Monday, February 9, 2015
February 13 (Period 8): What were you accomplishments today? This might be narrowing down your topic, doing research, etc. When discussing your specific research, please make sure to list what specific research you have done (title of article/book, author, etc.) and how this can possibly be used in the development of your project. What sociological questions do you have that will guide your research in the future? What is on your "to do list" for next class?
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Today I was able to narrow down the topic of my choice to "Why certain goods in today's society help to judge social status?" In terms of research (which will be my primary focus for future classes) I need to determine stereotypical products that have been associated with higher, lower and middle classes. For this I can survey people for their opinions on what is stereotypical; as well as looking for books to supplement my ideas. The main portion of my research today was on the NPR website, especially some work done by Planet Money.
ReplyDeleteToday, I narrowed down my topic a bit from being relevant to the media to specifically discussing the lack of racial representation throughout it. I found a lot of articles that include research that has been done on this topic, and a title of a book that is probably worth looking into (the book is called Racism, Sexism, and the Media). The titles of the articles I found are:
ReplyDeleteNew study puts numbers to the lack of minority representation in film
They Cast Whom?! Actor Choices To Offend Every Racial Sensibility (most likely will not use this one because it has more to do with inaccuracies in casting than with racial representation)
Latinos in Mainstream Media Are a Disappearing Act: The Latino Media Gap Crisis
Whitewashing Was One Of Hollywood's Worst Habits. So Why Is It Still Happening?
Hollywood's 'Race Problem' Is Worse Than You Think
As for next class, I don't really have any ideas for potential solutions to this problem, so I'm going to try and further narrow down the topic and hope I can find something that will give me a more local solution or at least an idea. I also want to do more research and go deeper into the topic than just whitewashing of media.
Today I focused on trying to narrow down my topic. My topic is race and I think that I would like to work on the misconduct of African American children and teens. I found a really interesting article on the NPR about three black teen aged girls who were kicked out of normal school do to a fighting incident at their old school. In the incident the females were harmed and hospitalized by the officer. The main focus of the article is to provide an argument based on the fact that black teen girls are more subject to harsh authority than other races and boys also. I agree with this article but i don't think this is the exact question i would like to focus on. But this article does influence me to think about why black female teens are more violent fighters than males and other races? I will used this question to help me research more about this misconduct of teens.
ReplyDeleteToday I narrowed down my topics to at least two different topics. The two topics I was able to narrow down are, getting people in an impoverished country (I haven't decided which country yet) more access to clean water. The other being making biking safer in the City of Chicago. I plan to use the weekend to make a final decision for next week.
ReplyDeleteMy accomplishments today were to narrow down my topics. My project will be about race, poverty, and food kitchens. I want to be able to talk about the need for more food kitchens in impoverished areas and the fact that there are not enough in more impoverished areas to help combat hunger. For next class I want to be to know exactly which race or area that I will talk about in the project.
ReplyDeleteResearch on article ww.disabilityplanet.co.uk/critical-analysis.html
ReplyDeleteNotes on models of disability. Notes on stereotypes. Notes on forms of media. Etc.
I explored different topics to start narrowing down my topic. I read "Stop Telling Women to Smile", "Style Over Substance: How clothes can work for and against us", and "Challenging the Whiteness of Public Radio". All of those were interesting, but when I came in today I wanted to focus on homelessness, so I researched specifically for articles about homelessness. I read "Homeless Man Encourages Others on the Streets to 'Get Up'" and "Homeless Man with 'Great Heart' finds $42,000, Turns it in". These sources can help me narrow down what exactly about homelessness I want to focus on.
ReplyDeleteSome questions I have are: Why are most homeless people men? and What is the most effective way to help people who are homeless?
Next class I would like to continue researching and then decide what I want to focus on regarding homelessness.
today i narrowed down and began to find a topic to center my project on such as the process small time drug offenders have to go through in the prison system and how they will serve more time even without any violent offenses
ReplyDeleteToday, I joined Jakarri and Becky's group. We considered different topics, but decided on improving the jobs of construction workers and firefighters. These jobs are low paid and extremely dangerous. Even though I was initially opposed to this, since a more closely related topic would probably be more intrinsically motivating, I think this topic is okay. We looked at the wages of construction workers and firefighters. The average construction worker earned just around $35,000 a year, while the wages of the average firefighter was around $45,000 a year. http://money.usnews.com/careers/best-jobs/construction-worker/salary
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes332011.htm
To Do List: Further research on working conditions of firefighters and construction workers.
I spent the bulk of today's class researching the connection between race and socioeconomic status (commonly abbreviated as SES). Among the articles I read were "Understanding Racial and Ethnic Differences in Health in Late Life: A Research Agenda," in which health differences among people of different races are attributed to SES, and "Ethnic and Racial Minorities & Socioeconomic Status," a comprehensive article featuring statistical evidence on the APA's website. Both of these articles could be used as support/evidence if I decide to pursue this topic. If I do pursue this topic, however, I will most likely focus on psychological and economic effects of systemic racism as opposed to physical health effects. While this topic is very interesting, I plan on researching a few more before finalizing one. In the last part of the class, I looked into hate crime in the United States after reading an NPR article about the 2011 murder of a black Mississippian. I don't know if this is a viable project topic, but it may be worth looking into next class.
ReplyDeleteToday I took some of the first steps necessary in order to narrow down my research topic. I know I want to explore a topic having to do with Race and Ethnicity, so today I sought out interviews on relating topics by prominent female African-American figures, particularly in journalism and literature. I looked at a couple interviews with Janet Moss (Black transgender journalist), Bell Hooks, and Toni Morrison, just to get a general idea of some of the topics they discussed that I may want to research further. Next class I hope to explore commentary from prominent male figures in media and literature regarding current events and I also plan to make a topic list that I can begin to refine as my research continues to progress.
ReplyDeleteOn February 13, I did more research on my topic, which is how women are both positively and negatively portrayed in horror films. I read an article by Casey Murray called “Women Portrayed in Horror” on the website BellaOnline: The Voice of Women. This article gave some insight into how women in horror films are often portrayed as sex symbols with less value than men, which leads them to be cast as empty characters who often get killed off. This can help support the fact that women are often unfairly misrepresented in horror films. I also looked at the website Women In Horror Month.com, which actually celebrates Women In Horror Month during February. The website’s mission is to end discrimination of women in getting horror roles and to promote more equality between men and women both on and off screen. This can help to support stronger positions for women in horror films both creatively and in being respected more among male colleagues and directors. My to do list consists mainly of doing more research and narrowing down my topic question.
ReplyDeletei began to narrow down my research to specific neighborhoods, not just chicago in general. Found some good gangland clips.
ReplyDelete