Author: bower.260

Week 15 Context Presentation

by

For my context presentation I will analyze Susan Sontag’s Regarding the Pain of Others. Susan was a writer and filmmaker. She also analyzes photography and explains the meaning behind the photograph. Regarding the Pain of Others is based on the events of 9/11 and the media presence surrounding it. She talks about how war photography is displayed to people and analyzes the meaning behind the photo. In this novel Susan wrote about war and she related photography to it and analyzed how the photo portrayed war.  

I think the media can falsely present ideas to the people. The media is very easily able to dictate how their audience feels about the information that they are presenting. This is especially true when photographs are taken and can be placed out of context. For example, there are many photos that have been taken right before disasters occur. These photos can easily be used to show whatever narrative they want to portray. Although the photos in the moment that they were taken may have different emotions than the disaster that happened after it can still be twisted by the media. 

One way to think of this is a war photo, you know the true meaning behind it. Even if everyone is smiling in the photo you know what is going on behind the scenes of the photo. This is not always true when it comes to photographs. One example that I found was the astronauts who were boarding the Space Shuttle Challenger, in the photo they are all happy, smiling, and waving. Unless you know what happens you will think that this was a great memory in history. Sadly, everyone on this aircraft was killed due to an explosion. This is just one of many photos that represent a different emotion than the disaster represents.  

Below I will attach an article with a list of photos like this. The astronaut photo I am talking about is number two.  

 

Citation: 

https://www.supersummary.com/regarding-the-pain-of-others/summary/  

https://www.boredpanda.com/last-photos-before-disaster/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic  

Text Review Assignment- McFarland, USA

by

For my text review assignment, I will be analyzing the movie McFarland, USA. This movie is about a Latino high school in an area of poverty. A man is hired and becomes the new coach for the cross-country team. They start off rocky, but they slowly build confidence and gain a reputation. They were always looked down on and everyone doubted their capabilities. As they progressed through the season, they ended up making it to the State Championship and won. This is a movie based on real life events. I think this movie is a fantastic way to represent some of hardships the Latino community as well as anyone from an area of poverty face. During this class we talked about many ways people are discriminated against and the systematic injustices they face. They faced many challenges including discrimination, lack of funding, confidence, support, and systematic injustices. Throughout the movie many of the teams discriminated against them based on their skin color and clothes they were wearing. Many of the schools they faced viewed McFarland as the other and themselves as the one. They would make fun of them for not being a “serious” team and their uniforms. Throughout the movie the coach begins to understand his privileges over the cross-country team. He slowly begins to meet the families of these kids and become friends with them. He also starts to learn about their culture and many of their traditions. For example, two of the boys were removed from the cross–country team because their family needed them to work in the fields. The coach ends up helping the family in the field so that the two boys can remain members of the team. This is a huge revelation for the coach, and he appreciates them more. Overall, I think this movie displays the real-life hardships that Latino and poverty communities face that many people do understand.  

Diary of systemic injustices showcase – College admission Scandal

by

For my diary of systematic injustices showcase I am choosing to talk about the affects financial privilege has on college students. In particular I will be talking about the “college admission scandal” that occurred in 2019 and the effects the parents’ financial status has on their children. In 2019 it was found that over 50 people took part in the “college admission scandal.” There were people cheating on standardized tests, changing the scores, bribing the university, as well as some athletic coaches. Many children that come from wealthy families were able to get into colleges even though they did not meet the requirements. Some were even in sports teams even though they have never played that sport. This is a huge problem that should be resolved. It creates an unfair environment for many students who meet and or exceed the requirements to be admitted into a university. There were many parents who were involved in this case but one in particular got the most media coverage. This includes Lori Loughlin, her husband Mossimo Giannulli, and their two daughters: Olivia Jade Giannulli and Isabella Rose Giannulli. Olivia received the most backlash out of the two daughters. I believe this is because her social media presence there was much more than her sister’s. There were also many clips of her on her YouTube channel speaking poorly of college and the college experience. If you do not know much, she said she was only at college because her parents wanted her to be there and that she was there to party. Here is an article if you want to read more about her part in the “college admissions scandal.” https://variety.com/2020/tv/news/olivia-jade-lori-loughlin-red-table-talk-college-admissions-1234848220/ This is a great article, and she owns up to everything and explains her side of the story. I would also suggest watching her on Red Table Talk. https://www.facebook.com/redtabletalk/videos/olivia-jade-speaks-out/298151528184131/  

 

Secondly, I will be talking about how this affects people of the middle class and lower. There are so many people whether you have wealth or not that work extremely hard to get into these universities. Now people who are of the lower class do not have the means of taking standardized tests repeatedly until they get the score that they need. They may also not be able to afford the test prep or test classes. So, for someone who may have been able to gather the money to do all this and worked hard to get a high enough score may not have been let into a university because of these parents. There were many parents who did this behind their children’s backs which is extremely sad. Are upset by this and it breaks the trust universities may have created with the community. Overall, we should not have universities who are allowing this and partaking in this. There needs to be a solution to this, and law-enforcement/government should be more involved to make sure that this does not happen again. Below I will attach an article that is remarkably interesting to read and has a great standpoint on how financial privilege can affect people of the lower classes. https://www.bestcolleges.com/blog/history-privilege-higher-education/