Eunhee Kang-"Gracie"

Gracie Movie Trailerclick
'A fifteen-year-old girl Gracie Bowen grew up in a male-dominant family obsessed with soccer challenges herself to show capability of woman as a soccer player throughout the film. Her older brother Johnny who was a highschool star player in boy’s varsity soccer team dies in a car accident. This tragic incident motivates Gracie to try out for boy’s varsity soccer team to replace her brother’s position. During 1978, the time setting of this movie, girl’s soccer team didn’t exist; therefore, Gracie struggles not only physically but also mentally to gain trust from others and also from herself.’

This film is based on true story of the Shue family. Elisabeth Shue, who acted as Gracie’s mother in the movie, is an actual Gracie character. Since the real character of this film is involved and Davis Guggenheim, husband of Elisabeth Shue, directed this film, Gracie’s story is delivered in very personal voice. Gracie struggling to break the wall of discrimination on woman is depicted in concrete detail as the purpose of the movie was to inspire audience to change their perspective on women. The story has great message that encourages women to challenge and to follow their dreams, but it is possibly biased since the story is personal. Not all girl soccer players can make into boy’s team, and not all girls can prove their capabilities to biased society. However, the movie depicts Gracie as representation of girls in general, and sends a message that many girls are similar to Gracie who couldn’t show her ability to the world because of the restriction on women but later overcomes her problem. This is true in some sense but extreme in some point. People around Gracie tried to warn her because they were worried about her, not because they wanted to oppress her dream.

A film effectively convinces audience to believe its messages by presenting solid characters with credible stories. While I was watching this movie, I found myself feeling satisfied from fictional character Gracie. Since I have experienced discrimination just because of my gender, Gracie’s achievement released discontentment I had toward fixed idea of women in society. This movie inspired me to prevent myself from becoming trained by set ideas on women, and to move forward to my dream.
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"Gracie Official Site: New Movie Trailers: Elisabeth Shue, Carly Schroeder Soccer Inspirational." Gracie Official Site: New Movie Trailers: Elisabeth Shue, Carly Schroeder Soccer Inspirational. 29 Aug. 2008 .

Video: http://kr.youtube.com/watch?v=b8BUWC9ynso

Eunhee Kang-A thousand Splendid Suns

Khaled Hosseini, the author of The Kite Runner published another bestselling novel, A thousand Splendid Suns. As Hosseini was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, his novel is inspired by the lives of Afghan. His story vividly pictures the conflicts and historical tragedy happened under the oppression of the country’s instability during Soviet invasion and return of Taliban. Now he is working as a U.S. envoy for the UN refugee agency to provide stable environment to refugees feeling displaced around the world. I believe that he attempted to spoke for powerless Afghans, especially for women, vulnerably facing their tragic faith through his story. Hosseini revealed mistreatment of women by drawing readers into his tunnel of story colorfully painted with the reality in Afghanistan where refugee crisis is severe. Fictional stories of two Afghanistan women, Mariam and Laila, allowed readers to understand the cause that restricted women from living their lives they deserve as human. Since the novel connects readers to the story with a strong visuals and emotions, I could indirectly experience oppression on Afghanistan women.

As Hosseini stated that “This book is dedicated to Haria and Farah, both the noor of my eyes, and to the women of Afghanistan’, I could assume this book is somewhat biased. The narrator delivered deeply moving stories of Mariam and Laila.
‘After her mother’s death, Mariam was forced to marry a forty-five-year-old Pakistan shoemaker Rasheed when she was fifteen. Her marriage with Rasheed stole her dream and freedom. She blamed Jalil, her father, for sending her away from people she loved, and herself for trusting him. Laila, a beautiful girl who wanted to marry with someone she loved became Rasheed’s second wife after her house exploded by bomb with her parents. Mariam and Laila are physically abused by Rasheed, and their rights are taken away by the government’
These two stories written in perspective of two Afghan women create sympathy toward Afghan women in general, and hostility toward men and authoritative government. However, the other side of the story about Jalil and Rasheed was never mentioned.

Although oppression of woman in Korea is not severe compare to struggles women face in Afghanistan, discrimination of woman is still evident. When I was a girl, I was told to sit like a girl, act like a girl, and talk like a girl. I heard about social disadvantages on women and experienced them as I grew older. Reading this novel reminded me stereotypes still existing in Korea’s culture and society. And I truly felt sorrow toward Afghanistan women naturally targeted as victim by Taliban or men who desire to prove their authority.

This book will be also made into a film.
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Hosseini, Khaled. A Thousand Splendid Suns. New York:Riverhead Books, 2007.

JEAN KIM- Darfur Women at danger (news from Amnesty International)

A Human Rights Organization named Amnesty International has reported the severity of the raping of the Darfur women on the camp sites as a consequence of the "2003-4 attacks" (Amnesty Int'l). The article addresses how the "Janjawid militias used rape as a weapon to humiliate and punish the communities they attacked". Another issue presented in the article is about how females are disadvantaged when it comes to reporting such abuses to the police. Moreover, it informs the readers of the reality in Darfur in which the police and the nation as a whole is indifferent about the issues on females.

Since Amnesty International is an organization established as a means to help protect human rights all over the world, it is inevitable for them to use extreme or emotionally provoking language as to convince the readers to take an action over certain human rights issues. However, this article on the Darfur women can only have a potential bias, as it is a well known fact that the people of Darfur are being threatened from genocide and rape. If there is any potential bias, it would be a bias created from not considering the culture and religion of the nation (which they address humanitarian problems on) deep enough. Aside from life-threatening issues such as the Darfur Crisis, the standard of human rights may depend on different cultures of different nations.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY

"Rape: ever present danger for Darfur's women | Amnesty International." Amnesty International | Working to Protect Human Rights. 31 Aug. 2008 .
Bibliography)

Soohyun Lee Step 5 II

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=wjCSoZd8jwM

In the video I linked above, a female referee Fatou Gaye talks about how difficult it is for a woman to be welcomed in the male-dominated environment of refereeing. I heard that even in the supposedly gender-equal UK, women referees are not always accepted with open arms. However, being a Muslim woman referee in an African country is much harder because in the country, it is not seen as appropriate for women to go out to work. Therefore her success in this field can be seen as a huge achievement.

This video shows that women still face limitations in terms of choosing a job. Especially jobs related to sports, women are not welcomed as many people think that women do not understand the game well and are not physically strong or quick enough to be involved in sports. However, this video also has a message that women should stick to their dreams no matter what and try hard to achieve their goals. For this reason, I think the purpose of this video is to encourage women to be brave and to implant hopes to the women who is in in the same situation as her.

Watching this video, I felt so strange because I have never seen a woman with referee uniform before. Whenever I watched soccer games on TV, I could only see male referees running around the field. Because of this, I unconsciously thought that there are no female referees and came to have narrow point of view.

While this video can be valuable as it is a primary source, it can be biased and limited since it only displays the perspective of a Muslim woman living in Africa. Although it can be true that woman referees all over the world face the same problems as Fatou Gaye, in countries such as Sweden, which puts great emphasis on equality between man and woman, woman referee might be respected and welcomed.

Soohyun Lee Step 5

Few days ago, Oprah Winfrey talked about her harsh and painful childhood during her show. She said that she was born to teenage parents and had a mountain of obstacles already in front of her as a newborn baby as she was female, black, and poor. She was raped by a cousin when she was nine years old and later molested by a male friend of her mother's and by an uncle. However, she never told anyone about the abuse that she was suffering. Instead, she held her anger and pain inside and became rebellious. She repeatedly ran away and got into trouble. What was worse was that she became pregnant and gave birth to a stillborn baby boy when she was fourteen. She said that "It was just an ongoing, continuous thing. So much so, that I started to think, "This is the way life is."

Her use of strong and emotional voice indicates that the purpose of the conversation was to make the audience sympathize with her and take actions to help young girls or woman who have been sexually abused by man. Since the "Oprah Winfrey Show" is prevalent and popular all over the world, the message can be spread among the public swiftly. Moreover, the show is easy of access as people can watch it on TV and Internet, which are considered as most influential media these days.

As I watched the show, I could not help but ask myself "Are women nothing but toys to man?" Listening to Oprah's childhood experience, it seemed as if women were just there to please and satisfy man. However, at the same time, I thought that this is biased, as it only deals with Oprah's childhood. It was 1950s when she was a child and this period was especially hard for women and black people to live. In addition, her painful childhood might have been resulted from her poor living conditions. If she came from middle or upper class parents, she might not have faced the severe problems that she suffered. This limited point of view causes a skewed display of the oppression of women. Also, the fact that she was a black woman with poor background living in 1950s hinders the obtainment of objective truth concerning the current obstacles faced by average women.

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"Oprah Winfrey Interview -- page 2 / 8 -- Academy of Achievement." Academy of Achievement Main Menu. 30 Aug. 2008 .

News on Oppression of Women (Jean Kim)

BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) has reported that one man and eight women have been sentenced to death by Stoning. It turned out that they were all convicted of adultery, the crime in which the traditional Islam law commands a death sentence by stoning. The article further blames the fact that uneducated women are becoming a major target for such brutal death sentence, compared to the males who commit the same adultery.

From the article's disapproving voice against such irrational application of laws, it can be inferred that the purpose of the article is to inform the public of the reality in Iran where women are getting oppressed. By emphasizing the fact that the women in Iran cannot even properly present their cases to the court just beacuse of their sex, the article also plays a role of convincing the public and other human-rights organizations (such as Amnesty Inernational) to take action.

The article may be biased in a way, since it only presents the Brisitsh point of view, when the Iran-Britain relations is quite hostile from the "concern that Tehran might be developing nuclear weapons" (BBC). Moreover, as BBC only wants to depict the Western perspectives on the Islams and other non-democratic nations, the article deliberately left out the Iranian/Muslim view on the subject of women's rights. Although Britain and many of the democratic Western nations criticize the Islam's discrimination over females, a number of Islam women in fact "do not think they are conditioned to accept second-class status or view themselves as oppressed" (NY Times 2006).


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Bibliography)

"BBC NEWS Middle East Nine face stoning death in Iran." BBC NEWS News Front Page. 30 Aug. 2008 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7516238.stm.

"BBC NEWS Middle East Timeline: UK-Iran relations." BBC NEWS News Front Page. 30 Aug. 2008 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3077540.stm.

"Muslim Women Don't See Themselves as Oppressed, Survey Finds - New York Times." The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. 30 Aug. 2008 .

Eunhee Kang-step 4

When I look around, the great influence of internet is evident in everywhere. Wireless internet is available at school, home, office, and even coffee shop, and people carry their laptop to be accessible to mass information and communication network. Worldwide news is updated in every minute, and thousands of new websites are created every day. One video posted in Youtube can make one person famous than ever, and internet users can create cyber communities. Because of internet, the world became smaller but more connected.

Therefore, when I was asked to choose the most influential media, I didn’t even go over a list of media existing in our life but picked internet without a doubt. My average hour using internet per day is usually more than hours I spend in school. Because internet has developed rapidly within a decade, I can research articles and news for International Relations class, create blog to post assignments for English class, and appreciate art pieces without actually visiting the museums in London or Tokyo. Not only internet allowed me to be accessible to information, but also it resolved the limitation in communication. Although some of my friends are living in 10 hours flight from where I live, I contact with them through msn and Facebook. These technological developments influenced me to be more involved in global issues, and more actively interact with people around the world. Since mass information is available through internet, my life became more convenient; clicking internet explorer icon twice opens a whole new world. Eventually internet improved my quality of life.

I think the reason why internet has the most impact on my life is that it exists everywhere; no matter where I go, I observe people using internet. Another reason is that it is ideal. Internet provides communication network, mass information, and entertainments. The ways to find these values are convenient and efficient. Consequently internet became part of my life and a media which greatly influences my life.

STEP 4 Soohyun Lee

(picture from the musical "42nd street")

The type of mass media that has influenced me the most is theatre performance. Since every theatre performance has its own message and theme, I can get life lessons out of it. For example, When I watched the performance "42nd street," which dealt with Great Depression era, I could learn that there is always a hope in every situation and that we should not give up easily when we face difficulties in our lives.

Moreover, the theatre implants idealism into the public and gives us possibility and hope. I think this is why many people live vicariously through theatre or movie. Whenever I get stressed out, I try to watch theatre performance since it helps me to set aside my difficulty for awhile and to feel pleasure indirectly through the characters of a play.

Jean Kim (Step 4)

Out of all existing mass media, I would say the internet has the most influence over my life. Internet allowed me the opportunities to communicate with a wide range of people, from my friends in Korea to the people I met abroad, in an interactive manner. Since the internet provides me with convenient ways of meeting people in groups by simply getting on-line, it saves a great amount of time. Moreover, internet acts as an effective communicating tool especially for a timid person like me, as it does not require a face-to-face conversation.

Internet holds a significant level of influence over my personal life also because it allows me an access to the up-to-date current events without having to get the actual paper newspaper.

Without the internet, it would have been extremely time-consuming and inconvenient to contact with a wide range of people and to exchange information. Moreover, absence of the internet would also limit a great portion of my daily entertainment.

Eunhee (Step3 -types of mass media)

*Magazine

-How it is used: Magazine is a type of mass media that provides entertainment, information, education, advertisement and communications to the mass/readers.

-Audience: People who seek for certain field of information (such as business, fashion, science, and news, etc.)

-Typical characteristics:
*Targeted to specific groups of people
*Prescribed/published once a month, weekly, etc
*Numerous visual aids as to emphasize certain message/information
(examples: advertisements and fashion)
*The cover page gets the readers' attention)
*The format/presenting styles are based on effective organization that helps readers to catch the points.

JEAN (Step3- types of media)

*Internet

-How it is used: It is a type of mass media that provides a wide range of information (searching)/data/entertainment/communication through the worldwide network system.

-Audience: People all over the world

-Typical characteristics:
*Spreads data in a short amount of time
*Easy access -hence information is easily exposed to the mass
*Interactive-24 hour communication
*Inanimous
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Bibliography) "KBT: Internet's major characteristics." HSC - Herve Schauer Consultants - Cabinet de consultants en s?rit?nformatique. 21 Aug. 2008 .

SOOHYUN (Step 3 -Types of media and how they are used)

*TV

-How it is used: Television is a type of mass media that is used to entertain, educate, inform, or pursuade the mass diverse categories of presentation

-Audience: The public

-Typical characteristics: '

*Advertisement: visually appealing/entertaining and pursuasive

*News: Formal and informative

*Drama/Soap opera: entertaining and features the latest culture/issues

*One way communication

*Divided categories (different channels/programs: discovery channel, on-style, religion channel, etc.)

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Bibliography) "Television - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 21 Aug. 2008 .

Definition of Mass Media

Mass media is a way to communicate with a large group of public, often to influence them with certain ideas/issues
-Mass media includes magazine, TV, newspaper, advertisement, radio, movies, etc.




Bibliography: "mass media - Definition at the #1 Online Dictionary." Dictionary & Thesaurus - YourDictionary. 19 Aug. 2008 http://www.yourdictionary.com/mass-media.

Biography- Group 3 XD !

*Soohyun:
Soohyun was born on December 4th, 1990 and has a younger brother ( eight years younger than her !) who looks just like her.
She is a beautiful, talented, creative and smart girl who loves dancing and cheerleading♥, and acting. She is going through the second year of the rigorous IB program, but excelling in every class.

*Eunhee:
Eunhee was born on August 4th, 1990 and has a younger sister who also attends TCIS .
She is a extremely gifted artist who expresses her own unique style.
She is deeply in love with all kinds of cats and she looks like one :)

*Jean:
Jean was born on September 13th, 1990 and has an older sister who goes to college.
Just like Soohyun, she loves cheerleading and plans to perform her best this coming basketball season!
Most people think that she lives her own unique/random world, but is friendly to everyone.
She plays the clarinet and has been taking band class for four years.