Media content analysis after homework activity

What stereotypes about girls and women did you find?

I found the stereotypes that are about how women act in a relationship, the idea that they care more than man or that they are more sentimental, between others.

What stereotypes about girls and women were dispelled?

They didn't dispel any stereotypes about girls and women, they only showed straight forward ones.

Were the stereotypes positive overall, negative overall or a combination?

I think, at least for me, that they were a combination of negative and positive things. For one part, negative because they showed that they are too sentimental and care in an almost exaggerated way in relationships,both, in a ridiculous way. For the other part, positive because I find kind of cute that they are sentimental and care about there relationship.

Were you surprised by your findings? Why or why not?

I wasn't surprised by my findings, because (since it's a stereotype) I knew how they would show and represent women and girls, with that in mind I knew that they would present those stereotypes in a mocking way, so in overall I was conscious of what I was going to find.

Do you have any general thoughts or conclusions about how women and girls are portrayed in the media?

Yes, my thought about how women and girls are portrayed in the media is that they are shown in two ways. The first one as weak, sentimental and look-caring individuals and the second one as depending of men and housewife (this one being a more old and sexist stereotype than the first one).

What do you think is the impact of these messages on individuals (especially girls and women) and society at large?

I think that the impact of these messages in individuals are various. For one part, girls and women start believing the things that the media shows, with that they start getting a wrong and unconscious idea of themselves and what they are supposed to do (of course there are exception, but this is speaking in a general, and maybe kind of old, vision of stereotypes). For the other part, the society it's the same idea but in this part since it also involve men its more about the role and acting of women, it shape the way we (as persons) see women (again, there can be exceptions).

Do you think producers of media have a responsibility to portray women and girls in ways that defy stereotypes? Explain.

Yes, I do think that producers of media have a responsibility to portray women and girls in ways that defy stereotypes, because I think that we, society, have the right and obligation of knowing how we are for real (I also believe in the correct representation of men) and that is because we live with each other, we really need to know how the other really is to interact in a correct way. And other reason is that the stereotypes affect how girls and women see themselves as persons, they can start believing things that are not true or acting how they don't want to act.

Go back to the semantic web and the overall categories of stereotypes. Do your findings reflect those stereotypes? Are there additional portrayals?

My findings reflect one of those stereotypes “Relationships: overly concerned with romantic relationships” , this one being the main point and idea of the whole video I choose. There are not any additional portrayals of women presented in the video.

What did you learn by doing this activity?

I didn't learn anything new about stereotypes, all the ideas of stereotypes of girls and women that where shown I knew them. What I did, instead of learning, was more like an improvement and focusing of ideas about the bad things of the portrayals of this stereotypes.

How can people (as the consumers of the media) avoid being manipulated by the media and not internalize the messages being conveyed about girls and women?

I think that there are two ways to avoid being manipulated by the media and not internalize the messages. The first one is to avoid the media in general (almost in possible). The second way is to be critical, you don't have to believe everything that the media tell you and you have to know that they are trying to make you feel/believe/etc. something. Also, you have to act first like a person, knowing that each human being is different.

Song Lyrics And Stereotypes

Give Me All Your Love from the game The World Ends With You

Give Me All Your love:

Give me all your love... 

Watch me with your scary eyes 
Please me with your silly touch. Come on 
Keep your eyes on me always 
I break it down 
I'm not the same 

Feel Me when you come inside 
Touch me when you want me anytime 
Keep your eyes on me always 
Don't wake me up 'till the morning light 

"Get up on your feet, move your body, bring me the passion" 
Give me your nasty hands. Come on now. I'm getting over you 
"Get up on your feet, move your body, bring me the passion" 
Give me your nasty hands. It's you. You can set me free 

Give me all your love 
Give me all your love 
Don't give it to someone else 
Give me all your love 
Give me all your love 
Don't share it with someone else 

"I'm sending all my love, all my love for you" 
All I want is your love and soul 
"I'm sending all my love, all my love for you" 
All I want is your love and soul 

Give me all your love... 

Treat me right as I do for you 
Drive me crazy all night long 
Keep your eyes on me always 
Take me up to the heaven 

"Get up on your feet, move your body, bring me the passion" 
Give me your nasty hands. Come on now. I'm getting over you 
"Get up on your feet, move your body, bring me the passion" 
Give me your nasty hands. It's you. You can set me free 

Give me all your love 
Give me all your love 
Don't give it to someone else 
Give me all your love 
Give me all your love 
Don't share it with someone else 

I'm sending you all my love. 
I want your love. I want your love and soul.

Analysis

This song is presenting the stereotype of women being dependent of men, as well the sexualization of women, portraying with this the stereotype with the idea that women are to serve men (in bed and house) while men has to work (sustain the house/family). As follows I'm going to explain in which parts we can see this happening.

In the title of the text, the first line and all the time they repeat "Give me all your love" is the part where it's presented both the stereotype and the sexualization. For knowing this we need to know the meaning of Give and the real meaning of "love".

First, the meaning of give that we can get for this sentences are (from oxford dictionary):

1. To express how greatly one wants something
2. Allow some one to experience something

As the first meaning we can see how she (the singer) wants "all the love" from the man, with this we get to the sense of need of the mans "love".

As the second meaning we can appreciate the dependence of the man in contrast of the woman, she needs to ask the man to give her his "love" and the man decides if he give it or not.

As why I'm saying "love" is because, informally speaking, when one says "making love" is referring to having a sexual intercourse. With that said the real meaning of love in the song is to have a sexual intercourse.

When the song says "...with your scary eyes" it's presenting in another way the power that he has over her. He is so powerful that she is felling fearing because of him.

For the other part when the song says "Please me with your silly touch", it's alluding to the power that the man has over the woman; as well the sexualization. She needs her to have pleasure and depends of him. An important thing is the meaning of "Silly": Not having serious purpose or value, with this is presented the null/less value he has over her, while she needs him for pleasure.

The song continues and the stereotypes and justification as well, but since this is a short work I think the evidence shown is enough to understand the stereotypes and ideas present in the song.

Writing Task - Blog

The Internet Good or Bad?

Whenever we talk about the internet slang there are always hot debates about if it brings good language to us or bad language, normally the teens versus the old fashion parents and linguist, but who cares about linguist anyway?

I do like getting philosophical, so I'm going to get a little bit, it is necessary.

When we talk about if it “brings good language” or “bad language”, what are we talking about? Because for someone that idea could be that is good if we adapt the language to the necessities of our time and for a linguist could be that the language have to follow the norm of the dictionary. For me, its going to be a little bit in both senses, in other words as long as it follows the necessary to be understandable (the correct or understandable use of syntax) and it adapts to our time it's going to be a benefit to the language.

Now, with that clear I'm going to show the language (obviously the slang one, not the norm language) used in the internet.

There are lot of words, letters and (even) numbers that have been “translated” to the internet slang. But what is this "internet slang"?

The internet slang is, obviously, the language used in the internet and in the social media that involves internet and writing; it's logical to ignore the speaking part of the language out of this slang, because if you talk (orally) by the internet it's only a mean to get to the other person (such as Skype or phone calls, etc...). So, the internet slang, is (in a very basically way, I think) the abbreviation of words; almost omitting all the vowels or using the initial letters of the word.

There are many words in the internet slang, such as:

- R (Are), U (You), N (And)...

- 2 (To or Too), 4 (for)

-Srsly (Seriously)

 

-OMG (Oh My God)

-LOL (Laugh Out Loud)

- Yolo (You Only Live Once)

- Etc..

Something that we can't deny is the power of the internet, that power can be seen in various ways, but since this entry is about language I'll focus on the language. From the seven words and letters that are above (I think that is logical to exclude the numbers in this), four of them have been accepted in the dictionary as words.

But, the hole point of this is, are this words and changes a benefit to the language or not?

Even though I said a “definition” to “brings good language” and to “bad language” it's difficult to decide when its a benefit or not. So I'm going to break down the definition.

First we have the idea of the syntax of the word(The word has the necessary to be understandable, the correct or understandable use of the syntax). This idea is a complex one, because it's more a thing of habit.

I could appreciate that (and I think you had the same experience) in my first years of internet I read things like “gg”, “gl”, “wp”, “g2g”, etc... and I didn't know what the hell they meant, but then I asked or search in the web the meaning (urban dictionary always help, it's a little informal but it helps). But if we see the commons thing, syntactically speaking, I think there's only one aspect that remarks in this words and that is that they follow the order of the complete word. Such as you can see above, Yolo and Srsly(among other words) they "follow" the syntax of the originally word. For one part Yolo has the letter of each word from You Only Live Once. For another, Srsly is the contraction of the word Seriously, omitting the vowels.

As a summary, we can say that the internet slang doesn’t bring a bad language in a syntax way, it "follows" the original one and, also, it's more of a thing of habit;reading and writing it.

So, now that we have that we can get a question that is completely related with the next part of the definition. Why does the internet slang exist? Or better said, Why is it the way it is? (Contraction and omission of vowels).

If you want to know: why is that question related to the definition? We need to now how is our time and global life style, we can't talk about our time with out knowing about it. So, for the sake of not getting boring I'll do this fast... Basically our time is a “fast one”, we don't have time to waste, we are “pressured” by time, you know like “fast food”, “instant noodles”, we also can see this in the news, if there is something important they are there, everything that is important in that day it's going to be in the news, normally instantly and so on. We live in a “hurry up” world, a “fast pace” world. That is our time.

The relation between the internet slang and our time is that is a fast way of writing. I think all of us have heard (or said) that “teens type so fast”, I think in almost all cases if we compare a teen with an adult the teen will type faster, he is more used to it. So, the society has made us “faster” we need to do all things faster, there is no time to lose. That's why I think this type of slang appeared in the internet, being the fastest mean of communication, and that's because the world made us that way, our time modified the way we use the language in the internet.

As a closing idea, I think that is absolutely correct (according to the definition) that we say that the internet, and all the things that involves it (like social media), brings a good language, or a good modification to our language, it adapts completely to our time... or we adapt it to our time?

Rationale:


I wrote about the modification that have occurred in the written language because of the internet media. I chose that topic because it is related to the unit we are studying in class: Language and Mass Media, but my principal reason for this is because I wanted to analyse how internet has changed our written language. I always hear that the internet and social media bring us bad things so I wanted to “prove” the opposite.

My target audience is common internet users. I wrote this text as a blog, because I think that it's a good way to approach them; since they are an active part of this media. In the text we can see it in:

“I could appreciate that (and I think you had the same experience) in my first years of internet I read things like “gg”... ”

When I mention the reader as you and common internet words, it is clearly making the point that this work was made to users that have lived that experience.

I used a neutral language (the most complex words are “Syntax” and “Slang”) because one the major purposes of this text is that the reader can show or explain to someone that the internet brings a good language to us. This can be well seen when I explain about the contraction of the words: “For one part Yolo has the letter of each word from You Only Live Once. For another, Srsly is the contraction of the word Seriously, omitting the vowels.” I put the original words that are part of the “internet word” in black, so it can be more understandable. Also this part is not explain in a complex way, it is very plain and simple, so anyone can understand it.

Oral Presentation: New Analysis

Improving my writing task

Dear Ms Fey,

Each morning, over the past six years as soon as my students walk in the door... I am so happy to see them and my classroom take life again. For me, it feels so natural to be a primary school teacher again. Yet for the past few months I am longing for and thinking about a new personal challenge in the field of primary education. As a result of my interest by different cultures and languages I have decided to start looking for position at an international school.

My attention was attracted by your school, as it is a relatively young international school and I would like to be member of a pioneering and ambitious team, the fact that it is a Dutch subsidised school with competitive fees is fascinating because that make it accessible to a very broad variety of students and it is valuable that the experience of living in Amsterdam and the Netherlands are being used and added to within the multicultural setting of your school, as I think this city and also the Dutch culture have much to offer.

Initially groups 3-8 are my interested positions. In my opinion the children of these ages are still very spontaneous, eager to learn and able to communicate and discuss well. Still, in view of my university education, teaching secondary school students might be a future job possibility.

I am an open minded person with excellent social skills. For me, tolerating pressure easily in group management, organising and planning is natural. Being a graduated at an outstanding technical university and a consulting engineer and group leader in the field of logistics and general management for several years help me developed my rational, analytical and coordinating skill. Then I decided to really follow my heart and passion and became a primary school teacher.

I believe value would be added to your organisation with my skill and enthusiasm, also I would very much appreciate to be interviewed so that we could discuss more about the job description, my motivation and suitability.

Yours sincerely,

Candidate X

Children from the Holocaust

Biography: http://www.graceproducts.com/fmnc/asura.htm

August 1, 1943.

Dear Diary:

I haven't write because a lot of things have happened to me. Last month I was very busy. It's sort of incredible what happened... A time ago I was on the school saying good bye to a classmate, now I'm alone and trapped in camps with almost no food and water. Each day it's a real torture.

Well that's how it's now, it was different back then when the Germans just arrived to the city, let me tell you a little bit what happened.

The day that the Germans capture me I was going back from school I was rubbing my hands because of the freezing weather when some sirens started sounding. I was scared, it was the first time I had hear that sound... now that sound it's part of my soul. When I heard that sound I started running to my house... but something happened I saw something falling from the sky, then... there was no grass, no tree, no dog, no car, no house, no family... there was nothing.

I started crying while a windy rain started falling, I cried for minutes, hours... I don't know, I lost the sense of time. Then some soldiers appear, German soldiers... They took me with a bunch of people to a train, it was a torturous journey of 2,3,4 days I have no idea, since the destruction of my family I lost the sense of time. The journey was with out food and mixed with the cooling weather it was the worst experience I had have, at least that was what I though until I enter the first stop of my journey... a labor camp.

When we arrive they divides us in two groups adults and children. I don't know what they did with the adults, but for us the useless ones for work where taken away, I never saw them again. After that they divided us in groups I was in the kitchen one, at least... my mother thought me how to cook... I could make something useful. But they treat us like animals, we leaved in some sort of corrals, we had two plate of food and two water glasses a day and sometimes the guards “played” with us, they kicked and make fun of us.

The days passed while I was working, one day they grab some of us saying that we would be working in Auschwitz, because they needed help at the kitchen in there. The trip was a lot worse than the first one, the only difference was, today, when we arrived they throw us in a little house with other persons, then an old lady told us this house is made for the cookers, its easer for them to identified us if we lived in another part and she said where we would sleep. We have a house, but we don't have a proper bed its like a mattress with a blanket.

August 2, 1943.

Dear Diary:

We work all the day in the kitchen, all of us made the food for the capture ones and some of us to the soldiers. I made food to the soldiers in there I met a girl of my age and since us, the cookers, have some kind of “special” treat we have a time to “socialise” in our house (well today was more like half the time cooking lessons and then like a break time) in that break time we talk a little and then we went to sleep.

August 20, 1943.

Dear Diary:

Not much has happened, except I'm starting to think there's no point to stay alive or have feelings.

Why I'm alive? Why I didn't die with my family? Why did God this to me? There is not a reason to me to be living, I've got no family neither a reason for being alive. There is not a point to be living if I'm only suffering and probably I'll die like all the persons I have met in the camps each one of them has died. And, there's no point for having feelings they only brought me pain and suffering, the more you have worst thee pain.

September 1, 1943.

Dear Diary:

I'm getting in love with that girl, a ray of hope is coming between the tortuous fog that the Germans are doing to us. Each day they treat us worse, like animals that only where doing bad things. I'm getting hope again...

September 10, 1943.

Dear Diary:

She's gone... In the night the soldiers came and took half of the house with them... Is she alive? What I'm going to do?.... They treat us like animals, I lost the most precious things to me, my family and... her... Each day will be horrendous and sad...

Fatelessness in thinglink app

http://www.thinglink.com/scene/581914158891532288