The Voice of Hip Hop

I have decided to analyze Jason Derulo’s song/music video “Swalla” (ft. Ncki Minaj & Ty Dolla $ign). I have chosen this video because of all the videos this one is the most sexual and dehumanizing. The other videos such as Bruno Mars showed more male dominance, and I wanted to focus more on the role of women and men. Men and women have very distinct roles in this video, the men are there to tell what the women what to do, and the women are there as sexual objects and to please the men. Women are shown wearing practically nothing and dancing on cars and on water, making them seem vulnerable. The men on the other hand were shown as muscular and dominant.

This video tells a story that women are meant to be looked at as objects and should be sexual to please the men. A focus was put on the women’s butt, which further dehumanizes them, virtually saying that a woman is only worth something if she has a nice butt. The video also shows that a man does not have to be loyal to one woman, in the video Jason Derulo has many women around him and on top of him. This further shows that women are merely sex objects and not there to be treated properly.  

                As Sut Jhally stated in his documentary, every music video tells a story, and sometimes that story may different than what the lyrics are actually saying. In this video, the story being told is that men are dominant and women are below them. The men are shown wearing expensive clothes and are giving the orders. These types of stereotypes have been reinforced within pop culture. I believe that this music video adds to the stereotype that women are meant to be there for men and to meet their sexual needs. This is particularly shown when the women are on the floor dancing as Jason is singing around them. 

                Being that adolescents are the main viewers of these types of videos their perception of what a woman and man should act like are skewed. Young teen boys are taught to treat women as objects and to control how they act and dress. On the other hand, women are taught to be submissive towards men and to meet their every need, no matter how dehumanizing it may be. I believe this is part of the reason the current generation has a difficult time with respect. Hip hop music videos teach kids that it is okay to treat people as objects.

                

Masculinity

After viewing several music videos in the Rap genre I found one that displays what society finds to be masculine. A famous Rap artist Usher, is known for his songs which include how women are sex objects and should be taken home only to be used. In his song "Love In This Club" Usher describes how he wants to have sex in the club with a girl. As shown in the music video, the girl is viewed as a trophy or prize that he is trying to win. I picked this video because it's a good example of how society views women, and how men are expected to act to win women.

"Eat Mor Chikin"

This advertisement image of Chick-fil-A is trying to elicit a comedic response from the audience. The use of the cows to sell their product adds a comedic feel to the advertisement and makes it fun. The image is trying to sell consumers Chick-fil-A making it an advertisement.

This image is an example of a journalistic image because it is trying to sell an idea rather than a product. The image uses a victim of a Titanic survivor to show readers that there is a price to pay for every story told. 

The L-word

In the past few months we have heard and read many articles pertaining to the question if news media is continuing to fail at challenging claims made by politicians or if they are returning to the original purpose of news media, and challenging them. I see some points in which the news media is starting to challenge claims made by President Donald Trump, but it is a little bit too late. I believe that the news media is trying to cover their tracks from when they failed to challenge the claims the President made. In the link below you will find an article about the lies that the president has been caught in already. In this article it states that though the news media knows that the claims stated were lies, they were not inclined to call out the President because it would make them look as if they were no objective. They even go as far as to refer to the word "liar" as the "l-word." I believe this causes big problems in the news media world because if we, as listeners, don't have the resources to tell us what is and what isn't a lie, how can we trust anything? 

http://news.wgbh.org/2017/01/03/news/falsehoods-lies-and-challenge-covering-donald-trump

Just a Game?

I have never been a fan of guns, because of this my knowledge of guns within video games is slightly limited. However, many of my friends play games such as Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty; both which are highly violent games in which guns are used. Both games, for the most part, have male characters; emphasizing the masculinity that society has put on guns and violence. The use of male characters in these video games emphasizes the masculinity that most people associate with guns. As you can see in the video below the male character has a variety of guns to choose from, showing the militarism part of this game.

Though I do believe people have the right to bare arms, the use of video games to market them is, in my opinion, unwarranted. There are many children (18 and younger) that play these types of games, and though many may say it is up to the parents to shield them from such games, many times they find ways around it. Personally I have been a nanny for a 4 year old boy who was allowed to play these video games, and he was more violent than other children that I was a nanny for. Though I am not saying that video games have a direct correlation with how individuals act I do believe it effects their mind set.

"Happy Violence"

Happy violence sounds like an oxymoron. How can something violent be happy? To me "happy violence" means that the actual act of violence is for a good end result. The violence itself can be gory and vicious, but the end result or outcome is good. For example war movies, they are filled with violent, often bloody, scenes; but as Americans watching the film these scenes are also accompanied by a glorious victory, or heart warming story. We can also see this occurring in my favorite genre, romance. The Lucky One is a movie that begins with a war scene but is followed by a mans dedication to find the woman in a picture he picked up.

To me this is an example of "happy violence" because there is a violent scene, accompanied by a happy ending. The film also shows a lot internal violence within certain characters; however this violence is too ended with a happy ending. There are many types of "happy violence" and today's society is filled with it. The media glamorizes violence by adding a happy ending, or a happy outcome, that way viewers are not fixated on the violent part of the movie. To some this can be a bad thing, but to others it can be refreshing, knowing that something good can come out of something so violent. 

Media Ownership

This assignment has not only taught me that media influence does not stop with the news, but goes on to influence TV shows and movies. I was shocked to find out that only 6 big companies own the hundreds of TV channels we know and watch. One of my all time favorite shows is Grey's Anatomy, which is produced by Lifetime. I was shocked to find out that Lifetime TV is owned by the Walt Disney Company. In doing some research I found out the the Walt Disney Company is known for producing shows or movies in which a female actress is the lead role. This is strongly portrayed in Grey's Anatomy, as the show revolves around the life of Meredith Grey, a female general surgeon.

Walt Disney Company, also known as just Disney, is the worlds second largest media conglomerate in terms of revenue, only behind Comcast. Disney has a $40.1 billion dollar revenue and owns TV channels, radio stations, print media, and other types of entertainment such as Marvel Entertainment and the Disney Store. When I thought of the Walt Disney Company I only thought of Disney World/Disney Land, and TV channels such as Disney Channel. I am shocked to know the the company has ownership of thousands of different sub companies, all of which have the morals and opinions of the Walt Disney Company.

Plato's Allegory of the Cave and Media Influence

Plato's Allegory of the Cave may help us  to further understand media and media influence by helping us to see how humans gain knowledge using perspective. We live in a society in which is surrounded by media. As humans we are influenced by this media and often only rely on one source of media and believe it to be true. Just as the people in the cave believe the shadows to be real because they are the most real things they have ever seen.
After people being discovering different types of media they will being to understand that what is shown through media is not always the truth or the entire story. Plato describes this when the individuals in the cave being to look away from the wall and into the fire, it was then that they began to see the reality of the shadows and how they were formed.
In a sense we are all imprisoned by the illusions of media, we want to believe that what we see is the truth. The individuals were only able to see the world around them when they were dragged out of the cave and able to see the sun, the source of everything. Similarly, we humans are not able to see the world around us until we leave the imprisonment that media can have on our lives.