Students Stepping in the Right Direction

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Sparrow Media- A Blog Promoting Social Justice

The Sparrow Project

On the blog, The Sparrow Project, I think there are many different ideas that are shared between the makers and readers of this blog. The people who created the blog were a group of friends that classify themselves as grassroots activists which I view as the ideology that governs their presuppositions. Similar to what we discussed in class concerning freedom, property and religion as components of the American ideology. I would argue that Sparrow Media’s three “stars in their constellation” of a grassroots activism ideology would be recognition, freedom, and power of the individual and small communities.

            Their presuppositions governing their ideology do not center around political views of major parties, but instead focuses more on the openness of diverse views from people who may not have had the chance to express themselves before. This relates to freedom of the individual to take action in their community as well as recognition. There seems to be a tension/paradox though between the creators of The Sparrow Project and the readers. While the creators of The Sparrow Project recognize the individuals on their Twitter and Facebook page that are implementing projects to promote social justice in their community on the website they do not include the names of the people who created the project or the authors on the blog or blog posts. So while a key presupposition relies on recognition of the individual they don’t recognize themselves for their work to protect social justice. In contrast, The Sparrow Project creators post thank and tag certain people in their tweets and Facebook posts that have made their voice heard in relation to different causes and media they helped create. The emphasis on freedom and recognition of groups and individuals overlap because they both contribute to the creation of a close-knit diverse community that has the ability to create change and doesn’t force individuals to think or express one certain idea.

            Another presupposition of the Sparrow Media ideology is that everyone’s voice should be heard and given the opportunity to present itself because it is valuable to our social landscape. I think that this presupposition influences what is posted on Sparrow Media and their corresponding sites. A wide variety of voices from the videos uploaded on their Vimeo account and additional posts and comments to links of articles on their Facebook page convey how they want to spread the voices of overs not only through their blog but through different outlets too. In addition, the most recent post is about a panel of journalists, filmmakers, and different whistleblowers coming together to talk about the NDAA Lawsuit. Not only does the actual blog create a space for different voices to be heard, but the writers of the blog highlight where people can go to get more involved in their actual community. In addition, The Sparrow Project conveys they want everyone’s voice to be heard with the links on the left side of the blog to different group pages. By including these links, it shows that individuals behind The Sparrow Project want their readers to not only get involved in change, but educate themselves about the actions of other social justice groups around the world. Due to the links on the blog, the readers and creators are not limited to what they are exposed to or the content that they make available to readers through just their posts.

            One important presupposition of their ideology is that any action helps make a difference and locals can make differences without the help of influence of the government. In the description on Facebook, Sparrow Media prides itself on celebrating small actions. Even though it does not directly mention this on their blog, it is very evident from the more unknown organizations that are located on the left hand side with links to the corresponding sites. From this one can tell that Sparrow Media gives publicity to organizations that are less well known. This importance on recognizing small actions is more evident through the “donate your twitter and facebook” option on the top left side of the blog. If readers choose to do this then messages from Sparrow Media will be “rebroadcast” so it gains more acknowledgement and the project’s posts can gain more momentum as it spreads to more and more people. Sparrow Media even has a merchandise site that is linked to their blog where the proceeds benefit “farm sanctuary,” “the Uganda skateboard,” “clean ocean action,” and “the Sparrow Media fund. ” Every sale of a t-shirt made by Sparrow Media is a way for both the creator and consumer to take another small action that has the power to make a difference.

            With every post that Sparrow Media creates, there is a focus on giving the individual value over a larger political majority. There is emphasis on how viewers and creators not only support different organizations but different mediums as well whether written, verbal, or audiovisual. Sparrow Media creates an ideology that goes against following the majority. The core beliefs that make up Sparrow Media’s ideology give the blog a crucial role in its fight against lack of diversity and the limitations this puts on our media and communities.

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Gender Barriers in the Film Industry

What do you think about this gender barrier? Is it something you had thought about before?

This picture is from an article about the gender barriers between males and females in the film industry that was in the Michigan Daily, an University of Michigan publication, on February 21, 2013.  

Michigan Daily 

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Badidas

Photo Credit: Badidas 

I came across a blog for the USAS at the University of Michigan. USAS stands for “United Students Against Sweatshops.” The national organization has created a blog called “badidas: all in sweatshops.” When you first go to the page you see an image of a door with chains around the handles. At first, I was confused by this image. The reflection on the glass of the doors made it look more like a pole with chains around it which made the image not clear at first. I think sometime this initial confusion can be good because it leads to investigation. I wanted to find out more about what this image was of and why it was relevant. Looking a little farther down the page, I saw a caption that said the picture was of the locked PT Kizone factory doors in Indonesia. The doors are locked because Adidas owes a total of $1.8 million severance pay to previous sweatshop workers. I thought that the image of the door was very powerful. A door is a object that all people of different cultures, races, countries have a clear picture of in their head. A door symbolizes a way to get in and out of a good or bad situation. The use of two languages to tell people coming in to pull on the door helps to create a union with people who speak English looking at this site and people in Indonesia who are directly affected. The image tries to bridge connections between groups of people in different countries. 

In addition, there is white text that overlaps this image. The text over the image of the chained door states “are you all in against sweatshops?” The use of the second person speaks directly to the reader. It wants them to take action individually in order to make a larger impact overall. Right below the question, there is a place for the reader to insert their email address in order to digitally sign the petition against Adidas. The placement of this text to the left side of the image aims to make the reader feel as if by signing the petition they are somewhat responsible for “opening a door” for another individual they do not know. Likewise, the placement of the email input over the image seems to make the viewers feel guilty if they still don’t answer yes to the question, are you all in against sweatshops?, when there is an opportunity to take action just below. 

As you scroll down the page, the most latest news story is accompanied with the largest picture of two sweatshop workers that have been touring the country to speak to students at various universities. The picture features the two workers smiling holding clothes from a company that has treated them wrongly. The smile seems to be more for the reader inviting them in to read more about these two individual’s lives. There is a balance between pictures that show what students and workers are doing to try to get Adidas to pay as well as charts and facts that show how far this campaign as spread around the United States. The smiling pictures of the sweatshop workers suggest that after all they have been though they aren’t letting Adidas hold them back. This may make readers feel that they can relate due to a time they too struggled against adversity. The emphasis on the worker’s emotional story when paired with language such as “Make your campus next” emphasizes how the authors of the site are calling students to take action with only the click on a button on a link. 

  The blog uses the logo and a similar font to Adidas in an effort to get the recognition of readers that may be familiar with the brand but not what is going on in Indonesia. It makes people who are invested in the brand but may not be invested in the cause a chance to speak out against a company that may have admired or really liked. The badidas blog is able to teach people, give them the tools to take action, and make them feel invested to the lives of the sweatshop workers with the images, text, and links throughout. 

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A comment about my PCAP article from a "returning citizen."

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My article for LEAD just got published. I received a comment from a "returning citizen" thanking me for writing about the work PCAP does. With my article, I felt like I had helped tell someone's story in an organization that not enough people and students know about. 

You can check out the article by clicking on this link.

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Photo Credit

This image is from 2001 at the University of Michigan while the link to the article above is from 2013. How are our discussions about this social justice issue the same after 12 years and how are they different?

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(IN)JUSTICE: Sharing Stories

Image Source

https://soundcloud.com/womstories

This is so awesome! You should take a listen. Go listen to (IN)JUSTICE pt 1. This audio is from a Word of Mouth Story Slam that happened January 31st at the Work Gallery on State St. At these story slams, students came together to share five minute stories about “social change and personal trials.” 

It was such a great experience listening to the audio from last night’s event. The first story about the girl who was homeless really struck me. Especially how she started it out by drawing the audience’s attention to judgments they might have made about her due to what she was wearing. Stories like this will help to make me and others think twice when we jump to automatic conclusions when we pass a stranger on the street. There is no way to know their story from first glance. Or the other story about a guy’s first experience filming a documentary in court where he met a poet who had been involved in human trafficking. He said something that really resonated with me about this woman who performed a poem in court, “It is time to let them be something else. It is time that we tell stories about them not being a victim.” It makes you think…how can we change someone’s life by telling a piece of their story?

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Social Rhetoric- St. Petersburg College Video Collaboration about Human Trafficking

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49lRyOTkVqU

  This video made me think a lot about the creators of this video versus the viewers. Who are the rhetors in this video and who did they want to reach with this video? The intended rhetor for this social rhetoric is listed in the descriptions section of the video as the  Clearwater Police Department, the Task Force on Human Trafficking in the Clearwater and Tampa Bay area as well as St. Petersburg College. At the same time, viewers are not made aware of exactly who in the police department, task force or college directly helped to make this video. Each of the actual rhetors that worked on this project brought their own identity and background to the creation of this video. Therefore, the viewer has to think about what kind of individuals they think work at these places when trying to figure out more about the actual rhetor, the individual creators, versus the intended rhetor, the groups as a whole. This division between actual and intended rhetor with reference to this video presents an interesting aspect of our society and media. Many times, there are different forms of social rhetoric that can not be pinpointed to a group of individuals and instead are grouped together as one organization’s stance or contribution. This makes me think how this PSA would change if there was only one individual that worked on it rather than potentially multiple people from different organizations and schools. 

I feel that the collaboration between multiple different individuals from various groups helped to make a video that took into account a diverse group of viewers. The intended audience consists of both people that speak Spanish or English. This is evident with the girl speaking Spanish and the English subtitles. In a country with a diverse population, I think it is necessary for public service announcements to exhibit that they are trying to reach a group of individuals that doesn’t fit into just one certain small subsection of the population or even just one country. In addition, the form of a public service announcement implies that the intended audience may not be as informed about issues concerning human trafficking in the Tampa Bay and Clearwater area like the creators of the video are. The PSA doesn’t necessarily imply that the audience is not aware of the issue of human trafficking around the world, but it does seem to reach out to an audience that doesn’t know about the prevalence of the issue in Florida and around the United States. For example, the video begins with the girl saying she came to the United States. Right from the start, the video targets immigrants who have also come to the US, people living in the US, and even people that may be thinking about moving to the US. The expansive potential audience, made even bigger with the video’s availability on Youtube, highlights the occasion for this video. By reaching out to a wide audience, the creators of the PSA are trying to build collaboration between the community of their viewers to take action and teach others about the issue of human trafficking.

Since this video was produced by individuals in the Tampa Bay and Clearwater area this suggests when first produced the creators intended for the video to inform residents of these two communities or surrounding areas. This association of the intended audience with particular communities in Florida is further emphasized with text at the end of the video that says “Human trafficking happens in Tampa Bay.” Not only does the text reference a certain community but the short direct language of the text in the video emphasizes how before watching the video the creators may have thought viewers were not aware of this fact. Furthermore, the end of the video includes text that also says “Learn. Look. Report.” With this text, the creators suggest that they are trying to educate individuals who watch the PSA so they can take action to stop human trafficking. The short direct slogan suggests that it doesn’t take much for the viewers to make efforts to address and help stop human trafficking. The slogan, “Learn. Look. Report,” emphasizes the occasion of the social rhetoric as well. It suggests that when people are informed about the presence of human trafficking they can make efforts to stop it.  I think it is important that the video does not have this text about the Tampa Bay area in the beginning of the video. By not doing so, viewers from all over the country and world can feel like this video could initially be about where they live and not exclusive to one community. I think the reference to Tampa Bay only at the end also makes this video more effective at reaching a wider audience when it is placed online where more people can watch and comment on it and create more videos after watching it on Youtube in response.

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It is crazy to think that when I saw this in the Diag in October I didn't know what it was for until now. I didn't stop to read what the shirts said or ask someone what organization it was for. Now I want to change that. I want to ask. I would like to help. I would have loved to get involved with this great cause that is against sweatshops before. 

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USAS at the University of Michigan

So when I was on Facebook tonight, I saw a friend that goes to U of M too post a picture of students that are a part of USAS. This acronym stands for United Students Against Sweatshops. This month they delivered a letter to President Coleman asking her to end the University's contract with Adidas if they don't pay the $1.8 million they legally owe to PT Kizone workers which is located in Indonesia. Looking at their Facebook page, it is great to see Michigan students acknowledge how other students at colleges like Georgetown, William and Mary have all ended their contracts with Adidas due to student pressure. I will definitely keep up to date on the developments in association with Michigan's contract and I am definitely going to try to attend one of the groups meetings in the Union on Wednesdays at 7:40.

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For my next article for LEAD, an online student publication, I decided to focus on the Prison Creative Arts Project. This program was founded in 1990 by a current University of Michigan professor, William Alexander. It was a class that I have always wanted to take, but never could due to scheduling. Instead I got to interview Professor Alexander about PCAP. I asked him about the effect his students said the program had on them, how individual and group workshops are implemented, the Art Exhibition and books that the program publishes that are filled with work from incarcerated adults and youth. I also got to ask Professor Alexander about his book published by the University of Michigan Press that delves into how the idea for this program came about and how it has affected the lives of people involved. Their goal is to let everyone voices be heard and give incarcerated individuals the opportunity to express themselves through art in an environment filled with individuals that will respect and not judge or label them. 

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Politically and socially active clubs at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Photo Credit

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As I have said, the first thing is to be honest with yourself. You can never have an impact on society if you have not changed yourself… Great peacemakers are all people of integrity, of honesty, but humility. -Nelson Mandela

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This article was in the Michigan Daily on January 16, 2013. This article talks about how this upcoming fall East Quad will have students who "...identity as transgender, gender non-conforming or as allies to choose a roommate of any gender and live with a community of like-minded individuals."

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In matters of truth and justice, there is no difference between large and small problems, for issues concerning the treatment of people are all the same.” -Albert Einstein

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This article was posted in the Michigan Daily on January 15, 2013. The article centers around six students from the University of Michigan who are going to Kenya this upcoming June where they will work with students in Kenya to develop various business projects.