Response
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Hi women. I really liked the content of your posts as each one provided insight. You did have some scattered writing errors but nothing too drastic. I appreciated the solid citations with one comment about the citation of Solomon (the name is longer on your bib). Great job. See Blackboard for MY GRADES

PS Love the Milne quote. Gotta love Pooh, Tig and gang!
posted by Karen McGrath at 10:42 AM | 0 comments
Looking Good
Monday, December 5, 2011
I love what you both have done with the layout and design. Don't forget to proof the posts, keep the same font, and provide your links.
posted by Karen McGrath at 2:22 PM | 0 comments
Religion/Culture
Sunday, December 4, 2011
One of the fairly common stereotypes are the ones that involve race and culture. People do a lot of racial profiling, and quick assumptions when they see someone practicing their own religion or see someone who follows a certain culture. It’s ok to be curious about a person’s culture or religion but it is not okay to make negative assumptions towards them. This past Halloween there were a lot of interesting costumes but the most famous ones sadly are the ones that offend other people. An article from the website The Root titled "Stop Racist Halloween Costumes" had a Q&A interview with the leaders of an Ohio University campaign called STARS (Students Teaching About Racism in our Society) who spoke about their campaign and how they educate people. According to one of the leaders, what makes a Halloween costume offensive is the negative aspects that are being portrayed while wearing a costume, people put it on for laughs but it is very offensive because the portrayal isn’t always true. The fact of the matter is that people from different religions and cultures face rough paths as people in our society mock them in an inappropriate way. An article, by Ruxandra Coman, titled “Media Representations on Romanians Image: Negative Stereotype” she mentions that Romanians are seen as delinquents. She mentions that “Media stereotypes trigger portrayals in people’s imagination legitimated by the reality constructed at TV.”(103) People act upon cultures and religions just how they are portrayed. As a viewer we should try to be more aware of what our surroundings are really like and not judge them on how they are being portrayed.


To check out the full article from The Root Click Here
posted by Erika at 10:32 PM | 0 comments
How Children View Media Stereotypes in Commercials
  Children are probably the most vulnerable when it comes to advertising and new media. They spend so much time using it but because they haven't learned to filter out unnecessary things they take in everything they see. “'Children's television—like much of children's literature—places white boys at the center of the action...Since commercials factor heavily into children's views of utopia (by tapping into hopes and wishes), children formulate an unrealistic view of the world, one which reinforces the patriarchal, white male ruling class” (Alexander, 1996, p349). Much of television today features a main character or primary character who is white, male and for the most part looks just like other males that are on tv with similar hairstyles, ways of dress and mannerisms. Commercials generally do not feature a character of a different, race, culture or gender as a primary 'character' unless they are trying to sell to a different target audience. “[C]hildren’s television advertising can play a role in how children construct ideas about race, it is critical to have a fair, accurate, and realistic representation of people of color in commercials. This study reflects greater television diversity than studies found a decade ago, but suggests that improvement still is needed” (Solomon, 2004, p64). Children are the most impressionable of all media users and most of the commercials that they see on television, even channels like Nickelodeon which are targeted towards all children who are able to watch television use stereotypes in the media by either reverting to using images and mannerisms in order to pick fun at a certain race even without realizing it.

Image is from sleep-md.blogspot.com
posted by Anonymous at 12:37 AM | 0 comments
Gender Stereotyping
Friday, December 2, 2011




Above is a small clip of the documentary “What a Girl Wants” where girls between the ages of 10 and 15 talk about what they see in the media and their interpretations. A lot of what they talk about is music video and over sexualization of the female artists. Most of these young girls are aware that sex sells, and believe that to fit in they need to have sex too. These girls can grow up with the pressure of maturing too quickly and thinking that they need to follow what the media wants them to do in order to fit in. This is where the stereotype towards women comes into place. Women tend to be portrayed more negatively than males. Males usually are portrayed as strong and brave while women are mainly seen as sex objects. According to Jennifer Stevens Aubrey’s article “Check That Body! The Effects of Sexually Objectifying Music Videos on College Men’s Sexual Beliefs” she says, “exposure to music videos where female artists engage in the sexual objectification of their bodies may prime a schema of women as sexual objects.” (363) Women try to not to live up to these expectations. Throughout the years there has been progress towards the preference of how women would like to be represented. According to Joke Hermes in a conference proceeding, “While gender stereotyping may be greatly irritating to many women, it has not stopped a sizable group of women and girls from gaining more and more powerful and influential positions.” (61) Some of the younger generation of girls are having trouble distinguishing what they should be doing and what the media wants them to do. Other women are embarking on a mission in order to expel these thoughts from girls by working hard in order to achieve job positions that are usually thought to be male jobs. (That’s right ladies, no promiscuous behavior needed!) The portrayal can be changed. “Democracies after all need a pluralist public sphere in which stereotyping will hurt less because it comes from different directions and targets all sorts of groups.” (61)
posted by Erika at 5:47 PM | 0 comments
Race as a Media Stereotype
Thursday, December 1, 2011
 In Killing Us Softly 4, Jean Kilbourne spent a lot of time talking about how women were portrayed in advertisements and the messages other women and girls were able to take from that. She also spent a fair amount of time talking about race as well because the advertisements that she showed all showed white men and women because there are so few advertisements of men and women of any other race and when they are portrayed in an ad it is usually in the background where they will not be noticed as much. Even today when people believe that racism isn't around as much anymore because times have changed, in advertising it is usually only white men and women and the few ads that do not feature a white person feature a couple who is black and usually include some kind of stereotype along with it. For example in one State Farm commercial there is a black couple that appears on screen arguing about what happened, during the arguments they resolve to stereotypes by the man suggesting that he wants a girlfriend who dresses in more revealing clothing as shown when he says: ...Statefarm is there, with a new girlfriend and the girl who appears is exactly the same but with clothes that show more skin. This commercial continues on with the black woman yelling at the man and belittling him. Advertisements result to stereotypes when using people who are not white and even then they only show men and women who are black, they rarely use people of other races like Hispanic, Native American, Middle Eastern, etc. In Rebecca Tallent's book Killing With Silence, Not Even Softly she describes how in popular literature like Stephanie Meyer's Twilight, Meyer describes any race that isn't white (even most of the vampires in her portrayal are white or have lighter skin tones) as the other race even though many of the books characters are Native American. "It seems Meyer does little more than to maintain traditional views of werewolves as images of 'treachery, savagery and bloodthirstiness'" (Tallent, 2011, p246). For those who have not read the books, the Native American characters of the Quileute tribe in Washington and they also contain a bloodline of werewolves where every other generation a boy (and in one case a girl) becomes a werewolf when they are old enough. Werewolves, by nature are very violent creatures and this is mentioned many times in the book that when they change into werewolves they cannot control themselves and have been known to hurt other people. An example used in the book is that the leader of one the packs scratched his girlfriend while changing and gave her permanent scars. Tallent goes on to make the connection between the bloodthirstiness of werewolves and the tales that men and women (especially white men and women) have passed down through the years about how Native Americans were bloodthirsty and loved killing settlers just for the sport of it. Even though many of the stereotypes mentioned in media of all types is not true it is often used as a way to catch people's attention, when Beyonce did an advertisement a few years ago where she sported jungle fashions and black face people reacted in outbursts claiming that by doing this Beyonce was making fun of her own heritage.


For more information, as well as expert opinions on the black face photoshoot visit here
posted by Anonymous at 3:58 PM | 0 comments
An Introduction
Wednesday, November 30, 2011


Media stereotypes are seen throughout our daily routines, we just don’t notice them. They can be everywhere from billboards to commercials on TV, we see them but don’t always realize them. We also don’t realize how it affects us and the people around us. The book we are reading in class, Media Literacy by W. James Potter, opened our eyes at the different stereotypical portrayals. Whether its stereotypes about race, religion, occupations, or gender they are all portrayed at some point. As Potter says, “Stereotypes, however, can be harmful when they lead audiences to believe that all people of a given type share certain negative characteristics.” (172) We hope that through our posts we can bring to light some examples of some stereotypes that some people may not have previously noticed.


posted by Erika at 6:28 PM | 1 comments