Chis & Rihanna

Now back in February it was rumored that Chris Brown beat up Rihanna. Then there was rumors of them getting back together, which triggered much outrage. But that might be deserved, I mean this case is like any other abuse case, but played on a much grander scale. So if Rihanna got back together with her possible abuser, what kind of message would that of sent? That women should just take the beatings, maybe? Now if Rihanna were to tae a stand against her abuser, that would send a much more possitive message to women who are abused. Now not only is this case talked about, what appear to be police photos of Rihanna with bruises surface.

Skip ahead, the case is still going, more possible photos of Rihanna surface, but now they are what look like Rihanna posing naked or semi-naked. They are supposed to off of Chris Browns Blackberry. The big question is when did she send them? Were they from before the abuse or did Rihanna send them after this had started? If they were sent after this might weaken the case for Rihanna.

Now with a trial set for June 22 Rihanna has been subpoenaed, oh wait why was that, maybe the fact that the two might just be married, which might make or break it. But Chris's lawyer tried to claim that the photo leaked in Feb. has tanted the jury, making it impossible for a fair trail.

This trial in a way is very other abuse case turn one giant one. So if Chris is found guilty then it might send a message to women that they can and should call the police if they are being beat up by a boyfriend/ husband. If he is found guilty it may still have same effect, or it could scare people into thinking if that one failed mine might fail to and then they might be mad at me and beat me up again, I should just stay quite.

Sites Used:
www.people.com/people/article/0,,20284415,00.html

gallicwars.wordpress.com

www.starpulse.com

http://thesuperficial.com/2009/05/chris_browns_lawyer_moves_towa.php

Politics of Media

Natalie Maines, singer for the Dixie Chicks, and Kanye West both made statements about the now former President Bush. The Difference is how they were treated and what they said. Maines only said she was ashamed that Bush was from Texas, which is not horrible, she just didn't like him. Kanye on the other hand right out says that Bush doesn't care about black people. The Dixie Chicks were bashed, ignored and protested for Maines' comment. Kanye on the other hand had nothing happen to him and was ignored. Now how does that makes sence? One person says something that is a mild comment, while another that is much worse, yet the worse comment is soon forgotten about and the other person is in trouble for a very long time. How does something like this happen? Unfortantly for Maines, her comment came at the wrong time, she happened to say it when Bush was very, very popular. West on the other hand said it when Bush was losing popularity. Another factor that worked for West was the fact that his comment is a issue people like to avoid talking about, so people would let some thing like that slide.

But what about other celebrities? Havn't they spoken about the government or polictics? P!nk and her song "Mr. President" is a song about what P!nk thinks of Bush's policies.

But protest songs have existed for much, much longer then the last 10 years. Songs like Fortunate Son By Creedence Clearwater Revival, 1969, a song about the drafts, it from the point of view of a man who is drafted, but they arn't the son of someone who is wealthy and is therefore not a "fortunate son" and then has to fight.


In the 70s' of the songs I chose was War Pigs by Black Sabbath. I'm nt going to say what it is about, but I do have the song above. In the 80s' Born in the USA by bruce Springsteen. This song is about the Vietnam war and didn't come back.

But should they really being voicing their own opinions in such a way? Do they influance people much more easily then anyone else because they are so famous. Or because they are singing about? I think they should be able to voice their won opinions about these kinds of things. They are still humans and citizens, so just because they reach a larger number of people then the average person, they should lose the right to have their opinions hearded? Besides I belive that people who buy the music have a good chance of sharing the opinion anyway, so its not like its going to make drastic changes to some one's thoughts.




Sites Used:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdXq20oJlC0

roqonaco.wordpress.com

www.b96hits.com

weblogs.newsday.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protest_song#1970s.3B_The_Vietnam_War.2C_Soul_Music (I found songs here, but then I listened to the lyrics to mach sure they were correct.)

Why Diversity in Media Matters.

Now have a look at the image to the right, as you should be able to see this is in black and white. Now we should know that movies are no longer made in black and white (for the most part, I'm sure there are still black and white movies made). So then why are people still represented like they are. In these movies it was very rare for anyone other then white people to be shown. But even to this day the white people are severely over represented.

Now I could not get charts to display to numbers, but I will type the numbers.

Overall on Prime Times TV:
Black people appeared 94 times over 12 TV shows, and were mostly displayed as professionals or law enforcement.

Asians appeared 34 times and were displayed as home makers.

There was only 1 Aboriginal in all 12 shows and was a professional.

Latinos appeared 17 times and were mainly professionals, law enforcement or criminals.

Arabs or East Indians appeared 35 times and were mainly professionals or law enforcement.

But White people were seen 442 times! That is more then all of the other all of the other groups combined, in fact its more then double the number. They also appear as Professions, criminals, Law Enforcement, and Homemakers, but in all those category they out number the other groups, expect home makers where Asians out number them.

Now to give you an idea of how out of whack these number are have a look at the percentages of the ethnic groups on Primetime TV:
White 70.9%
Black 15%
Asian 5.4%
Latino 2.7%
For Aboriginals a staggering 0.16%

But the 2006 US census (because these shows are based in the US and are played on US air waves) says that real life has some different numbers for you
Caucasian: 66.2%
African American: 12.9%
Latinos/Hispanic: 15.2%
Asian: 4.5%
American Indian: 1%

Now is just me or do these numbers seem a little off when you compare them? The Caucasians weren't the only on to be over resented. African Americans are 2.1% overly represented, while Latinos are under represented by over 12%. I'm not even going to talk about the Aboriginals, those numbers are just crazy, they work on a smaller scale, but in that scale are massively unbalanced.

Now that you know the numbers you have to wonder, how does this affect little children who see this? How will this affect their self image? How will they think of their own ethnic group? I mean if a child grows up watching people of that same group doing something, maybe they will think "Oh, since they do it, maybe I should to." It is undeniable that child do work on a I see, I do level.

But the TV surprisingly white now, and the fact that other ethnic groups are slowly fading out on the TV, becoming less and less visible. If things do not start changing on TV things may start going back to the way they where in the beginning, where ever actor except for a few are white.

Women also are severely under represented and stereotyped. Men never show up as home makers, but in all 12 shows there were 10 women home makers, does that mean that no men are home makers? Or the fact that men were also shown much more then women overall, does that men that there are more men then women in the world?

Now isn't TV supposed to be similar to real life? I mean if the real world was populated like the TV world then men would out number the women 2:1 or more. Also the world would be made up of 70-75% white people. These numbers do not seem realistic, so if TV wishes to keep making show that are supposed to be based in a real world like enviroment they better diversify the cast. Now not ever show needs to have multiple ethnic groups, but neither should most shows be over populated by one group. Even if shows didn't need to put more groups in the main cast, they could at lest populate the back group and guest stars with different ethnicities.

Say Hello to National Man Day

National Man Day would be a day dedicated to doing "manly" things. It is proposed by Joel Longanecker and his older brother Aaron. They tell people to do "manly" things like play football, hunting or of course watching Rocky movies.

But they day they picked, June 15, already has an event "Sneak a Kiss Day." Which is a day for sweethearts to sneak a kiss, of course. But according to the brothers real men don't sneak a kiss.

Some of the other things people might plan on doing is watching Rambo, watching UFC/ wrestling, and playing any sport, not just football.

But wait don't females do these things, not just males? Then how are these "manly" activities? Can you even have manly activities? If you can what makes them manly?

Sites Used:

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/WeirdNews/2009/06/11/9770051-ap.html

http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_12579101

A New Level of People Reading on the Toilet

In Japan a company will be releasing a new product. Its a story, but not written in a book. It is written on paper. Toilet paper. Yes toilet paper. Koji Suzuki the the author of the horror story "Ring," has created a new story called "Drop" and it is written on a roll of toilet paper. Now this may seem a little crazy here it makes sense in Japan were ghosts are said to lurk in the toilet. The story is also set in a public restroom, so Japan it seems might be a little washroom crazy.

Now this might be a good idea, I mean could it catch on? Someones like hmm i have to go the washroom, and when they are in there enjoys a story. this is also a little funny to think about. I mean did you ever think you could go read a book on toilet paper? I didn't it just seems a weird match up, but then you also have Reeses peanut butter cups. Maybe these story-papers will be just like that.

The only probelm right now is I don't think you could buy it in English, but for those of you who can read it, read on.

Sites used:
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20090526a5.html

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/WeirdNews/2009/05/25/9562251-ap.html

From Here to the Czech Republic

Now Imagine this, you have a picture of your self online somewhere (your blog/ facebook ect.) and one day you find out it ends up on some store window in the middle of another country. How would this make you feel?

Well this exact thing happened to the Smith Family of St. Louis. Now I couldn't find the picture, but the family name is Smith. But the photo did make its way all the way to The Czech Republic, into the city of Prague. Here it was displayed in a store window that specializing in European food. The photo was first seen by a family friend who sent it to the family.

How would this make you feel? Danielle Smith said "This story doesn’t frighten me, but the potential frightens me". What else could happen to you, well more like pictures of you, if you become a model with out even knowing? Those photos are out there and any one could use them.

This was just a little weird news I found. I am really sad i couldn't find the ad. I did just remeber here something that tops off this weird story, the store owner said he thought the picture was computer generated and completely made up. And remeber there is very little privacy on the internet.

Sites used:

http://www.denverpost.com/watercooler/ci_12563488

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/WeirdNews/2009/06/10/9757196-ap.html

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2009324936_apusoddcardphotoprague.html

Why should I?

So here is the question, what is the point of twitter for the average person? Why would I use it? I mean there is already plenty of forms of instant communication, such as MsN, Facebook, Myspace, emails and text messages, did I forget any?

Now first off I'm not saying Twitter is bad there is plenty of uses for it, but I mean why would use it just to know what my friends in real life (lets not forget the internet friends too) are doing, do I real need to know that they are going to go the washroom? Or that they are painting there room. Or maybe that they moved, okay wait that last one might be useful if I know them in real life. One of the useful things I could see it being used for if someone is organizing an event and minute by minute updates by everyone all the time.



But also whats with the need to create so many different forms on instant communication? I mean there is Myspace, Facebook and so on... I don't like trying to keep up with that. I mean i found it way to much work to open the internet, then go to the site and then log on to my profile, when I could of just opened Msn (and yes I no I still need to log in on my msn, but it it still takes much less time, because of the fact that it pops up when i turn on my computer). What I also found weird is that in these website based IMs, is that anyone on there friends list can see what you are saying to them. Do I really want all 100 contacts on the person friends list to be able to read what I told them? And you can't deny the fact that there are people out there how would. Its like letting someone invade a private conversation, its an invasion privacy in some ways.

But then you've also got to remember the tons of people who would like to believe that people really care about what they are doing. Oh and yes I realize the fact that I'm doing a blog about why should the average person use Twitter (or Myspace or Facebook really). I was going to do a Vlog, but I didn't have time and to be honest I really don't like being record in anyway.

Typing on the computer/ chewing gum.
10:20 Jun 2nd

Sites used:
http://blog.foodnetwork.com/fn-dish/files/2009/05/twitter-logo.jpg

http://www.israelnumber.com/globimg/MSN_Messenger.jpg

http://dept.kent.edu/theatre/porthouse/interface_img/facebook-logo.jpg

marvellmusic.wordpress.com