module 4

In the video What is Culture? Dugan states that culture is learned. I agree with his statement because my family has a strong Mexican culture where most of the women are house wives, they do not receive an education, and males are seen as superior. On the other hand, when I migrated here I learned from surroundings and experiences and adapted to my personal culture. Also, I found interesting that we have various cultures, personal, family, bounded, and dominant. I can relate this to the different worlds theory were individuals have different worlds and how they intervene is up to them. Also, he talks about the melting pot and how we are becoming a dominant culture. I can relate this to a presidential candidate whom wants the country to become just one culture extinguishing others. Lastly, he talked about the 8 elements in communication. Six of these elements are essential to communication, one blocks communication, and the other improves communication. What I found more interesting was the noise that impedes the messages to the receiver. This noise is what tends to block certain audiences from some message. For example, the message can be to stop smoking and the noise can be psychological from a smoker where there urge to smoke blocks the message.

In chapter 6 of Connecting Social Problems and Popular Cultures I found very interesting many linked sex with media. Although I believe that media has used sex to sell, I do not think that media has increased sexual activity within adolescents. Sternheimer states that the rate of high school students engaging in sexual intercourse, has decreased by 7 % since 1991. Also, he states that the use of condoms has increased by 13%. With these facts the scapegoat that media increases sexual activity in adolescents is debunked. My though is that because we progress in time, culture changes and adapts to the younger population. Now a day, because sex sells and we see sexual content on the media than back in the days, adults assume that adolescents are more sexually active. My thought is that before the population was more sexually active but because sex is very open at the moment many have learned about contraception and have learned what they can about sex from the media. Although the media also creates myths, I think it just facilitates conversation on sex.

Additionally, to sex education, in chapter 8 we learned about obesity, anorexia, bulimia, and health hazards. To begin with, I still think that the media is the scapegoat for many of the problems in the world. This chapter explains how many believe that obesity is linked to the media because of the amount of time that we spend watching TV instead of going out and being active. Also, he explains a relationship found between magazines and eating disorders. Our society blames the media for being obese or for being anorexic. Although I agree that many females look up to models and to the media for a new look, I think its time we stop blaming the media and try to have more psychological help to those  who are affected by the media.