Module 4 Reflection
Module 4 had a lot of new content for myself. I really enjoyed the lecture with Dr. Christina Pabers. I learned a lot bout how media and health relate to each other. I would have never thought about that in that way before this lecture but it does make sense. Yin and yang was another fun topic to learn about how yin is more fast paced and yang is more calming so they balance each other out. Even thinking about the palette of your mouth Pabers mentioned how you can eat salt and vinegar chips but then your thirsty so you drink a coke which balances your taste buds. If you eat something salty then you need to eat something sweet to balance it out. I will definitely look at things in a different way trying to balance the good and the bad the better my lifestyle. It also made me more aware of what commercial advertisement try to do with their strategies. Papers also mentioned how shame increases someone’s inflammation and it is sad to think how companies know this but build off of it.
Looking at the Terry Dugan videos I also learned a lot. I really enjoyed one video specifically where he talked about culture. “A person’s “culture” is unique, made up of traditions and our own life experiences” (Dugan, 2010). We all come from different backgrounds and are raised differently. We also go through different experiences which shapes us to become the person we are now. For example if someone was raised in a household where they believed that racism was okay then when they go out into the world their smaller culture of thinking that will not change until they see new ideas about it. They will think it is oaky to hate on other peoples skin colors compared to someone who was raised differently. There are so many things related with culture wether it is positive or negative, culture is a part of our identity. Culture has changed from becoming local to national. First local culture according to Dugan was, “defined by language, village customs, and religion” (Dugan, 2011). Culture took a turn when radio was presented because then ideas and communication could be spread on a national level using the media tool of a radio. From listening to this video it made me really think about how media impacts our culture on a daily basis. Radio, computers, televisions, newspapers are all sources of where we get information from. The only thing that shocked me was the whole idea behind convergence. Dugan stated two positives about convergence, “ More channels airing the same information make it easier to get the information and cross promotion increases the audience for a specific message” (Dugan, 2010). The problem with this comes the negatives which talked about how if more channels are airing the same information this leads to fewer sources for that information. This means the fewer the sources then the fewer ideas are presented out there. He states, “ A single set of gatekeepers now control multiple channels feeding information from fewer sources” (Dugan, 2010). Overall people who are consuming this media don’t get the 360 information. There are so many other ideas out there but because the information is limited by the number of sources the world will not be informed about it. Therefore the people will only see one viewpoint and will not be openminded. This actually reminded me of a topic we talked about in another class which is filtering. For example Facebook uses filtering. My teacher had given us an example so I will talk about the same one. Politics is a big thing that has been going on so lets say you have both republican friends on Facebook and democratic. If you click on liberal ideas and like more of your democratic friends post then Facebook will notice this and start to filter the content from your feed about other friends. One day you might wonder what is going on with one friend who is republican but haven’t seen many post and thats because they have been filtered out. This means you ideas and the things you see is starting to get closed off. Even though you might not agree with your friend’s political view it does not mean that you don’t want to see what is going on in their life. There was a video we watched on TED talk called, “ What Facebook and Google are Hiding From the World-The Filter Bubble”. If anyone is interested it is a great TED talk that explains the whole idea behind “Filter Bubble”. Here is the youtube link : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6vM4dhI9I8.
In chapter 6, Sternheimer proposes a great question, “ do representations of sexuality encourage teens to become sexually active?” (Tollefson, 2016, p. 139).This question is actually quite interesting to me because I did a research study based on this idea. I feel that the representation and images these young pop stars display, in fact, sexualizes their image. These stars are idols and have many teen fans and of course the trends that they set, many will follow. I think that the clothes they wear, such as the crop tops and tiny shorts, that we see becoming more popular in teen culture, definitely sends the wrong message. Any comments or thoughts on this question and how it can affect their health? Sternheimer also brings up a good point and comments “don’t let TV be your teenagers main source of sex education” (Tollefson, 2016, p. 140). Especially with shows that we see today that are very popular such as “Teen Mom” or “Sixteen and pregnant”, these shows are not an ideal representation, although they attempt to be. For me personally, growing up in a very cultural and strict home, sex was not a topic we ever discussed. Growing up, I didn’t find out about sex education from my parents nor did I ever want to ask. I think this is because my parents portrayed this topic as inappropriate and them being so uptight on the topic made it very uncomfortable for my sisters and I to want to ask them questions.
Chapter 6 was all about sex in our popular culture. Sternheimer mentions, “ Sex on TV, in movies, and online understandably makes many parents uncomfortable and embarrassed” (Sternheimer, 2013, p. 168). In my opinion parents need to tackle having sex talks and informing their children about sex head on. It will be better if they’ve been informed about it then taking in things they see from media. If parents are embarrassed and afraid to talk about it children will veer into the direction of media for information which can lead to ad increase in sexual activity because they want to do what they see on a screen or read about. Looking t what Ashley posted I agree with her saying, “ If parents are not informing their children and providing them with the proper education it can be very harmful to their health. They might not take the proper steps to being safe or protected if they are sexually active, because they were not taught” (Farokhirad). Even with education I feel as though we have one health class in high school and one in college and that is it. I do not remember having a health class in elementary that talked about sex. I think now days it is important because media is growing so much that we might actually have to inform kids at a younger age about it. Children are curious and they will eventually stumble on topics about sex.
Chapter 8 focused on the health problems that are connected with media and health care. I knew about the whole beauty aspect of it but it is so much more than that. Especially after watching our guest lecture as I mentioned above I learned a lot about how media relates to health from lecture and slides. According to the book there are so many ads out there that have an affect on the people. Things like being obese, eating disorders and images of what beauty is suppose to look like are just a few. The sub chapters all went into detail about the health problems that come with video games and television but one of the big problems that we need to worry about is our health care system. “ America’s health care system is in a state of emergency” (Sternheimer, 2013, p. 212). In the world according to the book we are ranked at thirty seven which is pretty bad. So many other countries again are ahead for these things. I’ve mentioned how I am half french before and I think back to France. In France whenever I go visit my mother’s side of the family I never once see a mentally ill homeless person on the street. While here in america I always see them on the side of the road talking to themselves because we don’t take care of our citizens. In France health care is available for everyone and anyone who has a mental illness is properly taken care of. I’m sure there are many other countries in Europe that are the same way. Something needs to change in our country. In the end of chapter 8 Sternheimer asks questions about media and healthcare but overall states, “ In asking these questions, however we need to keep the big picture in mind, that popular culture is not the biggest threat to our health, as fewer and fewer Americans have access to any health care at all” (Sternheimer, 2013, p. 215).
