First off regarding the reading materials about the absence from advertising; let me say I cannot agree more!!! I RARELY see any advertisements that depict Native Americans, except prior to an election or potential ballot and then Native Americans are seen as poor, looking for handouts, or finances for their reservations and casinos. I have only seen them depicted once in a positive light, and that was during last week's class with the Native American girl placed on a college university advertisement. I also rarely see people with disabilities, the elderly or the poor in any positive light if at all. When I do see elderly people, it's always showing them discussing a new pain reliever or self-help remedy that makes their 'somewhat deteriorating' life easier. I have a hard time looking at the world of advertising now that I am so much more aware of the discrepancies. Also, I know we discussed gay-vague advertising last week, but I saw a commercial this week and it completely fit the categories of the gay-vague website!!! I wouldn't have even picked up on this had we not previously discussed the fact that these types of ads are only aimed for people looking for them. Lastly, when I was watching CNN last night, there was a feature story about a woman who hung what appeared to be a 'dark skinned' dummy from a noose in her front yard as part of her Halloween decorations. Nonetheless, many people in her community were outraged saying that this displayed white supremacy and racism. Although I do not think this was the lady's intentions, it was interesting to see the debate.

As discussed in "Media Texts and Gender," content analysis is defined as 'a research technique for the objective, systematic adn quantitative description of the manifest content of communication." The article goes on to discuss how women are usually portrayed as housewives, secretaries or nurses with very feeble, weak or vulnerable characteristics about them. This subservient portrayal of women was alive and well among feminists in the 1960s, dropped off by the 1980s, but has regained its momentum in criticizing advertisers who conform to these stereotypes. The article also discussed the fact that wehn the research in the area of gender and media is scarce, as for instance in most developing countries, content analysis is instrumental in providing a general imporession of the representation of women and men. While this may sound useful, it is quite harmful in the sense that it fails to truly represent a community or society factually, and therefore sends a misconstrued message to other audiences or viewers. Seminology or semiotics has become quite popular in feminist media criticism because of its ability to unravel structrues of meaning beyond the mere presence or absence of women in cultural forms. Furthermore, I found it interesting that the article stated 'As a concentrated form of communication, advertising needs to present its message in an extremely short time span, and depends heavily on the successful exploitation of the connotative power of signs.' I could not agree more with this statement because most commercials only have about 30 seconds - 1 minute to sell their product. In that short time span, advertisers are willing exploit anything to get the message of their product conveyed to the consumer effectively. In the "Sex and Consumer Culture" readings this week, it was also interesting to read about the ways homosexuals are viewed by the media and portrayed by advertisers. Their lifestyle and mannerisms truly are marginalized and slated most times in an untrue light.

I found it very interesting in Chapters 8 and 12 from our text the impact of sex used in advertisements today. It is disturbing to realize that kids and teens are turning to the media for information about sex because they are not able to find adequate information or answers to their questions elsewhere. I also found it very true as discussed in Chapter 12 that it is questionable whether there is even any merchandise for sale in many advertisements today. For example, the advertisement from Bebe discussed in depth looks harmless upon first glance. Then again perhaps I am simply far too used to seeing such seductive poses insinuating sexual desire and conduct. Many advertisements are even moving toward the usage of nude models in the advertisements. This comes down to the question of pornography and what constitutes pornography. I agree with the author that pornography has become more and more acceptable over time in the use of advertisements and this has a detrimental effect on kids and other youth. Pornography used to be defined as having to appeal to the prurient interest; however, now the definition appears to be slowly but surely changing depending on the arguments and motives put forth by advertisers.

In regards to our last class session where the media coverage on the three different female victims who were killed during the fall 2007 semester, I found myself very much on the side of the NT Daily journalist who was in charge of such coverage. He understood the responsibility for meeting a deadline with reasonable and creditable sources without sacrificing the impression of the newspaper by quitting so abruptly. I think that a good number of the people in class believed that the media coverage was not evenly distributed among the three girls not present. The fact that the media published very vivid details regarding how they (the victims') were thought to be dangerous drug dealers caught between jealousy and a lesbian relationship was incredibly damaging and hurtful for the family's of the ones who died.

It was very interesting to read various articles regarding Ken Burns' "The War" film on PBS. I didn't really know much about Burns or the fact that he openly admitted he wanted a specific point of view about his film to be portrayed. I think it was disappointing that Burns made a conscious effort to no to include the 'Latino' perspective when initially questioned. Has Gus Chavez not spoken out on behalf of the Latino soldiers who dedicated their service and some even their lives for the war. I really think that Burns' initial cut of his film was very stereotypical in that he only showed a limited perspective to his audiences. Burns' basically showed audiences a viewpoint that was not only limited, but not complete. I hope this controversial debate will encourage future film-makers and all people who work in the media to strive for an unbiased perspective that represents true accuracy of events.