Blog #4

The media has a huge impact on the stereotypes we place on men and women. The media shows the man as the one who has to do anything difficult. In school this means that the guy is expected to get the right answers and be a sports star. In the workplace it means that the guy has to come up with all the spectacular ideas. This is a bad attitude to have for both men and women because it puts too much pressure on men and it make women feel like they can't succeed. There are stereotypes when people are shopping too. Store keepers think that a man coming into a store is more likely to steel something than a woman.

American Choppers shows many core American values. One of the main ones is progress and success. The main idea of the show is to see how fancy you can make a motor cycle for someone which symbolizes the successes they've had. Another core American value is that they have is materialism. They exemplify the idea that the people with the fanciest things are people who are happy. The message they are sending is that people who own fancy motorcycles are the people who are going to be the happiest.

Blog #2

Media conglomerates are becoming more and more common now. They pose dangers because there is a possibility that only a handfull of views are put forth. Having only a few views put forth will group people into a fiew ideas. This restricts the freedom of speach of the smaller viewpoints which could bring valid points that would be ignored if conglomerates took control of everything. Also, if all the media outlets are owned by the big conglomerates, they can push their own media agenda because they are the gate keepers to what gets exposed to the public. Another danger is that the media conglomerates can bully unpopular views from the remaining smaller outlets by either buying them out or just intimidating them into stopping their views. Media conglomerates can be very dangerous, but as long as there are opposing conglomerates, they should be able to balance eachother out.