Future Role

What role will I choose for my life? Well, I am currently a psychology student, and the role I want to choose regarding that is become a counselor and peacemaker. I want all people to know that their opinion does count and people can work things out if it means that much to them. I also want to be a good daughter, sister, and friend. Family is very important to me, so I definately want to center my life around family first and foremost. I want to eventually be a wonderful wife and mother to start my own family life.
After this class, I have seen the roles that activists have taken and how the roles that they choose effect them in every way. Being an activist is not for me. I am happy with my life right now and want to focus on things that mean a lot to me, such as my family. I think everyone should have a passion, and their role should coincide with their passion.
These are the roles that I choose

Lippmann Wrapped Up

Walter Lippmann addresses many issues in his book Public Opinion. He states that media creates the pictures that we have in our heads. One issue that he addresses is stereotypes, and he states that the reason that the public has the stereotypes that it does is because media (television, radio, film) puts these ideas into media consumers’ heads. In this way, media acts as the gatekeeper and agenda setter of society. Media chooses what it wants individuals to know and feeds it to us through various sources of medium. In this way, Lippmann hints to the idea that our society is not a democracy at all, but in fact, the public is controlled by the gatekeepers of media.
It can be seen how technological determinism ties into this idea. Technological determinism is the idea that technology determines history and drives society. In a more specific sense, technology (media) determines how individuals in society react and the choices that people make every day. We act on the pictures in our head implanted by the media. This creates society.
The solution that Lippmann proposes to stop the media from holding this power over the public, is a call for intellegencia. The intellegencia are individuals who are educated and thus will educate the public and cause individuals to participate and think critically. The intellegencia will help the public become media literate, and end the power that it has over society. In this way, media will not be able to set their agenda and act as the gatekeepers, but we as society will be guided by individuals who are educated and will lead us to become a better society.

Even though Lippmann was hard to read, “Public Opinion” truly was an interesting read. Until you have a chance to analyze the novel, one may not even think about the control media has over us as a society. It is only after we realize this, and become educated enough to stop it, that we can create a change in society and be our own gatekeepers

Caitlyn May. . .

What would life be like being a Down syndrome child, or having a Down syndrome child in your family? Our documentary follows the life of 3 year-old, Caitlyn, and how she influences her family every day. Raw emotion and genuine love are shown through the relationships presented in the documentary. Life may seem rough sometimes, but viewing it from a different perspective makes us all aware of the gifts that we do have.

View life from Caitlyn's perspective on Tuesday, May 8th, 2007 at 12:45 in Mueller Theater. Find out what Caitlyn May. . .

Documentary Update

JAMA Productions documentary on Catelyn, a Down syndrome child, has been coming along. So far, we have interviewed Catelyn’s Mother, Father, and even her older sister a little bit. We have met with the family numerous times, and have a lot of footage of Catelyn playing and simply being herself. We also have footage of Catelyn and her sister playing and dancing together. The parents graciously loaned us some pictures of Catelyn throughout her childhood that we plan to include in the documentary. Furthermore, they have given us a CD of inspirational songs that we will most likely use as well. The family has been very open and receptive to our project.
We do have a couple things left to do though. This Monday, my group has an interview scheduled with one of the psychology professors, to get the technical information about Down syndrome. We will be asking the professor what Down syndrome is and how it affects an individual’s life, among other things.
After our last interview, my group will begin the editing process. Finally, we will start advertising for our film and eventually present it.
I feel that we are right on track with our documentary. Everyone in my group has equally participated and we work really well together as a team. It has been smooth sailing so far. Hopefully it will stay that way for the final stages of the project.

Desperate Housewives - Our reality?

I am an avid Desperate Housewives fan. I try to never miss an episode and own the previous seasons on DVD. This Sunday, I was watching Desperate Housewives as usual, and couldn’t help but notice all of the drama that does not happen in every day life. The episode starts out with Susan meeting her fiancé’s parents for the very first time. Normally, I would simply watch the show and enjoy all of the drama that is in “their” lives, and not mine, however, this time I was noticing situations that I would not normally experience. During Susan’s meeting with the future in-laws, she accidentally sets her mother-in-law to be’s dress on fire. Not only is this situation unimaginable, but it gets even better; the mother-in-law does not get burned in the slightest! Another example from the episode on Sunday was when Susan walked in on her future father-in-law trying on her lacy undergarments and silk robe. When would this ever happen in real life? Even if the father-in-law did prefer woman clothes, would he be trying on the clothes of a person that he knew only for one sit down dinner? I doubt it.
According to Joshua Meyrowitz, television has become a negative form of entertainment, because while we are watching the lives of others, it shows us all the places we want to be, but can’t. It makes us aware that is a bigger world than simply our daily lives, and because of this, we begin to feel isolated and alone. An example of this from Desperate Housewives on Sunday, was when Gabriella was visiting a male friend and saw a closet full of designer clothes that had belonged to his ex-wife. Being a woman that loves clothes, I was a bit jealous of the beautiful garments that Gabriella was able to try on. I would never be able to afford even one of those gorgeous dresses.

Baudrillard’s take on television is another interesting one. He felt that television was a kind of hyperreality. According to Baudrillard, television dictates what in life is important, such as fashion. After viewing this “hyperreality” that we are exposed to by television, we apply these rules to our own reality. Therefore, television becomes how we model our lives. I like Baudrillard’s description of television more than Meyrowitz’s because I think that we do take what we see on television and incorporate it into our own lives. For example, the style of clothing that we see on television becomes the new fashion, no matter how ugly it may be. Tonight, while I was watching Desperate Housewives, there was one scene where Gabriella was wearing this black, trench coat-like dress, and my mother stated that it had to be the ugliest thing she had ever seen. I responded back by saying “Mom, that’s the new fashion”. That proves to me that we wear, and consider attractive, what we see on television.

Uses and Gratification theory, ties into this idea that we model our world from what we see on television. This theory states that we actively choose media (in this case television) to satisfy our needs. If your need is to be fashionable, and a style icon, you may watch Desperate Housewives, or other popular television programs. We choose what we want to watch because it suits our needs.

After watching Desperate Housewives this weekend, I realized how much of an impact primetime television has on our society. From the ugly dress that is considered fashionable, to the closest filled with designer clothes, it enables the media to tell the masses what we should like and what we shouldn’t.

Grey's Anatomy

My favorite television program would have to be Grey’s Anatomy. According to Nielson Media Research, America loves the show also. For the week of March 19th, 22,304,000 individuals tuned in. The rating was 14.4 and the share was 22.0. CSI: Las Vegas plays at the same time and day, Thursday at 9:00pm. CSI: Las Vegas is not even listed in the top ten television programs on Nielson’s top TV ratings for the week of March 19th.. However, this week (March 26th), CSI placed above Grey’s Anatomy with 10.6 rating/18 share. This information leads me to believe that whenever either Grey’s Anatomy or CSI is showing a re-run, the other show flourishes in its popularity for the night. If Grey’s Anatomy moved to a different night, I believe that the number of viewers would increase dramatically, and the rating will thus increase. This would occur because it would not be in competition with CSI: Las Vegas for primetime television on Thursday nights. However, because both CBS and ABC have popular television programs lined up for every night of the week, there would still be competition between Grey’s Anatomy and whatever was on the other channel.

Tristan + Isolde: A film to watch

Romeo and Juliet. Lancelot and Guinevere. We all know and have heard of these love stories, but Tristan + Isolde becomes a mixture of both stories to form a film for every audience. Tristan + Isolde was produced in 2006 by Ridley Scott (Gladiator). The story takes place during the Dark Ages, when a feud is at its peak between Britain and Ireland. Tristan, played by James Franco is from Britain, and after his parents are murdered by the Irish during an attack, he becomes a pseudo-son under the future King, Marke, played by Rufus Sewell. Tristan grows up under Marke and becomes an excellent fighter, but during one Irish raid, is supposedly killed. Because of his leadership qualities, he receives a king’s funeral and is put on a boat for it. Ironically, his funeral boat lands on Irish shore and is found by the King’s daughter, Isolde, played by Sophia Myles. The love story develops and takes many twists along the way.
However, the entire picture is not completely a love story. Tristan + Isolde has action packed fighting scenes, and themes of loyalty and betrayal. This film would make for a good date night because both women and men would find an interesting plot to follow. The film keeps the audience on the edge of their seat every second.
Not only is the story and characters remarkable, but the sets, costumes, and music are spectacular as well. Because the story takes place during the Dark Ages, the sets are more dreary and give the audience a sense of the time period. The building structures are amazing, and one can tell that attention was given to the details. The costumes also fit the time period very well. They represent the time period and socioeconomic status of each character individually throughout the film. Lastly, the music is memorable and appropriate for the different scenes. The song “We belong together” written by Gavin DeGraw, evokes emotion and tells of the underlying theme throughout the entire movie.
Overall, Tristan + Isolde is definitely a film to watch, particularly with the one you love. Because of the amazing story, and various other aspects of the film, I would rate it as a 9/10.