Title: Hispanics in National Nightly News

Two sentence summary of findings:
I watched a week of NBC Nightly News and ABC Nightly News. Each broadcast had an average of 11 stories and of 118 stories only one included a story in where a Hispanic woman was just interviewed, but the story was not about her.

Summary of the previous study:
I got this idea from Federico Subervi, a professor at Texas State University in San Marcos. He came to the University of North Texas last year and I wrote an article about his lecture. He stated the results of his quantitative and qualitative study, he found that in 100 stories on national news broadcasts on the main channels such as ABC, NBC and CBS, only one story was about a Latino. Of those stories, most were about immigration, gangs, violence or other subjects that put Latinos in a bad point of view. Subervi has created LAMP or Latinos and Media Project to study Latinos in the media to see when they are included in stories, how they are included in stories and how often. LaMP was launched in 1997 thanks to a seed grant by the National Council of La Raza and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.
According to Elena Sadler and her project, only two Hispanics appeared as experts on the main stories on the news broadcast, which were brain cell surgery and gender equity. She claims that not all of the news was bad as Hispanics appeared as experts in stories related to Hispanics five times, which is considerable improvement since 1994 when it was none. Hispanics have also appeared on camera as interview subjects in more than half of the stories aired about them, an improvement since 1995 and 1996. Even though NBC has been praised for its Hispanic diversification efforts, increasing from 4% in 1996 to 16% in 1998 and contributing to the highest rated newscast with diversity, CBS aired the most stories on Hispanics with 47 stories while ABC had 38 and NBC had 27. She based all her information from studies done by the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and the Center for Media and Public Affairs.

Corpus and method:
My corpus comprises of watching the NBC and ABC Nightly News for about a week starting Sunday November 11 and ending Sunday November 18. The method I used is a quantitative and qualitative content analysis, in which I wrote down the subject of the news story, the main reporter, the people interviewed and any other camera shots. The qualitative content analysis was counting the number of Hispanics as reporters, interviewees or in camera shots. Afterwards, of those stories where they were included, I did a qualitative content analysis to discuss the actual news stories they were included in.

Findings:
I tried to watch both every day, but I occasionally missed a few. However, I watched enough news so that I had 118 news stories, 18 stories over the 100 Subervi used in his research. Of those 118 news stories, only one had a Hispanic woman, Mary Detros, heavily interviewed on NBC Nightly News. She was complaining about the cost of her trailer home FEMA gave her after Hurricane Katrina. The story reflected her as a poor Hispanic woman forced to live in a trailer that is costing every one else in taxes as they were originally were built for $14,000, but are costing $229,000 to maintain. The only other news story where another Hispanic woman was mentioned on NBC Nightly News was the college student, Muriel Gallo, who caused controversy as she asked Hilary Clinton a planted question at a campaign rally. Two Hispanic reporters, Jim Avila of ABC Nightly News and Carl Quintanilla had a total of three stories. Jim Avila covered the Barry Bonds controversy of whether he lied under oath about steroids on November 15 and again on November 16. Carl Quintanilla covered bargain hunting for during the holiday season on that same night.

Conclusions:
According to the US Census in 2004, 41.3 million Hispanics live in the United States. With all of these Hispanics here, how did I struggle to find just one news story? I watched a whole week of two different broadcasts, but the only story was about a Hispanic woman who did not like the expenses of her FEMA trailer home. To put the amount of stories about Hispanics into even more shame, there was a huge story on NBC Nightly News on November 16 about Indians in Quebec. Native Americans are rarely in the news or in advertisements, and here while I research I watch a huge story about how they are trying to improve their image and keep kids focused and struggle to find just one story about Hispanics. If I had just waited two weeks, I would have had all the stories that I needed with this Miss Puerto Rico scandal. These stories are giving not only beauty pageants, but Hispanic woman a bad stereotype of being devious to do anything to win a crown. Plus, the results of her accusations of pepper spray came back negative, so now she looks like a liar. In conclusion, I got the same results as Federico Subervi and I wish I hadn’t. With Hispanics becoming the majority in some areas of the country, one would think that would reflect on the news instead of just on Hispanic news stations.

References:
Sadler, Elena. "In the Media." Hispanics in the Media: Making Waves In The United States. Spring 2000. 3 Dec 2007 http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/Spring2000/Sadler/default.html.

Subervi, Federico. "Latinos and Media Project." Latinos and Media Project. 2007. 7 Dec 2007 http://www.latinosandmedia.org/.

Unknown. "Facts for Features ." US Census. September 8, 2005. 7 Dec 2007 .

Week 14: Bring a movie to class!

For class I brought "Hairspray" the musical. This movie is an AMAZING musical with great singing, acting, dancing and a great message. It takes place in Baltimore 1962 with the focus on an "American Bandstand"-type of show, "The Corny Collins Show", where every day nice, white kids dance to the hit songs and once a month they have "Negro Day." This was a time where TV was segregated and would never be integrated.

The songs start with giving the major issue a light and fluffy feeling, but by the middle, as the blacks march to integrate the TV show show the struggle for equal rights. The beginning introduces the difference between whites and black in 1960s with different songs about their lives. They also talk about how whites took the black artist's song and remade them to make them more popular than the original song. In one scene in the movie, it shows the white girls singing the song then transitioned into "Negro Day" with their girls singing the same song. The producer complains to the host of "Negro Day" that they stole the song they sang on the regular show and she responds with "But they're the ones who wrote it."

In the end, the struggle ends and the show is integrated. With the different ending shots, the movie concludes with the world changing as people who are different are being represented in television whether it's an overweight girl who just wants to be famous or blacks on TV along with the "normal" skinny, gorgeous white teenagers. I HIGHLY recommend everyone go see the movie. Plus, you can see John Travolta in drag.

Week 12: Chapter 2

The quote in the discussion section of the chapter sums up movie trailers in general: "The object of nearly every trailer is to get teenage boys' butts into seats...And that means going for as much violence and sex as you can jam into 2 1/2 minutes" (Streisand, 1999, p. 56).

In my observations, the trailers usually have all the sex and violence and sometimes it's the only sexual or violent scenes in the whole movie. With at least five movies coming out each weekend, movie producers have to make sure that people will chose their movies to watch by grabbing their attention with the trailers. Movie producers also make different versions of the movies to include different scenes or to try to appeal to different audiences.

I've noticed this with the "Sweeney Todd" trailers. The movie is coming out Christmas day, which is one of the biggest days for movies to come out, so it will be competing with other movies being released and those already in theaters. So far I've seen three different trailers to focus to three different audiences: female, male and musical fans. One of the first trailers showed mainly shots of Johnny Depp to grab the female fans of all things Johnny Depp. These shots included intense gazes and him looking hot to attract the female audience that may have no idea about the story or musical of "Sweeney Todd." Another trailer shows the violence of Sweeney Todd and how he murders people for revenge to attract the male audience. The final trailer includes more singing and songs to attract the musical theater fans. Many of them were nervous for this movie because Stephen Sondheim is one of the composers who create very hard musicals to sing and Johnny Depp had constantly said he could never sing. With these trailers, the musical theater fans can see that he and the other actors could sing and that Tim Burton was taking an interesting approach to the musical.

Trailers will continue to cram as much violence and sex to grab people's attention to come back to the movie theaters for their movie. They will also have different trailers to appeal to all audiences.

Week 11: Spike Lee Films

In class we watched Spike Lee's "Bamboozled." Even though at times when the jokes seemed real and it was uncomfortable, I really liked it. It took people's stereotypes and forced us to really look at them. At first, they're funny, but to me, they eventually stop being funny and I start thinking if I stereotype people like that as well.

The main stereotypes of characters in this movie I find myself thinking at times are the white guy thinking he's black and the black guy who tries way to hard to make him sound intelligent. For the white producer, he pretends to connect with his black employees and co-workers. His office is full of all products and poster of black. He talks "ghetto." I'm sorry, but that's the most annoying thing ever. I just want to go up to people like that and say, "Sir. You did NOT grow up in the ghetto, but probably in a nice middle-class white community. Please stop trying to be black."

The other stereotype I struggled with is the black person who tries waaay too hard to sound intelligent. I definitely have a friend like that and I just want to say, " I know that you are intelligent. Now stop explaining things to me like I'm not understanding you. You are belittling me." It's like they're trying so hard to prove everyone wrong about the stereotype, but I know that people go to school then college and can hold an intelligent conversation with anyone. Even though it's not explored in this movie, Hispanics are also known to do this to try to convince everyone around them that they do not fit that stereotype.

The movie also discusses how audiences don't really have a mind of their own, but follow what is popular. At first, they protested the show, but then they were told that it was OK to watch the show. Afterwards, the show took off and every one was watching it and really getting into the show such as the live audience who even went black face themselves. On the subject of black face, I'm still shocked that it was OK and the norm to do black face until the 1950s and that huge stars such as Fred Astaire did it. In one of his movies (I think it was "Swing Time") he does a huge black face dance with back up dancers in the same. If that movie was created today, it would be protested, but back then, no one thought twice about it.

Week 10: Chapters 3 and 4

Chapter 3:

In class we discussed the typology of artists. With the typology of artists most go through "sexuality as metamorphosis" going from being a teenage girl to a woman. The artists' videos also can be fantasy fulfillment and power. Then we talked about the story techniques of the videos based on camera work/angles and editing. The camera angles disturb me at time because it offends me that with the angles, women seem like objects and mannequins, just there to make the artist look good. This degrade of women is one of the main reason why I don't like or listen to rap--that and the lyrics are absolutely horrible. I guess that's why the saying is: "you can't spell crap with out rap."

I really like the quote that "sexuality is a much more prominent feature, with videos continually pushing the boundaries of what is acceptable. Near nudity, lesbian chic, and (compared to network television) more-than-suggestive depictions of sexual activity abound. Thus, many artists attempt to compete for airplay, media attention, and record sales by exploiting their sexuality to greater degrees." In most videos on television today, the material is extremely suggestive or flat out obvious. It's a shame that most girls can't just sing and have a normal video, but instead they have to be scantly clad and surrounded by men, trying to get their attention by her choreography or siren-like voice. To me, it seems that videos and artist constantly toe the line and try to push the line for what can be allowed and what can be censored. I remember when certain curse words would be blocked out, but now only a few get bleeped out and the videos are easily seen unedited online.

Chapter 4:

In my opinion, video games are getting out of control. I agree with the authors in that these games are giving wrong gender impressions to pre-teen and teenage boys. Girls are viewed as vixens that are damsels in distress that need strong, steroid-taking men to save them. I wish that video games would be a simple as just the Mario series that I used to play. In my house, we weren't allowed video games, but were only allowed educational computer games. The only bad thing about Mario was the Princess Peach character originally had to be rescued, but with Mario Party games, you could compete against the boys with Princess Peach and actually beat them.
The violence in our schools have definitely increased. Although I don't believe there is a cause and effect of violence in video games and violence in real life, I do think that they can add to it. Parents are naive and give their children games without looking at the rating or knowing the content. Personally, I think kids should stick with the old school Oregon Trail, Where in the World is Carmen SanDiego and Math Treasure Storm. Those are the good ol' games and the only violence/evil you could do was to not cure your enemy of a broken arm on Oregon Trail. Oh well...maybe we can start banning extremely violent games like in Europe.

Week 9: Absence to Advertising

While reading the chapter about advertising in our book I was shocked by the actual statistics about the lack of minorities in advertising. An example was that the Native American statistics weren't talked about because they were practically nonexistent. It seems to me that advertising does not reflect the actual world as most people are skinny, gorgeous and airbrushed white male and female models. Unless the actual company or product are gear towards minorities, they are not in any advertisements. People with disabilities, elderly and the poor are rarely shown in mainstream advertising and are almost absent completely. The only time that these people are portrayed are for products that target those type of customers. Usually these advertisements don't put them in a good light, but instead show them either as something "normal" people pity or ways to improve their lives with this product with disabilities and age.

I couldn't find the blog with the links for this blog, so I search for some of my own. According to http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~schacht/rhe309k/tricia/advertisements.html the main Native American advertisements are the Indian Princess for Land O Lake Butter, Hi Yu apples and Abaco Tobacco showing Native Americans associated as housewives, selling fruits and smoking. In the United States, 12.4% of the population is over age 65 according to http://www.outdoorbillboard.com/articles/bps_outdoor_advertising18.html . Also a lot of the advertisements don't appeal to the elderly because of bad colors, lack of simplicity and the size of graphics and text.

I think that advertisers need to re-evaluate their customers and appeal to the rest of the non-white population. Also, they need to show these customers in the advertisements, not just as a quota, but to represent all of their customers.

Week 8: Chapter 18

I'm glad that advertisers and fashion magazines are including homoeroticism in commercials and advertisements. In this time, many of the people in the fashion business are in fact homosexual and it would not be fair to them if they were not included in advertising. While reading articles sent to me through PRSA, companies and advertisers are trying to include their homosexual clients by having "gay vague." Many advertisements hold different meanings depending on who is looking at it. For example, for Abercombie and Fitch, girls looking a the scantly clad male models will droll and pine over their pictures and at the same time, the homosexual audience might do the same thing. Even while watching America's Next Top Model, they praise the girls who have androgynous features and even cut their hair as short as boys. Also, the challenges include taking pictures that appeal to both the female and male audience by being sexually appealing to men while not being too sexy that women are put off, but that they want to be like the models.

Week 7: Chapters 10 and 16

Chapter 10:

With alcohol and beer commercials, sex and women are used the most to attract attention. I was too young to remember the Swedish Bikini Team, but I did grow up in the "cutesy animals" commercials. To me, the advertisers might have been trying to grab kids attention with those commercials to steer them towards their brand. I remember my brother and I or my friends and I at elementary school would imitate the frogs and would laugh as we would go around in a circle saying "Bud-wie-ser." At the Superbowl, while the adults would be actually watching the game, we would wait for commercials to see the latest frog, lizard or the famous four horses pulling the sellers and dalmatian puppy. Kids could care less about scantly clad blond women bouncing around, but give us computer animated frogs, and we will remember the commercials even 10 years later.

I can understand why Coors Light got away with their commercials because they were in the right environment. If someone complained about the commercials, they would have to complain about football and any sport for that matter with the cheerleader's uniforms and suggestive dancing. The advertisers were smart because people would be hypocrites if they denounce the commercials, but still watched football and other sports. With Miller Lite, I'm a bit surprised they got away with their commercials. Yes, television and radio shows turned back to looking at women as objects with big hair, butt and boobs, but that doesn't give excuses to advertisers. I understand that they were "making fun" of the stereotypical beer commercials, but those commercials hadn't been on television for about 10 years with an exception of the Coors Lite Twins.

I guess the advertiser's job is just to toe the line. How far will the line be pushed? Now we have women shown as robots to serve men their beer. Well, if we have robots doing that job, maybe now the women of the advertiser's world have more time to cook, clean and anything else the men want us to do. Oh boy.


Chapter 16

Ok, I'm going to be bias and focus on the Mexican side of me. I find it very amusing as reading the chapter while trying to work on my project. Latinos are the largest minority at 12.5% and the majority in Texas, yet they are hardly represented on television or in print. While watching 7 hours of news during the Thanksgiving break, all I got was a mention of immigration issues being fought between candidates and two Latino reporters. I was so discouraged that I tried to watch the news this week and I got a story: Miss Puerto Rico Scandal. Let me tell you how excited I am: ...... Seriously. Another bad press. Latino women adding to the stereotype that we are all super skinny, super sexy and super dramatic. Apparently, the winner's makeup and evening gowns were doused with pepper spray because the other contestants were jealous that she was a judge last year, so she knows how the vote. Seriously? Way to show how great we Latinas are.

But anyway, back to the chapter. Not only are we only in less than 1% of national nightly news on ABC and NBC, but we are also less than 1% in commercials and advertisements. Yes, for the most part, we are very short and don't make the 5'10'' super model requirement, but we do have some women who are tall enough, yet they're still rarely photographed in high fashioned magazines. Also, the only Latino commercial I can think off the top of my head were the few that McDonald's did in Spanish that targeted the Latino community--Finally! But fast food that will make our population even fatter? Darn... As of what the commercials that Latinas are in, they are just skinny and ooze sexuality. A great movie that just got a little press when it was released is "Real Women Have Curves" starring "Ugly Betty" star America Ferrera. In this movie, she proves that she doesn't have to be a size 0, but that she is gorgeous just as she is, curves and all! Also, in her television show, "Ugly Betty," although she is the "ugliest" worker at Mode Fashion Magazine, she's the one with the biggest heart who is always more beautiful than her model-like co-workers.

To me, this is sad that the other minority groups such as Latinos, Asian Americans and Native Americans haven't raised as much noise as the blacks. The Civil Rights movement wasn't just for them. We all should take a stand against stereotypes in the media and become more represented in commercials. Minorities are soon becoming majorities in many areas of the United States, but watching television and movies, no one would know it. Minorities need to take part in the giant mixing bowl that is America and show that we are Americans too and what we contribute to American culture.

(Sidenote: I don't have that great of an excuse for not writing in over a month except that I've been beyond swamped with huge group projects in my other classes. I'm sorry I haven't kept up with blogging and I will do better!)

Week 6: Chapters 12 and 8

Chapter 12:
Fashion magazines take the cliche phrase "sex sells" to a whole new level as evident to the advertising within the pages. In this chapter, Debra Merskin discusses how there are pornographic themes in the ads. These ads are available everywhere for anyone to see, which is in a way bringing forms of pornography to the newsstand and into homes. Most of the time, it is never debated unless the scantly clad models happen to being wearing real fur. These images instead of looked at with a close eye are considered art, high fashion and culture. In these ads, models stare out from the ads to the readers and try to convey sexuality just by making eye contact.

I really like Merskin's quote that "Today, through the use of branding, advertising is expected to do more than sell a product....Modern advertising 'thus teaches us to consume, not the product, but its sign. What the product stands for is more important than what it is." To me, most fashion ads have double meaning. Yes, the models are wearing the designer clothes, jewelry, shoes, etc, but their position, gaze, lighting, background are telling a whole different story in the ad. It's not enough just to have a model wear your product, but to have a sexual double meaning to grab the reader's attention from the ad on the next page. The more race-y and controversial the ad is, the more likely the reader is going to remember it. For example, Dolche and Cabana always have very sexualized ads such as the last one I saw where women in chains and corsets with locks were in power and performing violent acts against naked men. The ad fits all the categories: hierarchy (women in power), objectification (naked men and reveling parts on the women), submission (the men for once submitting to the women) and violence (the women violently in control of the men). Sure, that image is extremely pornographic in nature, but I remembered the ad and the designer, right? Then the advertiser and photographer has done his/her job.


Chapter 8:
When the infamous Janet Jackson/Justin Timberlake scandal happened, I was with a group of my girlfriends watching the game as it was tradition to mock the guys and have a Girls' Superbowl Party. Anyway, we were watching the halftime show as we had a crush on JT (come on, you expect anything less from juniors in high school? haha). For us, we were shocked, but we figured it was just part of the act as MTV keeps pushing the line further and further with performances. Now, all the commercials and television shows have some sort of sexual content. Even while writing this, I'm watching re-runs of "Full House," and in this episode, Michelle is a Madonna-wannabe to try to get her dad's girlfriend away from her family. Meanwhile, the girls are wearing the 90's style of midrift shirts and Uncle Jesse has back-up dancers shaking what their momma gave them while wearing sequin bras with a mesh shirt.

Most of these shows in Pardun and Forde's study I wasn't even allowed to watch as a kid. It was usually Cartoon Network, Nick, Disney or Fox/ABC Family only. I wasn't allowed to watch "Friends" or "Simpsons" until I was in high school. Plus, my family never had HBO until I was a senior because my parents knew that there were adults-only shows and rated-R movies.
What they mention in the conclusion is not only is sexual content in these shows and commercials, but also body image. In the 90's, shows such as "Family Matters," "Boy Meets World," and "Sabrina the Teenage Witch," the girls were thin, but they had tone and looked healthy. Now, in shows on Nick and Disney channel, the girls are super skinny such as "Hannah Montana." Plus, now the stars that kids and pre-teens look up too are giving into what Hollywood holds as standards, and instead of being healthy size 6, they are size 2 or lower. Studies have come out recently about how girls younger and younger are being affected by these images and having body image problems.

I can't believe that I'm saying this, but kids these days are being exposed to much more sexual content than I remember. Even though it was only 10 years ago, I feel that the shows are different in barely talking about consequences, but only showing the good in choices. The only show around that still brings up the issues is "7th Heaven." No matter how much you will hear me talk about how bad the acting is in the show and how silly it is how some problems are solved, at least they've explored a ton of issues that kids and pre-teens never hear about. The show explores the different sides and makes people realize the fact that problems exist and they shouldn't be pushed under the rug or dealt with only when you are personally involved.

Current Stories of Race in the Media:

The Jenna 6
I first heard about the Jenna 6 when I was stalking...er...reading the news feed on facebook. I noticed that my roommate had joined a group: Free the Jenna 6. I clicked on the group to see what it was about and I was shocked. I didn't even know that places like this still existed. A place where even though they were "integrated" they were still separated and community members weren't even phased by it. I thought stories like this could only be found in archives of old magazines and newspapers or in movies on Turner Classic Movies such as To Kill a Mockingbird.

But here in the town of Jenna, six black students were being charged with attempted second degree murder by beating up a white student. The events started when black students asked the school's vice principal if they could sit under a tree that normally only white students sat under. The next day, hangman nooses were dangling from the trees. The students at fault were set to be expelled, but the school board over turned the punishment and changed it to suspension. Eventually, it escalated to whites assulting the group of six until the night that they beat up one student. That same student was later seen at a party that night, but the group of six men were charged with attempted second degree murder!

Don't get me wrong, the boys need to be punished for they did beat up the white student, but definitely not to this extent. They were charged with trying to kill the student and they were going to be tried as adults even though they weren't old enough. The main issue with the Jenna 6 is that the justice was unfair in that the white students barely got a slap on the wrist for threatening the black students with nooses from the trees; yet, the black students get sent to jail for fighting.

I am glad that people went to Jenna, LA to fight this injustice. Over 15,000 went to march in Jenna for the injustice. Many were people who were born in the wrong generation and only hear stories from their grandparents and parents about the Civil Rights marches and the great leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr. It was also interesting that people were donating money for bonds to free the final member. It was great to see people like David Bowie of all people donating $10,000 to the Jenna Six Legal Defense Fund. The final member of the Jenna Six, Mychal Bell, was just release yesterday with a bail of $45,000 instead of the original $90,000.


Ken Burns and the Latinos:

In a time where Latinos are growing in numbers, you would think that Ken Burns would include them in his 17 hour documentary about WWII. Somewhere? In 17 hours, not even 5 minutes? Nope. His original documentary included no stories or interviews about Latinos or Native Americans fighting for the war. I heard that somewhere that he didn't include them because he was having difficulty getting veterans of those cultures to come forward with their experiences. Seriously? My grandpa missed fighting for WWII by three years, but he is always very prideful about his experience with the air force. I even remember him taking me to air shows at the base and showing me the ships and airplanes in Copus Christi. How can his and other great men of the Latino community not be able to tell their story?

At first, members of Defend the Honor Campaign were worried that PBS would aire his documentary as it is for artistic indepence and because based on history with PBS, they normally didn't appeal to the Latino community's opinions. They did cooroperate with the Latinos and Native Americans by including two Latino veterans and one Native American veteran at the end of three segments.

"He [Ken Burns] doesn't know if that will mollify the critics, but he's put a positive spin on the brouhaha, on how they hadn't pressured Latino filmmakers to tell this story. "No, no, no - it has to be Ken Burns," he says. "In a way, all of this was an extraordinary compliment." (http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/tv/ny-fftv5382202sep23,0,2620347.story)

Are you serious? So should Latinos bow down and sing your praise because at the last minute we finally convinced the great and powerful Ken Burns to include our veterans into his 17 hour documentary? Excuse me if I forgot my kneeling pillow. I think he should have made sure that he got everyone's story from Latinos to Native Americans to Japanese-Americans (the way the article made it sound was it included only bad things about the Japanese-Americans and Japanese). If he's as amazing as everyone claims that he is, he needs to make sure he includes everyone story, especially if this is about history. You can't write someone out of history.

Look what I just found, Ken Burns. http://www.lib.utexas.edu/exhibits/ww2latinos/
A site from University of Texas at Austin that is all about Latinos/as in WWII. It includes a symposium they had in 2004 and four volumes of narratives from 1999-2004. Maybe you should have read these before you finished your documentary.

Week 4: People with Disabilities


I agree with the first article you posted in that usually people with disabilities are only put in the news when they have overcome their challenges, medical stories or updates. That I can recall, the only time on broadcast news that they have interviewed handicapped people was when there was a story about them or a story about what they are doing to adapt to regular life. They are never used as just regular sources on regular stories, but instead are only used when the story is about them. People with disabilities shouldn't be used just for special stories where they are a subject or a category instead of real, individual people. Whether it's a story about politics, new buildings, the economy, society, ectera they should have an equal chance to get interviewed like any other citizen.

Most of the time, people with disabilities are viewed as helpless and dependent on others to help them with their lives. On the other hand, I am constantly amazed by the blind here on campus. There is no way that I could do what they do. They have took their lives and ignored their disabilities and concentrated on things that they do have. I couldn't imagine memorizing the entire campus, knowing how many steps between the building and where everything is located on their mental map.

Another amazing person I know is my friend, Crissy, who cannot walk without the aid of crutches and she usually has to use a wheelchair. She is not even phased by her disability at all. Instead she makes jokes about it and whacks my friends with her crutches whenever one of them makes her mad. She's just like me: short, loves Turner Classic Movies and always wants to watch musicals. She's constantly singing and I never notice that she walks slower than the rest of us because I walk slow with my little legs right next to her.

Week 3: Research Day

As I stated in my paper, I am shocked when I realized that I used a stereotype right from the start. I thought that a southern newspaper, The Atlanta Constitution, would be filled with stereotypes, especially if I concentrated on the 1950s and 1960s. Boy was I wrong. Little did I know that the editor and publisher of the newspaper, Ralph McGill, was a known for his anti-segregation views shown by his daily column on the front page. The day I chose, July 4, 1956, included an article on the front page about the House passing a bill to cut off school funding if the districts didn't integrate their schools. The article included both sides of the argument and the only questionable word was the use of "negro."

I talked to my Grandpa Borrego in San Antonio about racism when he was growing up and at the time of this article. One of the best things I think he said was that there wasn't that many problems with racism that he could recall because Texas has six flags flying over it with people from all over the world living here. In San Antonio, there weren't that many blacks living there, although he does remember that when he was in high school, they were in a different school. He recalls that "negro" and "colored" were words constantly used and were the proper way to identify blacks unlike today where some even get offended with "African-America." By the time my grandpa joined the air force in the early 1950s, he said that they were already integrated and he went through the same basic training as everyone else.

With Hispanics and Latinos in San Antonio, he said that since they were the majority, they didn't really have any problems. They were considered with the whites and could go almost everywhere the whites did. The only place they couldn't go were a few exclusive clubs such as the San Antonio Country Club where the rich, old money of Alamo Heights would only let them work and never have membership. Even now, it still can be difficult for Hispanics to get membership, but nothing can change as they are a private club. My grandpa said that with the Germans in the Hill Country north of San Antonio, the Hispanics, the blacks and any other culture, it created a melting pot in San Antonio that had little to no problems integrating and remaining that way.

Week 2: Images of women and minorities in the media

When everyone brought their magazines to class, it was interesting to see what articles were included and who they were directed to. If they were women's magazine, they focused on fashion, beauty, health and sex. For once, I would like to see a women's magazine that doesn't focus on the latest innovations of make-up, but had fashions and beauty for REAL women and not just photo shopped models. I would also like to see more women's magazines that have interesting articles about strong women outside of our stereotypes. Girls need strong role models growing up, women that they can inspire to be. They don't need to be informed every second that they're fat and ugly, but if they buy this miracle make-up or expensive blue jeans, they will be instantly changed.

One thing that I can't stand are women's magazines like Cosmo, who always includes articles of "how to please your man" or "how to keep your man interested." Seriously? I mean, I may be naive, but I don't think that women should have to do things out of their comfort zone or contort their bodies into pretzels to keep their man sexually satisfied and to keep the guys from leaving them. If that's what it takes to "keep a man" and to prevent him from cheating or leaving, I don't want any part in relationships and I'll just convert to Catholicism and become a nun. Ha ha.

I brought Vogue magazine, which was filled with articles discussing the latest fashion trends from all over the world. The only other type of stories it included were how the trend for Hollywood women was to get pregnant and start a family and it also included an article about how some men (ie: Jude Law) were cheating on their wives with the nanny. I thought it was interesting that Vogue made it seem like the "in" thing to do to have a family as it highlighted Gwyneth Paltrow, who at the time of the article, just had her first child. They made her seem glamorous as mom instead of the normal stressed and hectic new mom.

It's interesting to see that men's magazines gear towards cars, electronics, the latest technology and barely clothed women while women's magazines gear towards beauty, fashion, health and sex. I would like to see the magazines change and include informing stories and include women and men who are role models to society, but at the same time those magazines wouldn't sell. I guess sex sells.

First Week of Race, Gender and Media:

I start off every morning by watching the Today show at 7 am to get the top stories of the day. I also get online to read the popular wire stories on yahoo.com followed by reading the main stories of the Dallas Morning News. It sounds like a lot, but it takes me awhile to wake up. When I get to school, I usually read the Quick and the NT Daily. The only time I intentionally seek out the news is when I wake up so that I'm connected to the world and know what's going on. The other times are when I have time between classes in order to not be bored.

I agree with the articles we have read and the movie that we watched in that the stories are skewed with race and gender. I went to an event last year sponsored by the Spanish Media and RTVF. The guest speaker (I'm currently blanking on his name) discussed his research of Latinos in the media that I found extremely interesting. His found that only one out of 100 new stories on national news channels were about Latinos. Of those stories, almost all were either about immigration, violence or gangs. The stories rarely put the Latino community in a good light or talked about their success. On the PRSA e-newsletter there are frequently stories about how advertisers and other people in the field are trying to put Latinos in their target audience. I want to know why they are only starting now and haven't done enough in the past. Here in Texas, we are the majority, but you couldn't tell by the news unless we committed a crime or tried to cross the border without permission.

Chapter 14: Cross-Cultural Communication

One of the things I look forward to PR is working with clients or with other parts of my company in other cities. I am excited to be studying abroad in London in Fall 2007 as I feel in love with the history, theater, and museums when I visited with a group from my high school a couple of years ago. I feel that as typical Americans, we expect everyone to learn English in order for us to do business with foreign countries and we tend to focus on only news stories relevant to us. That of course, could be a stereotype, but I liked the joke in the book about how a person who knows three languages is trilingual, someone who speaks two languages is bilingual, and someone who speaks one language is a U.S. citizen. Why is it that in this country, which is supposedly a "melting pot," is English the only accepted language and most foreigners feel that they must conform to fit in?

In this shrinking world, it is important for me to understand all cultures that I might come in contact in PR. I have the advantage of being from a Mexican background to understand some of the Hispanic culture and understand Spanish. By going to London in the fall, I look forward to meeting people of different cultures that I haven't interacted with before. I don't want to be the naive American who only knows what she grew up with. I want to know and understand the world's point of view and the great and vibrant cultures. In the business world, it is necessary to understand the different cultures because as my minor is marketing, I need to know how my target audience might change and how to sell, promote, and represent my product will change from country to country. With PR, I don't want to seem rude or naive by doing a etiquette faux pas which could ruin the relationship between the client and my company or with the public and media.

Chapter 13: Public Relations and Marketing

I agree with the movie we saw a couple of weeks ago when the reporter was standing in Times Square surrounding by the bright lights of advertising and marketing. As consumers, we have become jaded that for the most part, we just ignore advertising and commercials. Now with inventions like TiVo and DVR, most can record their shows and fast forward through the commercials, which causes advertising to get more creative with how they sell the product and marketing teams to figure out which audience to target.

The two most annoying forms of advertising and marketing are spamming and those stupid signs on the highway advertising the space for rent (you know-- the ones that have "Does advertising work? Just did!" in bright crazy letters). When I had AOL and a bad pop-up blocker, I would get frustrated every time I went to a new website when five advertisements would pop-up and I would have to click out of every one of them until I could get back to the website I originally wanted. With much of the public online, advertment teams have gone to the internet to try to sell their product through pop-ups and banners that flash crazy colors, but if anything, at least with me, it has annoyed me so much that I go out of my way to ignore them. Similarly with the highway signs, I make it my mission to stare at the car in front of me until I pass the signs then congratulate myself that I didn't look at that sign; yet, at the same time, I know I saw it because I just tried to ignore it. I guess in the end, they were indeed successful.

This chapter has finally reassured my answer so that when some one asks, I can tell them the difference between marketing and public relations. With PR, we are focusing on the many publics and trying to strengthen relationships between the company, public, and media. On the other hand, marketing is promoting the product to a specific consumer through sales promotions, personal selling, and direct marketing.

Chapter 12: Crisis Communication

Many times when I'm watching the news and the broadcasters report on a horrible story such as rape, murder, fire, or an accident I shake my head in disbelief, say a prayer, and then try to convince myself that it would never happen to me. Luckily, so far that has been true, but I cannot count on that continuing to be true. It is the same with companies. They must have a plan and always prepare for the worse because certain catalysts can change the course of the company. It is only through plans and training that the problems can be fixed faster or could be avoided all together.

I cannot believe that even after the events of 9/11 that some companies do not have plans for crisis. If the companies do have a plan, the employees might not know a plan exists and the company does not practice the plan. It is one thing to have a plan, but it does not do anyone any good if they do not know how to execute the plan. It is important for a group of people to get together and go through all the possible crises that could arise and to figure out a plan of action so that the company does not just wait for something to happen and then try to quickly throw together a plan before the crisis arrives. Once the group forms plans for certain situations, they need to go to employee meetings to show them the plan, answer any questions, and organize days to practice what would possibly happen in a real-life situation to better prepare for the events.

Resource Sheet and other information

Quarantine: "People who have been exposed to an infectious disease and may be infected by are not yet ill may be quarantined. That is, they may be asked to remain at home or another location to prevent further spread of illness to others and to carefully monitor for the disease. During quarantine people are able to do most things they can do indoors within the constraints of the location they are at... They are given instructions on what they can do and not do around family members and are informed of other diseases precaution. If they are asked to stay in a place away from home they are provided with meals, sleeping accommodations, and other necessities. They would stay there until the risk of developing the disease or spreading the disease is over."
Isolation: "This is for individuals who are sick from the contagious disease. These individuals are kept separate from others-- or 'isolated'-- usually within a healthcare facility or at home. Typically, the ill person will have his or her own room, and caretakers will take certain precautions such as wearing protective clothing."
--Source: Webmd.com (http://www.webmd.com/content/article/63/71934.htm)

What is an Influenza Pandemic?
An influenza pandemic occurs when a new virus emerges for which there is little to no immunity in the human population causing serious illness that spreads from person to person worldwide. At PandemicFlu.gov, the main page gives information about the history of past pandemic, characteristics and challenges of a pandemic, and how communications and information are critical components of a pandemic response.

How does seasonal flu differ from pandemic flu?

Seasonal flu occurs usually in the winter and only the very young and old have increased risk of complications, while the healthy can usually build up immunity. There are also vaccines developed based on known flu strains along with antivirus available. On the other hand, pandemic flu occurs rarely and all people, including healthy people, can get the virus with no pre-existing immunity. Vaccines and antivirus will not be available in the early stages and while seasonal flu can cause approximately 36,000 deaths, the pandemic flu could possibly cause 675,000 which it did in 1918. More information can be found on the following sheet from PandemicFlu.gov (source: http://pandemicflu.gov/general/seasonal_or_pandemic.html , http://pandemicflu.gov/general/whatis.html )

Another thing to include on the media kit is with Southwestern Energy Matrix being located in Texas, it might be a good idea to have the media kit offered in both English and Spanish as Spanish might be an employee's first language. It would make sure that the employees really understand what the avian flu is and how best to prepare for it.

Press Release for Avian Flu

The executive staff at Southwestern Energy Matrix has developed a plan for employees and the company if a pandemic event should occur. The company and its employees need to know exactly what needs to happen in order for the company to ensure business continuity. Employee relations and safety professionals from the company will be discussing the plan face-to-face at the monthly meetings with employees to discuss pandemic and emergency planning.

"We think it's important to meet with employees face-to-face," said Human Resource Director Susan L. Liot, "and we'll be asking all employees to register for direct deposit of paychecks at this time. We'll be providing information about the company's plans for working through a pandemic or other long-term emergency scenario."

The company and the executive staff have worked for six months to develop the first phase for the possible pandemic for how the company will continue to run. This plan includes which specific employees need to continue to work, how and where they will work if the building is closed, and how all the employees will continue to get paid. The specific items for phase one is included on the following fact sheet.

"Our company has a tradition of working courageously in emergency situations," said Thomas Winkler, SEM president and CEO. "Of course, it is our hope that we never need to enact this pandemic plan, but the first phase of planning is complete, and we now need to listen to employee concerns and questions about the plan."

Take Home Question:

The electric utility that you work for, based in Delaware's state capital, will soon roll out its sustainable community initiative. At the local paper in your capital, to whom would you pitch the story? How do you know this is the right reporter/editor?

In Dover, Delaware the main local paper is the Dover Post. When I searched for articles on the Dover Post's website, the two names that kept showing up were Brad Groznik and Jeff Brown. The later had the most articles and was listed as a staff writer in the newsroom. Groznik was also listed as a staff writer on his articles; however, his name was not listed on the list of staff writers on the contact list of reporters. It would be harder to find a direct contact to Groznik because his name is not on the contact list, which makes it seem as if he is not as important as Brown or has not been on staff as long as Brown. According to the archives, Groznik only has about 50 articles, so he might have recently joined the staff at the Dover Post, which could mean that he does not have as much experience in the area, so contacting him to write the article might not be a good idea. On the other hand, if he recently joined the paper, he needs to start making relationships in the area which could make it easier for me to pitch a story to him.
The newspaper seems like it does not have any beat writers as the staff is limited. I would try to contact both Brown and Groznik based on the articles they have both written. Those two writers wrote articles that are relevant to my story pitch as their articles would come up when I searched for articles relating to energy, electric utilities, and sustainability.

Week 9: Fact Sheet

-Enacting direct deposit of paychecks for all employees so that employees are not tempted to come into work while they are sick in order to still get paid.
- Creating a list of essential and non-essential employees in order to keep only a minium of healthy employees and keeping the sick ones at home to rest and be cured.
- Training the employees to be able to perform more than just their job incase they need to be switched around to perform another job if too many employees are sick.
- Realigning worker sick leave and disability guidelines in case of pandemic so that employees are not tempted to go to work and infect people if they think that by calling in sick, they will be fired.
- Building glass-enclosed booths for customer-contact employees to protect both the employees and the customers from spreading the virus and infecting others.
- Working with the company's health insurance provider for special services in order to give support the employees that cannot normally afford health insurance or if the health insurance does not cover the costs and hospital bills from the disease on the current health plan.
- Updating employee emergency contact listings to know where and how all employees can be reached including home and cell phone numbers, home addresses, and e-mail.
- Have a list of numbers and contacts for employees so that in the case of an emergency, the employees know who exactly to call and that they call their correct supervisor that relates to their job.
- Have a current website and newsletters with up to date information for employees, clients, CEOs, and the general public.

Week 8: Research

http://www.simmonsco-intl.com/bus_continuity.asp

At Simmons and Company International is an independent investment bank that specializes in the energy industry and oil with different companies and money transactions. On their main page of the continuity plan gives instructions of how their employees and clients can contact them through an emergency hot line, e-mail, or through their clearing firm Pershing LLC for trade-related transactions. The main page reinforces how all business transactions will continue no matter what happens and that the records of all transactions will never be lost.
"Our business continuity plan addresses: data back up and recovery; all mission critical systems; financial and operational assessments; alternative communications with customers, employees, and regulators; alternate physical location of employees; critical supplier, contractor, bank and counter-party impact; regulatory reporting; and assuring our customers prompt access to their funds and securities if we are unable to continue our business. "

http://www.newyorklife.com/cda/0,3254,14162,00.html

The NYLife Securities is a registered broker-dealer and part of the New York Life Insurance Company. What is different about their main page is that it does not mention anything about employees, but only their clients. The website reassures that the business will continue no matter what happens and includes safeguards of active plans that are being tested.
"-Assisting in a timely and accurate assessment of any situation and identifying the potential impact on any critical business functions of the organization.
-Establishing priorities for recovery of impacted critical business operations, and effectively allocating resources to the recovery effort.
-Having procedures in place to recover supported critical business functions within a reasonable time frame.
-Identifying the key individuals who will participate in any recovery and restoration processes.
-Having procedures in place to restore normal operations as soon as possible. "

Quarantine v. Isolation:
Quarantine is when people have been exposed to an infection disease and may be infected, but are not showing symptom's of the disease at the present time. People are asked to stay at home to prevent the disease from spreading and report to health authorities on how they are feeling. Isolation is when people are exposed to a contagious disease and are now sick from it. These people are then isolated at home or a health-care facility and remain there until they are cured.

Week 7 Blogging: Discussion Questions 2&5

Question 2: What organizations have news media recently featured for ethical behavior? For unethical behavior?
A couple of weeks ago, I was flipping channels and happened to come across The View. I stopped when they began to talk about Dove's Real Campaign for beauty since we had been talking about it in class. Dove's new commercial (which I still haven't seen while watching other shows) was shown on The View which showed the process of making an ad. It showed the model showing up looking like a normal woman with harsh lighting and no make-up whatsoever. The commercial consisted of a sped-up process of how an ordinary woman with the help of expensive make-up artists and lighting becomes the gorgeous model we see in advertising and commercials. The process of taking the photo doesn't stop there as the picture is then put in a series of editing processes in which the model is airbrushed to society's concept of beauty. Dove's new commercial shows that even a model can seem like an ordinary woman without make-up and special lighting and even then, she has to be airbrushed to perfection. This commercial will hopefully boost women's self esteem by showing them that even models don't fall perfectly into what society deems beautiful in that they still need to be corrected.
Many companies can also be caught doing unethical behavior. Lately in the news, what caught my attention was Bono and his band U2 moving a large sum of their money from the banks in Ireland to Holland. Like the Rolling Stones did before them, U2 is moving their money from Ireland to escape the taxes that they would have to pay after a change in the Irish budget. This comes at a time where Bono is introducing the new Red campaign to help aid funds for AIDS. According to the Telegraph, a newspaper in the UK, Joan Burton, Irish Labor’s finance spokesman, said, "Having listened to Bono on the necessity for the Irish Government to give more money to Ireland Aid, of which I approve, I am surprised that U2 are not prepared to contribute to the Exchequer on a fair basis along with the bulk of Irish taxpayers." I find it ironic and plain stupid that Bono and his band doesn't want to be considered normal and connected with their fans in their home country by trying to get out of paying taxes. Are they going to actual use that money that they are now not going to have to pay after moving their money to Holland for good? Will that money that would go to Ireland be used to help the Red campaign or help countries in desperate need for help to defeat this horrible epidemic? I hope so because Bono and U2 now seem aloof escaping taxes and that money better go towards the general good to improve their image.

Question #5: What companies are well known for CSR? Do their reputations affect your purchasing decisions?
The case study for this chapter informed me of how Starbucks is helping the environment and the countries that grow the beans. I am no longer that guilty that I pay $3.50 for coffee as I am supporting a company that holds high ethical standards and helps the environment. This summer I finally got a car of my own that I didn’t have to share with my younger brother, a 2006 Ford Escape Hybrid. After looking around, my parents and I realized that if we bought a hybrid, I wouldn’t have to fill up and pay as much for gas and I could help the environment by driving a half-electrical car. It’s comforting to know that even in a tiny way; I am supporting the car companies’ thoughts to change how a car is run after 100 years. I also found out today while watching “Extreme Home Makeover” that Ford supports Warriors in Pink and is celebrating 12 years working as a national sponsor for the Susan G. Komen’s Race for the Cure as the mom of the family worked for the Race for the Cure and is a breast cancer survivor. I am glad to be driving a car that is improving the environment and supporting the Race for the Cure with the Warriors in Pink campaign as couple of my relatives have gotten breast cancer and have survived.

One of Aristotle’s three forms of persuasion was "ethos" or the appeal based on personality or character. As a PR practioner we must have a strong credible relationship between the company or client that we are working for and the public that both sides can trust that we are showing all of the information that we can and not hiding anything under the table. I haven't started working in the PR field in an internship and before this chapter; I occasionally worried that one day I might find myself at a company where I would be forced to twist words around or not tell the public the exact truth. I used to watch "Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place," and I remember that one of the characters worked as a spokeswoman for a chemical company and was told to lie about how there were other elements melting the ice, not the chemicals. After reading the chapter and the example of Starbucks, I now know that most companies (hopefully) are not like that chemical plant, but actually have ethical standards and use corporate social responsibilities to improve the community around them.
The hardest part with ethics is objectivity and advocacy or whether PR practioners should be more like lawyers or journalists. In my opinion, I think that I would rather be more of the journalist point of view because what if the something that your company hid from the public becomes publicized? The public would then wonder what else your company has hid from them and then your company will lose all credibility. I do understand that too much of objectivity and then the company wouldn't be able to keep some secrets of success from competitors and the public would have to know everything that goes wrong along with what went right. I realize that to really establish credibility, one needs to have a good balance between advocacy and objectivity or as Aristotle would call it, "the golden mean," but I might tend to lean a little more towards objectivity.
To remind us to incorporate ethical standards in all aspects of our work, the book discusses the Potter Box by defining the situation then to state the different values, consider all the principles, and identify all the different types of loyalties that need to be held. Another way to keep up our credibility is to work with charities and the community to connect to our public. The key is to work with a group that is somehow connected with the company and doesn't seem like a suggestion drawn from a hat. The company also cannot go half-heartily, but spend time and effort to really create a lasting relationship.
The Starbucks case study was interesting in that I liked how the corporation tracked down the firefighters who bought water on 9/11 to pay them back and then made sure that Starbucks did their part to help the people of NYC. I don't feel that bad buying a $3 cup of coffee knowing the ethical standards that Starbucks lives by that has kept it being nationally recognized as a great company to work for. The fact that Starbucks is now associated with the Fair Trade, costumers view Starbucks as a company who cares about the people growing the coffee, paying them a good price, and at the same time, helping the environment by it being organic and shade-grown beans. It's comforting to know that some of the corporate businesses are listening to their public who wants more organic and fresh products that are improving the environment that are not aiding the Green House effect.