PB3a Jacqueline Aguilar
Death By Hazing:
should there be a federal law against fraternity and sorority hazing?
Background Information: This scholarly article by Devon M. Alvarez argues that there
should be a uniformed law that prohibits hazing which will create a safe place
for individuals to comfortably step forward about harassment they have
undergone or hear about. Hazing is a form of humiliation and harassment an
individual endures in order to be accepted to a certain group. Greek life
on college campuses haze new members to see how willing the student is to the
certain fraternity or sorority they are pledging to. In the past 11 years at
least sixty college students have died from hazing related incidents. Hazing
has been prevalent since the 1800's for Greek life, and even though it has been
outlawed in forty four states there still lacks a common definition for what
classifies as hazing. Some states punish hazing as a misdemeanor and others
just have a no hazing policy. Even though hazing occurs on the majority of
college campus it is a form of cruelty that continues to remain mostly
unreported, due to the secretive of Greek organizations. Universities refuse to
take responsibility of these cases, claiming they have no involvement. Which creates
the reoccurring issue of who is accounted for when students report hazing
related incidents.
Younger Reader: comic strip
I'm thinking on doing a digital comic strip about six to eight
slides. The plot will be about a group of kids about 6th grade who are the
“cool” kids on the playground. They have rare vinyl records of Black Sabbath
signed by Ozzy himself, they wear the lately clothes from hot topic, and best
of all their parents pack them pizza for lunch. As younger grade level pupils feel
beneath these “cool” kids a unique group of kids in the fourth grade take the
risk of asking to hang out with the top-dogs during recess. The 6th graders
usually welcome new members but under some conditions. The younger 4th graders
are hazed until one of girl was asked to run over the snack store to buy them
some Hot Cheetos but trips and breaks her finger while doing so. Her mother
complains to the school and immediately after the school enforces new policies.
·
This cartoon comic strip should appeal
to children while teaching them a moral lesson. I will try to enforce the
urgency of policy making which is Alvarez's main argument, as mentioned before.
Older Reader: Medicine Bottle label
Since senior citizens always take some kind of vitamins or
medication on a daily basis I decided to inform them of the danger of hazing by
slapping the facts on something they look at regularly. The label will focus on
an individual who was a victim of hazing within the Greek organization. It will
include an actual victim
Name - Armando Villa
Location/address - California State at Northridge
Medication: hazing
Instructions: walking 18 miles in the Angeles National Forest
blindfolded, insufficient water supply
Rx# - 32050. California State laws on hazing
Refills: 0 prevent this form of cruelty
Dr.- Attorney-at-Law Devon M. Alvarez
·
This is an alternative way of delivering
information, as a regular person one is forced to read the label to make sure
the medication is correct and see how much one need to take. The amount of
attention is what Alvarez tries to grab from lawmakers in order to prevent
hazing on college campuses.
I think that overall, this idea is very cool and creative. I like how you structured your ideas, it makes them a lot easier to follow and understand. I feel like I understand what your topic is about, and I can see how you can transform it into the younger and older genres effectively. I like the relative innocence of the story about the 6th graders and the 4th graders, I can see it fitting well for younger genres and it is cool how it ties directly into Alvarez' main argument. I think the prescription label for the older reader is succinct and creative, but I'm a little confused about whether or not the "Refills" part is consistent with the rest of the label--I can't tell if the prescription is telling someone to walk 18 miles or not.
ReplyDeleteAguilar,
ReplyDeleteI’m going to start with your older transformation—the rX bottle. My first question is: why do senior citizens need to know about college hazing? What are they going to do about it? In your experiences, are they particularly active in the “stop hazing” movement? To me, this transformation—although it’s a creative idea—sounds forced. Remember: you need to have specific reasons for doing what you’re doing, and that includes who your targeted audience is—the way I’m seeing it, currently, I don’t see how/why senior citizens (and thus, prescription pill bottles) are an appropriate audience for this particular scholarly piece/topic. My honest advice is to take a step back from this idea and try to re-think what possible aspects within the scholarly piece are ripe for a transformation. Think back to the Disney/artist clip we watched. What kind of “tree” do you want to “paint” here?
I think the ~6th grade-tailored comic strip is a pretty solid idea. I also like that you’re thinking about this here: “I will try to enforce the urgency of policy making which is Alvarez's main argument, as mentioned before.” One question I have for you is: within the scholarly piece, what are kids being hazed ABOUT? And what specific FORMS of hazing take place? (For instance, are frat pledges getting hazed over Black Sabbath records, and is this outcome a broken finger(s) for the victim? To me, it seems like you might be missing an opportunity to get more direct alignment between the scholarly piece and your transformation (comic strip).
Z
Hey Jacqueline!
ReplyDeleteI think this is a really interesting topic you chose! Never knew that hazing had such a bad impact because back home in Aus, I only saw it through movies and they always looked so fun.
Overall, I really liked your idea of the digital comic strip towards a younger audience. I think it’s a really effective way to target younger people. What was the age group you were targeting? Or was it around 6th graders?
And also, just on your bit about “their parents pack them pizza for lunch,” it might not be necessary to include this in your slides considering you only have about six to eight slides?
The medicine bottle label is a really cool and creative idea, but was confused as to why the medication says hazing? And I’m not too sure if senior citizens have a relation to fraternity and sorority hazing?
GOODLUCK!
Hey Jacqueline,
ReplyDeleteThe topic is dope! Hazing is becoming more commonly discussed--even here at UCSB-- so I can see the topic as relevant to the college students.
I enjoy your idea of using comics to cater to the younger audience. Images are used to convey information and lessons to kids over far more serious topics than hazing, so I can see it working well! The story seems solid and I got the sense that you were targeting middle school age children. Would that be the right assumption or were you shooting for a younger age group? I was just curious as to how effective the story would be for children still learning to tie their shoes. Good luck with it though!
The medicine bottle label idea is unique, but why is hazing information on a pill bottle? I can see it being a creative way to display the information on hazing but I can't see how it would be effective for an audience that disconnected from college life. If anything the medicine label idea could be used on college students.
I think both of your ideas are super cool! I really liked the story that you had for the younger audience and I think it'll be really interesting to read, but will you define what hazing is in the story? I think it's important that you make it clear what hazing is and how it should be prevented. Making a comic strip for this is definitely a good idea because they're easy to read so its great for younger readers whether they are children or teenagers.
ReplyDeleteFor the medicine label, I thought that was a really unique idea, but are you only targeting senior citizens? Maybe try to make it so that the audience is broader. It can be a medicine label for anyone. Will a single medicine label be enough to distribute all the information in the article? Think about what information is most important about hazing and why people should bring attention to this topic. Maybe on the bottom of the label you can have a warning sections and talk about the incidents and the harm it causes.
I think the comic strip is a really solid idea. The sequence of events that take place in hazing could easily be transformed into the sequence of events of a comic strip. I know for myself I am getting caught up in making it appropriate for the audience. Hazing at a college level would not necessarily be the same hazing that children reading the comic strip would see. Is the message of the scholarly piece “all hazing needs to end” or “college-hazing needs regulation”? What would be the difference in “bullying” (which I associate with younger kids) and hazing? Could you possible make like a PSA showing bullying of children and then separate hazing as adults and some message of “You wouldn’t let your 6 year old be bullied, why let your 19 year old?” I know this is a little of because your article doesn’t address younger people or cause and effect of bullying/hazing, but I thought I would just throw this out there.
ReplyDeleteHey Jacquie! I like the topic you chose and I think it has a lot of potential. For the transformation for the younger audience I think it would be cool if it is a little bit more related to actual hazing. What I mean is that instead of a broken finger something worst could happen. High-schools are full of kids that would ask for more than a bag of cheetos to let someone hang out with them. I bet there are some cases in which someone died or got hurt pretty badly for being forced to do something for a certain group in high-school. Maybe you could transform your piece into a comic for high-school students so that you can capture more of the essence of the article.
ReplyDeleteFor the transformation for an older audience, I think you could target adults who care about the hazing problems. I think parents who have kids in college or professors would be more involved in the topic than senior citizens. Think about what kind of articles parents and professors would come across that would show them the main points of your article.