Dads in today's society

What do you think of when you hear father?

When it comes to television, I think of how a dad can be represented in many ways. And when it comes to my dad, I think..awesome.

Movie/television fathers can be represented in so many different ways, but, at the same time they are all similar. Caring, compassionate, but also concentrated on work and the business-profession. They are white, and wear suits. Half of the time the man is at work, and the other half of the time he's at home.

My dad is pretty cool. It's funny, because half the time he's at work, in a suit, and the other half of the time he's home, with us, being Dad. I love that guy.

It's odd how only a few years ago society went from thinking men were better than women, to women being better than men, and now with so many opinions, views, methods, organizations to now that both are somewhat up in the air, no one knows what's going on. I know that the men in my life are amazing. The majority of them are white. My father is white. My boyfriend is white. My brother is white. My..well, you get the idea! They are all great. My family is amazing. My mother and father have been together for many years, and give much respect to each other daily, with everything. Neither one of them attempt to over-take the other in decisions or even daily speech. I just hope that one day my family will be as great as those two people. Every day I hear from them, either by phone or internet, sometimes snail mail, but even still they speak about how great they're doing. My father is very successful in his career. I'm from a small town and everyone there knows him. He's held many significant roles in his life and sets the most amazing example for everyone, especially for my brother. Besides my father, brother, and amazing boyfriend, I am great friends with many other males, most of them whom are white. They are all successful and give much respect to women. Lyle, one of Jarrod's good friends, opens the door for every girl he's with. Whether it be a car door, restaurant door, house door or any other door out there, he's always the one with the manners and sophistication.

News reports on African-American Women

Congratulations to the African-American women who attend college and are succeeding in the world. Black colleges contain sooo many more women than men. Today, the number of black women not married has also risen. Black women are also more susceptible to cancer and other various diseases than other women and men.

But fortunately, many of these women are classy, friendly and very inspiring to many others. Statistics for many of their personal life issues are taking a hit, but there is always room for getting better and moving up with so many problems. No likes having such unfortunate problems! Yuck.

Part 2: Asian and Asian-American Men

Lee had both success and some unfortunate failure in Hollywood. He made Asian men talented in the karate world (ha), graceful and cool. But Hollywood's tendency to stereotype everyone has let to both good and bad. He has worked very hard in all of his business with acting and has used all of his talents the their full extent, but unfortunately Hollywood still sees, and shows, the Asian culture as having them largly emasculated. They are rarely romantic leading men. Poor guys..

Relevant articles on race, music videos, and hip hop

It is easy to say and know that hip hop images and lyrics do go too far in many places in our society, especially with young children watching them everyday. But, if we look at the ups and downs with the rest of society, like education, the rise of gas prices, the war and families, lack of religion and others, hip hop barely touches any of those, it is unfair to say that this type of music is what is causing it, or even have much of an impact on it.

My children, one day when I am happily married and sitting fat on a nice job and paycheck, will be introduced to education and reading before taking on any of today's music. What will these images and lyrics be like in 20 years??

A confession of sorts

I'd say the journalist confession was not really a confession of being wrong. Don't you think? She made an excuse for being wrong and not fully admitting her mistake. She said she was wrong, then went of subject about something else in order blow off the subject of being on her. Everybody makes mistakes but she is in denial.

Two more links for Friday

"Is Black Back" is a catchy title, don't you think?

But black people have always been here. Yes, African Americans have dark skin, but are African Americans. Black people have dark skin, but are not always from Africa. I think it would be cool to go to Africa and see all of the tribes, animals, forests and such. Why are these people so crazy about being called AA????????????? If I had dark skin, I'd love it! I'd paint my face and bring spears to class. A post on your blog spoke that "white racists perceive the noun black as “evil,” yet black is beautiful." Why do we think black is "evil?" Who said that? I have tons of black friends. TONS. But they are mature and don't worry about the color of their skin looks like. If you didn't see them, but saw something wrote, heard something they said, saw something they wore, saw somewhere they lived, saw something they ate or whatever...you'd never know they were black.

Videos and web sites for class

In the video, the advertiser uses ladies with slim bodies. I am not the skinniest person in the world, but I must say if the advertiser had used "fat" women, I would have thrown up. Larger women are beautiful, but that doesn't mean it's mandatory for them used as an advertisement every time. Nathaniel stated on your page that larger women have never been in fashion shows. He is wrong. Waaaaay wrong. In many shows there is a least one lady over a size 12. There are also Plus-Size shows all the time.

More for Friday

Hierarchy, objectification, submission and violence are all found in both porn and fashion advertising.

I don't watch porn much, but from what I've heard, it's pretty trashy and does include those four things. Women are subjects of men, doing what men desire from them, for them. They are objects, and not so much people. Violence, physical, mental and verbal are all present in nearly every episode. For fashion advertising, many ads in Cosmo and other fashion magazines include the same things, unfortunately. Pretty yuck..huh?

Race and news reporting

It is so so unfortunate to hear another school shooting in which the gunman killed himself after shooting students and teachers. Why is it that when a student shoots his schoolmates and teachers in a school, the authorities always conclude that “the gunman was suffering from mental disorder.”

Crime rate and violence is schools should be set to some scale. Schools in parts of cities, where city violence is USUALLY higher, should have stricter codes and laws of school manners. I'm from a small town, in the country, where the largest school violence we saw my senior year was two boys in a school parking lot fight over a girl. That's it.

Why? Our city was the same way. We had a police department, but that doesn't mean they arrested people every five seconds. Underage drinking was the majority of their work.

Notice.. No city violence = no school violence. And again.. City violence = school violence.

Imagine that. No, stricter laws should be placed on schools in high violence areas, not so much what the color of someone's skin is. I watched the news this morning, and two of the stories I stayed for were of a robbery in Dallas and a robbery in Garland. The colors of the cars were given, but neither of the stories stated the color of the thief's skin.

Pressure on Ken Burns for Latino images in "The War"

"I don't think there is such a thing as a good war. There are sometimes necessary wars," states Ken Burns in his article, which is completely true. Yes, the War in Iraq is taking a bit of time, but it's nearly over. We have become the first nation in modern history to cut taxes during a war that the people won't pay for, yet people still complain.

As for Latinos in the film, it would have been a good idea to include them, but who says you can't make another film? A second film? It's ok to make your own, ESPECIALLY if you didn't like the first one. You can change it, and do what you want with it. That's why so many views of race, media, ethics etc. are publicized today. Because more than one film (and so many other works out there) have been made and are being publicized.

Civil rights reporting of past and present

I believe that the media should handle racial issues in a more civilized manner. We should pay attention to the root course of homelessness and lack of employment in the USA, and not so much on if someone is black or white or purple polka-dotted with blue stripes and glittery argyle spots.

Obviously, a country succeeds more when it's strengthened from root to tip. But no country is like that, or will ever be like that. BUT, it is something we should continuously work on. Our country is much better off than the majority of the rest of the world.

Guidelines for news reporting and disabilities

I just finished reading the "Covering Diability Issues" article.

It's true, when most reporters think of diversity, they think: race, gender, sexuality.. But disabilities account for the majority of diversity today. Disabilities can come as more of a story than what's usually thought of.

Disabilities come across many ways. Mental and physical disabilities are the most common to the average person. When I think of a person with disabilities I'm not intimidated. Many people are, as it can be a scary experience. I'm very fortunate in that I have not experienced any type of traumatic experience, and hopefully never will. I believe the reason that many reporters do not make stories on such people is that they do not appeal to many people. Again, many people are intimidated by this. It does not appeal to people. The public usually does not sit down to read a newspaper or watch tv about disabilities.

Minorities in TV newsrooms (2006)

In 2006, blacks in local tv declined, but increased in radio news. And even though minorities were up a full percent from the year before, the NABJ was still very disappointed in this. Another great concern is the lack of black general managers. Again, why should this be such a concern? Why should one person be fired, and another hired, just because of the color of their skin? 2006, as opposed to the 2004-2005 article, is not too much different. Again, rates are up, just like they wanted, but they are still not happy. I'm confused..

Minorities in print newsrooms (2004 & 2005)

Overall number of journalists decreased in 2005, while the number of minority journalists increased. This is odd, don't you think?? How ironic that it be that so many journalists loose their job, but at the same time, so many minorities keep theirs? Editors are increasing their hiring and retention of minority journalists at a time when diversity in the U.S. is growing at historic rates.

The news article talked about parity between newsrooms and their communities with journalists. I have a question. Why are we discriminating against race? Should we not be hiring the best journalists for the job? What the crap?? It is important to keep a newsroom strong, but it is also important to sell a newspaper. Color of skin should not matter. I believe that they are doing this because they are intimidated by the black people of the world.

I'm not against minorities. I have many minority friends. What I'm opposed to are the minorities who go crazy about their heritage and how their community should have so much more respect than ANYONE else. How annoying.

August

I get news several different ways! The most common is television... I know, I know, many people think tv is a waste of time, but I tend to disagree. For the most part, I have become very efficient at multitasking with it, and a number of other things. I like sticking with Fox, if I can! My second most common way of receiving news is by the newspaper. I grab the NT Daily and Dallas Morning News at least a few times a week.

If I can't grab a paper I look online. I have a hotmail email account, and read msn often. Usually my average news-time is around 30-45 minutes a day.

And for the last question, I'd say that I think about topics discussed in class during 80% of the time during my time with news. Especially during tv. Most of their stories ARE about race or gender or sexualities or disabilities.