Inquiry Conference

I really liked going to the inquiry conference yesterday.  It was so good to hear about other students’ past experiences out in the field and I was lucky enough to know two of the speakers, Corrine and Andres.  All the speakers had great presentations and the spoke really well about their respective projects.  They calmed a lot of the fears that I had about taking on such a big project.  They all went through the same preparation that I’m going through right now, and in the end, they learned so much more than they expected to.

The stress is adding up as the semester goes on and some days I feel like all I think about is the prep class, Guanajuato, possible interview questions, the problems I will encounter in the field, etc.  I feel like it’s all I think about and there is always of things to do.  Honestly, it was starting to get to me and I was beginning to worry about whether all this stress would pay off in the end.  That is why I LOVED getting to hear about other field studies that were done in the past.  They prepped the exact same way.  I know that it’s hard but when I really think about it, everything we are assigned to do is so helpful and it’s easy to see that it’s not just busy work.  And then to see how valuable of an experience it was to these past participants was just the push I needed.  The work and stress they put into it yielded awesome results.

The three presentations had to do with education.  Corrine’s centered on the importance of education, or “Illuminating the Mind” in order to create a more unified Ghana, and to ease tensions between tribes.  Another presentation studied the effects of Participatory Evaluation as a research method.  They found it to be very valuable in collecting information that would help make in-school programs better and that would make going to school more enjoyable for students.  Andres studied the educational system in Ecuador and he found out some really interesting information regarding the differences between private and public schools. Every presentation was extremely interesting and made me realize that I am going to appreciate every minute of the experience in the end.

I think that my favorite part of the Inquiry Conference was at the end during the discussion panel.  It was a time where we could ask questions about their methods and suggestions.  Others would ask questions that they hadn’t considered.  There is always something new to study, a new way to expand the research.  It’s interesting how much there is to study out in the world and it’s amazing that we have resources available to us to go out and learn something new.

What I learned from the interview

I wanted to go back and look at the answers I got from my first interviewee, Kevin.  I feel like that interview gave me a lot to think about and consider while continuing to plan out my project.  I am grateful that we had this assignment because I can now formulate better questions that will yield more valuable answers.

The first question I asked Kevin was “What role did the media play in your life during your youth?”  He answered me by saying that is was not a big part of his life, that his family didn’t have cable so they didn’t enjoy watching tv as much.  He preferred to play video games instead, which I had never considered.  Can video games be considered a form of media?  Video games can also communicate ideas and information electronically, which I suppose fits them into this category.  I don’t know how many kids in the rural villages in Mexico have access to video games, but if they do, it might be good to consider how much time they spend playing these and whether they feel affected.

I asked questions about whether media played a role in making decisions concerning his education and career goals.  He is a junior majoring in Geology, by the way.  Although I was seriously hoping he would say yes and give my research a bit more validity, he said he didn’t feel like the media influenced his educational and career goals at all.  It was expected of him to attend college and his parents made that clear throughout his youth, so the decision to receive a higher education was not hard.  This makes me think about how different the environment in rural Mexico can be.  Many of the parents there did not receive a college education, and maybe while they may not discourage it, they might not strongly encourage to their children it either.  For example, my father’s parents didn’t make it past middle school and went straight to work.  My father only finished high school, but I don’t think it was ever in his plans to go to college.  Interestingly enough, he hasn’t stressed college on his children either.  I know this varies from family to family, but there might be a pattern here.  Do the youth growing up in rural villages receive encouragement to go to college from other sources?  Could the media communicate information about college and the possibilities it brings?

Kevin also told me that he was definitely influenced by the media in other ways.  He said a lot of the stuff the media encourages us to watch and listen to is demoralizing.  We have become desensitized as a result.  Although we may not imitate the lifestyles displayed on tv and movies, we begin to see it as “normal” and sometimes “cool.”  I know the shows youth watch in Mexico are probably different than what is on tv here, but do they see a certain lifestyle and wish they could live it?  Kevin mentioned that the lifestyles a lot of popular shows display on tv are usually expensive and could only be lived by someone with a higher education/very good, money earning job.  Would seeing that encourage students to work harder for the lifestyle they want for their future?

I think it would be helpful to me to find out what kinds of media the youth have access to so that I could evaluate if these sort of questions would be useful throughout my research.

Interview Number One, Many More to Come

Last week we were given the assignment to go out and interview someone, asking them questions about a topic related to our research.  I was kind of excited about doing this because I’ve always felt comfortable talking to other people and I think that my research topic is pretty interesting.  Basically, I thought I wouldn’t have a problem at all with this assignment.  It proved to be a bit more challenging because interview-type speech doesn’t come naturally to me.

I sat down with an old friend, Kevin, whom I hadn’t seen in a while, to ask him about how the media affected him throughout his youth.  I started off the conversation with friendly chit chat to get us both comfortable and to catch up a bit.  As soon as I tried to shift the conversation over to the interview and getting into the questions related to my research, I became a little nervous.  I asked him if he would mind if I asked him a few questions, and he said it would be totally fine.  So I read the first question off a list that I had put together.  Things were going fine until his answers didn’t match well with the planned conversation I mapped out.  The answers he gave me led to other questions, and I was curious, but I felt slightly uncomfortable straying from the questions I had written down.  I don’t know why I was so thrown off by the fact that I didn’t have as much control over the situation as I wanted.  That is what we had learned in class: “Ask the question, then get out of the way.”  It didn’t come easy for me to get out of the way.

Kevin was able to give me great answers and lead me in directions that will be helpful in my interviewing in Mexico.  Now I realize that I need more practice with letting the interview go where it may, and controlling the direction only when it is going way off topic.  It was after I let him talk freely, without interrupting and asking specific questions that kept strictly to my agenda, that he felt most comfortable in telling me everything he felt about the subject.  That is what I need when I go to Mexico, people that are comfortable to tell me the truth about how they feel, without me inhibiting them.

Learning about media in Mexico through other blogs

Ever since I read the book, “Down and Delirious in Mexico City,” by Daniel Hernandez, I have found myself going the author’s blog from time to time to catch up on his insights.  He was part of the reason I was inspired to apply for this field study and do research in Mexico.  I feel like we have a lot in common.  He also has Mexican parents who migrated to Southern California and had their children there.  Like him, I grew up with the Mexican culture that my parents taught me, but there was always the American culture right in my face.  It was hard for me to find exactly where I fit in this mix of culture and tradition, and somehow, I found myself leaning more towards the culture of the country I lived in, rather than the country of my ancestors.  Although it is not a bad thing, I feel like this is a matter of choice.  I was choosing to adopt a new culture that I liked and enjoyed and forget the one I grew up with.  However, now that I am older, I realized that I am losing a part of myself that makes me unique and that is fun and real, and honestly, is a part of myself I can’t really get rid of.  I tried to find that Mexican culture and tradition again, and that is why I am a Latin American Studies major.  That is what Daniel Hernandez did too when he realized he was torn between two ethnic identities.  He traveled to Mexico to discover a country and people he felt a strong connection with because he wanted to understand the connection.

Today, while browsing through his blog (called Intersections), I decided to quick search “media” and find out what he had commented on the matter, and how it influenced the people of Mexico.  I stumbled across a really interesting entry about a study that took place just last year.  A research group wanted to see how kids reacted to race.  To do this, they presented young children with two dolls, one white, the other black.  They then asked the children which doll they were the most like, also asking questions like “Which doll is the good doll?” and a large majority of the kids pointed at the white doll.  This made me wonder who was responsible for the racist attitudes displayed by the children?  Could it be the parents, the government, society, the media?  As would be expected, such a study caused controversy all around.  While some found this to be disturbing and questioned what could be done to change it, others denied that it the study was accurate, and with good reason.  As pointed out by Hernandez and other officials, the study was misleading and they posed their questions in a way that manipulated answers.  Giving the children only two choices to pick from was unfair, seeing as the majority of them are mestizos, a mix of Spanish and indigenous.  They cannot identify completely with one doll, but the interviewers asked them to.  The children were asked to pick the “good” doll, and although I don’t know the word for this, it seems really unfair and manipulative for the interviewer to ask a leading question.  If the study were better organized and the biases were better controlled, would the results still be the same?

On the other side of the reaction (and there may have been many sides, not just two) some agreed that children in Mexico were being conditioned to believe white to be a superior race to black.  What was one of the things blamed for this?  The media, of course.  The majority of telenovelas have characters with lighter skin, and those who have darker skin tend to be the maid or farmhand or something like that.  Some television networks approve instances of racism to play on tv and they have been criticized for that. 

I know that the media affects it viewers/readers/listeners.  We are shaped by the world around us and the world around us is the media.  What the viewers choose to watch is another factor in determining how they are affected.  Some may not be affected at all.  I know that I was influenced by the media back when I was in high school and I know that it affects me now.  It may not only shape the way we think, but it may also inspire us, introduce us to new things, teach us something interesting.  While the media serves many different purposes, I am most interested in how it affects the identity of the youth and their educational and career goals.  I hope to find out this summer.

Ophelia Syndrome

We were assigned a reading for today about the Ophelia Syndrome.  This refers to a development that occurs in many today, that of not thinking for oneself, and not forming oneself into an individual.  The history of this term comes from Shakespeare’s Hamlet and refers to Ophelia going to her father, Polonius, being completely submissive to the way of thinking he is going to impose on her.  Since she does not know what to think, she will let him do the thinking for her, as if she were a baby.

I honestly think it is very easy to fall into this trap if you are not aware of it.  Reflecting on myself, especially in school, it is much easier to repeat someone’s ideas instead of digging deep inside myself to find my own personal, intuitive opinion.  I have noticed lately that I tell people what they want to hear, and I do this a lot.  I don’t want to be the girl who doesn’t have a valid opinion, but rather repeats what others have told her before.  It just seems easier to avoid any sort of confrontation or misunderstanding if you tell the person what they want to hear.  And although they aren’t telling you upfront what they want, it’s funny how easy it is to know sometimes.  In their demeanor and through the conversation, they have already told you what they want you to say.  I love to come across a situation where I’m challenged because of this inclination.  When I was applying for this field study, I was asked what I wanted to get from this experience.  Of course, I wrote about how I want to discover myself and grow as a person and find “me.”  I was very sure the facilitators would love my answer and that this was the purpose of any field study/study abroad experience.  Little did I know…

A few days later I read an article titled “What Students Don’t Learn Abroad.”  This altered the way I viewed this experience and hands-on learning.  Although self discovery often comes with these experiences, the true purpose is finding out about the people and learning about the history and their culture, or whatever field you would like to explore.  I feel like I went off on a tangent, but that experience taught me to be brave and to think for myself, not to just say what I think society wants me to say.  It was the first encounter in a long time where I noticed that I wasn’t really thinking for myself.  Now it is a lot easier to catch and I’m more perceptive of my true, personal thoughts.

I loved that Plummer, in his article about the Ophelia Syndrome, gave a list of ideas on what could prevent this syndrome and what we could do to not fall into this trap.  I can’t include it here because of time, but I know that they will be very useful throughout my preparation to go to Guanajuato and especially while I’m there.  Now that I think about it, this may be one of the reasons I’m so excited to go and do research: No one is telling me what the answer is to my research question.  I am going to find the answer for myself, with my own thoughts and opinions, pretty much guiding myself through the process.  Now I understand why it is important that this prep class be very self motivated and “learner oriented.”  We need to think for ourselves and learn for ourselves rather than storing the facts that someone lists out to us.

I wish I could find out everything while I’m in Mexico

It’s a comfort that in class, people who have gone on past field studies admit that they had trouble pinning their exact research question.  I never knew how hard it would be to finalize my research question.  When I try to explain what I’m researching to someone else, it is so hard for me to explain what exactly I want to know.  Apparently “How does the media affect the future goals of youth in rural Mexico?” is too broad and I need to decided exactly what I wish to know.  But I want to know it all!  I’m really interested in working with television when I graduate and I want to know how certain television shows affect the youth and how they view themselves and the possibilities in this world.  If I can find out, and tv shows are not encouraging youth to progress, then I will try to have a voice in these matters and maybe shows will be created that encourage the youth to be better.  The hard part about focusing solely on tv media is that I don’t know how many people out there own television sets, how many channels they have, what shows are played, etc.  I want to bring in other sources of media, like radio, cellphones, internet access, into play and see if they encourage similar behaviors in youth or if they are conflicting in the behaviors they encourage.

What do I want to know about their future goals?  I want to know what career they dream of pursuing and whether going to college is in their plans.  I want to know if they can pursue that career in the villages or if they will have to leave for a bigger city.  It would probably help me if I narrowed my focus to education/career goals of the youth.  All I know is that I would be much different and probably would have had different career goals if I had grown up in a small town and not in the suburbs.  There is really no way of proving that, but my surroundings were an important part of shaping me into who I am now.  I wonder if it would be beneficial to go into the city one day and interview the youth of a school there.  I could compare the results to my questions and see if there are any patterns or stark differences showing up.

Getting closer to the start date of actually being in Mexico and doing my hands on research makes me pretty nervous, but I hope that my question will begin to fall into place and that the research I’ve already been doing will help me find the gaps within the research so that I know how to make my time in Mexico most useful.

Los delincuentes de la mirada lasciva

The other day in class, we read an article titled “Los delincuentes de la mirada lasciva,” which I found to be very interesting. It opens up talking about a woman who is faced with stares and catcalls as she walks down the streets. Apparently, this is something that happens all the time in Mexico. Men see a beautiful woman on the street and they are not shy about letting her know, sometimes yelling out “piropos” or sometimes with a lascivious stare. This was old news to me. I knew stuff like this happened since I have family still living in Mexico. What did surprise me was that the government was trying to do something to stop it from occurring. A law has been passed that prohibits men from looking at a woman in such a manner under the argument that these looks can damage her emotional well-being. I think it’s great that they are trying to do something about this, because I’ve been the girl getting the stares before and it is something rather uncomfortable to deal with. I like that they are trying to ensure that women are respected and that they feel safe walking on the streets of Mexico.

What confuses me is how they are going to enforce such a law. How do you measure a lascivious stare? Or maybe a comment from a male that was intended to be innocent is misinterpreted for something inappropriate. How do you determine whether he should be charged or not? I suppose there could be interviews with the police, ect, but for a government official to do this every time something like this happens seems impossible and time wasting when they could be focused on other crimes. Men give lascivious stares every day, so how do you catch them all? Although I do love that they are doing something so that women feel safer in any environment, I don’t know that this is going to work well.

Another thing I want to mention is that I don’t generalize. When I say that I know this happens often in Mexico, I don’t mean to say that all Mexican men do it. I know many respectable men who don’t stare at women or hit on them on the street. I have had several, if not many, experiences with friends where someone honks at them from their car or someone yells out to them and they reply with some offensive statement like “probably a Mexican,” or “stupid Mexicans.” I cannot begin to describe the anger I feel when I hear statements like that. It hurts to think that my dad is being generalized by some ignorant people for something he is not, or that my brother may be generalized the same way.  One thing that I have learned is that men from any country and race can behave in inappropriate ways.  I am really hoping that I don’t go to Mexico generalizing the people based on stereotypes.  I know how hurtful that can be and I want to give people a fair chance.  I suppose there is a possibility I may have to deal with stares or “piropos” or whatever may happen, but I hope that doesn’t affect the way I see all men.  I think it would really affect my experience and my research if I let that get to me.

The Value of Learning the Culture

One of the most frightening things about immersing myself into a culture I should know and understand is the possibility that I don’t understand it at all.  Although I do not think this is the case, I have spent no more than three months in Mexico total and no more than two weeks in Guanajuato.  What if I have felt so safe about fitting right in and never making a wrong move that I let down my guard and offend someone and their customs and traditions?

I am relieved that in this prep course we are learning about the customs and “sayings” that are said over there so that I can understand them and avoid the ones that I shouldn’t use.  Every Sunday, when I go home for family dinner, I have been spending much more time asking my parents about the way people live out there and the way certain things are said.  Having the class the other day about modismos and palabrotas, etc reminded me of the one experience that helped me understand just how important it is to know these before I say them out loud.  When I was about eight years old, my family spent the entire summer in Mexico.  I was completely fascinated to be in a place that was not Orem, UT, but rather a jungle of buildings with writing and art on the walls.  The graffiti always got my attention, even if I didn’t understand what I was looking at.  One day, I was walking down the street with my family and I asked my mom what one of the words on the wall meant.  She began to laugh, but quickly became serious and told me that it was a naughty word and to not read out loud when I’m looking at the graffiti.  I was so embarrassed, I don’t think I let myself look at any walls with graffiti for weeks.  Since then, I knew better than to say something without understanding the meaning.  Now, I’m pretty good at recognizing whether a word or phrase might be inappropriate depending on the context or how it sounds.

What makes all this very important and applicable to me now is the fact that I will be doing research, representing BYU.  It is interesting how many things we could say or do that might be completely appropriate to us but might offend someone we meet in Mexico.  Knowing the bad words so that they are avoided is not the only thing that is important.  I think that bonds between people can become stronger through language and if someone from Mexico hears that we know some of their sayings and can use them in daily speak, they will talk to us more freely, and perhaps open up as a friend, rather than just as an acquaintance.  The best way we will form ties with the people we meet is through conversation and if we are prepared for that, the experience overall will be a positive one.  Our research will yield more meaningful data and our write ups will be more interesting because of what the people feel they can tell us.  I feel like all this cultural “training” is going to be invaluable when we are out in the field because we will apply it every day and it will enhance our experiences.

Nice to meet you!

In Friday’s class we studied about proxemics and kinesics, which I found to be very interesting.  I understood that there were patterns in social interaction depending on space and body language, but I didn’t know it had a name.  Proxemics is the study of communication that occurs through using the space around you while kinesics is the study of body language, or how we communicate through our body movements, positions, and facial expressions.  I have been thinking about this all weekend, especially in regards to the area I will be in.  I have noticed that I am very free with my space and I have no problem letting people in close, but I am always hesitant to lean in to hug a stranger or have any other form of contact with someone I don’t know well because I don’t know how they feel about their own personal space.  I thought I would have a good understanding of what the practices regarding proxemics and kinesics are in Mexico by now, but I can’t say I’m sure about that anymore.

How will the people greet me when I get there?  A handshake?  The customary kiss on the cheek?  (Is that even customary where I will be going?)  Will my host family and the new friends I make mind if I hang around them or will they like me to give them space?  When I think about all the possible awkward situations I could come across, I become a little overwhelmed.  And then I think about how lucky I am to be going to my dad’s home state.  I have two parents from Mexico, and one of them was raised in a town just like the one I will spend my summer in.  I have noticed that there are big differences in manners of communication between my mom’s family and my dad’s family.  My mom is from Mexico City and her family is pretty free with their space and they are more bubbly in their personalities.  My dad is from a small village in Guanajuato and I have noticed that they tend to be more reserved and shy.  They do greet me with a kiss on the cheek, but I don’t see much physical contact apart from that.

I can’t seem to think of all the examples to display the differences in their proxemics and kinesics, but maybe I know enough to not let awkward situations get the best of me.  Now that I’m more aware of these studies, I hope to practice communicating more effectively with others so that when I get to Mexico, I will know how to adapt to situations where someone’s communication habits differ from mine.

15 Questions

These are some possible questions for interviews I will conduct out in the field.

English:

1. What sources of media (television shows, radio, newspapers, tv news broadcasts) do you come in contact with the most throughout the average week?

2. Does your school use the Telesecundaria program to teach its students?

3. Do you feel the learning process is more enjoyable when there is some form of media involved, such as television for Telesecundaria?

4. What are your educational goals for the future?

5. What are some of the main things you wish to accomplish throughout your life?

6. Do you feel that television and other forms of media influence your plans and goals for the future?

7. How do you feel your country and its people are portrayed by the local media?  What about outside media, from the United States?

8. Does that affect the way you feel about your goals and whether they are attainable?

9. Do you plan to live in the village for the rest of your life?

10. What does the media tell you about the reality of your goals?

11. What career path do you want to pursue as an adult?

12. Do you feel that the media has affected the way you see yourself and your self-esteem?

13. Has the media affected the way you see the people around you?

14. Do you think the media is trying to make the youth think a certain way?  Or are they encouraging individuality?

15. If it is attempting to make the youth think a certain way, what are they trying to make you think?

Spanish:

1. ¿Cuales son los medios de comunicación (la televisión, la radio, las revistas, el periodico, etc) que mas encuentras durante una semana normal?

2. ¿Su escuela utiliza el programa de Telesecundaria para enseñarles?

3. ¿Sientes que aprender es mas divertido cuando hay algun medio de comunicación para ayudar al proceso, como Telesecundaria?

4. ¿Qué metas tienes para tu educación?

5. ¿Cuales son algunas de las cosas mas importantes que quieres lograr en tu vida?

6. ¿Sientes que la televisión y otros medios de comunicación influyen las metas y planes que tienes para el futuro?

7. ¿Cómo crees que los medios de comunicación locales retratan tu país y su gente?  Y los medios de otros países, como los Estados Unidos?

8. ¿Eso afecta como te sientes en cuanto a tus metas y si son alacancables o no?

9. ¿Tienes planes de quedarte aqui cuando crezcas?

10. ¿Qué te dicen los medios de comunicación acerca de la posibilidad de tus sueños?

11. ¿Qué carrera quieres tener cuando seas mas grande?

12. ¿Crees que los medios de comunicación han afectado la manera en que te ves a ti mismo y tu auto-estima?

13. ¿Han afectado los medios de comunicación como te sientes o como miras a los que te rodean?

14. ¿Crees que los medios de comunicación quieren que los jovenes piensen de una manera específica?  ¿O estos medios fomentan la individualidad?

15. Si estan tratando de hacerlos pensar de tal manera, ¿cómo es esa manera en que quieren que piensen?