Prejudice by Nate Close

The term Prejudice is defined as a negative attitude towards a cultural group based on little or no experience. Prejudicial judgements can be formed based on a persons ethnicity, gender, age, social status, nationality, religion, sexuality and other characteristics.

Why are people prejudice?

Prejudice may stem from the personal need to feel positive about ones own group and negative about others, or it may arise from real or perceived threats. Prejudice attitudes function as a way for people to reaffirm their own beliefs and viewpoints. Especially when it comes to relationships between different groups and how they fit into society.

Prejudice on the Internet

In the early days of the Internet it was hypothesized that the anonymity the Internet afforded it’s users could lead to an increase in the communication of prejudice ideas but it could also result in the decrease of discrimination. A quote from our reading Online Prejudice and Discrimination: From Dating to Hating by Kimberly Barasamian Kahn, Katherine Spencer, and Jack Glaser accurately explains this idea:

“The thesis that was posited was that the internet had the possibility to decrease discriminatory effects, but also to increase expressions of prejudice. Specifically, we argued that the anonymity of the internet would allow for freer expression of thoughts, beliefs, and feelings by reducing the influence of social desirability concerns, resulting in less self-censoring of prejudicial attitudes. Furthermore, the vast reach of the internet would allow prejudiced individuals to access hate groups or easily contact like-minded others” (Kahn, Spencer, & Glaser p. 202).

While it may be true that anonymity protected some users from discrimination, we can clearly see from current experience that this same anonymity has allowed online hate groups to prosper. This has become increasingly obvious over the course of the current Presidential Election, in which supporters of the Presidential Candidate Donald Trump, have taken to the internet with their displays of prejudice. A recent example of this that I find especially disturbing are the personal attacks and harassment aimed at liberal media members.

Recently an editor and journalist at the Huffington Post, Emily Peck, released this article criticizing Donald Trumps proposed parental leave policy:

Emily Peck’s article on Trump’s Parental Leave policy

This piece was then picked up by an Internet based hate website called the Daily Stormer. They republished the piece, as well as images of Emily Peck. Leading to personal attacks; first in the comment section of the the editorial, and later to Emily Peck’s personal Twitter account. These attacks specifically focused on her gender and religious identity as a Jewish woman, with members in the comment section posting some of the most extremely prejudice and hateful comments and images one could imagine.

The white supremacist publication the Daily Stormer’s attack on Emily Peck (Trigger Warning NSFW)

The users of the Daily Stormer displayed extreme anti-semetic views as they went as far as photoshopping images of Emily Peck, like the one below, and far worse.

A photoshopped image of Emily Peck inside of a gas chamber with Donald Trump pushing the button.

Following this, Donald Trump’s supporters took to Twitter to continue attacking Emily Peck in this same fashion. Eventually going as far as tracking down her phone number and sending threatening text messages aimed at her and her family.

screen-shot-2016-09-16-at-6-06-38-pm screen-shot-2016-09-16-at-6-07-15-pm

One might minimize this by stating that these people are only acting this way because they are hiding behind the anonymity of the internet. But as a person of Jewish heritage this was a scary and shocking reminder that prejudice is still alive and well in our country. Of course, Jews are not the only victims of this same type of prejudice. Over the course of this election we have seen similar rhetoric and attitudes displayed towards Latino/as, African Americans, Asians, and people of Middle Eastern descent. I believe it is fair to say that the writers of Online Prejudice and Discrimination: From Dating to Hating were correct in theorizing that the internet would increase the expression of prejudice, as we can see in the case of the attacks on Emily Peck and others.

To close, here is a short video clip showing an example of yet another instance of online prejudice precipitated by Donald Trump’s supporters.

Prosocial Behavior- Doreen Kane

http://www.snopes.com/medical/disease/pregnancytest.asp(picture)

Prosocial Behavior is behavior that we give and take from the society without even noticing especially with the Internet. How many times did you look for materials, like videos lesson for you class that you were taking because you did not understand what the Professor explained and felt embarrassed to ask? Or have you ever opened a funding website for patients that have cancer or donate money to these organization through the internet? Those examples are what prosocial behavior is. The article “The kindness of Strangers: Prosocial Behavior on the Internet written by Lee Sproull, Cary Conley and Jae Yum Moon, explains that the term Prosocial behavior is “motivated purely by the desire to increase another person’s welfare, egoistic prosocial behavior is motivated by the desire to increase one’s own welfare or that of one’s group or cause through helping others” (P148). I think the internet have helped millions of people because there are many people that don’t feel comfortable asking someone for help. It is more personalized even though there is no person interactions. They can just type the question on the internet and they will have an answer less in 2 seconds. An example of how the social media can save a man’s life is described in the article “A young man takes a pregnancy test — and discovers he has testicular cancer” by Susan Perry . It is about a bored man that decided to take his ex- girlfriend’s pregnancy test and found out that he was positive, which the young man thought was hilarious. He told his female friend and she posted it on the social media site called Reddit. Someone committed on her post that she should tell her friend to go and check it because he might have testicular cancer. She told her friend and he went to the doctor and found out he had testicular cancer, an extremely rare type called Choriocarcima . I think this is amazing that social media can help others when it is unexpected! If she did not post it he would have never known that he had cancer and he could have died. I also found another example: a video about this mother that took a picture of her daughter and posted it on Facebook, and her friends committed on the post and told her to go to an eye doctor. The girl went to the doctor and found that she has a medical issue and if she did not take care of it in the early stage she can be blind in that eye.

Overall, the expansion of the technology has given people that are considered the “outsiders” of the community a way to reach for help. They can reach for help in an anonymous way were they don’t have to face a person because it might feel less comfortable than others. Therefore, they can type and ask questions without the other person on the other side judging them by their race or personality. When people surf on the internet everyone feel equal to each other no matter of their ethnicity or race.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4L4sjLms18 [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4L4sjLms18]

Digital Sampling – Nicholas Molino

Digital Sampling refers to a technique of taking a recorded passage from an already existing or recorded musical, spoken or other work and then adding it into a new recording. it is referred as a sample and is regularly used in a repetitive manner or backwards or in combination with other sounds or samples.

An example of Digital Sampling can be found here: http://www.whosampled.com/sample/301577/Kendrick-Lamar-I-The-Isley-Brothers-That-Lady/

At 47 seconds and onward in Kendrick Lamar’s song the background beat is the sample, it is the same melody as in the Isley Brother’s song. when you listen to their song, at 4 seconds you will here the sample I am talking about. This melody was originally created by the Isley Brother’s in 1973 when this song was recorded.

Now, according to the article we read by Joe Fassler, he raised a point that a lot of artists may sample bits and pieces of other artists previously recorded songs by taking a beat here, and a sound there. they do this to attract every type of listener to hit a soft spot, and make them think back of a certain era of music that they loved just by a simple tune in the background. The artist doing that must be aware of copyright law and has to get his or her sampling approved by the record company and the artist.

Digital Sampling occurs so often that us as a society do not even realize how much of it is circulating through almost every song we listen to today, it can be as simple as a beat or a while melody sequence.

Image result for quotes about digital sampling

here is a quote by the artist Rahki. some may say that artists in today’s era are not original enough, though a sample may take away originality but certainly does not take away the creativity of the artist and does not make his or her song any lesser then one’s who may be 100% original.

Profiling-Hadeer Yousef

Here is the link for my video presentation, https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bw9uMaB-mLZJdjBXemdEdUtxeUU

Definition: “Profiling is the practice of attempting to understand a person or group based on general characteristics or on past behaviors”(LoveToKnowCorp). So this means if someone has a specific picture/idea about people of a specific gender or race, he/she will have the same picture/idea about the whole race/gender.
An example of profiling is the video below. This video went viral. A boy videotaped the employees in a store while they were watching him. This boy was being watched by the employees because they thought he was going to shoplift something from the store because he is black. This is a type of profiling which is called racial profiling. They judged the boy based on his race. The picture that they have in their head, about black people, is that they shoplift and that is why when they saw him they assumed he might shoplift something. Knowing the meaning of profiling is important because it happens all the time and everywhere in the united states. People should know that they shouldn’t make generalizations about a race or gender. People are different from each other even if they’re from the same race, ethnicity or gender.If someone is bad, it doesn’t mean that the whole race, ethnicity or gender is bad. Not only does random people do this, but even some police officers profile people based on their race. If they come across a specific race, let’s say Black, they think of them as suspects even though they might be innocent. According to Joselit, “Profiling in police work, where persons who belong to particular groups-be they organized by their ethnicity, age, economic status or gender are believed to be more likely to commit a crime and consequently are more frequently treated as criminals.” “Profiling imposes a profile on populations of data (including visual data)” (Joselit 87).

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q32NhDy4ZQg]

Capturing Data and Memories as Evidence

In the Article, What to Do with Pictures by David Joselit, he briefly goes over the term “Data Mining.” What he states is the following:

As the term “data mining” suggests, raw data is now regarded as a “natural,” or at least a naturalized, resource to be mined, like coal or diamonds. But unlike coal and diamonds, with their differing degrees of scarcity, data exists in unwieldy and ever-increasing quantities—it is harvested with every credit-card transaction, click of a cursor, and phone call we make. This reservoir of tiny, inconsequential facts, which is sublime in its ungraspable enormity, is meaningless in its disorganized state. Since such data is both superabundant and ostensibly trivial, what gives it value are the kinds of formats it can assume, which may be as wide-ranging as marketing profiles and intelligence on terrorism

I went on google to search for the word Data Mining, and this is their definition “the practice of examining large databases to generate new information.”

Upon combining David’s and Google information about Data Mining, I can conclude that Data mining is the extraction of Data that is then organized or formatted in a way, in which it would make sense to the viewer of this information.

Media Analysis: Hasan Elahi Tracking Website

I will use an excerpt from my post on the discussion board to give an overview of the project.

In my digital photography class, my professor assigned the class to watch a Ted Talk video about an artist named Hasan Elahi. This artist used data and photography to do this project that unexpectedly turned into a new media art project. This project has accumulated over 12 years of data. Since this art project is updated, several times a day, it is always adding new content and data.

This is a little background of the project. This project started because Hasan was stopped by security and the FBI whenever he was traveling in the airplane. They suspected that he was probably terrorist because he was racially profiled. This became a routine every time he traveled.

Instead of becoming frustrated and angry, he decided to start compiling this information into a website he created. This website tracked all his whereabouts. He took pictures of random things throughout his day. He took pictures of food he bought and ate, toilets he used, airports he traveled, the bed he slept in and among other activities he did throughout the day. Each pictured was tagged with the location and the time it was taken. He also included Google maps track his whereabouts. The site is still running today.

To demonstrate this idea on a personal basis, in my video, I used Facebook check-ins to see where I have been on a map. I go over some pictures that are tagged with each location, date and time. If this information were not formatted in a website the way it is on Facebook, my location, times, dates and pictures would hold no purpose. It would just be data that is on the internet.

This data can be used for marketing purposes if this information is sold to companies. Perhaps marketers would target a product to me. This data may hold some value because it may be used to persuade me to buy something or at the same time if this information goes to a stalker or cyber criminals, it may be used against me. The value in Hasan data is that it was evidence for Hasan to share with the FBI so that he would not be singled out at the airport all the time.

Websites:

https://vimeo.com/188495738

Knowledge worker – Agon Bajrami

Knowledge worker is a term that was first introduced by Peter Drucker in 1959 in his book Landmarks of Tomorrow. It means that the importance of a workforce will shift from physical labor towards individuals or groups who have extensive skills, information and knowledge. Such skills will be very important in order to figure solutions about problems that we will face in future.

druckerknowledgeworker

The importance of knowledge workers is that the burden of further development and innovation will be put on them. Having said this there are many characteristics that these workers have or need to have in order to be distinguished from others. Such characteristics according to the article KnowledgeWorker Productivity: challenges, issues, solutions of GSA (General Services Administration): ” …

“…knowledge work is less standardized and structured…”

knowledge workers are used to a certain level of autonomy

before certain ends result it may be difficult to know whether knowledge workers are working or not

knowledge workers basically own their key production mean – brains

5. knowledge workers need to be committed to and enjoy their jobs

(KnowledgeWorker Productivity, 1)

As we can see the outcome of these workers will be measured differently and in a longer periods of time. While the work of classic workers could have been measured and controlled closely even daily, the knowledge workers will have a duty to see broader and have a vision for future.

Why are knowledge workers related very closely to their intuition and art? As we see above knowledge workers need to really enjoy what they are doing in order for them to keep bringing ideas and keep up their creativity. According to the article What Peter Drucker Knew about 2012 published in Harvard Business Review, Drucker is cited:

“What motivates – and especially what motivates knowledge workers – is what motivates volunteers,” also

“they need to know the organization’s mission and to believe in it.”

Always according to this article the companies will be depended on these workers and such companies will have to do this as Drucker said:

“It will have to be done by satisfying their values.”

As we see the future will bring more importance than ever to the information and knowledge and less to the physical labor and physical stamina. The uniqueness usage of such information and knowledge will give these special workers the privilege to work in companies and the demand for them will be higher and higher. Since we are still in school, aiming to graduate, this saying by Stephen Covey an author and educator:

quote-in-this-knowledge-worker-age-it-s-now-increasingly-tied-to-doing-well-in-school-so-you-stephen-covey-146-13-64-3

Works cited

https://timothysiburg.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/druckerknowledgeworker.jpg

http://www.gsa.gov/graphics/admin/KnowledgeWorkerProductivity_Final6811.pdf

https://hbr.org/2014/10/what-peter-drucker-knew-about-2020

http://www.azquotes.com/picture-quotes/quote-in-this-knowledge-worker-age-it-s-now-increasingly-tied-to-doing-well-in-school-so-you-stephen-covey-146-13-64.jpg

Practice – Daniel Avila

If we are truly aiming to examine the sociological complexities of human beings, Nick Cauldry suggests that we study media as a practice; as something that people do, rather than the text or production in itself. Just studying text is not sufficient in determining the sociological effects that it has on individuals and groups of people. Caudry pushes the study of what people are doing in relation to the text (40).

Studying media as practice entails some understanding of the term “practice.”

In the reading, Andreas Reckwitz is cited defining practice as “a routined type of behavior which consist of several elements , interconnected to one another” (40). Cauldry adds that practice in itself is social and it is concerned with regularity. In studying media as practice, we are examining what people are doing, saying, and thinking in its consumption and use. Something can also be practiced for more than one reason; for the achievement of more than one goal. This is evident in the following, one of the biggest pop culture stories of the current year.

Kanye West released the song “Famous” earlier this year. One of its opening lines reads

“I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex (Why?)/ I made that b— famous”

West told media that he had gotten Swift’s approval of the line. Swift condemned the song upon its release, and insisted that she never approved of the lyric.

A couple of months later, West’s wife and reality star Kim Kardashian posted video on her snapchat of West talking to swift on the phone about the song before its release. West recites the lyric and Swift appears to take a liking to it.

This pop culture story is a prime example of media being utilized in a diversity of practices. Snapchat is an application that allows for image and video messaging. It supports a diversity of distinct practices in short time. A celebrity with as a following as Kardashian can reach a global audience in brief moment; the news media will pick it up and run with it. Knowing this, kardashian used Snapchat as a platform to “expose” Taylor Swift and garner favor with a pop culture audience. This act was also done to promote her reality show, as the buzz surrounding the news story would surely compel people to tune in. Thirdly, it was done in defense her husband. I think.

One post serves several purposes, which what validates practice theory. In studying what people are doing in relation to media as opposed to the production of the text itself, we get a better grip of the various social dynamics at play. We get a more layered, realistic perspective of the reasons for which people use digital media.

Social Conformism by Milton Henriquez

Social Conformity: Is a type of social influence that results in a change of behavior or belief in order to fit in with a group. There are two types of social conformity:

(1) Normative conformity occurs because of the desire to be liked and accepted.

(2) Informational Conformity occurs because of the desire to be correct.

indecisive-girl

According to the article Mass Communication, Popular Taste, & Organized Social Action by Paul F Lazarsfeld and Robert K. Merton, “Social Conformity” is related to mass media” by providing little basis for a critical appraisal of society, the commercially sponsored mass media indirectly but effectively restrain the cogent development of a genuinely critical outlook.”

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPAxeDTkt9w]

After analyzing the video, I came to the conclusion that Paul Pelton’s actions may be categorized as normative conformity because he uploaded the footage to his Facebook page. My only assumption is he did so with hopes of it going viral and/or receiving countless likes. Beyond the title of the video, which seems to express how many viewers (including some of you in class) may feel towards the actions of Paul Pelton, I think the video above supports Lazarsfeild & Merton’s correlation between mass media and social conformity.

We (may) have become what I consider “victims” of normative conformity when It comes to how we respond to such videos. Due to an increase in societal documentation of emergencies I think we have indeed been restrained from developing critical outlooks to a certain degree.

I find we rarely ask or even wonder what social influences may have caused John Doe to committed suicide? Or what psychological conditions was Jane Doe under before she shot up a school? And I believe an effective way of developing critical outlooks is by posing questions before and/or after initial reactions to mass media.

Such as, is there a potential correlation between the 3^rd tier on Maslow’s Hierarchy which is love and belonging and the receiving likes/reposts on social media platforms? And If so, how does it impact decision making during an emergency such as the one in the video above?

Status Conferral Function by Ryan Smith

Status Conferral Function: The role that mass media gives to a person, group of people, or event that makes these things seem significant or important. Whether justified or not.

Status Conferral Function is a term created by Lazarsfeld and Merton when explaining the functions and the power that mass media has in our society. They have the ability to force so much information from anywhere, at any given time, about any topic; that they can make this topic seem like the most pressing matter to date. This can be for a number of reasons; will it get a station the most views? Will it give us the opportunity to make money? Will it attention from a more pressing issue or topic? Along with a handful of other reasons.

Without even noticing it, us as a society, fall under the assumption that just because we see this person, or read about this event that took place, that it is of the utmost significance, just because of the amount at which we see it. It is happening all the time all around us. Subtle mentions of a person or seeing their face in a commercial make us think that the person is “worth” the mentions and that they are actually worth the attention, just because we are seeing their face or hearing their voice constantly. With the new improvements to technology and the advances in communication, it is happening more frequently.

The perfect example for me to try and explain this theory is none other than Kim Kardashian-West

While being one of the most prominent figures in not only our country but the entire world, no one really knows why she got (and still is) famous. Kim Kardashian has not really done anything to mark her place as one of the most famous people to date, yet, here she is staking her claim as one of the most powerful women in the country. As of 2014, Kim Kardashian had over 23 endorsements from major companies all around the world. Meaning she was getting paid to have her face appear alongside a product or service. In doing that, us as a society are doing two things. 1) We see this product along with Kim’s face and think “if she’s promoting it, it must be good” giving the company more credibility. 2) we see her face all over the TV and Internet in doing these endorsements and automatically assume she it still relevant because we see her all over media. While you can’t deny that since being in the spotlight, Kim Kardashian has made the most of it to maximize her own wealth (her own app, her own company) but, the question lies in “how is Kim Kardashian-West famous” and when you get down to it there really is no good legitimate answer. But because we see her all over the news getting “robbed” or all over Instagram and Twitter we still associate her with prominence and celebrity status. Even if we are doing it subconsciously.

Advocacy by Mor Yona

Advocacy: public support for or recommendation of a particular cause or policy.

Advocacy is an activity that people have been participating in for a while now. It’s an activity in which an individual or group aims to influence decisions within political, economic, social systems and institutions. Advocacy can include many activities that a person or organization undertakes including media campaigns, public speaking, etc.

Groups and organizations involved in advocacy work have been using the internet to accomplish their organizational goals. Since we are now in this digital age, more organizations are using the internet with the belief that the internet will increase the effectiveness of advocacy-related communication which suggests that social media efforts are beneficial to the advocacy community.

This advocacy campaign hits the viewer on a more personal level, it opens our eyes (literally) to the realness of the situation. Rather than seeing their own likeness when they looked into the mirror, they saw Kris Caudilla, looking back at them in blue prison overalls sharing his own personal tragic story and warning them not to make the same mistake he did by driving drunk.

Everyday whether we notice them or not, we encounter multiple advocacy campaigning. Whether we are sitting on the subway and notice the campaigns plastered on the subway walls or walking down the street having advocates from an organization approach us asking us to support their cause. The real difference from my perspective between what is an effective advocacy campaign and what isn’t is whether it “hits home.”

In the advocacy campaign I chose to show, we saw the unexpected; We didn’t expect for Kris to tell us his story. The party-goers came into the bathroom holding their drink all cheerful, after looking into the mirror and seeing Kris and listening to him talk their whole demeanor changed (notice their facial expressions and tone of voice). We seem to be more unreceptive to causes we are in denial about, are unrelate-able, or simply do not care about. Kris took us past all of those unreceptive circumstances, he made it PERSONAL; he took us out of the denial, made it relatable and made us care.

Digital Communication & Culture with Professor Bishop

Fall 2016

Month: October 2016