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Sunday, February 21, 2010

the most wonderful terrible tool you'll ever hate to love

  • i would like to say before i start that i felt horribly disconnected from the article and i dont know if that is me reaching my own biases becasue i grew up with the internet, or if everyone was hit the same issue. i find this the computer is pretty self explainitory and relativly user friendly (some operating systems more then others), and that even though i resisted the typical eight-finger typing pattern, i can negotiate the computer just fine.
  • Coming of Age with the Internet
    By Sally McMillan and Margaret Morrison
  • This is about the introduction of the media tool the computer and its connection to the internet as a tool, rescource, toy, and communcation hub. the article states that:
  1. the internet can be positive and negative - it is what you can make it out to be. you have access to so many rescources and you can learn a lot, broaden your horizons, or get in touch with poeple across the globe. on the flip side, it can reinforce stereotypes, be censored by the government, bring you to things you would rather not see/have your children see, or give you false information
  2. it effects all aspects of people's lives - people can use it to better themselves, discover their identity, communicate with family/poeple far from them, in their surrounding community or in a completely online community
  3. family is key in the introduction to the computer rescource - not only that the younger poeple are exposed the easier it is to learn, but also that socioeconomic status can prevent people from both education and access to rescources like the internet, even something so simple as having a dial-up connection to the internet can cause a roadblock to the vast possibilities the internet can offer
  4. the younger the start the better (age/generational differences) - younger people that grow up with the computer and use it all through school are more predisposed to be good with the technology as opposed to genderations that didnt grow up withg it and then have to teach themselves or take classes to learn how to access the same rescources and understand all possibilities.
  5. it creates different levels of community that can but dont have to connect - you can use the internet to create an online community with which to communicate with those around you, get to know new people (that you may or may not ever meet), and share ideas
  • "most people castes their mother as technogolically inept" (11). This is one point that i have a personal difficulty with and i am wondering if you felt the same. My father is the one that types with two fingers and insists that "they" "didnt include the t" on the keyboard, or "didnt include the s" etc. My mother didn't feel like she was as competant as she wanted to be (though she knew more then me) and after a college course or two i think she's far better then i will ever hope to be.
  • when it says that a "common use of the internet is to furthur reinforce ties that are created offline" (13) i cannot help but think of facebook.
  • "learnign to use the internet is a coming of age ritual" (7). while i realise that the internet can be a very integral part of education, social life, and lifelong learning, i am very hesitant to call it a coming of age ritual even in our society alone. i would argue that people with a lower socioeconomic status are not necissarily "not going to grow up" if they don't use the internet young and use it though their teenage years.
  • "the medium can increase power inequalities" (16) this makes me think of youtube.com, becasue anyone can post a video and those videos reflect whatever biases and beliefs that the person holds. if internect connects you to such a diverse pot of information, not all information can be inherantly literate (from a media standpoint).
  • this connects to all the things we have talked about so far but also to the fact the media matters becasue we have proven that the internet can be a deeply positive or deeply negitive (or both) rescource. i would arge that this form of media alone does not matter in a life/death/success/failure situation, but that this type of media can matter rather deeply




you probably can guess what my problems are with this commercial

Sunday, February 14, 2010

We Are What We’re Told We Are… Or Are We?

“A Tangle of Discources” by Rebecca Raby

Upon reading this I find myself torn between two places, one part of me wanting to “come out” as still being a “teenager” (as I won’t turn 20 for another few month), and owning the fact this the article and this class both discuss a “life stage” (I hate the word “stage” with a bloody passion) that I am still technically in. At the same time I feel a strong desire to distance myself from the “them” of adolescence, making “them” the “others” just like the article talks about. I see myself as being so far beyond the “searching for myself” and “in turmoil” but this just further reinforces that the articles stereotypes of adolescence are so deeply ingrained in my head. Further, I would say that I want to distance myself also because my adolescence was not a very pleasant or enjoyable experience for me, but also because so many people would like to say I am still “searching for myself” because of my sexuality (which I will take the time to remind you is not true, you can’t “change” someone’s orientation) I also could be fighting being within the categorization because I have never liked the notion of “immaturity” placed on the collective group, and I’ve always found intentional immaturity as overrated. (Though what is immaturity anyway because WE ALL RPGRESS AT DIFFERENT RATES)
I would argue that the “struggles” we take on as teenagers are really lifelong struggles, and when we “grow up” (in one sense of this series of acts that make up “growing up”) is when we realize this, stop stressing about how “little time” we have to get to where we want to be, and start enjoying life knowing we have the rest of our lives to decide “what we want to do with our lives”, “how we should look”, “who we consider friends”, “what our future will be” or “what we want out of life”.

Double standards of dependence and independence: parents and the government set rules so that teenagers are “kept safe”, meanwhile these same people and institutions would like us to be “growing up”, “making choices”, and “being independent”. The government is trying to set in motion now that all establishments that serve alcohol be closed to the under 21 population in Rhode Island. While I do not support underage drinking, and so I understand the initial reasoning, I do not agree with this policy. Being out on my own means that the government needs to trust me, and limiting my ability to pour money into the economy by not being able to take my weekly line dancing lessons or see my favorite band play at the local bar isn’t teaching me responsibility, just giving me less places to interact with those older then me. (in text as “expectations that they should be responsible and act like adults, while being regulated as if they were irresponsible. ” 439)

I think one of the main points the article is trying to get across is that we are all different people, with different backgrounds and personalities, with different tools, and different experiences, so how could you even try to think about any life stage as a collective unit because nothing is ever that clear cut. The only similarity that I see among all teenagers, as the article points out, is that we are not treated as children, but not quite as adults, we all realize this, and it makes for an uncomfortable role determination for those in the group (teens) those out of the group (both older and younger) and those removed from the group (like media and lawmakers).

The article suggests that adolescents are “othered” to make adults feel better about their own life crises. This comes in the context that the more “crazy” and “unpredictable” you call adolescents, the more “controlled” and “rational” you are simultaneously calling adults, which we all know on so many levels isn’t true.



this connects to the class topic that teenagers are not some alien life form because of the mere fact that i am one, and we all have been at one point. we know how it feels and we undertsand the stereotypes and pressures.

it also connects to media literacy becasue we could be using positive images of teenagers to highlight that teenagers can be responsible, modivated, "good", happy, adjusted, and mature poeple, contrary to popular stereotypes.

Thursday, February 11, 2010



compare that to this:

Monday, February 8, 2010

To learn the language of deception and conformity...

  • Media Literacy
  • I understand: That the point of media literacy is to teach as many poeple as possible to be able to "read" the messages that the media sends by way of propaganda; both to be able to make an educated analysis of its downfalls and to be able to create countermedia that breaks the norms and premotes further awareness. It is not just to find the downfalls, but the positives as well, and futher to be able to understand what is missing altogether. It is the base of the higher educational degree entitled "Media Studies". One of the main points is to not be afraid to make media work for us, so as to turn uninclusive messages or degrading ones into forcefully and positive ones.
  • Dont understand: so here's a slight contradiction in thought, couldn't someone who is otherwise illiterate be media literate? i would think very easily so, becasue you dont have to know how to read and write to hear the radio, watch a movie, see a tv ad, and understand what is wrong, what is acceptable, and what is missing.
  • Dont understand: how young can we start teaching media literacy? i would argue that as soon as a kid is old enough to be watching tv, listening to the radio, music, and watching movies, they should be taught media literacy.
  • (view the video that i previously posted called SLIP OF THE TONGUE)
  • Linda Christianen argued, as do it, that just becasue we want to critique media and create our own countermedia doesn't mean that all media is totally wrong, or that we can't enjoy the stories, shows, and charectors that we love. liking somehting and seeing it for what it is are two completely different things. Like the mulan video from last class post, and how i told you that i love the "be a man" video, even though i think its one of the worst videos disney made. my main qualms are the title "BE a MAN" suggesting that women can't do the same things men can, or that being a woman is undesireable, further added to by the song "did they send me daughters when i asked for sons", and even worse by the "i'll make a man out of you". but i love it becasue the tune is catchy and in the end the female shows all the men how it's done and climbs the pole to retrieve the arrow first.
  • this also connects to the theme that "teenagers are not some alien life form" because we see teenagers all through media. like in vitamins, with one a day's Teen Advantage. or in allstate's safe driver contract. we were all teenagers, and ad companies do a lot of promotion to the teenage crowd becasue they are more apt the succum to wanting to be "cool" or "fit in" and ads can appeal to this desire.
  • i really like the new commercial for cyberbullying and its effect on teenagers, and i think it shows media literacy and specifically counter media at its best, but i couldnt find it online so ill describe it: a male teen sits getting tattooed with words like "loser" and "faggot" and "dumbass" and "sissy" he gets a text and says to the artist "i guess we're doing 'idiot' next, i think i still have room on my back". and the narrator comes on and says "the things you say can have a longer impact then you think. don't cyberbully".

I DUB THIS THE BEST COMMERCIAL OF THE SUBERBOWL

I DUB THIS THE WORST COMMERCIAL OF THE SUPERBOWL

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Andrea Gibson....is amazing

Andrea Gibson is a slam poet from Colorado (well Maine originally) and she is really big on social justice and equity. If you havent heard of her, consider youself entitled, and watch some vids:

This one is my favorite:


This one is where my tattoo came from:


this one deals with gender performance and conformity:



this one deals with hate:


this one deals with love:



so, the ones i have chosen to show you here deal with the GLBT community, but this is just a very small portion of what she writes on, so if you liked any or all of these, i encourage you to look into her more. She came to RIC in the fall thanks to the Rainbow Alliance, and she will be at Smith College this thursday night with Athens Boys Choir :)

Monday, February 1, 2010

Slip of the Tongue

The Accepted, the Distorted, and the Omitted

  • "Unlearning the Myths that Bind Us" by Linda Christensen
  • Our society uses media to knowingly and unknowingly teach poeple how to act, what to aspire to, what to desire, how to succees, who to love, etc. The childeren who view fairy tales have no filter to jugde through (no intellectual armor p. 127), so they are more sessebtable to absorb any hidden scripts they see. This can carry through to adulthood. The idea that you can be brainwashed is very painful for people to hear, because we have the notion of freedom. Some poeple think that by changing one aspect of the media (like skin tone or weight), they have changed the hidden scripts, but this just further proves that the population has been brainwashed, or simply never taught how to critique these scripts ("im not taking my kids to see walt disney until they have a black woman playing the lead role" pg 131). When you have the tool to analyze, you can apply this to all media, conversations, and situations. Media has the power to change us, but we have the power to change it as well. Furthur, critiquing media does not mean that the media is inherantly evil or wrong, or that we can't enjoy the stories for their element of entertainment.
  • dont understand: "we are taught, more than anything else, how not to rebel"- so this is suggesting that since it is indoctornating us to all desire the same things and giving us only one path to get there then our personalities wont kick in and we will all become the same person, or type of person, and so we wont deviate from the norm, so noone will be different, wonder about why they are different, and rebel against the system? I don't think i buy that. I agree that it tries to teach us how not to rebel, but i don't think it suceeeds. Afterall, teenagers spend the bulk of their adolescence feeling like they are misfit and questioning normal, which i would call classic rebellion.
  • This connects to the fact that Media Matters, by the very fact that we are proving that these are not cute and harmless stories floating in time and disconnected from all influence on humnaity. Walt Disney was not some guy who wrote pretty tales who accidentally happened to have reoccuring themes that are racist, sexist, homophobic, etc. Media matters because kids connect princess with desireable and princess dreams as their dreams. Black childeren are honestly hurt when they see all those princesses and none of them are black. Gay children are honestly hurt when all princesses have to fall in love someone of the opposite gender, and are hypergendered. Poor childeren are honestly hurt that happiness is fuled by consumerism (even if they cant use those words). And all childeren are hurt when they realise that the standards fairy tales set are very unrealistic and very unattainable (atleast to 99.9% of the population).
  • To share: Chistinsen doesn't mention that gayness and gender ambiguity are also largly left out in popular media and fairy tale, specifically. She seems to mention this with her reference to "happiness means getting a man" and goes on to call men a "commodity". But i suggest that this is not a reference to gayness but that happiness only exits with a partner, in that a single woman cannot be happy. Furthur, it is a woman's job to make her partner happy, not to succeed ina career or reach for goals independant of him. This still horribly misleads us from even discussing the GLBT community. Mainly, that women have to be ultra feminine, men have to by hyper masculine, and that women and men should only seek eachother as an acceptable partner for life. This is omitting a huge percentage (10%) of the world population.
  • Disney is one of the worst offenders of abuses to lack of gender difference and sexual orientation in their output, so i find it HIGHLY amusing that this website thinks disney is promoting a "homosexual agenda" (which is highly untrue) and further amusing that they aren;t concerned about the ways that disney is actually brainwashing their children. Click HERE to view site.
  • to prove that you can like and hate something at the same time, i challenge you, as my reader, to watch this video clip- my favorite disney moment, and try to tell me the three VERY major problems i have with it.