Writing 107j -- Week 5 -- Progress

2/2/2012

This week we want to see progress! How have you moved from the idea phase to the doing phase, writing phase, research phase, shooting phase... What steps have you taken and what progress have you made? What are your next steps?

Photo kids: this is a great time to get images produced thus far up on your blog and post the link here for feedback, etc.

Tell us + give a quick sentence refresher of your idea/project.
Don't forget your name and email!

27 Comments

Alexis Kafkis

2/5/2012 06:35:47 am

After talking to Professor Ross and sorting through my two ideas, injustice and contemporary journalism, and injustice and the portrayal of women in italian television I decided on the latter. I have done research in the area for a previous class abroad but really would like to inform our small audience of this semi-obscure yet very prevalent gender inequality in Italy.

I have contacted my professor from abroad regarding an email interview and am waiting for her reply. I am also going to focus on two documentaries on the issue, Videocracy by Erik Gandini and Il Corpo Delle Donne by Lorella Zanardo, in addition to articles and studies. I was also thinking of maybe contacting Mauro with some questions because prior to COLORS he worked at one the channels that is a focus of my research and I think he could just provide some first-hand cultural insight on the issue.

To outline the issue for those who have no idea what I am talking about, Italy is a culture with severe gender inequalities. Like I stated in a previous post, Italy is ranked 84th in the world for gender equality. In 2010 they were placed 74th behind Kazakhstan in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report, a two-point decrease from 2009. This reveals itself in social settings, work settings, and in the media.

I am going to focus on women in italian media, specifically television. There has been a media revolution in the past two decades mostly due to former prime minister Berlusconi's monopoly over the industry. They are just as much, if not more, obsessed with celebrity culture as we are. We may think MTV is bad in the sense of portraying scantily clad girls but it is nothing compared to Italian TV, especially sunday "family" programs. Naked women doing seductive dances is a commonplace. The women are all extremely artificially enhanced since plastic surgery is much more popular their than in the U.S. These women are called "veline" and often it is part of their contract that they cannot speak. They are simply decorations and very degrading representations of women. To make matters worse many young girls dream of being Veline because they are very famous, with all the rich celebrities (including George Clooney), and even get appointed to government positions.

I have also taken Professor Ross's idea of creating an alternative feature article in the form of a blog or website to avoid issues with using images and video content from the internet. I think imagery will greatly help my article and would not be possible in a published article.

If any of you have suggestions of good and easy to navigate programs and/or websites to create blogs or websites I would love some suggestions! Ether post here or email me at [email protected]

cissy ross

2/6/2012 11:09:28 am

i mentioned your impressions of Italian television to Mauro Bedoni, who admitted it's pretty sexy fare...not much other content! Naked girls dancing in the background during interviews.

Joel Dickenmann

2/5/2012 08:52:27 am

Lately I was stuck with the direction my project would take. So far, I was not able to solve that problem so I decided to just move ahead and talk to people. I went to DP and talked to two bottle collectors. I wanted to check if they are willing and open to talk to me. Lucky for me, they actually are. So I have two interviews scheduled for next week. Also, I managed to figure out where the collectors bring their bottles to. This will be my next point of inquiry. So far so good.

I checked the art students' websites and, to my disappointment, none of them seems to work on a topic that is related to social justice. How am I going to enter a collaboration now?

Cissy Ross

2/6/2012 11:13:05 am

I will be speaking to the photo class on Wednesday...listing ideas that you all have. Remember to put your email address on each posting. It makes it easier to find you. Good for you to go out and try interviewing. Next time, ask to take a picture too. Also, didn't one of the photographers already take a pix of 2 trash collectors? Would that work with your story? Did you look on the tab "Photo Class blogs" on the upper right of the Justice page? That's where a lot of their work is posted.

Tessa Tapscott

2/6/2012 12:35:11 pm

The photo student that took the pictures is Alina Lipanski, look at her blog I think the pictures of the trash collectors is on there.

Minh N Nguyen

2/6/2012 03:51:04 am

I now have a new idea I was planning to explore in conjunction with my original idea (LGBT in career sectors- which I went to a panel of older LGBT advisors who were faculty members on campus and made some pretty good connections so they can possibly be my sources). My new idea would involve women's issue most notably the rape problems in Santa Barbara, how there's alot of incidence but no one ever report it because they are ashamed, I work in the WGSE (women's center) so I can interview alot of people, also I know a few individuals who have been raped, I can possibly talk to them to see if they want to collaborate.

Cissy Ross

2/6/2012 11:14:04 am

What exactly is your idea...rape among LGBT?

Minami Coirin

2/6/2012 06:27:43 am

Minami Coirin
[email protected]
(209) 351-3804

My project is still focusing on the injustice of Asian Americans of our generation. After reading the feature articles I had a new idea of tackling the racism Asian-Americans/other races face between their groups of friends. Although friends use racist comments to joke and tease their friends I want to study the effects these comments have on the victims as well as the contribution to racism in the modern world.

Still very open to ideas, comments, advice on how to tweak injustice of Asian Americans! Thanks!

Cissy Ross

2/6/2012 11:17:14 am

We will be discussing ideas in class on Thursday. Perhaps we can help you focus your idea. It sounds like you want to do something about how Asian American college students cope with racism in their everyday lives, even inadvertent racist comments by friends?

Tessa Tapscott

2/6/2012 03:12:55 pm

One of the professors in the art department, Kip Fulbeck, has piece called the "Hapa Project" that deals with Asian American identity. It involves photo portraits that I think are paired with stories. I know we are not supposed to be using professors, but he might provide some inspiration for you.

Cissy Ross

2/7/2012 12:50:16 am

interesting idea! thanks for helping out, tessa.

Mariana Prestigiacomo

2/6/2012 11:34:25 am

Today I met with Napatr from ART102 and Kevin from WRIT109SS to discuss our topic on police brutality. So far, Kevin and I have possible interviewees: a local lawyer, campus police, and a victim of police brutality (Kevin’s friend in LA). We are also contacting Daily Nexus “Police Blotter” writer and Professor Rios for guidance. Also, we are attending the Occupy SB meeting this Saturday.
I have also been researching the Occupy Oakland fiasco on January 28th and might get in contact with them through their public website.
So far, I have no specific direction in my topic. I wanted to get all sides of police brutality: the observer, the victim, the lawyer (law), and the police force. Kevin is focusing on how police brutality affects the relationship between civilians and police. I like this idea, but don’t know how to translate it journalistically without becoming a little biased. I think it’s interesting how police and civilians start having a they vs. us (or out-group/in-group) mentality but also don’t know how to turn this interest into a story.
Any help, input would be nice!

[email protected]

Cissy Ross

2/7/2012 12:53:57 am

Mariana...Everyone has their own preconceived ideas about a topic (bias), but there are ways to work around this by developing a list of questions that probe both sides of an issue. Let's talk. This is an ambitious but do-able topic. Need some focus but it's OK now to throw your net widely. We will be discussing questions for UCSB police chief and sheriff's rep, who will be at an upcoming Wednesday session. But let's talk either before or after your weekend observation of the SB Occupy event.

Tessa Tapscott

2/6/2012 12:27:52 pm

I have spent much time researching various horse rescue centers, along with other organizations that help abused or neglected animals. I have sent e-mails to several of these organizations, but I have yet to get any responses. My research also provides me with a bounty of more ideas that I am having trouble sticking one specific idea. I have become fascinated by P.E.T.A. because they are such an extreme animal rights group. Their tactics are often illegal and violent from throwing red paint over someone in fur to releasing 30 racehorses only to let them run straight on to a highway. I am not sure how I would tie this into my feature, but I will look into possibly speaking to a member of the group.
Alina and I will continue to work together and pool our resources.
If anyone knows someone who might like to talk to us please let me know.
[email protected]
(650)814-5769

Cissy Ross

2/7/2012 12:55:35 am

Don't depend on email. Pick up the telephone and try to speak to someone at an animal shelter or other organization. Often that is much better. You establish a real relationship with a real person...an email is too easy to ignore.

Kalie Wertz

2/6/2012 03:21:22 pm

I am still thinking about doing my feature on race and the issue of "whiteness". I will really focus on how, for white people, choosing to identify with a certain ethnicity or nationality doesn't seem to matter as much as compared to those that cannot "choose" their ethnicity or nationality. I want to discover how the lives of people with "optional" identities can differ from those with "non-optional" identities. What defines "white" and what doesn't? I have found several articles dealing with "whiteness" and race, but am not sure where else to go with it.

[email protected]

Cissy Ross

2/7/2012 12:58:03 am

Make an appointment to speak to me. Check out the photo student blogs because someone there is working on the same issue...and already has pix. I will be speaking to them on Wednesday; remind me to ask who it is if you can't figure it out.

Hannah Meade

2/7/2012 03:14:58 am

I am sticking to my plan of doing a piece on the injustice surrounding many elderly people in our country. I am planning on going to a nursing home this weekend to interview some staff members as well as elderly persons who are willing. If anyone else is interested in this topic, please let me know. I would love to have some photographic documentation!
hannah
[email protected]

Mackensie Minniear

2/7/2012 03:19:21 am

I was talking to a friend who runs an art workshop at a continuation school in Santa Barbara. I was going to try and talk to her to expand on the idea of art therapy and using art as an alternative treatment or how its used in criminal justice situations. Its till rough, and if anyone has any ideas, please let me know.

Mackensie Minniear
[email protected]

Natasha Bove

2/7/2012 03:24:25 am

I am going to collaborate with Deborah Choi from the art class. I was thinking of covering how economic status affects health. My brother is an endocrinologist and deals with diabetes patients all the time. He could give us information on the nutrition habits of most of his patients as well as how much they exercise. Most of his patients have a low income and can represent this class that I would like to examine. As a contrast I am thinking of asking my brother about his nutrition and exercise habits as well.

Kiran Dhillon

2/7/2012 03:25:01 am

I am now thinking of writing my feature on Mexican immigration. I have a friend who is an illegal immigrant, has lived in CA almost all of his life, had to drop out of UCSB due to financial reasons, and almost got deported to Mexico a few months ago. I do not know exactly where I want to go with the story yet, but maybe something about the constant fear that undocumented immigrants have to live in of deportation. As professor Ross told me today, more people have been deported under Obama than under Bush, which I think is very interesting. If anyone knows anyone else I can interview for this story, that would be very helpful!

[email protected]
925-683-4658

Carly McMaster

2/7/2012 03:25:48 am

I've been continuing to work on my collaboration with Alaina Judd in the photojournalism class on our project on how justice and religion play into the abortion debate.

We've narrowed our focus to looking at Crisis Pregnancy Centers and how they are using false advertising (claiming to offer abortion advice) as well as giving out false medical advice (such as claiming there is a link between abortions, breast cancer, and infertility) to dissuade women from getting abortions. These centers are funded and run by Christian organizations. We think this is a problem that many young women are not aware of, so we are hoping to shed some light onto this issue.

We've been in contact with both Planned Parenthood and the Friends of Life Center (a Santa Barbara Crisis Pregnancy Center) about setting up interviews. In fact, this afternoon we are going to the Friends of Life Center to speak with them.

For more interviews, we've contacted political figures that are involved with bans on Crisis Pregnancy Center (specifically in San Francisco), lawyers involved in court cases dealing with Crisis Pregnancy Centers, doctors in local hospitals, counselors at the UCSB health center, and students who have witnessed the protesting done by pro-life groups and how that has personally affected them.

Carly McMaster

2/7/2012 08:51:57 am

Update: Alaina and I just got back from our first interview at a local Crisis Pregnancy Center, Friends of Life Network. The interview was extremely successful and incredibly interesting- definitely I think it helped to point us in a good direction to continue delving into this topic.

We have the entire interview recorded, and we talked with a RN at the center. She gave us all of the pamphlets they hand out to women and also ran through all of the advice and information they give to women. The center is clearly very pro-life and religiously affiliated- most of the information she told us was warning us about the dangers of using birth control and condoms (for example that they make you more susceptible to STDs- an idea that has been disproved by scientists) as well as all of the inherent dangers that the abortion procedure itself involves. These are all tactics that these centers have been accused of in the past of using to trick women out of having abortions.

At the end of the interview, the nurse suggested that we attend an event that they are helping to sponsor this weekend: a speech by Christian Leader Dr. Bruce Wilkinson. Dr. Wilkinson will be speaking about "the great turnaround," or how to overturn Roe V Wade and "prevent the tragedy of human loss."

Alaina and I are both planning on attending this talk on Saturday evening and hopefully we will also be able to speak to Dr. Wilkinson in person afterwards.

Denna Taherzadeh

2/10/2012 05:46:53 am

So, after talking to Dr. Ross, I have decided to take my feature in another direction. I want to focus on peoples attitudes and views on Guantanamo Bay both domestically and internationally and see what college students views on the issue generally is and how much they know about it. I'll interview both students in the U.S and Europe/Australia. I may also interview a professor to get their view point.

If anyone has any suggestions or anything I'm always open to ideas!

My e-mail is [email protected]

Thanks!

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10/23/2012 11:04:41 am

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Writing 107j -- Week 5 -- Progress

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