Think Before You Pink

Our jolly group:

Wes Anderson, 

Jess Cooney, 

Cassandra Eiler, 

Casie Haflich, 

Alison Kwolek & 

Christina Sears 

An informative PSA about the monetization of the pink ribbon:

http://youtu.be/GJyXRgEN6_I

Southern Portrayals in Media

Dude.
I never hear anyone ever talk about this in media criticism classes: The portrayal of Southern American people on TV is horribly inaccurate and really offensive.
Almost every southern person on TV is a hick, racist, has a totally over the top accent, etc.
Also basically anyone with a southern accent is implied to be stupid.
My family is from the South, so it is particularly annoying that people from West Virginia, Georgia, Louisiana, etc, are often portrayed as hillbillies.
My aunt from WV is a fashion designer. But she lives on a mountain though, so she's just a dumb hick who drinks moonshine and plays the banjo, right?

The only show I can really think of that portrays southern people as normal is Walking Dead, because it takes place in Georgia. They have southern accents but they aren't totally over the top or stupid sounding. So that is kind of neat.

I guess I should find some examples so I sound more legit. Gimme a bit.

Orange is the New Whatever or Whatever

Dude.
Why do people pee their pants over this show?
I absolutely hated it.
And here's why:
Mendez is, without a doubt, the best character on that show. But when Diaz or whatever gets pregnant, tricks him into having sex with her (doesn't she claim rape or something? It's been a while), so he gets in trouble, that's, well that's stupid. As the audience we're supposed to be rooting for her, and booing Mendez. But she's totally the bad guy in that situation!

In that show it seems like all the men (as few as they are) are portrayed terribly. Mendez is an asshole, Piper's husband is a wuss, etc. People tout this show as being like, so revolutionary or whatever, but it's sexist and stupid and totally lame.
I really wanted to like the show too. Whoa lesbos on TV. Hype. And I like a lot of the characters. The episode where they try to catch the chicken made me smile a lot. But this show is blatantly sexist against men, and I am a strong believer in gender equality and all of that stuff. Maybe I'm reading too much into it, or not enough into it.


Come to think of it, maybe they did that on purpose, to be like, "Take that!" But that's not cool, dude.

I didn't watch the last episode because I was kind of done with the show, and this all happened a few months ago, so maybe I'm out of the loop and in the last episode something redeeming for men-kind happens. Who knows.
Someone come tell me how wrong I am and that the show is actually totally cool. I'd be okay with that.

Sincerely yours,
Christina A Sears

I'm at the Pizza Hut. I'm at the Taco Bell.

The article about Brian's Twitter diet was really neat.

So anonymous people on the Internet have always had a bad reputation. Often, they're really mean to people who put themselves out there. The threat of embarrassment by talking about weight loss goals on a public space (such as Twitter) is real, and scary. An odd motivator, but a motivator nonetheless. 

Making the Internet work for you like that is brilliant. If I had a twitter of what I ate, I would absolutely die of embarrassment:

(This song is about me.)

Though Bri-Bri said he fudged some of his posts a bit, the main idea is there. It's hard to stay motivated to eat right and exercise. I've tried, and failed. I understand the frustration. 

Our food culture in general is hard to get away from. 

Less scholarly, more opiniony:

I often find myself making goals and plans for eating healthy. And they always fall through because "I'm tiiiiired, I don't wanna cook and clean dishes. Let's just get Tacoooo Belllllllughhh." etc.

It's annoying how much easier it is to just get fast food. Especially if you have class all day and work all night, I'm not really sure how other people manage to do it. Is it just one of those cases where people just post the best stuff, and I compare that nice stuff to my everyday Taco shenanigans, or what?

Basically what I'm trying to say is, how in the heck do people manage to eat healthy in our current crazy food culture? 

Please share with me the secrets of the universe, COMM 322 class.

Social Media News Sharing and Old People on Facebook

One of the lines from the reading for today said that people who enjoy blogs are skeptical about them anyway, and don't go to them for hard information, just enthusiasm and energy and whatnot.
It got me thinking about my aunts and grandparents who share "news" stories on facebook without really knowing what they're posting -- whether it's false or not.
Do any of you guys have this problem? My poor, poor technologically malnourished aunt will repost "news" stories from sites like The Onion, or just blatantly wrong sources, believing them to be true. And as more people spread these images and stories, more people happily believe them. It's a problem. Or, at least if 90% of your facebook friends are older family members, it's a problem.

Some of the article discussed that people like to have various sources for their news, which is why they go on the internet. But that is a very serious concern when people don't necessarily check facts, or they read an outrageous headline (without reading the full story) and make assumptions about what happened.
And then they share, happily, without a second thought.

My grandma posted a "news" article that actually had photos taken out of context and the story was just totally made up. In the "recommended articles" section right below that, there was a news story about how the previous news story was fake, or incorrect. Why didn't grandma share that one? Huh?! Get with it, Nana.

I guess this is not super on-topic to what the actual article is about, but BLOGS ARE LIKE JAZZ, DUDE.

Childhood Brand Recognition

Man,
So I know we haven't discussed these articles in class yet, but after reading about kids recognizing 200+ brands by the time they enter first grade, I was kind of in disbelief. I thought, "That's ridiculous, there's no way."

Buuut...
I have 2 nephews, both 5 and under, and as I thought about it, I realized it's probably true. My oldest nephew, Skylar, LOVES Star Wars, but he's never even seen the movies. He recognizes the brands though, and always wants Star Wars toys, clothes, school supplies with Yoda on them, etc. Most of the brands he recognizes are entertainment brands - Star Wars, Angry Birds, Spongebob, and the like. However, these brands most likely have him hooked for life, or at least for a number of years yet to come.

Some of the corporate fellows who said they wanted to target children to gain their loyalties for life kind of creeped me out. I don't have an academic reason for thinking this, just a gut feeling. I don't care for targeting ads at kids, (or myself), but I understand that it has to be done to some extent to sell stuff.

I don't like it but what can you do?

More to come after class time?!