Back in the USA! The students are all where they are supposed to be (and I have proof). Only one was led away by an armed guard in immigration yesterday. Yes. I'm not being funny. But we got her back and actually made good time on all our flights. None of it seems real.

The students have a few more posts they'll put up on this sight and we'll try to get some more pictures up soon. Their work continues through the summer and even just being in the American airports yesterday made them start recognizing and really appreciating how different the UK can be. I think we'll get some great projects out of this trip. It was an experience I never would have dreamed of. Thanks Ball State.

More from Kandice:

When traveling to new places one should do two things: experience and appreciate. Now these two words may mean different things based on different people but essentially to me it means doing what you normally wouldn’t do and taking part in every aspect another country has to offer. Such examples could include: their dress, their food, their transportation, their nightlife, their sports, and their history. For once in your life don’t do the usual or what makes you comfortable but what our friends of the UK view as “typical.” Now after shaking up your life appreciate the similarities and differences among yourselves. I find it hard to be in a new place and not find one thing that completely gives you a sense of awe. It’s not possible. From the beginning of this trip this has been an experience that will shape my attitude to foreign countries for quite awhile and intrigue me even more.

As the research for my “class” project continues I’ve begun to notice almost anything can determine your class but more importantly it’s how you view yourself and what you think of class. At any point someone can judge you based upon your actions and you can’t change that, sadly. So you have to do what you want; you can do anything you want but where you come from will never change. Sometimes class can come as a harsh reality but for others it remains something people spend their lives trying to understand. The class system continues to fascinate me.

Cheers to our followers…America is almost in sight! 

Almost the End...

Today is our last day in the UK. We head back home tomorrow! It's been a whirlwind, but nice to have spent a solid week in each city. Yesterday we took a little break from media and did a tour of the Scottish Highlands including Loch Lomond, Glencoe, and Loch Ness, some of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. I hope it made an impact on the students as much as it once did on me so long ago. Today we were supposed to watch Scotland play the US in a "friendly" football match. Unfortunately that was at 1:00 am our time, not 1 pm. Sports-in-pub-day fail. But we rallied and took a stroll through the old campus of Glasgow Univ and the Hunterian museum. Tonight is our last meal together. We're all going to get what we enjoy and head to the botanical gardens for a picnic. The weather has continued to be unseasonably warm and wonderful. We've been very lucky. Overall I really think the trip has been a success. You truly can't get a more immersive experience. Now the students head back home, let the dust settle and really put what we've experienced in context as they are thrown back into US media. Their projects will be wonderful, I can feel it. In the fall, we will invite you to a night of discussion and a chance to hear about their work and their experiences.

More from Julia L

As we near the end of our trip, I would like to look back at what has been a great trip.  My last blog post talked about London and Edinburgh, this one will be about Glasgow. This town is beautiful. The sun has definitely made it even more beautiful than the time I was here last (2 years ago in mid-November, it was cold and wet). Even though I will walk away from Glasgow with red shoulders and face, it has been an educational city. It's amazing how different Edinburgh is compared to Glasgow-and only about an hour's train ride apart. The University of Glasgow is a beautiful campus and has many opportunities to offer. We met with some local students and professors and had a great discussion about media and our various research topics. We all walked away with a broader understanding of what to research (I got some great examples about taboo subjects!)

I'm sad the trip ends tomorrow, but excited for my week ahead. I will be headed to Belfast to visit a good friend, as well as look at one more city in terms of my subject. My friend is from Indiana and has been living in Belfast since September, so I'm anxious to see if she's noticed any major differences in media. I will let you know those answers in a week's time.

Way too many souvenirs, too much fish 'n' chips, and lots of fascinating people are only a few ingredients to a wonderful and educational trip, and this trip has that plus several more wonderful memories and jokes. Thanks everyone for a wonderful three weeks.

Lemmy's Second Post

With the trip now half over, it's been an interesting experience to look back and think about what I've done.  Having the journal is nice as the days can blur together and the days of the week can easily get lost on trips.  I can't say there has been a single bad day for me.  Thus far we've experienced London, and are currently in Edinburgh.  in the next couple of days we'll be leaving for the last leg of our trip in Glasgow.  Personally I'll be sad to leave Edinburgh, but the promise of good times ahead will keep me excited.

As for my project, I have found that I am shifting it's primary focus a bit to keep in line with the study of the media in the U.K.  It still focuses on the idea of social empathy, but now it's more about how it exists within the media, such as television shows, news reports (both TV and papers), as well as within ads.  So far I have found the concept to be still as interesting as the initial thought.  It's fascinating to see how the age difference and the class vs. non-class systems of our two countries form such drastic differences in how we view and accept media.

So far this idea alongside the viewing of spatial differences gives me a lot of ideas on what to talk about, and how people may think differently without even speaking to media.  Things like history and origins, size of the country, and even traveling all cause drastic effects on the people of the two nations.  How are media is presented to us is very structured to fit with how we think, and have thought for years.

Where it will take me... who knows.  But I still look forward to finding out.

Cheers!

Donnelly Says Hi!

Hello All

The trip is fantastic! I have my own blog: http://drdoom.blog.co.uk/

If you don't have an invite, email me and I'll send you the information. The students are doing a remarkable job of engaging with the culture, sucking up the trials and tribulations of budget travel, and impressing all of the professionals we've met along the way. I'm about to collapse, but they're taking it all in stride. We're currently in our last city, Glasgow. Today we're headed downtown for an ad/commercialism study day and a trip to the Glasgow Film Theatre tonight. Tomorrow we're headed into the Highlands to see Loch Ness, Inverness, and Glencoe. I wasn't sure we'd be able to manage it, but I think it will blow a few minds. I just want to dunk my feet into Loch Ness. Small things amuse me.

Yesterday we met with 3 faculty and an assortment of tv and film students at Glasgow Uni. It was a great time and the students got along really well. Everyone here has been more than gracious with their time and I think it's really helped pull the students projects together.

I'm having serious technical issues with cameras and all of that, but we all promise to upload a ton of photos asap. Thanks for checking in!

Ashley

Parker's First Post

They say that part of the college experience is to travel abroad and learn new things; if that’s the case then the first part of our abroad trip was a complete success.  London was definitely a giant leap away from my life in Indiana.  I have truly immersed myself in the culture, and one thing that has really stood out to me (it’s also what I will be presenting for my project) is the idea of heteronormative sexuality in television and advertisements in London. 

One of the biggest comparisons I can see between the US and the UK is that here there is a more relaxed view on nudity and sexual images shown in television, advertisements and even newspapers.  The first indication of this was when I decided to pick up a copy of The Sun (I did not know it was a sort of tabloid news paper) and turned immediately to an advertisement with a woman topless.  If by some miracle that an advert like this would be printed in the US, there would be a massive scandal involving lawsuits and job losses, but I digress. 

There seems to be all of this openness to sex, it seems more natural instead of it being this taboo subject that has been in our media.

I hope to learn even more as things go by.  Hopefully I will get a lot of chances to watch television and see the real difference.

Ashley's First Post

Between sightseeing and trying to establish a working wi-fi connection, I have actually been working on my project--a comparison of how race is presented in the UK. media Back home in the states, it seems ANY instance can easily turned into a racially fueled incident. Most common is anything involving politics, social justice, or representation in the media in general.  Often the races caught in these disputes are People of Color, namely African American and Hispanics.

But during my short stint in the UK, I’ve noticed the attention of race shifted, if not ignored all together.  As far as representation is concerned, I noted a lot of Asian movie film posters, with all Asian casts. Usually in the states, these films would have been re-casted or gotten little to no advertisements. Asians have also been at the center of a huge sex scandal in the news.  The newspapers like The Sun (referred to as tabloids, but not perpetuated with gaudy headlines and clearly falsified celebrity gossip like back home) also cover small stories of incidents of racially charged encounters. Most had to do with the Asian community (mainly Pakistani) involvement in the sex scandal, and how its a clash of "cultures", but other headline racial stories involved football players.

This came as a surprise to me, to hear accounts of racial angst in sports. What's more, its here in sports news that Black people were at the center; Not crime or politics. In fact, other than these sports stories, Black people weren't mentioned in any light.  Not that there aren't any here in the UK. In London I saw a few here and there, though here in Scotland it's even more rare. But in all, I get a sense of the UK trying to quell any racial tension.

Julia H.'s First Post

First days in England are a blur of cars, adverts and pub food. My project is taking some interesting turns as I talk to people in London. First it was just going to be about sexuality in the visual media. Then it morphed into sex and sexuality. I also want to cover some of the hot topics in American media today so I am branching out. My project will now include sex (the way it is viewed by the culture), sexuality (LGBTQ), drugs (rules and regulations and societies acceptance), and contraception (availability, abortions, and acceptance). Each will have the added label of private or public.

Been in London for about a week. Learned a lot walking around Soho. The people in this city are more friendly then I would have expected. Learned from a woman in Costa that the metro, a free city newspaper, is like a snap shot of the news whereas the bigger newspapers like the times are deeper in their topics and the news reports they give. I cannot really think of anything similar in Muncie or even Chicago. I will have to look into this more upon my return. The Sun has given me more to think about. It has an advice column on sex and relationships. It also has a page tree girl, who is topless. These differences are fascinating.

Ah Edinburgh. I love this city but its culture is even more interesting. It has some gay clubs, not really labeled as such outside the establishment but know as such to the younger community. It appears that drugs are easily accessible (to those who want them) and the implements to use them are on display in shop windows with some frequency around the city. The amount of adverts displaying sex, however, are not on every street corner or phone box. Instead we did find a free magazine that was full of topless women called The Sportsman. Not sure what the sport was but the public displays of breasts does not seem to hold the same stigma that it might back in the US. There are adverts for rape and stalking, especially on campus. In the Cosmo on Campus there was an article about how rape is being joked about by the men, well boys really, and that we should start saying the f* word. By this they mean feminism. It seems that sexual education is far more public here.

Julia L.'s First Post

They say that you can never see everything in a city, and that is definitely a fact. I have been lucky in that fact that I have been to all three cities that we are visiting prior, some more than once. However, this trip has opened my eyes to a different side of issues. I spent a semester in Derry, Northern Ireland in the fall of 2009. While there, I watched some television, after becoming addicted to The X-Factor. I hadn't really noticed anything majorly different, but I wasn't looking for it either. The first night we where in London, the other Julia and I were watching some television, which happened to be talk shows with celebrities as well as a "prove he's my baby's daddy" type show. We noticed an immediate difference in the subjects that are discussed as well as the openness of people, especially the celebrities. This is when I decided on my topic.

My research topic for this trip/class is about censorship, or lack thereof, of taboo subjects--what is talked about here that wouldn't be talked about back home? What about vice versa? We got to talk to one of Ashley's professors yesterday at The University of Edinburgh. After asking these questions, he responded with a prime example. When "Casino Royale" came out, there were issues with it being too violent, whereas in America I never heard this argument. It was just interesting that just over the sea in a society that is basically as developed and as modern as ours, there is such a distinct difference in how violence is addressed in the two societies.

The trip so far has been wonderful. It's been great to see these cities in a different light-literally. I was here in the fall where it got dark at 4pm, last night it was still somewhat daylight at 9:30-which was just weird. Meeting with students and faculty of different universities is always intriguing and I love it, definitely a highlight of the trip.

Kandice's First Post

Wikipedia suggests “Social Class” is a set of concepts in the social sciences and political theory centered on models of social stratification in which people are grouped into a set of hierarchical social categories. My definition of social class has begun to change the more I’ve talked about it on this journey. In America “social class” could change many times throughout your life and nothing is strange about that. Throughout our lives we are told that one has the ability to whatever they wish, whether this actually happens one still has the option and is not criticized.

Through this media immersion I’ve found that the UK is not filled of dreams for a better life like America but their reality is cold and true. If your family has always been one thing often citizens are criticized for trying to be something their not, even when one is the first in their family to go to college they are often asked, “Is this not good enough for you?” I find this to be unsettling since I am the first one of my family to attend college and here some would see that as trying to change my social class status. Through their media I’ve noticed different news shows and even newspapers are made for certain classes in order to target to each one’s different aspects.

Even though I’ve been learning about the various class structures that are often differing based upon which region you’re in, it still remains a touchy subject that some prefer not to give their opinion about. Throughout the remainder of this trip I want to discover what exact aspects of life here make class an avoidable subject.

Lemmy's First Post

So where to begin? The trip has been a great experience for me. This is the first trip I've made outside the states, and thus far it's been nothing but great. The flight over was smooth and we made it into London earlier than scheduled. They even made a special exception to let us into Heathrow early, which is very rare evidently.

We stayed at a hotel in Earl's court called "The Mowbray." While not the spiffiest place, it was in the heart of the city. London has a great Underground system for getting around quickly, and one of the major lines had a station just down the block from the hotel. It made for quick and easy travel.

Dr. Donnelly has given us plenty of things to do. She's let us see the sights around the city, and has also set up meetings with folks around the city. One of the first meetings was with a few folks from MTV Post here in London. It was really cool to see the station and the gear. It's interesting to see equipment I've used regularly in their editing suites. I also got a chance to meet up with Dr. Donnelly's former advisor. She gave me a great insight into some of the differences in British and U.S. culture.

I have to do a project when I return to the states which compares and contrasts media between Britain and the U.S. I also have to try to answer the question of why. I've chosen to look into the difference in public empathy within the shows and news stories shown here and there. I feel like I got a great insight on the why from our meeting with Ken when we arrived in Edinburgh.

I can't wait to complete the trip, and see more sights. Everything has been great and I wouldn't change a thing. My meal of choice so far has been the Fish and Chips. We're even going out to a place tonight called "The Codfather." I can't wait. It's been interesting seeing the amount of U.S. culture than has cropped up here. But that's for someone else to look into. For now, I'll just get ready for some more good eats.

Cheers!

Update for 5/12/12

Yesterday we had lunch with 2 MTV editors and their boss, Charlotte. We had lunch in Camden Town and the students learned how English business lunches vary slightly from most US professional meetings. This one lasted 4 hours, 2 of which were spent on the rooftop garden of the MTV-ers favorite pub (the late Amy Winehouse’s former favorite locale.) We then got a quick tour of some of the MTV editing suites. The students got some great questions in and it was, most definitely, and immersive cultural experience!

Thursday was our day to acclimate and acquire basic necessities and today the students get time to be tourists and start collecting general data for their projects.

Tomorrow is our why-did-I-book-it-again?, 10-hour bus tour of Oxford, Salisbury, and Stonehenge. The BSU foam finger will make the journey so hopefully we’ll have some classy photos for CCIM (think “Ball State Invades Stonehenge”).

Welcome to the Blog!

Welcome to the Ball State UK Media Immersion blog.  The trip was planned and is being headed by Dr. Ashley Donnely, who has arranged an impressive number of activities and socially engaging events for the students to immerse themselves in the culture of the United Kingdom.

The goal of this site is for the students of the trip to add pictures of locations they have visited and write reflections of their thoughts to help better understand their learning processes.  The students will take part by writing 2 blog posts every week during the 3 week stay in the United Kingdom.  The cities planned for the trip include London, Edinburgh, and Glasgow.

More information can be found on the trip website.