Exporting Media

We are writing a paper in communications class that I think is also a perfect blog topic:

“Does exporting news and entertainment media
from the United States of America to other countries lessen the image of the
U.S.A. abroad or improve the U.S.A.’s image in other countries?

Here is part of my paper.

As I have traveled out of the United States I
have always been surrounded by small things that remind me of the U.S. American
music playing in restaurant and on the radio, music in television commercials,
movie trailers, even music videos. Even though these things make me feel like
home I am also not fully emerged in the culture outside of the United States.

I had an email interview with a friend of mine
Melanie Rogers. She is American but she has lived in Brazil for almost two
years. so naturally I thought to ask her questions
about how the United States is portrayed in media there. Rogers says that
naturally higher ratings for new are of negative news. There aren’t a lot of
stories that look at the positive side of the United States. Therefore,“If the
only news reported about the U.S. is the world is negative news, well then,
logically, that would heighten the negative side of the U.S. to the world.”

One last thing that Rogers said is that some Brazilians will never have the chance to go to the United States, so their opinion is based on how the media depicts the U.S. I have never been to the Middle East and most of the media that I have heard about is negative so I can agree with what Rogers says. We cannot really know what culture is like unless we experience it

 

Rock for a Wish

Rock for a Wish

Today my sorority had an event called Rock for a Wish. Chi Omega Fraternity is nationally affiliated with the Make a Wish Foundation.  Rock for a Wish was an event where college students and adults dressed up like Rock stars and ran a 5K to raise money for the make a wish foundation. This event took place this morning registration was at 7 am and the race started at 8 am. Preparations started many months ago. Faith Mote our philanthropy chair has been working tirelessly to make sure the even went on without a hitch.

I took pictures for the event, and I took “photo booth” pictures. There was a backdrop saying “Rock for a Wish” in white and Make a Wish blue. I will place a picture above.

The Make a Wish foundation is a non-profit organization that grants children wishes. These children have threatening illnesses and are between the ages of 2 and 18. You can go to wish.org to learn more about the Make a Wish foundation. Here are some things that are interesting that I learned about Make a Wish. I child’s wish is granted around every 38 minutes. Chris was the start of the Make a Wish foundation he was 7 years old and had leukemia, and all he wanted to do was be a police officer. So the caring people of his community helped him be a police officer and that lead to the Make a wish foundation to be started. Their mission is to serve a unique, and vital, role in helping strengthen and empower children battling life- threatening medical conditions.

A world of Do It Yourself.

The world started by being a do it yourself world- nomads would hunt and gather. Soon civilization moved into gardening and growing plants.  Then the agricultural revolution happened, culture soon moved to people specializing in certain things. Nexr the industrial revolution and a technology revolution of now, as people were starting to specialize they could sell their goods or services. With a collective community working together every need was provided and there was more leisure time.

Now in today’s times all needs are readily available to the max. Multiple grocery stores are in each town. Almost one of every kind of store are in each town as well- car dealer, dollar store, fast food, clothing stores. With everything at the snap of a finger people have more time for leisure. When shopping people have decided that some things cost too much or they could do them themselves.

So we went from a DIY world, to a made to order/ readily available world, back to a time when you spend time making things for yourself. There are whole websites for do it yourself projects. Even a sight that mirrors other social media sites and blogs pinterest.com. Now there are even sights were you can get things made my others who do things themselves and have them shipped to you using etsy.com. But does that defeat the whole purpose of do it yourself? Or it is providing for small business owners- people who decided they liked to make things themselves rather than buy it from others. Some of these diy’ers even having these projects as their main source of income.

I love pinterest and esty. There is even a local store in Troy made of DIY products. What a changing world we are in full of possibilities of repeating itself.

Natalie

Culture in Motion

I have wanted to talk about the topic dance for a while now, but I don’t know much about dance. This Monday I took pictures of some of the Troy Dance Theatre students. There is a possibility of my photography being featured on their posters for their fall show. I couldn’t be more excited for that opportunity.

One of my friends Natalie was in the photo shoot- she is also featured in the photograph above. I interviewed her to learn a little more about dance so I could write about it. One of the topics we talked about is choreography.  This semester she is in a choreography class in Troy- along with many other numerous dance classes. I asked her what inspires you when choreographing.

Natalie said, “It depends. You always have to have a concept. Sometimes it will change.”

She then explained how her last piece was about friends get along. How they aren’t always the exact same person, but somehow they mesh together.  She got one person to have harsh hard movements, while the other dancer had flowy a light movements. It all worked well together when she showed her piece. She said it was a strange concept, but it ended up being how she wanted it. She talked about how choreography has to be intricate a have lots of meaning.

I asked Natalie way her major was dance.

Natalie said, “It’s the only thing that really interests me enough to where I will devote myself to learning about it and be in class every day. God just gave me a heart that really loves to dance and embrace it. Embrace the art of it.”

The next Troy Dance Theatre show is November 15^th-16^th.

Photography

To some people a picture is a touch away, people using their iPhone to get a picture to post on some sort of social media. But I often think people forget not too long ago- in my lifetime even- the majority of anyone taking picture used 35mm cameras.

The evolution of cameras in the past generation is incredible. Yet I think if you want to do photography as some sort of profession you should be able to develop your own pictures from film that you developed as well. It gives you much more of an appreciation for photography itself.  When you only have 20 shots on a roll of film, and need to get two different subjects on the same roll of film you have to make sure you get the picture just right. Then, when you go to develop the film you must make sure that you get everything in the dark room or dark room bag just right or you will expose your film and not be able to use any of the shots you have taken. This can be a very stressful process. Also while taking the shots you need an interesting composition, its even harder to obtain good composition with black and white film in a world of color. Hand developing pictures is even harder than hand developing film in my opinion. You have to make sure the enlarger is exposing for the right amount of time and that the filters are right before you make the whole picture. It’s a very tedious process but it is very rewarding.  

The next time you take a picture think of how far photography has come in the past decade or two.

Nate Saint

Nate Saint was a pilot for a group called the Missionary Aviation Fellowship in the 1950s. This group worked closely with India tribes in the upper left hand corner of South America close to Ecuador. He served as a supplier to missionaries in the area. There weren’t roads in this area; therefore, missionaries had to cut their way through jungles to get anywhere, but with Saint, supplies were much easier to get and the missionaries that were serving did not have to leave their areas as often. Saint also was able to drive people that needed emergency medical care out of the jungle right away.

Saints wife Marj Saint helped to also serve the area in many ways. Their house was a place for new missionaries to go before they were stationed at their end destination. Marj also was on the radio often talking to places that Saint was going to make sure the weather was going to be okay, to see if they needed anything extra, and to see if there  was a bad medical condition anywhere else.

Saint wanted to make his place as efficient as possible. He found out that the seats that came with the place weighed eighty pounds. He thought that the comfy seats were unnecessary, so he found seats that weighed less so that more cargo could be towed. He even found a better fuel system that is now used on all smaller planes in that area as a back-up if anything were to happen.

Nate Saint gave up the culture he did have to be able to serve those in this area.

You can read more about Nate and other Missionaries in Thorough Gates of Splendor by Elizabeth Elliot.

Sold by Patricia McCormick is a stunning tale of Lakshmi a thirteen year old girl who lives in a small village of Nepal. I could write a book review, but as I started the book I started noticing interesting things about her culture. This book is a novel, but I am sure that the author did research before she dove into writing about this culture.

I cannot even imagine being this young girl. Her family is tremendously poor. Her step-father is a drunk and a gambler; therefore, he makes their living situation worse. Her mother feels as though it is a blessing to have a man in the house, even though he makes things worse.

The family gardens to produce food. The climate helps and hurts their garden. During dry season plants cannot grow, and during rainy season , often in rains too much and they plants take a plunder to death by a mudslide.

Sometimes when families don’t have enough money they send their daughters off to be maids for wealthier people in the country, but the worst part is they are shipped off to where these families live and often don’t return to their own hut cities. These huts are made out of anything that can be used as shelter, and if you have a tin roof on your hut you are considered well off for your town.

These people don’t leave their town, often or ever. So when Lakshmi leaves for the first time she is very confused. She goes to a big city and thinks that is going to be her final destination, but the woman escorting her takes her through many cities.

What a difference between this girl’s life and when you or I were thirteen.

Midwife

Mid-wife

When American’s hear this term it often has a negative connotation. I have been hearing of more college students considering this as a vocation.

Let’s take a look at statistics of mid-wives:

• midwives deliver only six percent of births in the United States each year, this is approximately 220,000 babies
• Yet many of the European nations have about eighty percent of children born with midwives
• Most European countries have passed laws regulating midwives, their schools, and professional organizations
• Most of these midwives work for governmental health services
• These countries include Austria, Sweden, the UK, and the Netherlands
• A law requires a midwife to be at every birth in Australia
• Midwives in developing countries aren’t usually educated
• They use cultural practices like fasting, sacrifices, fasting and herbal medicine,
• These midwives in developing countries don’t use proper sanitization, but choose midwives because of sociocultural and economic reasons

Barriers for midwives in the states includes:

physician opposition- physicians feel that women are safer in a hospital with a doctor

                                                But: Births attended by certified Nurse-Midwives (CNMs) produce fewer cesarean sections, infant abrasions, complications, perineal lacerations, postpartum hemorrhage, and vacuumor forceps-assisted deliveries than physicians

regular barriers- the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organizations requires that physical examinations of women be done only by physicians

access to insurance- It is difficult to find an adequate malpractice insurance

There are organizations trying to build a bridge to unify physicians and other midwives organizations together. The goal is to make midwifery affordable, accessible, and acceptable in the United States.