Day 10

Today was our last day of class. I have to say that I'm sad to see it come to an end. I know that there is a great deal more material that we didn't have time to cover but is well worth learning about. I will have to take on some of this during the rest of the summer and see what else I can learn about media literacy. I'm excited to keep exploring the topic.

Today in class we talked about gender stereotypes in ads. It was frustrating to see how many ads are directed at women and how much more pressure is put on women than on men. Not only did the men have fewer ads directed toward them, some of them weren't even pressuring them to look a certain way. Not to say that I would wish the same pressure on men that women face but in a way it seems unfair. I can't help but feel that subjecting myself to advertisements depicting women as unrealistically skinny, having flawless skin, beautiful hair, perfect clothing, etc. has had a strong impact on me over the years. I wish my my mom or dad had cancelled my subscriptions to Seventeen and Cosmo Girl. I could have done without being flooded with unrealistic images all through my teenage years. I think now about how I am uncomfortable if I leave the house without makeup on. I'll do it but I don't have half of the self confidence that I have when I'm wearing makeup. I don't even wear that much makeup to begin with but it's almost like wearing a security blanket. It lets me cover up any flaws that I feel I might have on any given day so that the rest of the world can't judge me on them. This is sad to think about. The craziest part is that men don't wear any makeup at all (with some exceptions). I haven't heard of any scientific research indicating that men have flawless skin and women don't so I'm not clear on why men look absolutely normal to me without any makeup on while when I see women without makeup they look unfinished and lacking to me. Though I'm almost embarrassed to admit that, it's the truth. I think the only place this could be coming from is the images that I'm constantly faced with of these women with flawless skin and perfect makeup. I rarely see women in ads, TV or movies without makeup on. I think it's safe to say that when I do see it, they are actually still wearing makeup, it's just makeup made to look as though they're not wearing makeup. What a way to mess with our minds!!!

Day 9

Today in class we spent quiet a bit of time looking at images and the different ways that they can perpetuate stereotypes. We looked at clips from a few Disney movies that portrayed people from the Middle East as shady, manipulative and having big noses. I'm sad that Disney felt the need to put such overgeneralized images in their movies. While we may know that stereotypes have to come from somewhere, they are the exception and not the rule. It's somewhat heartbreaking to think about all of the children that watch these movies and don't know any better. One of my absolute favorite Disney movies is Lady and the Tramp. It's actually the only one that I own. I will have to spend some time sitting down and watching it with my new critical lenses to see what stereotypes I can pick up. I do remember the Siamese cats with their interesting accents and sneaky ways. I will have to see if I can pin that down to a specific culture. While I'm not excited to pick apart one of my favorite Disney movies, I'm interested to see how many messages I absorbed through watching it as a child without even realizing it.

Day 8

Even though I was not in class today, I did view the PowerPoint. The Frontline Persuaders video about narrowcasting was slightly disturbing. I understand the allure that Acxiom provides of only sending out marketing materials that are relevant to your interest. However, the issue that this presents for me is one that seems counterintuitive to fee will. We go about our days thinking that we are grown-ups, making our own decisions and choices about what to buy, where to shop, what path to take in life. This may not be as close to the truth as we had hoped. I imagine tearing away at this artificial world that feels so authentic and finding that, in fact, there is nothing authentic about it at all. Everything has been planned out and pre-determined for me based on my stated interests and lifestyle (per census and purchasing data). I would like to think that the candidate that I chose to vote for is one that I decided to support all on my own when the truth may be that I was selected and specifically pitched to by that candidate and their crew. What a scary thought this is. Does it mean that I’m just a product of the marketing that I am inundated with every day? Am I just following along the path that is being laid out for me by the companies that purchase data from companies like Acxiom? Am I making any authentic decisions at all? I would love to find out what categories I fall into as far as Acxiom is concerned as well as where they predict I will be in the near and distant future.

Day 7

Today we shared the ads that we created to market salads to various audiences. This was a fun project and a great way to illustrate the way that the same product can be marketed to a wide range of audiences. This ties in with what we started talking about today: how different people can look at the same image, product, video, etc. and have very different reactions. It was interesting to see the different ways that we all reacted to the painting that was shown in class. I also think it goes to show that we all bring our own personal experiences to the way that we see things. We all have personal histories that lead us to react in very different ways to looking at the same thing. Even at the very basic level, men will have very different reactions than women to perfume ad picturing a woman in a bikini. Men may find it sexy, some women may find it offensive and yet other women may see it as something that they can attain if they wear that perfume. Perspective is easy to overlook but it's something that advertisers must spend countless hours considering and brining to their advertising campaigns.

I also wanted to reflect a bit on the article that we were assigned to read on Monday night: Girls Dieting, Then and Now. I think this is a topic that is so overwhelming that it is too easily pushed to the back burner as far as hot button issues go. We all know that the way young women are represented in advertisements, magazines and on TV is a big problem. It creates all sorts of body image and self-esteem issues. The scary part is, how on earth can we go about making a change? I personally have no control over what magazines are going to publish and how they decide to edit their photos. I will have a daughter someday and I don't even know how to begin going about protecting her from those images. I guess the stance I can take is to talk about body image and self-esteem often with my daughter or daughters. It's scary to think that young girls can be so easily influenced by the images all around them and that there's not much we can do about it. I would like to think that I have a great body image and good self-esteem but I'll be the first to admit that I can't help but feel like most of my problems would be solved if I were model thin. I know it's not a rational though. How on earth would weighing less fix all of my problems? The media must do a fantastic job of perpetuating this feeling though because I can rationalize it in my own head. For the most part I go about my days feeling very confident and happy with the way I look. However, I work in a women's clothing store and seeing countless pairs of jeans come in that don't fit me begins to wear on my confidence. It contributes to this idea that I have that if I were that smaller size I could wear the cute clothes and life would be effortlessly easy.

Day 6

Today we talked about the various types of ads (sexy, funny, macho, etc.). We found some excellent examples of print ads in magazines that represented the different categories. I think my favorite example was the funny ad for kitty litter. I loved that both groups found the same ad to represent the humor category. It was interesting to see how easily the ads fall into the various categories. It would also be interesting to explore the other categories that could be identified. I will have to watch some commercials now to see how easily they fall into the categories. Do they focus on one category or do they span a variety of categories?

We also spent some time creating our own advertisement for a salad. My partner and I were attempting to market our salad toward children. We did this by using vegetables to create a playful face on top of the salad. Our message was that "(Insert company name here) says it's OK to play with your food." We were playing to the fact that most kids are used to their mom or dad telling them not to play with their food. Any restaurant or fast food company that wanted to use this marketing campaign would be essentially telling kids that their restaurant encourages playing with your food. There are other ads that use this same strategy of pitting kids against their parents. It may not appeal to the parents but it will appeal to the children who will then bug their parents until they get what they want. Sadly, it works.

Day 5

Listening to the sound without video and then watching a video without sound reminded me of horror movies. I absolutely love to watch scary movies but they are so suspenseful and terrifying at times! I always think of how much less scary they would be without sound or with different sounds (but that would take all the fun out of it). Whenever there's a really scary part I sometimes plug my ears to make it a big less scary. So, yes, sounds can make or break a video. This is a fact that advertisers and movie makers take complete advantage of and for the most part, I feel it's to our benefit because it makes movies so much more entertaining. It can be scary though how much power sound can have!

We also spent some time in class on Friday trying to take our own pictures to portray the emotions of happy and angry. I failed miserably at looking angry in a picture. But... I guess that's usually more about placement, shadows and editing than it is actually succeeding in making an angry face. It makes me realize how much talent goes into the staged photos that we see in magazines. This is no small task to take on and the people that style photo shoots are truly talented at what they do. It wasn't something that I could pick up in an afternoon with a camera, it truly takes an eye for placement, props, lighting, styling, etc. I have much more respect for photographers and stylists now.

Day 4

I just reading the article, What Your Favorite Social Network Says About You. I can't say that I was surprised by anything that I read. I agree that the Facebook statistics will average out in the various categories because so many people are Facebook users. It's a wide range of ages too. Both of my parents and my grandma actively use Facebook. My grandma is much more Facebook proficient than my mom is! I expect that my younger sister will be joining the Facebook world soon also. I still remember when it was only a site for college students and you had to have a school email address to get a Facebook account. Now anyone and everyone can get a Facebook account - you can even set one up for your cat! (While this is true I am rolling my eyes as I'm typing it)

I don't think it's fair to say that the traits called out in the article as being specific to the various social networking sites are true of all users of those sites. But perhaps there is something about people with certain traits that helps them to find certain social networks more attractive than others. I have a Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn account. I used to have a MySpace account but found that it was too easily spammed and hacked. I don't use my Twitter or LinkedIn accounts anywhere near as much as my Facebook account. I have the Facebook app on my phone so I guess you could say I'm connected at all times and I do check in several times a day to see what's new in the Facebook world. I am also one of the people mentioned in the article that only friends people that I've met face to face and know outside of the online world. My entire family (except for my mom and sister) live in California. Two of my sisters-in-law also live out of state. So, for me, Facebook is a great way to stay connected with family through updates and pictures. I know that they will see my status posts and have an idea of how I am doing and vice versa. This doesn't mean that it's my only connection with them. I talk to them on the phone about once a week as well but it's nice to have the reminders of them in between phone calls. I've never really decided how I would use Twitter as a tweeter but I do subscribe to several tweets and enjoy reading about local events and goings-on in Corvallis. LinkedIn is absolutely more of a business networking site and my linked in account pertains specifically to my employment history and work connections.

Here is link to an interesting video of Sam Gosling talking about Facebook and what purpose it serves: http://youtu.be/tVuoNAeTpUU. To me, it ties back in with the idea of branding. Whether we realize it or not we each have a personal brand. The way that we dress, act, talk and interact with others all comes together to create our personal brand. This isn't necessarily something that we think about all the time (or at all in some cases) but it is something important to consider. Personally, as a licensed teacher I feel a responsibility to brand myself in a way that is appropriate for a teacher. I want to represent myself as an excellent role model for children and so everything that I do whether it be in person or online should represent my personal brand.