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.

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.