Natalie’s Reflection

I have like this class a lot, mostly just because it made me think about certain situations in different ways. A lot of the facts that we learned in class I would have never thought to look up on my own or ever talk about with anyone before. So by taking this class it allowed me to talk about issues or things that take place in society that I would never address outside of your classroom. The readings were good also just because it gave you examples where things might take place in the world where these issues are happening. So instead of just learning about it in class we would read a reading and it would explain further how certain theories or other things play out in the world today. Like I said before it just gave me a different view point. I also like whenever we could skype in with people around the US that gave us a different view point also. They are people that are dealing with these issues every day and are trying to get other people to cognize there causes. It was cool to see that there are people out there in the world that care about those kinds of issues. For the prosocial media project for some reason I just thought I understood some parts better than others but I really did not understand what we were trying to create as a whole. So I think because of that my project lack creativity because I just took it as, well put theories up there and explain it how you would to a company not so much pitch an idea. That could be also though I traveled a lot for my sport and missed the lecture of when you talked about the project but I did not really get those ideas from just reading about the project. The lectures were good, I started to like them more towards the end because I knew how to take notes in your class. Maybe for the next class let them know they have to write done things you say not just plain notes, would be really helpful for them. Overall, I am glad that I took your class and got to see your passion for this subject. Hope that your clothing line works out well. Thank you!

Stomp Out Bullying

The organization I have found that works against negativity in a creativity way is the organization of Stomp Out Bullying. They reason of why I thought this was creative was because they have made two different campaigns that work against cyber bulling. They are facing this issue head on because they believe that many people do not recognized how damaging a cyber-attack can be towards someone. So the mission of my organization is mostly just trying to prevent bullying as much as possible. The one issue that I am focusing on will be the cyber bullying because they do others also. Just because it will be easier to direct the readings to that section. So one campaign they have for their company is the Blue Shirt day. This is held every first Monday in October and what basically happens is everyone that is involved with this organization where the blue shirts that they have made for the day. It is supposed to create awareness so others will become informed about how the effects of bullying can physically and emotionally take a toll on someone. Another campaign they came up with is the No Matter campaign. This is just a message that they can send out to people throughout the year that touches on all different types of people. Creating awareness not to judge certain people before you understand them as a whole. One theory that we have learned about was the Contact theory. The contact theory states that “prejudice can be reduce[d] as one learns more about a category of people.” Just clarifies that if everyone took the time to understand each other than the cyber-attacks would not become so emotional for people because they know what would get under people skin or what is not okay to say to someone over the internet. Another term that comes into play when talking about this organization is the parasocial interaction. This talks about how humans see media or experience media as a “direct experience” of how people act in the real world. This is a problem with today’s society because media is pushing all different types of information at us. A kid could watch a show and see how a bully is getting there way instead of the wimp that is getting pick on and being made fun of. Because a kid watching the show most likely will not want to identify themselves with the weak character because they want to be the popular one. Since that is the case in most situations the child then will not make an effort to understand the weak kid feelings because in their mind the only thing that is important is being popular. This is why media must be controlled better. Another example is that young adult’s think when they go to college bridge drinking is the way of life. Mostly because all they see on media and television is that drinking excessively is the social norm and anyone who is anyone will indulge to the point where they become sick. Furthermore, social media has become a major source where cyber bullying is taking place. I think the organization Stomp Out Bullying has good ideas about how to make the awareness better for their issue. I think though they need to take their campaign bigger. Only because I think that this is an issue that a lot of young people in today’s society deal with and it needs to become recognized what types of actions are considered a cyber-attack. I think the idea of prosocial media will help because they will be able to explain their problems to the audiences easier. Overall, if the campaign does not become bigger through different media outlets I do not think that cyber bulling will ever become aware enough to be stopped.

Exorcism

The show that I watched was an episode from Criminal Minds. It had to do with an exorcism, so there was a lot of religion in my show. There were many characters that stood out to me. One was a main character and her name was Emily, she was friends with the person whose death they were investigating and his name was Matt. This is super important to the show though because she showed who Matt really was throughout his life and how he might have gotten caught up with these people that killed him and the ones trying to kill his friend. Well anyway what was happening in the show was that a man from Spain, a priest, came to the states and was performing exorcisms on certain people because he believed there was an evil in them. One of them was Matt, Emily’s friend, who was a victim of these exorcism. The FBI was trying to stop these attacks from happening because they are killing people in the states. The priest from Spain talked about his faith a lot. He claimed it was his duty to clean these people and to save other’s from this evil. Emily had to talk about her religion because when she was younger Matt helped her overcome some personal issues that went against the religion, which was Catholicism. That is also when Matt started questioning everything because he felt it was wrong to just cut someone off because they made a mistake. For example, in the “Overview of Research on Media-Constructed Muslim Identity”, it talks about if a person makes a mistake as in going against something in the region how looked down it is on them. It even quotes that when that person makes that mistake they are looked down like they have a “deadly disease and its followers as carriers about to infect the rest of the world.” That is also how the priest was acting in the show. They said since they were all in Spain at the same time when an event took place that they all were apart from this evil and now the evil must be clean from them so everyone else can live back in peace. It is also mention in the “Images of Evangelicals in American Film” how harsh the Catholic region can be and the religion that these folks were in was Catholic. So everyone in this episode was really overcome by how powerful a religion can be, it was even stated at the end of the show do you believe in that evil takes over someone. All the characters were in a circle and one man said, evil is in everyone, it all depends on how you act on it. Is it also worth killing people to make people believe in your religion? Those were not his exact words but that is how he phased it. That is important because it is like how far are you willing to go to make someone believe in something. Which is what are readings have to deal with, they talk about how a religion can be pushed onto people and how it might be better for them to just choose it.

number 4

I watched an episode of Orange is the New Black and what happened in the show was that a lot of the prisoners were fine with their everyday actives but some were not, so they wanted to change. Like one inmate was pushing to get a track so that they could do something else during the day other than just sit around. But the others were fine with the fact they did not have a track because they would have to give up other things because there is only so much money. Then you had the police looking for a phone because someone was taking pictures in the prison. But the story I focused on the most was on an African American. Mostly because she had just gotten back from being confined somewhere special for a couple of weeks. But I focused on her because she was angry and she did not know what to do. I think she was finally realizing that she had given up on actually making a life for herself because she really could have had one. She was a really good track runner in high school and she had a chance to run in college but she took the wrong path. So she is now starting to get really emotional about it. One because she misses running more than anything, anyway she will not say that out loud. Then two she angry because she feels that she missed out going to college and making something out of herself. So for me I connect with her on that because you do not want to miss out on something in life like going to college a being an athlete and getting a degree. Because deep down that is something that you want more than anything. Now she is so overwhelmed with emotion because she cannot believe she cannot get it back and it just keeps building in building in her. This is when she has an interaction with a white character, now she is trying to give her wisdom because she understands her hurt. In the end, it was really good advice but why did it have to come from a white person. It did not come from another colored person in the jail. In the article of “Themes of Whiteness” it was addressing how white people can seem to understand situations faster. Now they focused on learning skills faster, like in the article they learned martial arts, but in this case it deals more with of an understanding. Showing how again that white people always know first and best what the right action is, even if everyone on the same level as everyone else. So these two characters did not have a good interaction with each other. It ended with the white person slapping the color girl, then the color girl ended up just shining away like she is right but I don’t want to agree. Representing how stereotypes still stand, in the case that the color person may not know and if they go against the white person the white person must put them back in their place.

Big Bang Indian

I picked The Big Bang Theory and I picked to follow the Indian character in the show. In this show he is the only guy of color. All the other people in the show are white male or female but an interesting fact to notice is that most of the whites in this show are ones that are not dominate in there race. Meaning they could be consider as an outcast. Right away you can tell that there are race ranking that are already starting to happen. Mostly because Indians are mainly seem as really smart but this guy is not and because of that he fits in with this group of outcasts. But at the same time he is not a part of the group. One because they do mention his race and make fun of the way he says certain words. Then at the same time he will mention his own race and be like “do not make fun of me and the way we say certain words”. He also is always setting himself for racial comments later down the road. For example, he refer to a stick he was using and said “well that’s now not my only favor brown stick to touch,” talking about himself. He added in the word brown, instead of just saying stick. Because he saw himself is not a part of the group or different, so he was able to make that a joke. And the end of the show to I was very shocked because they were all sitting around a table but they made the Indian sit on the floor and at first he was not going to but the he realized he would not be a part of the group so he sat on the floor while everyone else sat in chairs. I was really stunned by this behavior because you think that a character in the real world would not be okay with that action but in a show it is okay, parallels are starting to form. Implying that what we see we do as humans. Furthermore, Monk-Turner talks about how Hispanics will talk more with a heavy accents and have more of a smart background associated with them. Now this man was not Hispanic but they gave him all the same traits they would to a Hispanic; mostly because his skin color is closest to them which is another stereotype within itself. Us labeling something without giving it the right label. On the other hand, I connect with the character because I have been in a situation where I am the outcast. People make you feel included by treating you like a friend or something but then at the same time why would they make you sit on the floor. It was hard to see because I think everyone can feel that way at times but no one ever says anything about it being right or wrong. And in the Monk-Turner reading it talked about TV being the way people learn these days and with TV teaching us it is okay to treat certain people in that way, well that is why we have all the problems, in most cases it is probably because people do not even see that it is wrong yet.

White Trash of White Trash

 

Well I watch CIS: NY a show that actually ended up dealing a lot with how class affects us and our behaviors. There were two different stories going on, one about a man that was killed in a mine and another was about a girl they found dead in a lake. I will focus more on victim one which was the man that was killed in the mine. This story did not really interest me about class until the very end. It came out in the end that his brother was the one that killed him because he was not fitting in with the group, mostly because they viewed him as lazy and someone who was like “white trash” because he did not care about much about anything. This was interesting to show because mining work it not a very desirable job, so they showed us how there were even classes inside classes. So victim one was the “white trash” of the “white trash,” I could tell this was the case right off the bat because the workers are poor and victim one did not fit in with the group. Furthermore, to reaffirm that he was the white trash of the group, in the article “Consuming “Tash”: Representations of Poor Whites in U.S. Popular Culture,” it states that “white trash” is poor, “laz[y], ignorance, poor health and hygiene, and of course, white.” Victim one was an extreme version of all of these characteristics. Another thing that made victim one separate from his group was that he was always a “butt of the jokes.” Now in the episode it did not show these jokes but workers would start fights with him because he could not do anything right and you could tell he was picked on by the other workers by how they treated him in the flash backs that they showed. This helped give clues to the audience that they did not see him as a part of their group. In the end, they disregarded victim one so much they decided to get ridge of him, mostly because they thought they would just work better without him around. This showing how much he was “white trash” because they did not view him as a part of their group.

Blog #2

So I choose to look at two different youtube videos by the same artist, Chris Brown. The first

song that I listen to of his was, “Don’t Wake Me Up”. This song was about falling in love and once I have

that love don’t wake me up. That was what the video started with but then the song moves into more if

I have not found my love I will not go asleep until I find my love. It was a very good song in the fact that

in most songs today they do not mention love at all, more I hope I just find a girl to “have”. This brings

me into the next song I picked. The song was, “Loyal”; having the famous line, “these girls ain’t loyal”. By

just looking at that statement you can probably see it views women more as objects and saying we are

all the same. Furthermore, my gender is female and my gender category at least in the second video is

seen very poorly. For the first one it does not put women down that badly but it could be seen that all

we are good for is for love, as if we are weak and need a man. As the second video, Chris Brown shows a

different view. One it states that women are hoes and it allows men to call women hoes as if that is the

norm. Then it says women are not loyal to the men because women want money and that love does not

mean anything. For me this just implies that women are weak and need to have men to survive. As if we

cannot make our money, as it stated in one of our readings about the video game. We are just sex

objects for the men for when they want us but we cannot do more than just almost assist men in their

life’s. Then as for the first video, it was some of Chris Brown earlier work and I think that has to do with

how different the content is. In fact, love is still seen as valued in this video but I feel as he gets older

and watches more social media, like stated in the video game reading he is more exposed to the rated

M games for example and treats women poorly.