Welcome to my site! My name is Jordan Jewell and I'm a recent graduate of Oakland University with a Degree in Journalism, Communication, and a minor in Political Science. I'm a current freelance writer with an interest in lifestyle and political reporting.
My Immigration Story is an online forum that shares the stories of immigrants in America. These stories provide multiple voices to the immigration situation in our country. It’s very easy to turn on your television and see the facts and statistics that come along with immigrating to America, legally or illegally. These stories shares the heart and soul behind this hot topic in the media.
One story documents the story of a young girl who came to America with her parents when she was young on a travel visa. Because of her current illegal status, she is unable to travel to other countries in the way she would like to. While travel is expensive, if I saved my money I’d be able to take the trip I’ve always dreamed of. To not be able to see the world because of a decision that I did not make would be both devastating and frustrating.
Another story documented a woman who tried to take her daughter to the U.S. to see her father. Her child was allowed access but she was not and the two were separated. This situation would be traumatic enough, but now the US consulate is refusing to answer her calls and each time she is directed to an automated system. A large part of the immigration debate is the idea that the government is treating these people inhumanely. The treatment that this woman has undergone is truly shocking and disheartening.
Sites like My Immigration Story provide a forum for people who are suffering from similar conditions. While it allows the sharing of stories and the formation of community among immigrants, it also provides a sense of perspective for people who find this concept difficult to understand.
Chiaoning Su poses with students Olivia Braun and Kathryn French and faculty from a Public Relations and Advertising Netoworking event. Braun is the president of PRAD and French is the vice president. Credit: photo by Chiaoning Su
Born and raised in Taiwan, Chiaoning Su moved to the United States to purse her masters and doctorate degrees in 2007.
Diversity On campus
Su attended Temple University in Philadelphia and studied media and communication. While reflecting on her time there, she notes that it was far more diverse than Oakland University’s campus.
“When I first came to Oakland, I was nervous. Don’t get me wrong, students were extremely friendly, but I didn’t see a lot of different cultures represented,” Su said. “That worries me.”
Oakland University’s journalism department can be found down a hallway in Vandenburg Hall. The hallway holds two classrooms and three offices. Though the department is small, Su sometimes finds it hard to find commonalities with her co-workers.
“The difficulty isn’t always a language or cultural barrier. Most of my co-workers are married. It can be an awkward position to be in at times,” Su said. “People get married very early in Michigan I’ve noticed. I have students who are already engaged.”
Su takes note of the differences in diversity between Taiwan, Philedelphia and Michigan, but also the ways people come together.
“Students want to learn about you. If you’re willing to give the students an education, you will learn something from them in return.”
The importance of different perspectives
Coming from a political family, her father is the Premier of Taiwan and her sister is a legislator, Su has worked on three political campaigns. In 2016, Su began teaching journalism and public relations at OU during the heat of the presidential election.
“There were times where I felt like I needed to be on my toes, whether it’s what topic to cover or the wording I use,” Su said. “I remember one class, I was talking about the presidential election. I didn’t feel that I was supporting a certain side of the debate, but the very next class someone wore a MAGA hat to class.”
Su felt that this incident served as a reminder and an accusation.
“I try to be so careful because it’s not my responsibility to enforce any sort of ideology on them. I tend to be neutral on these topics because I don’t feel that I have a strong enough knowledge of American politics.”
Diversity in the workplace
As the advisor for OU’s public relations program, Su strives to teach students about diversity and inclusion in the workplace.
“We hosted a panel last semester about the topic of diversity and how minorities can make themselves heard in professional settings,” Su said.
Recent controversial advertisements like Kendal Jenner’s Pepsi commercial and H&M’s “Coolest Monkey in the Jungle” scandal prove that diversity in the field of marketing is important.
“From my perspective, as a PR professional, things like that just blow my mind,” Su said. “Ad’s like that have to go through so many levels of decision making and no one spoke up.”
Using her platform
Now in her third year of teaching at OU, Su uses personal stories to educate students on relevant topics.
“If I talk about the immigrant situation in our country, I probably wouldn’t comment on the topic but instead I would use myself as an example,” Su said. “I think people need to have that personal connection. By saying ‘What if this happened to my professor?’ it puts a topic that may be foreign into perspective.”
Second Life is an increasingly popular virtual reality website that allows you to take on a completely different person and have new experiences. Our class discussed “addiction and abilty” and how those factors can affect a persons daily life.
Second Life allowed me to experience schizophrenia in a more hands on way than just reading about it. As I started using the program my thoughs consisted of “Am I doing this right?” I wasn’t sure what to be looking for or what to expect because I’ve never experienced hallucinations or schizophrenia. The warning at the beginning was a little jarring. It said something along the lines of “don’t play this if you have history of mental illness.” I was ready for things to get intense after I saw that.
I started to play without any volume. The minute I turned my sound up, I understood why our professor had encouraged the use of headphones. The most memorable quote from this gaming experience? “Kill Yourself!”
After about 10 minutes of playing the game, I felt disturbed. I felt weird, for lack of a better term. As someone who’s never known anyone with schizophrenia, I didn’t know what to expect from the “hallucinations.” The overwhelming sense of feeling out of place was enough to make me want to log out.
Experiences like these are important. In order to learn and grow, we have to experience discomfort. Schizophrenia is not some glamourous mental illness like Hollywood would have you believe. It’s something that people have to cope with everyday, and I could hardly last a few minutes. Mental illness can seem to be invisible to people who have never experienced it. It’s downplayed and considered not as serious as physical illnesses, but it’s terrifying to realize what these people are going through.
For lack of a better word, the experience itself was disturbing. It was necessary, but unsettling. We are all living in the world together and it’s important to realize and try to understand the different situations people may be in.
Aaron Sorkin’s “Newsroom” is a television show widely shown in journalism classroom’s at OU. Garry Gilbert and Holly Gilbert have both shown clips and episodes in the classes I have taken with them. The show provides a unique, behind the scenes perspective of what goes on in a newsroom.
While the show tackles terrorism in a few different episodes, this weeks discussion about terrorism coverage reminded me of something else. In a season 2 episode of “Newsroom” entitled “Tragedy Porn,” the group is making an effort to cover Casey Anthony and the murder of her daughter, Caylee. Originally, the newsroom is against covering the murder at all. They lose 50% of their viewers to Nancy Grace.
The Newsroom’s coverage of Casey Anthony and the murder of her daughter.
News outlets have to make the ethical decision of whether or not to cover a tragedy that has been sensationalize or turned into entertainment.
As humans, we have a desire to “know more.” We want updates, background on the terrorists, names and photos of the victims. We want to tweet out our prayers and sound like we actually know what we’re talking about. Is that wrong?
In class, we discussed the publishing of names and photos of the victims as well as the criminal. To me, it’s a grey area. When tragedy strikes, we are introduced to a horrific and disturbing crime. Personally, I want to see justice done. I want to see clips from court, images of the criminal being walked into jail with handcuffs on. In a strange way, it gives me piece of mind that this person is getting exactly what they deserve.
What about the victims? In class, a peer brought up the fact that publishing the victims names and faces can come across as unethical. The more faces you see, the more desensitized you may become. The counter argument to this point is that we should be remembering the victims, not the terrorist. I think that the two go hand in hand. If we are going to broadcast the terrorist, we have to show the victims. Otherwise, the victims will be forgotten and the terrorists intentions and message will live on.
Tragedies are incredible difficult to cover. They require a great amount of delicacy but also a desire to inform and protect the public. While I don’t know if there will ever be written rules about the way we cover terrorism and murders, I think it’s an important conversation for reporters and journalists to engage in.
My preconceived definition of hacking involves someone sitting in a dark room, their hood is up and countless lines of neon green code text is flowing across their screen.
Haralanova, in her presentation on “hacktivism,” defines hacking as “the art of constantly learning about the artifacts that surround us throughout our lives.”
As I read about hacking I began to realize that the definition is far more broad than just a sketchy person doing something malicious. Hacking is used by activists, professionals and just every day people. The inventer of the URL system used hacking to create it. Hacking, like most things, can be used for good or evil.
This topic intersects with the idea of cyber-feminism in a few different ways. Cyber-feminism promotes women getting more involved in tech and using that involvement to their advantage.
Cyber-feminism took off in the 1990’s, but despite the boom women are still a minority in the technology field. Hackblossom.org offers a comprehensive guide to cyber-feminism and hacking. The guide includes tactics on cyber-security, protecting your digital footprint and securing online accounts.
In class, we all discussed the presence of women in different fields, but specifically music. A peer pointed out that he primarily listens to electronic music and he was able to rattle off names of quite a few female dj’s. Annie Goh’s article is a little dated (published in 2014), but it states that “pressures in 2013 show shamefully how festivals and labels predominantly in the so-called developed world represent only a meagre average of 8.2% female artists.”
This conversation begged a question that we’ve discussed previously in class, “what is good?” Should “good” be 50% of women being represented? Is 8.2% considered “good”? I’d disagree with my peer. Just because you are specifically familiar with half a dozen female electronic musicians, doesn’t mean that there isn’t a problem.
The most important thing I took away from our course conversations was that there needs to be a standard for diversity. I don’t necessarily mean we need a certain amount of different people in different fields, but there needs to be a more open dialogue about what “good” really is.
Our coursework spent a week focused on mental illness/addiction and how social media can effect this. “The Biggest Troll on the Web” from Gawker was one of the most shocking and at time distrubing articles we’ve read so far. Storytelling Media Diversity is about examining the different aspects of diversity that the roll they play in the media. Mental illness and social media were the primary topics of this article.
Violentacrez is an internet troll but he’s not just a bored teenager trying to “shake things up” on the internet. At 49 years old, Michael Brutsch produces some of the most offensive content on the web. He calls himself the “creepy uncle of Reddit,” posting things like “creepshots” in which he posts close up photos of women breasts or butts without their consent. His content gets creepier and more offensive the deeper you dive, reaching its peak at his apparent fetish for underage girls or as he calls them “jailbait.”
Though he insists that he is not a pedophile, his interest in underaged girls is concerning to say the least. Besides his photo forums, Brutsch has content that is offensive to jewish people, African Americans, women and others.
The article raised questions in my mind about thought policing. Sure, Violentacrez is extremely offensive in his content, but is what he’s doing illegal, or just irritating?
I’m not a fan of Tucker Carlson, I find his content to be self-righteous and I don’t think he treats his guests who disagree with him with respect. The tapes of him saying these things were disgusting to me, but what can I do? It was a reminder that it’s not illegal to be offensive or crude.
Other members of Reddit have praised Violentacrez for his use of free speech. The issue arises, however, with his “Jailbait” content. It’s not illegal to be annoying, but sharing and consuming child porn is illegal. All I could think while reading this article was “How is this guy not in jail?” The photos that Violentacrez shares, though disturbing, do not classify as child porn. They are simply suggestive images, lacking actual nudity.
The expose published on Gawker was the first to expose Michael Brutsch’s real name. His private name was made public, but he exposed his private life to his readers long ago. Posting stories about his sexual experiences with his stepdaughter and even getting his son involved in the Reddit forums, Brutsch wasn’t hiding much.
Violentacrez and Tucker Carlsons situations present the idea of the media sharing information and allowing the public to form their own ideas. Violentacrez deactivated his account, admitting defeat and saying “Reddit hasn’t been fun for a while.” Carlson took the opposite route, stating that he is a victim of the left trying to police his thoughts, and that he would not be silenced.
While Carlson may just be an outspoken individual with controversial views, Violentacrez appears to be a deeply disturbed individual. Whether his addiction is to underaged girls, porn, or social media itself, “The Biggest Troll on the Web” exposes the way some people use social media and the internet to further feed their addictions.
As someone who doesn’t know a lot about the Middle East, I expected Exercise 4 to be an eye opening experience. I chose to watch the documentary “Constructing the Terrorist Threat.”
Pre- Documentary questions:
As background work for the documentary, I researched a series of questions that professor Schneeweis asked.
The Middle East is made up of 18 countries including Syria, Turkey, Yemen, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Isreal and more.
Above is a map showing Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Image from The University of Texas Library
Israel is populated by 8,891,800. The West Bank is populated by around 2.8 million and the Gaza Strip is populated by around 1.7 million.
My understanding of the conflict in the Middle East is that Palestine and Israel essentially both want control of the Gaza Strip. My understanding of the situation stems from my interview with Simon Albaugh, an Oakland University journalism student who interned in Palestine. “Occupation” means that member of a countries military are stationed in a city that does not belong to the country.
The word propaganda means “information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view.” Public relations is about maintaining a positive public image. Lobbying occurs when a group seeks to influence a politician or public official on an issue. While all have to due with promoting ideas, propaganda is done in a negative and biased way. Public relations focuses on managing people rather than ideas. Lobbying focuses on influencing people to support certain ideas.
Thoughts on the documentary:
The treatment of the Japanese in America during the Second World War was very comprable to the treatment of muslims in America today. Over 100,000 Japanese Americans were essentially put into concentration camps. George Takei, a human rights activist, points out that the current treatment of Muslims in the US is a prelude to internment camps. The countries being targeted for the “muslim ban” are not responsible for the terrorist attacks that have been carried out by extremeists, yet are still being blamed for them.
The documentary points out that the way we perceive terrorism is a socially constructed process. I agree with this sentiment because when trying to define terrorism in my own terms, I was unable to. The idea of “moral panic” is presented in a way that perfectly explains a lot of American’s feelings towards muslims and terrorist activity. “A group of persons emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values.” Acts of terrorism, like the Planned Parenthood shooting in Colardo, that are committed by white men are rarely called “terrorism.” White men and women who commit acts of terrorism are often deemed “mentally ill” and their race is not punished for their existence.
Terrorism is misunderstood because it is often classified by race. White men and women, as stated above, are rarely accused of terrorism because they are the majority in the United States. Terrorism is something that people blame on race, culture or religion. As stated inthe documentary, “Muslims are classified as violent people. The common response to this stereotype is to dehumanize the group.”It is additionally perpetuated in the United States as a very common problem, something we should always be on alert for. Studies have shown that people are more likely to die from a bolt of lightning hitting you than a Jhiadi terrorist act. Less than 1 in 1 million muslims are committing terrorist acts, disproving the idea that violence is a part of the muslim culture.
The idea of “creating racialized others” is presented in the documentary. “Racialized others” serve as a threat to produce unjust political systems. The film cites Native Americans being depicted as savages and African Slaves were dehumanized and their attempts to escape were demonized. While many find the muslim ban shocking, it was able to be proposed because of this practice of demonizing an entire race. The media reports terrorist attacks as “ISIS plots” and several of these plots were created with the assistance of the FBI. This is beyond alarming because it suggests that the FBI, an organization many view as a protector, is focusing their energy on sting operations designed to make one race appear as violent.
The idea of dehumanizing and demonizing a race feels very real when you turn on the news. One of the most common examples is the use of mugshots when reffering to black individuals and the use of wholesome photos when reffering to white individuals. It happened quite frequently in cases of police brutality and it’s a sbtle way of demonizing a victim. It’s impossible that an entire race is evil, especially one that does not believe in violence in the way that the media has protrayed. By constantly reffering to muslims as violent people, it creates a negative image in the minds of people who may have little to no experience with muslims.
“Constructing the Terrorist Threat” was interesting to watch. It deconstructs the way terrorism is “marketed” in the United States and the various tactics used to create that idea. Terrorism is not an easy topic to define and it certainly cannot be defined as a race of people. The Muslim Ban seeks to dehumanize and demonize muslims. Americans who do not “feel like” educating themselves on such issues will see the ban and think “these are bad people.” The documentary sheds light on the lies we are fed as Americans about terrorism. I found it eye opening to evaluate the stories and myths I have been told about terrorism in our country and to be able to apply this new information to the media I am being fed. From now on I will look at white acts of terrorism in a different light and I will acknowledge that terrorism is a horrible act but it is not defined by a group of people.
Under Our Skin as a whole was a really cool site to experience. It’s sad that people don’t pay enough attention to these topics, making the site necessary in the first place.
Institutional Racism: The video about institutional racism was really interesting because it talks about how hard it is to label something as institutional racism. It’s not something we are taught from a young age, therefore it’s harder to pinpoint. I think a lot of people are willing to admit that there is a problem with racial inequality in America, but very few are willing to acknowledge where it stems from.
Racist: The video about racism made a very simple but very real point. People deny being racist because being a racist is the worst thing you can be in today’s society. People will say that they HATE black people, but “I’m not a racist.” It was really rare to hear the priest in the video openly admit that he is a racist. You can’t recover from something until you admit you have a problem.
Microaggressions: I recently had a speaker come to my Ethical Issues in Journalism class named Kaniqua Welch. Kaniqua works in PR and has frequently had colleagues tell her that they didn’t expect her to be so relatable or intelligent when they saw her name. This may seem like a compliment to them, but after watching the video it’s clear that these are microaggressions that imply the idea that Kaniqua might be “ghetto” or uneducated because of her ethnic name.
The idea of this project is really inspiring. A group of journalists in a newsroom found themselves having conversations that may not be front page worthy but were still incredibly important. Some of the videos (like white privledge and safe space) were tough because they forced me to confront issues that directly impact me and issues that I can help change.
This project is doing important work by providing a voice to people who want to see a change in our country and specifically in race relations.
One of our readings this week was about a topic that is debated frequently in my family. The idea of “White Privilege” is a hot topic at every holiday gathering and comes up at least once every time I talk to my dad on the phone.
My dad was raised in Onsted, Michigan. If this town doesn’t sound familiar to you, don’t panic. It has a population of 972. He got his first job at a donut shop when he was twelve and hasn’t left the workforce since. He now works 70 hour weeks at a white color job that he constantly reminds me he has as a product of his hard work, not his skin color.
I’m immensely proud of my dad. He’s one of the hardest working and most honest people I know, but we will never see eye to eye on white privilege
To be clear, I don’t think my dad has his job because he is white. I know for a fact he’s incredibly qualified and well suited for his position. I also know that his (and my own) whiteness would never have stopped him from getting that position.
My favorite example to use when I try to explain white privilege to my dad is this one: I have been pulled over for speeding about 7 times in my life. I make jokes with the officers that pull me over. I have gotten out of three of the tickets because I am young and somewhat attractive. I have never been threatened, dragged out of my vehicle, pinned to the ground or murdered over a traffic stop.
As illustrate in the article “White Privilege” by Peggy McIntosh, there are simple luxuries that come with being white that are hard to notice if you don’t look for them. Buying products with people who look like us on them, flesh-colored bandages,
Prior to this exercise, I have never taken a bias test before. I took a few different ones on the website because the idea was interesting to me. I took the Skin Tone, Race and Weight bias tests.
The tests supply you with questions that ask you to rank your feelings towards certain situations, some of which I hadn’t considered before. The race bias test asked if I felt that black people needed to stress about education. This topic rarely crosses my mind because I am white.
This is just a small example of the issues that this exercise was able to shed light on for me. It’s important to not let ourselves be ignorant to issues that are going on all around us. I understand that noticing a bias within yourself can be upsetting and hard to confront, but it can also lead to a very important change in our perceptions.
Jordan Jewell 