After serching and searching, i finally chose to use myspace as one of my sites to analys. In Knadler's E-racing, he states "online communication is valued because it allows for the hidden or repressed self out (Knadler 239). He also states "the user's sense of self is freed from social and discursive constraints"(Knadler 239). In this quote he is saying that with online communication comes the luxury of being who you want to be but not always exactly who you are. A person online can be whomever they decide to be at that moment. Just the same as a 30yr. old male posing to be a 14yr. old girl. Although this aspect of the internet isnt right, it happens.
Myspace.com is a networking site that allows people to converse through text with other people they are and aren't familiar with. A person with a Myspace account can chose to put millions of pictures of themselves and their frinds on their page and they also have the choice to put none at all up. A person with an account can chose to put their real name one their page or they can make an alias which allows them at that moment to be themselves or someone else. Most people put things that they are afraid to say in a face to face situation on a web page.
As I began to look around on Myspace and browse thrugh my friends list but i then decided to use my own Myspace page to prove this point. My alias is "Beautiful" and most people know that this isn't the name I was given at birth but because I am allowed to make a name I do so. When reading my page, youll see that I have an introduction that goes as follows:
"Hey, my name is Chelly Baby. I think im cool peoples jus misunderstood sometimes. I've been very happy lately but I do get irritated very easily. I take things personal sometimes and I laugh at the dumbest stuff like 2 hours later. Im one of those girls that haves fun in a room all by herself but I love to be around the ppl I love. I'm not the easiest person to get along with but those that matter stick around and those that dnt...give up easily but IDC. I LOVE MY FRIENDS TO DEATH... "
You can see that I allow myself to be who I really am. I explain what type of person I feel I am whether it's good or bad. I don't hold back because the paople that know me already know these quailites of me and the others that don't have a heads up on what they could possibly be getting them selves into by becoming my friend. Although I dont use total AAVE it is being appropriated in this text. My grammar is horrible and could be better. I dont use forms of "be" the wrong way but the use of "cool peoples" is not standard english. Going back to Knadler's article, myspace has allowed me to be who I really am or even be a character at times. My picture sometimes confuse paople. Because I've dyed my hair blonde and my skin color is a very light color, i sometime get asked "are you white?" or "what you mixed wit?" I"'m not fully white, I'm also black but because in the picture my hair is straightened instead of the natural curls I sometimes where this confuses people. Pictures also sometimes allow you to be just out of the norm. You don't even have to have a picture up on networking site like Myspace or Facebook but becasue I wanted one up Iput one on their.
The internet allows people to be themselve or whomever they would like to be. It gives people the feeling of freedom, the feeling of being able to say what you want without being FORCED to face criticism. I say forced because there is a such thing as a "friend request" on these sites. This gives a person the choice to block their page and let people be shut out of their world/space.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Saturday, February 14, 2009
DW2a
The website I've decided to use and analyze is www. bet.com. BET is a cable network that plays music videos,healthier lifestyles, and news about celecretites and about what's going on with life today to keep the young African Americans up-to-date (mainly A. A news). This website discuss the "EX-Mayor" of Detroit and what he's doing with himself after incarceration . The title of the article is "Ex-Detroit Mayor Gets New Gig in Texas" but the promotional headline on the link to get to the article says "BALLIN' AGAIN!" This article talks about Kwame Kilpatrick being released from jail less than a week ago for perjury and he is said to already have a "gig" set up for him in Texas, where he and his family currently resides. His position with the job or any further information has not yet been revealed but this is all in the making.
"The announcement might have been in the works for months, though. According to Oakland County Executive, L. Brooks Patterson, back in October, Compuware Chairman Peter Karmanos told him he was going to make the job offer to Kilpatrick"(Barber). “I haven’t heard any details about what the job is. But I walked away from the conversations admiring Peter’s loyalty,” Patterson told the paper. “It wasn’t my place to question his decision" (Barber).
Although this article, to me, seems to be in only standard English it is on a African American targeted website. The headline is written in AAVE to get their targeted audience to become more interested. I believe this is smart because although the audience they are initially targeting is of AA decent they are not writing in total AAVE on the website. They are making it where anyone of any decent can go on the website and read if they choose to do so. On the website, the writers often use standard English because it is more accepted but watching the TV network , it's a totally different thing. The host and VJ's do not do the same while speaking on camera. The often say "cuz"or "bro" referring to a friend or a guest. This works because of what we discussed for the previous paper, code-switching. I'm sure that if a Caucasian guest were to come on a show, the host would continue to be themselves just a little more controlled.
The website shows a good examples of appropriation because when they feel they need to do something to get a certain audiences, they just do it!
"The announcement might have been in the works for months, though. According to Oakland County Executive, L. Brooks Patterson, back in October, Compuware Chairman Peter Karmanos told him he was going to make the job offer to Kilpatrick"(Barber). “I haven’t heard any details about what the job is. But I walked away from the conversations admiring Peter’s loyalty,” Patterson told the paper. “It wasn’t my place to question his decision" (Barber).
Although this article, to me, seems to be in only standard English it is on a African American targeted website. The headline is written in AAVE to get their targeted audience to become more interested. I believe this is smart because although the audience they are initially targeting is of AA decent they are not writing in total AAVE on the website. They are making it where anyone of any decent can go on the website and read if they choose to do so. On the website, the writers often use standard English because it is more accepted but watching the TV network , it's a totally different thing. The host and VJ's do not do the same while speaking on camera. The often say "cuz"or "bro" referring to a friend or a guest. This works because of what we discussed for the previous paper, code-switching. I'm sure that if a Caucasian guest were to come on a show, the host would continue to be themselves just a little more controlled.
The website shows a good examples of appropriation because when they feel they need to do something to get a certain audiences, they just do it!
Sunday, February 1, 2009
DW1b (frustration)
"You may have dark skin, but you must not sound Black. You can wear a yarmulke if it is important to you as a Jew, but lose the accent. Maybe you come from Ukraine, but can't you speak real English? If you didn't sound so corn-pone, people would take you seriously. You're the best salesperson we've got but must you sound so gay on the phone?" - Leah A. Zuidema
In this quote from "Myth Education" people that come from a certain background or show certain traits from their heritage are all expected to speak or present themselves a totally different way from what they are accustomed to. They are expected to be able to fit in so perfectly. This is similar to my to my literacy narritive because in it I talk about the different ways people are expected to speak and how the y are judged and what might be said if the don't do what's expected of them.
I feel that I don't speak too bad but at the same time my dialect could be better. I present myself as the person I am expected to be when needed. In the text above, people are automatically supposed to be accustomed to this way of life, they are expected to be able to fit in and speak "Standard English" like most Americans are taught in school, but where does these expectations come from? Are they generated from our peers or greater authority? Who's to say that "Standard English" is the only way to be perceived as an intelligent individual? No one in particular can say that "Black English" is the "wrong" way to speak but because one person or even a group of people said that people have to use a certain dialect or use proper grammar when in pressing situations like a classroom of a job interview, then we just "go with the flow." Why don't we challenge these things? Is it because we're scared or is it because we feel it's right.
As I stated before I feel my verbal dialect isn't too bed but yet when I'm in a class room or a situation where I feel the need to impress someone I try to sharpen it up a little. I can remember as a child, having to be around seven or eight up until about the age of sixteen,my uncle would correct me. Every single time, it never failed. As soon as words like "pushin" or "happenin" or anything that was supposed to have an "ing" on the end would leave my lips, he would quickly repeat the word the way others intend it to be. This got to the point that I started correcting myself eve if I wasn't in his presence, it just became a good habit. My writing is where I lack these skills, and because I went to a school that didn't press the issue of learning proper grammar skills and actually knowing what the difference between an adverb an a verb is, I'm ignorant in that area. I know different things like when to use "do not" instead of "don't and when to add an "ing" to the ending of my words, but because I've become so accustomed to writing on Facebook or using text messages I tend to wring professional papers or applications using the same format. As I begin to catch these mistakes I soon realize that these bad habits need to change. The problem isn't lying so much with my verbal communication but with my written.
In this quote from "Myth Education" people that come from a certain background or show certain traits from their heritage are all expected to speak or present themselves a totally different way from what they are accustomed to. They are expected to be able to fit in so perfectly. This is similar to my to my literacy narritive because in it I talk about the different ways people are expected to speak and how the y are judged and what might be said if the don't do what's expected of them.
I feel that I don't speak too bad but at the same time my dialect could be better. I present myself as the person I am expected to be when needed. In the text above, people are automatically supposed to be accustomed to this way of life, they are expected to be able to fit in and speak "Standard English" like most Americans are taught in school, but where does these expectations come from? Are they generated from our peers or greater authority? Who's to say that "Standard English" is the only way to be perceived as an intelligent individual? No one in particular can say that "Black English" is the "wrong" way to speak but because one person or even a group of people said that people have to use a certain dialect or use proper grammar when in pressing situations like a classroom of a job interview, then we just "go with the flow." Why don't we challenge these things? Is it because we're scared or is it because we feel it's right.
As I stated before I feel my verbal dialect isn't too bed but yet when I'm in a class room or a situation where I feel the need to impress someone I try to sharpen it up a little. I can remember as a child, having to be around seven or eight up until about the age of sixteen,my uncle would correct me. Every single time, it never failed. As soon as words like "pushin" or "happenin" or anything that was supposed to have an "ing" on the end would leave my lips, he would quickly repeat the word the way others intend it to be. This got to the point that I started correcting myself eve if I wasn't in his presence, it just became a good habit. My writing is where I lack these skills, and because I went to a school that didn't press the issue of learning proper grammar skills and actually knowing what the difference between an adverb an a verb is, I'm ignorant in that area. I know different things like when to use "do not" instead of "don't and when to add an "ing" to the ending of my words, but because I've become so accustomed to writing on Facebook or using text messages I tend to wring professional papers or applications using the same format. As I begin to catch these mistakes I soon realize that these bad habits need to change. The problem isn't lying so much with my verbal communication but with my written.
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