Taylor Wing Module 2 Recap 6/6/16

I would like to begin my recap of module two by expressing my appreciation of how this course is going and my ability to navigate through each module, my increased understanding of voice thread, and how much I enjoy the readings and feedback from my classmates. This week’s readings have helped me understand media study by the five core concepts of media education. As said, “All media messages are constructed” (). If all media messages are constructed, then they can be destructed. The most beneficial concept I got out of the reading is the visibility concept, and how important the questions of why is this message being sent? I am eager to read more about how the media is manipulated those with less power and what kind of power/ profit do media makers use? Another concept I enjoyed reading about is the Smurfette Principle, which is based off of the meaning of tropes. Tropes often perpetuate offensive stereotypes. “The Smurfette principle is the tendency for works of fiction to have exactly one female amongst an ensemble of male characters” (Pollitt 2010). In the past this has been more common than in today’s society. There are movies and TV shows that discriminate women, but more often sexism is not the common issue anymore. The media is beginning to change in a positive way. The chapters for this module I read by Karen Sternheimer has given me more insight on child stereotypes within the media from the past to present.
Stereotypes shape how consumers operate and how viewers form opinions. Not all generalizing and stereotyping is considered a bad thing, but more of a necessary thing to describe people, places or things, for example, Carlos Cortes states, “We all need to generalize. We create categories of items, actions, or ideas, and then develop generalizations about common characteristics of those categorized items” (Cortez 2000). It is almost impossible to avoid generalizing and stereotypes. This article gave a great example of a light switch put into a category of light switches. On the other hand, I agree with what Lindsey has to say about stereotyping homosexuals and generalizing them all into one small category of the same. We need to make generalizations about things in everyday life, but it does not need to be stereotyped.