Module 4 Videos and Readings

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As I watched all of Terry Dugan’s videos, I felt as though I got a breakdown of media and its messages. I really enjoyed learning about the 8 elements of communication and how much they affect media and us as the viewers. A few things worth remembering from his lectures for me were the types of cultures. I had never really learned about the types of cultures before and I was really intrigued by learning the 4 he went into depth about.

The first culture he mentioned was the personal culture. Dugan explains this culture as basically how you act or what you do when you’re alone. For me, I am mostly doing schoolwork while I am alone. The personal culture allows me to build confidence in myself while also testing my values and self worth. The second culture was the familial culture. I related to this as well because my family has several traditions and values that have been passed on for generations and some are even traditions that I can eventually pass down. Some may be recipes but the most important one that I want to pass down is not giving my children a middle name. No one on my mother’s side has one and I think that’s something that makes our familial culture unique and traditional. The third was the bounded culture, which he explains as the “friend” culture. When I am with my friends I have fun but there seems to be a more restrained side of me while with my friends or in public. This is because society places such limitations on the way we are “supposed” to act in public but I think my friends and I don’t always as restrained, as we “should”. This really provoked a question of who and how these cultures were created? Why are there such specific guidelines on how to act in public (behavior wise)? If I laugh too laugh, I get stared at like I am a crazy person. This brings me to the dominant culture. This culture is how to act in public basically. This culture is for everyone. They should act properly in public. My question is, how do you act properly in public? Why are there right or wrong ways to act? And who decides if I am acting right or wrong?

This questions stems nicely into Sternheimer’s chapter 6. We tell children they should not have sex until they’re adults or until they’re married but as Sternheimer argues, “We wouldn’t dare make the same sweeping generalizations about equally appalling adult behavior” (Sternheimer 141). I could not agree with her in the sense that we always tell others, especially adolescents, how to behave, but do adults really behave “correctly”? I would argue that we do not. I think she wants to make a point that we cant tell children or young adults not to have sexual relations when we clearly do as adults.

I also found a lot of her statistics about the actual amount of children who do experience intercourse fascinating. She claims a very low number of adolescents do have sexual intercourse and not all of them consent to it. Children are exposed to a lot of sexualizations of women and men at a young age, which may be some reason behind the low number of children who have experience sex or sexual relations. This is where parents often come into play. Dugan and Sternheimer both mention parents, and others; often blame media when statistics have shown media isn’t much to blame for this. Sternheimer claims, “during the 1920’s adults were horrified by the short dresses young women wore and the “petting parties” young people attended…” (Sternheimer 144). This shows that provocative behavior and even fashion, has been challenged for almost a century. Media cannot be fully blamed for daring behavior considering it has been questioned for decades. Dugan also argues this and says something along the lines of, “The media is a convenient villain- when children reject values of family; people want to blame media for their child rejection” which I completely agree with as well. Pointing blame at media is not always the answer.

In chapter 6, she talks a lot about sex. This chapter was so interesting to me and it made it even more interesting that she showed such a hypocritical side to adults and their views on adolescents. She states, “Meanwhile, we ignore the majority of teens who are responsible or do not engage in sex, and we don’t stereotype promiscuous adults as hormone-crazed animals” (Sternheimer 149). This line was so impactful for me and really stuck out to me because I feel as though teens and adolescents are looked down upon and this bothers me. I feel as though adults think they are superior to children when in my opinion they are not. Yes, I was disciplined by my parents but they did not treat me as a lesser being or talk down to me like I was unable to understand them. I know adults are commonly seen as wiser and since they have been alive longer than kids that they know more and know how to behave, but is this really true? Does every adult really know how to behave or act? I sure as heck don’t! But why are we taught to act certain ways in certain places (like work or school)? Does this limit our creativity and our ability to be ourselves? Could this be why so many people are afraid to act themselves in front of others?

On the topic of lowered self-esteem, Sternheimer’s chapter 8 was super interesting. Again, people want to blame media for obesity and eating disorders, but Sternheimer shows that media may not be the one to blame for these issues. She mentions that a lot of children who are obese are Latino or African American. She states, “African Americans and Latino’s are also more significantly likely to be poor than whites” (Sternheimer 202). One of the biggest reason children, and adults, are obese is because in impoverished areas, produce is too expensive so the next best thing is fast-food chains. She also states, “Low self-esteem and social rejection which many overweight children experience, may keep them inside and perpetuate the weight gain cycle” (Sternheimer 203). This is a really sad yet true claim. Children are often bullied with their weight and it really shows that beautify or even social acceptance is connected with skinniness.

It also relates to last week’s module when poverty we discussed poverty. Media may even blame impoverished towns for not eating healthy, but when healthy food costs double the amount of junk food, how are people with less money supposed to afford healthier food? It really reminded me of the quote, “eating to live” and “living to eat” from the Global Food Diaries. I will always remember this quote because it is so impactful. It reminds me how lucky I am everyday to live such a healthy and blessed life.

This also is reminded me of Christina’s lecture when she taught us about balance. We are very lucky to be able to have balance in our lives compared to others who may not even have the option of a balanced life or diet. Sternheimer shared a statistic about poor people who work a lot which made me think how hard is must be for them to balance there work life with their family or friends.

After reading about the obesity, Sternheimer begins to talk about anorexia and bulimia. Again, she mentions that people want to blame magazines, television or social media, but she says that it may not be at blame. Many girls who have eating disorders often suffered from abuse, whether it is was sexual, verbal or physical. My best friend growing up was anorexic and this was because of stress and abuse she endured from her parents. Her mother was often drunk and would yell at her constantly. My friend had to cook for herself from a very young and I think she eventually just stopped eating after not wanting to cook at the age of 13. When we were in high school I noticed truly how skinny she was when I saw her next to other friends. When I would ask her about it, she didn’t want to say a word. As we got older, she started to get help from her aunt and grandma, who paid for therapy. I was really glad that Sternheimer mentioned abuse as a result of bulimia or anorexia because she mentions people have eating disorders as coping mechanisms for abuse or other tragedies that they endure/ed. I had no idea that so many other men and women had endured such pains that caused them to have eating disorders. I would have definitely thought media was a huge part of self-hatred or low self esteem.

 

Quick note: I thought Sternheimer’s comment about the rise of electricity being a reason for more mergence of nightlife was really interesting. I had never thought about the fact that electricity really is a key factor in everything media related.

Overall, I really enjoyed this module. I felt there was SO much I could relate to but I learned even more about things that I had known a little bit about. This module hit a few personal experiences which allowed me to connect with a lot which was really interesting to me.

 

 

 

Module 4

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After having taken Intercultural Communication at Channel Islands University a year ago, I was not entirely unfamiliar with the concept and definition of culture upon viewing this week’s videos by Terry Dugan. In the first short clip listed in this week’s module, Impact of Media on Culture- What is Culture, Part 1, Dugan defines culture as “a learned behavior by individuals of a given group.” (Dugan, 2010.) In other words, individuals absorb information about the world around them and how they must process information accordingly from other members of their nuclear or immediate family members along with any other persons who make up a specific group that they may fall into. However, I had not thought to apply the lessons that I had learned in that course to media literacy until now. Were you familiar with these concepts prior to taking our summer course? How did your views change after watching these short clips?

 

One such way in which media influences culture, and vice versa, is through the use of mass communication. Duncan asserts that we have been participating in mass communication as a society since the rise in popularity of the radio. It is through shared experiences that we start to form the foundation of our common culture. In the second clip of his series, titled Module 2, Part 2, developing a Common Culture, Duncan asks us the question “are we better off with a common culture based on mass media?” (Dungan, 2010). What do you think? I would argue that yes, we are better off with a common culture based in mass media.

 

After reading chapters 6 and 8 of Connecting Social Problems and Popular Culture, I believe that Karen Sternheimer would agree. Despite the fact that the media does have a direct impact on our social structure, Sternheimer provides evidence against the popular notion that modern media is promoting sexual promiscuity, especially in teens. In fact, “according to the CDC’s YRBSS study: the rate of high school students who have ever had sexual intercourse declined from 54 percent in 1991 to 47 percent in 2011.” (Sternheimer, 2013, pg. 150). In line with Sternheimer (2013) I argue that the media’s influence on our common culture has been significant, because it makes light of certain issues that are ingrained within our culture, yet those issues have and do still exist outside of the media. For example, in Chapter 6: Connecting Social Problems and Popular Culture, Sternheimer argues that “the media did not initiate women’s objectification, but we see it most clearly there.” (Sternheimer, 2013, pg. 160). What she means is that the media, in some ways, do reflect the uglier realities of an already formed society and further reinforces these popular notions.

 

Sternheimer further illustrates this notion of media merely influencing culture rather than causing the negative societal viewpoints in Chapter 8: Media Health Hazards? She poses the question, “do media images contribute to a sense of body dissatisfaction?” (Sternheimer, 2013, pg. 210). Prior to reading this chapter, I would have answered yes to this question. All of the news outlets use fear to make us believe that an increase in information has created the new phenomenon of body image issues. Every day we are exposed to various advertisements whose implicit messages tell us that our bodies are not good enough, thin enough, and pretty enough without their product. Yet, Sternheimer asserts that “contributing is not the same as causing the problem in the first place, as those who are troubled about their bodies are likely to seek out information on weight loss and unfavorable comparisons that justify their negative sense of self.” (Sternheimer, 2013, pg. 210). What she is trying to say is that individuals who already suffer these feelings will actively seek out media that reinforces their negative images.

 

 

This theory of media contribution over media causation correlates with Dugan’s commentary about The 8 Elements of Communication. What I am trying to say, is that there are several layers to communication, therefore, it is not as easy as we would presume it to be to internalize negative media messages. Dugan explains that the 8 elements of communication are made up of: a sender, a process of encoding, a message, a channel, a channel, a process of decoding, a receiver, feedback, and the chance of noise. (Dugan, 2010). In this case, the sender, the person or medium originally giving the message, would be the mass media.

 

This also parallels Dr. Christina Pabers’ teachings about yin and yang. For every layer of yin, there is also a layer of yang. Our society hangs in a complex balance and it is not so simple to take in one media message without feeling the effects of another. I am trying to say that we cannot view a very yang advertisement without experiencing the effects of yin. This helps to balance us out so that we can maintain our mental and physical health. Everything has layers to it. There is not one thing that is able to cause a culture to behave the way that they do. Rather, many layers of complex thoughts, images, and messages.