- Today's article discussed was Professional Vision by Charles Goodwin. He starts out by using the word, "Discursive Practices. " This means (and is the basis of the whole article) the way members of a profession shape events in the domain subject to their professional scruinty. In other words, people use their jobs/identities to make others see the way they do. An example of discursive practices is the Rodney King Case. As show in class, the officers flogged and beat a black man for speeding. The officers were able to use discursive practices to brain wash the judge into viewing the video the way they wanted the judge to see it.
- There are two main words in the article that are key to understanding the article: coding and highlighting. Highlighting is more of the big picture and coding is picking out what the profession focuses on. For example, the police invloved in Rodney's case highlighted the fact that they are officers and have authority. The coding would be the police coding scheme they used to make the jury see the video in a specific manner.
- http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/03/19/148905661/killing-of-fla-teen-trayvon-martin-becomes-national-story-about-race
- In summary, this article is about a 17 year old African American boy who was shot by a neighborhood patrol officer because he looked "suspicious." This is an example of abusing your profession because the neighborhood patrol officer thought he had more authority than he did. Racism also ties into this, similar to the Rodney King Case, due to the fact that authorities treat black men more harshly than whites. Despite the fact that the neighborhood patrol officer had blood on his fists, he was not found guilty because there was" no evidence. " Discursive Practices come into play here because although the court knew the 17 year old boy was unarmed, the police portrayed themselves as using self defense and abused their profession's authority.
- In conclusion, Professional Vision is a very in depth article and has many aspects to it. The big picture is how people use their profession to influence others.
Monday, March 19, 2012
Professional Vision- Charles Goodwin
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I am really glad that you shared the example of the 17-year old murder in Florida because I think it shows that this theory is still relevant in today's society. It is unbelievably disturbing that events like that are still occurring, several years after the Civil Rights Movement. There is no question that race is a huge factor in the case, but language is as well. I find it fascinating that, like in the Rodney King case, an entire courtroom and government officials can be manipulated through language practices into believing convoluted and false arguments. This is really a testament to the power of language as well as the amount of influence it has on our personal belief systems which is frustrating but also kind of incredible at the same time. I really hope that truth is found in the case of the 17-year old and that the family is able to find peace and restore their trust in the Florida police department.
ReplyDeleteThe Trayvon Martin case is an interesting comparison to Rodney King’s case due to the similarities within each. It is interesting how even though Rodney King and Trayvon Martin’s cases take place decades apart, they both still show examples of issues of race and professional vision. I like how you highlight the different factors of both cases, and it will be interesting to see if professional vision negatively affects the outcome of Martin’s case as it did in King’s case.
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