Final project ---> The Daily Male

For our final project, Moa, Linda and I chose to do a magazine called: "The Daily Male". We wrote several articles, held interviews and wrote columns with different aspects and point of view about the objectification of men and especially in media. We have written about everything from cartoons to chefs and models. We discuss the criteria and characteristics of masculinity and apply these to our thoughts, articles and columns.

Here is the link to our online magazine, The Daily Male 

http://vrgthedailymale.wordpress.com/ 

Blog assignment #13: Exit slip - A Burning Question

The strongest thoughts that stroke me during and after the movie was the realization of that the economy and politics of a country, in this case for example Ireland, all affect and are being affected by the environment and the current climate. There was a part in the movie when they showed, I think it was Dublin, when it was almost completely under water. Because of this the economy suffered and this clearly demonstrated how everything is connected.

Climate change happens right now and no one is good enough at trying to prevent these changes. We hear about these major problems and issues all the time and still do not seem to think that one man can do something to reduce it. There has to be a change soon.

In media, climate change is being portrayed when something major has happened or some new discovery. Sadly, there are not new discoveries all the time and therefor the time in media for climate change is very irregular. I think that the media coverage of climate change has to become more regular and not come from time to time and then there might be a slight change in people´s minds and thoughts about climate change and what to do with it. 

Blog Assignment #12 - Tough Guise

9. This film is now pretty dated, with many cultural references that need renewal. Can you make some suggestions about more current films/TV shows/ media figures that Katz should include in a possible re-make of his documentary? How have things changed? How have things stayed the same?

Masculinity can be invisible even though it is there. When it states for example: "woman assaulted" in the newspaper ---> it points towards a man or boy that is the perpetrator. We cannot deal with the issues of masculinity if we cannot see it. So to make masculinity visible is the first step towards working with this problem in today´s society.

To re-make the movie with maybe new examples of men and different movies is my suggestion. I feel that the movie and topic then would be more appropriate in time and that we as students maybe can relate more to "characters" and/or "stereotypes" that we are more familiar with. Entourage is an example of a TV-series that display masculinity and could be one new series to add. The men in the series are well known, both among girls and boys and especially among teenagers which often are the ones who get affected the most. The one non-Caucasian character is also the only homosexual character and he is shown as quite ridiculous and the women in the series are there to create difficulty or distraction. The other men and main characters try to reinforce masculinity as the cultural norm.

If one thinks about the younger audience, the movies about Tarzan and Superman also include a lot of masculinity and some aspects that according to me is not something to strive for to show young boys and girls. What I mean is the parts where for example Tarzan “possess” his perfect woman, in this case Jane. This is displayed as Jane is part of the man´s (Tarzan´s) wealth, belongings and even part of him being masculine.

I feel that Katz should use a diversity of movies and TV-series if making an updated version. Different age groups should be targeted because masculinity and toughness is shown everywhere in today´s society. It is so vital to learn how this topic is exposed to be able to learn about it. I had not thought about for example Tarzan in this way until today and now my opinion and feeling for the movie got slightly changed. Katz movie was striking and truly affected me and my thoughts. 

Blog Assignment #11 - "Killing us softly 4" - Discussion after watching the film

We were asked to write and discuss a few questions after watching the movie and here are the three that my group (Moa and Katrin) chose. We only had to write down one answer to one question but I chose to take notes on all of our small discussions and here is what we came up with:

5. What sorts of products are sold using images of women and femininity? What kinds of products are sold using images of men and masculinity? Are these ever switched around? If so, when?

Women often sell cars and items where they can use the female sexiness to lure in the buyers and men. If one look at items and ads for gender neutral purposes they often are advertised with women and femininity. Perfumes are items that are often portrayed alongside men if the perfume is for men and with images of women if the item is for women. There might be a good looking woman in a advertisement for a male perfume which might be used to make it seem as the item smells so good that all women or at least the woman in the ad cannot "control" herself around the man and is strongly pulled towards him and his scent. 

13. What is responsible advertising? Do advertisers have a responsibility to society? Do they have a responsibility to children? Why or why not?

No, not really since they are not "parents", their main purpose is to sell the products and items displayed. They do have some kind of responsibility in not showing pictures of e.g. rape or other assaults. Also, they should not enhance the positive view of very young models wearing make-up and sexy clothes.

29. In what ways do images of thinness and advertisements for food contradict each other in the media? How might their combined effects lead to disordered eating?

It leads to disturbed thoughts about food. It says that you can stay so skinny and still eating so much junk food and sweets which totally contradict each other. Sadly this might lead to young girl or boys eating for example to much ice cream and still think they will look good and be healthy. In the long term this can lead to serious consequences and illness. I and my whole group think it is vital to talk to children about not always trusting the internet and/or TV advertising. 

Blog Assignment #10: Norms, gender and the media

I worked on this blog assignment with Moa, Charlotta, Linda and Marika. The blog post is posted on Moa´s blog and here is the link to it:

http://moalinmediacourse.wordpress.com/

Blog Assignment #9 - Representation Research

1. A Swedish girl looking feminine

I found this picture at the bus terminal in Danderyds Sjukhus. It is a cover for a health magazine and it is Laila Bagge Wahlgren who is the girl in the picture. It was quite easy to find this picture since it was posted on a wall outside of "Pressbyrån" and not hidden or anything like that.

2. A person with no visible physical disability

This is an add that I found on a wall at Stockholms University. I choose this for "no physical disabillity" since the man is training and in this case practising spinning without any trouble. There are no visible disabillities. This was no hard to find either and at the University, these adds are rather common on the walls.

3. A white/Caucasian man looking masculine 
AND
4. A middle-aged man looking masculine

This is a snapshot that I took when watching "Fear Factor" a couple of days ago. This is a man who is a cowboy and to me he looks quite masculine. The question of masculinity differs dependeing on who you ask about it so therefor I found it a bit hard to decide on what picture. However, cowboys are usually seen as masculine and therefor I chose this picture in the end.

5. A masculine-looking woman

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6. An older non-white woman

This is a picture from a magazine and it was reather easy to find. 

8. A person with a visible physical disability

I took this snapshot when watching the hopital tv-series "Grey´s Anatomy". It was very easy to take.

9. A woman with a foreign background who holds a high social position

This is Abeba Aregawi and she does not come from Sweden. She is one of the best runners in Sweden today and therefor holds a high social position.

10. A woman with a Swedish background who holds a high social position



This picture is from the TV. It is Carin Jämtin who is a politician in Sweden, from Stockholm and in/was in a high social position. It was easy to find this picture.

11. A young Muslim looking happy

This is a muslim and when I took it he was laughing, therefor happy. It was on the news on "TV4 Nyheterna". I found it a bit hard to find a happy muslim and with this picture I was only certain of his religion after he said so on the TV.

12. A heterosexual person

This was in a magazine and it was easy to find. I know that he is straight since he said in the text that he had a girlfriend. I do not know however if he has had boyfriends in the past but my guess would be know since he talked about being straight.

13. A homosexual person

This is Anton Hysén and as said in the text in the picture above, he is homosexuall. He was the first Swedish soccer player to talk openly about that he is gay. This I found rather easy when browsing the web for articles about him.

14. A homosexual woman with a foreign background
AND 
7. A homosexual person who holds a high social position

This is Ellen DeGeneres (to the left). She is American and homosexuall (her wife to the right). She holds a high social status and she is a very well known talk-show host. Since she is so famous, it was not so hard to take a picture when seeing her on TV.

15. A non-white homosexual man


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16. A white person with no obvious religious symbols around them

This one was easy to find. It was a large image on the wall in the supermarket where I was shopping for food. There are no obvious religious symbols.

Blog Assignment #8 - the Promised Land

BEFORE VIEWING THE FILM, answer the following questions:

1. Write down some brief notes here about what you know of the Israel-Palestine conflict.

·         I know that it is a conflict that has taken place for a very long period of time. The Palestinians and the Israelis are fighting over the Gaza strip which is located in Israel. There are rockets being fired and the conflict is very violent.

2. What understanding do you have of the word “occupation”? Can you think of any places that are “under occupation” today?

·         The place that I think of when I hear "under occupation"  is Palestine. For me, the word "occupation" means when a piece of land is being taken over by someone who does not own it.

3. How do you define these terms: propaganda, public relations, lobbying. Are there differences between these concepts?

·         Propaganda: Bias information meant to influence people.

·         Public relations: With the goal of maintaining good understanding and communication between organizations and the public. To market and present something within a special market.

·         Lobbying: the act of trying to influence decisions made by the government and their officials. 

AFTER VIEWING THE FILM, answer these questions:

1. This film concentrates on the different British and American news perspectives about the conflict in the Middle East. What is the Swedish news perspective on this conflict? Can you give some evidence of this?

·         In blog assignment #5 there was a similar question and my answer there was  as follows:

According to me and what I have seen at home on the news, the pro-Palestinian story is the most alike to my view of the conflict. However, I do not have feel that Sweden has chosen a clear side at all. For me, it feels more like Sweden and the news displayed here are more concerned with showing the unfairness and often the weaker side rather than on specific side of the conflict in question. Sweden has through time kept a quite neutral position and opinion about conflicts around the world, this including the one concerning the Gaza strip as well. 

2. This film is particularly critical of bias in reporting about the Middle East in the American news. Is this relevant information for non-Americans? Why? Why not?

·         For me, I understand what most Americans feel and think about the conflict. I do not think that it gives relevant information about the conflict itself since the information is so biased. Everyone should have the opportunity to form their own opinion of the conflict and the American news is clearly biased towards the Israelis.

3. Do you agree with Alisa Solomon that there is an absence of representation of Palestinian voices in the media? Why or why not?

·         Yes I do think so. To get a clear picture of the truth, there has to be information on both sides and from both sides. I do not think that the Palestinian voices are heard as much as they should. There is no chance of creating your own opinion when there only is one story you hear and from one specific point of view. The examples that were shown in the movie made this even clearer, especially in the US media.

4. Discuss what you think the historical and cultural background might be to explain America’s staunch support of Israel.

·         The USA have a lot of Jews in their population, especially since many emigrated there from Germany after the Holocaust. Israel and the United States have a close relationship and therefor it is clear that they show the pro-Israeli video in the US as well as hold the US´s support in the conflict.

5. Journalist Robert Fisk discusses the “fear factor” in American journalism. Discuss the culture of fear in American politics today, using examples you can think of from media and from speeches of politicians.

·          All news that is being published has gone through multiple filters. The government, politicians, other organizations and news corporations want to review the news before the whole world can read/watch them. Because of this, the world does not get the full true story at all time but a censored version which might even be biased some times.

Fear can be used as a weapon in many situations and there have been actions that have increased this fear. For example, the attack on 9/11 made people and the whole US scared and I do no personally think that no one feels more safe in that country after that horrible attack.

6. Describe at least 3 instances of polemical language used to describe this conflict named in the film. What effect do such words/phrases have? What alternatives could be used?

·         “Neighbourhood” – the US media use the word neighbourhood when they refer to Israelis living on Palestinian territory.

·         “Relative calm” - this is a phrase used in the US media when no Israelis have been killed over a period, meanwhile Palestinians are still being killed but this is not being recognized in the media.

·         “Anti-Semitic” – when people are called this for not supporting and agreeing with the Israeli perspective.

7. What, according to Dr. Jensen, has been Israel’s PR strategy since 9/11? What issues and emotions does such a strategy seek to tap into?

·         Since 9/11, the Israelis have been focusing on making all actions from Palestinians seem as acts of terrorism. By doing this, the Israelis strengthen their relationship with the US, the government and its people, especially people who knew someone who was affected personally by the 9/11 attack and making the Palestinians look as terrorists.

8. Why is labeling a protester of Israeli policy anti-Semitic particulary a) dangerious and b) effective?

·          Dangerous: Could become a respective label if everyone keeps using it.

·         Effective: no one wants to be called this – best way to silent voices.  

9. All the speakers in the final segment of the film see American public opinion as a crucial element. Yet the thesis of the film is that media shape this opinion. How can this chicken/egg situation be resolved?

·         I am not sure that this situation can be resolved. I do think that there can be improvement, but I have no idea to what extent because in the end, media is dependent on our opinions and media is something that we are dependent on. To try to make the US media less bias is something that I think would be a positive change. At least to make sure that there are different newspapers (perhaps from other countries that usually not are bias, at least not bias about the Israel-Palestine conflict), so that people can have the opportunity to read articles that has not been censored in the US before the publication. Opinions and bias is everywhere in today´s world and it is not easy to just take them away, which maybe not would be the best solution either. News is coming from people and people have opinions. It can almost be seen as a vicious never-ending cycle.

10. What is the current status of the conflict in the Middle East? How do you know this? Which media do you rely on for information about the conflict?

•             This is not a conflict that I follow regularly but I think that there was an attack quite recently, which was the first one since the seize fire in November 2012. When I want to know something about a specific conflict or other news, I always check a couple of sources and not just one. When I do this, I get slightly different versions depending on the media sources political bias and other opinions. When I then put all stories together and compare them, I can draw some conclusions to what seems to be the core story without having to think about the bias and political opinions. I usually look at the Swedish sources “SvD” and “Dagens Nyheter” and some international sources such as for example “the Guardian”, “BBC” and “the Economist”. 

Blog Assignment #7: An “exit slip”

My own notes that I took during our meeting with Dr. Alexa Robertson:

·         Unwitting media - when something happens without purpose

·         Important to sort out the small questions, such as: who did what? Who said what? Who is who?

Making sense of media

·         Value quality and quantity - find the balance

·         http://www.ushahidi.com/

·         Economic threats to quality journalism

·         Tension between politicisation & professionalism

·         Crowdsourcing -

·         The problem with "old media" and "new media"

·         Egypt's Jon Stewart-

·         Dumbing down - celebrity politics

·         Power without responsibility?

o    Journalists have such political power but without any obligations and responsibility

o    No one votes for them but they have the strength and power to spread political beliefs

o    They are making and spreading the message without responsibilities

·         Relationship between media and democracy more complicated in globalized world

·         Everything is a competition - in media and on television

o    Glen Hysén in the new TV-show

·         What kind of problem is it?

o    Theoretical

o    Empirical

o    Normative

·         What is new? And what is a new twist on an old situation?

·         What is the general pattern? What are the cultural exceptions?

·         Who does it matter to - who are the stakeholders?

·         How can these ideas be tested empirically?

Reflection:

Alexa Robertson truly knew what she was talking about. Without notes she went through the basics of media; new and old, quality vs. quantity, media in the globalized world and so on. The part that most caught my attention was the part about journalists and their political power they possess without any responsibility. The journalists spread political messages and beliefs and they have the power to “tell those” in ways that might not always be the correct objective one, which makes us the readers form an opinion by reading in media. This is so important to know and I did not think of this at all before Dr. Robertson told us about it in class. The question of responsibility in media is one of the questions we have to ask ourselves. We have to be aware about all of this when we actively use media in our daily life. 

Blog Assignment #6 - Covering Conflict

Listen to the following podcast from CBC radio’s The Current:

http://podcast.cbc.ca/mp3/podcasts/current_20130207_85614.mp3

1.      What happened when Rick Findler, freelance photographer, tried to submit photographs to the Sunday Times? Why would the Sunday Times take this position? How does Findler feel about it?

First of all, before Mr. Findler went into Syria the newspaper said that it was an idiotic mission. The Sunday Times did not take the pictures and copy due to that they do not want to encourage freelancers taking exceptional risks. Findler felt a bit sad when the paper did not take his partners and his work since they had published their work earlier. However, he can see where they are coming from with this and he knows that they have a moral concern to take into consideration when working with freelancers work. If the reporter as well gets killed then there are some legal attachments that the paper has to deal with.

2.      Who insures photographers like Findler? Do a little research about this organization and write down what you find out.

He holds himself solely responsible for whatever happens to him and would only blame himself in the case of an accident or something else. “Reporters without Borders” (RWB) insure men and women like Findler. RWB is a France-based international non-profit, non-governmental organization that has consultant status at the United Nations. They promote and defend freedom of the press and freedom of information.

Here is the link to “Reporters without Borders” website: http://en.rsf.org/

3.      What is at stake for those who consume the news reported by freelancers like Findler? What does he say about this? What do you think? Is the work of freelancers important? Why?

It diminishes their audience. The readers have to be aware of the truth since the freelancers’ mission is to tell the world about what is actually going on. The audience is relatively small since there are not many newspapers that want to publish freelancers´ work (as seen in one of the questions here above).

I feel that freelancers are doing a great job. They are risking their lives to tell the world about places and conflicts around the world and for me I do not see anything negative in that if the person himself/herself has decided that he/she honestly wants to risk their life during their job. I only think this if they are truly objective about the situation and conflict so that we the readers can create our own opinion.

4.      Who was Marie Colvin? Find out more about her, what conflicts she was engaged in covering and how/why she was killed.

Marie Colvin was a war correspondent and she has been located in for example Syria and Afghanistan. She has spent more than 20 years for the Sunday Times newspaper and she was fearless in the on ground conflict zones. Miss Colvin was killed in her job last year (22 February 2012) during an attack in the city Homs in Syria. It was the Syrian Army who killed both her and her French photographer. In the year of 2001 she lost an eye in Sri Lanka and was known for wearing a black eye patch ever since. Her funeral was held in New York on the 12^th March 2012.

5.           5. Why is the media’s position on this issue hypocritical?

Sadly, many freelancers are “naked”, they do not have any insurance, they have not been trained for different situations and they should be able to know exactly what to do or go when the time or other aspects tell them to do so. Freelancers risk their own lives every minute when reporting live from conflict zones and they should get money and insurances for that. They are there to report on world news, not to be denied when trying to tell them to the rest of the world.

6.                 6. What are the pros and cons of hiring freelancers “on the ground” to cover conflict?

The pros are that they report on the real and true conflict being on place close to the area in question. There are chances that these on ground freelancers can be bias, since they often origin from the area of the conflict and therefor might already have an opinion and this can be seen as a con. 

Blog #5 - Medialized: Your place or mine? - Activity

Activity: Write your own news story

1. Choose a short current news story about a conflict somewhere in the world. You can use any Swedish or English source, but your re-written story should be in English.

2. Choose a specific angle that you can use to re-write the news story with a clear bias.

3. Re-write the news story, selecting language as well as specific images you can use to illustrate it so that it supports the specific bias/angle you have chosen. Post this to your blog.

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Over 20 dead in another suicide bombing

22 people have been killed outside of Iraq’s capital when a suicide bomber attacked a group of government supported militia. Approximately 40 people have been claimed to be injured according to sources inside the hospital and police.

The militia was collecting their pay checks in an office in al-Taji outside of Bagdad when the terrorist struck. Security and hospital sources have confirmed that most of the victims were members in the police anti-terrorist squad called Sahwa. Many heroic soldiers are also reported dead.

This is the seventh terrorist suicide bombing in Iraq in less than a month.

Here is the link to the real article: http://www.svd.se/nyheter/utrikes/over-20-doda-i-sjalvmordsattentat_7886140.svd