Afghanistan Helicopter Crash

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/09/21/afghanistan.chopper.crash/index.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38723377
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/09/22/nato-troops-die-chopper-crash-southern-afghanistan-reports-enemy/

I chose the helicopter crash in Afghanistan as my topic for this assignment. It appears that the three sources i looked at wanted to get across what happened in an accurate way. All three news sources seemed to describe what happened in the same sort of way, however with some differrences. FOX news spent a lot of time in the article describing the victims, and what the victim's families thought. It seemed that FOX focused on recognizing those dead, whereas CNN spent a lot of time describing when Obama is planning on withdawing troops, and what is to be done about it, which no other article did. It also seemed that CNN and MSNBC included the injuries of Afghan people, whereas the FOX news article did not. FOX news also included how the Taliban "often exaggerate their claims and sometimes take credit for accidents", which I thought was interesting because no other article included such an idea. I think this is an important story to know about, it was an accident which resulted in death and desctruction and it should be discussed. It is important to not discriminate between what seems important and unimportant when it comes to people's death. In war, there is death by combat, but there are also deaths in combat and accidents that happen which are all important facets of war, and should not be overlooked.

Election Sexism: Media Style

The media can be used as a tool during elections to inform the public on the views of the candidates and it can be used as a means to hear what a candidate has to say. It can also analyze and distort the perceptions of those watching, by placing a socially constructed subjective viewpoint in the world's eye. This is aparent when either women candidates, like Hillary Clinton, or the wives of the candidates, like Michelle Obama are seen on TV. Michelle Obama is portrayed as simply a fashion goddess in which there is hardly any mention of her law carreer. Not only is she the first lady, but man can she dress. I am not saying she can't, there is nothing wrong with fashion and the art of self expression, however, when it is all one focuses on, it can reinforce the stereotype of women being nonthreatening, passive, and not serious. The media is constantly talking about how great she looks, do they always talk about ho great Barack looks? Occasionally, yes, but he is overall taken more seriously than Michelle. In the midst of Hillary Clinton's presidential election, she was ridiculed for showing "cleavage" (which I think is a relative term because I saw what they were calling "cleavage" and let's just say it could have been way worse), she was made into this monster fingure, because she did not completely fit the stereotypical feminine norm, she was accused of  trying to be a man, instead of simply being a strong human being. The media plays such a large role in our perceptions of people. Before we form our opinions, we should take everything we see in the media with a grain of salt and a cynical eye.

I used the following articles as refrences:

http://www.alternet.org/reproductivejustice/89465/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jessica-wakeman/on-sexist-media-coverage_b_98869.html

Serial Killas

http://www.aolnews.com/crime/article/expert-michigan-serial-killer-is-learning-how-to-kill/19584066
I found an article describing recent serial killings in Flint Michigan. The serial killer is suspected of committing thirteen murders. The article focuses both on the killer and the cases.  The cases are held with equal attention because race comes into play. All but one of the murder victims is African American, which caught the attention of Flint's NAACP Branch President. The investigators say that the murders should not be consered hate crimes because the murders were mostly committed on older, more vulnerable men, who happen to be black. I think the article gives equal weight to the victims and the serial killers stories. The article mainly says that the serial killer is still trying to improve therefore he is attacking older men. Investigators also discuss why he uses a knife. They say it is more personal and that he actually wants to see the mutilation he is causing. The FBI and other forces were not mentioned very much, except for the lead investigator and a couple of shout outs to the local police force along with one other FBI agent.. Other then the victims being older, and mostly African American, there wasn't much discussion on whether their families were okay, what exactly happened etc. The article did name the latest victim, but the other possible twelve were not named. Other than possible racist crimes, there wasn't much said about the victims, personally. Rearding the community, the only information given was that the leading investigator alluded to the fact that the areas where the "hunting" occurs could be mostly African American living communities. The leading investigator equates the serial killer to an animal like a lion, and calls what he is doing "hunting". I am not trying to stand up for this serial killer, but I can't help but notice that he is likening a human to a ravenous "flesh eating" monster. The level of emotion and fear increasingly plays a large role towards the end of the article. I thought it was also interesting that the victims, except for their race, was not mentioned when in my mind they should be given equal attention along with their living community and the upset these episodes have caused.

Hurricane Katrina

I chose to examine articles pertaining to Hurricane Katrina. I chose this because I expected to find some articles with a skewed perspective, and some factual. If the perspectives were skewed, it was very subtle, except for one. One article I found described Hurricane Katrina as one of the deadliest natural disasters in American history, while the other two articles I looked at described other Hurricanes that imposed more damage to American soil, such as hurricane Andrew. One article I found was on how Bush did not include Hurricane Katrina in his State of the Union Address. It explicitly states how Bush is ashamed because people died as a result of his inaction, people suffered as a result of his inaction etc etc. This particular article is very swayed in one direction. It describes how he made major mistakes. The other two aricles stay on the more factual side including the details of the Hurricane, how the poor and the aged were specifically impacted and so on. I think that upon researching any specific incident, people can find varying forms of information. The ease of publishing information on the internet is so intense, that people can be free to speak their own mind, which is exactly what I am doing now.

Deviance

For this blog assignment I set my sights on websites which support and promote Anorexia. Out of the hundreds to choose from, http://www.nothinspiration.com/ana-mia/tips-for-anorexics/ this is the link to the website I will be referring to. It is an informational blog which contains tips on how to be anorexic, curve cravings, keep your mind off eating, etc. There was one tip on using Crest white strips beforee dinner so you have an excuse to not eat. There are links all over the page pertaining to subject matter like "top 5 reasons to be anorexic". Also, there is a "tag cloud" which I thought to be interesting. It is just a space where some words are bolded and others are very lightly written. Some of the bold words include "model, anorexia, skinny. Additionally, since it is a blog, there are also comments on these posts. There are countless comments of young girls displaying their love for anorexia. There was one girl who was 15 years old who said she started starving herself when she was 14. She said she was 140 lbs. but now she is 110 lbs. and still dropping! There are countless posts from young girls who are admitting to weighing below one hundred pounds and loving it. There are also the opposite types of posts. There are people who are against what the post is about and are expressing themselves in agressive ways. I would definitely consider websites like this deviant. Everyone with internet access can find this type of post. I know children under thei age of 8 who have laptops and go on the internet. I was able to easily find it. As I was reading it, although I felt sort of sick to my stomach with how self depricating it was, a part of my conscious and im sure subconscious mind was processing this information and now it is in my mind. These type of messages displayed in public are hard to avoid and can be extremely damaging to those whose minds are still developing. This type of website is 100% deviant.

Media Fast

I chose to do my media fast on Saturday because I really wanted to challenge myself. I did not want to have the excuses of class and work to skew my perspective on how much I need various types of media. I woke up that Saturday morning at 11:00 AM and all went well for about 2 hours. In my media log I realized how much I listen to music. I was really missing my music and I had the urge to check facebook. I sang to myself, and ran without music. What really made a difference was being in a band. I hung out with them for a while as well as some other friends and got my mind off of it. We then played our own music. I don't know if that would count as media, but we didn't play any covers, only originals. Having my friends with me really helped. I just left my phone, and my ipod at home and sang to myself while driving around. Fasting from media was harder than I expected it would be. I never thought of myself as media dependent, and I still think I'm not as bad as it gets, but it was very difficult to not listen to music or check facebook. The media fast has given me a new found respect and appreciation for listening to music and an awareness of how much the media has impacted my routines and day.

Media Log

I chose to log my media usage during a normally busy Thursday. I woke up at 9:30AM to my phone's alarm. I had a couple of texts to check, however they were mostly about plans during the day. 9:45AM- 10:30AM I listened to music in my apartment. 10:30AM- 11:05AM I ran and stretched while listening to music. 11:05AM- 11:30AM- I showered while listening to music. Finally, from 11:30 AM to 1:30 PM I did homework while listening to music. During the homework/ music time I also spent about 10 minutes in my Gmail and about fifteen on Facebook. Then I had class and work all day in which case I surprisingly did not voluntarily use any form of media. However, as we all know our brains are constantly absorbing forms of media, such as the music playing at work, ads and labels stuck on everything that doesnt move and the plethera of televisions stuck in some of the buildings around campus. At 10:00 PM I got on Facebook for about twenty minutes and gmail for about ten. 11:00 PM- 1:00AM I listened to music until I fell asleep.