Media in Zimbabwe

Media Zimbabwe

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Equity vs. Equality
Evan Kramer

In a school such as Roseville High School, with a fairly diverse population of different ages, ethnicities, and learning abilities the question of equity vs. equality becomes increasingly relevant. Do we treat everyone equally, giving all students the exact same experience like robots being programmed to perform rudimentary tasks? Or should the school take a little more time and effort to create a learning environment more specific to the many different needs of the students? Judging from the robot analogy you can probably guess which side of the equity vs. equality bout I stand on. So, in order to achieve equity in Roseville Area High School their needs to be some line of connection from the often confused, frustrated, sometimes hazed mind of the average student to the teacher who’s also confused and frustrated. Right now there is no communication from the average student specific enough for teachers to really get it. And since every staff member in the building seems to be frantically checking their e-mail every 10 minutes, why not build this line of communication on the world wide web? Well, that’s exactly where it is being formed. Can You Hear Me is the title and it will be the new line of communication that will bridge the gap between teacher and student, and also connect students to hopefully create an equitable environment for every student.

Equity Vs. Equality: Why does the Difference Matter?

Equity and Equality are not synonymous. Equity acknowledges the strengths and weaknesses of a certain group or individual, while equality attempts to enforce uniformity. An equal education leaves some behind, and holds back others; an equitable education reflects the student’s needs. In the end, equality is not reached through equal treatment, but rather from equitable treatment that attempts to compensate for weaknesses and disadvantages of the individual.

Celebrities

Celebrities are portrayed in the media in many different ways. From the pictures I saw materialistic, flawless smiles, from faces with flawless skin staring back at me. Celebrities are following the norms saying that they need the best bodies and the most fashionable clothes. They spend money on the biggest house, best car, and compete with other through the style of clothing they wear.They were shown this way in more than half of the pictures I looked at.

Some of the unique celebrities I found that did not fit the “perfect” celebrity image were Lindsay Lohan, Hilary Duff, Beyonce Knowles, and Britney Spears. When Lindsay was shown going to jail it wasn’t what was “normal” for someone famous. When people think of a celebrity, they usually don’t think of them getting into trouble or breaking the law because that wouldn’t make them “perfect.” Hilary Duff and Beyonce also jumped outside of the box and didn’t wear make up, which showed that they were comfortable in their skin and didn’t need to always look flawless. Britney shaved her head to stand out and some people then realized she wasn't perfect and didn’t need to follow the norm of how women should look.

The media likes to show the public that celebrities are role models and that we should look up to them. While some celebrities do great things, the stereotype is not accurate enough to compare ourselves to. Not everyone in the world can look perfect or even come close to how easily computers can make up and hide flaws. This stereotype of perfection hurts young women and men especially because it gives them hope that they might someday look like this, and then crushes them when they don’t. The media thinks that showing your sexuality and body is real life. In reality, people wouldn’t last a minute in the public if they dressed that way. Humans will never be perfect and the media should portray more of that than this fit, flawless, happy image that we end up seeing every day and then go home to compare ourselves to.

The Fool

The similarities between each of the characters are vague. The portrayal of The Fool in the media is typically very obvious and recognizable. They are commonly in shows as a bungling father figure in sitcoms and other movies. Just about all of my examples are male characters and typically are hopeless when it comes to parenting their children or dealing with any sort of problem in their professional life. Most of the time they have a strong standing in what they believe in, and are not afraid to express how they feel. An example of this is Dorian from Scrubs, most the time he openly expresses what he feels, even though later on he may regret it. This is the same with Homer, as well as Peter from family guy.

The Unique example I have is The House Bunny and Legally Bond. They are the only examples on the list where the main character is a female, and the primary stupid character of the movie. In most the other examples, the male is the dumb one while the female, or wife in some cases, is the one who holds things together. Also in most cases, the main character has moments of “wow I was stupid”, and in the house bunny, she doesn’t have a self-realization moment that changes the outcome at the end. Another thing is on most shows there is a decent reason for the gibberish this group says, With Kelso, most the time he just runs into a scene, says some stupid line, mocked and leaves. He has no reason; his character also doesn’t stand for some firm moral ground to base his attitude on certain subjects around. On the show, my name is earl; the character is a normal man who gets thrown into unreasonable circumstances that cause him to act out of the norm. This is different because most the characters skew the plot themselves.


The consequences of the media portraying these figure in a way such, as this is broad. It makes people assume things that are not fully true. Just because a dad might have made a mistake does that make him into Homer Simpson? On the flip side of this, to link a character such as Peter from Family Guy to someone in real life, you need to find someone that almost wants to be that bad of a father figure. It is unrealistic in most standing that normal people could relate to the negative views on some of these characters. What connects people to these characters are the every day situations they are put in. None of these shows/movies have something totally out of the ordinary start out the plot of the episode, but it’s the characters own personality that shapes the rest of the show. Because these characters have such out of the ordinary mindsets but are thrown into these situations we can relate to, making that connection (even though there isn’t a direct connection) is all the easer. Although, does that make a slightly dysfunctional family the same as Malcolm in the middle? For that reason the consequences of portraying this group in the media can change the perspective on a normal family drastically