November Blog Post

We did a group activity in class that was exciting. We demonstrated negotiation and collectively discussed our views. We talked about what supplies we would prioritize. Some of us wouldn't change our views on certain things and on other things we did. I thought that it was pretty funny what some people prioritized and I was also very interested why people prioritized this over that and that over this. We all had a good laugh when we talked about prioritizing water over oxygen haha! I think that its important to do activities like these because it forces you to think logically and that is challenging for me to do which means its healthy for my brain. I can use critical thinking and prioritization in every day life. I think that many of us don't realize why its important to do exercises like this and, for me, its fun sharing and discussing opinions and views about what I think is more important between two things whenever the discussion is a few notches under politics, of course. I enjoy doing in class activities and visually learning because that helps me so understand concepts much better. When we did the yarn activity it made myself, along with others, cognizant of how much more and less we talk than others. It's very important to listen to people and that activity reinforces active listening. I think that you have kept the class engaged this semester by having us discuss in and out of our groups. It makes class more fun and also makes me want to pay more attention in class. I understand that the entire class couldn't revolve around talking with fellow classmates, but I selfishly wish it did haha! In the end I understand we are here to learn and I'm glad that we do get to have fun in class because in most of my other classes it is very boring every time. I appreciate that you put effort towards engaging with everyone because it makes a difference and that's what separates a good professor from a great one. I think that you are such a genuine person and I can tell that you have a true passion for a lot of things which is more inspiring than you know. I can definitely say that your class has been very fun and I can't express that enough.

October Blog Post

Impression management is how we see and present ourselves. It is the way we communicate and the artifacts that we choose to express our self image. I would say it is a lot like using social media. One is completely in control of their own appearance and actions but not of the other users. How you choose to move forward with your image is a lot like the actions that you choose in life. You can control almost everything about yourself but nothing about how others see you. You can change things about yourself in hopes that people will see you a certain way. I think in social media the biggest part of impression management is the control people have over it. You can put things up to make your life look a certain way. Also, you can delete things and people or their interactions that you feel take away from your overall "image". I feel like our need to use impression management with social media comes from the emphasis on image in society. There are so many ads focused on image and so many celebrities that are constantly sharing their image and artifacts.

Blog #3

The topic that I chose for this week’s blog post is the concept of rituals. Rituals are recognizable patterns that inform/guide our interactions. We see these rituals in family relationships, friendships and romantic relationships in our everyday lives. For example, with the holidays coming up there are many rituals that take place within relationships. Things as small as baking cookies or eating holiday dinner together are rituals. We act out these rituals because it is a part of our culture, and every culture for that matter. Communication is a type of ritual, whether it is talking, sign language, body language or even signals. These are rituals in everyday life. However, let’s talk about rituals in media. I chose a movie called “A Quiet Place” which is a horror movie about a family of five who need to stay quiet their whole lives. They stay quiet to avoid the monsters due to an apocalypse. Their family ritual is to stay quiet and use sign language and signals as a form of communication in order to survive. They do that to stay together and have learned it over time. This is because some rituals take time to learn and some come about right away.

October blog post #3

Autoethnography

Definition:

The use of personal experience to categorize, critique, and examine cultural experiences.

Elements of Autoethnography:

1. Purposefully communicating your opinion or thoughts about a culture or culture practices.
2. Making contributions of your personal findings to existing research made about a culture.
3. Practicing vulnerability in order to have a open mind with all culture in order to expand your knowledge and understanding about a particular culture.
4. Creating and achieving a relationship with your audience in order to encourage others responses and opinions about your findings or about another culture.

Importance of Autoethnography:

Autoethnography I consider to be a good thing as long it is practiced appropriately and with caution because there is a close line to stereotyping that can arise if one doesn’t practice having a open mind with this skill. For example, someone may have had a bad experience with a certain culture and they begin to personally dislike that culture and close their mind to any other possibilities about them and begins to hate and slander that culture to others in society. However, autoethnography is beneficial to society  because a lot of facts we have about cultures is based off of people’s findings and opinions on cultures. It also allows us to have a wider understanding of a culture through a wide range of people’s attributions about cultures.

I consider this a lot like politics. People’s opinion and suggestions play a heavy impact of others in society throughout the public. That is why we must fact check everything you read and choose to believe to make sure following information is factual based or personal based. As long as you follow the elements of autoethnography and practice this skill appropriately you will succeed in developing this skill.

Mediate Cultures- October Blog Post

     It is vital to analyze the relationship between media and culture so that we can check the influence that media has over our own perception. As we were taught in class, "media shapes our ideas in culture"(Ivey, 2018). This happens through two avenues, co-construction and representation. Co-construction is the idea that "we use and create media even as media uses and creates us" (Ivey, 2018). Co-construction is about the symbiotic relationship between us and the media; we create media for the public to consume, we consume that media, and it informs our ideas, which then forms our society. The media that we take in molds our view of the world around us, which makes the media extremely powerful. The second way that media influences culture is through representation. The people or groups of people we see represented in media, and the way that they are represented, determines the way that we view people in real life. Seeing all kinds of people represented in the media in all different ways reduces prejudices and increases empowerment. When people are exposed to lots of different representation in media, their perception is shaped from that media and they treat people better. If representation is low in the media, and they only show one kind of person, people will be less tolerant of anyone that isn't the same as what they see in media. This shows the sheer power of media on the way that we see the world. 

     My grandparents are baby boomers. Being a part of that generation, they did not grow up with the wide expansion of technology that we have now. Their perception was shaped by the limited media they had growing up, which was radio, limited television, and the newspaper. Being from rural Wyoming, their geographical positioning in the world limited the representation that they saw in the media growing up. So, the media that they were exposed to until their late 50s and now into their 60s has been very consistently homogenous. Now, they have an iPad and my grandmother has an iPhone. They use Facebook and Twitter. Since they did not grow up with technology that allows for the spread of all kinds of ideas from any person at all, and because their ideas have already been shaped by their lack of exposure to representation, they are susceptible to misleading information from the internet. They never learned the skills they need to vet information before they believe it, and they already have preconceived notions about any group of people that doesn't look or think like them from lack of exposure to anyone "different". This inability to fact check information, along with previously developed prejudices has turned their lives on social media into an echo chamber of conspiracy theories. The media that they consumed has shaped their perception of the world in a big way, and there is no way to really fix that because they won't believe anyone outside of their idea of trust worth media. 

     I think awareness of how media shapes culture is vital. If we don't know this, we can allow media outlets to influence our culture without anyone to check if what they are saying or doing is right. My grandparents aren't equipped with the skills they need to ensure that their media consumption is ethical, but my generation doesn't get that excuse. 

Ivey, C. (2018). Mediated Cultures [Prezi presentation]. Retrieved from https://prezi.com/sq-j4vjhd2ks/mediated-cultures/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy 

October post

The most important thing that stood to me during the month of October was the lesson and video about Disney.  It really made me reflect on the movies and shows I grew up watching. I personally never noticed the racism that was portrayed in Disney movies, but after it was pointed out in the film I knew what they were talking about.  The point in the film that stuck out to me the most was the little boy who was scared by children because their voices sounded like the monkeys from a movie. I do not remember exactly what the situation was. I was surprised that a child picked up on that because it was is not something that ever crossed my mind as a child.  I think it is important to know that these movies can shape the way kids view people. With that said, I think Disney has done a great job with their newer movies. For one, not all their movies revolve around princesses. They have other plots other than falling in love. Also, Princess Tiana made a change in the media. She was the first princess to not be white, which made a huge statement.  Moana was also a princess of color, and she did not fall in love in the end. Instead, she got to be the hero and save her whole tribe. Another newer movie is Frozen. This is the only Disney movie to state that you can not fall in love with a man you just met and it is about sisterly love. These movies have helped children be more educated and accepting of other races. Disney is headed in a good direction to become more inclusive.  

October Blog Post

            The concept I have chosen for this month is related to chapter 11, Mediated Culture(s). I wanted to focus more specifically on advertisements and the messages they contain. The reason I chose this is because of the vast number of ads that every person in our culture is inundated with daily. Advertisements are everywhere and we are so used to seeing them everywhere we look that we sometimes don’t consider the social context behind the product. People unconsciously absorb ads and they in turn have an influence on our worldly perspective. They impact what we consider societal norms, they help shape our ideas about gender roles, body image, they often reinforce stereotypes and inadvertently promote things like sexual violence. Often ads are run that just shouldn’t be and while this issue is starting to gain more attention than it has had in the past, it still widely goes unnoticed. 

            I had a professor at a community college years ago who had us do an exercise where she brought hundreds of magazines to class. The magazines were all diverse in type from fashion, to outdoors, to gardening and homecare. She told us to pick 10 out and cut out any articles that we think may have a social message that goes deeper than the product the company was selling. This exercise stuck with me because we found all kinds of crazy ads, particularly in the fashion magazines that pretty clearly promoted things like sexual violence. There was a great example in a 2015 Bloomingdales Christmas ad, where there is a man creepily staring at a woman while she is looking in a different direction smiling and laughing with a caption between them that says, “SPIKE YOUR BESTFRIEND’S EGGNOG WHEN THEY’RE NOT LOOKING”. http://www.bandt.com.au/media/bloomingdales-christmas-ad-accused-of-promoting-date-rape . The ad was withdrawn and an apology statement was issued by the company for unintentionally promoting date rape. This is one of many examples that can be found, and unlike this one that was so obvious, many of these ads get overlooked.

            With ads being so prevalent an unavoidable in our society, it is important that we are aware of the impact they have and the messages they convey. With better understanding we can hold companies more accountable for the content they put out, and we can even use these ads as a learning tool of what not to do. I believe it is important to teach people about the impact media has on our culture because we live in a diverse culture and we should be putting out the right kind of messages to all.