The second place the author chose for her experiment was Maine. She chose this area because of the demographic inequality. To be more specific, she chose the area because it was filled with white people. White people held every job that down in Florida was held by minorities. She thought it would be easier for her to find a low paying job without worrying about being overrun by a minority population. To help her case, many television and radio stations held numerous advertisements offering “mother” shifts and begging people to try out for the job. So the hard part for her isn’t going to be finding a job.
She entered Portland with only $1,000 dollars and a few loose bills in her pockets. She decided to stay at the Motel 6, which was an alarming $59 a night, until she could find suitable accommodations for herself. This Motel 6 was a step up from what she was used to in Florida. She could walk next door to a Texaco station with a small convenience store attached. Or she could walk across the turnpike to a Pizza Hutt and a Shop-n-Save.
Her hunt for an apartment started in disarray. After picking up a newspaper she found out that there were no apartments in Portland. The only accommodations available in Portland were condos or “executive apartments” which were $1000 a month. The nearest apartments were thirty minutes away in Old Orchard beach and still were $500 a month. She then decides to look into a share an apartment in Old Orchard Beach with another woman, who cleans for a living. But the room is $65 a week and is smaller than the room she has at the motel. So she decides to give up on sharing.
After returning to Portland she decides to visit a place called the Blue haven Motel and for $120 a week she gets a bed/living area, a kitchen, linens included, and a T.V. that has cable. She quickly pays the security deposit and returns to the motel 6 to retrieve her stuff. So she now has a place to live.
Now that she has found suitable accommodations she begins her hunt for a job. Learning from her Key West experience she interviews for as many position as possible. She knows that even though an ad says help wanted doesn’t necessarily mean that there is a position available at this time. She decides that waitressing would be difficult with the tourist season ending and that clerical work would be impossible with the limited wardrobe. So she decides to look into a cleaning position. Any position will suffice; office, home, warehouse, etc. She then goes to Goodwill and Wal-Mart looking for jobs but finds no luck. She finally learns from all the job fairs that Portland is just another $7 an hour town.
On her fourth day in Portland she receives two phone calls. On telling her she has gotten a job for a nurse service on the weekends and another telling her she received a job for The Maids throughout the week. These positions pay close to $7 an hour, and to celebrate she eats dinner at Appleby’s for $11.95.
Monday, December 1, 2008
Friday, November 21, 2008
Nickel and Dimed
The author, Barbara Ehrenreich, makes a compelling argument in the introduction of the book. Her goal is to determine whether a single female worker can survive in the workforce on minimum wage. She will not use government aide including welfare, or other programs geared toward the underclass. I believe that her experiment will show many people the reality that there are people living in poverty that can barely make it by on minimum wage.
The author will also implement a number of rules throughout her experiment. She will only take the cheapest housing possible, she will only take the highest paying jobs, she will always have a car, and she will never fall back on her education in order to obtain a job. She tries to stick to these rules to the best of her ability. But there are some circumstances where she may be forced to break them. For instance, if she thinks she may go hungry one night she will use her ATM card to buy food. Or she will never allow herself to live in her car.
Now that we have covered the basics of her experiment let’s move on to the actual experiment. Her first experiment had taken place in Florida. She was to become a waitress at the restaurant called Hearthside. She works from 2:00 until 10:00 and made $2.43 an hour plus tips. There she begins to understand the theme of companionship. She befriends another server named Gail who watches out for her. But this is also where she breaks one of her rules. She uses other languages to greet guests that she learned in college. This brings her tips but risks exposing her cover.
While at the restaurant she learns or the resentment the servers and cooks have toward the managers. She finds out how the workers used to like the managers, before they were managers, but the title meant they gave up the care toward the worker and adopted a care toward the corporation. This can be seen on Page 23 in the book where the author talks about a mandatory meeting where the managers lay down many new rules which the workers don’t take to very well.
The Hearthside is also where she met many new people who are living the same situations that she is experimenting. She meets people like Billy a cook, a busboy named Timmy, and a Haitian immigrant named Claude who, lives in a crowded apartment with his girlfriend.
The next restaurant she goes is Jerry’s, because “Jerry’s attracts more customers than the gloomy old Hearthside. Here she meets a 19 year old Czech immigrant named George who has only been in America for one week. The author begins to bond with him and makes it her goal to try and teach him how to speak English.
In order to cut the cost of gas she moves out of her apartment and into trailer number 46 at the Overseas Trailer Park. The trailer is 8 feet in width and is shaped like a barbell inside. The place is not close to and supermarket but is across the street from a liquor store.
I believe she is doing a great job. So far she has been able to survive and try and help other people out. Hopefully she will be able to keep this up for the rest of the book.
The author will also implement a number of rules throughout her experiment. She will only take the cheapest housing possible, she will only take the highest paying jobs, she will always have a car, and she will never fall back on her education in order to obtain a job. She tries to stick to these rules to the best of her ability. But there are some circumstances where she may be forced to break them. For instance, if she thinks she may go hungry one night she will use her ATM card to buy food. Or she will never allow herself to live in her car.
Now that we have covered the basics of her experiment let’s move on to the actual experiment. Her first experiment had taken place in Florida. She was to become a waitress at the restaurant called Hearthside. She works from 2:00 until 10:00 and made $2.43 an hour plus tips. There she begins to understand the theme of companionship. She befriends another server named Gail who watches out for her. But this is also where she breaks one of her rules. She uses other languages to greet guests that she learned in college. This brings her tips but risks exposing her cover.
While at the restaurant she learns or the resentment the servers and cooks have toward the managers. She finds out how the workers used to like the managers, before they were managers, but the title meant they gave up the care toward the worker and adopted a care toward the corporation. This can be seen on Page 23 in the book where the author talks about a mandatory meeting where the managers lay down many new rules which the workers don’t take to very well.
The Hearthside is also where she met many new people who are living the same situations that she is experimenting. She meets people like Billy a cook, a busboy named Timmy, and a Haitian immigrant named Claude who, lives in a crowded apartment with his girlfriend.
The next restaurant she goes is Jerry’s, because “Jerry’s attracts more customers than the gloomy old Hearthside. Here she meets a 19 year old Czech immigrant named George who has only been in America for one week. The author begins to bond with him and makes it her goal to try and teach him how to speak English.
In order to cut the cost of gas she moves out of her apartment and into trailer number 46 at the Overseas Trailer Park. The trailer is 8 feet in width and is shaped like a barbell inside. The place is not close to and supermarket but is across the street from a liquor store.
I believe she is doing a great job. So far she has been able to survive and try and help other people out. Hopefully she will be able to keep this up for the rest of the book.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
The Merchants of Cool
1. What is “cool hunting” and how is it done? What theories and methods of media research are the “cool hunters” using?
Cool hunting is the search for a certain type of personality that is considered “cool” by the teenage population. It is done by gathering information on what will “sell” in the market at the time. “Cool hunters” use a variety of methods including surveys, focus groups, and the usual case study.
2. According to the commentators in the video, why do television, music, and fashion corporations want to understand how teenagers think and what they want?
Because the media only wants to know what will sell. The teenage generation is a $50 billion a year business for the media. So the big corporations including; News Corp, Viacom, Disney, Universal, and AOL will do whatever it takes to find out what the teens want.
3. How do MTV executives and other programming and marketing decision-makers characterize their relationship to teen culture? Do they say they are creating or reflecting teen culture?
The market executives claim that they are only reflecting the teen culture. I believe that they are creating the culture. The businesses like MTV choose which bands will be listened to and which will be silently killed. So in a sense the corporations are making the same culture they are trying so desperately to be a part of.
4.what is the difference between marketing research and human research, according to the commentators in the video? What are the goals of each?
Marketing research is research for the sole purpose of finding out what will sell to a certain group of people while human research is research where the companies figure out what the people want as individuals. The goals of each are to determine what will sell to the people that the company is focused on.
5. Who is giving the most accurate description of the relationship between teen culture and commercialization, the “merchants of cool” or their critics? What role are these institutions playing in the socialization process? Argue for one of these two positions using specific points and examples from the movie.
I believe that the critics give the better view of the relationship between the two factors. The merchants claim that they are only mirroring the teen culture while the critics say that they are creating the culture entirely. For example, most of the music you listen to on the radio is produced by a major record label. The only bands that are not are the ones who make their claim to fame underground. So the corporations are deciding which items should and should not be listened to by the mainstream teen culture.
Cool hunting is the search for a certain type of personality that is considered “cool” by the teenage population. It is done by gathering information on what will “sell” in the market at the time. “Cool hunters” use a variety of methods including surveys, focus groups, and the usual case study.
2. According to the commentators in the video, why do television, music, and fashion corporations want to understand how teenagers think and what they want?
Because the media only wants to know what will sell. The teenage generation is a $50 billion a year business for the media. So the big corporations including; News Corp, Viacom, Disney, Universal, and AOL will do whatever it takes to find out what the teens want.
3. How do MTV executives and other programming and marketing decision-makers characterize their relationship to teen culture? Do they say they are creating or reflecting teen culture?
The market executives claim that they are only reflecting the teen culture. I believe that they are creating the culture. The businesses like MTV choose which bands will be listened to and which will be silently killed. So in a sense the corporations are making the same culture they are trying so desperately to be a part of.
4.what is the difference between marketing research and human research, according to the commentators in the video? What are the goals of each?
Marketing research is research for the sole purpose of finding out what will sell to a certain group of people while human research is research where the companies figure out what the people want as individuals. The goals of each are to determine what will sell to the people that the company is focused on.
5. Who is giving the most accurate description of the relationship between teen culture and commercialization, the “merchants of cool” or their critics? What role are these institutions playing in the socialization process? Argue for one of these two positions using specific points and examples from the movie.
I believe that the critics give the better view of the relationship between the two factors. The merchants claim that they are only mirroring the teen culture while the critics say that they are creating the culture entirely. For example, most of the music you listen to on the radio is produced by a major record label. The only bands that are not are the ones who make their claim to fame underground. So the corporations are deciding which items should and should not be listened to by the mainstream teen culture.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Racism in the Race
“Racism and the Race” by Matthew Rothschild, printed in the October 2008 issue of The Progressive. He states many things about the upcoming election that seem to point to racism as being a deciding factor. He begins by stating that Barak Obama is the better candidate, and lists many issues in which Obama has the better outlook. He then asks the question, why then is he only in the lead by a narrow margin. The only answer he seems to find is racism. He then states how he visited Wisconsin, Ohio, and Pennsylvania and talked to people ages 45 and older about their views on the upcoming election. According to the people he talked to, they will not vote for Barak Obama, even when they voted straight ticket democrats for their entire lives, and could not conceive a reason for not voting democrat. According to Matt, this screams racism, and he may be right. But he fails to include any interviews in which the person says that racism plays a role in the election. Like he said, I guess we will find out come November 4th. To read this full article, please visit http://www.progressive.org/comment1008.html.
“Does Race Really Matter”, written by Michael Cohen, and printed in the Friday, October 17, 2008 edition of the New York Times. Mr. Cohen begins his article by stating statistics about the outcome of the upcoming election. He states that even though race will play a factor in the election, it will tend to favor Obama than to hurt him. We are not just talking about the African American votes here, but the other minority groups in the country also. In 2004, 66% of the Hispanic voters were on John Kerry’s side, and this year a sizeable majority was on Mrs. Clinton’s side. So Cohen states that many of these voters will still vote democrat even though they will not be voting for Hillary. This will play a key role in the southwestern states including New Mexico, Nevada, and Southern California. Also Kerry only lost by a small margin in swing states like Ohio, and the polls show that Obama is currently in the lead in these swing states. So in his opinion, the race will not come down to race, but who is the better candidate for the job. To read this full article, please visit http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/05/does-race-really-matter/?ref=opinion.
“And If Obama Loses”, written by Patrick Buchanan and listed on the Real Clear Politics website. In this article, Mr. Buchanan, has a very different approach on the issue of race in the upcoming election. He asks the question if Obama loses, will there be a racial backlash in the country. According to him, there is a 94 to 1 poll of black Americans behind Obama, so will these African Americans protest the election of McCain based on the issue of race? Mr. Buchanan says this is extremely likely. He also states that this election could be a lose -lose situation, Obama is the first major presidential candidate to have this little of experience for the office. So Mr. Buchanan says that if Obama wins, the country could lose in the end, but if he doesn’t win, the country could also suffer from a period of racial violence. So you need to ask yourself, which is the lesser of the two evils. To read this full article, please visit http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/08/and_if_obama_loses.html.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
McCain v. Obama
Over the last week, my sociology class viewed the acceptance speeches of Barack Obama and John McCain. While reading both speeches we were asked to compare and contrast the parts in the speech. This includes words used, policies, and their biographies. Now I will attempt to compare and contrast these two speeches in order to provide a detailed analysis of both candidates.
Both candidates used a variety of words throughout the course of their speeches. For example Obama used McCain’s name a total of 21 times, while McCain used Obama’s name a total of 6 times. But McCain did refer to him without using his name. we were also asked to record how many times each candidate used the following terms; change, fight trust promise and Washington. Senator McCain used these words a total of 179 times. “I” was used 95 times while “promise” was used 4 times. Senator Obama used these words a total of 157 times. “I” was used 68 times while” fight” was used only 6 times.
Next we were asked to record the candidates views on certain issues. From I read the candidates had a lot of the same views and they differed on quite a bit. McCain wants to stop spending 700 billion dollars on foreign oil while Obama wants to spend 150 billion dollars in “affordable energy”. in my opinion 150 billion is not “affordable”. They also differed on what to do about the war in Iraq. McCain states that he wants to keep the troops in Iraq for as long as possible while Obama doesn’t want the war to continue, but he will finish what we have started.
The last item we were required to record was the biographies mentioned in both speeches. McCain first talked about his parents and grandparents and then switched to his involvement in the Vietnam War. While Obama talked mostly about his family and their backgrounds. In my opinion McCain focused on war to much in his biography, maybe he enjoys the subject, or he is trying to play of the countries pity toward him. Hoping that they will side with him because of his past. While Obama, I think, focused on his family rather well. He played on the idea of family and parental involvement. Which can really hit home with a lot of Americans. But in the end it will all come down to the personal opinions of each individual, and they will make the right choice.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Majority to Minority???
Minorities may play a major role in future of the American society. After reading Sam Roberts articles titled “In a Generation, Minorities May Be the U.S. Majority” and “A Nation of None and All of the Above.” Both of these articles gave me serious questions regarding the recent minority shift in the U.S. According to the first article the minorities will soon grow to rival the white majority, which sits at about 79%. But the other article says that the shift may only lead a drop in the white majority from 79 to 74 percent. Which, in the long run, does not seem to be that big a deal. But in my opinion, there needs to be a change in the way minorities are counted. Take for example, the Spanish Americans. There are numerous illegal immigrants in this country. That is a fact. But the kids they have are counted in the census as U.S. citizens. I believe there should be a law requiring them to apply for citizenship, or even be deported back to their parents native country. But there is still a problem about how to get rid of illegal immigrants before this problem grows to large. At the moment we are doing little to cope with this issue.
Now let me shift a little to the legal immigrants that enter this country. As most Americans know, there is no better place than this country. Which is why we should allow immigrants to continue to come as much as possible. Why, because America was founded on immigrants. Look at the founding fathers for example, all of them are just transplanted Englishmen. America was and will always be a safe haven for those who share its ideals. Which is why we should allow immigrants from all over to keep coming and why we should help the illegal immigrants become citizens.
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