DMN Confession

I was very surprised after reading this article. In my opinion, it takes a lot of guts to admit your wrong, especially when you are admitting it the public. I commend Mrs. Floyd for her honesty and her ability to recognize her tendency to use stereotypes. Of course a murder like the McKinney one, is going to be sensationalized...wealthy, exciting women gets murdered in an expensive neighborhood...it must have been someone she knew; beaten, stabbed multiple times, left in the house to be found...someone must have been trying to make a statement, right? No. Not at all. It was a random act of murder, and that's all. Unfortunate, yes. But not the Hollywood drama the public was looking for. For these reasons, the media turned it into a glamorous twisted story that was filled with secrets and deception. Stories like these make me think twice...and make me hope that if I, as a journalist, am ever faced with a situation like this, I will make the right choice in my writing and not jump to conclusions just because of media standards and expectations.

Sex & the Media

Until this class, I never really noticed just how sexually-charged most ads can be. Even women's magazines use sex to sell products to other women. Between the Axe commericals, the new Heiniken ads, countless perfume promotions, and various other ads, Ive come to realize that many of these attention-grabbers are degrading to women. I am definately not getting all "feminist" and hyped up about this stuff, but it is certainly something to take notice of. Women portrayed as animals, robots, and other mindless creatures can be seen all over the media as sex-hungry and attention-deprived! However, when flipping through a magazine (Elle) I was pleasantly suprised to see an ad for the perfume Eternity, with a man and women embracing each other, looking into each other's eyes-both wearing wedding bands!! How nice!
From now on, I will definately pay more attention to ads and commericals to try and decode their true meaning, but something tells me that this sex-fueled way of advertising is not going to change anytime soon- because, after all, sex sales.

Race & News Reporting

While reading the article about the recent school shooting in Cleveland, I was surprised to see the way they described the shooter. The article reads "Coon, who is white," stood out among his peers, as 85% of the students at his school were white. Then it goes on to describe him as a gothic, Marylin Manson-worshiping freak. Im not sure how this ethnic classification can be justified, but I think the important thing that should have gotten more attention were the outward red-flag signs that Coon displayed. He wore all black, had black nails, trench coat, gloves, chains, and openly considere Marylin Manson his god...hello, can we say Columbine! Not to mention his less than clean record, family history, and mental conditions. These signs should have at least raised some eyebrows and should have been monitored more closely. His race however, in my opinion, seems irrelevant to the story.