Perhaps there is more than one meaning to the word reality, and I believe that media does have a direct influence on society. Although this particular text seemed to use examples that were a bit out dated, I was still able to pull the main ideas from it. President Clinton's impeachment,rapper Emenims angry and violent lyrics, as well as the way religion is portrayed in the media through movies. Whether we like it or not, our generation more so then before has been hit with this wave of media and I am not sure we can get away from it. It is a very powerful issue. I work as an assistant pre-school teacher, and everyday I see 3-5 year olds begging and crying, giving their parents a hard time so that they can use their parents Iphones and Ipads. It makes me realize that fortunately enough when I was that age such distractions were not available. It makes me sick to watch these parents giving into their children and allowing them the access to these devices. What did children do before these services were invented? I am a strong believer that people are products of their environments, and you become, what you are essentially surrounded by.
Monday, January 31, 2011
Media & Ideology - Talking Points #1
T.V stations like disney I even feel like are representing the wrong topics for their shows. On Friday evening its all shows, and within each episode there is always some kind of girlfriend, boy friend delima and boys interested in girls and vise versa, but why does that even have to be a subject matter? I feel like the only message with that is teaching children that they have to be involved in dating and relationships early on? I am a HUGE fan of Jersey Shore and I'm ok with admitting that, I find it very comical and entertaining. But I 100% agree that it is without a doubt sending out bad messages to young teens and perhaps maybe even young adults. What I do not like about it is that fact that my 12 year old niece knows all of the characters names and what happens in some of the episodes. I know for a fact she is not exposed to the show at home so it must be a conversation topic at her middle school, and I am almost positive that parents allow their middle schoolers to stay up until 11 on Thursday nights to watch the new Jersey Shore episodes.
Media is a very powerful contributer to the way in which society is based upon. I think from this point on it will only get worse. I think the availability to the internet is also a problem. There are 3 year olds who can work a computer and search better than my immigrant parents can. It just goes to show you where this is going.
Posted by taylorb6 at 7:35 PM
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4 comments:
Taylor i really liked the points you made in your post and the way you tied in your real world experiences to understand the text. while reading through your post these are some notes i jotted down:
1.Instead of thinking about getting away from media we should be thinking about how we can utilize media to fight the dominant ideology instead of perpetuating it. And how we can educate youth about reading these hidden messages in mass media. PBS has cool activities you can do with students as young as preschool age that teach them how to be media literate. You should check out the site, as a teacher you would probably find it super interesting (I know I do).
2. try watching disney shows or movies and asking your self questions like the ones listed in the text. You will find that these movies and shows have just as much of a hidden agenda as any other peice of media, maybe even more so.
3. In your final paragraph you mention young children and how they use of the internet and technological devices better then adults. Instead of seeing this as a bad thing we must instead think of ways to utilize these new medias that our youth are obviously exposed to in our schools because these are the tools that have real world application.
Can not wait to hear more about what you have to say in class. See you tomorrow!
Kayla, thanks for your comments. What I meant in my last paragraph regarding children and their abilities to to use these technological devices is when parents use them in ways to bribe their children. For whatever reason that just drives me crazy! Or when parents give into their children and allow them to use them whenever they want. For example I had a student who could only go "number 2" on the potty when he had his mother's IPAD to play on in the meantime.?! But I do think that there is both pros and cons about that whole topic, and it is controversial.
I like the point that you make about Disney shows. They have changed so much since I was a kid. They used to be about such different topics. Now, I feel as though they are trying to portray certain ages as much older than they actually are. While watching the Disney channel, I don't think a child should be worrying about a boyfriend/girlfriend or a crush. What happened to worrying about things that are actually age appropriate?
Thinking about how 'teenagehood' is a social construction and reading about the issues you've experienced with younger children and technology and dating expectations seems to indicate to me that the concept of being a teenager is beginning for some before the actual 'teen years.
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