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Thread: Paper Ideas

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    Hey all. So I have a Political Communication paper due regarding the health of American Democracy. We talked alot in class about media bias,so i was thinking of a way to bridge the medias failure to show two-sided portayals(sexworkers)...and that can result in lower toleration(also discussed in class) and harm policy making. Would something like this work? I want to make it as good as possible to speak on a topic like this. We also have to speak about whats right in our democracy. I was going to address the fact that we have great opportunity for varieties of resources to give varied perspectives...blah blah.
    Any ideas?Suggestions?Critiques of my ideas? This paper is not due till May but i really want to do good on it. Thanks all in advance.

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    Featured Member MadisonM's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Silky
    Hey all. So I have a Political Communication paper due regarding the health of American Democracy. We talked alot in class about media bias,so i was thinking of a way to bridge the medias failure to show two-sided portayals(sexworkers)...and that can result in lower toleration(also discussed in class) and harm policy making. Would something like this work? I want to make it as good as possible to speak on a topic like this. We also have to speak about whats right in our democracy. I was going to address the fact that we have great opportunity for varieties of resources to give varied perspectives...blah blah.
    Any ideas?Suggestions?Critiques of my ideas? This paper is not due till May but i really want to do good on it. Thanks all in advance.
    As a Pol. Sci. minor, I could go on and on about media bias (my special interest) but I'll keep it short. I think this idea could work, but you would have to give a lot of examples if you want the bias to be about sexworkers. Normally this is not a topic covered in the news, except when something bad happens (the Duke rape case is an example of this). Yes, sexworkers are portrayed negatively, which in turn causes people to keep thinking of sexworkers in a negative way. How does this harm policy making though? Yes there is intolerance, but there aren't many policies that really have to do with sexwork. Yes prostitution is illegal, and in some areas lap dances are illegal, but there aren't many "public policies" that deal with sexwork. I do think you have a really good idea going, it just might be a topic that would involve much more work than a paper on a different topic would.
    Take the road less traveled- just make sure you have a map.

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    Default Re: Paper Ideas

    Hey! Thanks for responding Madison. For this paper, to answer the question of what is "right" in our democracy...I was thinking of bringing fortune into account and using the fact that our country has the ability/resources to take our stands and build social capital. I researched a few examples of prominent websites that advocate the rights of sex workers for this question.
    To answer what is "wrong" with democracy...perhaps instead i could try to make a correlation between the media's trend of using one sided negative information...and in turn could be the reason for perhaps the lack of more hard news/ public policy stances?(which in turn harms our overall democratic health)
    The third question is what could be "fixed". This is where i was going to suggest further empowerment of these advocacy websites...giving more pressure to the media to look at both sides of the issues...and this could help for policy makers/people to take these issues more seriously and help complete the mission of the advocacy groups. I researched a link that gave recommendations to journalists on how to communicate this issue less biased---and i was thinking of citing that as a course or something. We need 12 sources at minimum, so i have to do alot of research regardless.
    Do you think something like that could work instead? Any suggestions are really appreciated bc this paper is important to me. Thank you for your feedback so far!Sorry this post is so jumbled i just have so much darn school work on my mind as im sure u know how April nut month is too lol =/

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    While the media isn't perfect, I am always surprised by how many smart people accept without question the "Truth is out there" argument. The notion that news organizations withhold stories is a belief maintained only by folks who've never set foot into a newsroom, where competition for getting a story--a story no one else has reported-- is intense.

    Now, the bias issue is valid, which is why I insist our editorial interns read a variety of news outlets. Americans in general ought to do this too, but the numbers clearly indicate they are too busy watching "Lost" and "American Idol" to do so. Besides, conspiracy theories about the media are so much more fun than doing the heavy lifting of making oneself informed.
    Last edited by Chicagoeditor; 04-11-2006 at 08:30 AM.

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    You could write on the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and corporate ownership

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    You could also talk about 2257 stuff, which is totally unfair and repressive.

    Sources... the latest issue of $pread magazine had laws from a bunch of different countries about sex work. Pierre Bourdeau in Masculine Domination talks about the way that our media shapes our reality and especially along gender lines. There's a ton of stuff you could use from the sex work side, I'm not sure about the legal part.



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    Veteran Member Jillian's Avatar
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    Default Re: Paper Ideas

    Quote Originally Posted by Chicagoeditor
    While the media isn't perfect, I am always surprised by how many smart people accept without question the "Truth is out there" argument. The notion that news organizations withhold stories is a belief maintained only by folks who've never set foot into a newsroom, where competition for getting a story--a story no one else has reported-- is intense.

    Now, the bias issue is valid, which is why I insist our editorial interns read a variety of news outlets. Americans in general ought to do this too, but the numbers clearly indicate they are too busy watching "Lost" and "American Idol" to do so. Besides, conspiracy theories about the media are so much more fun than doing the heavy lifting of making oneself informed.
    thank you. I agree completely.

    I think if you are going to write a paper on how biased the media is, you should do what you want them to do and take into account their side of the story too, and not just be a biased sex worker.

    I also realize that the media isn't perfect, however at the same time neither are all sex workers.

    If you want the names of some books that new journalists coming through school are being taught ethics out of let me know.


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    I never planned to deny that the media had truth to it. I know first hand that negative stories presented on sex workers have truth to them. Still, I am asking where the other side of it is? Even when it comes to fictional stories. You always see a scene of a drugged out violent sex worker. I am asking where the the positive to that is? It is not there hardly as much. It would not be a question to me about reporters "withholding" a story...it would be a question of reporters seeking to find some more postive information that is actually out there regarding sex workers.I am also taking into account fictional representations as well that do not even involve reporters.I bet it would start getting more competitive once one person decided to cover stories more that involve sex workers and the functions they hold to gain rights. Positive functions that show them to be worthy of taken more serious. This is turn i would hope help sexworker laws ect...to be taken more serious...which is what i am trying to connect.
    Thanks everyone for this input and please keep it coming. I will take the authors names too if ya do not mind =)

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    Default Re: Paper Ideas

    names i mean

  10. #10
    Chicagoeditor
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    Quote Originally Posted by Silky
    I never planned to deny that the media had truth to it. I know first hand that negative stories presented on sex workers have truth to them. Still, I am asking where the other side of it is? Even when it comes to fictional stories. You always see a scene of a drugged out violent sex worker. I am asking where the the positive to that is? It is not there hardly as much. It would not be a question to me about reporters "withholding" a story...it would be a question of reporters seeking to find some more postive information that is actually out there regarding sex workers.I am also taking into account fictional representations as well that do not even involve reporters.I bet it would start getting more competitive once one person decided to cover stories more that involve sex workers and the functions they hold to gain rights. Positive functions that show them to be worthy of taken more serious. This is turn i would hope help sexworker laws ect...to be taken more serious...which is what i am trying to connect.
    Thanks everyone for this input and please keep it coming. I will take the authors names too if ya do not mind =)
    Some old-style feminists support sex workers under the conviction that they are well within their rights to monetize their bodies, over which they (not men, not the government) have ultimate control. So you might start there.



    As a sidelight, I think you could argue that the stories and whatnot about dancers are an example of the "straight" world voyeuristically enjoying this forbidden landscape. Note how many local news channels do stories about sex workers during sweeps. It’s clear, too, that mainstream culture—think Jessica Simpson--have greedily cooped the dance moves of strippers, bringing them a large, appreciative audience. So while you say the portrayal of strippers is relentless negative, I’d say one could argue that dancers are often made out to be icons of American values—namely power, money and sexual confidence.


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    Default Re: Paper Ideas

    ^^^ While the dance moves of strippers have been brought to mainstream society through such things as pole-dance classes in gyms, Carmen Electra's Strip Aerobics, and moves in music videos, stripping is thought of as ok in these senses. But as soon as being nude and the issue of getting paid for it are brought to light, it is no longer seen as ok.
    Take the road less traveled- just make sure you have a map.

  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by MadisonM
    But as soon as being nude and the issue of getting paid for it are brought to light, it is no longer seen as ok.
    This brings up a question I've always wondered about. What do your girlfriends, the ones who work in marketing or law or the car dealership, make of your job as a stripper? Do any admit to being jealous? Put another way, a number of guys I know are less interested in the nudity inside a SC as by the energy, power and confidence (yes, yes, I know it's theatrics, but still...) of the women who work there. Boink me if I'm over-thinking this.

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    Well...from women(such as my sister) i just here it is "degrading" and giving men "control." The more "accepted" sales jobs do not involve compromising the "body."
    The girlfriends that never ask or say anything about my job at ALL, are the ones who i suspect to be perhaps jealous.
    I would like to find some of these men that are less interested in the nudity. I may have met one man that seemed interested in the "artform" while i was out. Any other time I think a man understands my artform...they go on with some question about "do guys touch".
    Strippers in the media are always seen in those shady crime movies where you first see the "dark seedy strip" club....dark parking lot...perhaps a "murder" that needs to be solved. Celebrities that can move it and dance are glorified because they do not have to resort to "revealing their bodies" or became semi-celebrities somehow. It is much harder for woman who are not known. They get pinned with the negative depictions. Oh and i can not forget the infamous "cops" where a cracked out street walker is saved by the big bad police officer. I know this is reality for some streetwalkers....but balance it out with some prostitutes/entertainers who do have their heads on straight.
    Now when this escort who was on coke died in Philadelphia...i did see an article in the paper where a journalist interviewed another escort(unrelated) who shed light on the fact that she was a sex worker who is in school...blah blah whatever else that put her in a non-negative" category. That is an example of excellence for me bc sadly most people do not realize a truth like that.

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    Oh yea and i know these men that look beyond the nudisty do exist i just have not encountered them as of yet lol !

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    Just to be clear: It isn't exactly that we look past your nudity. But how many men could strip in front of a hundred or so women? Very few. And how many women can walk seductively, even clothed, on a stage? Very few.

    Call it strength, confidence, bravery, larger-than-life ego. The point is that the best dancers bring something elemental to the job that goes far beyond "going topless."

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    nah i understood what you meant, just didnt want ya to think i meant that i feel no guys can look past nudity for it's most basic form. The ones who can are the ones that keep the job going for me. Im a big advocate of the artform aspect of stripping. It really is something you have to experiance first hand either by being a customer and or performer. Some people see it for the raw external factors without expanding his/her mind into the creative bigger picture. Any person( guy or girl) that I have ever met, not used to the strip clubs of any sort(and some that are), do not understand this element beyond being naked unfortunately.
    This is exactly the reason why any person, not used to the strip club scene, who states "being a dancer takes no talent/skill" ....makes me want to ram something into a wall. Call us junkies...trash....i laugh...say that and i just boil for some reason lol
    This is also the reason why i do what i can to promote the ladies and this artform for those who appreciate it.

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