Arts - Buffalo State College

82
Humanities
Advertising and Blind Society
Allison Oste, COM 450: Communication and Society
Faculty Mentor: Professor Michael Niman, Communication
In contemporary society we see advertising practically
everywhere. We are all affected in different ways by these
advertisements, even if we believe that we aren’t. Research about
advertising documents how it affects men, women and children,
but what about those of us who cannot actually see what is
being advertised? The main focus of this project is to research
blind societies around the world, with the goal of determining if
advertising has the same effect on blind and visually impaired people
as it does on a person with unimpaired vision. Utilizing interviews of
blind and visually impaired people in addition to utilizing existing
research documenting how they interact with other people in society,
I want to see if and how advertising affects the clothing they wear,
the music they listen to and the consumer decisions that they make
on a regular basis.
Presentation Type and Session: Oral – Humanities I
An Analysis of Common Portrayals of
Athletes In the Global Mass Media
Alexa Myers, COM 450: Communication and Society
Faculty Mentor: Professor Michael Niman, Communication
My research examines how the international media portrays
athletes. I focus specifically on the Americas, Europe and Asia. My
methodology consists of a longitudinal literature search spanning
the past twenty years. I am looking at scholarly journals and articles
examining mediated portrayals of athletes in various venues. I am
also conducting a qualitative analysis of photos and articles that
have appeared in various magazines and in television commercials.
Hence, television commercials, magazines and billboard ads will
be the sources of media I am looking at. This content, which spans
a diverse array of sports, identifies common messages the media
transmits to the public about individual athletes.
Presentation Type and Session: Oral – Humanities I
Any Other Name Would Be Just As Sweet
Cortney Drakeford, COM 450: Communication and Society
Faculty Mentor: Professor Michael Niman, Communication
We are easily drawn to advertisements and tend to attach
ourselves to the branding advertisers have created. Major brand
companies today no longer simply produce products and advertise
them, they instead contract out production of products and brand
them. Branding helps us form identities which eventually lead us to
associate ourselves with specific product lines and in turn through
consumption differentiate ourselves from others. We have allowed
familiar faces to replace the local shopkeepers who traditionally serve
us and in turn have embraced corporations that produce products
that create what passes for meaning in our lives. The products that
we choose to associate ourselves with, in that advertisers tell us we
need so badly are not necessities we need to live. They are instead
products that we choose based upon their status of “cool” with “cool”
reflecting trends. Brands consistently increase advertising in order
to stay relevant to consumers. As consumers, we clearly buy into
branding but why is the question? Do we feel better about ourselves
for buying a particular brand? Or maybe we feel superior to others
when being brand loyal to a company? My presentation discusses
whatever the reason may be and the lengths advertisers will go to
keep us perpetually consuming.
Presentation Type and Session: Oral – Humanities I
Aristotle and Respect As a Virtue
Jenna Tomasello, PHI 401: Respect Seminar
Faculty Mentor: Professor John Draeger, Philosophy
In the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle identifies two different types
of virtue: “virtue of thought and virtue of character”. Aristotelian
“virtue of character” deals with feeling, choosing, and acting well,
and is acquired through habit. This type of virtue, Aristotle explains,
is “a state… in a mean… relative to us… between two vices, one
of excess and one of deficiency”. We might consider such virtues as
wisdom, courage, and patience; but what about respect? If respect
is the virtuous mean, what would be its excess and what would be
its deficiency? Furthermore, Aristotle states that virtuous actions
should be carried out “temperately or justly”, that choosing the
virtuous action is not good enough; one must also choose it for
the right reasons and act on with the proper feeling. Again, what
about respect? Is there a difference between ‘appearing respectful’
and having true respect for oneself or for others? This presentation
explores these questions and concludes that respect is indeed a
virtue.
Presentation Type and Session: Poster V
Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed
and the American Working Class In 2012
Eric Bucklaew, HON 400: All College Honors Colloquium
Faculty Mentors: Professor Angela Fulk, English and Professor
Andrea Guiati, Director, All College Honors Program
“Nickel and Dimed” is a book that explores the struggles of
making a living in America. The author Barbara Ehrenreich wrote
her book as an undercover journalist, attempting to uncover the
genuine experience of the minimum wage worker. Many fictional
beliefs such as “a job will defeat poverty” are proven to be untrue, as
Barbara Ehrenreich discovers that it is almost next to impossible to
raise social status in the low wage market. The book, though written
ten years ago, also raises many issues that currently plague the U.S.
economy. Certain glass ceilings in the economy are created to ensure
that the poor stay poor, and the working class carries too great a
share of the tax burden. In 2012, have we as Americans learned
from Ehrenreich’s discoveries, or are the issues a same problem that
plague current day America?
Presentation Type and Session: Poster I