youroriginalstudentkojodans-blog

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The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education. Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Do Not Be Fooled By The Media (Conclusion)

The presence and influence of the media today continues to take a major toll on society. Through the use of racial injustices that are presented in the media as well as reported, through the use of social media, and other forms of digital rhetoric we are able to be molded and or influenced into perceiving our society in a certain way. This kind of influence structures what we see in our society as social norms. The media contributes to the maintenance of inequalities in the world by publicizing and often times glorifying the wrong doings and racial injustices present by those who are popular in the media and or garner attention. People in turn internalize these lessons presented to them in the media and carry that form of hate and or injustices in their own lives and this is how it continues to spread throughout modern day society. In various institutions such as schools, and businesses social media is of major use from the students to the employees. Through this use of media agents students and employees often times share and engage in what they’ve seen online whether it be through a meme, and or viral video this can result in an embedded form of thinking just through this kind of rhetoric and influenceable nature available online.

Even in recent media coverage we see the presence of injustices such as Trumps decision to create an executive order to remove the birthright clause in our country. Despite his inability to remove such a major framework of our country he uses the media's take on the situation as a form of advantage to appeal to racist human beings to rile them up and create a bigger influence. The use of social media and the media as a whole as a tool for influence can bring about both positive and negative results but has been heavily negative lately. Due to the widespread reach of the media the possibilities to bring about hate and injustice is just as great as the possibilities for peace. Negativity in the media is actively publicized which in turn leads to the manifestation of hate within individuals who watch and engage with the media whether it be social media, the news, etc. Due to individuals absorbing the hate more than others this maintains a kind of division within society whether it be for race, religion, and or financially. These kind of divisions become internalized in our functioning of a society as a whole and in light of our current issues as a country we need to remedy this nature in order to have a more positive future. Many notable people in the media have begun movements and culture shifting agendas in order to produce needed change. The hate in our society continues to be a prevailing epidemic and can only be counteracted by the unified forces of all people.

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How does the society perceive the media today? Is it any different from the old times when the black American and the white tag of war was immense? Or is it even worse than those times? Would a person who concludes that the media is an evil arena where social inequality and injustice be given the gaze look? The media has been perceived by many as the system where knowledge, wisdom, and power are reproduced and helps in maintaining supremacy over others. Unfortunately, what was intended to be useful and constructive has turned out to be destructive, a platform for societal ills. Many are the times when ethnicity, racial, gender, political religious and class division creep in and take over the media and promote a series of negative impacts in the society’s health. This paper will address how the press contributes to retaining inequality, the existence of divisions in the society, some of the lessons learned and the application of the oppositional gaze to the topic area.

The media works against social norms and values by promoting inequality. Immensely high and rising inequality relates to a lower welfare state, poverty, and a poor system of leadership. The media influences the beliefs and the preferences of the ordinary people as a way to manipulate social events. An oppositional black gaze was the immediate response to developing any independent media mainstreams that would charter any political movements that would work towards racial equality (Hooks, 2001, p. 249).  According to Noam (2013), the higher levels of inequality in the society correlates with the high incentives for the wealthy classed groups in the society that have a high capacity to manipulate the voter's choices and able to use the power of the media for non-social welfare raising propaganda. The existence of ignorance and uncertainty about some of the significant influences of societal illness permits the press to maintain inequality within society. It is from such ideology that Hooks talks of high working classes being racially segregated. It, therefore, is from the ignorance and tendency of the media to have a better part of the society in political and social issues that continue to lower equality.  It is a consequence of the press on beliefs of people in the much-skewed information world that promotes the exploitation of others in society.

The media plays a vital role in the national segment. It is from this role that comes to a great responsibility to promote major aspects of societal health. These include racism, gender discrimination and imbalance, social class division, political issues, and related religious conflicts. The society consists of people and the different organized institutions, belief and culture. The monarchy, upper class, and wealthy class get a positive affirmation from the media as celebrities deserving the honored and privileged positions (Lee, 2014). Schools, media coverage, documentaries, or drama among other institutions spend much of their time exploring these higher social classes. On the contrary, the causes and effects of poverty on the lower level are rarely investigated. This has contributed to the current social status quo gap in society.

The ethnic groups in the society today have found themselves in the midst of the institution. Recently the film institutions have experienced something which Hooks refers to as a “rupture” in which the spectator's rebels against the complete identification with the film’s discourse before any racial integration (Hooks, 2001, p. 250). The educational institutions such as universities, business organizations, prisons have had a series of media sensitization that has worked contrary to societal virtues. The society requires a natural coexistence of balance and equality. However, the use of media by these institutions to insinuate sensitivity to human concerns have created a thrift for promoting ethnic grouping and stereotyping. For example, prison can channel a whole range of ethnic issues. Imagine having prisons for African-Caribbean, Black people, Asian and Muslim people, what implication would this have on the ethical groupings. My opinion is that the media has persistently been used by these institutions to create a belief Asian or Muslim people are associated with national threats as well as associating specific crimes with the particular ethnic group.

Institutions and the media have used different genders of different age groups in their routine functions. The way media represent these groups generates a stereotypical impression. For instance, advertisements use children as cute, little angels, active consumers, accessories and brilliant to lure customers to their products (Lee, 2014). On the other side, as spectators to the world occurrences, the black men repudiate the reproduction of gender-based and racist films that taints the black supremacy. Hooks (2001) admits that much concern has been based on race and racism issues and rarely on gender (p.251). Therefore national-wide there has continued to be increased need for sensitizing the role of women to create gender equity. However, these institutions have continued to retain the inequalities in this area by the customs and corporate cultures already rooted in the organizations.

Daring enough, political movements and parties, as well as religious denominations, have been top in the list of promoting and maintaining illness of the society. Learning institutions, for instance, subject students to studies of the different political regimes, subject them to an array of political structure and arrangement, create segregation of the students based on political movements that exist and creating a mark of identity for either democrats or republican at the early stages of life. Hook (2001) refers that the black could feel their rebellion towards the white’s supremacy by daring to engage in phallocentric politics. The perception was that power was for the white and political regimes were for the white to exercise control over the rest. Imagine when Obama became the President of the United States of America. It was the most significant fact globally. This adds to this intensity; media is used by these political avenues, persons and the wealthy cartels working closely with the government to maintain the levels of inequality in the society.  Institutions and political regimes use the media to manipulate the choices that the people are to make by creating a belief powered by propaganda (Noam, 2013).

Similarly, religious denomination has been thriving amidst the division vessel. Having a black person in the early days in a white’s church was black coal in the snow. The preaching of the different ethnic, racial and denominations have continued to engage the religious division. Equally important, institutions and the media act as the vessels through which this division thrives. Inevitably, religious conflict and frictions result from this as some religion view theirs as the superior denomination to others.

The most important way that the society today has used to internalize the lessons learned is through the creation of awareness.  The impact that interactive learning institutions based poses is ideal for the teenage society whose behaviors and attitude are vulnerable to trending senses (Garaee, Kaveh, Shojaeizadeh, & Tabatabaee, 2015). Sensitization of the youthful age can be transformative in creating a society that is more aware of the requirements that would enable them to use the media to promote societal health. Hooks (2001) discusses that “identification can only be made through recognition.” Internalizing requires the society today to acknowledge the significant effects that this affluence has on the health of the society and accept that the belief exists before attempting to transform them. Human behaviors and beliefs are strongly correlated to the cultural norms and values. The society can internalize these lessons by promoting individual participation in collective activities rather than effective ones to create commonality (Gavrilets & Richerson, 2017). For instance, encouraging voting as a form of practice of democracy and choice for visionary leaders instead of propaganda spread by the media. Also, the individuals utilize the normative values to the maximum, and substantial impact on the culture initially created yet irrelevant today.

Tomasky (2018) reported to the New York Times that Republicans have continued to win in the argument for the best economic policies of the country and that the Democrats seek to the very supply side of the Economics. Based on the opinion formed, Republicans have a theory and a story on how the economy should grow-the supply-side economics. This theory instigates cutting down taxes on the rich and reducing regulations to attract and motivate innovations and economic activities that will later increase tax revenue. Now, in a society of creating class division and political inequality, the illness of the community is prone to convince under such conditions. The welfare of the lower classes would diminish significantly, and the alignment would continue to promote inequality.

In summary, the media in many ways has been the cause and the vessel for many societal illnesses. Ranging from the political, ethnic, racial, gender, religious to class division, the role of the media in the society has poisoned the minds of many and helped in maintaining social inequality. It is essential to internalize the lessons learned through learning programs and being on the frontline in advocating for these corrective measures that will enable a balance to be achieved. Concurrently, the ideology of belief and culture to which most of the states are accustomed to needing to change for better societal growth and development.

[youroriginalstudentkojodans-blog]

Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others. —Jack Welch

Forbes

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Depending on the way a word is used, distinguishes its meaning. Representation is a word that could have many different meanings. In the english dictionary representation is defined as “ the action of speaking or acting on the behalf of someone or the state of being so represented”. This definition is what comes to many people's mind when they hear or see the word representation. There are many different concepts that are associated with representation, the word has transformed past its generic meaning. In this reading “Meaning and Language” by Hall Stuart he defines representation as the study of culture and it being a system. The system consist of two processes that explains the systems of representation. The first system of representation deals with the concept of mental representation meaning that all sorts of objects, people and events are correlated. The second system deals with the theory of representation which has three themes, reflective approach, intentional approach and constructionist approach.

The first system of representation breaks down the influence of culture and its association with representation. Culture is truly the essential component when it comes to defining representation. I say this because without culture how can something or someone be represented? Societies, ethnic groups, tribes and religions are all connected through common themes, belief, and language. People identify themselves through these aspects because it is a representation of who they are. In the article Hall states “representation connects meaning and language to culture” (pg. 15). I agree with this statement because language is a form of communication that is used to explain something but language is also how people are grouped together. When a person speaks their language the first thing comes to mind is where the person is from and what their nationality might be. Meaning if I was to speak spanish someone might not know what country I am specifically from but the assumption would be that I come from a spanish speaking country. In this situation language is representing who I am because it is allowing others to assume where I’m from which helps identify who I am. Language cannot always be an accurate standard that represents people, however it is a good start. In today's generation the why language is very important. In a country like the United States, English is seen as the native language. Being that this country is diverse with people that come from all sorts of backgrounds, one can distinguish someone's culture through the many different languages we speak as a whole. Without language people can not speak on behalf of a group, people can not differentiate themselves from others, and people would not be able to represent themselves as well. For several cultures language is a common theme that brings people together. An example would be the Islamic religion. Although there are many different people from different backgrounds that practice islam, one key aspect they all have in common is the language. Their holy scripture the Quran is written in Arabic and the language they recite while praying is also Arabic. Arabic is the barrier thats brings them together and unifies them while representing their religion.

Besides language in the article Hall explains that representation could be broken up into three theories hence the name the theory of representation. The three theories are the reflective approach, intentional approach and constructionist approach.  According to Hall reflective approach can be defined as “ Meaning is thought to lie in the object, person, idea or event in the real world and language functions like mirror, to reflect the true meaning as it already exist in the world,” (pg 10) In other words, language is the barrier that is able to communicate the true meaning of what people are trying to get across to others and to the world. When it comes to language it is easy for people to imitate what they see and hear. The action that one portrays is not what makes culture but its the rationale behind the language that develops a new culture. If people deem a action as being acceptable to be them, most of the time that action would be imitated by others. Representation plays a role in this because the actions that are being passed on throughout generations by cultural groups and tribes is because they believe the actions would be a good representation of who they are and how they want the world to perceive them.

Although reflective theory shows how actions and language are able to reflect the lives of people and how it can use to represent a whole there is also the second the theme of the theory which is intentional approach. Intentional approach is a bit different from reflective approach because it deals mainly with the person who speaking, writing or communiticating to world through language. The mean according to the article is “ Words mean what the author intends they should mean” (pg 10). It means that representation can in be influenced by people in sense that people communicate to the world how they want to represented. Culture is something that represents people it represents their beliefs and can often translate in the way people think and the actions that they take. With this approach it explains that most things that exist in society can often not represent a whole a group of people but it representation of how one person may have felt and through communication was able to passed down their belief to represent people as a whole. This approach gets me to think about my own beliefs meaning does my culture really represent who I am, or does it reflect the belief of my different ancestors and how they wanted to represent the people of my country. In order for this approach to be a good base as a form representation that means that beliefs and practices of group can be based on one person’s action but on the actions of a whole.

The final approach that Hall discusses in the article is the constructionist approach which is meant to be combinations of both reflective and intentional approach. The constructionist approach means “ Things don’t mean: we construct meaning, using representational systems-concepts and signs “ besides the definition Hall goes and states “ according to this approach we must not confuse the material world, where things    people exist, and the symbolic practices and processes through which representation, meaning and language operate” (pg 11)

Meaning that when it comes things that represent people the meaning of it is constructed by the people not by the person who is creating these beliefs. This to me is more accurate approach of what representation is and how it should be in the world. Meaning that something can not be a representation of others if the people who are being representation by this belief do not agree with, because it creates false prejudices and negative stigmas of others.

As one could see there different forms of representation, it can come many different such as language or even the presence of person or group of people is often described representation because the action being performed is the language that is voiced out to others. Representation is something that could do lots of good and also damage to society. Without representation there would not be explanation for things in world. With representation it could the voice of an entire community or even an entire race which why it important to world.

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Learning More About America

My name is Kojo Dansoh, I am a fourth year student at Stony Brook University and throughout my four years at Stony Brook AFS 363 is one of the few classes that has taught me much about what is going on in American and paying attention to everything that is going on under our current government. On the very first day of class Professor Miletsky had said something that stood out to me. He spoke about how in our classes we always speak about the civil right movements that occurred in mid 1900s and how those civil rights activist are heroes. He said as students of this generation we are not appreciating what is going on in our society right now, he said that we currently living in our own civil right movements and we are not evening speaking about it. He mentioned the black lives matter movement and also the he for she movement as examples, at first when he spoke about i thought to myself this not a civil right movement because these things are nothing compared to what was done in the past such the freedom riders movements, the march on Washington. As the semester went I began to put it together the reason why many students such as myself do not believe that we are in currently in civil right movements is because of our media and how they portray things to the society. The media has one of biggest influence when it comes to shaping the thoughts of our society. They tend to highlight things that they feel like are relevant and shed little light on things that could create a major impact on our country. Throughout the semester I was able to learn about myself and also the society that I live in. I see why I am a civil right activists even if it not a big scale being in this class thought me just having a conversation about the problems that minorities face is a movement on it’s own.