Media Influence

UPDATED: I misunderstood the assignment, but I have updated it.
TV:
Suburban: 90210 (TV) – The school is in a rich neighborhood. The show demonstrated well funded schools that could host extravagant events. Students came from rich families that were able to provide vacations to the beach, and brand new cars.

Urban: Fresh Prince of Bel Air (TV) – The show took a kid from the urban setting to the suburbs. He showed that grades were not important. Relationships between friends are very strong such as his friendship with Jazzy Jeff. He was removed from his home down of Philadelphia to Bel Air because he was constantly getting into trouble with the law and with violence with gangs.

Rural: Friday Nights Lights (TV) – The show is based in Texas. The show emphasizes how the community expresses importance on sports, particularly high school football. The community mostly is not very affluent. The school’s funding is misdirected and given to the football team. The rest of the school fights for scraps.

Movie:
Suburban: Clueless (Movie) – The movie is set in California in a suburban area. The students are all affluent and a bit stuck up. The students had cars and designer clothing. There was a lot of social class separation. The students seemed to care less about grades because of the wealth their parents had. The relationships between students seemed artificial and the ones with the teachers was superficial.

Urban: Coach Carter (Movie) – The movie is set in Richmond, VA in an urban high school. The school is underfunded. The students on the basketball team come from broken homes, and have no ambition towards furthering their education. Some of the parents put their child’s future all on basketball.

Rural: Varsity Blues (Movie) - This movie shows the lack of seriousness in education. The community doesn’t seem to have high ambitions, as football was clearly the focus of the town. The football players are treated like celebrities in their community. For these players the future did extend beyond the season and winning a championship trophy.

Music:
Suburban: Vitamin C – Graduation – This song came out when I graduated. As I look back on this song and some of the lyrics, it reminds me of how in suburban communities going to college is almost taken for granted. The students have high ambitions of leaving their homes and getting a big money job.

Urban: Kanye West – It is interesting to see how these two artists have strong ties to religion. Kanye West has a song called “Jesus Walks” and his need for Jesus. The song seems to show a glimpse of what he’s experienced. He sings about hustlers, killers, murderers, drug dealers, and strippers. He also jokes and says that he was told if his rap songs weren’t about guns, sex, lies, or video tapes, that his song about Jesus wouldn’t be played on the radio. This shows the stereotypes of what types of stigmas rap songs have.