JWU Media Blog

Class Discussions

[mediachronicle]

How and where do we see neoliberalism manifesting itself in our media systems and industries?

[emilyvjwu]

@mediachronicle

We see Neoliberalism especially in our media and where we get our information from. The United States only has 6 companies that run the news we receive within the country. That is a limited amount of information to receive on current news and it’s usually biased depending on what station you are receiving it from. 

In the film Control Room, Iraq experiences the same problem. Out of the minimal amount of news stations the area receives, only one station is popular among the Iraq people. Al Jazeera is the news station that almost all of the Iraq people receive meaning that the station could be feeding their viewers biased information. 

The Global Media, Neoliberalism, and Imperialism article states that the oil and automotive industries have also fallen under neoliberalism and it is now working its way into the media and entertainment industry. This overthrow is of power hungry corporations feeding biased news and entertainment to citizens is not a good thing for the United States or anywhere else. Powerful corporations do not benefit the people only themselves. As well as sharing their one sides opinions with the world does not help in informing the American people of the things that are happening throughout the world. 

Control room proved that news stations like Al Jazeera used their biased opinions of the war as propaganda against the American soldiers and made the war a lot worse than it already was. Any news station with that much power could use the information they share as propaganda to manipulate of lie to their viewers by not giving the people an unbiased news cover and letting the people decide for themselves. 

Neoliberalism in media would not be so bad if stations didn’t feed one sided information about current news. However because most news stations do not have the capacity to tell unbiased news stories, neoliberalism remains dangerous to citizens in the news they receive and the corporations not caring about anyone but themselves. 

[emilyvjwu]

School Is Racist

Inspired by Ahmed Mohamed, 10 nonwhite Americans reflect on the discrimination and the discouragement they experienced in school.

@mediachronicle

Ahmed Mohamed was first accused of making a bomb and bringing it to school. He was arrested and his threatening item confiscated. Turns out it was just a clock like he stated when he brought it to school. Mohamed’s experience is the perfect example of Islamophobia. The town his family has lived in for 30 years, has turned against them because of this fear.

Because of this incident, Ahmed got to meet the President, is featured as one of the 30 most influential teenagers of 2015. These types of racist incidents happen all of the time in schools and in the education systems. This Buzzfeed article shows this inequality. People who are currently 20-30 years of age tell of their tales from Elementary and Middle School in the past. As well as the abusive incident that happened in South Carolina that was caught on video. 

Social media and other forms of internet communication has been bringing these incidents to light. Whether social media is showing these portrayals in a purposefully negative light or in their truest form. It is apparent through statistics that racial inequality has not changed much from the past until now. Children of different races are still limited in terms of education and treatment and even later in choices in jobs and lifestyle. 

Was this public and media infused display of love and sympathy for Ahmed an attempt to right the wrongs done to him? Was making Ahmed an influential teenager supposed to hide the other racist situations and abusive actions that are currently happening? Is America and the people in it considered better for what they granted Ahmed and his family? 

Being nice to one person and singling them out as a great person or talented kid does not wipe away current and past treatment. In the end Ahmed ended up leaving the US because of this action, he wanted to stay in the US and go to school and work with NASA and now we have lost him. Because of this “wonderful opportunity” and scholarship he fled America. 

[emilyvjwu]

Star Wars Absolutely Destroyed Ticket Sales Records

Demand is sky(walker) high.

Star Wars Pre-Sale Tickets Broke the Internet.

@mediachronicle I thought it would be appropriate to talk about Star Wars The Force Awakens Movie tickets going on sale last night and how they broke the Internet. Since I am talking about film for my Media Analysis I thought This pertained to my topic. 

It has not even been 24 hours since pre-sale tickets for Star Wars have gone on sale. IMAX reports $6.5 million in pre-sale tickets. This record has surpassed any movie in pre-sale ticket sales. This event is definitely a game changer in the declining of box office sales. 

Or is it? An article from The Verge brings up an important observation. Even though the number of sales is amazing, it is not a long term game changer in the box office sales arena. This movie will not magically make people start going to the movies. This particular movie is something that people have been waiting for for almost 2 years. Star Wars is a beloved franchise that a lot of people love. The Verge article explains perfectly that the sales were a response to pent up anxiousness over the release of the movie. The world also knows that movie theaters will be the only place they can see the movie as fast as possible. Since the world was aware of this they new they would be leaving the comfort of their homes so they could witness the movie that the world would be talking about. 

Even though almost every citizen will be in their local theater on December 17th (Including me!) to witness this historic event, it will not change people’s view of the theater or make people less picky about what movies they choose to pay for to see. Star Wars just so happens to be the movie that everyone chooses to pay for for the month of December. Sadly the theater will forever be known as the place that people can see movies first, but it will not be their first place they watch movies every time a movie is released.

[micdotcom]

Watch: 14-year-old Auli’i Cravalho’s reaction to being cast as Disney’s new princess Moana is the best.

[thebaileeproject]

I think it’s so thoughtful and so nice that Disney choose Auli'i Cravalho for the role of Moana in their new princess film. In a time where 30 year old actors and actresses play high schoolers it’s nice to see a role being filled by someone representative of the character. It’s interesting to note that this role that is strictly a voice role is being so thoughtful cast, and other ethnic roles aren’t being cast the same way. For example in the live action adaptation Disney cast Scarlett Johansson as the role of Mulan. This is a massive mistake by Disney, when there is no shortage of Chinese actresses they choose a white actress. It’s very problematic of Disney to prove they can thoughtfully cast an ethnic character when it’s a voice role, but when it’s a live action role they can’t seem muster up the decency to cast a Chinese actress in a movie about a Chinese woman.

[mediachronicle]

Why do you think they’ve made these choices, @thebaileeproject? What is the press saying about this? What is being said here on Twitter? Is Disney just being “thoughtful” and “nice?” If so, then why are they whitewashing Mulan? Dig deeper with your analysis and bring sources and links in to support your argument.

[emilyvjwu]

It is great that Bailee brought up the voice of Moana being a girl around the characters age rather than an older women like most Disney movies. Even though when it comes to voice acting it only really matters what the person sounds like and if the actress is what the casting director is looking for for this specific characters voice. 

I am glad that Disney decided to voice their new character with a person of correct ethnicity. The press and the world seem happy with it too. People all over Twitter and the news are saying how happy they are to see Auli’i Cravalho as a new Disney Princess. It’s interesting how diverse the Disney Princesses are starting to become. We Had Tiana welcomed from Princess and the Frog and now Moana. 

An article I found talks about Disney and it habit to white wash characters. In the film Princess and the Frog we gain the first black princess but a rather white washed prince. One of the protagonists, Naveen is a lighter skin tone while the antagonist  Dr. Facilier is a darker skin tone. To avoid any white washing or “otherness” the creators of Moana are pulling the same strategy from Frozen (Sending the art team to Norway) and are sending their team to the South Seas. As the article states, hopefully the team will not fall into the exotic lure of the Pacific Islands and actually portray the culture correctly. 

Overall the choice of a Pacific Islander princess is great but it’s not the biggest step Disney could be taking to create more diverse princesses. Will Moana be a step toward more diverse princesses? Hopefully but honestly, probably not Disney is sadly more into making money than making sure their children’s movies are ethnically accurate. Having a Pacific Islander Princess is exotic but its not a very progressive step toward diverse characters since Moana is still considered American.  @mediachronicle

[huffpost]

LATINOS BREAK THE MOLD

It’s hard to define Latino identity. Some people, when they think of Latinos, think of stereotypes: short people with dark hair and bronze skin. They don’t realize there are no limits to what we can look like. We can be blond. We can have red hair. We can have blue eyes. We can be tall. We can be short. We can be curvy. We can be skinny.

The beautiful thing about being Latino is that we are, in a way, a reflection of the world’s diversity. There are Asian Latinos, Afro-Latinos and white Latinos —and we are all equally Latino. Some say our culture is what connects us, and some say it’s the languages we speak. Others think it’s simply our shared experiences.

This is a glimpse into a community of limitless diversity connected by one ethnicity — proof that identity is far from skin deep. Latinos don’t fit into a Census box, a stereotype or a mold. Latinos break the mold.

[gabiimontesworld-blog]

Just as the world around us is adapting to change so are different types of cultures and ethnicities. Throughout the years, the media has learned to stereotype different cultures based on race. The gift above is an example of how this world is changing and how different types of races are mixing to create different cultures. For example; someone being a Chinese- Puerto Rican doesn’t make you any less Chinese or any less Puerto Rican. Both of these cultures have shaped the women in the gift above to grow and practice both of the cultures equally and at the same time. However a topic that really caught my attention was Marcos Saldivars’ quote, “Growing up Latino… meant that to our closest relatives in Mexico we weren’t Mexican enough; and to our American peers we weren’t American enough.” A lot of Latin Americans that  grew up with an American culture as well as their own could vouch and say that is very true. Your Hispanic friends and family assume you have been “whitewashed” since you grew up with the American culture. In a different article in the Huffington Post by Amanda Scherker claims that one of Hollywood’s worst habits was “whitewashing”.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/10/hollywood-whitewashing_n_5515919.html

Growing up in America regardless of our different back grounds, we have watched as Hollywood’s main starring roles have always been white actors. This trend has happened for years and it continues to happen today. For Instance in the movie The Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010) , the role of a Muslim hero in this movie and game was played by Jake Gyllenhaal, a Swedish-Jewish-American. Along with that other actors in this movie were Iranian, Middle Eastern or Muslim descent. So why does the media do this and why do we openly set ourselves into getting “Whitewashed”? We continue to see a theme but we like the movies and games and so by watching or buying this type of media the American culture is more favorable than our second culture. Is it our fault that the media has shaped us to believe that we are whitewashed? Or is it our fault for believing the media, that if we don’t practice our other cultures enough we are less Hispanic then full-blooded Hispanics?

[mediachronicle]

Outstanding and insightful points, Gabii. Why do you think Hollywood whitewashes people of color and other ethnicities? What do you think their goal is? What can people of color do about this misrepresentation? What should white people do about it? What would be the benefits of accurate representation of race and ethnicity in our media? And have you seen this new Coke ad for Hispanic Heritage Month? And what do you think of this criticism of it: http://abc13.com/business/some-criticize-cokes-new-hispanic-heritage-month-campaign-/990371/?

[emilyvjwu]

I like the points that Gabii made. People do like to categorize other people based on what they look like without knowing their true cultural background. In terms of movies, Hollywood whitewashes different ethnic characters with white american actors in order to bring more audience members into the movie because they are using an actor that everyone knows which the majority of actors are white. People of color can bring the misrepresentation to life by creating campaigns like breaking the mold to spread awareness even though it should be common sense by now that we shouldn't stereotype people. In the movie industry the prominent white actors could help upcoming actors with getting different ethnic and cultural roles so that characters can be better and equally portrayed in movies. As more actors are being brought into the movie industry better casting decisions are being made and even Netflix is portraying ethnically correct actors in their Netflix Original series. Citizens are starting to see how ridiculous it is to place an actor of the wrong ethnicity in a role when there are many new amazing actors out there waiting for their big break.

[themedianerd02-blog]

Snowden: Traitor or Patriot?

Edward Snowden is a former NSA agent who is now hiding in Russia after leaking one of the most classified operations in United States history, The Program. 

The Program was an operation started by the NSA after 9/11 to help protect against future terrorist attacks. The plan was to monitor all communications coming into and out of the united states. Originally the program worked by concealing the identities of Americans and only revealing those of citizens of foreign countries. If an NSA agent felt an american citizen was a conspirator they could then go get a warrant to reveal their identity. The problem is the program did not work that way, the identities of american citizens were not being concealed. All communications were being monitored phone calls, E-mails, and internet use. 

As the internet grew, The Program grew. The NSA teamed up with major internet and telephone companies to monitor communications between Americans. The problem was these companies such as Google and Yahoo were not fully informed on what they had signed up for. The NSA was tapping in secretly to Google and working through their encryptions to get more info. Google was completely unaware.

Once realizing that the NSA was spying on the citizens it was trying to protect, Snowden became troubled. After much thought and gathering of evidence he decided it was time to leak the story. Snowden then traveled to Hong Kong where he met up with two reporters, Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras. He gave them thousands of classified reports revealing every aspect of of The Program. It wasn’t long before The Gaurdian, the newspaper Greenwald worked for, had it’s story. 

There is much debate over whether what Snowden did was right or not. Many people called him a traitor to his country, often stating that what he could cost millions of Americans their lives. Yet would you feel comfortable that your house was being raided based on evidence the government couldn’t tell you they had. Snowden did the right thing by leaking the story to the press. While there was much danger it was important that the public know they were being watched.

[emilyvjwu]

This is an interesting debate. On one hand the program was intended to help the American citizens to avoid future threats but then he was violating the human right of privacy. Snowden had good intentions but the program went around them the wrong way, but then again how else do you keep all of the United States safe without spying on them. What makes this different from companies doing something similar in order to learn more about you and be able to market their products to you more effectively? 

Even though I as well as many people would rather not have their privacy violated. I as a consumer understand how important that information is to companies and other organizations in order to better benefit the country and its citizens. It was smart of Snowden to leak the program to the public so that he wouldn’t get all of the blame later as well as inform the public of the programs intentions. Even though one privacy violating program was uncovered and brought to the public’s attention, I am sure there are many out there doing the exact same thing but for different intentions. 

[theslaybymic]

The Zendaya Barbie is everything we’ve been waiting for 

Barbie has been marketed as not just a toy, but a role model for young girls. Mattel, Barbie’s parent company, seems committed to that mission. Last week, the company announced that it will model a doll after 19-year-old performer (and role model to many) Zendaya Coleman. Zendaya will be the first to tell you how important this is.

Follow stylemic

[mediachronicle]

Do a little research into this story and tell me why you think Barbie would do this? Why now? Why is this a big deal?

[emilyvjwu]

Barbies have always had a bad rep for creating extremely high standards for girls. They have also been criticized for their lack of diversity which is a hot topic within the media currently. Because of this Barbies have started to lose popularity based on the message they subliminally send whether they try to or not. 

With all of these hot topics of body image and diversification within the media at the moment it was a perfect time for Barbie to rise from the depths with this new branding and message to send to their target markets. Girls often look up to their Disney channel stars so using Zendaya for Barbie’s new campaign and branding was a fantastic idea since she is so popular with Barbie’s market. 

I think this was a great way for Barbie to create a new brand and message for their product and I think the Zendaya Barbie turned out great. It looks so great that I want one that looks like myself. 

[mediachronicle]

MCST 2010 Class Tumblrs

Follow your classmates’ blogs:

ohsnap-kag 

bchopp72 

zavilne 

whateverdefinesyou 

caerjester  

drixen 

dispicable-em 

oliviaescribe 

denmank2 

standardmountainchic 

gabiimontesworld 

youarethecardczar 

jwumediaclasskid 

regularrodent 

theascapegoat 

thefeloniousdunk 

koreaftw1 

philmcniff24

[thebaileeproject]

Hello everyone! If you guys could possibly follow the blog that I’m posting this on thebaileeproject.tumblr.com rather than standardmountainchic? That’s just my fashion blog and it would be better to keep them separate. See you bright and early tomorrow!

[mediachronicle]

Ah, sorry for the confusion, Bailee. Your earlier message about this was a little unclear, and I didn’t understand what blog you wanted followed. 

Everyone, please follow thebaileeproject rather than standardmountainchic.

[mediachronicle]

Reblogging this list and adding both thebaileeproject (in lieu of standardmountainchic) and goresearcher to our class list. I believe that is everybody. Follow each other!

[emilyvjwu]

Also If it’s not to late could everyone follow the blog http://emilyvjwu.tumblr.com/ rather than Dispicable-em. Thank you!

[evolutionstopshere]

Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read September 22-28, 2013