Paper 4 sources

http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=2&hid=108&sid=6a7953dd-2905-45fb-a327-3a74f9460e00%40sessionmgr113

This article is pretty wells summed up in the title, “Media Influences on Attitudes and Perceptions Toward the Body Among Adult Men and Women”. The article starts by telling that women and men are both very influenced by the media when it comes to physical appearance. It says men overestimated their chest, waist and thighs and underestimated their hips, while women overestimated all parts of their body. The article then goes into a study of 60 men and 60 women to see what they said about the media’s affects and what the “perfect body” is. Men wanted the “v-shaped” body with a large chest and thin waste, just like the men seen on television. While the women want to be very thin, just like on television. This survey and article proves that both women and men are very influenced by the physical appearances seen on television.

McCabe, Marita, Kelly Butler, and Christina Watt. "Media Influences on Attitudes and Perceptions Toward the Body Among Adult Men and Women." Journal of Applied Biobehavioral Research (2007): 101-118. Web. 13 Apr 2010. .

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/121421108/HTMLSTART?onDenied=/journal/121421108/abstract&CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0

This article is a collection of stories about how the media affects violence and antisocial behavior. In many of the stories young teens have convicted crimes and the crimes have been linked to watching violence on television or playing violent video games. It also talks about how the media shows a lot of violence, and seeing violence on the media and in the news may cause young adults to see violence as a way out or sometimes it may be the right thing to do. Unfortunately the media has always, and will always have an extremely large impact on how everyday citizens live their daily lives. These stories also include a survey of 93 teenagers at a high school, all coming from the same area, and growing up in similar conditions. They asked each one how much television they watch and how much time they spend on the internet. The results were that the students that spent more time watching and online were less social and more prone to violence.

Clemente, Miguel, Pablo Espinosa, and Miguelangel Vidal. "The Media and Violent Behavior in Young People: Effects of the Media on Antisocial Aggressive Behavior in a Spanish Sample." Journal of Applied social Psychology 38.10 (2008): 2395-2409. Web. 13 Apr 2010. .

Group Essay

For more than a century, the United States has been moving to undo the legacy of racism and discrimination amongst its people. The changes have been to create a society reflecting the grand document of its founding, with “all men being created equal”, having “the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” How far all have really come toward such a monumental and ideal society is entailed David Cook’s “By The Color of Their Skin” article; each change for the better seems to bring two more for the worse, shifting away from the desired achievement. Though racism is dying through the effort of the entire nation, race-based discrimination is alive as ever, spawning new policies and issues for all.
The most defining arguments of the Cook article are racism and privilege, and how both influence today’s culture. As defined by Wise, “ Racism is an ideology that says certain people, by virtue of their race, are inferior or superior to others of a different race, with race usually being defined as skin color” (Cook, 2009, p.5). In other words, the color of a person’s skin color defines how they immediately see themselves, and others see them offhand. The quality of a person’s heart and soul may be the most important characteristic of all, but is seen secondary at best to the color of their skin.
The next defining aspect of this fantastic article is privilege. Once again, according to this article by Cook, privilege can also be seen as less pressure to perform. An example in the text was, “George W. Bush mangled the English language with regularity and still became president. If Barack Obama had mispronounced words the way Bush did, would he have been given the same degree of slack” (Cook, 2009, p.5). Because skin color is so defining of who someone is this example and the idea of having less pressure to perform means people of the dominate race may not feel the need to perform to their full potential because they already feel privilege.
Ironically, antiracism has caused a new type of racism, in which the previously underprivileged minorities have become the privileged majority, and the previously privileged racial majority has become an underprivileged minority. People in terms of race being constructed in America today, Cook views it as, “The mistake people make is to think that history stops and starts with each new generation” (Cook, 2009, p.6). What people need to realize is that what happens in one generation effects the next and every generation in the future and it’s impossible to start with a completely blank slate (Cook, 2009, p.6).
In our own lives today, we are affected by racism in aspects of our lives we’re not even aware of. Wise uses the example that, “Job applicants with “white-sounding” names are 50 percent more likely to get called back than those with “black-sounding” names, even if both have the same qualifications” (Cook, 2009, p.6). Such an attitude is engrained in our society; one cannot completely erase their own past, no matter how much they may try.
Such concept might tie into paper three; similar to the quest of all for the perfect meal, the strive for a perfect, just, unbiased society continues leaping forward recklessly in great bounds, and yet remain just beyond grasp. All may be looking for perfection, but all have different ideas as to what perfection really is.







Works Cited
Wise, Tim. "By the Color of Their Skin." Interview by David Cook. The Sun July 2009: 4-12. Print