Pro-Social

Today in class we discussed Pro-Social television for children.  As a child, my mother never really let me watch much television so I never really grew up knowing who Barney and Big Bird were.  As I get older and I babysit kids I watch these shows with them and realize that some of the shows they watch aren’t exactly the best for them.  A little girl I babysit loves spongebob, but from her constant watching of this show she says stupid all the time.  When I try to get her to watch other shows that could be better for her she calls me stupid.  I made the connection in class that children really do know what they are watching.  I have been watching the television show Backyardigans a few times and this show is definitely better for children.  In this show they focus on Pro-Social behavior and they want the children that are watching to imitate them.  I believe that Pro-Social shows are definitely better for children than shows that have no meaning like spongebob.  On a different note while watching the sesame street clip today I saw that having positive role models even in muppets can really enhance a child’s self esteem.   

Scary World

This Tuesday in class we discussed Gerbner’s cultivation theory.  I was excited when we discussed it because from my previous Intro to Communication theory class we discussed it and found it to be one of my favorite theories.  I enjoyed this theory because I can relate to it.  I know that it gets much criticism from being one sided but for me it is a side that I can relate to.  I kind of fit cultivation theory perfectly.  I am a heavy television watcher and most of the television I watch is violent tv.  I think that because of this I have a jaded view of the world.  I don’t think that a lot of good comes out of the world.  I think that there is way too much violence and because of that I am very careful about how I live my life.  I was relieved when reading Gerbner’s theory to find out that I am not alone in my paranoia of the world.  As much as it is awful to think so negatively of the world I think that it is a true way of looking at it.  From watching the news alone it shows lots of violence and the world is a creation of what the media shows us. I find it hard to imagine not seeing the world the way the media shows it.  It could just be because I watch too much television, but to me the world is a dark and scary place.  

Girls being seen as overly aggressive in movies.

I have to admit on of my favorite movies is Mean Girls.  It is a guilty pleasure of mine.  I watch it at least once a month.  Even though it is one of my favorite movies I can see how it portrays girls as being overly aggressive.  The girls in the movie are very mean when it comes to trying to rise to the top of the social circle of their school.  They create rumors say catty remarks and sometimes even get physical with each other.  This movie may be a little bit of a stretch of how girls act in real life, but from my personal experiences girls are mean to each other.  They are in constant competition with each other.  They are trying to always make themselves better than one another.  They spend too much money of clothes trying to have the best; they are mean to each other.  A personal experience of mine was that I was a mean girl.  I was always trying to put other people down and making other’s feel horrible about themselves.  Now that I am older I have realized that what I did was wrong and now I am constantly trying to make up for being mean in the past. Now I try to be a nice person to everyone.  

During class on Thursday January 13 we talked about how different television shows feature mostly all white cast.  When trying to figure out shows and characters that would have been Asian or Hispanic I came to a blank.  I pride my self on watching lots of televisions and was surprised that it was so difficult for me to figure out characters that would have been from those races.  The only Hispanic character that I could think of was Betty from the show “Ugly Betty”.  The only Asian character that I could think of was Christiana Yang from “Grey’s Anatomy”.  I wouldn’t say that I am outraged by the lack of diversity on television, but I feel that having a lot of white characters and a lack of different races it helps fuel discrimination in the United States.  Also during class Professor Banjo asked us to identify what race each person was that she showed us.  Every time I thought I knew exactly what the person was, but in reality I was wrong.  I feel that by featuring a more diverse television cast people would be able to think outside of the box of the four main races and be able to accept all the different ethnic groups there are.  I know this is easier said than done, because a lot of time if there is a minority person on television they are portrayed as a stereotype.  My proposal is when casting directors go to cast a show they look at the acting and not the color of their skin.  This would create roles for everyone and not having to type cast a role.  I hope that in years to come in the television industry they have a more diverse cast and feature anyone no matter the color of their skin.