Nickel and Dimed Ch.2

The Author Next stopping place in her Nickel and Dimed experiment was Maine. She chose Maine because of the opportunity. She had been there on a shopping trip and noticed everyone from a cab driver to a college professor was white, and they all spoke English. Therefore that meant it would be easier for her to find a job there. In her words, she chose Maine for "its whiteness". On her shopping trip there she had noted several places of job employment chances. A local tv news station wanted people to interveiw for telemarketing jobs. She selected a small motel to live in for 59$ a night. She talks about the questions she is asked during her interviews and she makes them seem like dumb questions. All the right answers should be very blunt and obvious. She finnally gets her job as a dietary aide. She thought it sounded technical but it was pretty casual. She got to wear her own cloths and things like that. She even liked that she didnt she have to bring lunch because they just got to eat the left overs of their customers. She talks about how she helps the people choose their diets and things like that. Later in the chapter she goes on a rant about healthcare. And how it isnt fair and things like that. She explains how disgusting a maids job is too. How they slosh around room temperature water just spread the germs instead of kill them. She was upset when she found out her apartment was 200$ for the month instead of 120$ because it was still considered tourist season. She described her phone calls with the food voucher people as quite a mess. But she ended up saving money on a dinner and a meal. She called in sick one day and then the following sunday returned her uniforms and told her ex-co workers to tell their boss whatever they wanted for reason of leaving.

Nickel and Dimed Ch.1

In chapter one she decides to start her experiment in Key West Florida where she lives. She was worried from going from consumer to worker in the same place. Her first mission was to find a place to live where she could afford it at a 7$ an hour wage. Which meant she had to find a place at 500$ or cheaper per month. It was harder to do in Key West because there wasnt much cheap living to choose from. She then figured out that doing this experiment what she thought was trailor trash was something she had to dream about with her wages. She bought her a place 30 miles from town and then she had to start looking for a job. She went and interveiwed for many jobs. She first found a job as a waitress in a hole in the wall place called the Hearthside. She worked there for awhile at 2.43 an hour plus tips from 2pm till 10pm. She didnt much care for the foul mouthed people she worked with. She after working for a couple weeks realized that it was not manageable to live with just one job. So she got a second job as a housekeeper. She worked that job for 4 hours in the morning then straight to the waitressing after that. It was all at the same building therefore it wasnt too rough to do the traveling. She was not enjoying her job as a server because not even 1/3 of her job was serving. Most of her work was side work that her manager gave her. She was talking to Gail a women she worked with about living space and the woman was about to start living in a days inn and Gail was complaining about not being able to have 500$ to put down on a deposit for a apartment plus the first months rent of 500$. Then the author realized that having a starting point is everything in this life style. The 1300$ she had gave herself to start with set her off with a decent start. A better start then the people who actually live in this poverty have. The author then found out the harshness of healthcare in this feild of work. "none'. The company health plan is supposed to kick in after 3 months but then what happeed to Gail was the company said they lost her employment paperwork. On her last day of work at Jerrys she had completely blown up. There was 4 tables all hers and one was a group of 10 british men and the other tables were whiny people. They all had something wrong with their dishes or their drinks and kept sending them back. Then a customer went back into the kitchen and the Author had had enough. She just walked out. And she loved that she was allowed to do so. No one could tell her that she couldnt. That was what had seemed to be her best experience of the whole thing, was that she could walk out and leave without anyone stopping her. When she moved out of the trailor park she gave her key to her friend Gail and the deposit so Gail could move in there. And she was gone. And done with her first experience in poverty.

Merchants Of Cool Video Notes

1.What is cool-hunting and how is it done? what theories and methods of media research are the cool-hunters using?
Cool hunting is done by sending out cool researchers. Influence is held by trust.
2. According to the commentators in the video, why do television, music, and fashion corporations want to understand how teenagers think and what they want?
Because teens are their number one source of income and they have to sell to who buys.
3. How do mtv executives and other programming and marketing decision-makers characterize their relationship to teen culture? Do they say they are creating it? or simply reflecting it?
They say they are reflecting it. Sending a mirror image of what the teens send them and sendit right back.
4. What is the difference between marketing research and human research, according to the commentators in the video? What are the goals of each?
The difference is marketing has to do with the image and human has to do with the personal side of it. The goals are to make money and draw interest.
5. Who is giving the most accurate description of the relationship between teen culture and commercialization, the merchants of cool or the critics? What role are these institutions playing in the socialization process? Argue for one of these two positions using specific points and examples from the video
The Merchants of Cool. They are pretty much a leading role in socialization because every teen wants to be cool and they make cool.The merchants of Cool are the leading role because they send back the image the teens send to them. What the teens show them is what they try to market and send out.

The Race Issue

McCain plays the Race Card The Article talks about how McCain and Palin bash on Obama. At a Florida Rally just a week or so ago Palin had a crowd so worked up that some one yelled out kill him! She was attacking Obamas Patriotism and the crowd just joined in and then took it a little too far. Another supporter of the McCain Palin party said “sit down, boy” to a african american due to the comments and attacks coming from Palin. The secret service dropped the investigation over the comments though because they could not decide whether the threats were really made or not. http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2008/10/14/mccain_plays_the_race_card/
Obama’s race may be as much a plus as a minus The article talks about how race does not really affect the way people are going to vote in the election. They have a graph that shows that it really does not affect the vote. 9% of the voters will vote for Obama because of his race. 6% will not vote for him because of his race and 85% will not be affected by the Candidates race. Race is proven to be the least important factor measured. The results of the survey came from random telephone surveys of 926 registered voters and it was only people with landlines or only cellphones. They say the margin for error is +- 4 percent. http://www.gallup.com/poll/111049/Obamas-Race-May-Much-Plus-Minus.aspx
Obama Cant escape Race questions The article talks about how Obama tries to get away from the race questions and most the time is unable to do so. Reporters say that race could cost Obama 6% points and that’s a lot in a tight presidential race. They say there are a lot fewer bigots now then there used to be but there deffinately is still quite a few of them. They don’t expect Obama to make another race speech. Some say he isnt black enough for black voters and then they say he is too black for white voters. Obama said ‘’I think ultimately, though, the question is going to be decided by a guy or woman who is working hard every day trying to save enough to send their kid to college, trying to pay the bills.’’ http://www.suntimes.com/news/mitchell/1179168,CST-NWS-mitch23.article

McCain, Obama

Barack Obama may be too worried about John McCain because of how much he used McCains names in his speach. McCain may be too worried about himself and not America because of how many times he used the word "I". Obama is promising Alot more things then McCain and thats a good thing in my opinion because thats change Obama has proven to be a trustworthy person. McCain Speaks alot about fight and war and thats not what america needs. What america needs is somone to bring change, and from the speach. It appears that Barack Obama will bring much more change then McCain. McCain wants to keep the war going, which causes more spending and less money for our country. Also causing there to be many familes left at home and broken. Obama wants to "responsibly" take the troops out of Iraq and end the war. Obama wants to make healthcare more affordable and McCain hardly speaks of it.

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