Hey there.

So I sort of forgot about posting my introduction post, and for those of you who haven't had a course with me, it's not uncommon for me to forget things.  I was diagnosed with short term memory loss at age 16 and personally I like to poke fun at it instead of be really serious and upset about it since there really isn't anything I or my doctors can do about it... which leads me to why I forgot things... if you haven't read my about me, there is someone you should meet:

This is Timmy.

Yes, I named my tumor, Timmy The Tumor.  We all know you're jealous.  I was diagnosed when I was 16 years old and a Junior in high school.  Timmy is a grade one Juvenile Pylocytic Astrocytoma that had been growing since the first grade (I was in 11th when I was diagnosed).  I spent 3 straight months in Hasbro Hospital (the first time) and have had ten brain surgeries to date.  Thankfully however my neurosurgeon was able to remove most of Timmy was removed back in 2008 but in recent scans they have found some regrowth.  I also have a Codman Programmable Brain Shunt (named Sasha).  She drains the excess spinal cord fluid from my brain into my stomach because my ventricles were so scarred from the tumor, a brain infection, and the surgeries that they no longer do it themselves.  

In my spare time I'm pretty much a normal person with the occasional brain seizure, loss of memory, or whatever.  But I try not to let things get in my way... I'm double majoring at the moment in Social Work and Youth Development.  My dream would someday be to work at Hasbro Hospital and be able to give back.  

Talking Point 1: Media & Ideology

Quotes

1.  "But the media are not simply conduits for carrying competing messages; they are more than just the battlefield on which cultural warfare takes place.  Much of the substance of the comtemporary culture wars is about the acceptability of the images that the mass media disseminates.  These struggles over morality and values often focus on the implications of our popular media images and the apparent lessons they teach about society." p162 

 The text continues to talk about Eminem's album The Marshall Mather LP album being filled with rage and violence.  And I have to agree that he is full of hatred and violence especially towards women, gays, and lesbians... and it is clear from the lyrics of Kill Me:

"Texas Chainsaw, left his brains all
dangling from his neck, while his head barely hangs on
Blood, guts, guns, cuts
Knives, lives, wives, nuns, sluts
Bitch I'ma kill you! You don't wanna fuck with me
Girls neither - you ain't nothing but a slut to me"

2. "Media representations are interwined with questions of power and ideology because of the process of giving meaning to events suggests that, potentially, there are multiple definitions of reality.  Media have, as Hall (1982) says, 'the power to signify events in a particular way.'  The question, then, is, 'What are the patterns by which events are represented?'"  p168

I thought this was a really interesting quote.  Mostly because it really brought everything together for me in terms of power, media, representation, and ideology.

3. "In essence, the accumilation of media images suggests what is 'normal' and what is 'deviant'.  This articulation is accomplished, in large part, by the fact that popular media, particularly tevelision and mass advertising, have a tendency to display a remarkably narrow range of behaviors and lifestyles, marginalizing or neglecting people who are 'different' from the mass-mediated norm."  p 163

This was my favorite section of this piece by Croteau.  I agree that we do see the 'norm' in the media and believe that there can't be any other way to live our lives.  I for one know I used to be one of those people until I was diagnosed with Timmy the Tumor at age 16.

Last semester, when I blogged about this article I related it to females in the media and about how advertising effects girls of every age in America telling them how to dress, act, how to look, speak, etc. 

And I really liked how Mary talked about same-sex couples, posting two photos and prompting the question: Who looks happier?