Hestia
Defining Terms for Ourselves
Neighborhood: The physical area where someone lives
Community: The group that someone is part of, takes part in
Environment: Things that make up a community
Nature: It can be either the nature of a person, meaning the person's character/personality, or the biotic parts of the world
What do these ideas mean to you?
They're very close to each other. It's hard to strictly separate their definitions. I think community is more intimate than neighborhood. You can choose not to take much part in your neighborhood, but you go out and take part in communities, whether they're close or far from your neighborhood. Community is a place where you contribute parts of yourself. For example, a community of friends, school, work, religious group, or any other kind of group. A neighborhood is a community, but not all communities are your neighborhood. A neighborhood is a community because even if you think you don't take part in any activities in your neighborhood, you take up space in your neighborhood. You are a being in your neighborhood, so you contribute in that way. A neighborhood is your living space where your local grocery store and bank is. The environment is the factors (natural, man-made, idea-based, etc...) that shape the way people live. You have to work around/with these factors. They can be preventing in your human rights and freedom. Nature, in the tangible sense, is the perfect balance of life where each organism does it's thing by producing and/or consuming what it's made to produce and/or consume and only the amount that it's supposed to.
How do you see your relationship to each of these?
My neighborhood is where I've lived since I was one and a half. It's where I'm most familiar and comfortable in. I used to just stay in my neighborhood of about a mile radius and wouldn't venture further. I have communities I love being part of and communities I'm just OK with being part of. My relationship with communities is that you choose it, but then you don't have total control over shaping it, which isn't a bad thing necessarily. I think the environment plays a role in how I act and dress and in what I share. I make sure I am still an individual and stick to my own morals, but I can tell that the environment around me effects how much I'm comfortable with sharing openly to all. My relationship with nature is that I try to think about how my actions effect the long term life of nature. It's also a nice getaway place from the big city.
How do you see yourself in these various places?
I see myself as comfortable in my neighborhood. I just walk down the street with my friends singing Disney songs really loudly. I don't feel judged because everyone has their own differences. I'm not saying this is like that in all parts of New York City or Manhattan even. I just feel confident in how I navigate myself in my neighborhood and I think that goes back to me being familiar with my neighborhood because I've lived there since I was one and a half. I also feel these ways in my communities. I guess I'm a little more conservative with expressing myself in school at times, but on the soccer team I'm myself. I mean, it's sort of a good thing that I don't burst out singing in class because then I would disturb the learning environment. This connects to the code switching idea that people act differently in different environments. Why? Social survival I guess. It's hard to make it in the world if you don't know how to behave in different social environments. But you're not necessarily not acting as yourself when you do this. You're just bringing out another side of you. An astute side v. a silly side. In the American environment of a patriarchal government where the dominant person is male, white, strait, and christian and all other categories are oppressed I see myself as a liberal, someone promoting equality and justice. In nature, I see myself as relaxed and calm. I love to climb trees and rocks and just sit at the top and look out into the distance, admiring the beauty that has survived from greedy human hands.
How have these places influenced you and you them?
My neighborhood has covered me up from the real hardships of the world. I'm aware, but I'm not aware at the same time and what I mean by this is that I'm eager to fight for what's not right , but at the same time I don't feel any emotional connection because I've never experienced any true hardships. I live in a bubble, a comfortable life. My communities aren't any better at helping me experience what it's like to grow up, take responsibility, and face true challenges. It's made me soft. I love going camping, sweating, and gaining sore muscles from a hard day's work, but at the end of the trip I come back to my nice apartment with no hardships. I think maybe this is why physical labor is addicting to me, because I want to feel something. My environment has influenced me to be annoyed with humanity and its greediness and oppressiveness. Nature has influenced me by opening my eyes to the amazing circle of life. It's made me feel small, not in a bad way though. It's made me question why humanity can't see what they're destroying. How have I influenced these places? I don't know. I guess they say each person's decisions makes a difference so I guess my liberal and environmental decisions influence the forward movement towards a more equal world and healthier earth.
What are your defining experiences in these places?
My apartment building has a nice community. Each December we have a holiday party with a menorah and a Christmas tree. For the Christmas tree, kids decorate flat ornaments and hang it on the tree.There's food, drinks, and gifts from "Santa", a guy in our building who dresses up in a Santa suit. There's also commutative singing. It's a very warm environment. This is what neighborhood is in my personal experiences. My church community is my defining experience for community. It's the place where I was exposed to liberal ideas; equality for all no matter about the person's race, economic or marital status, sexual orientation, or gender. It's the place where I was taught to be myself. It's the place where I based my morals on. My defining experience for nature is upstate NY at a sleepover camp called Woodsmoke that's run at a camp site called Kingswood. It's where we cook our own food, collect and cut our own fire wood, make our own fire, clean our own dishes without a sink or dishwasher, use a latrine, and sleep in platform tents. No electronics. Surrounded by trees.
Community: The group that someone is part of, takes part in
Environment: Things that make up a community
Nature: It can be either the nature of a person, meaning the person's character/personality, or the biotic parts of the world
What do these ideas mean to you?
They're very close to each other. It's hard to strictly separate their definitions. I think community is more intimate than neighborhood. You can choose not to take much part in your neighborhood, but you go out and take part in communities, whether they're close or far from your neighborhood. Community is a place where you contribute parts of yourself. For example, a community of friends, school, work, religious group, or any other kind of group. A neighborhood is a community, but not all communities are your neighborhood. A neighborhood is a community because even if you think you don't take part in any activities in your neighborhood, you take up space in your neighborhood. You are a being in your neighborhood, so you contribute in that way. A neighborhood is your living space where your local grocery store and bank is. The environment is the factors (natural, man-made, idea-based, etc...) that shape the way people live. You have to work around/with these factors. They can be preventing in your human rights and freedom. Nature, in the tangible sense, is the perfect balance of life where each organism does it's thing by producing and/or consuming what it's made to produce and/or consume and only the amount that it's supposed to.
How do you see your relationship to each of these?
My neighborhood is where I've lived since I was one and a half. It's where I'm most familiar and comfortable in. I used to just stay in my neighborhood of about a mile radius and wouldn't venture further. I have communities I love being part of and communities I'm just OK with being part of. My relationship with communities is that you choose it, but then you don't have total control over shaping it, which isn't a bad thing necessarily. I think the environment plays a role in how I act and dress and in what I share. I make sure I am still an individual and stick to my own morals, but I can tell that the environment around me effects how much I'm comfortable with sharing openly to all. My relationship with nature is that I try to think about how my actions effect the long term life of nature. It's also a nice getaway place from the big city.
How do you see yourself in these various places?
I see myself as comfortable in my neighborhood. I just walk down the street with my friends singing Disney songs really loudly. I don't feel judged because everyone has their own differences. I'm not saying this is like that in all parts of New York City or Manhattan even. I just feel confident in how I navigate myself in my neighborhood and I think that goes back to me being familiar with my neighborhood because I've lived there since I was one and a half. I also feel these ways in my communities. I guess I'm a little more conservative with expressing myself in school at times, but on the soccer team I'm myself. I mean, it's sort of a good thing that I don't burst out singing in class because then I would disturb the learning environment. This connects to the code switching idea that people act differently in different environments. Why? Social survival I guess. It's hard to make it in the world if you don't know how to behave in different social environments. But you're not necessarily not acting as yourself when you do this. You're just bringing out another side of you. An astute side v. a silly side. In the American environment of a patriarchal government where the dominant person is male, white, strait, and christian and all other categories are oppressed I see myself as a liberal, someone promoting equality and justice. In nature, I see myself as relaxed and calm. I love to climb trees and rocks and just sit at the top and look out into the distance, admiring the beauty that has survived from greedy human hands.
How have these places influenced you and you them?
My neighborhood has covered me up from the real hardships of the world. I'm aware, but I'm not aware at the same time and what I mean by this is that I'm eager to fight for what's not right , but at the same time I don't feel any emotional connection because I've never experienced any true hardships. I live in a bubble, a comfortable life. My communities aren't any better at helping me experience what it's like to grow up, take responsibility, and face true challenges. It's made me soft. I love going camping, sweating, and gaining sore muscles from a hard day's work, but at the end of the trip I come back to my nice apartment with no hardships. I think maybe this is why physical labor is addicting to me, because I want to feel something. My environment has influenced me to be annoyed with humanity and its greediness and oppressiveness. Nature has influenced me by opening my eyes to the amazing circle of life. It's made me feel small, not in a bad way though. It's made me question why humanity can't see what they're destroying. How have I influenced these places? I don't know. I guess they say each person's decisions makes a difference so I guess my liberal and environmental decisions influence the forward movement towards a more equal world and healthier earth.
What are your defining experiences in these places?
My apartment building has a nice community. Each December we have a holiday party with a menorah and a Christmas tree. For the Christmas tree, kids decorate flat ornaments and hang it on the tree.There's food, drinks, and gifts from "Santa", a guy in our building who dresses up in a Santa suit. There's also commutative singing. It's a very warm environment. This is what neighborhood is in my personal experiences. My church community is my defining experience for community. It's the place where I was exposed to liberal ideas; equality for all no matter about the person's race, economic or marital status, sexual orientation, or gender. It's the place where I was taught to be myself. It's the place where I based my morals on. My defining experience for nature is upstate NY at a sleepover camp called Woodsmoke that's run at a camp site called Kingswood. It's where we cook our own food, collect and cut our own fire wood, make our own fire, clean our own dishes without a sink or dishwasher, use a latrine, and sleep in platform tents. No electronics. Surrounded by trees.
Social Identity
What are the social identities you typically use to describe yourself to others?
a banana (yellow on the outside, white in the inside - adopted), sporty, artsy, not "girly" (not that that's a bad thing and not that people can't be "girly" and sporty), outdoorsy, tough, liberal, open minded, teen, christian
social identity v. individual identity
Social is the categories people put others in. It's the broad categories. Individual are the small aspects of you (small details) that complete your identity.
languages?
I speak English and a little bit of Spanish.
lived?
New York City for all of my life except my first year and a half, in which I lived in China. The actual area of China didn't effect me. I don't remember any of it. The idea shapes who I am. For a while it shaped me to hate China and its sexism. Now I don't hate it, but I have no yearning to learn about my "ancestry". I don't identify anyone of anything in China to be a part of my family. I only have one mom and dad and they are the white people who adopted me. My biological "parents" have no meaning to me. NYC had shaped my view on the world. It's shaped me being a liberal and open minded.
examples of "community" or "people" that shape me
my reconciling church. It's shaped my liberal views. It's shaped how I love volunteering. It's shaped my morals. It's shaped it through all the volunteer projects it's involved in, physical and including marching in the Gay Pride Parade.
How do you wear/show/display your social identity?
My bracelets. My clothes. My hair I guess. I wear my Hunger Games Mockingjay necklace not only because I'm a fan of the books, but because of the meanings behind the books. I have a soccer bracelet that shows I love soccer. I have a GEMS (Girls Educational Mentoring Services) "Girls are not for sale" bracelet to show the volunteer organization I I work with.
a banana (yellow on the outside, white in the inside - adopted), sporty, artsy, not "girly" (not that that's a bad thing and not that people can't be "girly" and sporty), outdoorsy, tough, liberal, open minded, teen, christian
social identity v. individual identity
Social is the categories people put others in. It's the broad categories. Individual are the small aspects of you (small details) that complete your identity.
languages?
I speak English and a little bit of Spanish.
lived?
New York City for all of my life except my first year and a half, in which I lived in China. The actual area of China didn't effect me. I don't remember any of it. The idea shapes who I am. For a while it shaped me to hate China and its sexism. Now I don't hate it, but I have no yearning to learn about my "ancestry". I don't identify anyone of anything in China to be a part of my family. I only have one mom and dad and they are the white people who adopted me. My biological "parents" have no meaning to me. NYC had shaped my view on the world. It's shaped me being a liberal and open minded.
examples of "community" or "people" that shape me
my reconciling church. It's shaped my liberal views. It's shaped how I love volunteering. It's shaped my morals. It's shaped it through all the volunteer projects it's involved in, physical and including marching in the Gay Pride Parade.
How do you wear/show/display your social identity?
My bracelets. My clothes. My hair I guess. I wear my Hunger Games Mockingjay necklace not only because I'm a fan of the books, but because of the meanings behind the books. I have a soccer bracelet that shows I love soccer. I have a GEMS (Girls Educational Mentoring Services) "Girls are not for sale" bracelet to show the volunteer organization I I work with.
Mental Mapping
This is my mental map. It was emphasized to not make an actual map like Google Maps, but rather more of a symbolic map, so my map is all over the place. It started off with my house in the middle and I was going to branch out from there in sort of general directions, but it just got messy. Each place is symbolized by a sloppy drawing.
Reflection On What I'm Taking Away:
The main things that I'm taking away from this mental mapping process are the ideas of gentrification and how neighborhoods really reflect the injustices towards minority groups. It's crazy how poor people are constantly kicked out of their homes just because companies decide to transform a neighborhood into a "new and improved hip neighborhood" by giving the neighborhood what may be an appealing nickname to some folks. An example we talked about in class was nicknaming the South Bronx "SoBro" like "SoHo", originally just Lower Manhattan. Also, places that are scouted are usually places where contemporary artists tried to settle down and make cheap art. Their contemporary art is portrayed as "hip" which lurers in more people. Big name companies set up shop and make the neighborhood more attractive. More people want to move in and so the rent goes up and the people currently living there, including the artists, can't afford the rent anymore. And sadly, these people that move in are mostly white people, which is really telling how the white race is the dominant race: neighborhood more popular so rent goes up = white population increases and people of color population decreases.
Before the mental mapping process I never questioned why I have Starbucks, Barnes and Noble, or a variety of food places. I thought, "Hey, this is New York City! Everything's diverse!" I never stopped to think of the reasons why and affects on a neighborhood in NYC that didn't had big name brand companies all over their blocks or a variety of food places so they can experience different cultures. Through our small group discussions I realized that these places provide a place of safety for me to escape and do home work, and therefore Leyva's neighborhood, which lacked these places, doesn't have safe spaces for her to go to hang out with friends, do home work, or just escape. This really reflects the poverty of one's neighborhood and how companies know which neighborhoods to target so they can make the biggest profit. I also had a deeper realization that food is a symbol of community. I knew that food was a symbol of community before, but I was thinking more in terms of people cooking and coming together at someone's house and eating. I never thought about how eating out and being able to go to a different place each time provides a sense of community as well. Bethany's neighborhood lacks any form of food place and she expressed how this contributes to her lack of connection with her neighborhood. She goes to Manhattan to hang out with friends and eat out.
Another thing that I'm taking away from this mental mapping process is the fact that so many students have curfews and for many of them it's because their parent(s) have sexist beliefs, thinking that girls shouldn't stay out late. For one of my peers, she mentioned that she has a brother and if he stays out late their parents don't question him, but if she stays out late its a big problem. Other students complained that their parents must always know their exact location at all times. I thought this was interesting because I thought I was restricted. But then I reflected on my own relationship with my parents on curfews. I've never really had one. I think we have an unspoken contract that I come home before midnight and anything past that I must tell them what I'm doing. Of course, I never really stay out that late anyways. I like my sleep. I realize that I'm not only lucky because of my neighborhood, but because of the loving, trusting parents I have. So then now what? What can a person in my situation do without asking the unwanted question of how I can help others reach where I am? It sounds sanctimonious and is filled with an unintentional pitying voice.
I think the most eye opening thing through this process was how close injustices are to me. I've argued about topics on this before, especially when discussing the different levels of academic "success" among students and I've hypothesized reasons why some students don't do as well in school as others (i.e. not supported, family problems, jobs, bullying, just not their thing and doesn't need to be...). But I've never realized how much deeper it is; deeper as in not just the reason that some families experience hardships because of their history, but the reasons why they have that history - the injustices of not being white. I've helped with the renovations of a church, which is in the Bronx and happens to be one of the poorest neighborhoods in NYC. One of the womyn who is part of the church once said to me that she was surprised that she made it past the age of 40, insinuating that most people don't live that long, many times due to shootings. What bothered me the most was that she said it with such ease, such causality in her voice, and even a little chuckle. One of the reasons why Leyva doesn't like her neighborhood is because she doesn't feel safe and something that has contributed to this feeling of unease is that she's witnessed the aftermath of a violent event. What makes some neighborhoods more susceptible to violence, causing residents to be on constant watch for possible dangers? Are all poor neighborhoods places of violence? Why are they all portrayed like this? Do all poor minorities realize the racial injustices they're being affected by? How can we give people hope that society has a chance at improving? Would hope decrease the statistics on violent assaults? How would I like to address these questions? I guess by sitting in a room with my thoughts and then coming together with other people and
planning how to take action, possibly by sharing our research with city community groups and schools. I think the most important thing to do is educate kids first.
Reflection On Overall Process:
At first I was totally lost on how to approach the mental mapping process. But once we started forming themes I started to understand. As a methodology to capture the research questions we were interested in, I thought it was long and tedious and quite repetitive until we got to the class discussions. In the end, I thought it was a useful methodology to accomplish what we wanted to accomplish. It gave people the chance to talk out everything and even though it was tedious and repetitive, we had to go through that before we found the right analytical questions to ask one another and before we found the connections between each other and one's neighborhood to the way one feels. I don't know if there could be a faster methodology because big analytical connections usually take time to formulate. I'm glad we weren't grouped into groups with people that had similar neighborhoods. At first, I thought it would be better that way so we could study how people interpret the same subject differently. But then when I was exposed to the variety of neighborhoods, I realized that this research was more eye opening. I don't think I could have drawn the same level of connections and conclusions if I were put in a group with people in the same general neighborhood as me.
The main things that I'm taking away from this mental mapping process are the ideas of gentrification and how neighborhoods really reflect the injustices towards minority groups. It's crazy how poor people are constantly kicked out of their homes just because companies decide to transform a neighborhood into a "new and improved hip neighborhood" by giving the neighborhood what may be an appealing nickname to some folks. An example we talked about in class was nicknaming the South Bronx "SoBro" like "SoHo", originally just Lower Manhattan. Also, places that are scouted are usually places where contemporary artists tried to settle down and make cheap art. Their contemporary art is portrayed as "hip" which lurers in more people. Big name companies set up shop and make the neighborhood more attractive. More people want to move in and so the rent goes up and the people currently living there, including the artists, can't afford the rent anymore. And sadly, these people that move in are mostly white people, which is really telling how the white race is the dominant race: neighborhood more popular so rent goes up = white population increases and people of color population decreases.
Before the mental mapping process I never questioned why I have Starbucks, Barnes and Noble, or a variety of food places. I thought, "Hey, this is New York City! Everything's diverse!" I never stopped to think of the reasons why and affects on a neighborhood in NYC that didn't had big name brand companies all over their blocks or a variety of food places so they can experience different cultures. Through our small group discussions I realized that these places provide a place of safety for me to escape and do home work, and therefore Leyva's neighborhood, which lacked these places, doesn't have safe spaces for her to go to hang out with friends, do home work, or just escape. This really reflects the poverty of one's neighborhood and how companies know which neighborhoods to target so they can make the biggest profit. I also had a deeper realization that food is a symbol of community. I knew that food was a symbol of community before, but I was thinking more in terms of people cooking and coming together at someone's house and eating. I never thought about how eating out and being able to go to a different place each time provides a sense of community as well. Bethany's neighborhood lacks any form of food place and she expressed how this contributes to her lack of connection with her neighborhood. She goes to Manhattan to hang out with friends and eat out.
Another thing that I'm taking away from this mental mapping process is the fact that so many students have curfews and for many of them it's because their parent(s) have sexist beliefs, thinking that girls shouldn't stay out late. For one of my peers, she mentioned that she has a brother and if he stays out late their parents don't question him, but if she stays out late its a big problem. Other students complained that their parents must always know their exact location at all times. I thought this was interesting because I thought I was restricted. But then I reflected on my own relationship with my parents on curfews. I've never really had one. I think we have an unspoken contract that I come home before midnight and anything past that I must tell them what I'm doing. Of course, I never really stay out that late anyways. I like my sleep. I realize that I'm not only lucky because of my neighborhood, but because of the loving, trusting parents I have. So then now what? What can a person in my situation do without asking the unwanted question of how I can help others reach where I am? It sounds sanctimonious and is filled with an unintentional pitying voice.
I think the most eye opening thing through this process was how close injustices are to me. I've argued about topics on this before, especially when discussing the different levels of academic "success" among students and I've hypothesized reasons why some students don't do as well in school as others (i.e. not supported, family problems, jobs, bullying, just not their thing and doesn't need to be...). But I've never realized how much deeper it is; deeper as in not just the reason that some families experience hardships because of their history, but the reasons why they have that history - the injustices of not being white. I've helped with the renovations of a church, which is in the Bronx and happens to be one of the poorest neighborhoods in NYC. One of the womyn who is part of the church once said to me that she was surprised that she made it past the age of 40, insinuating that most people don't live that long, many times due to shootings. What bothered me the most was that she said it with such ease, such causality in her voice, and even a little chuckle. One of the reasons why Leyva doesn't like her neighborhood is because she doesn't feel safe and something that has contributed to this feeling of unease is that she's witnessed the aftermath of a violent event. What makes some neighborhoods more susceptible to violence, causing residents to be on constant watch for possible dangers? Are all poor neighborhoods places of violence? Why are they all portrayed like this? Do all poor minorities realize the racial injustices they're being affected by? How can we give people hope that society has a chance at improving? Would hope decrease the statistics on violent assaults? How would I like to address these questions? I guess by sitting in a room with my thoughts and then coming together with other people and
planning how to take action, possibly by sharing our research with city community groups and schools. I think the most important thing to do is educate kids first.
Reflection On Overall Process:
At first I was totally lost on how to approach the mental mapping process. But once we started forming themes I started to understand. As a methodology to capture the research questions we were interested in, I thought it was long and tedious and quite repetitive until we got to the class discussions. In the end, I thought it was a useful methodology to accomplish what we wanted to accomplish. It gave people the chance to talk out everything and even though it was tedious and repetitive, we had to go through that before we found the right analytical questions to ask one another and before we found the connections between each other and one's neighborhood to the way one feels. I don't know if there could be a faster methodology because big analytical connections usually take time to formulate. I'm glad we weren't grouped into groups with people that had similar neighborhoods. At first, I thought it would be better that way so we could study how people interpret the same subject differently. But then when I was exposed to the variety of neighborhoods, I realized that this research was more eye opening. I don't think I could have drawn the same level of connections and conclusions if I were put in a group with people in the same general neighborhood as me.
Advertising in My Neighborhood
Slideshow
Methodology
Data Collection:
I gathered most of my advertisements when I walked from my house to my friend's house. Whenever I saw a bus station with a scrolling screen or one of those screens above some of the stairs leading down into the subway, I would stand there and take pictures of all of the ads as the ads kept changing. I also did a similar thing for many of the pay phones I saw. I'd take a picture of the ad that was facing me, but then go around to the other side(s) and take a picture of that ad too. Some other pictures of ads I took were stickers on street lights, cars, and news paper stands and on bags or articles of clothing, advertising their brand name. I also gathered many ads from watching abc for a couple of hours. For the commercials on the TV, I tried to wait until there were words, which is usually at the end of the ad. And a few ads were found while I was browsing the internet.
Data Analysis:
Content Analysis: I put the ads into categories of product. They're pretty simple. Every time there was an ad on a clothes store I put a tally next to "Clothes". Every time I saw an ad on an event I put it under the category "Performance Stuff". Every time I saw an ad trying to sell food or food services (catering) I put a tally next to "Food/Drinks".
Data Collection:
I gathered most of my advertisements when I walked from my house to my friend's house. Whenever I saw a bus station with a scrolling screen or one of those screens above some of the stairs leading down into the subway, I would stand there and take pictures of all of the ads as the ads kept changing. I also did a similar thing for many of the pay phones I saw. I'd take a picture of the ad that was facing me, but then go around to the other side(s) and take a picture of that ad too. Some other pictures of ads I took were stickers on street lights, cars, and news paper stands and on bags or articles of clothing, advertising their brand name. I also gathered many ads from watching abc for a couple of hours. For the commercials on the TV, I tried to wait until there were words, which is usually at the end of the ad. And a few ads were found while I was browsing the internet.
Data Analysis:
Content Analysis: I put the ads into categories of product. They're pretty simple. Every time there was an ad on a clothes store I put a tally next to "Clothes". Every time I saw an ad on an event I put it under the category "Performance Stuff". Every time I saw an ad trying to sell food or food services (catering) I put a tally next to "Food/Drinks".
Critical Discourse Analysis: I am spoiled by putlocker because it allows me to watch my favorite TV shows without ads interrupting them every 5 minutes. I am, however, presented with them on the main page and have to exit out of many pop-up ads before I am able to watch what I want. To the left is a picture of an ad shown on the main page. This is the typical kind of ad shown; an ad on gaming, promiscuous women, or a combination of both. This ad is a combination of both. I chose this ad because it's the one that shocked me the most. I usually never read what ads have to say when I'm on putlocker because I'm too excited to scroll through the list of TV shows and find the one I want to watch. But because it was assigned, I did, and it disgusted me. "Male gamers only", "Warning: Once you're inside...your friends won't be seeing much of you!", "Warning men only enter at your own risk".
Findings
Content Analysis:
To make this wordle, I went through all of the pictures of the ads I took and typed every word from the ads into wordle's program. It shows which words come up most frequently. The bigger the word, the more frequent they're used in the collection of ads in the slideshow.
Half way through typing up all of the words, I hypothesized that the biggest word would be save or sale. Looks like save is the second biggest, tied with day and one, and behind four words that are tied as the biggest: Christmas, Friday, new, and now.
Half way through typing up all of the words, I hypothesized that the biggest word would be save or sale. Looks like save is the second biggest, tied with day and one, and behind four words that are tied as the biggest: Christmas, Friday, new, and now.
This is a table that splits up 166 ads into 15 categories based on the type of product the producer is trying to sell, be it tangible or non-tangible. It shows the number of incidences and the percentage of incidences.
To make this wordle I took the data table above and typed in the categories the amount of times of the number of incidences. For example, because Movies/TVShows had 29 incidences, I copy and pasted that phrase 29 times into wordle. Whereas Cars only had 6 incidences, so I only copy and pasted that word into wordle 6 times. Services and Movies/TVShows are the most prevalent categories, while jewelry is only seen one time.Things under services include medical, bank, and educational services. Most of the Movies/TVShows were violent/dramatic, Christmas related/winter related, or news related (including the comedy, Anchorman 2). The next two categories with the most occurrences are Clothes and Electronics/ElectronicServices. Companies advertised their clothes in many different ways. The North Face only showed their high tech jacket with no person in it. Gap had a little kid dressed up in a cute suit and a fedora. Banana Republic had two types of ads: a white couple and a single black man (This made me think, "Maybe Banana Republic is covertly saying that whites have happy relationships and blacks will only be single", but then later on Thursday I saw one of their ads showing a black womyn with her arm around a white womyn's waist). Hue had multiple pictures of one girl in different posses. One picture was just a large picture of her face. Kmart's and JCPenny's 30 second commercials showed people excitedly shopping. The types of electronics are mainly cell phones and cell phone services, but this category also included tablets and cameras. Food/Drinks is a category of ads that were selling actual food and drinks or food services. One ad, a Pepsi ad, was using the NFL games to sell their product by saying that Pepsi is the "official soft drink of Super Bowl XLVlll". Trips/Places is a category that includes ads on cruises and my hoodie that advertises a retreat place called Loch Lyme Lodge. Toys/Games is a category that includes ads on Toys"R"Us and video games like the Assassins. PerformanceStuff is a category that includes different kinds of events people can go to, including Broadway shows and museum events. The Other category consists of public service announcements, like church related things, or those random stickers that say, "support this" or "go that". So they're basically things that aren't selling a product necessarily. Overall, there weren't very many ads objectifying womyn or men and I think this is because it's winter and companies are focused on selling fun holiday gifts and warm clothes, which should cover up the whole human body.
Critical Discourse Analysis: These are ads on a video game that is overtly saying that this game is for "male gamers only". As you can see, there are drawings of promiscuous looking womyn. This ad is saying that womyn are alive to pleasure men. It's also telling womyn that they must look this way (be really skinny and only wear a bra and underwear) in order to be sexy, so she can lure a man into bed. Some men like their womyn fierce (right pic), and other men like their womyn to be a little more delicate (left pic). Not only is this ad degrading to womyn, it's degrading to men as well. This tells men that they are supposed to be mindless, violent, sexual animals. "Warning: Once you're inside...your friends won't be seeing much of you!" They're assuming that once any man starts playing this game, he will never want to stop because he will be so hooked onto the virtual, "unbelievably sexy" womyn. And what is this saying about sexuality? Is this covertly saying that all men must be strait and there are no gay womyn? Could they be covertly saying that even if a man is gay they will be pulled in too?
Discussion
I learned that I hate ads even more than before, especially when it's cold out and the memory on my camera fills up, so I have to use my sister's iPhone, which I can't wear gloves with, so my fingers freeze. I also especially hate ads when I have to stand in front of the TV for three minutes with my arms up in ready-to-take-picture mode, afraid that I'll miss the right picture. From this, I guess I learned that I should work out more to strengthen my arm muscles. But on a more serious note, I found that my neighborhood is not targeted as much by jewelry companies. I didn't form a hypothesis on what types of ads would be the most prevalent prior to taking pictures, but when I only saw one jewelry ad it surprised me a little. I'd think that it's the holiday season and everyone wants to get their shopping on, including buying jewelry. But mostly clothes and electronics dominated the advertisements selling tangible products (versus non-tangible products such as Movies/TVShows and Services). I also learned that you can take a screen shot, paste it into the "paint" app, crop it how you want it in the "paint" app, and then save it as a jpg so you can upload it as an image onto weebly.
The main message that these ads are sending people are that they want to and need to shop, shop, shop. This is the only way they'll be happy and receive love. I mean, like I mentioned in one of my responses to Marija's blog post on gratuity bringing happiness, one of the commercial's holiday jingles was literally telling people to "shop, shop, shop". It's so plain and visible, but yet people don't think about the affects ads have on them. The Toys"R"Us commercials are sending messages, saying that to be the best parents you must buy your kids these toys. These toys will make them happy and will make them love you. In one of Kmart's commercials, they show a family filling up their car with bags and bags of toys. The trunk is so stuffed, there's two bags sitting on the sidewalk. How many kids does this couple have? I don't think enough to fill up a whole car.
Why do so many people fall for buying happiness? Where does all the money come from to keep upgrading and keep buying more and more? How is my neighborhood targeted differently by advertisers from other neighborhoods? When does a company become so big that they don't get a red squiggly line under their name (Toys"R"Us, JCPenny, Kmart, Walmart, etc...)?
I learned that I hate ads even more than before, especially when it's cold out and the memory on my camera fills up, so I have to use my sister's iPhone, which I can't wear gloves with, so my fingers freeze. I also especially hate ads when I have to stand in front of the TV for three minutes with my arms up in ready-to-take-picture mode, afraid that I'll miss the right picture. From this, I guess I learned that I should work out more to strengthen my arm muscles. But on a more serious note, I found that my neighborhood is not targeted as much by jewelry companies. I didn't form a hypothesis on what types of ads would be the most prevalent prior to taking pictures, but when I only saw one jewelry ad it surprised me a little. I'd think that it's the holiday season and everyone wants to get their shopping on, including buying jewelry. But mostly clothes and electronics dominated the advertisements selling tangible products (versus non-tangible products such as Movies/TVShows and Services). I also learned that you can take a screen shot, paste it into the "paint" app, crop it how you want it in the "paint" app, and then save it as a jpg so you can upload it as an image onto weebly.
The main message that these ads are sending people are that they want to and need to shop, shop, shop. This is the only way they'll be happy and receive love. I mean, like I mentioned in one of my responses to Marija's blog post on gratuity bringing happiness, one of the commercial's holiday jingles was literally telling people to "shop, shop, shop". It's so plain and visible, but yet people don't think about the affects ads have on them. The Toys"R"Us commercials are sending messages, saying that to be the best parents you must buy your kids these toys. These toys will make them happy and will make them love you. In one of Kmart's commercials, they show a family filling up their car with bags and bags of toys. The trunk is so stuffed, there's two bags sitting on the sidewalk. How many kids does this couple have? I don't think enough to fill up a whole car.
Why do so many people fall for buying happiness? Where does all the money come from to keep upgrading and keep buying more and more? How is my neighborhood targeted differently by advertisers from other neighborhoods? When does a company become so big that they don't get a red squiggly line under their name (Toys"R"Us, JCPenny, Kmart, Walmart, etc...)?