Archives for 2010
For my class in Gender, Race, Class in the media, we studied some of the psychological theories behind learning and socialization. As part of our group project, we presented a research paper concerning proper techniques for helping children to be aware of negative stereotypes and how to utilize positive ones. Jacob Rascon, a member of [...]
This essay was written as a discussion of the existence of racial stereotypes and critical cultural theory in Star Wars. Feel free to leave me a comment. I’m open to debate and comments. Ideologies, Connotations, and Polysemy in Star Wars: How to deal with race in space One cannot deny the existence of dominant ideologies inherent in [...]
While I was in a meeting this morning, @danbischoff related some very wise counsel. He said he’d been thinking about it when he arose for the day. He spoke of the 3 most important things to do in the morning in order to start the day off right and make it a good day: Wake up [...]
This lecture really stood out to me. Perhaps my time perspective differs greatly from others. Professor Phillip Zimbardo talks about different time perspectives (there are 6 different ones): Positive and Negative Past, Present Hedonistic, Future oriented, etc.
This is Machiavelli He wrote a book called The Prince In the book, he tells rulers how to maintain stability and hold power Many rulers have followed his agenda Now it’s common to refer to the devil as ‘Old Nick’ Machiavelli’s first name: Niccolo Below you’ll find a vector image of Machiavelli, I created. Move the transparent images, below, over this [...]
Although he is not predominantly famed, Roger Williams can readily be considered the man who innovated the great disconnect between the state and the church. Jefferson and Madison are the American founders who receive the greatest credit for a strict separation of church and state in the new US government, however, their contributions were not [...]
I have seen monumental suffering housed in women’s bodies. I have seen teenage girls watch their mothers starve, deny and hate themselves, call their distorted ideas about food “will power.” I have seen these mothers teach this language to their daughters, usually unintentionally. I have seen vomit in toilets across America. . . I have [...]
As a web developer, I occasionally get feedback from clients that their website is “broken”. Usually, the client is using Internet Explorer 6 (or one case of the old AOL browser). Consequently, I’ve had to go out of my way, adding css hacks or html commenting hacks to make the code fit for IE6. Many [...]
The Edge of Darkness, a gripping film starring Mel Gibson, uses a multi-genre oriented approach in its trailer. Although I’ve not seen the film, the trailer entertains my interest by sucking me into three separate genres using many attempts at iconography, repetition, equations and hyperbole. Whether or not the actual film meets these different genres [...]
Are you a fan of Song of the South? Do you think Disney should release the film? Does the movie carry elements of negative stereotyping or prejudice? Please comment and let me know. Our lovable animated friend, Brer Rabbit, was quite perplexed with a lifeless tar baby that didn’t offer greetings one morning. “Well, [...]
Conservative executives at Fox need to understand real facets of humor before they can produce another conservative spinoff of “The Daily Show.” This paper will show the subtle differences between Fox’s The ½ Hour News Hour and NBC’s The Daily Show that may help to explain rating points between the different programming. The ½ Hour News [...]
Indeed, Reality TV has changed the face of television, literally. How have these low-budget programs garnered so many viewers? To effectively discuss this question we need to understand the cultural/historical background of our RTV-watching Americans. American Dream and Capitalism Young American children are raised in a capitalist-conscious economy. They are told that if they work hard (and [...]
Note (1/21/10): I created some new ads and wrote a post about a new REI campaign, “Rethink Living.” Disclaimer: I still don’t quite understand semiotics with its use of signs and how I can connect that to a retail catalog/website. I do understand that meaning is gathered by context and relationships rather than pure denotation. REI’s predominantly [...]
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