Final Project Findings and Reflection

For my final project, I looked at the text on the covers of People Magazine, how this text relates to the main image and how the text and image combined may produce stereotypes. I conducted a content analysis and therefore conducted primarily quantitative research.

Overall, I found that the majority of People covers had yellow main text with white subtext. They had no punctuation in either the main text or subtext. The image typically contained one celebrity. The images of these celebrities usually only showed their head and shoulders, compared to full body, three-quarters of their body or just their face. The people featured in the images were typically dressed in a demure fashion which means they weren't sexually suggestive or clad in any form. Lastly, the celebrities featured on the cover were typically looking straight at the camera, or had eye contact with the reader compared to looking at someone else in the image or not looking in any particular direction (no eye contact).

Overall, what I can take away from this project, is that People tended to reflect stereotypes relating to marriage/relationships as well as children/family roles. In general, the couples featured on the cover were heterosexual and had a very traditional and stereotypical family structure. However, People did a good job when it came to not objectifying women sexually. 

Class Reflection

This class has been really beneficial to me this semester. I have been able to be exposed to a greater variety of media content and instead of merely viewing or reading the content, I have learned how to more critically analyze the content. This skill is something I can and will use in the future whenever I am exposed to media, no matter where I go. It also has shown me the importance of how we must show our kids what it is like to be critical to media. Since technology is increasing so rapidly, it is important that we as students teach our children one day to realize that media is not always the truth. The class has given me an idea of what it is like to be a media writer/editor and how I must really think about the implications of my content before releasing it publicly. It has also shown me what stereotypes to look for in media content, both my own and other media content, and how those stereotypes can be reduced. Lastly, this class has allowed me to develop a blog which is something I have never done before. It has been really fun to create this blog and reflect on the class. Overall, the lessons I have learned in this class will benefit me not only in my career but in my every day life and allow me to be more ethical and responsible when portraying others in the media.

Listicle 2 - Unique Advertising in Sports Media

For this listicle, I was inspired by the advertising I saw in American Airline Center at a Dallas Stars Game. Therefore, I will be reflecting on the unique advertising techniques found in the professional hockey industry and how they may produce stereotypes we have discussed in class.

First, I found that the advertising found in sports media tends to produce gender stereotypes.

In the above photo, the Dallas Stars "Ice Girls" are depicted performing on an elevated stage, were scantily dressed and the stage had a cage-like fence around it. The stage was also not anywhere near the rink, where the actual sport was being played. This is a unique strategy that the Stars and many other professional sports teams use to entice people to come to games.  I thought this was extremely stereotypical of women. It categorized them more as material objects for sexual idolization than actual people, especially with the fence surrounding them. 

http://www.dallasnews.com/incoming/20141116-stars_devils_hockey_40442098.jpg.ece/ALTERNATES/w320/STARS_DEVILS_HOCKEY_40442098.JPG

At the Stars game, I also noticed that the crowd tended to cheer more when there was a fight about to break out. This emphasis of violence and aggression reflects the stereotype discussed in the video "Tough Guise". It is encouraged for the players to fight and show their manliness through violence. This is often a publicized part of hockey games in both the public relations and advertising strategies of many teams. 

Second, I looked at unique ways in which advertisers produce content in the hockey industry.

This particular advertisement was displayed in the mirror of the women's bathroom at the American Airlines Center. It has a motion detector on it so that when you stepped in front of the mirror, the image would minimize. This was extremely eye-catching and was a unique way to get people to read your company's advertisements especially since so many people go to the bathroom in between periods at sports games. 

  
http://www.dn3austin.com/system/pieces/previews/174/medium/txstars_print2_med.jpg?1313720709

These are two unique advertising techniques also used by the Dallas Stars. Since hockey is not necessarily a traditional sport in Texas, they integrated Texan culture with the sport of hockey to intrigue people to try it out. It also is the kind of advertisement that catches your eye and makes you look at it again due to its simple yet unconventional design.


http://www.totalprosports.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Advertising-At-Its-Best.jpg

This is another unconventional way of advertising in a hockey arena for a razor company. They attached a large razor on the back to make it look like it was shaving away the ice. It is an extremely unique and creative way to get your message across. 

Mad Hot Ballroom

One movie that really inspired and challenged me to think differently was the documentary "Mad Hot Ballroom". It is about students in New York City's most poverty-stricken elementary schools who learn and compete ballroom dancing for gym class. I first watched this movie when I was in 8th grade. It was one of the first movies that really made me think about others and how much of an impact the arts can make. Dance and music has had a strong impact on my life. It has been a way to express myself and lead a healthy life. Therefore, after seeing this film, I realized how much it can be used to help others lead a healthy and better life. I also enjoyed that this film showed such a diverse group of students. It allowed me to gain a greater appreciation for their culture and eliminate stereotypes.

Marjane Satrapi Lecture Reflection

Overall, Satrapi's lecture in the BLUU auditorium on November 4th, 2014 was extremely interesting and related to this class a lot. She reflected upon the Islamic religion, death, suffering, reactions to her book and politics. She also reflected upon diversity and how we as individuals can gain a more worldly perspective. 

When discussing Islamic faith, she stated that "Muslim is not an identity, it's religion. If you do not practice, fast or pray, you are not Muslim". I think that this is an extremely accurate statement when it comes to the Muslim faith and the stereotypes that often go along with being Muslim or even originating from the Middle East. It is important to be aware of grouping Middle Eastern people who live in a Islam-dominated area into the same group as Muslims, when they do not actually practice it. 

I really enjoyed her discussion about death. It was very eye-opening to me. She basically said that our awareness of death overall suppresses pleasure. She said our culture is constantly concerned with what's the best to eat or what is the best thing to do by society's standards and we suppress pleasure. I agree with this statement. I think that we often are concerned with being successful more than what makes us happy and what makes us truly come alive. Although I do hold certain values strongly enough to suppress from certain activities, it was nice to hear her perspective and consider not just what society deems as success, but what I believe success is. 

She discussed how the Chicago schooling system tried to ban Persepolis from the classroom because it depicted torture and suffering. Overall, I disagree with the schooling system because Satrapi was experiencing that violence and suffering as a child, therefore, children should be able to handle just depictions of the violence and suffering. 

Lastly, she reflected that political figures do not necessarily reflect what the people want and need, they are more focused on policy. This allowed me to develop a clearer view of the problems in the United States' political system and realize why it is so important as individuals to reach out to the community because the government does not always have the best interest for humanity. 

Marjane Satrapi - Week 9 Blog

   

 As a freshman here at TCU, we were required to participate in the Common Reading. This year, the common reading was Marjane Satrapi's graphic novel Persepolis. This novel reflected Satrapi's experience as a child living in Iran during the Iranian Revolution. Overall, I think that her work was extremely unique and showed a new perspective of the Iranian Revolution. In the opening statement of her book, she mentioned that she wanted to give the reader an insight of Iran beyond the stereotypes. She wanted to show that Iran wasn't just a place that held US citizens hostage or constantly was trying to rebel against Western ways, but a place full of culture. She wants the reader to gain a deeper understanding of the government system in Iran at the time and not generalize Iran or Iranian's as all being the same, all being Islamic or all agreeing on the type of government system. I thought the illustrated aspect of the novel definitely enhanced the overall meaning and interpretation of the text. There were many pictures that depicted war, conflict or distress that added emotional appeal and made us as reader be more open to Satrapi's experience as a child. 

     Beyond the novel, I think that Satrapi's work definitely has made an impact on how the Western world sees the Middle East and particularly Iran. She not only wrote Persepolis, but directed the movie and therefore was really able to control what we as an audience are seeing and perceiving and overall promote a greater understanding for her culture. We are able to get a more diverse perspective through her work that will overall benefit us when writing and editing for the media. 

Practice Exam Response - Week 7 Blog

         Stereotyping is something that is prevalent in today's society and most everyone's life. Us as individuals often perceive the world around us in a very stereotypical fashion in order to categorize and process more information. However, just because it is habitual and easily done, doesn't mean it is necessarily right. Generally defined, stereotyping is generalizing or assuming things about a person's character, values and actions based on unrelated, often physical, characteristics such as skin color or the way they dress. Stereotypes are often negative and have negative impacts but can be positive in some cases. In this class, we have discussed a variety of diverse and minority groups and how they are stereotyped, misinterpreted and underrepresented in the media. Also, we have discussed ways in which we can reduce these media trends and promote effective and ethical media coverage.
         In general, there are many guidelines in which we as hopeful media professionals one day can follow and in order to effectively promote diversity in our work. One general guideline is being more critical of the media we allow ourselves to be exposed to and how this media may be devaluing certain minority groups. Another general guideline could be allowing more diversity in people in the work environment, such as women, African Americans, Native Americans, Asians, or disabled people. This primarily will allow everyone to be more exposed to a diverse set of people and understand the importance of equally representing people throughout their work.
          One group that is often misinterpreted or misrepresented in the media is women. Women are overly sexualized on covers of magazines as well as in advertisements throughout mainstream media. Throughout the course, we have explored various advertisements such as ads for Calvin Klein and magazines such as Maxim and been able to really understand what is going on with this stereotype in media of the past and in media of the present. In this particular field, I would work to portray women who are interviewed or are appearing in print media as not sexual beings but professional and working individuals who are just as qualified as male counterparts. I would try to find more women to give expert testimonies on a variety of subjects. Also, within sexual advertisements and media, women are also show to be the ones to blame a lot of the time for sexual acts, for example the story about the murdered "All-American Girls" who were stereotyped to be drug addicts as well as lesbians, when in the end they were neither of the two. Overall, the lesson to be learned from this is that in one's own writing, it is important to not put blame on a certain side to the story and really researching the evidence before assuming things and giving into stereotypical behavior.
          Another group that is often underrepresented and stereotyped is the disabled. Disabled people are stereotyped to be evil in many fictional stories as well as to be pitied in society. In class we have studied how they are seen as evil in motion pictures such as "Captain Hook" in Peter Pan and are very rarely covered in news media and when they are covered, it usually has something to do with their disability and how it limits them. Overall, as media writers, we can change the stereotype that disabled people are evil by having the "villain" character have diverse characteristics from story to story and in news coverage making sure it is not biased or swayed towards the disabled people being stereotyped as evil. Also, the media could more effectively cover the disabled in more professional settings and ask them insight on certain topics do not pertain to their disability. Through these practices, we as a society will feel less inclined to treat disabled people any different than the general public and learn to appreciate their of certain societal topics.
          Lastly, people of Asian decent are frequently stereotyped and portrayed in a stereotypical fashion throughout the media. Many people assume that Asian Americans are extremely smart and have high socio-economic status. This, however, is definitely not the case. Many Asian Americans face poverty and struggle economically in American society. Today, much of the coverage of Asian Americans focuses on the successful CEO's and other citizens of high economic status. This causes Asian students to be pressured by their parents and peers to overachieve in school in order to be successful. This can be mentally exhausting and stressful on the student. In order to change this typical perception, we have to portray Asian Americans in all socio-economic statuses be more aware of not putting pressure on our Asian American peers to reach a more elite academic standard than they can mentally handle.