Blog 3: Stereotypes

http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=2442521&page=1

 

The following link is a link to a 20/20 story that was run on stereotyping. The test was performed by Harvard psychologists and is used to show subconscious biases that people are unaware. The test involved flashing images so fast that people reacted before they had time to really think about their reactions. What was found is that most people have inherent stereotypes hardwired into their thought processes. While reading this article I had one question that kept popping up and in the end was left unanswered. Do these biases come from outside input, such as the media, or are they more innate? In the article, it is talked about how chimpanzees and other animals would attack individuals of the same race, but from different tribes or areas. The case of the chimpanzees seemed to me the most likely to point to the explanation that these biases are natural. I have seen other studies that talk about how chimpanzees while actually go out in patrols and kill other chimpanzees that they find in their territory. But the more I thought about this example the more I thought about how social chimpanzees are. They have a very intricate social structure, just like humans. So maybe these biases are then passed through generations through these social interactions. The evidence from the article that points to this is some shocking results from when the test was run on individuals from social minorities. The exact example that stood out the most was the test figure that stated that almost half of the black people tested had subconscious biased toward people of their own race. This makes sense because for years in this country, even know, minorities are continually blamed for social and economical problems.  What the test concluded was not an answer to the question though. It stated that these racial biases are in us, we just have to choose when to express them. (322)

Blog 2: media

http://www.outfoxed.org/

This is the website for the book and movie "Out Foxed: Rupert Murdoch's war on journalism." The whole movie can't be watched but there are clips that can, and should, be viewed. The goal of Out Foxed is to spread awareness about some of the things done at Fox news that are from a journalistic, and on many levels a cultural point of view, very unethical. The problem with all this is that the news is something that people trust and consider the only truthful thing on television. It has been shown in the past that a lot of people can be controlled, or at the least manipulated, by things the see or hear in the news. The most obvious example of this is propaganda, which according to Webster’s dictionary is; Ideas, facts, or allegations spread deliberately to further one's cause or to damage an opposing cause; also : a public action having such an effect. Â  Propaganda can be found in every culture on Earth, the only differences being the messages and the intensity. Some can be harmless, such as an advertisement for gum on a billboard, while others can be very powerful, such as the massive "Mission Accomplished" banner in red, white, and blue on the aircraft carrier where President Bush gave his victory speech back in 2003 on the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln. Last I checked we were still at war, so frankly I don’t know what mission he was referring to. But it got the point across, or at least the idea. With the massive sign, the rows of planes and the broadcasting on every news channel in the nation, the President really made it seem like we had won the day. Propaganda can also be very extreme. Nazi propaganda was able to convince officers in its military that the Jewish population was sub-human and needed to be eradicated. Another example is Iraq’s Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf, the minister of information, who announced as U.S. tanks were rumbling by in the background of his video address that, “The infidels are committing mass suicide by the hundreds at the gates of Baghdad. God is grilling their stomachs in hell." There’s no evidence that people believed him but the fact that he would address the country like that shows that either, it was just an act of desperation, or it actually works. The idea of propaganda and its implications are chilling and, at least in my mind, conjure up images of George Orwell’s 1984 where the government completely controls the thoughts and actions of its people. George Bush and his cabinet along with Fox news are no where near the totalitarians of fiction writings, but it is a scary thought when you think about the power they have to influence people and their decisions. (464)