Generational & cultural gaps

Differences between mother and daughter, or or which is the same: » The generational gap» are, as José Joaquín Brunner explaines in his article «Brecha generacional»: «Throughout history, a major source of cultural change have been young people, whose collective rebellion usually manifests a profound mismatch with authority structures and practices of adult values ​​and social transmission. Hence also the nature of generational conflict that usually accompanies the youth movements, barely hidden behind reasons of participatory or democratization.»

 The massive Chinese immigration that U.S.A. suffered during the middle 50s is the perfect stage to realize how big this mother-daughter gaps were. Maxime Hong Kingston, by her well known book: The Woman Warrior, is going to illustrate us about the major changes that her family and she had to suffer during those taught years, focusing in the mother-daughter relationship.

To begin with, we must understand why do this generation gaps occur. At some time in our lives, we have all felt that our parents do not understand us, that they were from another world. This is mainly caused by several factors such as a change in the political or social situation of a country, the different points of view of the same world that both parts have…

In some cases such as Kingston’s, this gap becomes even bigger because her parents were born and raised in China (acquiring its traditions and values), while, Kingston, was born and raised the US. In other words, they moved from a communist and strict country to a totally capitalist and liberal one. This might also cause a fracture of identity and of belonging to the new generations. Obviously it was much harder for the progenitors to get used to this new and, somehow extrange situation than for their children. Maxime learnt, among other things, that women do not have to get married to feel fulfilled with themselves, that there was a world out of her parent’s silence, a world full of opportunities to women.

As we have seen in the book, Brave Orchid (Maxim’s mother) even been an opend minded woman, do not accept or understand some of her daughter’s worries and fears. She is still very linked to China (Maxime’s family sent them money because they were pursued by the communist government) and tries her children to be linked in same way  (we are told several stories and myths such as Fa Mulan’s during the book). Besides, Maxime and her sister have to go to the chinese school after the american one.

During the book, it is evident for the reader this lack of cummunication and of understanding between mother and daughter, which on the other hand, is totally understandable and normal. Even though, and in contrast with what we have said before, there is also a clear feeling of admiration towards her mother’s strengh, as we can see in the third part of the book: Shaman. In which Brave Orchid has to fight several «ghosts» (from Aitor Ibarrola’s point of view this ghosts might be Brave Orchids fears or nightmares).

To sum up, we can say (according to the book and to Aitor Ibarrola’s lectures) that even if the generational and cultural gap is still evident, Maxime finds a voice to claim who she is and where she belongs to by respecting her parent’s cultural procedence, and absorving her new culture as if she were a sponge.

References:

1. The Woman Warrior. (2011, September 11). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 12:31, November 27, 2011, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Woman_Warrior&oldid=449766324
2. Maxine Hong Kingston. (2011, October 11). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 12:33, November 27, 2011, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Maxine_Hong_Kingston&oldid=455036704
3. Patricia O’Connell (August 14, 2008). In Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved November 27, 2011 from http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_34/b4097060796052.htm
4. Maxine Hong Kingston. (2011, October 11). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 16:33, November 27, 2011, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Maxine_Hong_Kingston&oldid=455036704
5. Aitor Ibarrola’s lectures.

Why can’t we be friends?

Humans have been paranoic about being pursued by a stranger since a while. But it is getting worse since the internet was invented (you don’t even have to be «physically» chased!). And what is even worse, nowadays, there is no need to be involved in any kind of secret organization or to belong to the upper echelons of society.

This interesting topic has of course been investigated and analyzed by several experts whose opinions and articles will be taken into account so as to get the whole vision about it.

We will start by quoting a phrase written by Dave Birch: «Some day, not so far out in the future, there will be a parallel web that you can only enter by signing up with some form of id, a credit card for example, a verified by Visa web.» This shows us how incredibly weak can our digital identy be, and that obviously, that this whole digital world we have created is starting to fracture because of the lack of confidence. Even though, and as Mr. Birch says, we do not have to panic before time. «We need to develop a proper policy toward privacy and then use that policy to set strategies for commerce, crime and chat. Let’s not put the cart before the horse no matter how great the panic.» But, the main question is: where is the border between what is legal and ethically inappropriate?

Our second point of discussion will be a list of ways to get rid of what can makes us have a bad reputation on the web. Meghan Beresford explains us how difficult and frustrating this can be. First of all, and, in Mrs. Beresford’s words, we should protect our most personal and drammatic tweets so that we are the ones who decide who reads them (relatives, friends…). Another important point in Meghan Beresford’s list is that: » Your best bet is to make sure that there’s lots of good information about you on the internet.» This will make strangers to get a good (or at least, better) opinion about us, for example if we only have three search results for our name, and two of the make us look like a phyco, whoever sees that will have a bad impresion about us. These are some of Mrs. Beresford’s most important advices so that we can have a good reputation among the net.

Another relevant topic would be the propper choose of accepting friends on social networks, and the difference between getting to know people in social networks like Facebook and in microbloggs like Twitter. Inthe first case, we ought to choose our «friends»  more carefully than in the second case, because among other reasons we are way more exposed, and there is a lot of personal information shared. This information, and as we have began explaining before, could turn against us by both, generating a bad reputation or stealing information. And, as Antony Mayfield says, we must choose our Facebook friends really carefully so as to protect our privacy.

References:

1. Meghan Beresford (13,11,2009) Bad reputation: Doing damage control on your internet profile. In Tech Coguette. Retrieved November 17, 2011 from http://techcoquette.com/2009/11/bad-reputation-doing-damage-control-on-your-internet-profile/
2. Meghan Beresford (4,11,2009) Mirror, Mirror. What does Google tell people about you? In Tech Coguette. Retrieved November 17, 2011 from http://techcoquette.com/2009/11/mirror-mirror-what-does-google-tell-people-about-you/
3. Dave Birch (29,9,2011) Let’s not panic about online identity. In Media. Retrieved November 17, 2011 from http://www.chyp.com/media/blog-entry/lets-not-panic-about-online-identity
4. Juan Freire (2009) La forja de una identidad digital. In red.es. Retrieved November 19 from http://www.red.es/reportajes/articles/id/3545/forja-una-identidad-digital-.html

Cosmo Jarvis’ use of social networks

Cosmo Jarvis

The first post will be focused in how does our analyzed subject use the different means of communication that internet has. We will basically obtain information from our wiki -page. A.K.A. our Web Communication Plan.

The social networks we will construe, will principally be the well known Facebook page, (which in our case is also Cosmo Jarvis’ most used social network),  and the famous mricroblog:  Twitter.

Facebook is one of the mostused social networks with more than 8 million active members

As we have seeing in our WCP, Cosmo Jarvis  follows almost  all of Amy Porterfield’s «7 Facebook Marketing Tips From World’s Top Pros». We must remember, that even if he has succeded in linking his own web page with his Facebook account, advertising himself in it and, of course, giving his fans a reason to connect, he has not made it in leveraging his friends, therefore, here we have a point which he should improve.  The last tip we have analyzed in this list has been wether if he uploads videos or not. Ekaterina Walter describes this tip like this: «video as a secret weapon to gain fans». Cosmo Jarvis has realized how important this is to promote himself in this social network, and, uploads relevant videos almost every week.

Therefore, after seing experts’ opinions about the topic, and comparing them to our singer’s Facebook account, we must say, that even if he has to improve several points on it, he is doing it pretty good.

Twitter has mora than 200 million users all over the world.

The second «promoting weapon» we have analyzed in our WCP is, an other well known microblog page: Twitter. In this case, the experts we have consultated are: Rich Brooks and Zeke Camusio, whose opinions have been very usefull for our research. Like in the previous case, Cosmo Jarvis follows succesfully some of the advises, and should improive some other aspects. First of all, and if we look at Rich Brook’s article in Flyte, «How to use Twitter for business» . We will realize which of the tips the singer follows, and which one doesn’t. To begin with, it is obvious that he has achieved to communicate with his fans. He answers them, and retweets them. He also posts relevant information (tours, new songs, videoclips,… ). He has also linked his Twitter account to his own web page and to Facebook, therefore, and, as we have seen before, all of his web pages, social networks… are linked between them, which, as Robin Mayhall sais, is the idoneous way of improving or promoting ourselfs in the net.

Our second expert, Zeke Camusio, analyzes different topics such as not spaming, following other users, being active in the community (commenting and posting frequently), … And, once againg, Cosmo Jarvis has succeded following almost all of them. He should only improve a little bit engaging conversations (retweting more often).

This would be the introduction of our WCP, which, as we have seen will be focused in how this young singer promotes himself through social networks and microbloging.

REFERENCES:

1) Twitter. (2011, November 8). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 11:37, November 12, 2011, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Twitter&oldid=459622213

2) Facebook. (2011, November 11). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 11:38, November 12, 2011, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Facebook&oldid=460056823

3) Cosmo Jarvis. (2011, November 2). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 11:38, November 12, 2011, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cosmo_Jarvis&oldid=458604304

4) Amy Porterfield (2010.8.24) 7 Facebook Marketing Tips From World’s Top Pros. In «social Media Examination». Retrieved 2011.10.28 from http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/7-facebook-marketing-tips-from-pros/

5) Rich Brooks (2010.5.14) HOW TO USE TWITTER FOR BUSINESS in «flyte». Retrieved 2011.10.29 from http://www.flyte.biz/resources/newsletters/08/06-twitter-for-business.php

6) Zeke Camusio (2009/1/20). Twitter Marketing – Using Twitter to Promote Your Business. In «Biznick». Retrieved 22.10.2011 from http://biznik.com/articles/twitter-marketing-using-twitter-to-promote-your-business

COSMO JARVIS’ MAIN SOCIAL NETWORK PAGES:

-Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/cosmojarvis

-Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/CosmoJarvis

-His web page: http://cosmojarvis.com/

#2 «V-J Day in Times Square» by Alfred Eisenstaedt (1945)

Alfred Eisenstaed's famous kiss in Times Square.

«V-J Day in Times Square» is a photograph by Alfred Eisenstaedt that portrays an American sailor kissing a young nurse in a white dress on V-J Day in Times Square on August 14, 1945.  It was published in Life magazine a week later, in which there were many other photographs picturing the victory among the country, even though, Eisenstaedt’s was the only one occupying a full-page display. This was excatly what the media was looking for (kissing poses), but casually, Eisestaed was photographing a spontaneous event that occurred in Times Square as the announcement of the end of the war on Japan was made by President Truman at seven o’clock.

Before analyzing deeper this beautiful picture, we have to figure out what was happening that day in U.S.A. V-J stands for Victory over Japan. V-J was the name chosen for the day on which the Surrender of Japan occurred, effectively ending World War II, and subsequent anniversaries of that event. And, of course, after such a marvelous announcement, lots of signs of happiness were made all over the country (among which was that kiss).

ALFRED’S VIEW:

In words of Alfred Eisestaedt: «In Times Square on V.J. Day I saw a sailor running along the street grabbing any and every girl in sight. Whether she was a grandmother, stout, thin, old, didn’t make a difference. I was running ahead of him with my Leica looking back over my shoulder but none of the pictures that were possible pleased me. Then suddenly, in a flash, I saw something white being grabbed. I turned around and clicked the moment the sailor kissed the nurse. If she had been dressed in a dark dress I would never have taken the picture. If the sailor had worn a white uniform, the same. I took exactly four pictures. It was done within a few seconds.

Another picture of the epic moment, but this time taken by U.S. Navy photo journalist Victor Jorgensen.

THE COUPLE’S VIEW:

Edith Shain a nurse who was working at Doctor’s Hospital in New York and who was told by a friend that World War II had ended. They went to Times Square where all the celebrating was, and as soon as she arrived on the street from the subway, the sailor grabbed her in an embrace and kissed her. Edith claimed to be the nurse in 1970. The sailor was George Mendonça, he was identified by a group of volunteers who by matching his scars and tattoos with the scars and tattoos in the picture determined that was him in 2005. Medoça was watching a film with his date, Rita, at Radio City Music Hall when the doors opened and people started screaming the war was over. George and Rita started partying in the streets, it was then when George saw a nurse walk by and took her into his arms and kissed her. «I had quite a few drinks that day and I considered her one of the troops—she was a nurse.» Said Mendoça. In one of the four pictures that Eisenstaedt took, Mendonça claims that Rita is visible in the background behind the kissing couple.

This photograph has of course become a symbol all over the world because of its spontaneity and the happiness that it emanates.

Bibliography:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victory_over_Japan_Day
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%E2%80%93J_day_in_Times_Square

#1 «Lunch Atop a Skyscrapper» by Charles C. Ebbets (1932)

This blog’s main pourpose is to see and analyze the 10 most important photographs of the last century. We will also be focused in the context in which they were taken (political, social,… issues). And, of course, who the photographer was, who or what did he picture, and why.

I have chosen this topic basically because I personally love photography and this is a good way of learning more abou it, and of getting to know who the photographers of these marvelous pictures were (they are always forgotten). The order of the photographs  is not because of my preferences, and they are not randomly chosen either. They will be posted by age. Which means that we will start by the older ones, and end up with the «younger» ones.

The main sources of information of our research will be mainly: The Internet, and some other encyclopedia such as: «Plaza».

I hope you enjoy this blog and if there were any question, please don’t hesitate contacting me.

****

The workers Ebbets immortalized having lunch in 1932.

The author of this curious picture is Charles C. Ebbets, but he was not considered the author until 2003, because Bettman files (which owed the rights of the photograph) did not recognize him as the author, in fact in many of the films thatcontinue to reproduce for sale, still does not state theauthor of the work and is classified as anonymous.

The photograph was taken in New York on September 29, 1932, and published the New York Herald Tribune in the Sunday supplement of October 2 of that year. It was takenon the floor 69 of the 70 having the GE Building at Rockefeller Center. It depicts eleven men eating lunch, seated on a girder with their feet dangling hundreds of feet above the New York City streets.

Rockefeller center nowadays.

Even if this picture is almost undoubtedly true, there are still people who believe this was fake. As an expert in «Answers.com» says: «First, the halo around all the men indicates the men and the beam were ‘burned in’ from another negative. It is well done, but it is not perfect. Second, the contrast ratio of the men and beam is far higher than the rest of the print. You can see the drop out in the shadows made up of and from the men’s shoes, while the cityscape has an entirely different tonal range. Third, if one closely examines city background in areas such as between a man’s inner arm and body (such as the third man from the left) there is no city detail. This is because it is impossible to burn in an area that is so small and isolated. »

Even though, a descent of Ebbets claims to have the original glass negative, therefore, we could say that it is not fake. Still, there are lots of doubts about this amazing photograph which, fake or not, has passed into history.

Bibliography:

• http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Is_the_photo_lunch_atop_a_skyscraper_real
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunch_atop_a_Skyscraper
• http://www.ojodigital.com/foro/fotos-con-historia/204565-fotos-con-historia-30-21-05-08-charles-c-ebbets-lunch-atop-skyscrapper.html

Victory over Japan Day. (2011, September 2). In

Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

. Retrieved 07:53, November 2, 2011, from

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Victory_over_Japan_Day&oldid=448002678