This week I was very busy with school work and have appreciated Pandora radio to lift my spirits and help me focus on my home work. I tuned in to my favorite study music station, piano radio, and went to work. I have not been very social this week, but my mood is great and I believe that listening to music helped me cope with the heavy load I had this week.  I also love this form of media because I get to listen to new music I haven't heard before and love how this inspires me!!!!

Letter to the MPAA Requesting Rating Clarification

Dear Mr. Dodd,

            My name is Casey and I am a current student at Brigham Young University studying human development.  I am an active media consumer and am passionate about the film industry’s influence.  I am writing today to gather some more information about the Motion Picture Association of America’s (MPAA) rating system and to offer a few adjustments to ensure the protection of vulnerable young people from explicit material that may be used as the only resource in the child’s decision making. 

            Children are vulnerable and need guidance in making choices that will help them be good citizens, however some children turn to media to make big decisions concerning risky behavior such as sexual relationships and drug use.  Studies show evidence of harmful effects that movies with explicit material have on young children, which can alter an individual’s life for the worse.  In addition, children receive social behaviors from media and there is evidence to prove that watching violent acts perpetuate violent behavior.  Because children are developing cognitively I do believe it is societies responsibility to protect them from unnecessary exposure to explicit content. 

            Although I am writing in hope to protect children, I am not advocating for more regulation as I see the importance in self-expression and freedom of speech. Movies have unique was of influencing individuals and I want to preserve the filmmakers creativity and right to convey ideas.  With this in mind I have decided to propose some adjustments to the MPAA’s current rating system and I am open to discuss any of these with you in the future.

            The current system from my understanding is a voluntary system constructed of average citizens with some parental experience.  This is good to have a board of people responsible for rating various movies, but what would be even better is if these people were media experts with special concern for human life. This will give more credibility to the MPAA and movies will be accurately rated.  The consumer will enjoy more security in knowing that the board responsible for rating explicit material is concerned for the wellbeing of people and society as a whole. 

             Another concern I have is about the actual ratings themselves.  There are five rating codes to categorize millions of movies of different content and the ratings seem very broad.  Due to the loose lines between ratings there is little consistency in what the consumer can expect to see.  Having more detailed and specific rating categories will help the media consumer make the best choice and the MPAA will be credited by accurately displaying film details instead of leaving the task up to random websites.  I suggest adding more ratings in between the already established system such as: rated T for toddlers (ages 2-4), K for kids (ages 5-7), P for preteen (ages 8-11), T for teen (ages 12-17), and only allow 18 years and older to purchase or view rated R movies.  These more specified ratings would help consumers know exactly what content is in the film.  This will also allow the film industry to continue to exercise freedom of speech.

            As you can see my hope is not to put regulation over freedom of speech or to inhibit filmmakers to express themselves through movies, I just would like to know what is in the movies I see so that I can avoid having to walk out of a theatre, return a video, and avoid exposing my family to harmful material.  I hope my suggestions will be carefully reviewed and that we can both help and benefit society by making the consumer more aware. 

Sincerely,

Casey Ford

This was an awesome video I saw in my social work class about service! I love that media can be used to send a positive message. Enjoy!

Last night I watched a new show called Vampire Diaries on Hulu! Very interesting to say the least.  Talk about relational agression, this show was an intense drama with lots of blood/ neck biting.  I enjoyed the suspenseful nature, however contemplating the lectures in class I wondered how many high school age kids watch this and are influenced by the agression or violence.  We learned that violence only makes one more violent.

 The recurring thought this week is, "should we regulate media or just become better consumers and educate children?" With shows like this I wanted to say "ban it, regulate media", but as I think deeper I thought, yes shows are influential, but how awesome it is to use it as a tool to help kids become strong.  Sheltering people will backlash, but helping kids to see why some media is wrong is far more empowering. So thank you to the producer who put this out, so that I can tell my nieces and nephews how to "be nice and not bite!"

Last night my boyfriend and I watched The Lucky One. This is a really romantic movie by Nicholas Sparks and I really enjoyed it.  I found myself saying, "I want someone to look for me!" as if these things really happen in real life and my boyfriend leans over and says, "I found you!". This gave me my sappy romantic media a reality check and I felt all better knowing I had someone in my life who loves me and cares for me, and that alone can be difficult to find in real life sometimes.  

Why does media induce feelings like this? This reminded me of the Sex and Media lecture we recently had and how producers find that sex induces feelings from the audience to cause them to act in their favor.  A tip for any sappy romantics out there: understand that media is there to cause us to feel in some way and that not all feelings are found within reality.  Enjoy romantic media, but don't get carried away like I often do : ) Also if you haven't seen The Lucky One! Do!

MY SOCIAL MEDIA USE

I made an interesting connection during our social media lecture and my personality. Learning about the uses and gratifications of social media made me think about why I don't really post or use Facebook other than the occasional update once a month.  I have significantly less friends than most people and I thought wow I must be behind the game, when in fact it's more about my personality as to why I have little activity on Facebook compared to my other social friends.

I am slightly more introverted and I prefer to be in a small group setting as opposed to a large party setting.  I consider myself social, however the extroverted social butterflies have me beat by a long shot.  I no longer feel bad about avoiding useless time on Facebook, although now I would like to start a blog to feel connected somehow and the fill the void to contribute to the world.

I just finished reading the chapter for today's lecture on Internet exposure and how to combat explicit material for underage children and adolescence.  The Internet is a unique tool, (in which I am writing this post)  that has proven to have many benefits to society. I know in my life I use the Internet as my primary form of media.  The medium is also attractive because we have the ability to connect and send messages all around the world.  Children and adolescence are especially attracted to the Internet to help form relationships and connect.  With this in mind, there are important components to keep in mind in order to ensure safety from unwanted explicit material that may have damaging effects.

The largest component is to teach our children media literacy and how to appropriately handle situations of the Web.  In the text discussion of blocking software was discussed, but this technology is not full proof. With this in mind we must educate our children to be blockers of their own virtue.  Help them realize how they can help in the fight against unwanted explicit material and become an example of integrity.  Teaching them to think critically and responsibly is the only full-proof way to ensure their safety from harmful media interactions.

After our music lecture I became aware of the fact that I use music for positive mood enhancement. Today was one of those days and I had my iPod in all day! I listed to an assortment of music from good 'ol top 40's to oldies, and then some classics.  It really works! Music can calm the mind and lift the spirits which is why it is so important for me to listen to classical or inspirational music before I attend church. This style helps put me in a frame of mind to understand the teachings of the gospel more.

Tonight I watched the debate like I said I was going to a few posts back.  It is always fun to see opposing views in action.  I have been fortunately deprived of Media for the last few weeks not watching a ton of T.V. so I really got to soak in the different views of the candidates and make up my mind without the media telling me what to think about.  I kind of like this power!

In class we are learning about the power of advertising and I find that the more exposed I am to media the more media helps formulate my opinion, just like how ads persuade the consumer to make a purchase. Allowing myself to do my own research and really understand the things being debated helps me to feel that I am forming my own opinion and I like being less exposed to the bias out there.

This week in class we watched a very influential documentary about women in the media.  Seeing the graphic nature about how media are portrayed in general is shocking and it seems that media producers only highlight the young and beautiful  I found it interesting that this fact does not even come close to representing the actual woman population.

Women have come so far from the suppression of the 1940-1950's from wearing pants to holding jobs, but unfortunately the media is taking a backlash toward women in this battle for equality.  In a PR class I took on campus we learned about the glass celling and promotion of genders and the fact that women's god given ability to have children sets them back in the workforce and they will never be able to catch up.  This is unfortunate because of the wonderful sacrifice that accompanies having children.

On a separate note I also am worried about how young girls are influenced by this media and how it effects body image.  This seems to be a big issue in adolescents and early adulthood that could be avoided had we been portraying women positively through the media.

Book Assignment

             I was exposed to the book Nineteen-eighty four in a high school English class.  The book is about a man named Winston Smith who struggles with oppression from the government, who watches their every move, referred to as Big Brother.  At first the book made me uneasy and I did not like the story line, but as we got into it and discussed it in class I found myself reading more quickly.  I discovered many reasons why I liked the book and saw how applicable the book is to real life.  As an adult I have chosen to read books of the self-help nature.  I’m drawn to anything that I can apply to my life.  I also really like the book entitled How to Win Friends and Influence People.  I discovered how much of this book I could use everyday and appreciate the tools I have learned from it.  Both of these books offer insight that is useful and if I am going to pursue reading something I choose to invest my time into something that will help or inspire me. 

            I remember distinctly at 22 years old when I moved to Arizona, where camera speed lights where on every corner, thinking that the government must have put them in to monitor us.  I commonly have these types of epiphanies as I experience politics and work to formulate my political identity such as when president Obama was elected Nineteen-eighty Four periodically stuck out to me, especially when talking about the socialization of healthcare.  This reminded me of how the people in the book were monitored and constantly in lines, as I imagine this allocation of health services to be like. 

            The next book that has been really powerful and inspiring that I was exposed to as an adult is the book, How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie.  As a non-fiction self-help book, that I think everyone should read, the author really came up with a concise plan to helping people relate to others.  The strategy includes six ways to making people like you, fundamental techniques in handling people and how to be a leader.  This book really helped fine tune how I interact with others in society and has been a source of strength in creating relationships.  

My media experiences this week included watching the movie The Help. The movie was recommended to me from a classmate and I absolutely loved it! I am in the introduction class to social work and this movie had so many applications to the discipline.   It was also similar to The Color Purple in that this book helped inspire social reform.

History amazes me and I'm glad we are more accepting of races, although we are still learning and growing each day.  After watching The Help I thought about it a lot and realized that it may have helped cultivate my view of this topic according to the cultivation theory.  I learned a lot about what it was like to be a maid for the upper class and now I hold this into my ideas about how society was and how we came to be.

This week I have been boring with my media use and have had my nose in the books preparing for midterms. Learning about the different media theories in class has brought me to an awareness about why we use media that I did not have before.  This lack of prosocial media such as social media, video games, even music has made a huge impact on me.  I feel less social, more introverted and definitely less cultivated.  According to uses and gratification theory using media for personal identity and for personal relationships is something I am missing out on this week.  For example, I feel I have somewhat lost my political identity and cannot seem to connect with others after missing the debate.

I feel confident to take my media test and am planning on taking it right after this post, although I can see why media plays such a huge part of our daily lives and why we are a "media saturated" world.  This weekend I plan on watching that debate and having an opinion and using media to help be feel more prosocial and connected.....Stay tuned!  

This week I watched Bedtime Stories and loved it! Adam Sandler is one of my favorite actors and I love that he brought his humor to a kid movie.  We are coding this movie for sexual innuendos and I found quite a bit of them in this movie geared toward children.

It's amazing to me that so much adult humor can be in a PG movie. Just today as I was watching "Gladiator" on TV with commercials and all I heard the B-word dropped. I thought wow they will allow just about anything on TV now.  Weird to see the changes in media as I get older.

So I had an interesting experience that I noticed after our music lecture.  I downloaded the song "S and M" from Brittany Spears and Rihanna because I practice to it for a dance class and it has a great beat per minute (Don't Judge). I decided to listen to it one day on the road and I noticed this new alter ego come out in my driving.  I started driving faster, singing a long, and I made a couple of questionable lane changes. My energy level increased and my heart felt like it was going a little bit faster. In the midst of all these biological changes I caught myself and thought, WOW music is powerful!

I turned it down and focused on my driving and decided that music has a great impact on us and can help or hinder our ability to live "life". Glad I made it safely to my destination.

This week was educational week for me because I watched another documentary! In my biological functions class we watched "Inside the Womb" which showed how humans develop from a tiny cell into the human creation that we are. This film is the best depiction of the growth stages and has amazing imagery to help us understand what goes on inside the womb.

I really enjoyed watching this to help me understand more about how our bodies function and how much science and beauty there
is in conceiving a child.

               

Social Injustice in the Media

This week in my social work class we are learning about social injustice and human rights. The Color Purple is a monumental film about this topic and focuses on female black life in the 1930's taking place in the southern United States.  I had a chance to watch a short clip of Oprah Winfrey punching the lights out of a white male because she refused to be his wife's maid.  When she refused the man got offended and tried to intimidate her by using competitive language.  The scene got out of hand as other white men surrounded her and started calling her names and labeling her in society.  In class I learned that when we decide to label others based on their culture, race or gender, we oppress them from fulfilling their potential. I think the color purple illustrates this concept well and was great at helping me learn about human rights and the worth of the individual.  Definitely a film all people should watch to help promote awareness and also to mark how far we have come as a society.

I watched K-19 this weekend on Netflix and found the imagery very dramatic and somewhat graphic. The film was a true story and evoked many emotions about the trama that happened during the Cold War.  The film unfolded a story of a Russian Captain named Captain Alexi Vostrikov who was ordered to take command of the nuclear missile submarine K-19. The men stugled to stabilize the nuclear weapon and was forced to stay abord and follow through with the Soviet Navy's plans.

After being exposed to such traumatic scenes I felt very moved and sensitive to the issues of the war.  I thought about it again later the next day and again that night. It amazes me to see how media can affect me by continually coming up in my mind after watching a movie.  It reminds me of when I was a teenager and thought that I was evincible.  I thought that nothing would effect me, although as an adult a drama  like K-19 will enter my mind and stay there for a while. This makes me realize the importance of allowing good, clean and informational media into our lives and avoid media that will create a negative impact on us.

One of my favorite opinion leaders I watch consistently on Youtube suggested the show Pretty Little Liars so I decided to watch it recently and got totally sucked into the drama.  During the 30 minute program I was anticipating what's going to happen next and couldn't wait through the commercial ads.  After I watched the show I analyzed how ridiculous the show actually was. The acting is bad, the plot is bad and all the girls keep secrets, lied and deceived each other the whole time.  I wondered to myself why was I getting so into this program only to wonder why I wasted 30 minutes. Then I thought to myself there was a continual cliff hanger about a girl who was kidnapped and I wanted to find out what was going to happen to her.  The show kept referencing the girls situation, but would not show it until the very end.  It's amazing what a suggestion from a respected media commentator and a little suspenseful cliff hanger can do to oneself!