Media and our everyday lives.

We talked a lot about different studies that have been done to look at media and its impact on the people that watch it. I think it’s really interesting to see the impact media plays on society. We truly are influenced by everything we see on television or read in a book. Whether we are watching television for entertainment or for news we end up learning something. Do you think that you can learn something from a comedy show on television or do you think that you can only learn from educational and factual television? I personally think we learn something from every show we watch. It may not be the most important of information but its new information either way. I think we are all subconsciously influenced by media. We may not be able to see it but it affects us either way. Do you think the television you watch impacts the things you do on a daily basis?  I think reality television influences us the most. We see real people in real life situations and how they handle them. We may handle those same situations the same way or we may have seen what doesn’t work and try something different. In the end it’s pretty easy to see how much the media influences not only ourselves but the people around us as well.

Children and their exposure to media.

It’s really interesting to see how much media really does affect children. The idea that children are influences by what they see other people do really began with a study conducted by Bandura. This study really showed how much children imitate what they see. I feel like today children are going up so much faster than in the past. There is much more media that is readily available to them. I can remember the first time I really used a computer on my own. I think I was in the 6^th or 7^th grade but I had no idea what I was doing. Today there are toddlers that know how to turn on a computer. Shows today show so much more than they ever use to. I think parents really need to pay attention to what kind of TV shows their children watch. When I was younger my mom would pick me up from kindergarten and we would have lunch and watch her favorite soap-opera. We watched it every day when I got home from school until one day I asked her what they were doing underneath the sheets. Needless to say we stopped watching it. Kids are very observant and they pick up on things very quickly. They aren’t as innocent as they use to be. Would you agree that children are growing up faster than the use too? Children today are not only seeing more but they are trying more. Kids are having sex at a younger age and it doesn’t stop there. I think we need to be careful as to how much we expose our children to the ‘real world.’

What would you do?

The questions we were asked in the beginning of class on Tuesday really got me thinking. I feel like we hear from a lot of people that racism and discrimination don’t exist anymore but I think they couldn’t be more wrong. The video on Professor Banjo’s blog is a perfect example. Just because someone looks like a ‘terrorist’ doesn’t mean they are a terrorist. American’s are so quick to judge people by the way they look. I know that I may think something the first time I look at someone but I can’t exactly help it. Society has conditioned me to think that way but what really matters is if I act on my judgments, which I never do. Who am I to treat someone differently because of the color of their skin or the clothes that they are wearing?  I have seen a couple episodes of the show “What Would You Do” and it really gets me thinking. I am not one to act on my judgments but would I go out of my way to help someone who is being discriminated against or would I just pretend I don’t see it? This is a hard question for me to answer. There was one episode in particular that I remember vividly. A Mexican immigrant walked into a fast food store to get a coffee but he did not speak any English. The man working behind the desk knew what he wanted but wouldn’t give it to him because he didn’t speak English. The man was verbally abusive to the Mexican immigrant. There were plenty of people that got up and said something but there were also plenty of people that didn’t. I hate to admit this but I don’t know if I would have the guts to get up and say something. I would hope that I would but I guess I will never know until I am put into the situation. Would you stand up for someone that you saw was being treating unfairly because of the language they spoke or the color of their skin?  

'White Trash'

I found the article ‘Consuming “Trash”: Representations of Poor Whites in U.S. Popular Culture’ particularly interesting. The article defiantly made me think. When I hear the term ‘white trash’ sadly, I do think of lazy, dirty, white people that live in trailer parks. I think society has conditioned us to think this way. I think if you asked anyone on the street to describe ‘white trash’ that’s the exact description you will get for an answer. It was interesting that the author brought up the fact that ‘white trash’ may be a racial slur towards white people, but it does re-inscribe the idea of ‘normal’ whiteness at the same time. No matter the color of the persons skin if they do not act the way we want them to we give them a label. If society doesn’t like the way you look, you aren’t seen as ‘white’ but rather ‘white trash’ or ‘hillbilly.’ The author used Britney Spears as an example and I think she could be the poster child for this. She had the world at her hands and as soon we she slipped up she was no longer on top. People called her ‘white trash.’ She obviously hasn’t made the best decisions but should we have been so quick to judge? Does society always judge to quickly? Are these judgments fair? I think the idea of ‘whiteness’ is a little old-fashioned. We need to move on from the idea that white is the best color. The world is changing and we need to too.