Monday, April 20, 2009

LISTEN UP!!!!

Talking Back

Teens these days represent themselves in many ways. This website that i have been looking over has youth media all over the site! It is a great way for the youth today to express themselves and a way to "TALK BACK". Kids have a lot to say when they have the chance to express themselves. I watched some videos, and they were great. some of the videos were ones that adluts would make, i feel. I watched one video that was called "Blinde Date" and it was a boy who was blind who was a real jerk and was taking this girl out on a date, he was mean to her parents and when they go to the movie theater, she left. At first I thought it was making fun on the Blind, when in actuality, it was stating that people are people, blind, deaf, black, white, or purple(lol). He was a real jerk and thats why the girl left him.
People in today's society really put down teenagers, saying they are dumb and silly and dark and immature, thoughout the course, and the readinds we have done, i have come to realize that teens are normal people and everyone is going to be, is, or was a teenager at one point in their lives. Teens can express themselves through the media and use this access to show what they are really doing in life and how they think. Every single teen in different.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Final Project Outline

Cliques and Subgroups (accourding to music influences)
Lauren Geraghty and Claire Petersen


1. Opening with a breif clip (mean girls cafeteria scene)

2. SUBGROUPS:

a. Hippies

b.Punk Rockers

c. Hip Hop

d. Pop

3. connections to class literature: Prep, Trisha Rose, Hine, Facebook and Myspace piece

4. Pictures of teens and what they look like, how they act, what are they really listening to?

5. Why do they conform? attitudes toward life due to influences from music.

6. Handout-Trivia on who's who and why teens are conforming into these music influenced groups



We are going to focus on 4 groups:

Hippies: Hemp, pot/drugs, laid back attitude, peace

Punk Rockers: Tattoos, Dark/Black, angry, emo

Hip Hop: Money, Alcohol, women/sex

Pop: Angelic, virginity, preppy/pink, purity

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

FACEBOOK AND MYSPACE?

In the Jenkins piece, there is a discussion about myspace and facebook and why it is important. Myspace and facebook are online social networks where individuals create profiles and link to other "friends" sharing their interests, identity and tastes. There are photos that are uploaded and people can view these photos if they are "friends" there are numerous communication tools, people can communicate via messages, writing on walls or commenting on status or pictures. The controversy is that these portals put youths at risk of sexual pretators and pedophiles. Teens are representing themselves through these portals as sex fiends and there is aspects of drug use and alcohol use when they are not legal. it has become grounds of much controversy!



Check this video out guys! it is great, wicked funny! relates perfectly to the facebook issue...

The other article, about the Horrace Mann Issue, isputting teachers jobs at risk over teens giving them a bad rap on the online social networks like facebook and myspace. In one issue, students made fun of a woman's issue group making up a fake group "men's issues group" stating that women belong in the kitchen. Students all over the world are feeding into the online social networking hype and i can say that i do use facebook, and have seen some of the bad things that it can do to distort your brain, and when teens are growing, it is easy for them to feed into certian things, facebook and myspace are not going to change, but could potentially cahnge the youth of america as we know it!






Monday, March 30, 2009

Teenagers in the News. . .

"Explicit Cellphone Photos Could Land Teenagers in Prison"


By: Riva Richmond

We have talked about teenagers being digital natives, and what teenager these days is without a cellphone in hand. In this article, Richmond states, "One in five teenagers may be child pornographers risking life in prison — for the crime of taking and distributing naked pictures of themselves." I thought SICK! i mean when i was 13 or 14 years old, i was not about taking naked pictures of me or my friends, but now with teh invovement of sex all over the mainstream media, teens are becoming more and more risky with the ways that they are using the media that they have. It is called "sexting" an incident went teribly wrong when a boy in upper state NY took a picture of himself and sent it to a girl who then sent it and it eventually reached 300 kids. The problem is the media and cell phone and digital cameras mixing with the mass medias influence of sex on young children.


"Murders by Black Teenagers Rise, Bucking a Trend"

By: Erick Eckholm

"The murder rate among black teenagers has climbed since 2000 even as murders by young whites have scarcely grown or declined in some places, according to a new report. " Whe3n reading this article it was hard not to stereotype, because people are still so racist in our society, yet the statistics were scary. The main racial difference involves juveniles ages 14 to 17. In 2000, 539 white and 851 black juveniles committed murder, according to an analysis of federal data by the authors. In 2007, the number for whites, 547, had barely changed, while that for blacks was 1,142, up 34 percent. The numbers are outstading and some of this has to do with what is being shouwn on the news and on the shows and video games, but others has to do with how people are brought up and what they are forming into, all in all it is a scary subject and something must be done!


"The Lives of Teenagers Now: Open Blogs, Not Locked Diaries"


By: Tom Zeller

This article i read in teh New York Times was not all bad, like the other 2 i read, THis article simply was stating that teens are becoming more and more atuned to making digital masterpieces. People who have studied graphic and making digital art are getting a run for their money. A teen, Mellissa, made a digital slideshow about her father that passed away on her own website with pictures and music and it was all for free. Teens have such an access to online art that they are making wonderful things out of what they are given. According to the Pew survey, 57 percent of all teenagers between 12 and 17 who are active online - about 12 million - create digital content, from building Web pages to sharing original artwork, photos and stories to remixing content found elsewhere on the Web. Some 20 percent publish their own Web logs. Myspace and Facebook are changing the way teens live their lives and they are becoming less social in person and more social through the internet.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

FAST FORWARD. . .

Lauren Greenfield's website was great! It was easy to navigate, and the pictures were a great representation of teens today. The whole "getting older younger" idea that sticks out to her is one statement that is most definitly portrayed through the pictures in her book. After photographing my 13 year old cousin, i have come to the same type of realization. Talking to her made it seem as though she was up to my age. When i was 13, i was not talking about getting my hair colored or reading confessions of a shopaholic. Thats what i am doing now at 22. The Artist statement by Lauren Greenfield showed the reader exactly what she was thinking and why she went about her projects. I was shocked my some of the pictures, especially the one with the girl weighing herself infront of her friends and parents, she was real skinny, and it was shocking to see. Also the girls huffing in the bathroom was shocking. All in all, those pictures tell a huge STORY about what is happening/happened to the YOUTH.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009


PREP


After reading the first two chapters of prep, i came to realize that this novel is following certian problems that arise in young awkward teenagers as they are faced with these problems everyday. I follows Lee, a Freshman at Ault School. This school is a boarding school. The problems she ran into were problems that most teens face everyday. The begining where she did the wrong presentation reminded me of one time in hihg school when i thought i was supossed to present on thursday, when in actuality it was on tuesday, i did not do a good job, and had no visual aides! It made me want to do what Lee did when she ran out of the classroom. She faces problems of sexual orientaion, tattle telling on people, first crush, and many other problems just in the first chapter, it made me want to keep reading to see what else happens to Lee. Its almost like a guilty pleasure in a way as she runs into these problems, you want to feel bad for her, then realize that you can just relate these problems to some of the problems you had when you were a child. I think that this book relates to ourclass emensly as it is how teenagers evolve and grow through the life of a young girl. It was not confusing, just some of the book seemed to be dragged out, like when the author descibed certian shing sin depth, (ie. the bathroom floor, or the yearbook) however i felt as though that may have helped ion understanding how this girls mind is functioning. It almost seemed at times she was psychotic, but thats just how some teenage minds think!

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Tricia Rose Interviews

I was very interested in what Tricia Rose, a Professor at Brown University had to say about the "hip hop wars" She stated in the interview i listened to that Roxanne Shonte broke female rap. I agree with when she said women have to do extra work to fit into the rap genre. It is hard for women to be respected when they are seen as such sex symbols in that genre of music. Either way they have to have a relationship to sexuality with female rappers, one either has to be hyper sexual (lil' kim) or hyper tough (missy elliot) to become successfull as a recording mc. The article read was a different focus it was more towards why certian rappers are more famous thatn others and why it is dying out, and why people like jay-z have admited to dumbing down their music for mainstream hip hop. I personally dont understand why that is nessesary for rappers to dumb down their music. I work at a bar that on saturday nights does an underground hip hop thing on saturday nights, The Dj's (roe and al bumz) are amazing and have such a big following and there music is so interesting and intricate. I listen to the crap that is on the radio and wonder why these guys are in a back room at a bar in providence, and people like lil' wayne and 50 cent are rich and famous. The female rappers need to be sexual to be heard and at that i dont even feel like they are respected at all. This reminds me of those ads we were watching for the super bowl. The females were sexual and they got noticed, these female mc's are just as good as the men that are on the radio now, so why must they look like lil' kim? I am not a huge fan of the rap genre, but i do have some respect for the people who dont sell themselves out to the media. gross.

Monday, February 16, 2009

"Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants" By: Marc Prensky

Some things I understand: In the article by Prensky, I pretty much understood most of the article. I think that the article stresses the fact that our generation gap is affecting the way children learn today. The Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants theory is clever in going after the fact that people learn differently when comming from different generations of people. The decline in our education is a direct result in that the students know more about the technology than the teachers that are teching them. It is almost like a lack in power.

Some things I don't understand: I did'nt understand or grasp the fact that the article questioned if students should learn old ways or techers should learn new ways. The digital natives will not go backwards as stated in the article. People are learning new innovations everyday, i think teachers can learn the new digital age. As a country, we have grown so far and i think it is wrong of the digital immigrants to not learn the new digital age. They are teachers, they are constantly learning, they should keep up with then world around them!

Conections to text/ course themes: This connects with out course them in that teens and the media are how students are so digital savy. It is because of the media. Teens come home from school and go straight to the computer, it sad but true, and they are learning new things everyday!

Questions/ Comments: I enjoyed this article and thought that it was a good topic to look at! The digital age is here and in full speed and i think it is nessesary for all ages to learn more and keep up to date with the digital era!

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

The Rise and Fall of the American Teenager

After reading this article about teenagers, i realized that i was being pretty stereotypical even though i myself was a teenager about 3 years ago. LIke the article said, our belief about teens is contradictory. "They should be free to become themselves. They need many years of training and study. They know more about the future than adults do. They know hardly anything at all. They ought to know the value of a dollar. They should be protected from the world of work. They are frail, vulnerable creatures. They are children. They are sex fiends. They are the death of culture. They are the hope to us all." This section of the text was quite a wake up call as i realized that i do myself think of teens in that manner at times, as does everyone i feel. It is expressed that way through the media and through portals of out lives.
People assume that all teenagers are alike and the same and this article expressed that about our assumtions. "all young people regardless of their class, location, or ethnicity, should have essentially the same experience, spent with people exactly their age, in an environment defined by high school and pop culture."
I didnt quite understand the intro section of the article about if teens were necessary. I mean i understand what he is saying i jsut dont think that he chose the right wording in soem cases in the article.
Overall, i think that the article gave great insight to some questions and expleined some things that i had not otherwise been thinking about at all.

Monday, February 2, 2009

Talking Points #2

MEDIA LITERACY

After spending quite sometime surfing the web on media literacy, i have come to find some things about the topic. First, i didnt have a firm grasp as to what it exactly meant. In turn, i did what most do in that situation. . .wikipedia. Media literacy is the process of accessing, analyzing, evaluating and creating messages in a wide variety of media modes, genres and forms. It uses an inquiry-based instructional model that encourages people to ask questions about what they watch, see, and read. So blogging would be a form of media literacy. It is basically understanding the media through discussion of the topics that are being expressed in the media. Media literacy was origanally conceived as an educational tool to protect people from what many perceived to be mass media's ill effects. To this day it is still a way to look at the media nto as a form of entertainment, but taking a "deeper look". For example, when we watched the opening scene of beauty and the beast in class, we tore it apart, and didnt really watch it for the entertainment aspect, but to look at what was the deeper message being expressed by the scene. Found a really great organization called ACME (Action Coalition for Media Education). It was really great for information and seems like a great organization. Its mission is: We live in the most heavily mediated society in world history. Powerful media tools—print, radio, television, the Internet—can bring a rich diversity of information into every home and school. Yet just a few multinational corporations (Big Media) own much of the media that shape our 21st century culture. Independently-funded media literacy education plays a crucial role in challenging Big Media's monopoly over our culture, helping to move the world to a more just, democratic and sustainable future. Maybe check out the site for yourself.
http://acmecoalition.org/ . I feel as though it is definitley an important topic to discuss and understand when being influenced by the media! It is fun to watch thesemovies and ads, but one must not let it negetively affect them or influence them throughout their lives. I especially feel as though it is important for children and teens to understand this while growing up!!

Monday, January 26, 2009

Talking Points #1

Author: Linda Christensen

Title: Unlearning the Myths That Bind Us

Some things I understand: This article by Christensen goes over the "myths" in our society that make us work the way that we do. I think that the media playes a huge role in how people live there lives. A quote that stuck out right away was by one of Christensen's students, Omar, was "When we read children's books, we aren't just reading cute little stories, we are discovering the tools with which a young society is manipulated." What Omar is expressing is that when reading stories like cinderella, you often think nothing off it but as a childrens book, but in turn, every girl wants to find her prince and live happily ever after because that is what society and the media a constantly pushing into each and everyone brain every day! If you think about it from the moment you wake up, until the moment you go to bed, the media is everywhere. you wake up to an alarm clock with the radio blaring another annoying commercial about a new weightloss pill. then you go to the bathroom, pick up the toothpast, which is of course a name brand like crest or colgate, because the media has made it known that this is what we should use, when im sure that the CVS brand is the same thing in a different bottle. billboards, tv commericails, magazine ads, songs, shows, clothing. . . everything that you see, listen to, hear, or touch from the moment you wake up till the moment that you close your eyes to go to bed has shaped your schema and how you think about the world. (that was a bit sidetracked, but this article made me think of how everything that i do forms the way that i think about the world and how to live my life) The article also went into talking about cartoons and how they are stereotypical for men and women's roles. Race in cartoons was also an issue addressed, Black Cinderella? How women who arent white feel ugly becuase the lead of every princess in movies is usually white.

Some things i don't understand:
- Now there have been cartoon movies where they are trying to make the leading lady not strictly caucasian like mulan and even aladin, so i think the article can address those points.
- Is there a man's deception too? men are made to look strong and built, it seems as though they are focusing on women mostly in the article.

Connections:
-This can be related to how we are going over our 3 assumption in class and how the media effects the way in which everyone thinks and molds us into what we are today.

Questions/ Comments/ Points to Share in Class:
-I feel as though the way the media depicts women has negetvley affected how girls grow up more so now with more of a media outreach through youtube and facebook. There is so many ways to be conected to society that girls as young as 8 and 9 are wearing make-up and dressing like minny adults.

"When I was 13..."

When I was 13 years old, i was in the 8th grade. I played field hockey and loved it! I was really into new hip clothes like bell bottoms and of course they had to be the brand that everyone was wearing! These pants were not just a little flared at the bottom, but they were like boats i swear! Looking back at pictures makes me laugh! (really hard!) I was one of those teenagers that had a really hard time with her locker. I didnt quite get the hang of it. It took me a while!

I really enjoyed middle school though, i had some great friends and in fact still talk to some of them to this day! I enjoyed school for the most part however hated the bus. we used to call it the "loser cruiser."

There are a lot of memories that i experienced while being 13, dancing at school dances with boys, you only danced to slow songs as your arms were strait across and teachers were glaring the whole time, "no touching!"

I think back and laugh, however, i really did have a pretty good time while being 13!