Archive for June 27, 2008

Opinion Based Assignment 4

{ June 27, 2008 @ 9:18 pm } · { Uncategorized }
{ Tags: , , } · { Comments (3) }

I took a class my sophomore year at ASU. It was Women’s History 1865 to the present. In this class we studied mainly the women’s movement. Throughout the semester I found myself becoming a little worried about our generation in general. The women in the women’s rights movement had such a fire inside of them. They wanted equality so badly and they were going to stop at nothing to be considered equal to men. It took the women so many years to get the satisfaction they were looking for, but nothing was big enough to discourage them. I really envied people who felt so strongly about a subject that they would stand at events and protest them. Same goes for the antiwar protests. During the Vietnam War there were so many intense protests by individuals who were against the war. Now in today’s society the only form of protest that goes on is through conversations at lunches about President Bush and ribbon stickers posted on cars. Maybe even a bumper stick of a little boy peeing on the word WAR, but that is as far as our individual protests seem to go today. I do believe that there is some truth to the Bono-ization concept that Naomi Klein talks about in her article.

As citizens today we look to other people to see what their approach is on certain subjects. More specifically we look to celebrities today to see where they stand on certain issues. There are few people who are actually looking to themselves to be the ones to stand up for what they believe in. You see many people walking around with different rubber wristbands stating what they believe in, but you do not see people walking in the streets with signs yelling out what they believe is right and what they believe is wrong.

I completely agree with Klein when she says the forms of protest today are “less dangerous and less powerful”. I really would love to see a movement take place today that has half the fire and heart that the antiwar movement of the 60s had. Or have someone as iconic and Martin Luther King Jr. speaking out for what he believes in. There is not one person today that has even some of the strength that someone like Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, or Susan B. Anthony had, in my opinion. What is even scarier to me is that even if there was someone like that today leading a movement; that people would still be to afraid to follow that person’s lead. As a society we are stuck in a place where we do believe in movements, but we are not ready to put our lives on the line to fight for what we believe in.

I think that there are many factors that make young people today different from people in the antiwar protests. I believe that back then there was a lot more to fight for. People that were going into the war had known people or even had family that was in another war such as World War II. They knew what war could bring to people. It is strange because there was about the same time gap between World War II and the Vietnam War, as there was from the Vietnam War to the war we are fighting now in the Middle East. So I do not know exactly what factors there are that make young people different today. However, if I had to choose one I think the choice would be very simple. I think ambition is one of the main factors that are the difference in young people today.

Text Based Assignment #4

{ June 27, 2008 @ 8:35 pm } · { Uncategorized }
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Media coverage in this day and age is one of the key persuader’s of society. The media chooses what it wants to cover for the public to see. The media chooses which people they want the world to pay attention to. There are so many different ways for the media to get information out to people these days. Before you would have to wait for the morning paper, or watch the news whenever it came on. Today there are countless ways to get updates on what is going on in the world. You can do it the old fashioned way and watch CNN or read the morning paper with you’re breakfast everyday. However, now if you’re out of the house when the news is one you can DVR it, search it on Google, Yahoo, YouTube, etc. You can receive email notifications. Even email notifications are not restricted to your computer anymore. If you own a Blackberry you can have emails sent directly to your phone. Media coverage is almost impossible not to see in society today. It is everywhere. The involvement that the media chooses to have with a certain movement can either be seen as a good thing or a bad thing. Media coverage without a doubt brings much needed attention to the eyes of society. However, the attention can either help the movement out or it can in a way cripple the movement.

In the G&J text Todd Gitlin writes, “The observer changed the position of the observed.” This statement is a short statement that is absolutely loaded with meaning. This statement is basically saying that media being the observer can change even the way people in their own social movement, view their movement. One of the movements I think that has been affected by the media is probably the environmental movement. The environmental movement has been around for some time now. Cotgrove and Duff stated in the chapter on environmentalists in the G&J text on page 75, “As was stressed earlier, environmentalists are far from being a homogeneous group.” I feel personally that the environmental movement has become slightly more homogeneous. Mostly because of the media coverage that has taken place in the “green” and global warming aspect of the environmental movement.

There have been documentaries done such as “An Inconvenient Truth” by Al Gore about global warming. The documentary really shook the globe. However, I really feel the “go green” tagline has been one of the most media covered movements in while. There are so many ways to go green and people have been following this movement due to the fact that it is everywhere. People are buying smart cars or hybrid cars to help out pollution due to gasoline. Also, recycling has become a huge part of society today. I lived in Peoria and there were always recycle bins you could go to if you chose to at local parks, but now there are recycle trash cans for every household. There is even a criteria checklist that green projects must fulfill to even be classified as “green.” With all of this “green” thinking going on and being broadcasted everyday I do feel that the environmental movement will be linked with the term “green” for quite some time to come, and the media has had a huge involvement in this. This is why I think that the environmental movement is more homogenous than ever.

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