Questions to ask

I am going to be writing about teenage girls' and their body image. I think that the media (magazines and tv) greatly influence girls' self esteem. I want readers to be more aware of eating disorders, and how to recognize them. I also want them to learn that the media has created their own world of "perfect" people. I think that most people don't realize this, therefore they consider themselves "ugly" or "fat". I plan on interviewing my best friend who had an eating disorder and looking into magazines to see how they distort peoples actual images. I think that the media negatively effects us because they create people who always look perfect and have the best bodies, when in reality that is not the case. Girls look at magazines and think that people are just born that way, when in reality, they are airbrushed and distorted most of the time. I would like to interview other girls on how they think the media influences them.

evaluation of research question

My main question is, "How does the media directly influence girls' view of their own body?" I think that this raises other questions like, "Why does the media display these types of images when they know that it negatively effects girls' self esteem?" "Why is the 'best body type' for models to be extremely skinny, when the public is not like that?" I feel strongly about this topic first of all because one of my best friends had an eating disorder throughout middle school and part of high school. I want to learn more about how she dealt with that, and how it happened in the first place. I also think that your personal health is very important; I dislike when girls are always complaining "Oh I'm fat, or I'm not good enough." I think that I would be able to find out a lot of information on eating disorders and why they are caused; hopefully one of the main reasons being the media. I think it will be challenging to view this in everyday life only because girls who have eating disorders normally hide this from society. I don't know how I will ethnograph this. I think it would be really interesting to interview my best friend to see how this really effected her life.

Brainstorming for Research Project

When thinking of a topic to research, the first thing that came to mind is eating disorders. This is a close to heart subject because one of my best friends had an eating disorder a few years ago. I think that this topic is interesting because it effects so many teenagers. I think it is really interesting how the media has such a huge influence on not only girls, but boys body types too. One of my questions will be, "how does the media influence girls' body images?" I think many people should be informed of ways to notice if a person has an eating disorder so that they can help them. "If a person doesn't show signs of weight loss, are there different ways to know if someone has an eating disorder?" I think it is really important for teenage girls especially to learn to love themselves for who they are. They shouldn't always aspire to look like celebrities or models who are way to thin. Another reason why I want to research this topic is because my favorite show is America's Next Top Model. I would like to know..."Why is super skinny the most desirable body type for models?" This doesn't make sense to me because they are modeling clothes for the public, so how do these clothes fit both the overly skinny 7 feet tall models, and the normal body type?

Researching 1 in 6 million & How I Fell in Love with Post Its

First of all, I thought it was very interesting that Hilary wanted to learn so much about her grandmother, although I was sort of confused why she wanted to know so much information. I think in this article she explained too much of her own experiences, and not enough advice on how to do such in depth research. She mentioned that she made calls and many emails, and I think it's great that she put so much effort into it. This has made me realize that not all research comes easily, you have to do more than just type a topic into the google search bar. In How I Fell in Love With Post-Its, I basically learned that Susana really is in love with post-its. I agree that by using post-its, it is a great organization skill and can keep your research concise. I found that I had a lot in common with Susana; she always needed to be in a quiet place to work and once I get started on a project, I need to finish it. I cannot take breaks and stay focused at the same time. I like how she mentioned the fact that there's always a size, shape, and color for any type of information that you need to flag. I feel like after reading this, I will use her methods when researching.

Linguistic Awareness Project

For my linguistic awareness project I would like to create a poster on study strategies for college students. I think it is important for college students to learn how to study the right way because most come from high school, where they were not taught at all the proper ways to study. At least for me, I did not study much in high school unless I had an important test, but now I have realized that in college you need to study for every class if you want to earn good grades. I think by using posters to demonstrate this, students will be able to easily access study strategies anywhere on campus. When I walk through the quad, there is a whole poster board which would be a good place to post them. I also think that I could put them on the bathroom stall doors because there are always posters in there to read...haha. I know that if I were to encounter a poster about study strategies, I would stop to read it.

A Bullet For Your Arsenal

While reading this article, I learned that advertisers will display any image to get you to buy their product. Like Rodriguez describes, the iPod cutouts are of the "coolest" "hippest" and the most "physically fit" kids. It makes you want to put yourself into one of the cutouts as if you are the one dancing to the music coming from your iPod. Advertisers even carefully pick out certain colors to put into their advertisement so that it draws in the eye and makes it visually appealing; they never use more then one set of complementary colors in one ad. The iPod ads use bright, neon colors to attract they eye. Even the viewing perspective of the ad has to do with the way a person views it; looking up at an ad, say a billboard, can represent admiration of whatever the ad is portraying. Once again, this article has everything to do with the audience of your ad, paper, or any genre for that matter. Whoever you are trying to get to buy your product, you need to appeal to them the most.

Graffiti

I chose this image because it is about world peace. It says that once people stop obsessing, "loving", power, then maybe one day we can have world peace because people will care more about love than power. People need to learn to love one another and to know that power is not everything in this world. This is directed towards people who are possibly in power, or people who want to be in power. I bet the person that created this, is not a person of power because they are the ones that know how to love and want world peace.

This graffiti is saying that God made everyone, whether they are gay or straight. Everyone deserves to be happy and whoever created this graffiti, obviously wants everyone to know that although they are gay, they are happy too. Whether you are gay or straight, it should not determine your happiness. This person could possibly be pushing for gay marriages to be allowed in their certain state. I am not sure who created either of these graffiti's, but I think each of them portray important messages that are problems within our world today.