Anslee's Blog

 My chosen research is into pharmaceutical companies and the conspiracy theories surrounding an already developed cure for cancer which is being deliberately not shared with the public because of greedy motivations for profit. The theory often believes that pharma companies release treatments which only fix symptoms and halfway cure cancer in order to have reoccurring customers and revenue.  This theory evolved from distrust of “big pharma” in the mid 20th centuries as cancer treatments became more expensive and more commercialized. Misinformation online, social media posts, and personal anecdotes often fuel the fire behind this conspiracy.  In 2005, roughly 27% of Americans were cited to believe in this theory. It tends to resonate more strongly with individuals who have distrust towards the government and corporations.  This theory largely spread due to viral media posts. Most recently, a cancer researcher Leonardo Ferreira was claimed to have been killed in a plan...

  In class, we discussed hoaxes and the many reasons of motivation behind them. Our discussion reminded me of a recent time when I hoaxed a friend, Rocco, for fun. When recently in Las Vegas, my friends hired a bodyguard, Mark, to come to different events with us. Rocco befriended Mark, who inspired him to sign up for jiu-jitsu classes. After returning to Texas, in good fun, my friend Anna Clay created a fake burner phone number and sent a text to Rocco pretending to be Mark. Rocco, being gullible, fell for the hoax and was sad when he found out his new friend Mark actually wasn’t checking in on the jiu-jitsu training. With this recent experience, it reminded me that hoaxes sometimes are easier to fall for when they cause the hoaxee to believe something they already wanted to believe. This shows confirmation bias and makes people more likely to fall into the trap. I enjoyed our discussion of hoaxes and found it to be transferable across multiple historical events, from the Cardif...

  When recently studying the siege in Waco, I was surprised by how biased I was before researching the topic holistically. Before this class, I had only listened to a podcast about the siege and it was biased in favor of the government. Naturally, this was the unconscious opinion that I adopted and until discussing further in class and conducting my own research I realized how the issue had fault on both sides. I found particularly interesting the media portrayal and how different news sources skewed the issue. I often found myself comparing it to COVID-19, despite the differences and the scale, both issues had strong media portrayal from both sides of the scale. After interviewing a family friend, Susan, and hearing about her time as a freshman at Baylor during the Siege, I was unsurprised by the information she shared. She shared that Baylor was cooperative and aided the government in travel during the time of the raid. Additionally, she said students moved on quickly and had no...

  Dirty Rotten Scoundrels was a great depiction of con artists, and I liked the movie, but not as much as I liked Paper Moon. I have included the times I laughed below with my reasoning behind why I laughed.              When Freddy started smashing the dishes – incongruity theory of humor             “The host of Dance USA” – incongruity              When he tickled his feet – incongruity              The fake laugh – incongruity theory              When Freddy walks to kiss her – incongruity              When is sitting in the corner – incongruity              At the end, when the girl won because those dumb boys didn’t deserve to win – superiority              When he pulled out the Aussie accent – incongru...

  I found it surprising that I had never heard of the white slave trade hysteria until this class. I thought that Traffic in Souls was a great foundation setter because it gave me a perspective on what life was like in the early 1900s. It set the scene for the low-quality films, the lack of dialogue, and reminded me of how little technology had progressed at this point. I found it saddening to think about the women who were genuinely fearful for their lives during this time period. Since that time period, I think society has come a long way for women to have less fear about being alone out in public, though it is still prevalent within larger cities. I believe a lot of this fear is psychological because of preconceived notions that the white slave trade and other fear movements have set in place. This summer, I lived in New York City, and on occasion would walk home from work late at night by myself. I never had any issues, though I likely would have felt more comfortable if I we...