A Positive Media Message About the Election

I will be quite honest and say that I hate this "Election Season"! There is just so much negativity in the media and I can't watch it for very long without it putting me in a bad mood. However, a friend of mine posted this clip on Facebook and I was impressed with the positive tone of this discussion. Watching it feels like a nice breath of fresh air. I like that they are commenting on positive characteristics of Romney instead of belittling the candidates, like is often done. 

Enjoy and don't forget to get out and vote on November 6th! 

Motherhood

My group decided to promote motherhood for our family ad assignment. I believe that the role of motherhood, as outlined in the Family Proclamation, is deteriorating. Too many women in our society are putting off their responsibility to be mothers. They desire successful careers and want to experience the world before being "tied down" by children. I will be quite frank and say that I believe this is selfish, and not in line with the desires of our Heavenly Father. Granted there is a wide spectrum of views on this topic. Some might consider me selfish since I am waiting until I have graduated to have kids. The important things is that you have a desire to be a mother of Heavenly Father's children. And if, for some reason, you are not able to bear your own children you, as a woman of God, can be an example of righteousness to other children. This is the message that we hoped to promote through our advertisement. 

ENJOY! 

The Thin-Ideal

I really enjoyed our class discussion this past week on gender in the media, and specifically this idea of a "thin-ideal". Throughout the class period I kept thinking about this show I got started watching over the summer, Drop Dead Diva. It is all about Deb, an aspiring model that dies in a car accident and then has the chance to come back to earth, but ends up in the body of an over-weight, intelligent lawyer, Jane. I used to be a little embarrassed for watching such a girly show that on the surface seems very superficial. However, the more I watched it the more I was able to recognize the deeper messages and I was able to see the main character develop as she finds her inner-beauty and realizes that it is okay to have a different body type. This show goes against the norm in the media that beauty is defined by your weight. After our discussion and watching Miss Representation it makes sense to me why Lifetime, a network specifically for women, would air a show like this. They are trying to promote ideals that are not popular in the media. The idea that you do not have to be thin to be beautiful. It is the kind of person you are, the things you stand for, and the people you help that make you beautiful.

Dating

My best-friend from high school attends a small private university in Southern California called California Lutheran University (CLU), where she is an editor for the school paper. The other day on Facebook she posted a link to an article that a mutual friend had written on their website. After reading the article I was exploring the site and can across this fascinating article on dating. It made me laugh that we are not the only University that publishes articles on dating. However, this one takes an entirely different approach to dating than we do here at BYU. It got me thinking about how culture and location influence the content of our media.

Take a look at the article HERE. (don't worry it's short)

How do you feel about the article? Do you agree? Or do you prefer how our BYU newspaper portrays dating?

Miss Representation

WOW! This was an amazing film! (Dr. Coyne, if you are reading this please let us finish it). It really opened my mind to the many different ways that women are portrayed in the media, some that I had never even considered before. One thing that I thought was really interesting was the way the media portrayed Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton. And also the news anchor (I forgot her name). I had never realized how much the media emphasizes these women's looks and not the news they are sharing, or the content of their political platforms. It was astounding to me!
I was also intrigued by the idea that it is okay for women to watch action movies, but men can say no to chick flicks. Now, I don't believe that this is a universal concept and my husband is good about watching the occasional chick flick with me. But we certainly watch a lot more action films! And when I do watch a chick flick I tend to do it on a girls night or when he is gone. It is just amazing to me how much we are, in a sense, brain washed with this trends of the way women should act or be viewed by society. Such an interesting aspect of the media, and although I usually cringe at the idea of research, I think it would be really interesting to do more research on this topic.

How much do you get out of the media?

Do you ever just read something and then realize that you didn't get one thing out of it? I do this all the time, especially with my text books and the scriptures! I am currently taking Rel 333 Teachings of the Living Prophets from Brother Lloyd Newell (you know, the Music and the Spoken Word guy). I love this class, please take it if you can! But it is really making me realize how often I just read the scriptures, and particularly the General Conference talks, with out truly reading them. I allow my mind to wander and just don't put my whole concentration on their messages. This is something that I am really trying to work on. I think it can also be applied to other forms of media as well, like our text books or television, or even just books we read for fun. How often do we just watch TV without a true purpose? How often do we read a book without really grasping its true message? I am certainly guilty of this too! This week I am going to challenge myself to really focus on the messages of the various media I consume, and not just view/read it to fill time.

A remote designed for young kids?

While perusing Pinterest I came across this remote that is designed specifically for kids. Parents can program 7 channels in and then the kids can channel surf at their leisure. 

I am not entirely sure of my opinion of it. On the one hand I think it is great to ensure that the kids don't come across any non-kid friendly channel. But then on the other hand, I don't know if I want my kids watching enough TV that they would need their own remote. 

What do you think? Would you buy this for your kid? 

My least favorite type of media

Usually I know exactly what I want to write for my 2 blog posts. But not this week! I was trying to figure out why and I realized it is because this week has been filled with my least favorite type of media...exams and papers. This week I had 3 papers due, 1 quiz, and 3 exams. I am hoping that a weekend of uplifting media, like General Conference, will help relieve some stress. And Monday morning, after I take my last exam, I will (hopefully) be feeling amazing since I survived an extremely busy/stressful week! Anyway, I am certain I was not the only one feeling this way this week, so I hope everyone else who is feeling some stress will be able to enjoy the uplifting messages of Conference!