Ch. 6 Part 3).” To me this means that if you believe and make stereotypes out of every little piece of gossip you hear, then in fact you are making the stereotypes negative. Whereas, if you hear a bit of gossip for example that some organization on your college campus is “smart” or “nerds” or “the brains” it could be true. I feel that what each person needs to do in this situation is if you hear something about someone or an organization, research it. If you’ve heard that this organization is full of smarty-pants research their combined GPA and compare it to other organizations on campus. If it’s true, it is a stereotype, but a positive one. If it’s not true than you might just find out something about that group of people you would have never known before.
The way I see it now, is that a stereotype can be positive or negative. It is the way that you let it affect you, how easily you believe it, and how you treat those people in that group based on that set stereotype.

Time Warner (AIM)

In a previous blog, I stated that instant messenger was my favorite media to use. The service provider that I use for instant messaging is AIM (AOL Instant Messenger). The company that runs and produces AIM is AOL, LLC. Ralph Hanson tells us in his Mass Communication book that AOL is one of the only 6 companies to control the majority of the media output in the United States. Those six companies are: Time Warner; Disney; Viacom, Bertelsmann, News Corporation, and General Electric. AOL made a bid to buy Time Warner in 2000 and the merger was completed in 2001 which made Time Warner the largest media company in the United States. Time Warner owns various book publishing companies, magazines, recording labels, cable networks, cable television operations, broadcast television networks, and movie studios.
I still have to say that although I’ve used various services and means of Time Warner media my favorite medium that Time Warner supplies is AIM. After researching and trying to find out a bit more on AIM and what exactly the gatekeepers do to supply me with this medium, I found out that instant messenger actually started in an early form in 1985 (neat…considering I was born that year)! Browsing this website from AOL I found out how AIM evolved from it’s origin to what it is today. The new AIM 6.0 has many features that the gatekeepers put in to allow the users to incorporate many types of media into their lives. Using AIM allows users to message, chat, and find up to date information about topics such as music or games. Users can even keep track of their business meetings and acquaintances which includes a heightened security feature. Time Warner also makes sure to provide each AIM user with the wonderful AIM Today page. This page includes various headlines, advertisements, and clips of upcoming movies that Warner has produced. This 'synergy' as mass communications likes to call it, allows Time Warner to use one media it provides to advertise other media as well—a joint effort to make sure both parts of the company succeed. Although of course the Time Warner gatekeepers are sure to monitor what content the media user is exposed to by only advertising and subjecting users to other mediums that Time Warner owns or produces. With all the built in features of AIM the Average Joe media user such as myself can keep track of all areas of their life while still keeping informed about new media, upcoming events, and keeping in touch with others all around the world.

media...what what?

i considered how i use media and i'm sure that my media use limits my reality in many ways...i never read the newspaper, i rarely watch the news, i sometimes see headlines on msn.com, really the only place i hear about any type of news is when i talk to my dad on the phone...this really limits my reality because while im here in my own lil bubble at westminster world war 3 could be starting and i wouldnt know about it because it might not be something my dad felt to tell me that was important...

if i engaged in more media i would probably be more knowledgeable about what was going on in the world as far as news goes by reading the newspapers and watching the news, but i also might not have as much time to work on my school work, hang out with my friends, talk on the phone, be on im :) but by spending more time on the phone/im/facebook i really am engaging in more media and am becoming more knowledgable by learning about what is important and what is going on in my friends and families lives

if you analyze messages, the meduim, and the gatekeepers critically you might never believe any of the news that you hear in the media....you might say o well this person couldnt possibly know this and this reporter wasnt actually there to film that story so they dont know exactly what happened...if you really analyzed the messages, meduim, and gatekeepers there would be at least one thing that you could find in each type of media that would keep you from either believing it, watching it, reading it, listening to it, etc.

i have a lot of stereotypes and pictures that fill my head that would pry take up this whole blog if i decided to type them all out...one of the major stereotypes that i have that helps me to navigate the media is that the newspaper is boring... therefore i will look through the newspaper at the pictures and ads and headlines and if anything catches my eye i might read about it (for example every friday when the holcad comes out i'm sure to snag one...take a look at the pics...if i see anyone i know or anything interesting i might skim the article...it really takes an interesting or really well written article to grab my attention to read the whole thing)...i would never just sit down and read the newspaper...also i love to travel and if i happen to see a headline about somewhere where i've been or really want to go i will usually read that article...

*MY* opinion

i had a hard time understanding the reading in public opinion...but one quote that did stand out to me was on page 24 "Privacy is insisted upon at all kinds of places in the area of what is called public affairs. It is often very illuminating, therefore, to ask yourself how you got at the facts on which you base your opinion. Who actually saw, heard, felt, counted, named the thing, about which you have an opinion?"

this kind of stood out to me because most people in the public eye try to keep some sort of privacy but anytime something gets out it is such a big deal...such as someone getting divorced, cheating on their loved one, having a baby, or blah blah...and then everyone has some type of opinion about what has happened....the thing that is intersting though is that you only have to hear this one time from pretty much any type of source a tv, magazine, internet and everyone seemes to believe it...but if you think about hearing what you believe so quickly should you really? i mean if you heard the same thing you are believing that quickly about your best friend...would you believe it or would you have to actually hear it from them to believe it? or from some type of trusted source....not just some dumb magazine...

My Fav. Media

*my favorite media to use is probably instant messenger....i love being able to look at what my friends are doing and be able to talk to them at any second of the day while i can do 800 million other tasks in my room at the same time...if for some reason it was gone forver i dont know what i would do i would probably be pretty sad and upset... i would miss being able to talk to my friends as much i probably wouldnt be able to keep in touch with as many people as i do now. it would be so much harder to have to write letters, emails, or phone all of the friends that i talk to on a regular basis on instant messenger if it happend to stop existing. so for now im glad that i can still use instant messenger :)

Media Checklist

1. I use my phone a lot more when I am at home. When I am at school I call my mom or my dad most often. When I am at home I call my best friend Carissa the most often.

2. I honestly can't remember the last time that I listened to a speech/public speaker when it was not for class.

3. I im very often throughout the day. If i come back to my computer and have messages i will often send a reply. Two people I frequently chat with are my friends Carissa and Colby.

4. I check my email about every three hours while I am at school.

5. The last time I paid for music to listen too was in October. It was the Elton John concert at the Mellon Arena.

6. The most recent thing that I watched on TV was something on TLC where they were remodeling a house. I was bored.

7. The last time I recorded a TV program was on Thursday. It was Grey's Anatomy. I had to miss it and recorded it so that I wouldn't miss what happened.

8. The most recent thing that i watched for fun at the theater was "The Holiday" on dvd was "Step Up" and "Talladega Nights"

9. The last radio station i listened too was kiss fm because it was the only radio station that didnt have commercials on at the time i was in the car.

10. The most recent book i read for me was a Daniell Steele book over Christmas break.

11. I dont really read the newspaper.

12. I pay for a magazine subscription for the year. I just read one yesterday.

13. I honestly can't remember the last time I wrote a letter and mailed it through snail mail!

14. I have Google for Educators bookmarked on my browser. The last time I visited was just the other day. I'm an El. Ed. major and I frequently use this site to come up with cute and creative ideas to help me teach!

15. I have a "Facebook" blog---it helps me stay connected with friends from all over and it's fun to leave them messages and see pictures and stuff that they post!