Latest articles from sociology lens
by dsantore On Thursday, September 25, “CBS Evening News” broadcast a conversation between anchor Katie Couric and Republican Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin. The interview would soon become the stuff of internet and TV legend. By now most of us are familiar with Governor Palin’s musings on Alaska’s proximity to Russia, on “The Bush Doctrine,” and other topics. The broadcast, like Palin’s ABC News interview that preceded it, will be remembered most for exposing the Vice-Presidential candidate’s wet-behind-the-ears entrance into national...
by Nickie Wild Russia’s parliament recently moved to ban the American television shows “South Park,” “Family Guy,” and “The Simpsons,” alleging that they sent negative messages to the country’s children. Russian cartoon network 2×2, which airs the programs, had its license up for renewal, and the Kremlin was not intending to grant it. Besides general accusations of moral depravity, the government particularly objected to the “South Park” episode Mr. Hankey’s Christmas Classics, in which a piece of human waste comes...
by rbobbitt Racism takes many forms, constantly shifting in expression in order to brace against the ever widening borders of contact between foreign cultures and ethnicities. Race has once again taken the spotlight as the contest for the US presidential election hosts the first African American presidential candidate and the country collectively examines how much race plays a role in the mind of its citizens. Religious bigotry has also played a role as whisper campaigns spread word of Obama’s...
by delawaregrad Mass tourism encompasses the consumption of large quantities of branded goods including souvenirs and food and drink. This idea of mass consumption is most notably seen during large international sporting events where a type of “global village” is produced in which people world-wide watch multiple sporting events. According to Roche (2006), these global media events illustrate elements of ‘basic globalization’ where events promote universal values and provide cultural standards (spread of a consumer culture of the sport and...
by socmatters The customary “would you like rolls with your dinner?” takes on a whole new meaning when considering the various ways in which gender roles may complicate the dining experience. Traditional gender role expectations have long influenced the behaviors of servers in restaurants. Although many of the most outdated gender-based customs may have disappeared (e.g., providing menus without prices to females, insisting on separate uniforms for female servers), a recent article in the New York Times insists that they...
by kiddingthecity Jammie Thomas was already famous enough to gain a Wikipedia entry all for herself. Now that she basically won the second trial against the powerful lobby Recording Industry Against America (RIAA) for alleged filesharing of copyrighted songs (24 apparently), has become a legend. As such, stories on the blogs bounce back and fro, but you get also glimpses of her private life and personality according to whom writes the piece (does it matter if she is a single...
by nmccoy1 Fashion has pitched itself as an ‘art,’ as a reflection of society and current issues (see article below). But fashion, like other centers of commerce, is planned in advance for the purpose of profit. This spring’s fashion collections do not, or rather, could not be symbolic of the current financial crisis simply because they were envisioned months if not years ago. Habermas illustrates the ways in which this use of fashion is problematic. First, conceived of as an...
by PlantingSeedsFromUA In the past decade we have heard of various school shootings throughout the United States. A search on the internet using “school shootings” as the keywords produces over one million hits. The rise in school violence, or the appearance of, has contributed to the increased interest in the sociological investigation of the violence that takes place in schools. Research has supported the correlation between school violence and bullying. In recent news, a 14 year old boy...
by bmckernan A recent NY Times article examines the blurring of literature and videogames by looking at efforts made by book publishers to promote their books with corresponding videogames. One such example, the popular series The Software, includes a videogame companion that forces players to read the corresponding books in order to find clues necessary to progress in the game. While some may criticize videogames as a shallow medium relative to literature, others suggest that videogames may actually help develop...
by: brianchung The success and integration of immigrant minority groups in North American labour markets have always been quite futile in comparison to their North-American and European-born counterparts. Recent findings from the 2006 census, released by Statistics Canada, show that the children of Chinese and South Asian immigrants to Canada fare much better over time than children of Blacks, Filipinos and Latin Americans. Second- and third-generation Chinese and Japanese Canadians have surpassed the income of all other groups of newcomers,...
The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs is expected to propose the reclassification of Ecstasy (MDMA). At present, ecstasy is categorized as a Class A drug, alongside heroin and cocaine. The recommendation to downgrade the drug to Class B appears to be based on a principle of “relative harm.” Such reclassification may be seen as both radical and constructive, enabling drug workers, as well as the wider criminal justice system to take more appropriate action. However, early indications...
by dsantore Another American presidential election brings with it familiar debates – arguments about idealism vs. pragmatism, the liberal media bias vs. the conservative media bias, values vs. issues, style vs. substance. It calls to mind a line of discussion carried over the past several months by a couple of the thinkers-that-be at the New York Times. Judith Warner and Stanley Fish, each of whom write regular opinion pieces for the Times’ website, have been pursuing the question of whether...
By rbobbitt Abortion remains a hotly contested subject within society, and with the election looming high, the pro-choice/pro-life divide continues to provide a means of voting allocations. A recent study by the Guttmacher Institute (see article below), a nonprofit reproductive health research organization, brings a new dynamic into the abortion debate. The Institutes comprehensive examination of abortion reveals that during the past thirty years, abortion rates have dropped among teenage whites and risen among women of color in their 20’s...
by NickieWild With campus binge drinking on the rise, advocates on opposing sides of this issue are using health and safety study data to support their positions. Last July, the non-profit organization Choose Responsibly launched the Amethyst Initiative, a coalition of Unites State college presidents who want to start a serious debate about lowering the drinking age in an effort to curb binge drinking on campus. Citing the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, the group argues that the...
by kiddingthecity The ex-fascist mayor of Rome Mr. Alemanno made the headlines lately, when while visiting Israel refused to call on Fascism ‘as absolute evil’ and labeled it as ‘a complex phenomenon’. The outcry of condemnation from the Italian Center-Left and the Jewish community at this latest ‘slippage’ is highly justified, but in my view missed the point: they are in fact rehearsing a view of Fascism (with capital letter) as ‘historical norm’ (Walter Benjamin’s Thesis VIII). Mr. Alemanno, on...
by socmatters The growing rate of home foreclosures has devastated individuals, families, neighborhoods and communities across the United States. The Washington Post reported that a group of “foreclosees” recently engaged in collective action in response to this crisis. The small group marched into the Baltimore office of the Department of Housing and Urban Development in an effort to get some kind of public and official response from “The Man”. These are the real people behind the impersonal news stories peppering...
