麻豆视频

Like Flores, Chuang examines issues of race, identity and representation. An award-winning reporter, she spent 13 years at newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times, The Hartford Courant and The Oregonian, where she launched one of the first regional newspaper beats on race and ethnicity issues and covered stories from Afghanistan to Vietnam to the post-Katrina Gulf Coast.

Chuang is a second-generation Chinese American raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her parents came to the U.S. in the 1960s 鈥渄uring the push for educated, East Asian American immigrants to join the ranks of science and engineering,鈥� she says. The side effect, she adds, was a pervasive model minority stereotype that still lingers in the Asian American community.

鈥淭his is one that I lived with growing up, and in spite of its name and apparently positive perception, it鈥檚 very damaging,鈥� she says. 鈥淚t really put my parents in a box and made them very fearful to be expressive or activist or speak out on their own behalf, because they were essentially brought here to be docile, cooperative Americans who would forward certain missions of the government.鈥�

Unlike their parents, Chuang says, the second generation of this migration developed a sharp activist streak, ignited by events like the 1982 killing of Vincent Chin, a Chinese American autoworker living in Detroit who was beaten to death by two white men who mistook him for being Japanese.

鈥淚t was this sort of idea that, no matter how assimilated you are, no matter how unaccented your speech is, your appearance and way of being in the world can always define who you are,鈥� Chuang says. 鈥淎nd you have to own that and accept that as part of what race in America is, for better and worse. I think a lot of that drove me to become a professional journalist.鈥�

Flores describes a similar narrative among the Mexican American community.

鈥淚 write a lot about Mexican deportability and that Mexicans in the U.S.鈥撯�搑egardless of our residency, our country of birth, and in my case, regardless of the hyper-whiteness of my body鈥撯�搘e all still live in a narrative of deportability that marks us all with a sense of criminality, a sense of foreignness. And we have to live with that,鈥� she says.

Unlike Flores and Chuang, who bring a second-generation perspective, Gangadharbatla is a first-generation immigrant from India, where, in his other life, as he puts it, he worked as a software programmer with a bachelor鈥檚 degree in electrical engineering. He came to the U.S. to study advertising, which he has taught for nearly two decades. His research in the field, on everything from 鈥渄advertising鈥� to 鈥渂iohacking,鈥� explores the intersection of technology, business and communication.

Recently, the American Academy of Advertising elected Gangadharbatla as president, making him the first Indian-born person to hold the role in the organization鈥檚 63-year history. Even as his own career milestones push the industry forward, certain 鈥渆nvironmental shackles鈥� have limited the type of research Gangadharbatla feels he can prioritize.

鈥淭o an extent, my research has been a product of those environmental factors鈥撯�揵eing an immigrant and wanting to or having to do things that would kind of progress and move me toward permanent residency and citizenship. So, that involved doing research that is more on the applied side, on the business side, and more 鈥榤arketable,鈥欌�� he says.

At heart, Gangadharbatla says, he sees the world as a political economist interested in the structural underpinnings that uphold various industries and practices.

鈥淚 think a lot of the hurdles that I see are at the systemic level,鈥� he says. 鈥淭he advertising industry operates within a capitalistic economic system, right? So any or all听 changes have to happen within that box.鈥�

In such a confined 鈥榖ox,鈥� he adds, 鈥渂usinesses are forced to follow the path of unrestrained growth and higher profits, and leave social and environmental activism to nonprofit organizations.鈥�

鈥淭hat, I think, is one of the biggest challenges or hurdles that I face in terms of even my own research or talking about different things鈥撯�揵ecause questioning the fundamental assumptions is not even a dialogue or a conversation in the field itself,鈥� he says. 鈥淎nd the idea of unlimited growth, where a business would bring in profits that are more than the last year, and then they would keep doing this in perpetuity, is just not a sustainable, logical or rational model because everything we produce and consume comes from our planet with limited resources.鈥�

Despite the idea that journalism is less capitalistically inclined, a similar business model has gutted the newspaper industry, Chuang says, leaving many cities without a single daily paper.

鈥淭hat was all predicated on corporate consolidation and a model in which shareholders believed that newspapers had听to be continually more and more profitable, which is just not realistic,鈥� she says. 鈥淪o now we鈥檙e in this situation where we have news deserts, and people who produce local news are hardly making any money and don鈥檛 have a sustainable career path.鈥�

When it comes to national narratives, Flores adds, the forcefield of American capitalism also molds messaging about who is allowed entry into the U.S. and under what circumstances.

鈥淭he capitalism piece is crucial to me,鈥� she says. 鈥淭he United States loves Mexicans who are willing to stay in the fields and pick the crops as long as they鈥檙e willing to stay in their place. We鈥撯�搕he broad we鈥撯�揳re all about welcoming people, as long as they do what they鈥檙e supposed to do.鈥�

The same economic structures and national narratives that constrict and corrupt our society鈥檚 sense of self may also hold the key to meaningful change, the scholars say.

鈥淐hange happens incredibly slowly鈥撯�搖nless it happens very quickly,鈥� Flores says. 鈥淚 tell undergrads on the first day of Rhetorical Criticism, we didn鈥檛 always carry water bottles and we didn鈥檛 actually buckle our seatbelts. . . . But we had advertising campaigns and consistent types of messaging, and now I think most people do buckle their seatbelts.鈥�

For the advertising industry, Gangadharbatla says, 鈥渞epresentations and who has a seat at the table matters.鈥�

To tell better and broader stories, he says, the industry needs 鈥渕ore women in leadership roles like CEOs and creative directors, and more people of color making those ads, meaning the stories are being written and told differently than from the lens of someone who would do it otherwise.鈥�

In journalism, Chuang says, recent events have brought the industry to a tipping point, but the response has made her hopeful.

鈥淚 think journalism itself as an institution is at this inflection point, and some would call it a crisis point, but I think it鈥檚 actually sort of exciting,鈥� she says. 鈥淲e鈥檙e reevaluating things like journalistic objectivity. We鈥檙e reevaluating how and whether certain constituencies get a voice as journalists, as people whose stories get told, or as people who observe the stories. . . . I don鈥檛 think journalism will be the same thing that it was and I鈥檓 excited.鈥�