THE ROLE OF TOYS IN FORMATION OF GENDER STEREOTYPES IN CHILDREN

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In this paper we analyze the way in which gender stereotypes are incorporated in children toys. We are interested in finding hidden projections, such as ideas, values and models of nowadays toys and associated advertising messages. Based on observed visual and linguistic messages, we’ll try to reveal their meaning and consequences that this way stereotyped objects of mass production may have on future generations. When for the first time it is introduced to stereotypes, a child adopts them as a natural arrangement of culture to which it belongs. It gradually organizes, simplifies and connects information received from its environment. In that way a child adopts the social and cultural norms and accepts certain patterns of behavior that will become an integral part of its personality and its own identity.

By exploring manifestations of gender stereotypes in the world of toys, this paper starts from specific objects of research found in the local market and investigates their contextualization. The functional categorization, and the media presentation and design, discover specific intentionally incorporated codes, which have an important role in the formation of gender stereotypes in children. At the same time, they draw a boundary between the sexes, defining areas of action and interest that the emerging entities should follow. Empirical research done in this paper, which had the aim to detect implementation of gender stereotypes in children, was primarily based on the psychological studies. However, in this paper, we have also tried to stress the economic aspect, and business strategies that the toy industry intentionally produces mentioned stereotypes in purpose of achieving profit. From this perspective, emerged the need for a review of values and behavioral patterns that industry offers to our children trough the toys.

TOWARDS THE INTERNET DEMOCRACY: STRATEGIES OF A NEW MEDIA ACTIVISM AND SOME OF THEIR SOCIOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS

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This work tries to examine the principles and participants of new media activism in all its forms. In accordance with its scope, the questions that this work will try to answer are: whether the individuals in the new media perform their media activism in a professional and organized way and who are the new media activists, how to explain their number and motives. After distinction of all the most important strategies of the new media activism, some of the psycho-social interpretations of the strength and commitment of their participants are given (theory of Pro AMS revolution, Surovicky’s “the wisdom of the crowd”).

MEDIA DISCOURSE ANALYSIS IN SERBIA WITH REGARD TO MULTICULTURAL COMMUNICATION AND PROFESSIONAL ETHICS

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Research of multiculturalism is a need, but also a challenge of the 21st century. To secure the same rights and chances for minorities that the majority has, is a big challenge for every society and it is not easy to hold up to these high standards. Concerning the fact that today there is not a single state with population completely homogeneous ethnically, religiously, or nationally, it is important to find social and political institutions for the establishment of peaceful, cohabit life and cooperation. For the establishment of the concept of multiculturalism the role of mass media is very important, because they have the monopoly in creating intellectual conscience. Media are the gatherers and public watch dogs, and the information must respect the facts and it’s users. Media not only inform, they also form, and that’s why professional ethics is so important. The culture of dialogue is also very important; for to establish and nourish it, it is necessary to build a strong civil sector, on one side, and to develop concept of individualism rather than the concept of collective acceptance, on the other.

The destiny of future relationships in Serbia and the quality of life itself, depends on the creation of more freedom for people, more tolerance and open dialogue, cohabit life and empathy, and that is why the role of mass media so important in this respect.

A PIECE OF NEWS IS MALE GENDERED – ETHICAL ASPECTS OF GENDER EQUALITY IN INFORMATIVE PROGRAMME OF NATIONAL TELEVISIONS IN SERBIA

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This work tends to discuss ethical aspect of gender equality in Serbia through content analises of informative programme. Concidering that gender identity, relations and beliefs are, as a part of public sphere, spotted through form and content of TV informing, way of representing and adressing women, we set our attention right to these aspects. The article has been a part of Women in television mirror-gender equality in informative programme of Serbia research, conducted by the Center for Study in Cultural Development, in June and Jully, 2009. The research has shown that you can make a 25 minutes TV journal and not mention a woman, otherwise satisfying all broadcasting technical and programme criteria.

We started with the assumption that media are both the mirror of society as well as a creator of social movements, and that the image we detect shows us what part on social scene in Serbia women play, but also point to tendencies in that domain.

ETHICS AND DYSLEXIA: BOUNDARIES OF MEDIA CULTURE

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The text problematizes the status of media ethics in relation to general theoretic discourse, investigating its grounding as an applied ethic discipline. The article opens with consideration of the media ethics in its relation to traditional ethic concepts of various orientations and schools of thinking, later to focus on a more specific media topics. Speculative results of critical reflections on subjects such as modern media ethics lead to conclusion that nowadays – due to ever increasing influence of mass communication media and the so called new media – could be more appropriate to reflect on the phenomenon of media common ways in tracks of classical Hegel’s Sittlichkeit, instead of media ethics based on legal regulations in the field, that is on individualistic concepts of civil ethics. Theories of Marshal MacLuan and Paul Virilio also discussed and actualized in this essay support such an approach.

PERFORMING HIP-HOP – ETHICS, COMPLEX ACTING, AND TUPAC SHAKUR IN JUICE

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Hip-hop is inextricably linked with moral reflections as they relate to the often dire state of young men surviving in economically-ravaged communities in America and throughout the world; young men who are often forced to resort to criminal activities and other morally-ambiguous actions for both survival and perseverance. As a culture that is perpetuated globally through media outlets which profit from the images that are trafficked, the ethics of the said media outlets must be measured in an attempt to gauge complicity in the often dangerous performances that hip-hop offers. This study attempts to understand the politics, aesthetics and repercussions of the performative aspects of hip-hop.

As an art form, hip-hop creates socially-charged implications with regards to performance. However, in the complex performance art that is hip-hop, what is real? Rarely is there a boundary between life and art in hip-hop and that is because hip-hop is as much a way of life as it is an art form; the question then becomes, what is the tension between hip-hop art as performing and producing social and ethnic codes, or reflecting pre-existing ones? As the most influential and highest-selling hip-hop artist of all-time, Tupac Shakur presents an important case study for the performative aspect in hip-hop, particularly through his first starring role in a movie: Juice (1992) by Ernest Dickerson.

Hip-hop and the media that channels it have created a most dangerous performance art, and the “juice,” or respect, that one struggles to earn must often be paid for at the expense of lives. A space is created for this dangerous performance art by way of ethical slippage. In order to extricate itself from this dubious situation, hip-hop must resist rampant commercialization while providing a site that is conducive to the uplifting of the downtrodden. It must renew and celebrate its sense of ethical purpose.

THE APOLOGY OF ART IN A SERBIAN FILM OF SRĐAN SPASOJEVIĆ

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A Serbian Film (2010), directed by Srđan Spasojević, is considered in the context of the apology of art, poetics of decadence and structural-semiotic theory of modelization, with the emphasis on its ethical aspects. High stylization and modeling power of this film contrasts today’s pseudo-documentary predominant form in the film.