JOUR 4250 8/25

Today was the first day of classes for the 2011-2012 school year. It was also the first time meeting for my Race and Gender in the Media class. We are asked to post a blog every week discussing our opinions on the class session for that week. So for the next four months if a blog is labeled with the "JOUR 4250" and then a date I am referencing to what we talked about in class for that week. Besides those the rest will be my personal blogs. I will try to keep up with doing both often.

This week in class we got to know one another. We found out that not everyone in the class was a journalism student. That was very interesting and inspiring of the students who are not journalism students that they would step out of themselves and enroll in a class that may challenge their thoughts, and it's not required of them to do so.

Our first analyzing of the media was on the cover of the NTDaily and the Andrea Dodson video on YouTube.

The NTDaily we examined and we discovered the lack of diversity. I thought this was right up my alley. I transferred to UNT last year and one of the first things I noticed was the lack of diversity on campus. There are so many cultures and ethnicity's on campus and I was sitting next to a different type of person everyday in class. As a journalist I naturally as questions. I wondered if anyone else saw the opportunity at the tip of their fingers like I did. Not only would I get a great education but I would be able to be well rounded and open to different views. Which as a reporter we must be both. I then realized that the major issue is that UNT doesn't promote themselves as a diverse school. If asked they may say yes but as far as that being a major advantage in attending UNT, that is not there. I think the media outlets that we are provided here at UNT must represent the demographic of the people the paper or newscast is serving. So if the school is more populated with ethnicity's other than white and the whole newspaper staff is white then how are you truly serving different demographics. I don't think it is impossible. I do believe that people naturally think about what they are familiar with first.

The Dodson video was a great example of how the media can influence viewers and their perspective of another race. Imagine if someone is in a neighborhood that has no other race besides black people and have been living there their whole life. If this newscast is the only perception they have of black people it would have totally misrepresented the majority of blacks in America.
This makes me want to continue on in my aspirations in journalism. I want to change the way people think about stereotypes of others.