Journalism

Initially I was extremely confused of what was even expected for this project. Thankfully after seeing the example though I knew I was on the right track. It seemed very daunting because I wanted to analyze a local newspaper such as the NT Daily. I was worried that they would be too diverse and that my findings would come up short of nothing. I really did not think there would be any big gaps in UNT's reporting since they are so proud of their diversity. After counting and doing the math though I realized that there were some gaps to fill. The amount of white people that were featured in pictures greatly outweighed the amount of any minority race featured.  The number of minorities seen was nearly half as low as caucasians. I did background research as well that shows UNT's campus to make up 52% minority race and 48% caucasian. Therefore the numbers should be more equal than they actually were. The amount of women vs men ended up being even once looking at the totals graph. ...

From a young age I can recall seeing women and men stereotyped on television. In a lot of the movies I remember woman were always the princesses. They were considered beautiful but also weak and needed to be protected. Men were always the protectors. Coming to the rescue at just the right time. I also recall female movies being geared towards being attractive and pretty. While the boy movies focused on adventure. (This can also be seen in children's toys) It definitely shaped my view of society at a young age. It took a lot of time later to reconstruct those ideas and find new ones. A lot of the movies focused on reinforcing stereotypes within the home as well. In class we discussed the movie Twilight and its specific framework. It contains a lot of white, male, and religious themes that can't be ignored. All the characters presented in Twilight are white. The vampires are praised on being pale and intelligent. While the werewolves are seen as much less so and are made up of i...

The group this week presented over video games and the increasing violence behind certain styles of gaming. Specifically how one on one gaming promotes certain violent behaviors. While fighting in teams may promote team work and working together. But mainly we discussed hate speech within gaming. I am not a gamer. I know of all the basic and popular games but have never sat down long enough to understand or gain any skill. Yet, I know that video games have incredible hate speech. I witnessed this when I used to watch Pewdiepie and other gamers on youtube. I often found that these big time gamers even used hate speech when getting into a game. This was something that I never could understand. Some others in the class explained that the submersion in these games can leave the player forgetting about reality. This makes sense because even players such as Pewdiepie have had to come out and apologize for the speech that had transpired over gaming. Other students in the class explained tha...

The first question that was brought up by Professor Everbach was something that shocked me by how little I was shocked. Apparently in the early news days for Katie Sherrod and Carloyn Barta were spent working in the "women's section" of the newspaper. Which specifically excluded politics and hard topics.  When women tried to get involved they were often shut down. They were told that their looks would pose a distraction. These women fought so actively to work in the political fields that they desired. They were able to be so successful by standing their ground and not taking no for an answer. Leona Allen talks next on how she worked in the city of Akron and noticed the extreme racial segregations that were still in tact. She recalls on how the "white people lived on one side and the black people on the other." She talks of the importance of race and its role in the media. She recalls on the time her white partner locked the car door after seeing a young african...

Symbolic Annihilation is a term that was first introduced to be in my race/gender class. It basically refers to when the media will leave out certain groups of people and often stereotype them when included. This is seen in a lot of different minority groups throughout the US alone. It is deeply offensive and can often create feeling of unease towards a group/groups of people. One of the most common is Native Americans. They are rarely quoted or talked about in the media. We do not know a lot about them because they are not put in the news often. When it is it is often referring to scholarship or reservations. There is rarely anything else seen.  When they are they are typically characterized. Perhaps with a big nose or headdress. This can create stereotypes that spread. These stereotypes are negative and frankly inaccurate due to to the fact they were observed on such a small scale. Sometimes these stereotypes are taking a step forward by dressing up as a specific race such as Na...

As I was studying for the content that will appear on the first exam in my media class. I realized the great importance of some of the things I was reviewing. The first of these being the importance of recognizing Media Literacy. As I have learned in class, it is very important to understand how the media works. Especially if you are not a journalist. That way you can truly limit bad content and analyze the good content. Everyone says that they are not affected by the media. But that obviously is not true with the amounts of active stereotypes that exist about everyday people. Not only this but the amount of stereotypes that are used in TV and the media. These stereotypes are harmful, out of date, and must be taken down. Media literacy provides a framework in which people can analyze, evaluate and send messages. It also builds an understanding of the media's important role in society. Which is to keep everyone accountable and aware. It also allows people to discern when the media...

Talking about gender representation in sports brought an interesting discussion for our class. It was the same day I presented with my group. In order to give a visualization i included the video "Like a Girl" by Always. (I will attach at the bottom) This video showed what it was like to be represented as a girl in athletics. The result was astounding.  So often the media paints a picture of life that is inaccurate. An example of this is women being slow runners or bad fighters. The video showed what people thought it meant when statements were said like, "now run like a girl," or "fight like a girl." They all reacted in a negative way by showing weakness in their actions. This is because they all grew up in a society that says that women are weaker than men. This paints an ugly picture for young women going through puberity. The only models that responded in a normal way were the young girls that had not yet seen or been affected by the media. The rest o...