Case Study Blog

I have examined all of the case study's throughout our class this year and have found most of them very interesting. However, I assumed that actually performing a case study would be mindnumingly boring and extremely tedious. I couldn't have been more pleasantly surprised. I did my case study over the representation of different races in magazine advertising. I knew going into it that I was going to see way more white people than anything else, but the results shocked me. I suddenly noticed how interested in it I actually was when I kept turning page after page, and putting tallymarks next to "white" as fast as I could mark them. I'm very glad that we got the opportunity to do something like this rather than sitting at a desk filling out a scantron. Thanks for a great semister!

Heineken Draftkeg Commercial

Most of the time I am in complete agreement with the things that we discuss in class or things that are brought up as being sexist, but I just don't see it with this commercial. I had seen the commercial a few times before it was brought up in class and didn't think anything of it then. Now when it comes on I try to see how it could be interpreted as sexist and I guess I'm just missing something. It just seems to me that the arguements for the commercial being sexist are reaching a little bit. I don't think Heineken was intending to make the statement that the perfect woman is a robot who serves beer.

Protesting Viacom

I just read the article about people protesting Viacom (MTV and BET) and can't say that I disagree with them. Music videos, namely rap videos, are becoming dammaging to African Americans. They create a misperception and greatly misrepresent the black community as a whole. There are always two sides to an arguement however, and I can't blame Viacom or MTV or BET for its programming either. These places are successfull because they cater to the masses. They give people what they want. And as long as people keep tuning in to see g-strings and gangsters, I don't think they'll be changing their ways.

Asian Stereotypes

I really found the abc news article about Bruce Lee and the image that he has created for Asian actors in hollywood very interesting. It's obvious that Asian actors will dominate martial arts films, but it is true that you very rarely see them playing versital roles. I had aslo never noticed that Asian actors very rarely get the girl in the end. In fact, I can't remember seeing a movie where that happens.

Male Stereotypes

I really enjoyed reading Matthew Sheffield's article about male stereotypes and the ongoing battle between men and women. One thing that really struck my interest was his comment about the smart mom/stupid dad television shows. I had never thought about it before, but there are a lot of shows where the father is the "baffoon" and the mother is the one who keeps everyone else sane. I would not say that that men are stereotyped in the media more than women, but I do think male stereotyping may be more seroius than many people think.

Video Games

While I have never believed that there is a direct correlation between video games and violence, I do think that gender and sexuality in vodeo games is something that needs to be looked at more closely. I know that there are certain games in which you literally can simulate sex. I have never seem any of these games, but I can't imagine there's much use for them. The worst sexual act i've seen in a game is in the Grand Theft Auto series. At night you can drive a car around in a bad part of town and pick up a prostitute. Then if you park in a dimly lit place, you will see the car rocking and hear squeeking sounds, followed by the exchange of money. Not as bad as actually simulating the act but unnecessary nonetheless. I agree with the conclusions of the study performed in the book that stated males were more likely to appear on video game covers than women 13-1. They projected that males were much more likely to buy and play video games than were females so the appearances on the game covers simply reflects marketing. I agree with this.

Porno Blog

First of all, I thought the youtube video of the small Alaskan town spraying the whole city was hillarious. The scary part was that I wasn't sure if it was a joke or not until about halfway in. It's crazy but I really don't think we are too far away from doing this. I would not be surprised at all to hear of some small town that no one has ever heard of trying this out within ten years. That's just how sexuallu obsessed our society has become. But on the subject of pornography, I always find it staggering that there's such a huge market for that kind of thing. I mean I understand that there will always going to be people that buy into that sort of thing but it's hard to drive 50 miles without seeing an adult video store. But I guess sex sells, and pornography is one of the most straight-forward ways to sell it.

Beer Ads

Beer ads have always been notorious for using scantily clad, typically good looking women in their ads. They are often accused of being sexist, but you can't argue against the effictiveness of their ads. Beer companies, more so than almost every other company, know exactly who they are trying to appeal to, and they are very good at it. I would agree that many of these ads are somewhat sexist and over the top, but I don't expect to see these ads stop any time soon. Thay are far too successful for these companies to shy away from them unless very heavy preassure is put on them by someone who could cause them problems.

Gay Vague

I had never really noticed gay vague advertising before we discussed it in this class. Now that I am aware of it, I notice it everywhere. It's funny how advertising can so blatantly put things in our faces but do it just subtle enough to where we don't notice it. I wouldn't have thought that there was large enough gay demographic for advertisers to care about it as much as they do, but obviously there is.

Jena 6

The Jena 6 issue has caused controversary all over the nation. I personally don't think that the six boys should have been charged with something as severe as attempted second degree morder. There's plenty of wrong doing here, and blame to be shared in every direction, but there are schoolyard fights in every state every day of the week. It's just sad that we may not be as far away from making racism obsolete as we should be.

Forgot citations

The two web sites I used to gather information for the post below are:

ran.org
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainforest_Action_Network

Grassroots vs Astroturf

The Rainforest Action Network appears to be an authentic grassroots organization. There are only 36 actual staff members of RAN, and the majority of it's contributors are made up of volunteers. They have multiple campaigns and programs designed to better the environment in any way possible. Their web site lists many different environmental campaigns that they are currently working on and they explain their exact intentions and why action is necessary.

Sorry

Sorry the final assignment is so small. I didn't mean to do that. (It's a little easier to read if you highlight the whole thing).

Final Blog Assignment

Dallas Morning News Blog Site:
http://rangersblog.dallasnews.com

Texas Rangers Press Release:
http://texas.rangers.mlb.com/news/press_releases/press_release.jsp?ymd=20070502&content_id=1943367&vkey=pr_tex&fext=.jsp&c_id=tex

Last night I attended the Rangers game in Arlington Texas. About an hour before the scheduled starting time, park officials began warning of severe weather conditions upcoming and advised all fans to move to the ground level of the stadium. In about half an hours time I was standing thirty feet from the entrance watching a sixty foot tall metal light pole nearly be blown over. The rain and wind were so strong, you couldn't see the pitchers mound from behind the batters box. Winds of eighty to one-hundred miles per hour were reported, and every county within a thirty mile radius was under a tornado warning. As the weather worsened, more and more park employees could be seen running around franticly. Eventually, the decision was made to move about 10,000 remaining fans down under the stadium to what they were calling "the tunnel," via two stair ways at opposite ends of the park. Being as Rangers Staduim is completely open, everything was drenched in rain. There was water, sometimes at much as three inches, rushing down the cement stairs as 10,000 scared fans pushed and yelled to try and find safety. The Rangers staff did a fairly good job of attempting to keep things under control, but everyone seemed to understand how dangerous a situation it really was. So why is this not being mentioned anywhere?!

Both the Rangers site and the Dallas Morning News site, above, make mention of the postponed game due to weather conditions, yet neither mention the on-the-fly duck and cover tornado drill that 10,000 soaked and frantic fans took place in last night. The management of this crisis seemed to have been handled reasonably well, but it was obvious that most of the staff was just as clueless as the fans. From a attending fan's perspective, it would have been much more comforting had the Rangers staff all been prepared and on the same page.

Brief Biographies of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and John A. McLachlan

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was born on January 17, 1954. Mr. Kennedy is an environmental lawyer and co-host of Ring of Fire on the Air America Radio Network. Mr. Kennedy has long been actively fighting for many envoronmenal issues and was recently named one of Time magazine's "Heroes of the Planet." He serves as Chief Prosecuting Attorney for the Hudson Riverkeeper, as well as President of Waterkeeper Alliance. Mr. Kennedy has aided several indigenous tribes in Latin America and Canada in negotiating treaties that protect traditional homelands. He is a graduate of Harvard University, studied at The London School of Economics and recieved his law degree from The University of Virginia Law School. Mr. Kennedy has published four books, and has had articles included in several anthologies.

Dr. John A. McLachlan is the director of the Center for Bioenvironmental Research at Tulane University as well as Xavier University. He is the co-creator and director of Riversphere, an organization that focuses on the Mississippi and other world rivers. Mr. McLachlan is also the director of the Katrina Environmental Research and Restoration Network. He graduated from John Hopkins University and Recieved his Ph.D. in Pharmacology from George Washington University. Mr. McLachlan served in the U.S military for 23 years and retired with a rank equivalent to that of a Navy Captain. Mr. McLachlan is also a member of the American Society for the Advancement of Science, the American Association for Cancer Research, the American Society of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, and the Endocrine Society.

UNT TO HOST WATER WAYS 2007

The Second Biennial Water Conference; set for March 13 - March 15

Denton, Texas - March 12, 2007 -- The Philosophy of Water Project will be holding its second biennial Water Conference at The University Of North Texas beginning March 13.