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Portfolio and Introductory Essay
The analysis of various media products that include music, videos, books, and documentaries highlight their imperative nature to influence change within the society. It is evident that each of the media channels has a substantial audience following. The information communicated through the sources analyzed are focused on communicating to a diverse audience, which creates different implications among the people who engage with them. Suggestively, the implications of a hip-hop video might be different between two people. Nevertheless, there is the common message, which is evident in the content. Feminism has been a key topic in the content developed for public consumption by literary and entertainment sources. The idea of feminism has become imperative in advocating for women's rights across the globe, and helping them to engage in social, political, and economic activities. Although, feminism is highly criticized, it has helped address some persistent challenges faced by women. In this light, my discussion in the four papers was centered on the theme of feminism. Drawing from the presentation offered by different content creators, it is clear that women are still oppressed due to challenges presented by information dispensed to the public. For instance, the research on the hip-hop genre of music revealed that the language used and the images portrayed by the videos influence how women are perceived in the community. Violent language contributes to how women are treated by their peers and other people in the community. The findings of the study were in line with those by Bretthauer, highlighting that violence against women is a major theme embraced by hip-hop artists and in the development of hip-hop videos.
Perhaps the most resonating aspect of the assignments was the concept raised by the cultivation theory. This theory alludes that once the audience is exposed to media content, they are likely to start engaging and aligning themselves with the beliefs presented or heard in the propagating sources. Notably, these sources include music videos, films, books, magazines, and other forms of mass media. This is evident in the interpretive documentary analysis, which shows that the societal ideas that exist about the position of women in the society are deeply instilled in our cultures. Although these cultural aspects might be different, the use of mass media has made them known across the world. Resultantly, the documentary communicates the impact marriage has on women. Reading the article Feminist Body/Politics as World Traveller by Kathy Davis offers an overview of the book Our Bodies, Ourselves, informing of the missing points in addressing the challenges faced by women. Drawing from Davis, the idea of global feminism can be attributed to the implications drawn from consumption of mass media (223-247). The integration of the interpretive documentary analysis and the interpretive lens project, I understand that global feminism is intensively developing in the content offered by mass media, but feminism is limited due to the cultural differences that exist. This is exemplified by the need to make adjustments in the book Our Bodies, ourselves to addressing the emerging issues in feminism, while according to Wood, the nostalgic appeal of female anger, which is a freeing thing to experience should be preserved.
The perceptions people about women vary substantially across cultures and social classes as well as age. Every stage in life presents various challenges, especially for females due to the preference of masculinity across different societies. Identifying the contribution women have in our societies and the implications that emerge is critical to foster changes advocated for by different stakeholders to achieve gender equality. A review of Jackson and Anderson’s work shows that themes that are against gender equality have been persistence in hip-hop music since the late 1980s to date (22). In this light, there is a need for some substantial changes to be made for women to get the respect they deserve. Dixon supports the notion that the persistence of these challenges is evidence that the community is not at par in addressing these issues (345). From this perspective, I propose that there should be increased media censorship, although this might be limited due to the inherent right of expression. Nevertheless, advocating for women's rights should not be superseded by entertainment and critique acclaims that support the existing inequality. Suggestively, the right of expression and communication should be formulated in a way that it would not compromise the rights that should be enjoyed by women as global feminism develops.
Developing these compressive analyses presented some challenges. First, feminism is highly criticized, which makes sources available complex and limited to support the general objective presented in the research. In the same context, the sources available on various topics in the assignments lack substantial information, which makes the analysis a reflection of the insights gained from readings and contrasting them. Subsequently, the assignments were time-consuming. Nevertheless, the review of different literature sources was informative and educational, and it shaped a new perception of how feminism and the mass media interact to shape our societies. Also, the focus on a variety of sources, including films, music, books, journals, websites and others was a challenge but has helped me to develop research skills that can help me to draw information from any credible source.
Content Analysis of Hip-Hop Music
Introduction
This study sought to examine the hip-hop music culture and the way messages prejudiced against women or misogyny and influenced the attitudes of listeners, especially in terms of intimate partner violence. Popular hip-hop artists normally depict women as violence objects by suggesting that women should be submissive. The songs tend to glorify male hegemony whereby men find it appealing for women to be exploited (Bretthauer 38). Consequently, this has led to the notion that these messages tend to support the violence instigated against women such as torture, abuse and rape. These themes emerged in hip-hop songs during the late 1980s and continue being depicted in today’s videos (Jackson & Anderson 22). Young adults are the highest consumers of such music and themes, hence may be affected by such derogatory videos that support intimate partner violence (Dixon et al 349). The demographic has been impacted by the occurrence of violence explicit media together with the undesirable images notable in the culture of hip-hop that promotes the idea that violence and hostility are traits related to masculinity. The celebration of women’s physical abuse propagates masculinity models that encourage misogyny. Numerous studies have been conducted to ascertain the changes in the hip-hop culture, but only a few of them have reported results about the development of misogyny messages in hip-hop videos (Dixon et al 345). Again, there is little information available about the way hip-hop music messages influence the audience to develop stereotypes or certain perspectives about women. An analysis of the historical development of hip-hop music videos can be crucial for providing pertinent information about the nature of these videos. As such, this project seeks to collect information using a special content analysis method of data collection. The paper is organized into the Methods, Results, Analysis/Discussion and Conclusion parts to present the study. The paper further discusses whether consuming of hip-hop with misogynistic messages affects the listeners’ attitudes with respect to domestic violence. The main research question was: How does the depiction of women during exposure to misogynistic videos affect the audience, especially college students?
Methods
This project deployed the cultivation theory for examining media impacts of misogynistic hip-hop video music on influencing the attitudes of the audience towards women-instigated violence. Through the incorporation of an online survey as well as qualitative content analysis, the project conducted an analysis of the popular video songs on Billboard chart during the last 15 years. A sample of 10 videos was used from Billboard’s singles list because of the specific violent terminology viewed on videos on top-ranking hip-hop list in the course of this study. Billboard Hot 100 is the channel employed to determine the popularity of songs based on listeners’ online streaming activities and a number of digital downloads. The top videos are compiled in the month of November to ascertain the top 100 songs every year for all genres.
Intended meanings in the videos were studied from the understanding of the cultivation theory that claims that upon exposure of individuals to media content, they slowly start practicing and aligning with the beliefs viewed or heard from the propagating sources. The cultivation theory further contends that increased exposure of the audience to factors like sexual aggression or violence influences them to accept women objectification. This project explored the interpretation of the audience of the misogynistic messages within popular hip-hop videos. Qualitative content analysis formed the major part of this study. It is a research technique that is detrimental for a systematic and objective description of content manifested in communication. It pays attention to the distinct messages that depict the meanings of specific phenomena instead of statistical importance. Through qualitative content analysis and cultivation theory, this study analyzed violent, misogynistic lyrics in ten different but popular hip-hop music videos produced between 2000 and 2010. The music videos were acquired from different sources including YouTube, azlyrics.com and the decoding was done line by line. The classification of the songs based on messages and videos conveyed through the songs. The coding criterion was based on: sexual assault, demeaning language, and physical violence. The videos were also labeled in accordance with the degree of misogynistic content: low, medium or high.
Results
Through content analysis, the study conducted an analysis of the messages inherent in 10 hip-hop videos from 2000-2010 (See Table 1 below).
Table 1.0: Selected Hip-Hop Videos
Song Artist GenreYearRankThe Real Slim ShadyEminem Hip-hop200051The Next EpisodeDr. Dre and Snoop DoggWest Coast hip hop200076Livin It UpJa Rule and CaseHip-hop200179/76Move BitchMystikal, LudacrisSouthern hip hop200255SupermanEminem...