I have learned far more about the country of Venezuela than the average person. I can't say I know the factual information, but I do know how the citizens truly feel about their country. From winning numerous Miss Universe titles people may form an opinion about the popularity 'plastic surgery' in Venezuela. For example, a student in my Spanish class gave a presentation of the recent winner of Miss Universe and merely focused on the fact that she had plastic surgery performed on certain parts of her body. I had an uneasy feeling about this- and I suddenly thought to myself, "Does this student know anything about the state that this country is in right now?" There is FAR more problems in Venezuela than Miss Universe having plastic surgery.
For this reason, I feel like the genre of telenovelas in Venezuela is an extremely vital communication method for the countries struggles. If more americans, or any foreign country could be exposed to more specifically, venezuelan telenovelas, a true awareness would be made about the current state of this country. I think that the reasoning behind this decrease in the production of telenovelas is the mere fact that the government does not want anyone to know the actual struggles of the country. I feel like they want everyone to see their country as flawless, and much less accept any help from another country. Clearly, from our exposure to actual citizens of Venezuela our class became well aware, on a more personal level, that these struggles are real.
As I sat down to right my course evaluation for this class, I began to think about all of the opportunities that were given to our class this semester. I asked myself the question "in what other class would I be able to talk to people that are active in the subject in which I am learning?" Much less, in what class would the professor be so kind enough to invite us to her house and provide such hospitality? I am truly so grateful for the opportunity to be a part of this class this semester. I have never experienced such a method of learning, as I did in Telenovelas and Society.
This is a class blog run by Dr. Carolina Acosta-Alzuru and her students in the course "Telenovelas, Culture and Society" at the University of Georgia during Fall 2013
You make an excellent point. Like you, I would've considered the severity of the problems in Venezuela if I had oberved the presentation. Venezuelans, like Dr. A said, are very concerned about their appearance and it's evident in my life also. I know two Venezuelans and both of them are very attractive, but beuty is just as much on the inside as the outside. As an adjective, it's so relative. As a concept, it is so broad and inclusive.
ReplyDeleteUsing telenovelas as public health messages are a very clever idea since it's the most watch television genre in the world. We need to use the power of media and technology to reach the unreachable. It also would help if people talked about it just as much as they watched it on television.