Chapters 8 and 12

Chapters 8 and 12 are speaking on the issue of "pornographic" images in the media. A study showed there is approximately 4 scenes of sexual content per hour. I think this is a bit much for television today. Especially because television is accessible to children. Chapter 8 also discusses Sexual advertising and nudity in print. Between 1983 to 1993, 10 years, there was a significant increase in woman itemized as sex appeals in media. Woman are used three times more than men today. Woman are just itemized in the media today too much to me. I think it's ridiculous how woman are portrayed in many commercials and advertisements. Like in chapter 12, there is an advertisement for, I believe it was a clothing company, with a woman straddling a seat in the back of a bus and she was dressed, or not really dressed should I say, very pornographic. I just don't understand why companies feel they have to portray people as "sexy pornstars" to get consumer's attention.

Cleveland Shooting

This is ridiculous. I don't understand where the security was when this kid brought in two guns and knives. I know when I was in high school, we did not have an abundant amount of security, but this being an alternative school, I would assume they would have more security and take things more serious. Such as when the boy was making threats the prior week; I would think they should keep a close eye on the child and the people around him.
Christina Burns had a great point in the article on yahoo about someone reaching out to him. If the child would have had someone there for him and someone showed they cared, he may have not had all the built up aggression. The article on yahoo was a great article though and provided significant information.

Latinos images

Personally, I just wish that there was never any sort of issues, but I feel like racism will always be in our lives. It shouldn't matter what color, gender, etc., that you are, we are all living together in America and I believe that people need to stop being attention pigs and trying to cause a conflict with everything. It shouldn't matter what color face you see on TV or what voice you hear, we are all equal. I actually had a chance to watch Ken Burns on Conan O'Brian October 1st and it was a very interesting interview. Nothing was said about the issues of his new WWII documentary and his new documentary seems very interesting.

Coverage of Disabilities

I enjoyed this lecture because it is a less touched on topic in media. And it's a great deal of issues of racism and minorities in the media. In class, we spoke briefly on the different television shows now involving characters and people with physical or mental disabilities and I found it interesting how many shows actually do involve people with disabilities.
For example, someone mentioned "Family Guy" and this was a PERFECT example of collaborating all types of stereotypes into one of America's leading animated comedies. Cleveland and Loretta Brown are two of the Griffins neighbors and best friends, Mort Goldman is a Jewish pharmacist and a friend of Peters, Mort Goldman has a "nerd" for a son named Neil, Glenn Quagmire is societies typical creepy pervert next-door neighbor, Joe Swanson is the Griffins' neighbor who is confined to a wheelchair because he is a paraplegic, and lastly, there is Channel 5's Tom Tucker's son, Jake who is deformed with an upside-down face. This basically touches every type of obvious stereotype in television. The episode, Jon Swanson, the paraplegic, made his debut appearance was actually a "risky" episode for "Family Guy" to me. Peter didn't know he was disabled and invited him to play for their baseball game and everyone was pissed when they found out he was confined; however, he turned out being the star of the game and he appears in nearly every episode being the hero many times now.
I believe the media is becoming much more comfortable with including disabled characters into shows because society seems to be becoming much more accepting to the idea. Even the Disney channel and Nickelodeon include characters with disabilities. I think it's a great step in the media.

Stereotypes and Minorities

I really enjoyed the lecture on stereotypes in the media. I also really enjoyed writing the paper of media prior to 1985. I believe that the increase in minorities in the news rooms and reporting fields strongly has to do with societies strive to embrace diversity in the work place. Still today, like the Jena 6 incident, there is still racism and by embracing diversity, as journalists, will probably help the portrayal of racism.
I find it interesting how many African Americans there are just at the University of North Texas studying journalism. The NABJ article on NABJ.com about blacks in journalism decreasing, I think is just one more reason African Americans should strive to overcome this trend.
In class during this lecture, a student spoke about how shocked she was when she came to America from Denmark. She was surprised how racist we as Americans are. This was interesting to me because never traveling outside the U.S. I never realized that it was that different. It's hard for non-Americans to understand as much as it is Americans to I suppose?!

First Post WAY LATE

So, I had this overwhelming feeling of confusion for about the first month of taking this class. I'm not necessarily they shy type, but I didn't know anyone in the class so I was trying to figure everything out by myself including this blogging process. Well, I spent the first month of class not understanding why I couldn't get to Ms. Lambiase's blog site. And I thought it was my computer so I was trying other computers to come to the realization that I was typing in her email instead of the site address. So, here I am, never have had such a horrible feeling of stupidity, but I suppose it happens to the best of us!?
With all this said, I receive all of my news from reading the Dallas Morning News, checking CNN.com, MSNBC.com, WFAA.com, and many more online news sites. I am actually taking JOUR 3340 this semester with Neil Foote and it's an online journalism course where we basically do nothing but check news online and research different online news web pages. It's very interesting and has made me a lot more interested in online journalism.
I am studying journalism in hopes to someday be a music journalist so I like to read music magazines and stay up to date in the "music world" too.