You are what you see

Aaaahh friendship! Such a wonderful thing. I love my friends, I would do anything for them and if I ask nicely, they would do anything for me.  What I love the most about my friends is that they are pretty easy to convince. I like making them my own 'guinea pigs’, you know, give them a bite of my pizza that I accidentally dropped in the floor in the middle of 6^th street (of course, he was too drunk to notice) and after waiting a couple of minutes  making sure that my friend shows no sign of intoxication before I finally decide to eat it. Or telling them that its totally cool to dance on the tables in Malaia nightclub, and when I see no bouncers are coming to kick hem out I hope on the table and dance the night away. AAhhh sometimes I wonder how can they trust me so much?

Anyways the point is, after they do something and I see they are not getting repercussions for behaving that way, I can chose to either behave the same way or not, and you know what they say…”if you cant beat them, join em!”. This phenomenon is called “social learning theory”

   Social learning theory states that people can learn to do something by just watching other people perform a task. If they see that the “model” gets some kind of reward they may or may not do the same thing the model did so they can get the reward as well. If the “model” gets a negative response from the behavior he just made then the observer may not model that behavior because he or she wont want to get punished as well.

We experience social learning EVERY SINGLE DAY. Think about when you are walking down Guadalupe street and you see a long line coming out of Chipotle with people covered in aluminium foil paper coming out with a burrito in their hands. You had never heard about it but by observing you realize that “if you cover yourself in aluminium foil today you will get a free burrito” if you arent smart enough to figure that out yourself then you should consider transferring to A&M.. just sayin ;)

Just as we imitate behaviors by only observing in real life, we can also apply the social learning theory to the media. By watching all those different violent and sexual shows, it affects our moral and the way we act without us even noticing. Not only that, video games, websites, and many other medias have been a main concern for many many years,

Music videos are big influencers, especially for teens. Ill use Nellys Tip Drill video as an example.

An image says more than a thousand words... This video makes guys think that money will get them any girl and that they can treat girl like a piece of meat. While it teaches girls that by wearing less clothes and grinding on rich guys they will be happy.

Another example of social learning is THIS VIDEO, which is one of my personal favorites. In order to avoid the punishment (feeling left out) the subject tries to fin a way to "fit in". Enjoy!!

The never ending question is DOES MEDIA REFLECT SOCIETY, OR DOES SOCIETY REFLECTS THE MEDIA? Ill leave that to your personal judgement.

See you next sunday!!

A fall from the third floor hurts as much as a fall from the hundredth. If I have to fall, may it be from a high place - Paulo Coelho

A Tea party......with no tea?

Have you ever noticed that whenever there’s something happening in the world, from Obama’s birth certificate debate, to A-Rod’s steroids problem, to Kim Kardashian’s latest sex scandal, EVERYONE seems to have an opinion about it? Well, if you woke up today and told your roommate how excited you were about seeing Taylor Swift performing a song about Kanye West in tonight’s VMA’S then you were definitely experiencing what we call ‘AGENDA SETTING’ without even realizing it.  Through the utilization of Swine flu and the latest political sideshow, the Tea Party, I will define the use of agenda setting in the mainstream news media.

Agenda setting is the idea that the media decides what stories to show audiences. This is very important since it means the media dictates what stories we should consider as newsworthy and by doing this it creates public opinion. This power has the ability to frame a situation in a positive or negative light. Since we see the same story everywhere and we hear people talking about it we assume it is an important issue. This buzz gives the story a sense of greater importance then those that are not highlighted by the media.

A great example of the media’s ability to create buzz is their constant coverage of the Swine Flu. The sensationalizing of the story created national panic. It was covered by all kinds of media and people started to panic-- Don’t lie, you know you got your flu shot too—Even though it wasn’t a big deal after all.

An example of agenda setting can be the current events taking place today by the Tea Party.  While for most of us the words TEA PARTY bring back painful memories about our grandma's cat D'Artagnian, her stinky but comfortable old couch, and big fancy hats, this 'Tea party' has nothing to do with that...except the fact that your grandma is probably a member.

The Tea Party is an idea example of agenda setting on both sides of the political spectrum. Democratic leaning news outlets like MSNBC have used the antics of the Tea Party to paint all Republicans as out of touch radical activist that base their opposition to the President on unfounded claims. Republican leaning new outlets like Fox News have championed their efforts as an example of brilliant activism against the oppressive regimes of the President. Either way, both sides are sensationalizing their efforts to meet their own agenda, shaping the audiences opinions about both parties.

So next time you watch the news keep in mind there is more to it than meets the eye. 

Arrivederchi my friends! (aka RTF TA)

Check it out!

FOX NEWS

New York Times

CNN.com

--> Now this what I call a TEA PARTAAY





"We have a positive vision of the future founded on the belief that the gap between the promise and reality of America can one day be finally closed. We believe that" 
- Barbara Jordan