Reading Stack and Kelley’s article, Popular Media, Education and Resistance, has helped showcase the role that media can play on society and emphasized how people can be represented in multiple ways throughout it. As a society more often than not we are submissive to the media representation of people and model our own identity to be like these representations; as we often find it difficult to remove ourselves from them. There are many people in society that rebel against the representations that are portrayed through media; unfortunately these different representations go unnoticed and/or are thought of as “weird/different” when seen in person. Stack and Kelley (2006), go on to say that, “many everyday acts of resistance go unnoticed and unreported by mainstream media” (pg.11). Watching, Reel Injun, in class helped to showcase the different ways that First Nations people have been represented over the years in the media. We see in the film, that like many others in society some began to assume the representation that was being portrayed through the media.
A personal example I have which can relate to harmful representations within the media is my experience being employed by my cities Public Works Department and being a female. In the media, females are often represented as submissive, weak and unable to do a man’s job. Working for the Public Works Department with 20 adult males, I was going against the 'norm" and these representations. I had to work as hard as I could in order to obtain their respect and to show them that I could do the job and that I wasn’t just there for their coffee runs. I was able to help change the thoughts of the men that I worked with and show them that female can work along side them.
A personal example I have which can relate to harmful representations within the media is my experience being employed by my cities Public Works Department and being a female. In the media, females are often represented as submissive, weak and unable to do a man’s job. Working for the Public Works Department with 20 adult males, I was going against the 'norm" and these representations. I had to work as hard as I could in order to obtain their respect and to show them that I could do the job and that I wasn’t just there for their coffee runs. I was able to help change the thoughts of the men that I worked with and show them that female can work along side them.