Blog #1 11.14.08

Muted Group Theory:
I first thought: "how interesting." I never considered women in cartoons and what the illustrator was portraying women to to say and do. The results of the research were surprising.
I don't consider women to be a muted group. As we saw with the political elections two women representing both sides of the isle running for President as well as Vice President. I know I shouldn't base my entire view on one arena, but I feel like the politicians represent the majority of the people they represent, whether that be a woman, an African American, or Homosexual... and so on. The people would not elect the individual if they didn't feel that he or she would represent their values, beliefs and opinions.
When Kramarae talked about masculine language, I could totally agree with that. A lot of the language we use today, especially the metaphors used are very masculine. I dont see our language as being balanced between men and women.

Blog #2 11.01.08

McCombs Interview:
I really like the conversation around media and its effects. I worked at a newspaper for a while and it was very interesting how the writers decided on what stories would be printed in the paper.
I would hear them hash out what the target demographic of the newspaper was, and how the story was relevant to one of those particular readers.
I really like the quote that McCombs has that says "Don't tell us what to think, but what to think about." I can really see that in the newspaper media I worked at. There would be an un-bias opinion (most of the time) and facts around the story.
When McCombs started talking about the bias, or lack there of, I was surprised that he felt that the lean was more on the conservative side. But as he said himself, there hasn't been the right research around the bias in the media.

Blog #1 11.01.08

Chapter 28: Agenda Setting Theory
What a great chapter for the times we are in!
I often wonder how a person can even make it into office if the media is not on their side. Like Obama for example with all of the help he is getting in this election. This was a great theory for me to consider because it is based on whether the media effects the people's agendas or the people effect the media's agendas. The quote that stood out for me was on page 363: "people are not automatons waiting to be programmed by the news media."

This made me really take a step back and think about how I felt about Obama and the media's support. I also thought about the props in this election. People want to know what the candidates beliefs and plans are, and they want to know what the props are really about. Should we rely on media or do our own research? I think the majority of research we would be doing would be sources of news media, but if we use our discretion we should be able to find some facts.