Media Viewing PaperThroughout the course of the semester, I learned a great deal from the SOC 209 Ethnicity race class. Having grown up in a predominantly white town, with only a handful of African American classmates, I was generally unaware of the problems that existed. This course taught me the meaning of words that I have often heard but never fully understood. I learned that there is a difference between prejudice and discrimination, which I often mistakenly used interchangeably. Prejudice is simply a thought, while discrimination is an action, usually by someone with substantial power, to enforce the discrimination. I also learned about the term domination matrix, which explains that every person experiences oppression on many fronts, whether through race, glass, or gender. This took me by surprise because, having grown up in a predominantly white community, I rarely faced such obstacles. For paper media viewing I decided to watch a film and a television series. I chose the film The Help, directed and written by Tate Taylor and adapted from Kathryn Stockett's 2009 novel. I also chose the Showtime television series Shameless, created by Paul Abbot and developed by John Wells. The Help is about an aspiring author during the 1960s civil rights movement in Jackson, Mississippi, who decides to write a book detailing the African-American situation. the maids' perspectives on the white families they work for and the difficulties they face on a daily basis. This film showed the many differences in how blacks and whites were treated during this time period. Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan is the white journalist who returned to the family plantation after graduating from University...... middle of paper ...... reinforces the idea that the middle class is the standard class because the Main characters are lower class citizens. For the media viewing journal I decided to focus on two separate obstacles. While watching and analyzing the movie The Help, I focused more on the racial differences that existed between blacks and whites. Although it was more prominent in the 1960s in which the film was set, many differences still exist between the two races. The Showtime series Shameless, focused more on homosexuality and how the lower classes live in the current time period we live in. I enjoyed writing this article because I felt that connecting the many concepts discussed in class to a movie and TV series made learning more enjoyable. Works Cited Taylor, T. (Editor). (2011). The help: Dreamworks; Wells, J. (2011). Shameless [TV series].