jenan's blog

Posts

Do Plants Have A Memory?: An Analysis of Media's Ability to Share Knowledge

- June 02, 2019

The other day my mom and I were listening to Radio Lab on NPR, and the episode was called Plant Parade. It discussed one of the most fascinating science experiments I have heard about. This experiment started with dogs and their food. Right before the dogs were fed, a bell would be rung. This pattern of bell then food carried on for a bit of time. Then, they started ringing the bell without feeding the dogs. This experiment trained the dogs to expect the food with the ring of the bell, so they began to salivate and whine even though there was no food presented. This immediately reminded me of The Office, when Jim gave Dwight a mint every time he restarted his computer, so that he would start to salivate at the sound of his computer restarting. Our brains use association to build expectations, through associating certain happenings with others. They wanted to test if plants were able to remember patterns and associate things as we do, despite them not having neurons or a brain. They s

Spy Kids

- May 26, 2019

Recently, I noticed many things about the original Spy Kids movie, and the Spy Kids series in general. With MissRepresentation on my mind, I have been paying closer attention to the portrayal of women in the media. So, I began contemplating this while watching Spy Kids two days ago. This movie series was pretty prominent in my childhood, and I am sure it has influenced my perception of the world in one way or another. The first thing I noticed was that the 2 main female characters are both dominant in their character relations, and take charge of situations. The mother is shown having a great amount of control over her husband, and she is able to convince him to make many decisions. She is also the one who figured out how to escape the first time, while her husband didn't know what to do. I feel their relationship is equal overall, which contrasts many other movies of this time. Carmen, the daughter of the family, is very intelligent and creative. She is pretty stubborn and r

MissRepresentation

- May 24, 2019

The moments that stood out most to me during this documentary were the comments made by male newscasters. I was absolutely appalled by their fundamental perception of women. They truly believe women are nothing more than their faces, their bodies, their boobs. They take any little thing a woman does and completely belittles them, despite the fact that not even themselves are perfect. Women in media have to be literally perfect to escape the undeserved and unreasonable criticism from men in the news. There can't be too much leg, but she can't be wearing pants. There can't be too much cleavage, but if there isn't enough she is a prude. She can't be too dumb, but if she is too smart she will be seen as a threat. If she shows passion and emotion for an issue, she is delusional and unfit for a leadership role. But, if a man shows passion and emotion, he is driven and truly cares about his work. The amount of hypocrisy and sexism in this is infuriating. I cannot expres

The Merchants of Cool

- May 20, 2019

In in the film Merchants of Cool, they touched on how the media can shape our lifestyles, with the example of the "mook" and "midriff" way of living. The "mook" appeals to teenage boys, and encourages inappropriate and honestly gross behavior. The "midriff" is aimed at teenage girls, and portrays women only as a sexual object, making girls feel they must act this way. Today, I can still find TV shows and media portraying similar norms to teenagers. Even though it has improved, women are still very sexualized, and our appearances are still vital when being judged on the media. I feel the "mook" way of life has died down a bit, but many forms of advertising and TV shows still show men and boys acting in generally inappropriate ways. I feel that a lot of awareness has spread as a result of media, which has led the over-sexualization of women to become less common. Many women have taken to social media to stand up against the stereotypes

James Charles and How His Life Is Now Over: An Analysis of YouTube

- May 13, 2019

The title is a bit dramatic, but recently the 19 year old beauty guru has been put under a lot of heat from Tati and some other Youtubers in the YouTube community. He has lost nearly 3 million subscribers in the past 3 days, and the numbers are dropping every second. This all started when Tati, a beauty guru, came out with a video stating he sponsored her rival despite them being good friends, and further went on to share his manipulative tendencies and immoral actions. He released an apology video saying he is always trying to learn and grow, and that he had made many mistakes in the past (for the record that video is obviously bad acting). It is crazy to me how this young celebrity who seemed to be constantly gaining more and more fame has lost so much so quickly. I have found this phenomena especially present on YouTube. One day you are extremely popular and famous, and the next day you are either hated or no one remembers who you are. With YouTube, it has become progressiv

News Comedy

- May 09, 2019

Recently, I have started to contemplate how the use of comedy in news casting influences our interpretation of the news. Shows like Last Week Tonight and The Daily Show are perfect examples. They present the news to us through jokes and comedy tactics, which is far more entertaining than usual casting. These individuals are not inherently ignorant about the news, and are most likely well aware of the seriousness of situations. But, this entertainment aspect may effect our own emotions to these actual events happening in the world around us. I have definitely found myself laughing at jokes about Trump's border wall or conflicts with other countries, which, now that I think about it, are matters that should be taken a bit more seriously. These are conflicts concerning racist ideologies and dangerous conflicts. I am not going to lie, I love these shows a lot. But, if these are your only constant source of news, it may make issues seem less pressing or serious than they a

Search This Blog