This post is due by Tuesday, April 1 @ midnight for full credit.
Email late posts to rob.williamsATmadriver.com for partial credit.
Read our MEDIA@SOCIETY book, assigned chapter above.
In a SINGLE blog post below, provide for the chapter:
1. A single sentence, IYOW, that captures the chapter's THESIS (main argument).
2. THREE specific pieces of supporting documentation - ideas, concepts, stats, data - to bolster your thesis for the chapter. (Use 2 - 3 sentences for each.)
3. A single PERSONAL story of 3-4 sentences that connects the chapter directly with your own personal media experiences.
4. A SINGLE specific question you have after reading and blogging on the chapter.
Game on,
Dr. W
1. In contemporary society, we derive our sense of self through our experiences with mass media, for as different medias target us through specific demographic profiles they have construed, we find our given place society as well as our part in commercialism.
ReplyDelete2. Three specific examples to support thesis:
a. In the children's department of Toys-R-Us, there are specific colors tailored to boys and girls to show what toys are expected to be used by each gender.
b. Like the character of Lara Croft in the video game Tomb Raider, many female characters within media are portrayed more so to please the desired male-fantasy image than to inspire women of this nation to be strong and independent individuals capable of standing alone with the help of men.
c. At many regional newspapers struggling to maintain their profit margins, editors have decided not to cover poverty or working-class issues regularly, indicating that they tailor to groups they believe could afford their paper who would buy their product due to the fact that news about their own group/class is more relevant to their own lives, thus making them more interested.
3. Back in junior year of high school, my boyfriend at the time was playing a violent video game in which his character had to beat up a women with the other male partner he had in the game. I was disgusted by the way this was implemented in the game, as well as how the female character was portrayed as a nearly-naked helpless figure that had no chance of survival against these two other men characters that opposed her.
4. Because most of the radio stations, newspaper, magazines, and tv episodes/movies are starting to blend together to portray a very similar concept or meaning, will the apparentness of this will increase in the next following years due to the fact that there are only a few major corporations that control most of the media?
1. Society provides us with representations through mass media, which we use to stem our sense of self and identity.
ReplyDelete2.
• Ideologies are used to demonstrate the dominant ideas within a culture in order for us to form our own opinions. Certain ideologies relate to our view of identity, which hold hegemony. For example, identity ideologies assume that women are homemakers while men are heroes and leaders.
• Identity in politics, often label candidates based on their gender, race, class and sexuality. For example, “during the Republican presidential primary race in 2012, Michele Bachman was often identified as the “woman candidate”, Herman Cain as the “black candidate” etc…(226). This labeling is insignificant as it distracts from the candidate’s intelligence and position.
• ..”Nondominant groups often have little control over the socializing influences that come from the media since they cannot compete with the attention received by commercial media images” (234). Due to this challenge, it is far more difficult for the nondominant groups within our society to get their messages out. Although, if there were more diversity among scriptwriters, producers, artists etc, this would enable other perspectives to emerge and be heard.
3. I have become so tired of seeing advertisements that display women as sexual objects. I have never understood what prompted big corporations to start this and am always confused how companies sell their product if the advertisement itself is barely highlighting the actual product and instead sexualizing women in a disgusting manner.
4. How can we emerge new perspectives into mainstream media?
1. The media can be used as tools to reinforce social norms as well as forces for societal change.
ReplyDelete2.
• Disney films such as Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and Cinderella "maintain heterosexual and sexist norms" in which women hold the love and acceptance of a man in a higher esteem than their own personal and professional development (223). These films, marketed toward young girls, tell a story in which it is acceptable and even encouraged for women to put their own lives on hold for love, thus perpetuating a subservient female role.
• However, television programs like Modern Family, which "provides a diverse set of family types and representations across gender, generation, and sexuality" can offer alternatives to the narratives propagated by white, middle to upper class males (241). The show features a married gay couple raising an adopted daughter thus offering a depiction of a functional, loving "alternative" family which has potential to shape positive perceptions about gay marriage and adoption.
• Even though women have made significant gains in terms of being represented in the workplace with professional aspirations in film and television, there now pressures for women to be "physically attractive and sexually pleasing within both the domestic and public spheres" (243). Thus, though it is okay for women to balance their professional and personal lives, they must fulfill men's desires while doing so. This "hypereroticized" depiction of women in the media puts pressure on women to be both qualified and sexually appealing in order to be accepted in the professional world.
3. Even if Mike Jeffries had not made disparaging remarks about customers who did not fit his brand's ideal for beauty, I would still have a problem with Abercrombie and Fitch. Not only do I wish that I had remembered to wear a gasmask when walking by the entrance to the store at the mall, but I am also affronted by large black and white posters of scantily clad teenagers. I am often shocked by how the company objectifies both boys and girls alike, reducing their significance to six pack abs and slender legs and flat stomachs. The way that Abercrombie and Fitch structures its advertising creates unreasonable expectations for beauty and suggests that physical attractiveness is paramount.
4. Can and should the government step in if "the latest fashions for seven-and-eight-year-olds re-create the outfits of pop stars who dress like sex workers" and children of this age group are used to advertise this clothing in a suggestive and sexual manner?
1. Media have a language of visuals that tell us who we are and how we should or should not behave.
ReplyDelete2. –The concept of ideology obviously plays a large role in consumer culture. As defined by the book, ideologies are “systems of meaning that circulate the dominant ideas of a society, helping us to process and make value judgments about the world” (p. 223). We understand ourselves because of ideology – the media give us ideas of what is normal and enforces the idea of normal upon us, in attempt to make us identify with a certain social group.
-“Visual codes in a variety of media texts draw upon gender norms, relegating women to objectivity or passivity, and men to subjectivity and activity” (p. 225). Gender roles are particularly focused on in the media. Women are shown as weak and unhelpful while men are shown as able, strong figures. These characteristics are not even explicitly stated, but instead are implied due to the “passivity” of women and the “activity” of men.
-“Historically, black males have been represented regularly as either comic entertainment or as thugs and criminals, whereas black women have often been portrayed in sassy comic roles or, worse, as characters denigrated through sexual insults. Asian males characters routinely attained their command over technology as nerds and techno-geeks, while Asian women have been frequently eroticized as geishas and subservient females. Latino characters often have been depicted through a brand of cultural ‘machismo’ that has combined violence and sexuality with survival in a hostile, anti-immigration environment, while Latina characters have been shown as interlopers who should be grateful for domestic work and low-paying jobs” (p. 229). This was the most fascinating aspect of the chapter; every race is represented in the media in a different way, and all of them except whites tend to be portrayed negatively. The media divides us by class, gender, race, sexuality, religion, and other aspects to try to give us an identity and tell us how we should behave in society.
3. One section of the chapter touches upon the concept of a trophy wife. In the documentary The Queen of Versailles, Jackie Siegel is the trophy wife of David Siegel. However, the filmmakers made an interesting choice in how they portrayed Jackie and David. Jackie fit the physical stereotypes of a trophy wife but the filmmakers made the viewers sympathize with her and made her human. She was not stupid and ditzy and it was obvious that she cared for husband and children. David, on the other hand, would be expected to be the strong, masculine money-maker of the family, but his business crashes and we see him instead in a state of panic. He is much weaker than his wife Jackie, losing his head and only caring about the money rather than his family.
4. Will the media ever correctly represent society?
1)Media messages shape our understandings of racial, gender, and class identities, appealing to society with “normative” views of behavior.
ReplyDelete2)Because men are the target audience for and produce the majority of media content, women are often presented from the perspective of male judgment and attraction. This sends the message that women need to think of themselves from a male point of view, becoming “a source of internal judgment.” Women will “hold themselves and other women up to what were originally male standards for idealized beauty norms,” only deepening the influence of the trend (225).
The underrepresentation and misrepresentation of women, non-white races and ethnicities, and class differences leads to an us vs. them mentality. Those who fall into the “other” category, namely those who are not white males, are presented in stereotypical ways through the white perspective, serving “as foils against which men test their own values, interests, and experiences” (232). The stories being told about individuals in the “other” category reflect the attitudes of the producers of the media content, but not the real-life experiences of those groups being portrayed.
Though men are dominant in the media industry, there is pressure on men to conform to certain stereotypes too. The act of subjugating women in cultural forums “attests to new standards men are pressured to strive for in order to assert their heterosexuality” (244). In sports and advertising, “muscled bodies have been associated with moral superiority and heroism” which supposedly allows the man to gain social and economic privileges they would not be able to access otherwise.
3)I took a psychology class in high school, and our teacher had us split into two groups depending on who we thought had it harder in society: men or women. As a female, I took the stance that women had it harder, as did the rest of the girls in my class. After discussion, I came to agree with what the book says about men having pressures put on them to act and be viewed in certain ways. Like the film Miss-Representation says, empowering women and girls to change the current portrayal of their gender will not be enough; men and boys have to be shown alternative ways of thinking and acting as well.
4)What do conglomerations gain by collectively promoting stereotypical characters and normative behavior?
ReplyDelete1. In today’s society we often develop a sense of normal, or expectations of how people should behave based off of what media tells us, especially when gender roles are involved.
2. Products in major stores across the United States are specifically tailored to girls or boys. Typically girl’s toys or products are pink and purple, where as “a much greater color variety marks the boys’ aisles”(221) such as blues, greens and earthy tones. This starts instilling norms into kids from birth, before they are even aware of gender. Many Disney princess films such as Snow White, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty “maintain heterosexual and sexist norms in which women pursue the love of a desired male over their own professional or personal ambitions.”(223). These films play a huge role in how girls feel they should act and look. In recent media, Lara Croft from the video game Tomb Raider, along with most female characters in video games, is formed to meet men’s fantasies as far as appearance goes. However unlike most, Croft is a strong and independent character.
3. When I was younger I took karate for about ten years. When I first started at the age of five, my class consisted of a pretty even balance of girls and boy. But as I got higher in rank there was maybe two or three of us left in class because the rest dropped the sport to pursue more girly sports and hobbies. I also noticed when I would go to a regional tournament that I competed in every year that consisted of all of the North East and part of Canada and even with that range of schools competing, I would often be one of three maybe four girls.
4. What is being/ has been done to encourage the media to represent society fairly and accurately?
1. As consumers in society, we are broken up into different demographic profiles that give us a sense of self.
ReplyDelete2. a. John Berger, a British art critic and cultural historian, said that "seeing comes before words." I think that this is a great quotation because it shows just how impressionable people especially children are towards advertisements. Reality changes across different media outlets and Berger makes a great point by saying that the image is more powerful than words are, especially when it comes to media.
b. Ideology is the meaning that circulates dominant ideas of a society, hegemonic power is when a text has the values shown through mainstream values. Master narratives display a dominant ideology for example the 'American Dream' would be a master narrative.
c. Stereotypes are the basis of modern Media for young folks. To a high schooler there are different groups of people, the jocks, pretty girls, the preps, the geeks and the druggies. These are shown through our everyday media but are not completely true of a real high school setting. Because the media portrays people as these stereotypes, we tend to categorize people when we meet them or when we are put in the high school setting.
3. In my media revolutions class we were asked to look into what kinds of people we thought used certain kinds of media. I found it very interesting that most people said things like "mom's drive minivans" or "dad's drive trucks" that is not true but it is a stereotype. Stereotypes I find drive our society and give purpose to the marketing departments in order to advertise towards us. It reminds me a little of Feed how we use stereotypes in order to help categorize consumers.
4. How close are we to getting a chip in our brain to help ease the process of stereotypes and demographics?
1.) Thesis
ReplyDeleteMedia plays a defining role in forming and evolving "symbols and identity markers" (221).
2.) Three Supporting Pieces of Documentation
- Demographic profiles: We are projected representations that we will identify with, even though they might not accurately represent "the essence of who we are, how we behave , or how we experience and make sense of the world" (221).
- Ideologies: Ideologies are defined in the text as "systems of meaning that circulate the dominant ideas of a society, helping us to process and make value judgments about the world" (222-223). This speaks to the role that we, as consumers, play in representations through the media.
- Stereotypes: These help to make "stories of identity" (228) easier and simpler to tell. With a "label" and "easily identifiable categorizations" (228), we easily succumb to believing or seeing stereotypes in society around us.
3.) Personal Story
Back when I was in middle school, my mom bought the DVD set of a season of "I Love Lucy". Both she and my dad found that it was not only a classic that they wanted to share with us, but also a comedy without the vulgarities that we see in modern day comedic stories. However, I didn't realize (at the age of 14) as I admired and envied Lucy's cute, simple lifestyle, that it was a belittling image of women that had been glorified through the show. This was used as an example in "Miss-Representation". As wonderful as "I Love Lucy" is, it portrays the image of a helpless housewife as a fun, classic, enviable lifestyle.
4.) Question
Even when we (as the consumers) know these representations are not universally accurate, will they ever change or diminish?
1. Media builds social constructions, giving us a sense of self and influencing our understanding and views of gender, race, religion, and class structures, all with its representations of reality.
ReplyDelete2. When things are repeated and reinforced through social discourse, they form patterns of thought that emerge as ideologies. An example of this is the giant of the Walt Disney Company. Disney films display stories of male heroism, female dependency, heterosexual norms, and white power; these depictions influence us directly and indirectly. Because in these movies, it is normal for the woman character to lust over the man before her own ambition, our society has taken this as a social norm.
The representations that the media gives are constructed by whoever produces it; so, it's logical to say that the producer's ideologies seep into their content, which is then consumed by the masses. This results in people telling stories based on their own experience, regardless of what or who that story is about. This leads to unbalanced representations, and potentially harmful ideologies. And really, does it make sense that the one behind Sex and the City, a TV show that is about womens' lives, is a man??
Although the media traditionally reproduces narratives using stereotypes and exclusion, things are changing in ways that incorporate different narratives. Minorities are now visible as leaders, homosexual couples are more prevalent, and women are more often heroes of stories. It's changing slowly, but due to documentaries like Misrepresentation, people are understanding just how the media affects our identities, and how we need to get a better hold on that.
3. Last Thanksgiving break, I saw the movie "Frozen" with some younger cousins. Afterwards, (having been in the class Media Rev for the past couple months) I found myself discussing the story with my aunts and uncles. The moral of the story is unique to other animated films geared towards kids, because the love story isn't one of a damsel in distress and her heroic beau, it is between two sisters. We agreed that it is a good thing that the film industry is beginning to produce movies that deviate from the "traditional" love story.
4. When it comes time for our generation to have children, what stereotypes will the media have defined for them, and how will they differ from what ours were in high school?
1. Mass media will reshape our minds and guide people’s behavior.
ReplyDelete2.
a) Social discourse: how through our socialization and our institutions. Besides, social discourse is the reflection of the social cultures. Ideologies are that when mass media repeat the content of social discourse in diversity forms of media, the social ideas are the different Ideologies. Because of these ideologies, people have the basic principle to judge the world and to learn to the world.
b) In our original thought, people all think that the image of female should be hot, long hair, naked, and thin. Most of people think that the beauties of female’s bodies are more important than their thoughts. This common conception is usually from variety media platforms. Not only the media of adult, but also the cartoons also convey the conception of hot. For example, the image of process is “S”---- have big breast and slender waist.
c) Some times, it is not the experience shape and built the model of the world to help people has a habit. It is just the rule that from the place that we all did not know what is it. For example, most of people think that the boys should like blue and the girl should like pink. The fact is that not all girls like pink. Sometimes, it is the social media tell girls that girls should like pink.
3. In China, the standard to judge the beauty is white. They always said that people could ignore you all disadvantages, if you are white. For example, when I post my picture with my ton skin in Cancun. My friends all said that why did you became black. I could not understand why they can ignore the beautiful view and just focus on my skin.
4. Why we still can not change the thoughts of female, although we already have many excellent females who are powerful than males?
1. While media representation of gender, race, class, and sexuality is man-made, it has been hard to actually change certain beliefs that it holds.
ReplyDelete2. • Regardless of the form of media, biases still remain. “Media in Society” discusses this idea through popular animated Disney films such as “The Little Mermaid” and “Beauty and the Beast”. Even films that were created for family audiences, depict domestic violence and the body as being more valuable than the brain (224).
• Unfortunately identity stereotypes have plagued our society and has provided a lack of complexity. According to “Media in Society”, stereotypes help people understand what is expected of them as well as the characteristics of the “other”. Shows like that represent the working class (“Roseanne” and “The Simpsons” ) are oftentimes shown in a comical way and working class individuals are seen as ignorant and lazy (231).
• While the media still has a long way to go in terms of equally and fairly representation individuals of all backgrounds, a lot of progress has still been made. Depending on the media form, women are now seen as more powerful and strong while minorities are becoming more involved in “reality shows, news reporting, and niche marketing” (246-47)
3. Early on we are exposed to societal issues even though we are probably unaware of it. The cartoons, like the news or TV shows that our parents watched, delivered the same messages but since we were young we had no idea. When I watch cartoons that I watched growing up such as “The Rugrats” or even certain episodes of “SpongeBob”, I realize that there were “hidden messages”. While I thought I understood what I was watching, I really didn’t’.
4. Why does TV news and newspaper focus less on societal issues when it claims to be informative and unbiased?
IYOW: Media have helped to influence how we see ourselves as well as others.
ReplyDelete1. "In today's media-saturated environment, our ideas are relayed through social discourse--how through our socialization and our institutions (family, education, work, etc.) we learn to speak about and represent our thinking." (222). Media have shaped how we think just as much as our families do. With the growing presence and accessibility of media, it is now becoming an important part of people's day to day lives and their thought processes.
2. Women in media are either portrayed as sexualized characters or homemakers, and her conflict is always either finding her "prince charming" or choosing between work and family (because apparently we can't have it all). The book references Lara Croft from Tomb Raiders as a male fantasy image that also creates an unrealistic example for how women should look to men. But if they're not Lara, they're in the kitchen. "In early- to mid-twentieth-century ads, women were portrayed in traditional roles--as happy and attractive housewives, homemakers, and mothers who were predominantly white--within a domestic realm that honored suburban femininity." (235).
3. Media allows for someone to not only create stereotypes or stories, but also helps them create themselves. "As we have learned, master narratives offer powerful stories that can colonize our conceptions of identity--but also liberate our imagination as we explore new possibilities for our "selves" as individuals and community members in the twenty-first century." (246) Having access to this ocean of information allows the user to help shape themselves.
Personal Story: I am taking the Race, Gender and Ethnicity in Media class, taught by Professor Griffith, and we have talked a lot about portrayals in the media, from gender stereotypes to our own personal preferences based off of groups. It has been interesting to learn more about the stereotypes and dissect them. But in high school I always remember reading "seventeen" magazine and seeing the fitness section about workouts and a week plan of what you should eat and comparisons of what you should have instead of the burger you were going to eat and that's when I thought I should work out because this magazine that I got fashion advice from was telling me to get that body I had to work out and eat a certain way.
Question: Stereotypes are present throughout media, they have been for a while. How do you think these stereotypes are going to be broken and what steps need to be taken in order to make that possible?
Chapter 9
ReplyDeleteThesis: What is seen in media represents society
Support:
1) Because people in commercials are selling to consumers through visual means they often reflect physically, economically, and ideologically the consumers advertisers are selling to.
2) Socialization through media is effective. The media often portrays men and women in particular ways, gender-socializing children from a young age when the males they see are the athletic adventurers and the females are often the more submissive party.
3) Political campaigns paint each candidate as something different, “during the Republican presidential primary race in 2012, Michelle Bachmann was often identified as the ‘woman candidate,’ Herman Cain was the ‘black candidate,’ Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich as the “socially conservative candidates,” and eventual nominee Mitt Romney as the “rich candidate” (226). The media’s portrayal of the candidates represented what society wanted, and the Republicans wanted the fiscally responsible, slightly more liberal candidate.
Story: I have always been able to connect to male protagonists in the media, and after watching the documentary MissRepresented I reflected on why more of my favorite characters were male rather than female when obviously it should be easier for me to identify with females, but the female characters in many of the films and television shows are not as complex characters.
Question: Why do people take the media’s representation of society so literally when they do such a bad job at portraying minorities?
Media influences our lives by shaping the way we act, how we see others, and ourselves ultimately having the ability to change and shape society.
ReplyDeleteSupporting Documentation:
• The media shapes our understanding of reality and social experience. We analyze how representations change over time, how reality is socially constructed across different media, how representations both reflect and shape the culture from which they emerge, and how representation is both a socialization influence and a form of transformative possibility (222).
• People judge mainstream representations by the way they perform reflective functions and socializing influence. Reflective function is when representations in the media are judged by their ability to reflect on the culture they exist in. Socializing influence is when representations are the results of powerful industries in either a positive or negative way. Positive would be educational or artistic expression and negative would be power, propaganda, stereotyping, or commercialization.
• Our cultural identity correlates with the media narratives ownership. In addition to analyzing how stories are represented, we have to look at the politics and economics behind their production and ownership with their creation. “Within American broadcasting, women own less than 7 percent of the U.S. commercial broadcast TV and radio stations, and people of color own even less, with 5 percent of TV stations and 8 percent of radio” (233) showing how white males middle to upper class men tend to construct narratives relating to a white male narrative and stereotypes in the media we consume on a daily basis
When watching Missrepresentation in class, I started to think about how the media misrepresents genders, ethnicities, class and sexuality. A major fact brought up by the book and the documentary is how most movies males direct. So, not only does a company owned by a white male, but also directed by a white male own the entertainment being created. This makes misrepresentation inevitable and stereotypes easily enforced when ownership and creation is completely dominated by the white male stereotype that surrounds society already.
Will our stereotypes change when percentages in ownership start to equalize when it comes to race, gender, sexuality, and class?
Representations HO, colleagues!
ReplyDeleteFine connections between MISS REP, our reading, and your own experience.
Brava,
Dr. Rob
Representation is an essential, yet highly controversial aspect of mass media. Those who control this media can use anything they want to represent anything else they want. Truth and fact are replaced with glamour and exaggeration.
ReplyDelete-We all use social discourse (222) to analyze and understand media and representation within it. These discussions and conversations between people allow for better understanding of mass media and for the creation of new ideologies to drive the future society.
-The ideology of modern society drives our critical thinking about media and enables the creation of new master narratives (223), overarching themes for the community. Master narratives are formed by the ideas of the people of a civilization, and so they can be seen as a fair representation of the community's thought processes.
-With this critical interpreting of media and its messages, we get stereotypes. Although they are almost always negative, the stereotypical idea of something is often utilized extensively in pop culture, whether it is race, gender, class, or sexuality. (228-232)
The best example of representation from my life would be the OWN film, "Miss Representation". This movie highlights much of the inappropriate and miscalculated expressions done by the media today. Although the film focused solely on gender misrepresentation, "Miss Representation" described many examples of real-life media representation that is clearly overblown or incorrect.
What are the true reasons for misrepresentation within the media? We all know when something is photoshopped or fake, so why would companies continue to use it?
1. Media have an astonishing influence on our culture by way of defining the “norm” of society.
ReplyDelete2. In order to have a healthy mental status, we must develop a positive self-image and sense of self. The media plays a crucial role in today’s society in the influence of this development. “Understanding who we are and how we make sense of the world requires an exploration of the media’s creative influence, as well as a critical analysis of how media are dominated by powerful industries that influence identity, experience, and events” (page 221).
“When social discourses are repeated in a variety of media, they eventually form patterns of thought that emerge as ideologies- systems of meaning that circulate the dominant ideas of a society, helping us to process and make value judgments about the world” (page 223). This leads the media obtaining a strong influence defining culture.
“When stories of identity are told, individuals and groups are usually reduced to easily identifiable categorizations, or stereotypes, so that audiences can label them, often on the basis of simplistic characteristics like gender, race, class, and/or sexuality” (page 228). The stereotypical labeling often degrades a group, which lead the individuals who are engaging in the media to hold those negative views.
3. As highlighted in the film “Miss Representation”, the media targets specific audiences. The media business dominated by males leads to an undermining of women. This negative presentation of women in television, movies and various forms of media, leads the population to view women in a similar manner.
4. As the general society becomes more aware of the problems with the media’s influence, will there be an end to the misrepresentation?