The Grand Finale...!

I think race/ethnicity and gender are important issues that need to be addressed and taken care of in today’s society. Too much time has gone past for these issues to not have been solved yet. If our world is going to succeed in any way and eventually become “equal,” as everybody claims, major steps need to be taken in that direction. First of all, people need to get over their racial stereotypes, and their bigotry. People also need to stop thinking of women as home-makers and start accepting the fact that they are becoming a predominant part of the business world. They are also not sexual objects, as they are perceived either. Human beings. Everybody person who lives and breathes on this Earth are all the same. Some are not closer to animals than others, skin color does not matter—white, black, yellow, brown, orange, red—they’re all the same.

            As media professionals, I believe we are the first ones to help make a step towards a more equal society. We hold the power to influence people to a great extent. So far, the media has been using it to mold the minds of people how they see fit. That just doesn’t cut it anymore. People need to know the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help them God. Yes, that is what people say when taking an oath, but it’s true. The straight truth has been held from people for so long, that nobody knows what is true and what isn’t anymore. Media professionals can change this. We have the opportunity to do something nobody else before us has done: create equality among different races and different genders. Although these changes can, and most likely will, take a very long time to implement, something can still be done. Our problems can still be solved. Racial minorities will have a larger base in the media. Women will not be sexualized. News coverage will be objective.

            One thing that stops us from achieving our goals of equality is who controls the media. No matter how many people go out there and try to make a difference, it always comes down to the small conglomerates who hold the majority shares of every media type out there. So until those people change, nothing will change. As much hope as I have in our generation to change the way things run, I do not see this happening for a long long time. Look how long it has taken to make the small amount of progress that has occurred. Slavery was banned over 100 years ago, and segregation laws have been banned for almost 50 years. And we have done so little to diversify our media.

            For blogs, I believe they can be beneficial. I believe with blogs people can really speak their mind and say what they want to say, even when they weren’t able to at any other time. Personally, I feel like I wasn’t able to express completely my opinion because it was an assignment and I was graded on my thoughts. I feel like if I disagreed with something we were talking about, I would get counted off. I did like the aspect of commenting on other people’s blogs. Even though we didn’t read everyone’s thoughts, we still got to get a taste of what other people thought. And then we got a chance to either agree with them or disagree with them, depending. I thought that was helpful because it also gave me insight to what other people thought about my writing, and my ideas. It helped me to further establish my opinions and ideas relating to gender and race.

            Overall I think the gender and race class is an important part of our curriculum. It helps people to break out of their shells and see what is out in the world, other than what they are used to. People are creatures of habit, and we stay with what we know. But classes like this help people to see that there is so much more out there that they may not even be aware of. I do feel that there are better ways to go about learning this, because I felt like some of out curriculum was one-sided and didn’t show everything that happens.      

I said a hip hop, hippie to the hippie, the hip, hip a hop, and you don't stop.

Hip Hop Artists:

·      Dark Ends (Acapella) – The Likwit Junkies, feat. Rakaa Iriscience 12’

http://abb.downloadcentric.net/app?page=Product&service=external&sp=SC0A802480EUPKEXLN006W

·      Yellow Journalism – Critical Theory

                  -from the album: The Worst Breakfast Ever

http://www.audiostreet.net/artist.aspx?artistid=56722

·      Running Thangs – Busy Bee

                  -from the album: Running Thangs

·      Put ‘Em In Their Place – Mobb Deep

         -from the album: Blood Money

http://www.hiphopreaction.com/artists/Mobb-Deep

·      Rock, Shock, Shake, Break (Acapella) – Backyard Bangers

                -from the album: Rock, Shock, Shake, Break

 Hip Hop Music Videos:

·      Livin’ It Up – Ja Rule, featuring Case

                -from the album Pain Is Love

            -this video is about living the American Dream in Hollywood, driving expensive cars, dating hot women and relaxing by the pool, hence the title "Livin' It Up." The whole video centers around Ja Rule's life and    the many luxuries he has in it.

http://new.music.yahoo.com/videos/--2153571

·      Jesus Walks – Kanye West

      -from the album The College Dropout

              -set in a chuch with a choir singing, as well as out on the streets where there is a lot of gang violence, drugs and sexual promiscuities happening. It shows a conflict between the life on the streets and giving up that life to live a life of Christianity and respecting yourself.

http://www.mtv.com/videos/kanye-west/32296/jesus-walks.jhtml

·      Can’t Touch This – MC Hammer

              -from the album Please Hammer, Don’t Hurt ‘Em

          -this video centers around MC Hammer's dancing with his back-up dancers. It was a fairly old music video before they started getting graphically complex. But basically he talks about going to clubs, dancing, and how everybody knows him when he goes out. It is a self-absorbed music video, as well as the song.

http://www.vh1.com/video/play.jhtml?vid=11945&artist=19652

·      California Love – Tupac

                     -this video shows people, who somewhat look like they are supposed to be wild and animal-like, are  dancing and singing around a bonfire, shouting and being loud. It pretty much goes through a series of  miniature stories, like a bunch of guys driving army hummers through the desert. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWOsbGP5Ox4

·      Getting’ Jiggy Wit It – Will Smith

                    -this centers around Will Smith looking good, trying to get style down. It has a lot of multicultural aspects,  showing different cultures, such as Egyptian, African, etc., and how they celebrate, dance, or dress. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4G1L8lV6LQ

 Hip Hop Radio Stations:

·      Power 103.5 #1 Blazin’ Hip Hop & R&B

http://okc.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ&sdn=okc&cdn=citiestowns&tm=29&f=10&su=p554.12.336.ip_&tt=2&bt=1&bts=1&zu=http%3A//www.kvsp.com/

·      Wild 104.9--All the Hits Now

http://okc.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ&sdn=okc&cdn=citiestowns&tm=6&f=10&su=p554.12.336.ip_&tt=2&bt=1&bts=1&zu=http%3A//wild1049.static.com/

Advertising:

·      Hudiburg Nissan – fashion tuxedos – IRS Tax Advisors – Nesquick -- Carfax

 

Hip Hop in the Media

·      Hip Hop can be found in a lot of commercials, especially ones aiming at young adult audiences. It is also prevalent in many movies as part of soundtracks. There are many aspects of Hip Hop that have become mainstream for young people. As mentioned, the word bling. Another word I thought of that has been utilized is the word boo. Ever “My Boo” came out by Usher, I have remembered people using that term in everyday life.

Parents’ Music

·      Genre: Pop

o   Artist: The Beatles, Elton John, The Beach Boys

·      Genre: Rock

o   Pink Floyd, Rolling Stones, The Beegees, Billy Joel, James Taylor, Led Zepellin

·      Genre: Oldies

o   Elvis Presley, Everly Brothers

Reflection:

·      After doing this assignment, I have become more interested in Hip Hop music. Some of the music I found was really interesting, and intrigued me to find more like it. I definitely think Hip Hop has changed throughout the years, as I found older music to have different storylines and the lyrics talked about different issues. I felt like the older Hip Hop music had more to do with simply going to the club and dancing, and self-images of the artists. Nowadays, the current Hip Hop I saw and listened to seemed to have deeper meanings behind the lyrics. There are political and religious inferences, as well as questioning the character of people. Granted, not all Hip Hop music is like this, but that was just one trend I noticed, especially when watching the music videos. Another thing I noticed when watching the older videos, compared to the newer videos, was how women were treated. When I was watching MC Hammer’s music video, the women were wearing jazzercise-type outfits, and were simply the back-up dancers. They were just dancing and having a good time, but were slightly seen as sex objects, because they were watching MC Hammer. But I think the current Hip Hop videos sexualize women more and more. The women were shown as being sort of ‘sex slaves,’ like bringing Ja Rule drinks out by the pool and waiting on him hand and foot. Again, this cannot necessarily be contextualized to all Hip Hop, but from what I saw, women have been treated worse as time goes by. have been treated worse as time goes by.

'Cause Oscar Mayer has a way with B-O-L-O-G-N-A.

Here is my list of advertisements among different media outlets for the week:

1. Kohl's Store Advertisement Magazine: There were White and African-American models, though all of them were very fair-skinned and wore very preppy clothes, making them look exactly like the White people. Even the children were light-skinned. I noticed there was a total of one to two Asian people used, as well as one to two Hispanic people used throughout the entire magazine. The African-American people were about a one to three ratio to the White people in the magazine. 

2. TRESemmé advertisement on the Internet (Seventeen website): They show a brunette girl, advertising their new line of shampoos and conditioners for different hair colors. They had shampoos/conditioners for brunettes, and shampoos/conditioners for blondes. They had no inter-racial advertising, let alone products. Their products were obviously aimed at White women.

3. Maybelline commercial on Television: This commercial was for their new line of foundation. They had the Adriana Lima on the commercial, the winner of America's Next Top Model (I think, not 100% sure). Anyways, the commercial had predominantly White women in it. There were a few shots of African-American women, but no close-ups showing the entire face, like the White women who were shot up close to show the "no pores" aspect to the foundation. They did show an entire line of shades for the foundation, and there were darker shades for darker-skinned women. But overall, there were only small snippets of women of color, none up-close or focused.

4. Victoria's Secret Spring Casual 2009 Catalogue: Out of 53 pages, this cataloge had maybe a handful of women of color in here. A few of them were the same models in different outfits. Each African-American had their own outfit, or section of the page. There were a couple pages where there were only African-American women on it, and no White women, but that was it. I did not see any Asian women. There might have been one or two Hispanic women in the catalogue, but if they were, they were fair-skinned, not directly obvious of their race. Most of the African-American models were of lighter skin, although a few were darker. 

5. Advertisements in the Oklahoma Daily: Although there were only a few advertisements in the Oklahoma Daily for today (4/4), all of them had White people in them. One was for the Cottages, and it showed a group of White girls standing around at a bar-b-que eating. There may be more diverse ads on different days, but today's had no diverse advertisements. 

6. Sonic Commercial on TV: There are two White men as the main characters. Even the other ones with other characters are all White.

7. BK Burger Shots Commercial on TV: Mostly White characters, with one Asian girl among several White girls oogling the guy's burger.

8. Prada Ad in The New York Magazine: The ad features all White women dressed similar. All of the women are very fair-skinned and stick-thin.

9. Guitar Hero ad on ESPN: Shows famous athletes jamming out to the new Guitar Hero. Michael Phelps, Kobe Bryant, Derek Jeter, and Tony Hawk--very diverse.

10. Allstate TV ad on TV: African-American host showing the history of U.S. recessions. Shows pictures of African-Americans, Whites, Asians, Hispanics. Shows a scene of kids in a museum of all different races and genders. This commercial is very diverse. 

Overall, I didn't see very much diversity. The most diverse advertisements I saw were on ESPN, or channels playing sports. Most of the fashion magazines and ads for women had an overruling majority of White women. I think some aspects of advertising have become more diverse, and others are lagging behind. For beauty, I think the companies see White itty bitty fair-skinned women as beautiful. African-American women may be beautiful in different ways, but companies have not grasped that concept quite yet. It looks like the ads are stretching to be diverse, by saying 'oh, we have our quota of diverse people, that'll do.' I think someday ads will come around and there will be more diversity. It just takes awhile to catch on, because these companies are out to make money. And for so long, having just White people in ads made money. But now that our society is becoming more and more diverse every day, they are seeing that predominantly White ads need to be spiced up a bit. 

Local News Extra Credit

I did not notice too many trends for the local news assignment. I actually watched my newscasts in two different places (Lakewood, CO and Norman, OK), so there were completely different ways of reporting the news. Something I did notice, though, was when the suspect was a minority, a picture was shown most often. If the suspect was White, a picture was only shown in one of the newscasts. I feel like the identities and the stories of the White victims were hidden, keeping the information more confidential. But other than that, I did not notice a huge gap in the racial treatment. They treated the White man who committed fraud the same as the Hispanic woman who tried to kill her husband. No special treatment was given according to race or gender.

Although I did not see any racial stereotypes, I do know they exist. I personally believe society, especially the news, is getting better about equal treatment for different races and genders. I know that there are still certain news stations that do not, but the general majority is leaning towards equality. I even saw similarities between a metropolitan city news station in Denver as opposed to the Oklahoma City news. They both were fairly objective in their stories.

I feel like after watching those videos for our previous blog assignment that the news were subjective because they were just in it for a profit, and controlled by a few select companies. But I did not notice that too much. The anchors were different races, the reporters were different races. Diversity was all over the newsroom. I could just be blind to things that are happening, but I feel like I have a pretty good grasp on these situations, being able to tell if it is biased or not, and I don't really see that. There are definite biases when it comes to politics in the news, and touchy subjects like wars and issues overseas. But as far as local crime news, there are not many stereotypical or racial/gender-related issues.

The News: Controlled by Few, Criticized by Many

Who determines the news or sets the agenda?

Although many people think the news is a very public thing, it really isn't. I've known for quite some time that few companies controll the media. It is not a very well-known fact, but unfortunately it's true. The handful of mega corporations own all of the news channels, so their personal agenda is seen throughout all of the news stations. They decide how the news will be told, what will be said, what the public should see and feel in reaction to those news broadcasts. It almost seems kind of socialist to me, seeing that a select few control the majority of the media. The sad part is, since most people don't know about the extent of ownership, they are sort of being deceived by the media.

Why do we need a media that specifically represents difference interests of people of color?  Aren’t those interests everyone’s interests?  What can be done to increase the mainstream media’s interest in other topics and concerns?  Aren’t those interests everyone’s interests?

Today there are very very few media outlets for the minorities. Their voices are not being heard as much as they should be, and minorites are not passionate about the mainstream media. They are underrepresented by all forms of media. Having minority-based media gives the minorites a chance to come out and be recognized, rather than always being in the shadows of mainstream media. But, if the media were more diverse, there would be no need for different media outlets for minorities. If the mainstream media simply voiced the concerns and opinions of people of color, then all would be solved. But the world isn't so simple, is it? We have reached a point where most people think our country has equal opportunities for everybody, but somehow we've plateaued. There aren't equal opportunities for everybody, specifically minorities. 

How was the war initially reported by the media?

After the attacks of 9/11, there was an overwhelming sense of patriotism that flooded America. People were putting flags up, wearing flag pins, supporting the troops, supporting anybody who was doing anything patriotic. We were gleaming with American pride on the surface. But behind the scenes, it was much different. In the media, Bush was not criticized. He was not questioned. Nobody in government positions were questioned. There was absolutely no tolerance for journalists who questioned the actions or the government. President Bush was placed on a pedestal, as well as the rest of the governing body, because we were fighting together. We were fighting terrorism. Nobody besides the terrorists could do any harm. Patriotism all the way. But are meticulously crafted speeches the right way to go? Are press conferences where certain reporters are pre-chosen to be asked questions--so nobody asks too hard of a question--moral? We'll never know. 

What has the media covered recent social protests? 

The question is, what has the media NOT covered in recent social protests. The media do not give protests a second glance. Some stations don't even tell about protests, others simply stick a small segment in the middle of the newscast, hidden from Americans to see. They have had some coverage on recent protests in the past few years pertaining to the war in Iraq, but there is not near as much coverage about those events as the capacity of the events. They treat it like there was 10 people standing on a street corner protesting. No, these events have been hundreds of thousands of people gathering in large metropolitan cities, as well as some smaller ones, taking up entire blocks. That, is newsworthy.

Was the media beneficial for the Civil Rights Movement? 

The media was sort of beneficial for the Civil Rights Movement. Stories were shown on television, such as the sit-ins and riots. People saw the reactions of people, right on their television screens. Although the reporting might have been negative towards these events, people still saw them. Some people became famous simply from news coverage. Voices were heard. Negative and positive images were shown. It was important enough to make it on the main news story or the front page of newspapers. Why aren't issues like that today publicized? 

Tracking the Stereotyping...One Long Day at a Time

Monday 2/23/09

Race & Gender in the Media

Law Center 6:00pm 

Dean discussed racial hardships in metro OKC area growing up

Racial Stereotypes

Monday 2/23/09

South Park re-run ("The China Problem" season 12)

southparkstudios.com 9:30pm

Racial stereotyping against Chinese people--the way they talk, their communist ways, etc...

Racial Stereotypes

Tuesday 2/24/09

Marketing 3013

Price Hall 10:30-11:45am

Topic of women's buying habits compared to men, and how they are stereotypically the bigger spenders

Gender Stereotypes

Tuesday 2/24/09

Discussion with Roommates

My apartment 10:15pm

Talking about politically correct terms for races/ethnicities, i.e., Mexican vs. Hispanic vs. Latino

Racial Stereotypes

Tuesday 2/24/09

YouTube Video: Demetri Martin

My apartment 11:00pm

Racial slurs about minorities/foreigners and their accents

Racial Stereotypes

Wednesday 2/25/09

Beatles Seminar

Catlett 1:30pm

Discussion of stereotypes of Beatles fans...raging hormonal teenaged girls

Gender Stereotypes

Wednesday 2/25/09

White Chicks (DVD)

Friend's apartment 11:00pm

Inter-racial relationships, calling doorman Taco Bell, etc...

Racial Stereotypes

Thursday 2/26/09

Car Radio: Animals by Nickelback

Driving home 1:15pm-ish

Singing about girls in a sexually degrading way

Gender Stereotypes

Thursday 2/26/09

Snapped TV show (Oxygen)

My apartment 7:00pm

Gender stereotypes about sexual assault and women lashing out (pent-up housewives)

Gender Stereotypes

Thursday 2/26/09

Dark Knight (DVD)

My apartment 10:30pm

Rachel is weak and can't take care of herself (Harvey makes her hide out in Bruce's penthouse)

Gender Stereotypes

Friday 2/27/09

50 Cent: Candy Shop

MTV Online Music Video 12:30pm

Sexual innuendos degrading women and women dressed in skimpy clothing for his choosing pleasures

Gender Stereotypes

I was slightly surprised, not at the amount of stereotyping, but just how many places it occurs. It seems like everything I watch nowadays has stereotyping. But I guess I was surprised by the amount a little bit because I think our society just tunes it out so much anymore, because it never goes away, that we simply are immune to it in a way and think nothing of it until we are forced to pay attention to it. This assignment was definitely eye-opening. It made me more aware of my surroundings. I was also taken back by how much I learn and discuss these issues in classes as well. I had several instances, just in this week in classes that discussed something about racial or gender matters. They may not have been 'stereotypical' discussions, but the fact is that it came up in conversation. 

I was not considerably affected by my experiences of the racial and gender stereotypes. I am a pretty open-minded person, and I tend to take things with a grain of salt. So I did not particularly take offense to, say, the images I saw on 50 Cent's video. I believe it is degrading to women and gives them negative images, but what can you do? I am only one person, I cannot change the world...although, at times, I wish I had that power (as most of us do). 

I think that with all continuous images representing stereotypes it makes people believe things that aren't true. Some people may not experience other cultures and actually know what they are like, and only see them for what the media portrays them to be. This is crippling to our society because if the only thing people see is what someone else wants them to see, there is no other way to prove that is not correct. It is like making up a lie, and then telling it enough that you start to believe it yourself. It is never a good habit to get into.

Automatic Admission for Racial Minorities?!

I searched and searched and searched on thoroughly through EVERY Big 12 university site for race-based admissions, but to no avail. The only thing I could find pertaining to admissions were SAT/ACT scores, GPAs, and in-state/out-of-state regulations. The only thing I found pertaining to race, were articles written about lawsuits dealing with race-based admissions, or projects students did through the law programs. 

The one thing I did notice was that each university promoted diversity in different ways. For instance, they each had a link, somewhere from the main page or the page for prospective students, describing the particular student diversity at each school. There were no exact implications saying whether they had certain admissions for minority races or anything to that extent. They simply stated that they were diverse in their student population. I feel that since I found so many instances of lawsuits against race-based admissions during my search, that universities do not specifically state they have certain regulations and quotas for races, but it is implied.