When I watch television, I am sometimes very disturbed by how Asians are perceived. it has become very typical for the Asian girl to be really stupid/bubbly/silly. For most of the shows that I have seen, this seems to be the case. It's a little bit weird. Why cant the Asian character play a more serious role ? I don't know really. For example, in the Suit Life of Zach and Cody, London plays a character who is really stupid. This stereotype that Asians are really stupid is different in the media and in real life. In real life, the stereotype about Asians is that they're really smart and good at math. I see both stereotypes a lot in the media and also in everyday life.

When all else fails...use a stereotype!

From what I've seen from recent major commercial motion pictures, comedies in particular, movie makers have turned to very obvious stereotypes in the absence of creativity (Of course there are comedies that avoid this temptation, but I'm talking about the general movie releases). What's most disturbing to me is that they happen to be some of the higher grossing films.

One example of this is from Big Momma's House (2000), which grossed approximately 170 million dollars. In this film, Martin Lawrence plays an undercover cop who disguises himself as a grandmother. As this pseudo grandmother, he uses a thick accent deeply rooted in Black Vernacular and beats some of her "family" in a pick up game of basketball. The way that this comes across to me is that the production company lacked the desire to create any original work and decided to make the easy buck by pandering to the masses. The fact that these stereotyping movies are so popular says a lot about the mainstream movie goer. I think it shows that people strongly gravitate towards the things that are most familiar to them; seeing the unusual will make them very uncomfortable.

The fact that movie goers lean towards movies that are chock full of stereotypes is a significant hurdle in the process of integrating the people of America. If we are to put the issue of race to its grave, the things that the masses are comfortable with must be challenged. The status quo must be shaken to its core.

They're animated, but they still portray a message

I have watched the animated show "King of the Hill" by Mike Judge (who many people may know as the creator of "Beavis and Butthead") for quite a long time, but I never really saw the stereotypes this show presented when I watched it as a child. This was probably because I didn't really understand what racism or stereotypes were until 6 or 7 years ago. After watching some reruns of the show the other night, I realized that although the show is pretty much a satire of the typical American (especially Texan) way of life, it is difficult to draw the line between a satire and an overt stereotype.
One of the characters, a Laotian named Kahn Souphanousinphone, is one of the few Asian characters in the entire show. Kahn is portrayed as overtly racist towards Hank and his Texan friends while remaining very ignorant to many American customs despite the fact that he has lived in the U.S. for quite a while. I've watched many of Mike Judge's shows, and in this show, the satire and stereotypes he present are usually aimed at pointing out the ridiculousness of the stereotypes many people have. However, some of the stereotypes he presents are presented as simply just stereotypes and are not challenged by the character. For example, Khan embodies the stereotype that Asian parents are very strict when it comes to schoolwork when Kahn forces his daughter to take extra advanced math, music and English classes as well as SAT prep classes. Not only that, but also, Kahn is shown to be a "bad driver" according to the protagnonist, Hank Hill's "American driving standards."
Although "King of the Hill" does provide some element of comic relief when it comes to the mundane life of American society, the character Kahn can be misinterpreted by other people who watch the show. Personally, I don't really find his portrayal offensive because I've seen some of the actions that Kahn does in some of my friend's parents. But, just because I'm not offended doesn't mean someone out there watching "King of the Hill" reruns won't be.

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Desperate Housewives

The pilot episode of Desperate Housewives has Eva Longoria's (-Parker) character and her husband Carlos Solis playing the stereotypical Latino couple. They are very involved with the Catholic church, and in later episodes Carlos' mother plays a big role, emphasizing family values and having kids, which Gabby definitely does not want to do. Even watching episodes from the first season and later seasons I can hear an audible difference in their accents. The first episodes has them both talking with a heavy Spanish accent and using a lot of Spanglish/Spanish words. Later on, their speech and mannerisms pretty much become "gentrified" as they lose the accents and assimilate into their predominately White neighborhood. Even Gabby's hair, which started out very dark and big, poufy with a lot of extensions, is eventually highlighted and straightened and the show plays down her Latina heritage. The show also brings in most every stereotype there is, from the Black family- no father, and it's really presented as a mother with her one son. Later it she says the father/husband had abused her, and a second son comes out of the dungeon in the basement because she thinks his mental disabilities caused him to kill a girl. Really it was the first son who did it and when he pulls a gun he is killed by police. Desperate Housewives also brings in a gay couple, a Brit, and an Asian slave girl. Most of the ethnic characters on this show are for decoration, the Solis' are the only permanent non-White characters, and the others are normally brought to serve the purpose of a story line.

Desperate much?

In the show Desperate Housewives, Gabi and Carlos are mexican and Betty Applewhite and her two sons are black. Nothing is ever said about these families' races. There are a couple episodes when Gabi says something about being Mexican but it is never an issue. This can be taken two ways, good or bad. I think it is good that their differences in race to the rest of the characters is not brought up because it shows that it doesn't matter and that it does not affect anyone's views. But, it could also be viewed that people are trying to ignore it and pretending it isn't there, but we won't know if that is the case. I personally think it is good that these potential "issues" are not brought up in the show because they do not need to be. It may seem stereotypical at times, for example, Betty Applewhite's son killed his ex-girlfriend. But, Mike went to jail as well as Carlos. Paul Young killed Martha and Zach's real mom...and so on. So, I think this show does a good job of being very un-stereotypical. We should watch it.

Interracial Couples in the Media

Although they are not specifically an ethnic minority group, I have always been fascinated to see how interracial couples are portrayed by the media. I am certainly biased, since my parents come from two very different backgrounds, but nevertheless, I think it is important to see interracial relationship in media.

In some movies (like Hitch, where the main relationship is between a black man and Latina woman) the relationship is portrayed as being normal, without emphasizing the fact that the characters are of different races. In other movies (like Guess Who, where a black father struggles to come to terms with the fact that his daughter is dating a white man) the focus is on the difficulties of dating someone from a different race.

I'm not sure which portrayal I like better. On one hand, I like the idea that an interracial relationship is so prevalent in society that it is seen as being normal. It's nice to see a movie show how people in interracial relationships go through the same struggles as people in a relationship who identify with the same race. On the other hand, the issues interracial couples face are real and numerous. It can be hard for interracial couples to be accepted by society at large, or even by their own families. Additionally, it can be hard for people in interracial relationships to merge their cultures and backgrounds, especially when children come into the picture. It can be extremely valuable for people to see these issues - doing so can both increase the awareness and tolerance of a society and show interracial couples that they are not alone in dealing with these struggles. Either way, it is wonderful to see that interracial couples are being portrayed more and more frequently in the media.

Stereotypes 'Unexpected'?

My new favorite television show is "Life Unexpected" on the CW. The plot of this show is centered around Lux, a fifteen year-old foster child who was put up for adoption by her parents as a baby. Her parents, Cate and Baze, had Luz when they were teenagers & now are living seperate lives (Baze owns a bar and Cate is one of the hosts of a local radio show) . The show doesn't perpetuate any distinct racist stereotypes, although there have only been two episodes thus far in the series. However, while I was watching the show last night, I tried to pay special attention to the characters that could be considered "the ethnic minority". There were three other teenagers in this episode, two African American guys & one Caucasian girl, who were Lux's friends from foster care. Towards the end of this episode, Lux accuses one of the boys for stealing Cate's engagement ring (Cate claims she left it on the counter by the sink). Whether or not this was supposed to be considered a stereotype, it seems to be. How many times have we seen this exact same situation? The plot is simple enough: a white woman claims she can't find her ring, a white girl immediately thinks that the person who stole it was a black male. Later on, we learn that it wasn't actually this person who stole the ring, but the girl. True, this could be a stereotype regarding gender, not race; it could be both. However, it seems so formulaic-- of course she didn't ask the entire group at once, but immediately targeted one person in particular. This type of situation in particular, and the people involved, is the norm in most media.
Another interesting observation I made was that the representative from foster care was a black female. This is definitely a stereotype regarding gender, but what about race? Why would a black woman be cast for this part? Is this alluding to the possibility that the woman could lack of intelligence (finding a "better" or more profitable job), money (even having to work), or opportunity (education, job availability)? I feel that I have now read too far into this, but at the same time, feel obligated to think about why shows/movies are cast the way they are. It seems that black women are often cast in similar roles- the mother figure, the one who looks after the children. The one who settles for the stereotype.
My experience has of course been different from what I have observed while watching this show. There are plenty of people who steal, but the color or tone of their skin doesn't decide this (although it does often influence if they get caught). There are numerous intelligent American American students, just as there are numerous intelligent Caucasian students (many of which are in this class). The world it how you see it--stereotypes are only inhibitors to the overall vision.

Black chaps on the telly?

Well, I don't watch very much television, but I like to pop in the occasional Digital Video Disc and watch that. Right now, I'm making my way through the second season of the HBO drama the Wire, a cop show based in Baltimore. Besides the gritty realism and bloody fantastic acting, what sets this show apart from the other copper programs is that the cast is predominantly black (or African-American?). To be honest, I didn't notice that last bit until about five or so episodes in. I was so enthralled by the human drama which this show is world famous for, as well as the rich characters, that I didn't bother to think about the show in such a superficial way as: so how many black chaps are there compared to white folks?

Instead, I was absorbed by the characters and their situation. The Baltimore police department is trying to build a case on the Barksdale crime organization. These baddies, who turn out to be intelligent, loyal and misunderstood, deal heroine out of the Balitmore projects. I suppose in a normal show this sort of antagonist would be laden with stereotypes. In fact, many of gang-banging drug dealers in this show conform to some stereotypes such as being trigger happy and "getting high on your own supply:" this show is well known for its realism; however, the underboss goes to community college to brush up on the concepts of supply and demand. Now that's not seen very often! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COf2bQEQ7Zw. Clearly, there is much challenging of stereotypes and racism. This is one of the themes of the show, I believe. Every major character is three dimensional ranging from the half-black half-Chinese lesbian cop to the heroine junkie informant.

Do these characters reflect the black people I know in real life? Not at all. I know no person who is a heroine addict, policeman or gang-banger. I don't think its bad that a show with a majority of black characters is also one about city corruption and drug dealing. In Baltimore, that is accurate (actually most of high corruption is committed by white fellas). Just like in the Godfather you have hair-slicked-back italians running an olive oil business and killing people in spaghetti restaurants. Neither is racially offensive and if it is, it really shouldn't be. In the wire, the black characters are not merely stereotypes or caricatures, but deep and layered people, just like every other character in the show.

Crime Shows Comparison

So, trying to track racial minorities in the media that I watched this week taught me several things. Firstly, I don’t actually watch a lot of TV—I had to remind myself that I needed to in order to have something to write about. Secondly, there are not a lot of people who are ethnic minorities as main characters in the shows I watch. I mean, no shows were completely devoid of any sort of diversity, but the vast majority of leads are white. One thing that really struck me as interesting was the way different ethnic minorities are portrayed in crime shows (my guilty pleasure.) The two shows that I looked at this week were Law and Order: SVU and Criminal Minds.
To begin with, of the main characters on these shows, most of them are or appear to be white. In Law and Order, there is an African American detective and medical examiner, and an Asian-American psychiatrist. In Criminal Minds, there is one African American member of the team. That’s it. I’m a little surprised that I hadn’t noticed this before, and I’m not sure why that is. I guess it just wasn’t something on my radar. I did notice though, that even though there are very few characters who are ethnic minorities on these shows, their characters are not one-sided or necessarily portraying a stereotype (although I don’t watch these shows all the time, so I can’t speak for every episode.) There does seem to be character development of all characters over the course of the show in both these shows, and every character is multi-faceted. Law and Order tends to focus more, however, on the development and story of the two main detectives (both of whom are white) while Criminal Minds may focus on different characters’ storylines depending on the episode. So, for example, in a series of episodes the audience learns that Morgan (the only minority member of the team) is struggling with maintaining his faith in face of all the evil he deals with in his job, and things like that. Overall, I think a good job is done in making an effort for these characters not to be stereotypes.
These being crime shows, however, there is a huge supporting cast of characters playing the suspects and victims of crimes, and here I think the shows don’t do such a good job at trying to combat stereotypes. On Criminal Minds, the vast vast majority of the suspects and serial killers and white—the few times the suspects weren’t white, they were terrorists of some sort (to be fair, this is only out of the episodes I’ve seen—but still.) The show often cites some statistic about the vast majority of serial killers being white men, but really? Terrorists? That’s the best the show could come up with? Isn’t there a better way to incorporate diversity into the show without making it a stereotype? Law and Order has a different issue—from what I can tell, most of their suspects are ethnic minorities, at least originally. I’ve noticed they’ve done a better job in recent years of mixing it up, but you still see this, and that’s a negative stereotype to be passing on to viewers. But it is often disproportionately the case. So, the question that I’m wondering about: is it better to have a stereotyped or even negative representation of ethnic minorities in a TV show rather than no representation at all?

Daily Show: Poigniant, Not Racist

Confession: I'm kind of obsessed with the Daily Show.

Something about Jon Stewart's nerdy-nebishy Jew shtick just gets to my funny bone. And they called Ted Kennedy the liberal lion? Stewart has the power to bring down right-wing media institutions, make you laugh until it hurts, and dissect the world's most complicated issues with eloquence and wit.

Now here's the controvertial part. Until recently, Stewart had little to no diversity on his show. It was a bunch of well educated, smirky old white comedians with a strong liberal bias. Ok, so the liberal bias is still there, but the show has gotten much better in the diversity department. He added a woman (Samantha Bee), an Indian man (Aasif Mandvi), two African American men (Wyatt Cenac, Larry Wilmore) and even.... a Brit (John Oliver)! Ok, so maybe he didn't add the two black guys until 2008 and 2006 respectively, but better late than never.

But then there was more controversy. Poking fun at criticism for his show's lack of diversity, Stewart dubbed Larry Wilmore the show's "black correspondant" in the tradition of funny correspondent names. Now why is this controvertial? To me it is so obvious that Stewart is joking, and Wilmore is leading the way on this. Racist? I think not.

Stewart constantly takles gay marriage, racism in politics and other minority issues, so maybe it wouldn't be so bad to give the guy a break. He's trying. And come on, he's the man who gave the world Steve Carrel and Stephen Colbert.

Grey's Anatomy sets the bar

Yes, we've seen loads of negativity in the media having to do with race. You can look no further than shows like Meet the Browns or Jersey Shore. However, with all this negativity, there has got to be some positive shows that depict minority characters in a positive way, right?

Thankfully there are a few. One example is Grey's Anatomy, a show about young doctors in Seattle Washington. In the first season there were three black characters with very high positions in the hospital. The cheif of medicine, Dr. Webber, Miranda Bailey the attending general surgeon and Preston Burke the top attending cardiothoracic surgeon. Although there were also white doctors who had high rankings, the only three black characters in the show, had high acheving ranks in the hospital. Grey's Anatomy also depicts gay characters in a positive lights and more so than other shows do. This season there is one lesbian (and interratial) relationship between Attending Paediatric Surgeon Arizona Robbins and attending Orthopaedic Surgeon, Callie Torres. This is also not the first lesbian relationship in the show. Torres was also in a relationship with Erica Hahn, a cardiothoracic surgeon.
One character inparticular to me, sets the bar for being very positively portrayed and that is Cristina Yang. Yang is a Jewish, Korean resident at the hospital. Other than bringing a new sense of diversity to the show, she is displayed in many interracial relationships throughout the series. She dated, and almost married Dr. Burke and currently she is in a relationship with Trauma attending Owen Hunt.

I think that Grey's Anatomy is a show ahead of it's time. It depicts all it's characters, but especially minority ones, in a positive light. There are same sex relationships, interracial relationships. Women and monority characters work in high acheving positions along side white male characters. Even their patiants are diverse, not only limited to race, but socio-economic status, religion, ability, age and gender. It is very positive and other shows should start to mimic what Grey's Anatomy is doing.

Stereo types in the media

A lot of the times when I'm watching tv shows or movies I have noticed alot stereoypes towards African Americans in the Media. For example, every time I watch a movie that has violence and gangs involved in it, the main characters are African Americans. This reminds me of a movie I watched a few years ago called "ATL." The movie is about two brothers who are living with thier unlce. The younger brother starts getting involved with a drug dealer and he starts to sell drugs. Things start to go wrong as the younger brother gets mugged one day and all the drugs are stolen. Now he owes the drug dealer a lot of money. The whole movie was around the theme of violence and drugs and gangs and mostly all the characters were African American.

Other examples can include that Africans Americans are all good basketball players or good dancers or good athlethes in general. The bad part is that people see this kind of stuff in movies and television shows and think it is true. That's when they apply it to their real life.

Nelly Yuki= The Asian girl

Since I am the only one come from East Asia and the only international student in the class, I would like to represent the Asian population in my Media Society class at Athenian. In American, or Western countries, Asians are count as a minority even though the population of Asian people are increasing; but still the amount of Asian are less than non-Asian Americans. Asians in America and all over the world are always subject to false stereotypes of all kinds.

Nelly Yuki, the Asian girl in TV series Gossip Girl is the false stereotype. Black hair, nerdy glasses, and always holding a book with her, and that is just the stereotype of Asians. Just like for most of people; they think Asian people are smart and are always studying. When people watching the Gossip Girl, they might not notice Nelly Yuki is being stereotyped but when she first came out from the Gossip Girl, I already knew that she is being stereotyped as a traditional Asian. Also, she is the only Asian in the Gossip Girl. Does that mean Asians are less important or all the Asians looks the same?

A case for the all or nothing approach

I think that, despite the good intentions of prior posters, it is unrealistic to expect young children to understand media literacy. They have not had sufficient education and if it was to be taught effectively to people of their age then the bi product of extreme cynicism would potentially be much worse than the media’s impact itself. Therefore this leaves two possible courses of action: devoid our children of media influence or allow them to see what they are going to see. Using our current generation as an example, it can be seen that it is possible to raise children in a media based world. From what I have seen people seem to be functioning normally. Those against this generation's actions are working under a different moral code than ours today. The better question for analysts may be does our generation feel that what we are doing is inappropriate? That is a question I cannot answer alone. The counter argument is the generations of the past; these people were raised without the media influence in their world. Yes it is true that they may uphold a “greater” moral code we also see in these generations a radical amount of ethnocentricism that is not seen in our current generation. I would much prefer the redefinition of the moral code with every generation to the upholding of a questionable and ethnocentric moral code of the past.

Protectionism yes?

I think that youth should in some ways be shielded from the media because there are many shows that are strictly targeting the youth. This may be through advertisement, billboards, TV shows, or commercials. I feel that the media could care less about what happens to the youth, as long as they get the proper responses from them through buying their products or tuning into their channels. I feel that youth should be trusted to develop their own identity, so I think there should be a clear point where the media cannot cross. For example, reality tv shows are huge influences on the youth. If the youth see that people in real life are experiencing violence, sex, robbery, or lying then they might feel that it’s okay to do the same.

Where did all the good shows go?

When I was growing up I remember watching shows on Nickelodeon like “All That” and “Kenan and Kel” and “The Amanda Show”. All of these shows were comedy shows…very funny and still appropriate for kids. Recently, I have watched a few of the skits from these shows and I still think is funny. There are not any shows for kids like this anymore. Now kids are watching shows about high school students. Although Disney Channel shows are usually very appropriate and do not contain sexual connotations in the episodes, they are still about the lives of high school students. A lot of the kids watching these shows are younger than high school, usually late elementary and middle school. I loved growing up on the shows I grew up on, shows that did not tell me how to dress of make me want to be someone else. Where did these shows go? The shows that solely provided entertainment instead of affecting media directed towards teens. I think kids should learn to grow up on their own without being changed by the media but I do not really think that is possible. There is not a way for kids to get away from media influence, it is everywhere…unfortunately.

The Effect

My parents did a fairly good job at "shielding" me from the media. Sometimes, I wish I had been more exposed to trends and media messages while I was younger. Even now, I have to be careful of what I watch on television because it may not be appropriate for my younger brother. Although I don't necessarily think shielding is a "bad" thing, I don't think it's completely irrelevant to life in a media-obsessed culture. Different topics posed in media- whether it be race, gender, sexuality-, I feel, are integral to self discovery. To understand more about yourself, you need to understand how you want to be represented in society. For young children and adults, oftentimes media gives people a role model, and we mirror ourselves after these people. I don't necessarily think this is a bad thing. I think that the media has the power to access so many types of role models; the difficult part is to decide who we want to mirror ourselves after. Shows that send a negative message, such as Gossip Girl (sorry for stealing your example, Ailish) have unrealistic expectations for what teenage life is really like. Besides the fact that none of the characters look like they could be seniors in high school or freshman in college, the entire show is based on the socialite life of a bunch of spoiled kids. I find it absolutely hilarious and entertaining, but it's not truly reflective of most of the population. I think that kids should be given some amount of input, to help them understand what the media is portraying. They can't develop an opinion independently without understanding the undertones (which aren't always very clear cut, as shown in any Disney movies) of what they're seeing. It's also important to realize that a lot of the shows that young children are watching (ages 8-13) are based around characters older than they are (for example, Hannah Montana or High School Musical). What message does this send? Why do they need to dress like 16 year old, when they aren't 16? I think parental involvement is somewhat necessary, if not solely for the reason to help their children understand this concept. One aspect of the media that I consider harmful is how much this idea of needing to look older & act older is pushed upon kids, especially young girls. Let them be kids when they're kids, and teenagers once they're teenagers. There's really no need to speed anything up.

Teaching, not protecting, youth

Like Meg, I have trouble with the idea that youth need to be protected from the media but my issue is with the way this idea portrays youth, not the media. I find it condescending, like we need help from adults (who are often far less media literate than we are) to navigate through the sea of media available to us in order to find out what's good and what's bad. It implies that we are not capable of making intelligent decisions about the media by ourselves. I definitely feel that there is media out there that is harmful to youth, but I believe that the way to combat this is to teach youth to view media critically instead of trying to hide them from it. Keeping youth away from media reminds me of abstinence-only sex education: instead of actually addressing the problem, it simply preaches avoidance, even when it is clearly ineffective. However, if youth have the skills to critically analyze media, they are able to enjoy it safely.

For me, it is especially important to help young children develop these skills because they are exposed to so much media before they are able to see through the negative messages in it. One example of media that negatively influences young children is Disney. I loved it as much as anyone else when I was little, but when I watch Disney movies now, I'm frustrated to see how much is wrong with them. There are clear issues of gender roles (Cinderella cleans all day and is saved when she meets a man who has fallen in love with her because she is beautiful and has small feet) and racism (the opening sequence of Aladdin goes "Oh I come from a land, from a faraway place, Where the caravan camels roam, Where they cut off your ear, If they don't like your face, It's barbaric, but hey, it's home), but my biggest problem with Disney movies is the "happily ever after". I'm not saying there shouldn't be happy endings, but for every single movie to end with the hero and heroine skipping off into the sunset gives children an unrealistic message about life. When I was little, one of my favorite books was the original version of The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Anderson, where the prince marries another woman and the mermaid dies. It is not as sad as it sounds - she is told that she can return to her life as a mermaid if she kills the prince but her love for him is strong enough that she chooses to die instead of killing him. Although her body dies, her spirit remains and she is happy knowing that she saved the man she loved. The Disney version? Yeah, a little bit different. It may be easier for children to watch, but I think it's important for children to learn early that not everyone gets a "happily ever after", and that's just fine.

Oops, this is not right

Of course youth have their ability to determine something, however, just not as develop as adults. Some people said “Children’s brain just like a sponge, they can easily absorb anything around them”. Young boys think guns are cool so they ask their parents to buy him toy guns. A lot of young girls want to become one of the princesses in the Disney stories so they dress up like princesses on Halloween. These kinds’ thoughts come from TV and all kinds of Media. As we watch more and more television shows, various stereotypes grow in our mind without noticing. Therefore we should keep the youth away from getting too much media into their mind. Also, media can easily distort the truth. I watched the new version of Mulan on the weekend. This is filmed by a Chinese director and recorded the real history of a female soldier. It is totally different compares to the Disney Mulan. The scenes were bloody and violent. It was nothing like the Disney version where Mulan happily married a general and live happily ever after. In real life, the general was ordered to marry a princess from another country by the emperor.
Kids should still have the rights to access media. We shouldn’t abandon television just because lots of unrealistic scenes and stereotypes are shown in the media; instead, we should watch it with them and make sure kids understand that media doesn’t always present the true side of the story.

Protectionism

I watch a lot of television, so much that I have at least three shows to watch each night. I don't watch the same types of shows too, they are all over the place from Mythbusters to Gossip Girl to Phenius and Ferb to Top Gear to Modern Family. I enjoy every show that I watch, but some shows do have their problems.


Take Gossip Girl for example, the story of wealthy teens living and going to school in New York, seems harmless right? Not so much. Gossip Girl gives young teenagers a lot of the wrong ideas pretaining to what they should be wearing or look like or where they should want to attend school. It's sending the message to be the best of the best. When you have loads of money to blow, do it. However Gossip Girl has towned down a lot from it's first season when Chuck and Nate used to smoke pot in central park, Blair was bilemic and Serena's alcohol problem. The second season's plot has gotten a bit more mature and sophistocated, but one underlying idea has still stayed, and that's the idea of money. These kids are loaded with cash and seem to be able to do whatever they want with it. Buying strip clubs, flying around the world to find their long lost father, buying huge amounts of clothes that you never see them wear. It shows kids that in order to be cool and well liked you need to wear the most trendy styles. It doesn't matter if you get in trouble because you have money. There was even an episode where Serena got busted for breaking in to the school's pool with drugs and alcohol on a weekend and a student almost died. But instead of getting expelled, her parents donated a large ammount of money for the school to extend the library and she only had to do community service. In some cases that can be true, but that should be a message sent to young kids.

Now a days I've noticed a trend of TV shows sending more positive messages to young viewers, like the show Modern Family. This newly aired show is about three related families, The Father's family with his new young wife and her son, his son's family with his husband and adopted child and the father's daughter's family with her husband and three kids. The show discusses issues that come up in every family and has something everyone can relate to. It sends a positive message to people and is over all hilarious to watch. There is never any drama in the show like in gossip girl, and if their is a overlying problem in the episode, it is solved by the end. The problems are usually like the mom isn't very tech savvy or about raising a kid for the first time. Most of them are generally silly, but very relatable.

I think it's up to the person watching the show to get the message. Gossip Girl does have potitive messages in it just as Modern Family has negitive messages in it. It just depends on how people choose to precieve it.

Cool Hunting at Athenian: Free Spirits or Conformists?

When most outsiders look at Athenian, they think that we come across as a bunch of politically correct hippies. (Proof: Look up athenian on urbandictionary.com) This stereotype is reinforced by the countless morning meeting presentations on equality and the senior class not being able to agree to wear a cap and gown for graduation. While there is certainly some truth to this image of an Athenian student, I believe that they still get swept by the latest trends in fashion just like any other high schooler. There are certainly students on financial aid who do not have the resources to purchase pricey trendy clothing, but Athenian students for the most part have significant spending power. If you don't think that Athenian students are fashion conscious then look out for girls wearing UGG boots or guys wearing plaid jackets. My point is that there are not as many free spirits at Athenian as one would think in terms of the way they dress. Sure, people wear onesies to school as a gimmick but they will return to their designer jeans and UGGs. With that in mind, if some marketers wanted to figure out how exploit this goldmine of cash waiting to be spent, they should put their effort into pushing trendy clothing at Athenian. All of these wealthy kids pick up on the latest trends, so I believe that would be their best bet.

O no! The children are in trouble!

PROTECTIONISM

Remember when Grand Theft Auto came out and adults went into a flury about how the game was creating a more violent and dangerous society? Remember how every crime commited by a youth was blamed on that game? I remember. I also remember all the stories of dumb kids trying to copy the game, commiting crimes and landing themselves on the news. Here's one from 2008 from Thailand

http://socialuproar.blogspot.com/2008/08/grand-theft-auto-gta-copycat-killing-in.html

But what I remember thinking is that, 'wasn't society already violent?' Weren't adults who had never even heard of GTA killing people and stealing cars? Was this video game really creating a national crisis and increasing crime? Of course not. People were doing things shown on this video game long before the Playstation was invented (well, maybe not killing prostitutes with rocket launchers) and people will continue to kill and steal for a long time in the future.

Children do not need to be protected from the media. A child couldn't be protected from the media anyway! Do parents think that their little NetNannie programs meant to block out certain websites will keep out their tech-savvy offspring from those naughtie websites? No. Kids are smart, and kids can think for themselves. I'm not convinced that kids are so stupid and manipulative that we have to dictate exactly what they see and hear. This isn't A Clockwork Orange.

Children aren't as stupid as adults think. They are capable of thinking for themselves, and capable of seperating fantasy from reality. Adults give themselves too much credit. Let them listen to Eminem and watch the Matrix. I turned out ok.

"Protecting" The Children

I really hate the idea that young people need to be “protected” from the media. It’s not the sentiment that I hate, it’s the phrasing of it. It’s like the media is some big, scary monster and we must protect The Children! Not all media is out to corrupt the minds of the nation’s youth (although admittedly, some is.) I think the problem is that people confuse this “some” of the media that is sending negative messages with “all” of the media. And I think many adults underestimate the common sense that “the youth” possess. I mean, yes, there are kids out there who are going to try to watch shows with gratuitous sex or violence, but trying to shield them from that, or prohibiting it is not going to fix the problem. Kids will find a way to access that media, and prohibiting this media will only make it more attractive to kids. So “Protect The Children” doesn’t seem to be the way to go. Teaching them to view the media more objectively (without necessarily turning them into cynics) would be much more useful and better for them in the long run. Because just telling them “no” stops all dialogue about the issue and doesn’t teach them to be intelligent in their media consumption.
That being said, there is a lot of harmful media out there. The one form of harmful media that is seriously underrated, in my opinion, is reality TV. Now, I have my guilty pleasure shows just like anyone else, but today I was doing homework while my sister was watching “My Super Sweet 16” (in case anyone doesn’t know this show: http://www.mtv.com/shows/sweet_16/series.jhtml) And now I understand why she has been pestering our parents for months (in fact, ever since she turned 15) about her sixteenth birthday party. This show is sending a horrible message to kids—these are some of the most spoiled girls I have ever seen in my life: they don’t care about anyone but themselves and honestly think the world revolves around them. And the premise of the show is that it does, allows them to glorify this self-centered world view. Honestly, I think this is an awful message to be sending to kids—by airing this show and giving these spoiled kids attention and “fame,” we are condoning their behavior, and teaching children not only that it’s acceptable to act this way, but that it might even get you on TV. And who can afford birthday parties like that? It’s unrealistic for kids to expect that. If I could “protect” kids from this kind of media, I would. (I would probably yank this show off the air.) I’m sure there are plenty of people who watch it for fun, and think it’s funny to watch these girls throw tantrums (which, admittedly, it is,) but I worry about kids who don’t understand that this is not a model of good behavior, who don’t understand that MTV is just trying to sell them that lifestyle, and that it’s not realistic or acceptable. So in this case, teaching kids to think objectively about this show seems like a good idea. Any thoughts?

Cool Hunters at Athenian

If cool hunters were to come to Athenian and observe the students, I don't think they would come away with a lot of....hmm I'm not sure how to put this...they would not see something that would be popular amongst all the students in terms of clothing and fashion. I can say this because everyone at Athenian wears what they want. I see people walking around in Pajamas and snuggies, and onsies (or whatever they are). It is such an open space that people don't have to follow the crowd and buy the same type of designer jeans or shirts as the "cool kids."

However, on a completely different note, one thing that cool hunters can bring to Athenian is an invention that would help students get from class to class without getting wet in the rain. Athenian has a huge campus and its outdoors which is horrible in the winter whens it is raining most of the time. So coming up something that would help students stay dry would definately be something that will catch on with everyone because no one likes to get wet.

exploiting shirts

It is easy to identify if someone belongs to a sport, or a club, by what they are wearing. Many clubs and probably every sports team at Athenian have clothing marking what they belong to. For instance, girls’ volleyball has shirts that say when their games are, (e.g. 5:30 varsity home game), and the bright pink color makes it easy to identify who is on the team. During my years at Athenian I have gotten t-shirts for Mixed Race Club, Tennis Team, Darfur, as well as for the Costa Rica interim and Inauguration trip. Acknowledging that many people belong to groups that want t-shirts, and that we like food a lot because of our incidentals program, I would be able to market these two items in order to make a profit. I could help with the cost of t-shirts in return for advertising space, or in order to sell food at games or organize bake sales where whatever product I want to market is available. I would find clubs and teams, the tribes, and approach them about developing some sort of agreement where I can have my product visible to the student body, and watch it spread like wildfire.

Cool Hunters for Athenian? Is that even possible?

Recently at Athenian, there was an e-mail sent out requesting the removal of all prodcuts packaged in styrofoam from the student store, including the famous Cup Noodle and Kimchi Bowl Noodle (http://www.chris-n-kim.com/serendipity/uploads/Images/Pictures/2008_Pictures/03_Mar/cup_noodles.JPG , http://www.mytenda.com/tenda/images/eng_cup_bowlkimchi_1.jpg).

The email caused a bit of controversy among avid consumers (including myself) of these noodle snacks because Cup Noodle and Bowl Noodle are very popular "grab and go" snacks for students in between classes. Even though the beloved noodles were packaged in styrofoam, many students refused to have the noodles removed from the student store. Although Athenian promotes a strong idea of environmental awareness, the appetites of hungry students clearly overpowered the desire to reduce the amount of styrofoam waste Athenian produces. But, is there a way to sell a delicious noodle product that has more environmentally friendly packaging that appeals to the hungry yet globally-conscious Athenian student?

I feel that there can be an easy solution to this dilemma. First, one has to understand the hardships of an Athenian school day. Classes start at 8:10 AM, so if one misses breakfast, one risks being tardy to class when trying to get a small bite in the morning. Most of the time, students eat Cup Noodle or Bowl Noodle when they miss breakfast. This can defnintely be something a cool-hunter can use to launch a better packaged noodle product. Since most Athenian students are in a rush to eat in between classes, the noodles should be in a container that is portable, insulated, and ergonomic. I know how difficult it is to carry around a big Bowl Noodle around campus, so a new noodle product packaged with a sturdy design that is easy to hold while moving would make eating breakfast much easier.

As for the packaging, a sturdy material that could either be recycled, or even better, disposed of in a compost bin would satisfy a hungry student who does not want to feel guilty about polluting the environment. There are many morning meeting announcements talking about what trash goes in which bin, so a good cool hunter would try and find a material that has the sturdiness of styrofoam without the waste it produces. Athenian strongly pushes for students to make envrionmentally conscious choices, so why not sell a noodle product that is easy to dispose of and even easier to eat in the student store?

Feedback Loop, Cool Hunters/ Haitian Relief

Select one of the themes below to blog about. Be opinionated, but use evidence or rational argument to explain your opinion. Feel free to riff on the subject freely, using the questions below each theme as guides. You may post links and pictures as well to illustrate your post. Please review the Blogging Rubric on Edline that will explain how you will be assessed. Please post by Monday evening, 8 pm.

Protectionism
Should youth be sheilded from the media? Can you think of any shows targed at youth that you think are sending negative or harmful messages? Should young adults be given the tools to understand media's influence, or should they be trusted to develop them independently? Other than gratituous sex and violence, are there any other apects of the media that you would consider harmful (please provide examples)?


Feedback Loop
Is it it possible to escape the loop? Does an authentic youth culture exist? If so, where? Are there examples where you as a consumer (clothes, movies, music, technology) feel as if your choice is limited or predetermined? Are there examples where you as a consumer feel as if you have been heard? Is it possible to truly express your own style at Athenian without being labeled?

Cool Hunting at Athenian
If you were one of the so-called "cool hunters" working at Athenian, what trends, attitutdes, venues,and/or activites would you exploit to market your product (e.g. a soft drink)? What are the cues amd markers that identify a student as belonging to a specific tribe? How would you profile the typical Athenian consumer (you may consider targeting a demographic such as males, females, etc).


Hatian Relief EffortsI
f you wish to donate $10 to the Red Cross for Haitian Earthquake relief, you can text HAITI to 90999.

Tracking Haiti Disaster on the Internet

This KFC ad from Australia is getting a lot of heat from critics in the U.S. and is an interesting example of how an unintended (?) subtext (in this case a racist one) can he read into a text when the cultural context changes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojqMGlqYHPg

This blog will be shared and read by the members of your class. Your posts should be written in full sentences, be at least 125 words in length, and while the language can be informal, please use standard English. It is also important that your posts can be identified using your first name (as listed on the class roster), so no nicknames, please. Feel free to comment on posts by other members of the group.

Each Wednesday I will be be posting the theme and questions here as well as in class, and your entries should be posted by Monday evening. Happy blogging!