Question 9

http://www.theonion.com/articles/mexico-killed-in-drug-deal,18109/

In the above article from the Onion, it is a parody of the recent drug related deaths in Mexico. It states that the entire population of Mexico City has been killed.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/12/09/killed-mexican-resort-city-holding-climate-summit/

In this article from fox news it explains that three people have died from drug related crimes. There are only a few sentences written about what happened. I think the Onion was making a point of saying that more and more people are dying from drug related crimes and something should be done about it. The fox news article seems to gatekeep more information and makes very little light on what happened.

Question 7

Appropriation can refer to the process whereby members of relatively privileged groups raid the culture of marginalized groups, abstracting cultural practices or artifacts from their historically specific contexts. In this video abstracting the cultural practice of asking someone to come over and fix something in his or her house is an example of appropriation. This video contains reappropriation when the people in the video take that cultural practice and change it to something that our culture would find weird or different. They do this by dressing inappropriately and using different language from the norm. Our society would consider this video different from the cultural norms we are used to.

Question 11

The advertisement on the right can be related to my topic and also two other articles we read this semester. My topic was about the "ideal" teen or college age woman in advertising. But I can also relate this advertisement to the Public Sphere model that Couteau and Hoynes discuss in which raises important questions about the role of media and how they have power over our society. These media giants have the power to distort a women’s body in ways that are impossible to achieve in real life and use that to just sell a product. These models can’t get much skinnier and it scares me to think how far these media companies will go. They have completely distorted our view on what women "should" look like. I also think this picture can be related to Jean Baudrillards article "Simulacra and Simulations.” Which explains how reality has become fake, or hyper real and that simulation is real, but "real" is now re-constructed into something that is perceived to be reality, but really isn't. Just like the many advertisements I talked about it both of my papers and other photos that are photo shopped that we see today. Today’s reality in media will keep becoming more fake as new ideas and technology are created.

Question 10

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irbFBgI0jhM

I choose to compare the video Alma with three different readings from this semester. I think that what this film implies and techniques used to prove a point can be related to many things we learned about in media and culture studies. Such as Grossbergs article on the different areas of the study of cultural studies and the political economy. When Grossberg talks about the studies of consumer driven decisions, it reminds me of the consumer driven decision in Alma. She goes into the store even when the owner or anyone else is not there. It was her decision to touch the doll and turn into an actual doll. These are the types of things cultural studies are about. I also think this film can be related to Shor's article on "Why Americans want more then they need," which is about why Americans feel the need to be the highest consumers. Media has set up an imagined community of big spending consumers that feel the need to be up on the newest clothing and products to impress others in that same social class. The film Alma is all about the new age of consumers and how they are driven to go out and spend money they might not even have. The film can also relate to Kahn and Kellners "The Oppositional Politics and the internet” about the use of the Internet. I believe one of the biggest reasons people go on a computer is to communicate with others but also to play their parts as consumers as well. Every website you go on, withers its a news site or Wikipedia search there are always pop up advertisements of discounts on products or trying to get you to go to their website to buy something. This is just a different approach to what happened in Alma, the same consumerism ways are there but just happening through the Internet. I think the use of the Internet is just making Americas consumerism that much worse.

Question 8

Three differences between the approaches of cultural and political economy are one involves more consumer driven decisions. Another being the new media approach which involves corporation giants taking over and controlling all media outlets. A third difference is an opinion from Grossberg, which is cultural studies celebrates merely popular culture and not understanding mature things such as; power, domination, and oppression in the contemporary world (626). Both Mickey Mouse videos are examples of corporation giants taking over and controlling all media. The Disney company had so much power and money that they made a commercial to make fun of their own employees. They also have the power to take over media outlets for children and teach them inaccurate ways to be a "lady" or act like a "real woman." This one company is almost brainwashing children and our society to believe in the Disney ways. The scary thing is my roommate works at Disney World and she finds no truth to these documentaries or the fact that her employment wages are unfair.

Question 6

This advertisement is a prime example of the types of globalization we discussed in class. Globalization is how culture is spread around the world. Conon goes into a different country to find the right thread for his curtains for his American television show. The people from that country help him find these curtains and change the color. Then Conan brings them back to America and puts them up on his show. This is an example of how people can open up to different cultures an become more worldly. I also think this goes against the exotic commercial, because Indians in this advertisement are shown in a good and helpful light. There is also just not one Indian person but many of them included in the advertisement.

Question 5

Ideology is the science of ideas, aka common sense. It constructs everyday and how we treat each other. Hegemony is ideology constructed in things like education, everyday life, institutions, family or the workplace. Pretty much everything we do and everywhere we go involves ideology, including the urinal game. In this game it is common sense that you are walking into the men's bathroom because your character is a man. Hegemony is seen when you are supposed to pick the "right" spot to go and stand when there are other men scattered around the different urinals. This game tests your knowledge oh how to treat others and not invade their privacy.