The Stories of Those Without a Voice

  Curiosity inspires iconic photographer     

       Images sometimes speak louder than words when it comes to the media. Earlier this week, CNN.com featured a slideshow of photographs and a short article on renowned photojournalist Steve McCurry in which writer Elizabeth I. Johnson commented on the inspiration behind McCurry’s iconic photos. His photos, featuring everything from conflicts to portraits, are based in McCurry’s curiosity of people from all across the world. McCurry relies heavily on translators and relationships in order to connect with these people from different cultures and varying customs. The article portrayed his commitment to traveling to places and working with the locals in order to show the true story of what is happening there. McCurry was quoted saying, “As they explore, photographers are responsible for witnessing events and informing the greater public and for telling the stories of those without a voice.” His hope for global change through an informed public motivates McCurry’s dedication to his work and his responsibility to telling the truth through his photography. 

Afghan girl, Peshawar, Pakistan (Steve McCurry/Magnum Photos)

       In a world with increasing access to new technologies and journalistic methods, photojournalism has been under heightened pressure and criticism in regards to the use of photoshop and the editing of photos. With these new technologies, photographers have more and more methods of manipulating photos and videos to present news events in a certain, and sometimes untruthful, light, which contributes to societal stereotypes or popular opinions. These systems have given photographers increased power in the media, but they also have much more responsibility to present the truth. Because writers can provide certain angles in their writing, the public relies heavily on photos to show them the events, in addition to their reading about them, so that they can form their own opinions. We, as the public, must be able to trust photographers to show world news and situations in a truthful light and not force certain opinions or stereotypes on the audience. Therefore, though this article, it was encouraging to see a renowned photojournalist committed to telling the truth and showing the whole scene through photography.

Click here for a slideshow of photographs by Steve McCurry.

The President of Black America? Or the President of the United States of America?

For President, a Complex Calculus of Race and Politics

       The New York Times published an article last week on President Barack Obama’s difficulties as the first black president of the United States. In the article, Mr. Obama is ridiculed by both supporters and opposers of his campaign as both parties criticize either his favoritism toward the African-American population or his disregard of them. Many of the president’s policies have heavily benefited African-Americans, such as education grants to underperforming schools and the health care bill that will help millions of uninsured Americans. However, many blacks accuse Mr. Obama of not being aggressive enough on race and attentive to African-Americans. This was seen at a meeting with the president’s top campaign donors last year to discuss the administration’s achievements with women, Jews, gays and lesbians. However, there was no discussion of African Americans. President Obama’s reply to all of these accusations was simply, “I’m not the president of black America. I’m the president of the United States of America.”

Damon Winter/The New York Times

President Obama in Iowa last week. As the nation’s first black president, he has walked a careful line on the subject of race.

       This article was interesting, because it showed not only non-African-Americans’ stereotypes of the president as a black president, but fellow African-Americans’ stereotypes of Mr. Obama as a black president as well. Both sides stereotyped him as a proponent and benefactor of the African-American community. Therefore, when he began passing domestic policies, he was already wedged in by pre-held beliefs and expectations for his role as the first black president of the United States. It is disappointing to see that even with such progression as a black president, the American society has yet to let go of such debilitating stereotypes as race. These preconceived notions do not allow for progress and change. They only cripple growth even further, and this groundbreaking change with Mr. Obama as the first black president will forever be tainted by the stereotypes that boxed him in even throughout his presidency. This article simply proves that no one escapes the scrutiny and stereotyping of the public eye, not even the president.

Kay Granger - "The Most Feminine Face"

MARY F. CALVERT

Kay Granger's face is called the most feminine in the House.

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/10/13/4333692/if-theres-a-republican-look-she.html#storylink=cpy

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram featured a story Saturday titled “If there’s a Republican look, she has it.” According to this article by Maria Recio, Anna M. Tinsley and Scott Nishimura, U.S. female lawmakers with “stereotypical feminine facial features” are more likely to be Republican that Democrat. UCLA researchers scanned photos of various female politicians, compared them to “facial norms,” and then asked undergraduate students to guess the House members’ party affiliation. The study stated, the students’ “‘judgments were 98 percent more likely to be accurate for women with the highest rankings for femininity.’” In the Star-Telegram’s coverage of this UCLA study, the writers were sure to mention that Fort Worth’s own Kay Granger scored the highest on this femininity test. However, why was this local newspaper so enthralled with and proud of having the representative with the most feminine face? How can a group of researchers even determine what exactly is “feminine” and what is not? Furthermore, why is it important whether or not a politician has feminine facial features? It is important because the media makes it important through its coverage and support of studies such as this one.

In the media, female politicians and women in general are often depicted only in terms of their looks as opposed to their actual political contributions. This trend held true in the early 80’s when the first female Vice President nominee, Geraldine Ferraro, was introduced by a news anchor as a “size 6.” Then again in 2008, Sarah Palin was featured more in the news for wearing a pair of red patent leather peep-toe pumps to the Vice Presidential debate than she was for the ideas she portrayed during the discussion. Still today, as seen in the article by the Star-Telegram, women are continually depicted in the media based on their appearance. It is a vicious cycle in which the media only features politicians in terms of their womanly traits, making that the most important aspect in the mind of the public. Therefore, the result is more public focus on these politicians’ physical features as opposed to their political ideals, as seen in the UCLA research study. When a prominent university then continues this interest through a news-worthy research study, the media features once again solely the “feminine” side of women, and the cycle continues. If the public continues to fuel this stereotype by engaging in and contributing to the interest in mere physicality as opposed to morality, then the media will never cease to sexualize women. If we as the audience wish for better and demand better by refusing to support media that stereotypes women, then we may hope to see some change in the future. Until then, however, we will be caught in this cycle of stereotypes and misrepresentations and a world where our government representatives are judged more by the femininity of their facial features than the merit of their political ideals.

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/10/13/4333692/if-theres-a-republican-look-she.html#storylink=cpy

The "Not-So-Sexy" Truth

       First-time voters concerned about student debt, getting jobs after graduation

STAR-TELEGRAM/RODGER MALLISON

Tamika Smikle and Christina Hernandez register to vote with help from Claire Forshey on Tuesday at the TCC Trinity River Campus.

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/10/03/4306748/first-time-voters-concerned-about.html#storylink=cpy

       The Fort Worth Star Telegram posted an article on their website Wednesday in which the writer, Diane Smith, commented on the apparent main issues of concerns to college students that will play a factor in this upcoming presidential election. The two main topics Smith focused on were centered around student debt and job availability after graduation. She portrayed other key issues present in this presidential debate, like the economy and healthcare, as “not-so-sexy topics” for “first-time voters” or college students. Smith also reported political experts’ prediction of a significant drop in the number of youth voters and attributed this decrease to the absence of the “cool factor” of Barack Obama’s 2008 “hope and change” campaign. By using such diction as “not-so-sexy” and the “cool factor,” and by focusing almost solely on the issues of student debt and jobs after graduation, Smith tries to appeal to college students but does so in a completely stereotypical and overly generalized manner that actually distances her from this younger generation.

Just as women and minorities are often underrepresented and stereotyped in the media, young people are frequently portrayed in articles concerning either employment or crime. In this particular article in the Star Telegram, the youth is once again present in association with job availability and is actually alienated from more “grown-up” concerns such as health care and the economy. This stereotype, however, completely generalizes college students and neglects many of the concerns that they too may have in the 2012 election. While some students may be focused on the issue of student loans, many university students are not on loan at all and would, therefore, not be as interested in that subject. Also, while jobs after graduation is a concern of a lot of college students face, others may be equality worried about other factors beyond graduation such as health care. Therefore, it is impossible to pin-point the main concerns of “first-time” voters because there are various issue that attain to a wide-range of students beyond the mere two mentioned in Smith’s article. We as college students actually make-up a large portion of the consumers of media content. If the media continues to misrepresent us and place college students into a collectively similar small group, they will begin to alienate their greatest asset and largest audience and gradually ruin themselves until they finally begin to acknowledge us as their most important consumer necessary for the media’s success as an industry. 

To watch an interview with Tarrant County College student, Nathaniel Peoples, click here 

"Islamophobia"

"Classes canceled but UT campus reopens after threat" By Bill Hanna

ASSOCIATED PRESS / RICARDO B. BRAZZIELL

University of Texas students evacuate campus after the university received a bomb threat Friday morning

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/09/14/4258657/uts-austin-campus-being-evacuated.html#storylink=cpy

       

       The University of Texas at Austin’s campus was evacuated Friday due to a bomb threat. A man with a “Middle Eastern” accent called the main university phone saying he belonged to al-Qaida and claimed bombs placed throughout campus would go off in 90 minutes. Administrators waited more than an hour, however, before evacuating the grounds and telling students to get as far away from the school as possible. In the midst of violent protests outside U.S. embassies in the Middle East, nervous tension stirred among students. The UT president was quoted saying, “The global situation would be part of what we look at when we evaluate any threat.” In the coverage following the initial breaking story of the incident at UT, many students were quoted connecting the unrest in the middle east to the threat posed on the college’s campus. Why, however, did so many of them so quickly to make such negative associations? Why is the media so unalarmed by and unconscious of these assumptions?

       Ever since the 9/11 attacks of 2001, citizens or visitors of Middle Eastern descent in the United States have been viewed through a lens of heightened caution and skepticism. Discrimination against peoples of Muslim faith and racism against Middle Easterner peoples has been a growing issue, and it is greatly contributed to the media’s representation of the religion and nationality in the news. TV news is one of the most important sources of public knowledge about world events as approximately 80 percent of the population relies on it as their main source of news. Therefore, when Middle Eastern peoples are only present in the media in times of crisis, as seen in the recent coverage the bomb threat in Austin, it is natural for the public to associate such images with “Islam terrorism.” The terms “Muslim” and “terrorist” have become synonymous as Arabs are overwhelming underrepresented in the media aside from issue such as terrorist threats or the war in Iraq. If the media continues to present Islam as fundamentalism, extremism, and radicalism posing a threat to western security, then racial discrimination in the United States will never improve. On the other hand, if one day, we can replace “Islamophobia” with interculturalism and a lack of acceptance of differences with an educated understanding of one another’s beliefs then peace between countries, cultures, and religions may be within reach. Until then, however, in this era of communication, war will continue and end with media war.

Who has the power?

“Box office report: 'The Possession' leads the worst weekend in over a decade” by Grady Smith

The Possessions - Official Trailer

       CNN featured a story from EW yesterday on this weekends depressing box office sales. According to Grady Smith’s article, “Box office report: 'The Possession' leads the worst weekend in over a decade,” this weekend marked the lowest movie ticket sales in years as the top 12 films grossed a cumulative $51.9 million. It was the worst top 12 total since 2008. The last time overall ticket sales were so low was two weekends after the 9/11 attacks in September of 2001. Therefore, it is evident to see that numerous aspects contribute to the receptivity of the public to the media. Whether it is political, social, or economic issues, when the people are not responding to the media in a positive way, it becomes concerning news. This is just one example of how important money and success is to individual facets of the media and to the mass media as a whole. 

      Therefore, this article raises the question, “What makes media successful?” According to the EW article, movies are deemed successful based on box office sales. Newspaper success is based on whether or not they sell copies each day. Online publications and magazines rely on subscriptions from readers in order to sustain their companies. So, who goes to those movies to make the box office sales go up or down? Who buys the newspapers and reads them on a daily basis? Who subscribes to various websites or magazines? It’s the people. As much power and influence the media has over the general public, it is still the people who have the ultimate decision of whether or not to respond to those media sources. The mass media is an outlet and voice for the people. It seeks to express the general public’s opinions, beliefs, and concerns. As much power as the media has, however, it gets that power from the people. If we as individuals and groups decide to stop reading newspapers and magazines, and if we stop going to movies or listening to music, the entire system would collapse. The media would lose all power, all influence, and would eventually cease to exist at all. Therefore, this article helped remind me that I do have power despite the grandness of the media. I am not just a victim of it or a mind for it to manipulate. Rather, I am its controller, and we as a people get to choose how we respond to it, how we question it, and how much power we choose to give it. 

Women Athletes...Players or Playboys?

Paralympics 2012: The inspiring women fighting for gold 

       It is often complained that female athletes are frequently depicted by the media in a rather unfair and unequal manner to their counter male athletes. One journalists at bodybuilding.com argued that “women athletes tend to be poorly portrayed, both textually and pictorially, by the media” and “seem to be chosen more for their looks and ‘womanly traits’ as opposed to their sporting prowess.” Another columnist at womensenews.org wrote, “Photos of successful male athletes overwhelmingly show them in serious, action poses, while powerhouse women are often trivialized, romanticized, and sexualized.” While this point of view may be proven by various articles and profiles of women athletes throughout the media, it was recently disproven by CNN’s article, “Paralympics 2012: The inspiring women fighting for gold” by Lauren Said-Moorhouse. Throughout the article, Said-Moorhouse refers to the women athletes by using words such as “extraordinary,” “distinguished,” and “impressive sporting all-rounders.” Instead of presenting them in sensual or non-threatening poses, Said-Moorhouse pictures the women in her article in their uniforms in the midsts of competition or victory. She never demoralizes the women, but she rather contradicts most media depictions by praising them as strong athletic competitors.  

In her article, Said-Moorhouse broke the mold of traditional media depictions and presented the female Paralympic winners as competitors, athletes, and strong role-models rather than sexualizing, feminizing, or romanticizing them just because they are women.  This article proved to me the importance of stepping outside of social norms. It also depicted the profusion of viewpoints outside of those of the traditional media by helping me realize that there is no way to generalize the media. There is such an abundance of differing opinions, writing styles, and points of view circulating throughout the media that it is impossible to pinpoint one opinion and believe it as a universal truth. Exploring the media requires discernment, flexibility, and diligence in order to decipher what is fact and what is opinion. However, no matter what we read or what pictures we see, in the end it is our responsibility as human beings to form our own opinions and decide for ourselves who has the final say in our lives. So, will it be the media or will it be you?