Recently in Media Category

So I happened to flip on the Colbert Report the other day and I found this entertaining bit about how the Tea Parties are racist.

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/281750/april-20-2010/p-k--winsome---tea-party-consulting

For those of you that don't know, the "Tea Party Patriots" is a rallying group of Americans who come together for their 3 core values: fiscal responsibility, constitutionally limited government, and free markets.  But apparently, this movement is almost ENTIRELY white.  Colbert does an entertaining parody with Tim Meadows about how the Tea Party can make themselves seem less racist by hiring his "consulting firm".  As soon as I watched this I knew I needed to post about it, however I wasn't sure what to talk about until I thought more about the topic and got to wondering....

How often do you think racial tensions are eased in real life by staging or hiring out some "multicultural" faces.  For instance, a white presidential candidate might have a very publicized picture with a Middle Eastern person after waging war on a country from that region.  Does such a thing happen?  And how often?  Does it actually have a positive impact on their public image?

I know this doesn't sound like it belongs here by the title, but I think it has some important points to make. Last night, South Park was censored by Comedy Central (Viacom) for attempting to depict Muhammad (the prophet of Islam forbidden to be shown). His image was censored as well as any his name being bleeped out and the end message (ironically the end message was supposed to refer to what fear and terror does to our freedom). Do we really have free speech in this country? The episode was censored beyond what the creators allowed due to threats from one Muslim group. Also ironic is the fact that the show depicted Muhammad once before prior to 9/11, but now it's not allowed? 

http://www.hulu.com/watch/141560/saturday-night-live-ruff-rugger-and-roker


This is a clip from Saturday Night Live this past weekend that I think is a funny example of a stereotype consistent vs inconsistent Al Roker. I realize this clip is meant to be funny, but I think it raises a few interesting questions as well: How would a stereotype consistent African American news reporter (doesn't necessarily have to be Al Roker or a weatherman) be received by viewers? Or even just a news reporter that speaks in a way consistent with their ethnicity? I've always noticed with African American news reporters that they tend to display themselves as stereotype inconsistent, but what if they didn't? How would people react? You could even say the same thing about Barack Obama or other highly regarded social figures. How much of a role do you think stereotype inconsistency plays into the acceptance of some minority figures by the white community?

This is a clip from Saturday Night Live this past weekend that I think is a funny example of a stereotype consistent vs inconsistent Al Roker. I realize this clip is meant to be funny, but I think it raises a few interesting questions as well: How would a stereotype consistent African American news reporter (doesn't necessarily have to be Al Roker or a weatherman) be received by viewers? Or even just a news reporter that speaks in a way consistent with their ethnicity? I've always noticed with African American news reporters that they tend to display themselves as stereotype inconsistent, but what if they didn't? How would people react? You could even say the same thing about Barack Obama or other highly regarded social figures. How much of a role do you think stereotype inconsistency plays into the acceptance of some minority figures by the white community?

March Madness just finished, but I came across this article regarding racism: http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/news?slug=jn-race040410 

 

Here's a short section from the article:

"Even though the race issue isn't discussed in polite company, it's been the subject of hushed conversations at the Final Four and will be obvious to anyone in attendance or tuning in at home. The subject is so taboo that even Larry Bird bristles when it's brought up."

 

What do people think about this issue? We have talked about it before, but I was interested in the issue being so "charged" that people don't even want to discuss it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MRWqlf_8M8

 

This video comes from a supposed organization/church. Along with this video there are many other videos from the same guy preaching hate against gays. A lot of controversy has risen from the videos, because it is questionable if this is a joke or real. It is hard to say for sure, because the videos contain "humor" like referring to things such as back door or get on your knees, but then there is a full website dedicated to his "organization".

Do you think this is real, or not? I encourage people to look at his website that they show at the beginning of the video. If you think it is real, what are the implications? such as religion and how he is trying to "change" gays to straight. If you think it is fake, how is it that this type of thing is funny? what are the implications of this side?

"Anti-abortion groups are targeting black audiences with the message that abortion is a form of "ethnic cleansing." But as many point out, this strategy ignores the real needs of all women."

http://jezebel.com/5483679/womb-lynching-on-the-anti+choice-targeting-of-african+american-women
















     When I heard this spot on the radio the other day, I immediately thought about the situation we discussed in class about the adjunct professor that was fired for using the "N" word.  According to our class discussion, one of the main reasons we believed this action was taken was because of the instructors' inability to recognize the history and the true meaning embodied by that sort of language.

      This use of the word "lynching" regarding African American children seems to do the same thing.  Though I think all of us would like to see the number of abortions performed each year decrease, it seems the groups using this sort of language are also disregarding the historical and contextual meaning the word "lynching" has.

     Media coverage over the last few years (even as recent as last month) has shown time after time how even a noose hung in a tree or a campus building incites fear, resentment, and anger amongst those who understand its meaning.

     No matter what side of the abortion issue you find yourself, I think this kind of use of language proves ineffective for its intention...  

About-face.org is a website dedicated to exposing media messages that are detrimental for the body image of girls and women. Their mission is "to equip women and girls with tools to understand and resist harmful media messages that affect self-esteem and body image."

They focus on analysing visual images that appear on the media, in order to foster a critical mind in the viewers, particularly female viewers who are most affected by images of the "ideal woman" presented in the media, most pervasively in advertisements selling all kinds of products.

An interesting feature of this website is their "Gallery of offenders", in which they present offensive media images, including an analysis of the negative messages that they present. For example, the following image from a magazine ad, which presents a stereotypical image of female passivity, victimization, and objectivization.

The website also includes a "Gallery of winners", in which they present images that send more positive messages. For example, the following magazine ad, which presents a woman in a position of strenght.

It is an excellent resource for teaching women to look more critically at the information they receive from the media. For more information, visit: http://www.about-face.org/ 

The Pulitzer Prize winner To Kill a Mockingbird is a timeless classic written by Harper Lee. The story takes place in the small southern town of Maycomb County, Alabama in the midst of The Great Depression. The narrator of this riveting story is a young girl named Jean Louise Finch, or Scout. Scout is not the typical delicate, shy, and ladylike child that society expects her to be. She is an outspoken, rambunctious and free spirited tomboy who wears overalls, plays in the outdoors alongside her older brother Jem, and is far more intelligent than most in her age group. She and her brother Jem are the children of Maycomb County defense lawyer Atticus Finch. Atticus can be considered an untraditional man in several respects. For starters he is a single father raising two children. He also encourages and stresses the importance of an education and egalitarian beliefs to Scout and Jem during a time when it was very unpopular to do so.

Throughout the text, Scout walks us through her childhood adventures in this conservative southern Alabama town alongside Jem and occasionally their best friend Dill. At first life seems simple. But when their father Atticus takes on the case of his life, they all begin to realize the severity of racial turmoil that defined American society during this time period.

  In the story, Atticus takes on the case of a Negro man named Tom Robinson. Tom is a young family man whose only crime is that he is African American. He stands accused of raping the eldest daughter of Mr. Ewells, an impoverished social misfit in Maycomb County. The Ewells are an unpopular family who live on the outskirts of Maycomb in the midst of the town's dump. They are known by everyone in the county for being aggressive, dishonest, uncivilized, unclean, and uneducated. Despite these facts they hold a great advantage over the most civilized and honest African Americans: they are white.

 Scout and Jem encounter dirty stares and insults by many of their fellow townsfolk because their father is defending a Negro. Through example however, Atticus teaches his children that the color of your skin does not define what kind of person you are. Everyone should be treated with kindness and respect. Scout and Jem manage to hold their heads high and support their father's cause. Despite the best efforts of Atticus however, Tom is convicted of raping Mr. Ewells' daughter and is sentenced to death. Scout and Jem learn the grim reality that justice for all does not exist in the ignorant and racist American culture.

To Kill a Mockingbird is a wonderful text to read when learning about stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination. Readers can get examples of all three of these elements throughout the entire story not just in the context of black versus white, but also society versus women, and poor whites versus everyone else. Some of the social psychological underpinnings of this novel deal with constructs such as categorization, Social Identity Theory, depersonalization and dehumanization, out-group homogeneity, social motives such as self-enhancement and control, and the list goes on.

Harper Lee's novel To Kill a Mockingbird is a wonderful representation of the struggles experienced by generations of minorities as well as females throughout American history. From a social scientific standpoint, the novel gives social psychological novices a well rounded summary of stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination along with solutions to such issues.

Everyone should check out this website and the accompanying video! This has changed my entire view on the history of the United States in terms of racial relations between white people and black people. Is it possible that we have all been brainwashed through years of exposure to the superiority-inferiority of the two races? Would this explain why so many people still hold strong prejudices and/or are outright bigots?

http://www.stopthebrainwash.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIBQPORReWY&feature=player_embedded

I think that we, as a society, need to take a long look in the mirror and figure out where we have been in order to decide what we really are today. This does not only include the white race, but the black race as well. The perpetuating harm that is being done today through the media has ties to early advertising of slaves, mockery of black people, and early silent films. However, we do not even realize this because of how long this propoganda has been around. I don't know about you, but I totally buy into what Tom Burrell is getting at through this website. Check out Kim's post on Burrell's NPR interview if you want to hear more from him.

 

When trying to figure out what my weekly post should be I Google searched "stereotyping in the media" and the first thing to pop up was this Canadian website.  It has an index of some areas in which the media stereotypes and what to look for, why it is harmful, even about white privilege.

Look through this site and some of the links and let me know what you think. 

Do resources like this that inform others about media bias/stereotypes make a difference?  IF so, why aren't there more of these kind of programs out there?

How big of a role does media play in our every day bias and stereotyping?

http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/issues/stereotyping/index.cfm

So, I am a Micheal Jackson fan...and you can think whatever you want about him, but he has made a great impact on our music that we have today.

When I went to buy a cd of his that had recently broken, I didn't realize that one of the songs was going to be censored. The song is titled "They Don't Care About Us" and you can find the lyrics on the site below:
http://www.elyrics.net/read/m/michael-jackson-lyrics/they-don_t-care-about-us-lyrics.html

the two words that they censor are "jew" and "kike".. if you want to listen to the song you can go here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNJL6nfu__Q

 

The point of this song is in the message, and I was really suprised to find that they were covering up these words. I feel like this really connects with our class where we put all of the hateful words on the board. By covering these words up, what kind of message are they trying to promote? He is trying to bring up these issues to the forefront, by blocking them out there is only a greater hate for the words.
What do you think about censorship? Are there times when it is ok to leave things uncensored? Are there times where things NEED to be said? 

http://music.msn.com/music/article.aspx?news=487661&gt1=28102

ATLANTA (AP) -- A Georgia man who posted a video of himself on the Internet holding a sign that said "Elton John must die" has been arrested for making terroristic threats.

"What Elton John has done is desecrated the image of the Lord Jesus Christ, blasphemed the Lord Jesus Christ," Horsley said in the video.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/09/howard-stern-gabourey-sid_n_492102.html

Howard Stern unleashed a vicious attack on Gabourey Sidibe on his Sirius satellite show on Monday.

"There's the most enormous, fat black chick I've ever seen. She is enormous. Everyone's pretending she's a part of show business and she's never going to be in another movie," he said. "She should have gotten the Best Actress award because she's never going to have another shot. What movie is she gonna be in?"

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/rusty-weiss/2010/02/01/rush-racism-media-stunned-black-woman-could-win-over-limbaugh

Rush Limbaugh surprised the media in voting for a Black women at the Miss America Pageant in which she actually won. He has been labeled as a racist by many sources and people. Rush has a conservative talk show where he expresses his opinion about various issues going on in America and the world. The other judges were Vivica A. Fox and Shawn Johnson. Do you think Rush's vote was sincere or do you think he was singled out by the other judges? Another questioned to keep in mind is if he picked her to convince people that he wasn't a racist.

The case of 17 year old Chelsea King has been making headlines all over the news. A few days ago, Chelsea King, an honors student at a local San Diego high school was reported missing after not returning home from a jog. Her father found her BMW and other belongings at a trail overlooking a lake. Sadly, today they reportedly found her body in a shallow grave. She was sexually assaulted and then murdered. They currently have a registered sex offender named John Gardner in custody for the rape and murder of this teenage girl.

In this article: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,587622,00.html, they go in to great detail about the massive search conducted to find Chelsea.

"The San Diego County Sheriff's Department, along with the FBI and law enforcement from Riverside, San Bernardino and Orange counties, launched on all-out search for Chelsea using helicopters, infrared devices and search dogs to scour the park's rugged terain."

I personally have never seen this kind of response for missing person's who are of lower SES status and/minorities. A few months back I read an article in my hometown's newspaper about a 16 year old high school student who went missing in El Paso, Texas. The young lady had texted her mom to pick her up at school but when she got there, her daughter was nowhere to be found. The woman later received a message from her daughter saying that she was in Juarez and needed to be picked up there. Sadly, the young woman has not been seen or heard of since October. There were no massive searches by anybody, no helicopters, no info-red camera's, nothing. These poor parents have been all over Juarez, recently named the most dangerous city in the world, looking in hospitals and shelters in the hopes of finding their daughter.

Why is it that the cases of these rich, white, upper middle class victims make the headlines all over the national news while others do not?

 

 

It seems that music videos have always presented sexual images. For example, it is difficult to forget the semi-naked women who accompanied 1980s rock bands in their videos that were shown all over the world. But lately it seems that sexual images are used by both men and women: female singers are increasingly presenting themselves with less clothing and sexier dance moves.

In her article "How pop became porn", Liz Jones talks about pop star Shakira's latest video for her song "She Wolf", in which the singer appears in her most sexually explicit video so far, almost naked and dancing very provocatively inside a cage. She writes with concern: "The images can be seen in the video for her single, She Wolf, which will be watched obsessively, again and again, by thousands of young men and women, many of whom will form the opinion that writhing in a cage is precisely the way 'sexy' women should behave."

Shakira is a very interesting case. She started her career in her native Colombia, writing songs written by herself and playing the guitar. Over the years, as she has become better known internationally, she has undergone a transformation, changing her appearance and her musical style, and making sexier videos. Jones writes: "When I asked Shakira, the Latin American superstar, how she can square being sexy, wearing skimpy clothes, with her charitable work championing children in the developing world, she replied indignantly: 'Of course I can square it! I think my image is one of being powerful, in control.'"

Shakira is not the only female pop star doing this kind of videos, and this raises some questions: Are over-sexualized images of female singers really empowering women? Or are the images of semi-naked women in cages or crawling on the floor perpetuating old stereotypes of women as submissive sexual objects? Considering how often these type of videos are seen by people of all ages in many countries, the answers to these questions are extremely relevant.

To read the full article, including information about the initiative in the U.K. to ban sexually explicit videos before 9 p.m., click here:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1254145/LIZ-JONES-How-pop-porn.html

http://olympics.thestar.com/2010/article/773211--canucks-show-sense-of-humour-at-games-closing

This is an article that discusses some of the characteristics of the closing ceremonies in Vancouver a couple of days ago.

"There were marching Mounties in miniskirts. Tabletop hockey players. The iconic "Hockey Night in Canada" theme. Dancing canoes, red-clad lumberjacks and giant inflatable beavers.

Michael Buble -- never opposed to poking fun at himself -- even rode atop a massive motorized Mountie's hat while performing The Maple Leaf Forever."

These are all common stereotypes of Canada.....It is kind of cool how Canada is embracing /poking fun at some of the stereotypes about their country, but how do you think this would fly with some other cultures? Is it because these stereotypes are not considered at all negative that this is more accepted than what it could be? Do you think this would offend any Canadians that do not particularly identify with these cultural stereotypes?

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/02/22/sports/AP-OLY-FIG-Weir-Broadcasters-Comments.html?_r=1

The Quebec Gay and Lesbian Council has demanded a public apology from French-language broadcaster RDS after one commentator said Weir hurts figure skating's image and another said Weir should be made to take a gender test. The remarks were ''outrageous'' and ''homophobic,'' CQGL said in a statement on its Web site.

If anyone is interested. I have been in a couple of different meetings, working behind the scenes, talking with different community leaders, radio and news.

We will be starting a radio program call the "Word on the Street" which will be conversations for campus and community efforts to bring open dialogues, and discussion about issues on discrimination, stereotyping, and  racism.

The Program will be starting this Friday, and will be held on the 2nd and 4th Fridays of the week from 2:00-3:00pm at KBBG radio

 

Open:  To all students and Staff from UNI and HCC.

Guests:  We are looking for persons/agencies/city and county officials

Focus of the Show: Addressing and discussing topic and issues of interest at the university, and community college. Addressing and discussing topics and issues of interest at the University, and in the Community, in a dialogue format, using the study circle style, Topics will be determined by the participants/organizers and with input from the student and listeners.

 

First program:

Dialogue about why we are doing the show, issues that brought it about, the need to work collaboratively between the colleges and the community, the discussion of diversity, race, ethnicity and why these are important topics to talk about.  Opening the program up to listeners to talk about what they would like to hear discussed.

Contact:  Alex Esquivel at esquivea@uni.edu

 

From This American Life on NPR. The story of how the American Psychiatric Association decided in 1973 that homosexuality was no longer a mental illness.

In 1973, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) declared that homosexuality was not a disease simply by changing the 81-word definition of sexual deviance in its own reference manual. It was a change that attracted a lot of attention at the time, but the story of what led up to that change is one that we hear today, from reporter Alix Spiegel. Part one of Alix's story details the activities of a closeted group of gay psychiatrists within the APA who met in secret and called themselves the GAYPA...and another, even more secret group of gay psychiatrists among the political echelons of the APA. Alix's own grandfather was among these psychiatrists, and the president-elect of the APA at the time of the change. (24 minutes)

It's about an hour long, but if you get the chance, everyone should listen to this program!

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=204

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22EkUGnoJfM&feature=related

 

The link above has a few clips of a character named Uncle Ruckus from the show "The Boondocks". Uncle Ruckus is a black character who offers negative commentary on his own race. Throughout the series he tries to promote the ideas of the 'white man' and devalue the opinions of the 'black man'. What kind of situations foster this type of person that rejects their own in-group to promote the out-group to their category? Is there a benefit for him to back up the white people and devalue his own group? Does this leave him with no group to identify with at all now?

Another article on body image/weight:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/16/fashion/16DIARY.html


This is report on a runway model that has lost work because of her weight, despite the fact that she is a size 4, which is still considered skinny to most people. What kind of message does something like this send not only to aspiring models, but young women in general? Also, why is it that an issue like this exists when it would seem that most people understand that runway models don't look like most people? I know there are some modeling agencies that support healthier, fuller bodies, but why isn't there more of a push for average looking models when most people (I'd assume, anyway) would accept them just the same if not more than "super"models?

the following is something that happen because they are tired of being treated like animals, by police corruption unjust actions such as being racially profiled, harassed, and know and seeing four of three officers guilty of a crime which was caught on tape and they were acquitted as a result, and not having faith in the Judaical system.  

Dream Deferred

What happen to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up

Like a rasin in the sun?

Or fester like a sore...

and then run?

Does it stink like rotten meat?

Or crust and sugar over...

like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags

like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

Langston Hughes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hEtN0-vF90

Scene from American History X, within this scene it is a very heated debate about how Rodney King was attacked by police officers, while having dinner. Son  played by Edward Norton who simulates a racial skin head group member 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJ-2OMIQbq4

This is a graphic video were Rodney King is getting beating, kicked and hit with a baton  by LAPD officers. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kw2pRnBgeBU&NR=1

The aftermath of the Police trail were the police were proven not guilty which sparked the LA riots, listen to the news reporter, reporting the story and the language they are using to describe the scenes going on... some of the graphics are hard to see but it is a reality of what happened in 1992 in Los Angeles, California.

 

Earlier this week I watched Hotel Rwanda for the first time.  I knew about the genocide there previously but I didn't knew as much about the differences between the two groups involved.  Here is a clip that explains the difference.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAl79s9PMuI

After watching this and realizing that the differentiation between the groups was completely artificial I wondered how somthing like this could happen.  Most of the killings in this genocide were carried out with machetes, a very personal way to attack someone.  How could the artificial in and out groups become so salient that they allowed people to commit such violent acts?  Do you think something like this could have happened if there had not been artificial groups created by the colonials?

I randomly found this video from a show in Australia interviewing Americans before the last presidential election. They found a wonderful sample to represent us. There is a lot of anti-Middle East sentiment and general prejudice involved. How do you think other countries perceive us from videos like this and more generally? Are you surprised by any of the comments in the video? How well do you think this sample represented the general American public?