Post 22: Ideas of Paper # 8

Well it’s the end of the week and it’s time for another blog post. It has directly to do with the response we had to type our weekly paper about. The question presented to us was:

"Of the various sites of Chicano struggle for media access, the one I would guess you are most familiar with is the college / university setting. This week, in 1-2 pages, I'd like you to consider what colleges in general, and what Bridgewater State College in particular (and the Dept. of Communication Studies even more so, and you and me EVEN MORE SO) should be doing to increase minority media access and cultural diversity. What is to be done? Be concrete as you can!"

My response to that (which could be applied to any college in my opinion, Bridgewater State College included) was that exposure can be increased for ALL cultures in the following formats: Internet, television, and theatre/drama.

Without going into the details of the paper (which would make this Blog two pages long and I have so few followers as it is, and I don't want to scare them away) I will simply break down what I observed with each.

Internet:
-Create different portals of each culture that ties in with that campus' database, or even external databases that deal directly with that particular culture (Chicano specifically since that is what we are focusing on right now). That way the searching for history, traditions, myths, legends, stories, discussions, etc can be easily found, accessed, and more importantly LEARNED. I would also like to think that these links would have a place on the main College's Library page to make it more well known and easier to access.

Television:
Essentially it was my idea that most colleges have a local broadcasting channel or creates shows for local town programming. I think it would be very interesting to have a representative of each culture's community have a weekly or daily roundtable discussion about relative topics of the day that would involve history, traditions, and stereotypes and how they overcome those stereotypes. I feel this would be highly educational and beneficial to not only the round table members to learn about each other but for real debates and issues to be brought out and discussed that relates to modern struggles of that culture.

Theatre/Drama:
Imagine the Chicano student body presenting their version of I am Joaquin as a drama piece with their own versions of images and music being displayed for a modern crowd. I think that would be fantastic and a great opportunity to help the rest of us understand the struggle of the Chicano community. But why stop there? This movement could do all sorts of Chicano based history, myths, legends, and cultural stories dealing with their society to help further understanding. Another thing about theatre that seems to be an advantage over other media forms is that it is a form of artistic expression and has the chance to be a bit more edgy in its message and presentation. That coupled with controversial material almost always created a “buzz” about the production giving it more of an audience and a real chance to spread a message if well constructed.

Well these were my papers ideas. I hope that my fellow classmates were able to come up with some interesting ones as well. If anyone wants to discuss theirs on this Blog post please be my guest! I think it’s just another way of exposure and brings about good discussion.