America the Melting Pot

            I remember when I first heard America described as a melting pot and a salad bowl. It was my freshman year of high school and I was in my AP Human Geography class. The teacher told us how all the different components in a melting pot or salad bowl represented a different culture, all mixed together and adhered with the cheese of a melting pot or the salad dressing of a salad.

America is still like a melting pot/salad bowl, and I like it that way. I as an American get to experience all different types of cultures that most countries don’t have. We have so many cultures and ethnic groups combining and “crossing over” one another and that in itself creates a new culture all on its own. Of course there are borders in place to prevent illegally coming into the states, but all kinds of people are here legally, and illegally. The border I believe is a good thing, or else the U.S. and Mexico would be one nation and all kinds of problems between the two governments would ensue. 

Nonetheless, America is full of all different races and cultures from all different walks of life, and I think that is what makes America special. Many people from different places want to come here, and those that go through the process definitely earn their right to be here. 

image shaping

This chapter is right. The news is ubiquitous. It seems like nowadays everyone has some form of news coverage that they can watch. Now, where you are in the world and what event that the news is reporting will change your view and image of the situation.

There is always going to be bias in reporting news, especially if the countries or parties involved are reporting about it. Our position as citizens or “watchers” of this news puts us at a considerable disadvantage. There will be different ways of wording the events that took place to make it seem better or worse for whomever and we will only receive that bit of skewed information. So, the news reports are shockingly shaping the way we think about the event to their terms. They can use images especially to enlighten us with the reaction they want.

There is a huge issue about the use of graphic crisis pictures in the news. Is it ethical to do so? For the news stations, it’s just another tool to shape our way of thinking, to jumpstart our pathos. Those photos are huge attention grabbers and are a very useful tool for them. But, then the way I’ve just described the news’ uses of those photos is very cold and tangible, where as the devastation represented in them is extraordinary and real, yet hard to grasp. There are real people involved, and I think we forget that sometimes, just watching the news. But other times, the news capitalizes on the fact that there are human beings being affected and strikes with pathos that way.

The news is a double-edged sword. It helps provide information that we otherwise wouldn’t have known, except much later and by word of mouth, but it also has the ability and resources to shape how we see what is happening rather then forming our own opinions from first hand experience.  

Chapter 6

This chapter is all about organization for your research paper. This chapter really helped me see how to make an outline that is useful to me. I made the outline FOR ME for the first time, and now the paper seems less daunting. 

This chapter also helped me to learn how to do a better and smoother transition. Especially involving quotes and research sources, which are used in every research paper. It taught me how to integrate my sources and how to use them to my greatest advantage, enlightening me on what to do with them and what not to do with them. It showed me what my options were for putting them into my paper like: paraphrasing, summarizing, and direct quoting. 

This chapter really went thoroughly through the main things that I needed assistance with. It gave me a good outline of what is needed to have a good research paper. I especially like that it even talked about keeping your passion, which I was adamant about doing...I think I even wrote something about it on my outline. Then finally, it of course taught me proper revision techniques. It provided me with extremely helpful questions that I need to ask myself when I complete my first draft.

Stereotypes

There is proof of all kinds of gender stereotypes in the world today. The sad thing is, where they are most prominent is in the mind of human beings! I, as a female, can't help but laugh when someone makes a derogatory statement about a woman making a sandwich. This is just a crude example, but I know that everyone thinks certain ways about each gender. 

We are programmed to think these certain ways about each gender. Whenever someone talks about sports, a male athlete pops up into my head, even though I myself am a female athlete. I believe this is the biggest area where gender hinders or helps a person. Like the gaming avatar, no one wants a girl on their team. Males are stereotypically bigger, stronger, faster at sports. A lot of this stereotypical propaganda is found in popular magazines and even on the news. You never see a woman sports caster. And women never get to talk about the male sports with the big guys. Frankly, or should I say stereotypically, I would find that queer.

In sports, there is also a racial stereotype! The Sports Illustrated magazine comparison portrays the black female athlete as hardcore all sports all the time, showing a picture of her in the middle of a game, smacking the ball. There is no doubt that the white female athlete does the same in the middle of a game, but the picture they have of her is off the court and sexy. The black athlete is in high demand, because our stereotype is that they tend to be better.

All I know is that stereotypes are forever a part of the human thinking process, and I don’t think they will be leaving us anytime soon.

Chapter 5

"Finding and Evaluating Research Sources" is the aptly named title of this chapter, and a darn important component in a research paper. It is your research, the lot that the whole paper is based off of. The "iceberg of research” is probably my favorite visual. Its significance is to tell you to always look under the surface. If you always look under the surface in researching, your paper will be filled with a wide variety of sources and that will enrich your paper's argument.

This chapter also tells us how to use proper searching terms, to better narrow our research. Then it helps us distinguish between primary and secondary sources and how to use them in our papers. It then tells us how to evaluate our sources and which websites are credible, and which resources are credible. It shows us how to keep up with all of our research, and how to write an annotated bibliography. Tons of extremely useful information piled into one chapter.

This chapter is all about research...research, research, research! It really helped me get a better grasp on my actual task in writing this research paper. I will definitely be using this chapter to guide me through this process.

Avatars

I definitely agree that the avatar is the new self-portrait. It is very interesting to see how the self-portrait has changed with time and technology. But, people back then did the same as we do now; we make ourselves look how we want to look. Avatars and portraits are reflections of how we want to be perceived. Photographs and videos, if staged are the same.

            Avatars are the world’s natural progression of retaining immortality when our bodies are merely mortal. These preserve the person, so that we can be remembered, and leave behind something of ourselves. Now, especially with technology it can be a very altered version of ourselves, but an extension of person that we want to be left behind. Now, we get to choose what is remembered.

            Now, online, a person gets to choose how they are presented. Much like the man with disabilities, he is able, in this virtual world, to do things with his avatar that he could not possibly do in real life.  Like he mentioned, everyone in this virtual world is on common ground. No one knows what each other really look like; all they see is your avatar.

            In the classroom, everyone being on common ground could be very useful. No judgments based on appearance and everyone would be focused on the subject at hand. We could have unbiased peer reviews and no one would be the wiser.

opinion

I enjoyed writing this essay about the cartoon. I was able to express strong feelings and opinions in any way I chose. I rather liked the freedom I had to choose a cartoon, but found it a bit difficult to find one. I needed one that I could write 1500 words about, therefore one with a strong message, and one that inspired me with a lot to say.

Having finally found one, the rest was quite simply gravy. I had fun picking apart the cartoon bit by bit. Dissecting its surface, to really get down deep into its true meaning. I liked researching the history behind it, and finding out why the cartoon was ironic. I delighted in connecting this simple cartoon to very complex problems and social aspects of today’s society. I loved that my cartoon was in essence a slap in the face to America, using media to scrutinize media.

The only other difficult part besides actually finding the cartoon was organizing it into something supportive of my argument. I had so many thoughts, that I just started typing them, so I rambled a lot, and had to go back and revise and restructure. I think I actually had the conclusion as my first paragraph. But now that I have made all my thoughts come together, I believe I have a really good subject matter and problem to discuss. This paper helped me realize my opinions on a lot more things than just that of the cartoon. My scope of the world increased and I became enlightened to myself.