Technological Advancements And Its Impact On The Modern World

While the 1970’s and 80’s marked a decline in movies featuring black actors and a lack of black directors, the mid 1980’s through the 1990’s invited a new generation of filmmakers and rappers, engaging with the “New Jack” image, transforming the Ghettos of yesteryears into the hood of today. A major director that emerged during this time was Spike Lee. According to Paula Massood’s book titled, Black City Cinema, African American Urban Experiences in Film, “…Lee not only transformed African American city spaces and black filmmaking practices, he also changed American filmmaking as a whole.” Lee is perhaps one of the most influential film makers of the time, likely of all time. He thrusted black Brooklyn into light, shifting away from the popularity of Harlem. By putting complex characters into an urban space that is not only defined by poverty, drugs, and crime, it suggests the community is more than the black city it once was, it is instead a complex cityscape. Despite them being addressed to an African American audience, Lee’s film attract a mixed audience. Spike lee’s Do the Right Thing painted a different image of the African American community, “The construction of the African American city as community differs from more mainstream examples of the represents black city spaces from the rime period, such as Colors…, which presented its African American and Mexican American communities through the eyes of white LAPD officers.”

From the time when the first English colonies were established in North America until now, there has been some form of armed fighting force in place to protect the interests of the United States and its colonial progenitors. During the roughly four centuries in which this fighting force has existed, it has undergone numerous changes of varying degrees of significance. Technological advances have changed the nature of both defensive and offensive warfare, political advances have changed the nature of the relationship between the civilian population and its protectors, and geostrategic shifts have changed the role of the United States military with respect to the rest of the world. The most lasting and meaningful changes have occurred

Tommy L. Lott, Redefining Black Film (1995), asserts that the growing number of Hollywood movies by black independent filmmakers demand a more black film commentary, which was fostered by the Blaxploitation era

“Early black cinema is an important part of American culture because it visually brought our stories to life. Without the black independent film movement, there would be very few black films today.” The 1970’s and the 1980’s marked a the entry of a new generation of Afro American directors like Haile Gerima, Charles Burnet, Larry Clark, Pamela Jones, Jamaa Fanaka, Julie Dash, Robert Townsend or Spike Lee. They want to stand out and always required more artistic and financial control. Furthermore the emergence of the Afro-American director can be interpreted as a will to break the glass ceiling. Spike Lee is one of the directors who want to break this glass ceiling. He is unmistakably the major Black filmmaker of the 80 and 90 decades. During

Afro-American woman are one of the most under represented groups in Hollywood films. They face double underrepresentation not only on screen but also behind the camera and it is because they are woman and black. Since the very beginning, Hollywood film industry has been dominated by white male producers, writers, directors and executives (Smith, 780; Covington, 21) that empower their own race and gender hierarchies. The Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies at UCLA carried out a study of the top 200 Hollywood films in 2013 and found that leading characters are 74.7% male and 25.3% female and according to race, 83.3% are white in contrast to 16.7%, which consists the minorities. Behind the camera, regarding the gender of directors,

Since today’s society is infatuated with celebrities, the Academy Awards hold prevalence in society and influence what kinds of stories the masses believe to be the most relevant or important. Denying black artists a chance to be recognized leads to fewer opportunities for growth and success. Brody states, “An Oscar or a nomination gives an actor’s career a boost, and for now, those boosts—those roles, that financing—remain limited mainly to white filmmakers and actors” (2). Since nominations tend to favor white artists, Brody claims they are the ones who have the most freedom to experiment with different genres. When the same types of people create the same types of movies about the same experiences, there are fewer films with thought-provoking and meaningful topics that “confront the unquestioned and enfeebled assumptions of artistic merit” (Brody 4).

Redefining Black Film by Mark A. Reid is the book I’ve selected for the mid-term reading report. This book is an eye opener learning experience as well as a beginning guide to understanding African American film, filmmaking, actor/actress and directors. Mark A. Reid discussed the challenges and obstacles African Americans faced during the turn of the century up and through the civil rights movement of the Sixties including the focus on feminism in black cultural production . Redefining Black Film fits in the history of filmmaking as it relates to the ground breaking movements of African Americans in film as well as production process. The acceptance by white society of African Americans in film was a major part of this book as African American

Racial stereotypes in films have typically reflected societies reality. How individuals are able to come to understand what it means to be a black in America is shaped by the social construct of cultural identity. As both reality and social construct shifts, so does Black representation in film. What has not shifted is the fact that we are still living in a white dominated society, where much of the narrative belongs to and is determined by Rich, White Males and where black stereotypes still exist and are continually reinforced in films. Hollywood has typically followed this trend through the use of white directors, discussions of diversity, or even in its selection of Oscar nominees (Donnelly 2016). As a result, many “mainstream” films look to target young males and females, for example, films like The Avengers or the Twilight vampire series. Taking all of this into account, Black film has transcended over time to change the way African Americans are viewed and take control of their own narrative. However as independent Black films seek to influence this change and look to challenge the dominate of White Hollywood, directors of Black films have may find themselves controlling the conversation by either doing the work of talking to a black audience or are looking to talk to general (mainly White) audience about black issues.

“Since the early twentieth century, critics, filmmakers, and actors such as W.E.B. Du Bois, Clarence Muse, Sidney Poitier, Spike Lee, and Henry Louis Gates Jr. have argued for various approaches to representing African Americans in film, and it is unlikely that this conversation will become simpler or more unified in the near future. In fact, conversations are bound to become more complex as the nature of racial identity in America has become more heterogeneous in the last few decades”.

When the Hollywood film industry began to grow in the early 20th century, next to none of the films portrayed actors of color. Gradually, diversity started to appear more, but it wasn’t until Malcolm X’s time that a real change took place. Unfortunately, for the last ten years, the industry has remained in a fixed state with no sign of change. Whites aren’t the only people in America anymore, and the film industry needs to represent

Film has played a profound effect on popular culture and the world, but it seems that the same Caucasian male faces appear in all films. People of color and women fail to see their self in film, as “the film industry still functions as a straight, white boy’s club” (Moraes, 1). James Baldwin is an activist and social critic concerning the rights of minorities, mainly African Americans. He notes that African Americans today are “worthless human beings” (Baldwin, 1) and are “not expected to aspire to excellence” (Baldwin, 1) as laid out by society. This is evident in Hollywood’s practice of underrepresenting minorities and women in film, just as nations fail to prevent the undercutting of women and minorities in all walks of life. To address

In the past few decades the technological innovations in the United States had trail behind significantly in comparison to the other twenty-one members of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Meanwhile, the job market became highly saturated with positions in the technology fields but due to the small amount of qualified individuals companies began outsourcing their tech jobs overseas. On a different note, the careers in technology doesn’t necessarily require a doctorate degree and “the average salary workers with high-tech skills is 50% higher than the average private-sector U.S. job” (Tennessean, 2015). Simultaneously, the number of students that head into information technology has been on the rise since the field is rapidly expanding. Unfortunately many students struggle to develop their writing in their college years and never really sought to improve it, which results in improper documentation on the job. This means someone that shows an understanding in technology literacy and holds proficient writing skills will be greatly valued. Though for most undergraduate students they might not be able to achieve their dream job immediately after completing secondary education. However, there are entry-level jobs out there such as being a computer support specialist which could better prepare them when the chance strikes. This paper will focus on the daily tasks surrounding an entry-level information technology job while providing insight into the

Technology has brought many advancements to our everyday lives, although like most things there will be negative effects. Connecting online is easier than ever with social media sites growing daily. Basic writing skills and proper use of punctuation, along with social skills have diminished because of our dependence on technology.

Technological advances have certainly entered this era to facilitate people’s lives. There is no doubt that some new technology has been created to help operate or effectively manage time in a way that would be beneficial to humans. Technology significantly helps a number of people. A group that greatly benefits with the advances of technology is teenagers. Teens constantly use computers for schoolwork, networking, or knowing anything they want to know with a simple use of their fingertips. Furthermore, with the advances it is no longer needed to leave the household to run an errand such as going out to pay a bill or do some shopping. As technology advances and enters the life of mostly all humans many begin to question how healthy these technological advances truly are. A couple of decades ago kids spent their time outside playing with their friends by the same token with items that did not require the use of electricity. Kids and adolescents would dedicate at least a part of their day to reading books and gaining knowledge from there instead of social media. Distinctively today’s adolescents instead of reading books will go on the internet for a summary and inform themselves in less than 5 minutes, spent their time inside playing video games or on their cellphones allowing technology to be the only thing they know and rely on to have fun or be informed. Moreover, this guides us to the points Ray Bradbury makes in his novel Fahrenheit 451. Bradbury touches on several

Before modern technology, men would band together for the protection of their families. History has proven people group together for survival, whether that be warmth, food, or protection. The idea was that a group is stronger and more profitable than one person acting alone. Each tribe or gathering of individuals working together is considered a society. A society is nothing more than a group of people living together for a common purpose, or simply because it is more convenient. But, if all societies were thriving entities, then we would not know the hardships that have repeated throughout history, such as, poverty and famine. On the contrary, a society that works well is a society that works for the well-being of its individual members. A high functioning and successful society is built on a foundation of trust and equality and enforced by a governing body.