My Experience of Culture Shock

I really enjoyed Adriane's lecture. Although I have never "studied" abroad, I was able to relate to and understand what she was talking about. At the beginning of May I traveled through Switzerland, Croatia, Italy and France. Adriane showed us a chart of the different phases of culture shock over a long period of time. However, I believe you can experience culture shock in short periods of time as well. In the course of three weeks I felt like being abroad opened my eyes to so many new things and I learned so much about different cultures. There were different things about each country that shocked me, and some were a bigger shock than others. One thing that was a big shock to me was the "Tram" system in Switzerland.  I stayed in the city of Basel, Switzerland. Many people take cable cars for public transportation. Similar to the CTA system patrons are required to to use a pass, however in Basel nobody checks to see if you have a pass. It is a system based on trust, and from I saw everyone was very loyal to the system. It really shocked me because I know that would never work in Chicago. Another thing that shocked me was the way people treated each other. I visited the towns of Zadar, Split and Dubrovnik in Croatia and all the local people were so friendly to each other and acted as if they were best friends even if they did not really know each other. I understand how in small towns everybody knows everybody but these cities were by no means small. Simply traveling from city to city and country to country was a shock in itself. It was my first time to Europe and just trying to find my way around, getting food and seeing how different cultures live and communicate is a "shock."

In relation to Adriane's study, I found myself to communicate with my family via cell phone or Internet almost everyday. I would use my iPad to send messages and photos, and was frequently on Facebook before bed. I found the concept of Adriane's study to be interesting and I could see myself doing something like that one day. Like I said earlier, although I did not "study" abroad, I feel I gained so much and learned just as much as somebody would who was studying abroad. I think everyone should try to go to Europe at least once in their life. I feel it truly changed my life and views of the world and I would love to go back one day. I feel so lucky to have been able to experience life abroad.

Stereotyping and Women in the Media

I found Professor Bui's lecture to be very interesting. I liked how she studied film as a way to see stereotyping in Vietnamese women. She used the film "Heaven and Earth" as an example to show how women (and their bodies) were portrayed during the Vietnam War. As Caitlin talked about in her blog post, it also made me think of the Hitchcock's film "Marnie." Although Marnie was not a Vietnamese woman, we were still able to see stereotyping of women and women's bodies though out the film.
Although Professor Bui's lecture was focused around women, I think it is also important to point out stereotypes of Asian Americans in general. In American films and television shows, if there is an Asian person they are most likely going to follow an Asian stereotype in some way. In the t.v. show Modern Family, there was an episode where an Asian women was showed running over garbage cans while driving. This was showing the stereotype of Asians being "bad drivers." I have some Asian friends how have experienced these type of stereotypes firsthand.
I also found myself comparing Professor Bui's lecture to Processor Meraz's lecture.  Although Professor Meraz discussed women and the Internet, I felt some ideas could relate well to Professor Bui's lecture. Both discussed value and deception of women in different forms of media. It is unfortunate that women are depicted in such negative ways. As I woman, I feel it is important to discuss these topics (stereotyping and gender). Woman are looked at so much differently than men and almost all in negative or deceiving ways. As I previously stated in my blog about Professor Meraz's lecture, I took a GWS course that really opened my eyes to gender discrimination, and not only in women. Surprisingly some men are discriminated against too. However, for the most part men are the dominant figure and women suffer with more stereotyping. I think it is important to point out how women are such sex symbols in the media (movies, TV, Internet). In "Heaven and Earth" the main character was a prostitute, which goes to show how women are portrayed in film.
Overall, I found the lecture to be very fascinating and I thought it was interesting how Professor Bui shared some of her own experiences. I also thought it was neat that I was able to relate and compare Professor Meraz's lecture to Processor Bui's lecture.

Gendering on the Internet

Professor Sharon Meraz discussed the topic of gender and the Internet and blogging. In the beginning she discussed the topic of computer science and the lack of females involved. She later when on to discuss the differences in female and male computer games. I did not find it surprising at all that male games were centered more around violence and games from females were more low key however, required more multi-tasking.  She also talked about web design and how it is a predominately female occupation and also the gendering of blogs on the Internet.
As a young women who is involved with the Internet and familiar with blogs, I felt like I was better able to understand and relate with what Professor Meraz was talking about. I also took a GWS class at UIC and we discussed issues like this and also how women are very deceived, seen as less tech savy and not taken seriously by men, especially when it comes to politics. It is unfortunate that women are not noticed unless they post "sexy" pictures of themselves or write about sex. I do not write a blog, however, I have looked at blogs on the Internet and have seen how so many are gendered. For example, a "mommy blog" just for moms.
Another thing Professor Meraz talked about was the C.E.O of Facebook, Sheryl Sandberg. As she discussed her and we watched the interview, it made me think of ethics and how I could relate Sheryl's controversial issue to it. After years, Sheryl came out to the public and said she left work everyday at 5:30 to be home for dinner with her children. People were outraged. Many questioned, how could this be ethical? Many ethical principles could easily relate to this tissue. As an example, I am going to use Utilitarianism. This principle is based on happiness. Sheryl Sandberg left work at 5:30 everyday to be home for dinner with her kids, which made her happy. However, every other employee stayed longer until all the work was completed. I would assume the other employees would side more with Rule-Based Principles in that they would work the full hours under almost any conditions, as their duty and obligation. Personally, I believe it was wrong of her to leave early everyday to be home with her kids when everyone else stayed as long as they needed to. In this incident, I agree with the rule-based principles because I believe as adults with jobs it is our responsibltiy, obligation and duty to complete the tasks and jobs we're asked to do.
In addition, I also find myself to be somewhat frustrated over the gendering of women not only on the Internet but also in our society. I find it unfortunate that women have to "womanize" themselves even more to get attention and recognition. I also find it upsetting that men do not take women seriously and feel they are not as good as they are and cannot perform and succeed as well in almost any industry.

Political Communication with Andrew Rojecki

I watched Andrew Rojecki's lecture on political communication and the Tea Party. Mr. Rojecki covered many different aspects of political issues and how people communicate with and view politics (political disclosure). In the beginning of the lecture, he asks the students the different ways they retrieve their news or if they even retrieve it at all. Later on, he touches on the fact that due to new media and technology, our generation of people have so many options and distractions which prevent us from being aware of the news and recent politics. I had not really thought about it much but, he could not be more right. Politics and the news is so important and something that should be a part of our everyday lives.

I thought the most important and relevant thing Mr. Rojecki touched on was political disclosure. This is the way we think about things. It can be concepts, theories, frames, beliefs, values and emotion. All of those things can be related to what we have learned about in class. He discussed how these things are done with us being unaware, however during a time of crisis these thing actually do become aware. In class and in the additional reading, we recently discussed ethical decision making and moral principles. During the lecture, I was able to find a relationship to political disclosure. As individuals (and it politics) we are responsible for making our own decisions and choosing what we want to believe and what we think is right. Some of the theories/principles that can relate to this could be utilitarianism, the golden mean or end-based/rule-based principles. These require us to form opinions and morals and could be used to form political opinions. 

Another important thing Rojecki talked about was the Tea Party. Personally, I am not too interested in politics and did not know much about the Tea Party. However, I do know there was a lot of media coverage during the tea party, which is an extremely important factor of politics. In certain cases, some people have a hard time forming their own options due to intensive media coverage in politics. In addition, he talked about how Americans have become very pessimistic about the future due to globalization. Although I am not very interested in politics, I do find myself to be pessimistic at times because our economy still isn't doing as well as it has done in the past and the unemployment rate is still fairly high. 

Overall, I feel Mr. Rojecki's lecture allowed me to clearly understand the relationship between politics and communication, as well as see the impact media can have on politics in a negative and positive way.