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.

Week 4 Blog Post

Being a person without a disability, it is hard to put myself in the position of a disabled person and truly know what hardships they face every single day. Often times, when we do not understand things or a situation we either ignore it, or stereotype it. I read the articles "Breaking the Spiral of Silence: Altering Media Portrayals of the Disabled" and "How the Media Portray the Disabled". In the first article, they discussed the various types of media that can stereotype, which is something we have been discussing in class. In this case, the disabled are stereotyped in a wide variety of platforms and in a wide variety of ways. Disability stereotypes can be found in television shows such as the FOX network's Glee and AMC's Breaking Bad. They can also be found in classic movies such as Peter Pan or Forrest Gump. Disability stereotypes can even be found in the Bible. The stereotypes also vary depending on the medium. The disabled are often depicted as evil, pathetic, nonsexual or burden. There are cases where they are portrayed positively, however, the disabled are stereotyped because we do not understand enough about it. It is as simple as that. In order to give the disabled the equal and fair publicity they deserve, we must try to put ourselves in their shoes and try to understand what life is like for them. The second article I read focused on how the media portrayed disabled people as either victims, heroes or villians. This again, is a very wide range of stereotypes and it shows how little we realize that there are people who have to deal with disabilities for the rest of their lives. One thing I thought was very interesting from this article was the idea of mental illness being stereotyped to result in violence. Mental illness is a very up and coming topic in today's society and is something that we as a society should learn about and support. Overall, these articles relate to our class discussions on race and gender because all three characteristics (race, gender and disability) involve stereotypes in multiple forms of the media. Although there is more variety in some characteristics, there is still stereotype and it is our job as communicators to learn more about the minority and prevent stereotypes in our mediums of communication.

Bibliography:
        "Breaking the Spiral of Silence: Altering Media Portrayals of the Disabled." Bitrus Paul Gwamna. Amiso M. George.
        "How the Media Portray the Disabled." Media Awareness Network.

Week 3 Blog Post

     For this week's blog assignment, I chose to read "The power of the stereotype" article found on pages 11-13 of the textbook as well as the article titled "How to Avoid Stereotyping Muslims in a Post-9/11 World" found on pages 217-221 of the textbook. Both of the articles provided a new way of thinking and approaching news coverage.
     The first article discussed how there are a variety of groups stereotyped in American culture, not just racial or ethnic groups. They focused on the example of old age and how by reminding someone of the stereotype, their performance of a certain task can be impacted. This could also be referred to as self-fulfilling prophecy theory which implies that when one believes a certain outcome will occur, either positive or negative, it is more likely to occur. For example, if you believe that you will do poorly on an exam, you are more likely to do so. Stereotypes can create these self-fulfilling prophecies and make people feel as though since they are a part of that stereotyped group, their outcome should align with the stereotype. For example, if you told a person who was 65 years old to take a memory test a but before the test reminded them of their older age by saying "we are testing how memory is affected by age", they may do more poorly on the test because they feel as though, since they are older, their memory should be affected in some way. This is extremely interesting idea to me because it shows how much we are impacted by stereotypes and the fact that it can definitely limit you in life. On the other hand, it can help in life, if the stereotype is positive or you have a positive self-fulfilling prophecy.
       The next article discussed how there are set guidelines in place in order for journalists and other reporters to remain neutral when reporting the news and incorporate a wide variety of cases in which Muslims are portrayed in a positive or neutral manner, in attempt to decrease stereotyping of them. This is very interesting to me because personally, I agree that Muslims should not be stereotyped and the Islamic faith should not necessarily be paired with terrorism through language such as "Islamic terrorist". However, regulations about what journalists and news casters can and cannot say in relation to Muslim people can be somewhat restricting and limit from the truth. I believe that although it is important to cover a wide variety of people from different backgrounds in local news stories, I also think that the representation of ethnic and racial groups covered in the news should reflect that of the population. For example, if the population of Minneapolis is 60% African American, 10% Asian, 15% White or Caucasian, 5% Muslim and 10% Hispanic, the news should cover those groups in the same way. Hence, the African Americans would get the most and the Muslims get the least amount of coverage. It is extremely important to abstain from stereotyping and I do believe groups should be represented in a truthful and unbiased fashion and that these regulations have good intentions to decrease stereotyping Muslims. However, it is logical that the amount of coverage should depend on the population of the area and that the guidelines could potentially be restricting.

Bibliography:
      Reporting on Muslims, Islam in the media, in American Muslims: A journalist's guide to understanding Islam and Muslims.n.d. Washington, DC: Council on American Islamic Relations
      Cloud, John. "The Power of the Stereotype." Time Magazine. 2009.

"Why Pakistan Matters" Lecture Reflection

      On September 2nd, 2014, I attended Ethan Casey's public lecture titled "Why Pakistan Matters". Ethan Casey is a journalist, author and publisher from Wisconsin who went on extended travels to Pakistan and wrote the novel Alive and Well in Pakistan: A Human Journey in a Dangerous Time. At the beginning of the lecture he commented that although most publications about Pakistan portray it as a foreign problem for the US, in his novel he attempts to show a more neutral and open perspective on the country as a whole. He had about nine main points about what he believes every American should understand about Pakistan and the United States.
       First, there is immense human suffering going on in the region of Pakistan and this is something we as first world countries to be aware of. Second, Pakistan's most effective institution is their military, much like the power of the United States military. Third, their government does not provide health care or education which can in turn make us as Americans realize how fortunate we are and hopefully be encouraged to make an effort to encourage education and health care in these less-fortunate countries. Fourth, Pakistan often has the perception that it is the homeland for Muslims and therefore is based on abstract ideas and not concrete realities. This can make legislature always in a state of unrest and therefore unstable compared to the US. Fifth, there is strategic depth to the area which relates to the control of Afghanistan, which is something the United States is constantly trying to do. Sixth, us as Americans conflate terrorists with Muslims and stereotype them as the "bad guys" which is a very flawed accusation. Seventh, the United States is not necessarily the "good guys" and we are often close-minded with that perception. Eighth, there is a difference between patriotism and nationalism with nationalism having a more aggressive connotation and he argued that the US puts too much emphasis towards this nationalism. Finally, due to strong militaries, he stated that both nations were susceptible to encouraging and producing war and war truly is the one clear "bad guy".
      He then commented on the surveillance and the use of drones currently in the United States as well as in Pakistan and how that is something that will impact both countries in the future. He also commented that 60% of the Pakistan population is under 20 years old and stated that in order to create progress and peace between Pakistan and the United States, their young generation and our young generation must collaborate with, understand and appreciate each other.
     Overall, I found his lecture very interesting and eye-opening. The comments that stood out to me the most were the ones discussing nationalism vs patriotism and the military's role in today's society as well as his encouragement, especially to us young adults, to learn about and begin to understand Pakistan on a personal level. He made a comment when referring to the military that he believed that the glorification of the military is not right and should be adjusted. He basically said that teachers and scholars should be getting the same amount of recognition as the military. This particular comment was one that I didn't necessarily coincide with. I do agree teachers should get more recognition because knowledge and openness to new knowledge is what leads to peace. However, I do believe the military deserves the recognition they get. Coming from a family in which my uncle is in the Air Force, being a part of the military is grueling and demanding and the people in it are constantly sacrificing for our country. I do believe that the United States' legislatures extreme use of the military and glorification of the military as a whole can sometimes be too much. However, every individual within the military deserves recognition just based on the pure sacrifices they have to make in their every day lives. However, I do agree with his comments on the need for the youth of Pakistan and the youth of the United States to understand and appreciate each other. I personally believe your cannot and should not make assumption about people you have no background knowledge on. Judging someone or even an entire nation on a small article in the newspaper or something you heard about them from your friend is not valid and only leads to stereotyping, hate and eventually war.

    Again, I did find this lecture intellectually enriching. It made me really think about my beliefs and evaluate whether I had allowed stereotypes of Pakistan influence the way I had initially perceived the nation. It definitely inspired me to look into not only the history of Pakistan, but the history of other conflicted Middle Eastern countries.





Bibliography:
         Casey, Ethan. "Why Pakistan Matters." Public Lecture. Moudy North 141, Fort Worth. 2 September. 2014. Lecture.

                     "About Ethan - Ethan Casey." Ethan Casey. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Sept 2014.

   

Maxim Magazine Research Reflection

            I found this study to be very intriguing mostly because it is fairly recent and involves topics that continue to influence our culture today. A lot of the media we are exposed to is extremely sexualized. For example, television shows such as "Sex brought me to the ER", "Dating Naked" and "Virgin Territory", advertisements for Victoria's Secret or that feature David Beckham shirtless, popular music that constantly refers to sex and promotes sexual behavior and not to mention the provocative music videos that go along with it. Overall, as time goes on, the more and more sexual activeness is promoted in the media and it definitely impacts not only the decisions we make as consumers but the decisions businesses make.

            The whole idea of the Maxim formula of women plus sex equals readers is definitely a new and rapidly growing trend that affects all ages and all aspects of culture. The more women are sexualized in the media, the more men expect that of real-life women. It forces women to set high, and often times unreachable, weight standards which has impacted the somewhat recent trend of eating disorders. However, marketing professionals neglect this trend in order to stay in business and gain reader loyalty. Yes, it important to stay up to date with the market in order to increase revenue and stay in business, but it is also important to remain ethical and understand that you are jumping on the bandwagon. In the future, when eating disorders are even more prevalent, women are even more degraded and men set even higher expectations to a point where societal norms are shifted for the worse, are you going to want to be the one who contributed?  Maxim has contributed to a revolution of sexuality and portraying women sexually and based on this research, has caused other companies in this industry to change the way they advertise and promote their content. Has stated in the study, there was a significant increase in the amount of covers with women on the front, decrease in the amount of clothing they wore on the cover, and increase in being portrayed sexually.  These trends definitely put women  readers in a position of high, unreachable expectation and more importantly inequality and it will take a new perspective or formula to shift popular culture and societal norms into something that everyone finds admirable and equal.

Bibliography
            J. Lambiase and T. Reichert. (2006). “Sex and the marketing of contemporary
consumer magazines: How men’s magazines sexualized their covers to compete with Maxim,” in
T. Reichert and J. Lambiase (Eds.) Sex in Consumer Culture: The Erotic Content of Media and
Marketing, pp. 67-86. Mahwah, N.J.: Erlbaum

Week 2 Blog Post- Old Newspaper Stereotype Analysis

            As a child growing up in Minnesota, the state of hockey, my dad always gloated about the "miracle on ice" when the US Olympic men's ice hockey team defeated the world-renowned Soviet team in Lake Placid 1980 Winter Olympics February 22nd, 1980. He always says that it was a moment he would never forget and was one of the most patriotic moments in his life. Before this upset, the Soviet ice hockey team had won the gold medal six out of the past seven Olympic games. Hence, this was a really big deal. Not to mention the US team was mostly college-aged amateurs. Although the victory was exciting, the reason why it was so significant was the fact that at this moment in history, the Cold War was going on. There was extreme tension between the democratic US and the communist USSR. Putting it simply, the United States thought the Soviet reign and communism was going to expand across the entire world and therefore, the US felt obligated to intervene and prevent the Soviets from expanding communism. Being from the state of hockey, and an ice hockey fan myself, I was intrigued by how this particular event was publicized and stereotyped compared to other stories on the front page, specifically those relating to tensions with the USSR and Iran. Throughout the Daily Globe newspaper's February 23rd, 1980 report, printed in Ironwood, Michigan, there are reoccurring stereotypes found within each article that compliment and promote one another.
              The first article on the page that I was drawn to as a reader was the article about the "miracle on ice" in the top right corner, with a picture of some of the team members celebrating. There were some stereotypes, such as stereotypes going along with college students as well as Soviet players. Although they were celebrating, by stating that the US team was primarily college students, the normal connotations of a youth, spirit and hope was emphasized. This particular article contained lots of imagery and visually appealing detail. It depicted fans dancing in the streets, chanting "USA", shooting off fireworks, embracing and even President Carter's enthusiastic invitation to have the team join him for some coke at the White House. The sources also appeared extremely enthusiastic, patriotic, male and non-official and stereotyped to be the typical American hockey fan, which causes the reader to perceive the event as relatable and become proud to be an American citizen such as the people quoted. These depictions show how the media used this event to promote patriotism and hope in a time of tension and fear. It was almost as if this game was a won battle in the theoretical war that was the Cold War. Ironically, this wasn't even the final game in the series and the US team still had to play Finland in order to win the gold. But again, the reaction to this event shows how strong the tension between the US and USSR in order to gain so much media coverage. I mean let's be real, it was even turned into a Disney movie over 20 years later.
                The other big story on the top of the front page was about the Iranian Revolution and the struggle to release the American hostages. I found this particular section of the front page to be intriguing because it was placed directly next to the picture of the US hockey team's victory. It primarily stereotyped Iran and revolutionary leader Khomeini as the 'bad guy' who is keeping the Americans hostage and supports the take over of the US embassy because he believes that the USA is "world-devouring". Whereas, on the contrary, the UN and CIA are stereotyped as innocent 'good people' who are merely doing everything they can to free these citizens, even though that may not be the case. These stereotypes are definitely enhanced by the hockey article because when the audience is at a point of extreme patriotism, they are going to react to news like this patriotically. They are going to believe that the UN and US government are making negotiations, even though the details of the negotiations throughout the article are explained very vaguely and cling to the translated quotes of Khomeini to defend the idea that he is responsible for the hostages. Also, the language in this article is more straightforward and harsh compared to the imagery-filled and patriotic language in the hockey article. This contrast allows the reader to again have stronger feelings of American patriotism towards the world issues.

                 The other section of the front page that interested me was the section about the continued fighting in Afghanistan, located at the very bottom of the page. This section contained stereotype about the people involved in the violence, the Soviets, and President Carter. First, the people involved in the violence were categorized as people who were protesting against the Soviets. The sources in this case however were extremely non-official and there so-called "eyewitness" accounts of the amount of dead people is extremely vague. There was no exact casualty number, only accounts of people who said they saw "over 50 dead bodies lined up for burial" in the hospital. The fact that it was and "eyewitness" account makes it credible for the reader, however it is not a very valid way to account for the dead. Second, the Soviets are stereotyped through their president's remarks about President Carter in which he claimed he caused "anti-Soviet hysteria" in Afghanistan. This enticing comment coincidentally reintroduced the stereotype of President Carter from the hockey article in which he was depicted as a patriotic, hockey-loving guy. Readers may wonder, how could someone insult President Carter when he just supported my home team and even invited them to the White House for some coke? And also believe that the Soviet president has no right to blame him for the fighting over in Afghanistan. This mentality produced by the earlier article reveals how the media utilized the stereotype of one article to compliment and promote another section in a particular way.
                There were other sections on the front page that involved firefighter strikes in Chicago and Milwaukee, social security, as well as a local car accident. Some of these sections contained stereotypes. For example, in the firefighter article, they emphasized the recent fire incidents with pictures and descriptions in which there were causalities and deaths in order to convince the reader that the strike meant danger to them and their neighborhood. However, the social security story as well as the local accident were pretty straightforward and didn't have any strong stereotypes.

Bibliography:
           Associated Press. "Daily Globe, Saturday, February 23, 1980, Page 1." Daily Globe, Saturday, February 23, 1980 : Front Page. Daily Globe, 22 Feb. 1980. Web. 09 Sept. 2014.

             

Week 1 Blog Post: In-Class Reading and Erin Corwin Case Response

             All in all, the media coverage of the murder of the two Fort Worth college students in late 1993 was extremely stereotyped and overall inaccurate. In pursuit of higher ratings, both The Dallas Morning News and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram not only blew the murder case out of proportion, but stereotyped the situation in favor of what was more mysterious and exciting for the target reader, completely disregarding the impact it would make on the families and friends involved. The first story portrayed the victims as "All-American Girls" and made rash assumptions about their personalities based on distant sources such as former neighbors and coaches. For example, they described Freelove as having a "heart for the people" based on the minuscule fact that she was hoping to become a doctor. In this case, since female doctors and nurses are often stereotyped as caring, they made the assumption that her caring-nature was the reasoning for becoming a doctor, not her love for science or hope to do research in the medical field, which are both common reasons among any gender for becoming a doctor. The reports also angled the initial stories with little police insights or investigation in order to create a mysterious characterization of the girls and lead the readers to question why they would ever be murdered. This mysterious misconception persuaded not only the audience of the paper and news telecasts, but the police to look into "drug dealership" and "lesbian jealousies", changing the stereotype of the girls from once "all-american" to then rebellious and full of wrongdoings, when in reality, the murder was merely due to a robbery in which case they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Overall, this shift in stereotype caused the networks to gain popularity and state-wide attention but was unethical in the sense that these girls can no longer speak for themselves. Publicly accusing them of quite frankly ridiculous and inaccurate claims does not allow them to rest peacefully or the families to grieve in a healthy manner.

              Although it has been over 20 years since this story of the girls was published, stereotyping in the media continues to be a concern. In the recent months, the disappearance, and murder of Erin Corwin has also involved stereotypes through various broadcasting platforms. I specifically looked into how People Magazine has overtime developed assumptions and stereotypes about Erin, the alleged murderer Christopher Lee, Erin's husband Jonathan and even the mine specialist, Doug Billings.

              The first report of Erin Corwin's disappearance in People Magazine occurred in the August 11th, 2014 issue in which the magazine's cover advertised "Mystery of the Marine's Wife: Pregnant and Missing. Did a military love triangle lead to tragedy?". Right away, the magazine attempts to hook the reader with the juicy word, "Mystery". When there isn't a new, bestselling, mystery on the book shelves, what better opportunity for the magazine to angle a current death into a mystery that will persuade these Scooby-Doo junkies into reading their material? Throughout the story, they angle the disappearance around the relationship between the Corwin and Lee family, specifically between pregnant Erin Corwin and Christopher Lee. They called upon extremely vague sources such as the owner of a local horse rescue ranch to discuss the fact that Nichole Lee and Erin Corwin used to go there together often and "after February, never came together" and one of Erin's childhood friends who reported that Erin and Christopher were having an affair. These sources led the magazine to make the extreme accusation that Christopher Lee could be the father of Erin's child. In a reporting about a month later, People Magazine reported that Christopher Lee pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder with a special allegation of lying in wait and gave more detail into how they found the body. They quoted the source Doug Billings, a mine specialist in the area, who originally said "she's not in a mine shaft. Who's going to dump a body in a mineshaft in 2014? This isn't a movie" and then later said that the mine in which they found Corwin's body was going to be searched "on our second day out, but the temperature were so bad that we had to leave because the dogs couldn't handle the heat".
             Many stereotypes developed throughout the magazine's reports of this current event. First, they automatically stereotyped Erin as promiscuous based on vague sources that reflect upon the unclear relationship between Erin and her neighbors and the fact that she was pregnant. However, this stereotype is then shifted in the next article when the focus becomes that Lee pleaded not guilty, provoking sympathy for Erin, the woman in the affair who's death continues to be undetermined. Also, by referring to Lee as a "former marine" suggests that he has been somewhat degraded from his heroine status compared to Erin's husband who is a current marine, in which they added that he sat in the back of courtroom during Lee's hearing. This inadvertently characterizes Lee as the "bad" guy and Corwin as the "good" guy, all in order to promote sympathy that will intrigue the readers to follow up with the story conveniently located within the pages of their magazine. In the follow up report, even the mine specialist, Doug Billings, is stereotyped. They angle his comments to come off as insensitive and arrogant in order to again, encourage the audience to sympathize the Corwin's current predicament. However, Billings is more knowledgeable about the area than anyone else and was most likely a key figure in finding Erin's body at all.  
          Throughout both of these news stories, there are many aspects that are blown out of proportion through stereotypes. Although Erin Corwin's murder has not been resolved yet, there are similarities in how the stories were portrayed in the media and overall, stereotyping anyone in a public broadcast causes the facts and evidence to blur, people to make inaccurate assumptions and overall cause the victim to be disrespected. Any victim, dead or alive, deserves privacy from the public and privacy from the stereotypes developed by many media platforms.

Bibliography:
            "Neighbor Accused of Murdering Erin Corwin Pleads Not Guilty." PEOPLE.com. N.p., 26 Aug. 2014. Web. 02 Sept. 2014.
            "In This Week's PEOPLE: Marine's Missing Pregnant Wife May Have Hidden Many Secrets." PEOPLE.com. N.p., 30 July 2014. Web. 02 Sept. 2014.
            Lambiase, J. (2006) The problem with "all-American girls": Coverage of slayings brings out best, then worst, of these victims." In M. Land and W. Hornaday (Eds.) Contemporary Media Ethics, pp. 73-89. Spokane, WA: Marquette. 

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