What are some of the moral dilemmas that face ethnographers?  How would you resolve them?


One of the moral dilemmas discussed was that the ethnographer had knowledge about things that were secret, but he wanted to share with the world, that gangs were not just drug crazed hooligans they were their own organized nations, with networking all over. I think that being let in on secrets and then going and exposing them to the world is a reasonable dilemma, because you do not want to throw the people that informed you of the information under the bus. If i were to resolve this issue I am not exactly sure how i would handle it. Conquergood said that he negotiates, because of "the delicate boundary between respect and sensitivity to my field consultants, and the need to write the fullest, most complex ethnographic account of their communication practices that my data support". I think that i might evaluate what is really important for the world to know and what might cause trouble for the people involved, and go from there.

Chapter 8

In chapter 8 a concept that I really liked was structural diversity. In structural diversity there are “teams with members from different units within the organization and with different training and knowledge”(211). I liked this concept because I have experienced this at my current job, and I will probably experience this in most of the other jobs I have. One time i had to do a group project for a class. Our teacher had us do a personality test to divide us into different categories. Then he chose a person from each category to form the group. It was like each person a a specialty to contribute to the group project. It was a great project because it applied real world scenarios of working in a group in a work environment. With everyones special skills, and knowledge combined they can accomplish the tasks at hand and get the job done, just like in structured diversity in the workplace.

2). Do you agree with Marshall McLuhand that the medium is the message, i.e. that the format or logic of a medium is as important as its content, and, in fact, determines what content will be broadcast through that channel?  Evaluate his idea that television is a cool medium.


I think that the idea that the medium is the message is an interesting idea, but I am not sure I totally agree with the concept. I do think that the medium does make a difference on weather or not the message will be received among different groups of people. I think that people like my parents who read the newspaper daily will receive the message in that medium, better than my sister and I who do not read the newspaper. Therefore we ignore the message, because we dont read it. But I think we would receive the message through a different medium, like the internet and television and we would essentially get the same message.


When the text book was discussing television as a cool medium, it mentioned that people have who have grown up on watching television, were used to the fast paces barrage of information, and that they can get bored from other mediums that do not have pictorial and dramatic stimuli. I find this to be true for my self and I have found myself feeling that I am not getting the information I want fast enough from other mediums.

Cyber Friends!

1). Have you made friendships that exist exclusively in cyberspace?  If so, how are they different from f2f relationships?  If you have no formed cyber relationships, why not?


I have never made a friendship that existed exclusively in cyberspace. A few times I have met people and continued to develop the friendship online, but I have never made and exclusively cyberspace friend. I had herd so many horror stories when I was younger about people on the internet being predators or whatnot that I was afraid to talk to people that I did not actually know. The idea of making friends with a fourteen year girl, who was actually a 40 year old man on the other end freaked me out. I do have friends that have made friends through cyberspace, and nothing creepy or weird happened to them, it was usually people that they played games like world of warcraft with, and their friendship revolved around the game. Another friend of mine made friends with people online that shared her love of comic books, which was nice for her because she didnt have any friends that lived near her to discuss her passion with. I don't that cyberspace friendships are always bad or anything, just not for me. I 

Which pattern (rigid complementarity, competitive symmetry, or submissive symmetry) do you think would be the most difficult to change? Why? Which would be the most damaging to a relationship? Which would be the most potentially damaging to the self-esteem of the individuals involved? 


It seems that all of these patterns would be equally difficult to change. I have a friend who was in a four year relationship, that recently ended basically because of rigid complementarity. She was tired of being the one down person and so she broke things off with her boyfriend. They are still friends, and talk but she moved out of the house. Now when i see them together, the roles have reversed she seems to be the one up person. I feel like this is a tactic to win her back, in her ex boyfriends mind. I think that he is just a dominant person and so I think that it would be difficult to change that in him forever. Obviously this example of rigid complementarity is an example of how the relationship was damaged, and I think that this form of dysfunctional pattern is also damaging to the people involved probably more so than the other two patterns mentioned. I know for my friend it was damaging to her self esteem because she felt belittled and frustrated that she always had to be the submissive person.

Although i have never experienced serious culture shock,after reading about it i kind of remember experiencing something that was pretty close to it. I grew up and attendend school in the Los Gatos, Campbell, Saratoga area which was predominantly white. My schools, had childeren from all different cultures, and ehtinicities, but we never had gang issues or things like that. My Mother was ateacher in the East Side Union Highschool district. One summer right before i stated highschool, she signed me up for a math class that was supposed to prepare me for highschool math. The class was at her school Yerba Buena. The school mostly consisted of kids that were hispanic and asian. When I went there I soon found out that I was the only white kid on campus. I felt a little out of place, because we werent allowed to wear anything red or blue, and i was nervous that I might say something that was wrong or gang affiliated. I wondered to myself if the other kids at the school, thought it was weird tht i was there, or if they didnt even notice. I was open to being friends with people and I made friends with the kids in my class but i hung out in my moms office at lunch beacuse i didnt really know where else to go. It was and interesting experience and to me its the closest i have been to culture shock.

2). Do you believe in the rationality, perfectability, and mutability premises? What social institutions and practices are based on these beliefs?


I think that to some extent this idea is true. The Perfectibility section is the one that i agree with least. I think that humans might strive for perfection in some areas but not it all areas, because either its impossible, or its not that important. I also do not think that humans are born in sin. These beliefs are probably what a lot of religions are based upon. 


I do think the rationality part is right in that most people have the ability to think rationally, and make good decisions, however there are people that have the ability but they still make poor decisions. And there theres the few who do not have the ability to think rationally, like people with developmental disorders, or psychological disorders.


Lastly i do believe in the mutability premise, your environment helps to shape who you are, and every one experiences that. Work, home and social groups, all contribute to the environmental factors in peoples life, and shape a persons, psychological, and physiological self.