Readings due 6-4-09

Menace II Society
1.) It was mentioned that social class was an important mediating factor on Caryon’s actions, but that media also played a role. Do you think media really changed the outcome of thieving, drug-selling child, to possibly not end up in jail?
2.) Caryon mentioned multiples times that he felt a connection or understanding of the characters in the media, he viewed, but that he was not trying to act out a scene from the movie when he and his friends acted out the scene. What would push someone to do this, if it was not to reenact the scene?
3.) If in fact media does have a large effect on people involved in the ‘thug life’ such as Caryon, do you believe that the actors that play these roles such as Denzel Washington have a societal or moral obligation to re-think accepting future roles?

Wrestling with the Web
1.) I was very confused as to the fact that these children were young, still in elementary school and were using school computers to check this website daily. If this type of media could cause potential negative effects or behavior on the kids, why weren’t the website blocked?
2.) On page 71 when mentioning interviews with the Latina girls, it said that the girls would sometimes watch wrestling with their fathers or brothers, but their mothers did not approve. Do you think this was a gender stereotype and that the mothers did not approve of the daughters watching, but the sons were allowed?