Photo Assignment

Hunter College: A day in the life

This is my school, Hunter College. This is my third year in Hunter College. Today is a sunny day and I go to school as usual. I was surprised that there were not many people in school today. There are so crowed at the front door usually,

As I go in the Hunter College door, I always like to take a look of the painting on the wall. One of my classmates told me that this painting has some kind of special meaning, but she did not tell me what it is exactly. I guess she is just fooling around me. Her name is Julie, and she transferred to other college in last semester. So whenever I walk by and see this painting, it always reminds me of her. What a nice and sweet girl.
I went to the cafeteria to have lunch today because I still had plenty of time left before class start. I like to sit by the window so that I can see cars are going on the road and people are walking on the street. I also can see students and professors are walking through the bridge. I do not mind share table. I like to meet new friends and hear their stories. Oh well, many of them are complaining about school and classes.
This is the 3rd floor of West building and it is most crowed place in Hunter College. This floor can go to both East and North buildings. On the Hall way you can see in front, there are many posters usually. Students and departments change it every week. I like to hang around there because I can read many useful article.
After lunch, I have to go to my classroom. This is a Media and Film class, and we are working in lab. On the poster board, there are many different media and film classes listed above for this semester. Also there are forms of media and film departments next to the board. Alright, let's get going to the class!

Ethics

To be honest, I have many different favorite piece of media. Speak of recently, I watched a piece of media really impresses me. The video names "Killing Us Softly" by Jean Kilbourne (you can search it on Youtube, just in case you ask.) It talks about women advertising in media industry and how it effects people in the society. I like it so much personally.

Jean Kilbourne tells us the truth of how advertisers change the roles of women in our daily life. In our modern city we can see advertisements everywhere, such as posters on the streets, commercials on the televisions, and advertisers on the magazines. Jean Kilbourne tells that there are many advertisers select skinny and tall female models to sell their products. In that way, the perspective of beauty was changed in the society. It makes women believe they are valued based on their body, therefore their self-esteem is also based on how their body looks compared to others. Be specific, people think a lady is beautiful if she is skinny and tall. That makes many women to diet. They all want to be beautiful in others' eyes. In a result, many women have eating disorders and other kind of illness according to diet. She also shows that many advertisers change female into objects, such as alcohol and perfume advertisements. The ladies in the advertisers are usually dress sexy and look seductive, or even naked, just covering the important spots by the products, etc. These kind of advertisers make women become supplements to men's life. This media piece shows that many advertisers become a life style in the society. They are not only selling the products but also selling life style.



I think "Killing Us Softly" is a media piece that has ethical concerns behind it. It warns people that these advertisements have serious effect on our lives. Those companies should not use pretty and sexy female models to sell the products even the advertisers have marketing selling points. Moreover, they should not compare female models to objects or animals. Instead, they should have just sell the products directly. I think those companies need more respect toward female. They have to realize how important and serious are the influences, such as our next generation seeing this advertisements as a norm. This media piece totally points out the ethical concerns.



I believe there are many unethical media on the world, such as violence and scary media pieces. There is a difference between media that is about moral or ethical notions versus media that is not about ethical issues. People got different points of view, and it is hard to judge which one is better. I guess people who make the unethical media just because self interest or for fun.

I wish females can be often depicted in positive way in the future. Not only it makes women better off, but also changes toward our next generations. We should work together to build a better living space!

Artist Statement

When I was little, I have no idea how powerful are the media. Until I was 11 years old, I realized media is truly needed in today's modern world. In the year of 2001, the terrorist attacked the Twins Tower in New York. I was in China by that time. The time zone of America is slower 12 hours than China's. In other words, when New York is in the morning, China is in the night time. The live news of terrorist attacked in New York cut in when I was watching series at home at the night of September 11th. I was shocked. I thought that was a movie until I saw people were running, screaming, crying, and there were blood everywhere. I realized that was real.

After years and years, I still memorize the moment of people were in panic. Every pictures are still in my mind. I found out media is very powerful after the tragic. For most I respect are the news reporters in Manhattan. I saw their fears and pains through the television. However, but they still reported the news to people in such a chaos situation. They were professional and unselfishness. After that, I concerned on news reporters more and more. I respect them deeply from my heart. I want to be one of them. I want to report news to everybody in the world. If I can be with one in the future, I would report every single moment in city, even it is ugly. I want to tell them the true story of the society, defiantly not going to hide the ugly side of human being and the society. I also want to work as a bilingual reporter. In that way, I can report news to the Chinese-Americans. I would love to share the stories of the society to everyone. Share the world, share the news. Sharing is always caring. =)