Digital Story Final: FYS

Discrimination of Female Athletes through the Media on PhotoPeach
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Anotated bibliography DS project

http://www.studentpulse.com/articles/587/the-medias-sexualization-of-female-athletes-a-bad-call-for-the-modern-game

Media sexaulization of female athletes:
Female athletes do not have the luxury of being primarily portrayed as performance athletes, as coverage of their beauty and sex appeal usually over-shadow highlights of their on-field accomplishments.  "Women first, athlete 2nd" is the generally view on female athletes by their clothes and poses in magazines and commercials. While sexualizing female athletes and encouraging them to prioritize sex appeal over strength.  Changes the athletes achievements and self-esteem. The American public has not deemed women's sports on par with men's sports, female athletes have had to embrace the media's sexualization to emphasize their femininity and gain publicity and money.

http://www.mcgilldaily.com/2014/09/time-to-bench-discrimination/
Time to bench discrimination:
No matter how talented an athlete they are, they will be met with sexist and racist sports coverage. These athletes deserve the same attention and dignity given to white male athletes, and it seems that this will only happen once sports networks and newspapers begin to hire more people of color and women as commentators, anchors, and journalists. As it currently stands, white men make up a large portion of the mainstream media, and so the coverage is tailored to what they deem to be ‘legitimate’ sports. Unfortunately, female athletes are seen as less legitimate.

http://www.feminist.org/research/sports/sports5a.html

Women Athletes in the Media:

Both female athletes and reporters have yet to achieve parity with men in the media. In terms of coverage, women athletes are almost invisible. In 1993, only 5% of televised sports news covered women's sports - virtually the same percentage as in 1989.30 In print media, a study of four major newspapers found that fewer than 5% of all sports stories were devoted to women only.

 

http://www.sportsmanagementresources.com/library/media-coverage-womens-sports

Media coverage of women's sports is important:

The media shapes the public's perceptions of the accomplishments of women playing sports and whether women in general can be strong, confident and highly skilled. The media also shapes the dreams and aspirations of girls. Boys grow up watching television, bombarded by heroic and confident images of themselves playing sports and being revered for their accomplishments. They know they are expected to play sports and are encouraged to do so by everyone around them. Girls do not receive these messages.

Television carriage is also a critical ingredient for the success of professional women's sports and competitive professional sport salaries and purses. If women's pro sports cannot tap into big advertising dollars, athlete salaries and purses will continue to be depressed and the financial success of women's pro leagues and tours will be more difficult to achieve.

 

 

Digital Story Proposal: Discrimination of Female Athletes in the media

For my Digital Story project, I would like to spread awareness on the discrimination of female athletes in the media.  Female athletes are not shown near the same recognition in the media as men are as professional athletes, or even college athletes.  When tuning into the sports section of the news or even on ESPN, it is very rarely that you see the stories being covered involving women sports.  It is no secret that women sports are not shown equally on television, or in a source of social media, although there seems to be no sense of change for the issue anytime soon.   40% of sport and physical activity participants are women, but on 6%-8% of total media sports coverage is devoted to women sports.  Also out of the four major newspapers (USA today, Boston Globe, Orange County Register, and the Dallas Morning News) only 3.5% of all sports stories are about only women.  Another issue dealing with Female athletes and social media is that female athletes do not have the luxury of being primarily portrayed as performance athletes, as coverage of their beauty and sex appeal usually over-shadow highlights of their on-field accomplishments. Although these newspapers, and television channels are simply giving the viewers what they want.  The targeted viewers of these channels and of sport sections in social media, are male and these men are looking for strength and impressive talent in sports, which is best shown by male athletes.  The perception of the role of women is perhaps largely to blame. Women are still seen more in the role or spectators, cheerleaders, supportive wives and mothers than for any athletic abilities they may possess. Commercial and advertisements tend to emphasize this and dwell on physical attributes and other factors rather than talent.  Women are generally viewed as “women first, and female second”, by their clothes and poses in magazines and commercials.  Media is not only degrading the athlete’s accomplishments and self- esteem, but also alienate viewers and impede the feminist movement.  Media’s sexulization does grant female athletes more publicity by concentrating on sex appeal instead athleticism and skill.   The media also generally tries to target male viewers with their sexualization of female athletes, but through objectifying women, the media ultimately fails to engage men in women’s sports.  The American public has not deemed women’s sports on par with men’s sports, and female athletes have had to embrace the media’s sexualization to emphasize their femininity and gain publicity and money. “Female athletes in the United States have historically faced resistance, even outright hostility, for mot confining themselves to ‘feminine’ activities” was a statement made by The Harvard Law Review in 1997.  The change of view on female athletes by the American public, would be the next necessary step in order to gain recognition and respect for female athletes in our country. 

 

 

Sources:

http://www.livestrong.com/article/247625-gender-discrimination-in-sports/

http://www.womenslawproject.org/NewPages/hrAthletics_Discrim.html

mahidachintan.com/documents/Dec-2012/1201.pdf

http://www.studentpulse.com/articles/587/the-medias-sexualization-of-female-athletes-a-bad-call-for-the-modern-game

 

 

Digital Story: Gender Codes

For this digital story, my group and I focused and female roles in the tv/movie industry.  We discuss the stereotypical roles that female tend to play, the small amount of recognition for female directs, and finally we discussed the Bechtel test.  Our digital story presents many shocking information on women in the film industry

http://photopeach.com/album/ea7r7t

Human Trafficking 2.0

what is human trafficking? Human trafficking Is the trade in humans, most commonly for the purpose of sexual slavery, forced labor, or commercial sexual exploitation for the trafficker or others.   Human trafficking is the second largest illegal enterprise in the world. Drugs of course are still number one. The international Labor Organization estimates that 12.3 million people around the world are involved in forced labor, bonded labor, forced child labor and sexual servitude. Human trafficking is one of the fastest growing criminal industries in the world. Annually, the money illegally acquired through human trafficking is estimated to be more than $35 billion, which equals the profits earned by Starbucks, Google and Nike combined Many do not see human trafficking as a big issue here in the United States, but that is mainly because most of the them are uneducated on the issue. Even here in Ohio, human trafficking is a problem that needs to be stopped immediately.  There seems to be that human trafficking is a much greater issue in Ohio than many people would believe.  There are many different statistic numbers reflecting the effect of human trafficking her in Ohio. In a recent study estimates that 3,437 foreign born persons in Ohio may be at risk for both labor and sex trade trafficking, 783 of which are estimated to be trafficked into the labor or sex trade in Ohio.  Governor Kasich, is committed to stop human trafficking here in Ohio.  Each year there is an estimated 1,078 Ohio children become victims of human trafficking and 3,016 more are at-risk.  If you ask an average young-adult American what human trafficking is, most likely the individual thinks back to the move "Taken".  Which the movie shows human trafficking in foreign countries, and individual does not see that happening in America.  The movie or "Social media" that is about human trafficking does not represent the truth behind it and that needs to be changed. This movie also portrays the idea that human trafficking only effects Women, which is very far from the truth.  At least 95% of all commercial sex engaged in boys is provided to adult males. Approximately half of the adult male sexual exploiters of boys are married men, many with children of their own.  Once I started uncovering the truth behind Human trafficking and seeing the statistics showing how many individuals it affects, and also the large sums of money also included in the industry, it proves the public, myself included, are very uneducated on the truth and how sever the problem is.  Human trafficking is a bigger issue then many believe and that needs to be changed soon.

http://humantrafficking.ohio.gov/
http://lisadpreston.hubpages.com/hub/Human-trafficking-in-Ohio

FYS Social Action Project:

My Social Action Project idea has to do with Animal Testing;
 

Animal testing may seem like such a small issue to some people, but to other animal lovers in the world like me, it is a big problem.  The United States of America, is one of the countries that contribute a majority of the animals testing done around the world.  Over 100 million animals are burned, crippled, poisoned, and abused in US labs every year, and 92% of experimental drugs that are safe and effective in animals fail in human clinical trials because they are too dangerous or don’t work.  With this information alone, it seems to be uncertain to me why animal testing has gone on for as long as it has.  We seem to be wasting animal’s lives in order to try these new products that will in the end be used for human use; while these animals and humans do not have the same genetic make-up, and are almost certain to effect each species skin and body differently.  I understand that sometimes animal testing is the best option when I comes to important medical advances, and important research for terminal diseases such as Cancer. While limiting the use of animals testing, we are able to end the madness of wasting the animal’s life and health on products such as make-up, and hair supplies.  Another idea that came out of researching this topic was that we can relax the rules and regulations in order for a human to test a certain medicine that could save their life.  For example, if a medication that is possible to cure for cancer, and a patient that has the same type of cancer in a severe form, may be willing to give it a try.  In turn that will cut time in between experimenting on the animals and then continuing it onto test on a human.  A common saying by other campaigns that have the same beliefs on animals testing as I came up with “3 R’s:” replaces a procedure that uses animals with a procedure that doesn’t, reduces the number of animals used in a procedure, refines a procedure to alleviate or minimize potential animal pain.  Using animals to test new products isn’t the main issue I wish to stop, the pain and torture that these animals have to go through for these products is unjust and inhuman.  For my project I would like to spread awareness around the world of the severity of the issue and the effects it has on the animals.  Although my topic is basically the same as PETAS, I do not plan on spreading the knowledge like their campaign does.  By simply making a blog with pictures, posts, and more information and the detailed process of animal testing, we will be able to take major steps to more far regulations of animal testing.  PETA has more of an aggressive approach when confronting the problem directly, and instead my ad campaign will also have inviting voice, to teach the other side ways to avoid this problem.  I would also wish to add a petition onto my blog to give anyone the opportunity to support the beliefs demonstrated throughout my blog, and to help change to rules and regulations of animal testing to make it more, Animal friendly.

discussion 1: Journal of a cleaner production question

1. How does the public, and government have the ablity to have a producer change their prices, to a more reasonable price.  (example: Selling sneakers at $200, costs $20 to produce.)

2. What ways can we limit the power of the producers and give more power to the consumers?

3. The possibilities of what you CAN do with the outdated item, in a more environmentally friendly way.

Racism; as a social justice issue

Racism is one of the most popular social justice issue, and is also one of the most argued and debated social justice issues in the United States.  The definition of racism is "the belief that races have distinctive cultural characteristics determined by hereditary factors and that this endows some races with an intrinsic superiority over others; abusive or aggressive behavior towards members of another race on the basis of such a belief."  Through out Americas history we have embarrassed our self with not only supporting racism, but also taking part in it.  For man years, the average American would own African American slaves to do whatever they wished.  Depending on the owners, and the different states, the slaves were used for different things.  Some Americans would just have one or two slaves just to help the family with everyday house chores, and sometimes, mostly in the southern states, a plantation owner would own hundreds of slaves to work in their cotton field, and any other jobs their owner asked them to do.  Finally in 1865, The United States ratified the 13th amendment that abolished slavery, but the racism did not end there.  Even today, as we coming to a close of the year 2014, Racism is still a well argued and hot topic in todays society. In order to continue spreading awareness of the serious issues of racism, social media comes in a very large way.  Social media has the incredible power to send a message, picture, or videos to everywhere around the country, and even the world.  I often times see past pictures posted where server cases of racism are demonstrated, that really catch you attention.  I think the saying "a pictures worth a thousand words," really applies when spreading awareness of racism, and gives you a chance to see racism from a different perspective. 

http://www.tolerance.org/lesson/using-photographs-teach-social-justice-exposing-racism

Suicide as a social justice issue

When an individual has hit an all time low, they look for an easy and fast way out.  Sometimes they believe that their only choice is to take their own life in the act of suicide.  Resent studies on suicide show that 90% of the individuals that commit suicide had a diagnosable mental illness.  With proper care and medicine, the individuals may not have felt the need to do such an act.  Another reason behind suicide, is when they don't know another way out. With the resent studies, there have been multiple hotline, websites, and consoling centers that welcome individuals to come anonymously to talk about their problems.  In order to spread the word about these centers that are available at anytime, social media plays a large part.  On twitter for example, there are multiple tweets that send out the world on suicide awareness, and provide multiple phone numbers, websites, and centers near you.  Everyone can be a part of preventing suicide; by simply retweeting a tweet that has the suicide hotline phone number, can save someone's life.  It will even say that "a simple retweet can save someone's life" right in the tweet that is expected to be retweeted.  These simple acts show how the young adults in our world can work together and try to reduce the numbers of suicides each year.


http://sallyspencerthomas.blogspot.com/2010/04/suicide-preventon-as-social-justice.html

Group project (Bush vs. Gore)

https://docs.google.com/a/jcu.edu/document/d/1oofTodWzGct4M99U9tvbBVuT1NmAMMgISvNuQRUAbzw/edit

Most people vote for Gore but Bush still wins due to regulations of the electoral college.

Conversation between two young voters, Cole and Jaclyn Cole: I voted for Bush. So glad he won! Jaclyn: I voted for Gore along with all 20 of my family members! I can’t believe he didn’t win! Cole: He won because “The United States Electoral College is the institution that officially elects the President and Vice President of the United States every four years. The President and Vice President are not elected directly by the voters.” Jaclyn: So does this mean that my votes didn’t even matter?!?!?!?! Cole: The votes of the people influence the decision of the Electoral College because they represent the people based on state. Jaclyn: That is messed up. Gore would have been a better president!

Now the President speaks to the People Bush: I am glad to be President even though most of you didn’t vote for me. I promise to lower national debt by tax cuts. I also promise to keep us out of war!

Abortions and social media 2.0

Abortion is a very hot topic in the media today, especially with a presidential election well on its way.  Abortion is a topic that is not like any other of the topics that separate the democratic and republican parties.  The public's opinion on Abortion is generally in the middle of the two parties opinion, republicans are against abortion, and democrats believe it is the women's choice.  Many anti-abortion activists, post blogs, videos and write articles supporting their opinion, and attacking any individual that believes in abortions in anyway.  In February of 2014, Cammie Wollner wrote a blog posts discussing a video that was shared on to her Facebook wall, showing the detail effects of abortion on the unborn child.  She explains how moving, but disturbing the video was to have been so publicly shared onto Facebook, and that it may have been taken to far this time. Wollner continues saying that she has seen multiple pictures and adds to help prevent abortion and to make strides to have it become illegal, but the anit-abortion activist may have gone to far this time.  The video posted wasn't as much informative, more disturbing and horrifying.  The video she calmed was "like watching death slowly creep across the screen.  It was horrible and I found myself frozen for a moment, unable to scroll away." There is a difference between trying to spread awareness on an issue, and taking it to far where the viewer has to look away from the screen.  I understand where the users see the benefit of sharing the videos, to spread awareness and to show the truth of what happens during an abortion, but when you go too far it seems you can turn away your viewers and have the video back fire in the end.  


http://awomansplaceis.blogspot.com/2014/02/social-media-abortion-and-how-far-is.html

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/free-speech-victory-article-1.1845780

Abortion; a social justice issue

Currently in the United States, a hot topic that is discussed as a serious social justice issue is Abortion.   The United States government is trying to regulate the laws and conditions concerning abortions.  There are around 1.21 million abortions each year in the United States, and Republicans are fighting to cut down that number severely.  Politicions with a religious background, are the specific individuals that are trying to regulate the rights on Abortion, while others are able to see both sides of the situation.  I do not believe the government should be involved in regulating the rights of Abortion.  Abortion should be available to women that seriously believe it will be the best choice for not only their future, but the unborn child.  Women that may have had unfortunate circumstances such as rape, or have an unstable home life that would be not fitting for a child to grow up in.  I understand abortion is a very conflicting topic with the facts presented by both sides.  I hope in the near future both political parties are able to meet at a middle ground, and give women the right to choose how to handle their situation without sever judgment.

Women's Rights in the Work Place; Social Justice Issue

Women Rights in a Social Justice Aspect:
It seems obscured to me that as the year of 2014 is coming to a close, that women rights in the work place is still a common topic in the social justice aspect.  Although there has been much improvement on women's rights since 1919 when the 19th amendment was passed to give women the right to vote.  Currently in todays society women are still looked down upon compared to men when it comes to a place in certain job fields.  It is still believed that men can do many things better then women, although despite hundreds of experiments and proof that men and women have many different strengths and weaknesses.   Women have been fighting for years to have equal pay as men, even while completing and working the exact same job, and finishing the same amount of criteria and work needed.  On average it is recorded that women only earn 77 cents for every dollar a man earns.  Although on April 8th, 2014, President Obama signed an executive actions aimed at closing a compensation gender gap that favors men.  The main excuse used by employers about women not given the same chance as men in the work place is that they are considered more unreliable.  Employers believe that since women are more of the care givers of the family, that they are more likely to miss work in order to take care of the children, and an even larger issue is maternity leave.  The price the business has to deal with when a women is out of work for maternity leave isn't only the money still sent to the new mother, but also the work that has to be put on other workers in order to pick up the slack from her absence.  Despite these difficulties a corpperation might have to face do to the women's absence, it should not infringe on her chances of finding a job and should not effect the amount of pay she will receive.

 

Glynn, Sarah Jane. "Explaining the Gender Wage Gap." name. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Sept. 2014. <http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/economy/report/2014/05/19/90039/explaining-the-gender-wage-gap/>.

About me...

My name is Jaclyn Steele and I am from Orchard Park NY, which is a small town right outside of Buffalo.  I was born in Lexington, Kentucky and have moved multiple times through out my life;  Although the majority of my life I have lived in New York.  Since I was born I have been a huge animal lover, and animals have always been apart of my life.  My favorite animal is a horse, which I believe is what started me with my favorite sport and hobby to compete in.  I am an avid equestrian and have been riding since I was the age of 6, and do not plan on stopping anytime soon!  The great thing about my sport is that I can always continue to improve, and not have age be a factor that will put a deadline on my career.  Many of the top equestrians in the world are older than your average athlete, and I inspire to be just like them. 
I am most comfortable during a course when I have my own personal opinions on the topic, and am able to give my opinion without having to research the topic a lot, and have personal experiences with the material.
 I believe the most important technological invention is the cellphone.  The cellphone gave the task of communication with others from anywhere in the world as easy as dialing a couple numbers.  The cellphone was able to put communication with loved one from anywhere in the world easy, quick and affordable for the average user.  The old style of  letter writing was nothing short of an amazing invention, but now the communication needed is able to happen within a few minutes, compared to waiting for letters in the mail that could take many days depending on the destination. 
There are many social justice issues around the world, and the issues are on many different levels, and circumstances depending on which country is being discussed.  These issues tend to deal with the distributions of wealth, opportunities and privileges within a country or society.  The most important social justice issues in my opinion is child welfare.  All children should be given a chance in this world and be able to have the same opportunities as any child would coming from a good family.  Another important social justice issue in our world today is poverty and economic injustice.  The gap between the rich and poor has been made more apparent throughout the years instead of having the gap become more irrelevant in society.    
Questions for Dr,Shutkin:  what are five fun facts about you? what does social injustice mean to you?