This class has been awesome. It has been so eye opening. Everyone came from a different background, from different ethnicities, and different genders. It was so great to be able to hear everyone’s different opinions and it really helped me shape my own as well. We have focused on Race, Gender, and the Media, all topics that are considered taboo in any other class. Its so cool that we have a class like this offered to students, especially us going into the journalism field, to educate ourselves in how to treat and be treated by others. We have discussed so much this semester that it will be hard to pick out the information that has helped me the most, but I will try here in this blog.
When it comes to gender in the media, I am post passionate about how the media represents women in particular. I am so grateful for the people at Dove. Their campaign for real beauty has been instrumental in beginning to change the way women are portrayed in the media and in changing the ways women view images in the media. As discussed in class and in numerous final projects, the media constantly enforces the image that women should be tan, blonde, a size -2, with a big chest. And unfortunately for the media, only about 5 women look that way (see Heidi Klum…). Therefore, it is our job to change that. We need more women like Kate Winslet, Scarlett Johansson, and Queen Latifa that are NOT a size 0, and are still represented in the media as being beautiful. I wish I saw more of Dove’s work on college campuses as well. Since practically everyone’s fights the freshman 15, there’s constantly an image problem also being combated at the same time. If Dove’s campaign was to appear on college campuses, I would also hope that there would be some sort of healthy lifestyle education taught as well.
As far as racial stereotypes in the media goes, American culture has made leaps and bounds towards equality, but there is still much room to grow. As a lot of discussions have talked about, the media is still so guilty of inequality and inter-racial favoritism. One group even took it a step further and discussed inter-racial favoritism. This is a particular interesting phenomenon. I was also intrigued by one groups research of US news stations compared to the BBC. According to the group’s findings, the BBC is far more diverse and equal in their coverage of all minority groups than in the US. To me this is so significant, and slightly embarrassing. What are we doing wrong? Again, it is up to us, the new journalistic generation, to make this change. I feel music has a huge responsibility in changing this, but they also have the greatest challenge. They make money off of these stereotypes so it will be hard for them to trust this change. But once the shift is made, then there wont be anything to compare it too! Again, it is up to us to make this change a reality.
In conclusion, this class has offered me such education into the power of the media. More importantly, it has introduced to me the responsibility that we as journalists and media professionals have. We are the generation to make this change. Bloging has really introduced me to the power and control the media has and how easy it is to get my voice out there. I’m really thankful for the opportunity for this class and I can’t wait to make my impact on the media world.
