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.

Listicle #1 - Diversity in Media around TCU

For this listicle, I found two very intriguing artifacts around campus to focus on. One artifact related to sexual innuendo in advertisements and the other related to insensitivity and stereotyping in magazine publications. I then found other items in which related to the topics the artifacts found here at TCU reflected.

Sexual Innuendo in Advertisements for Unrelated Products and Services:

The first artifact was located in the first floor bathroom of Milton Daniel Hall. I was overall surprised how an inanimate object such as a light switch could be sexualized, especially in a educational setting. Although the light switch graphic does not have a specific gender, it was located in the women's bathroom, suggesting that we should be disappointed when men reject us. Although it is just an analogy to save energy and it isn't overtly sexualized, the sexualized nature within a women's bathroom is unnecessary. 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/23/sex-sells-ads-should-have-thought-twice_n_4653226.html

This particular email promotional material for Spirit Airlines, they use terms such as "shaving" and "go down on us" with the image of a woman's bikini line to intrigue the audience to take their flights to the Caribbean or other locations. Although airlines have nothing to do with sexual behavior or shaving, they suggest that by travelling on their airline, you can go to the Caribbean where women have shaved and therefore are inept to sexual behavior. Overall, it has nothing to do with the actual service itself and ridiculously sexualizes women through both the text and imagery.

http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-blog/blogs/radioshack_hot_dog.jpg

This image is taken from the video commercial for the Beats Pill speaker which features Robin Thicke's extremely sexualized song "Blurred Lines". In this case, it uses scantily dressed women holding the speaker and moving about in sexually suggestive ways. This advertisement also takes inanimate object of a speaker and utilizes the shape to be sexualize women. Overall, similarly to the examples above, it uses women in an overtly sexualized way even when sex has nothing to do with the product itself. 

Link to the commercial segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbtewxfcptw

http://sutton26.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/carlsjr1.jpg?w=490

This advertisement is full of sexual innuendo towards women within the text. By using the pronoun "she", it stereotypes all women in a sexual way. The text at the bottom "It's gonna get messy", connects sexual action with the product which overall has nothing to do with sexual acts.

Insensitivity and Stereotyping in Magazine Covers:

I found this artifact in a magazine rack in Kroger right next to campus and found the title very alarming. Overall, it is reflecting on the deaths of Joan Rivers in an extremely insensitive and stereotypical way. The title "Who'll Die Next?" stereotypes the other celebrities on the cover to be in poor health and close to death due to plastic surgery or other health conditions. First of all, this is insensitive in the fact that the deaths of Robin Williams and Joan Rivers are completely unrelated to each other and other celebrities. Also, by relating these celebrities to recently deceased Joan Rivers and Robin Williams, it stereotypes them as ill, weak and old. In general, it is disrespectful towards both the deceased and the living people featured on the cover.

http://www.bohomoth.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/National-Enquirer2.jpg

This publication of the National Enquirer stereotypes a large amount of women with children for being "out of control". This is insensitive towards the private issues they may be going through and is also insensitive towards how this type of media coverage of mothers could affect their children and overall the relationship between these mothers and their children. By referring to them as "out of control", they also suggest that they have poor parenting skills when in truth, the social or public actions of individuals often differ in private settings, such as settings with their children. Therefore, it is unethical and insensitive to stereotype their parenting based on public portrayal. 

http://img004.lazyboys.info/people/tom_cruise/tom_cruise_tom_cruise_people_magazine_united_states_19_february_2001_magazine_cover_photo_4sDovbuu.sized.jpg

This edition of People discussed Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman's breakup. Overall, it stereotypes happy marriages with being together for a long time, having children and living in luxury. However, often times children and luxury can put strains on relationships. The main title "Unhappy Ending" even stereotyped their relationship as being like a fairytale that did not end "happily ever after". Overall, it inaccurately stereotypes relationships for being good when they are long-lasting, involve children and involve luxury. 

Week 6 Blog Post - Latino Misconceptions in the Media

As Americans, the majority of us are immigrants. Most people have ancestors from all over the place. Personally, my ancestors came from Germany, France, Scotland and Ireland. America is called the "Melting Pot" for a reason. Being an American doesn't mean you have a particular skin tone or hair color, it means you most likely came from another country in hope of greater opportunities. This week, the articles we read focused on how Latinos are misconceived and stereotyped in the media. The misconception that I believe is most interesting is the misconception that Latinos are a culturally homogeneous group. This could not be farther from the truth. Yes, there are some Latinos that are more traditional but that doesn't mean every Latino is accustomed to that traditional culture. We as a society need to begin to recognize that everyone was in there position at some point, that is how American culture was formed and it is not fair for them to be clustered and stereotyped homogeneously because just like I originate from many cultures, so do Latino people and they deserve equal media coverage.

Week 5 Blog Post

As a consumer, we often do not think too much about the content of an advertisement. However, when we do analyze advertisements in more depth, there may be a variety of interpretations. This week, we examined a study in which the researchers invited college-aged male participants to examine gay-vague advertisements and explain the context of the situation displayed in the advertisement. The results were very creative stories. Most of the participants were confused about what exactly they were observing and others introduced characters, such as girlfriends, who were not in the photo. Overall, the results of the study were extremely intriguing. The research states in the conclusion that "advertisers and audiences create meaning together, that neither group controls that meaning, and that these interpretations are not stable even within the narratives of the same participant". I think that this is an important idea to understand, not only in gay-vague advertising, but in all advertising, especially when dealing with diversity. Advertisers may think of an idea and believe that the audience will view it a certain way, however, that is not always the case. Therefore, it is important for us as strategic communications specialists to see a wider perspective and make sure we accounting for the diversity within the target audience in order to effectively communicate the message. However, the thing that makes gay-vague advertising different is that their strategy is to make advertisements that have gay innuendo but could be interpreted differently and therefore expands the audience of the product. This strategy can be effective but can also promote confusion and sometimes distrust towards the brand and what are the standards and values the brand 
upholds. 

Bibliography:

J. Lambiase, G. Griffin, and K. Pashupati. (2013). “Symbolic interactions in sexual scripts: Improvisation and male consumer responses to gay-vague advertising.” In N. Tindall and R. Waters’ (Eds.) Coming Out of the Closet: Exploring LGBT Issues in Strategic Communication with Theory and Research, pp. 108-121. New York: Peter Lang.