CSUN On Point

More women are participating in sports today, from youth to pro athletics, but you wouldn’t exactly know that by watching television. A USC study shows that in 1989, five percent of television news media covered female athletics, but in 2014 the percentage had decreased to three percent, and the representation of women in sports media lacks substance as well.

“The number of girls or women [who are] participating in sports in the United States is some 40 percent,” said CSUN Professor of Kinesiology Chris Bolsmann, “so if we’ve got only four percent coverage, for me it suggests what is taking place is just a replication of inequality within society. Sport is an interesting vehicle or lense to look at society. If we look at the patriarchal nature of our society, and more recently the misogynistic nature of our society, that is a reflection of that more generally.”

Title IX is the federal law within the Education Act of 1972 that gave way for equal opportunity, protection from discrimination based on sex, and protection of benefits based on sex. Since its passage, the United States has seen a rapid increase in women’s participation in sports. That increase in women’s participation in sports, from the youth level to pro, hasn’t led to an increase in women’s sports coverage, but it has been extremely beneficial for giving opportunities to women within athletics within the last 40 years.

“Sometimes change requires law, and sometimes change requires some enforcement,” said CSUN’s Associate Athletics Director of Marketing Dawn Ellerbe,” because even now, in 2016, every university, high school, and junior high hasn’t embraced the equal play for women. Without [Title IX], I don’t think we would have seen the rise in women’s sports.”

 The future of women’s sports might very well be the inclusion and integration of the best women within athletics competing with and against men. From real life representations like Little League World Series sensation Mo’ne Davis, to dramatized versions for Hollywood like Fox’s Pitch, maybe more and more women within predominantly male sports will become more accepted.

“The question we should possibly be asking is, ‘Why do we have gendered sports in the first place?’” Bolsmann asked. “Should we not be talking about having not-gendered sports, so if somebody is good enough, without respect to if they are male or female, they can play on a team? If we have a level playing field of some sorts and open it up to competition on the basis of being a human, rather than being a man or a women, we could move into some interesting spaces and interesting discussions more generally.”

Moderator: Alicia Dieguez

Producer: Susana Guzman

Anchor: Jackie Wawee

Social Media Editor: Nick Torres

Reporters:  Alicia Dieguez, Thomas Gallegos, Susana Guzman, Ebony Hardiman, Ke-Alani Sarmiento, Nick Torres and Jackie Wawee

Recently, social media have started setting a high beauty standard for both men and women.

Billions of dollars are spent annually on beauty products in this country, and a  study done by a British makeup company found that 68 percent of employers say they would not want to hire women who don’t wear make up.

“One’s sense of self-esteem is hit hard when one feels as though he or she doesn’t measure up to the classic image of the media,” psychologist Yvonne Thomas said.

“The media’s job is to tell a story, ” said Gender and Women’s Studies Professor Shira Brown, Director of the Women’s Research and Resource Center. “The story being told portrays a false sense of image for the average person, especially young boys and girls, whether it’s on television, magazines or the radio…Unfortunately the story being told is [of] a particular body or hair type, which puts pressure on society’s body image.”

The Internet has become the go-to way for finding information. Many people go online to do research about health and beauty, and find the same unrealistic standards of beauty there that they would in traditional media. Experts said those standards have an impact on individuals.

“I got a lot of doors shut on me, and that really actually lowered my self-esteem and I did get anorexia,” said social media model Magi Tcherno. She said she didn’t feel beautiful until she under went a breast augmentation. Tcherno jumpstarted her own modeling career by representing herself online after she was rejected by modeling agencies who told her she wasn’t good enough. It was at that point, she said, that she became more determined and developed the self-confidence to build her own modeling career.

Dove, a personal care products manufacturer owned by Unilever, has built a marketing strategy around increased self-esteem for men and women, partly by showing many different body types and standards in their advertising.

“I believe that good things come when you show diversity in body type; good things come when you show diversity in skin color and height,” Brown said.

Moderator: Delmy Moran

Anchor: Brittni Perez

Producer: Celene Zavala

Social Media Editors:  Jordan Williams

Reporters: Delmy Moran, Brittni Perez, Kiesha Phillips, Daniel Saad, Jordan Williams and Celene Zavala

Moderator – Scott Sanders

Anchor – Gabrielle Ortega

Producer – Danielle Pendleton

Social Media Editors – Sophie Ashley and Alexandra Chidbachian

Reporters – Sophie Ashley, Alexandra Chidbachian, Gabrielle Ortega, Danielle Pendleton, Scott Sanders and Joshua Spidel

Recently, incidents of police officers shooting and killing African-Americans have gained more attention in the media.

A new study shows a relationship between racial bias and the police use of excessive force against people of color. The study found that police are more likely to use handcuffs, draw their weapons, and use pepper spray or their baton when dealing with people of color.

New technology such as body cameras and smartphones mean more and more officer-involved shootings are being recorded and posted on social media by witnesses. Although police brutality is not a new phenomenon, the coverage by both professional and citizen journalists has made it more prominent. Some hope this coverage will help lessen the violence, but others in the African-American community question the effectiveness of body cams.

“I don’t think it’ll make a difference,” screenwriter and actor Kyle Smith said. “Cops are killing innocent blacks on camera, and getting away with it.”

The Washington Post reports that 991 people were shot by police officers in 2015, but according to data collected by an Ohio researcher, only 26 officers have been convicted of murder or manslaughter.

“As of right now [the new technology] is not working, because even when they’re catching these assassinations and murders on camera, nothing is happening to the cops,” CSUN Africana Studies Professor Aimee Glocke said.

The problem now may be whether or not the media are accurately reporting and portraying these situations, and whether their coverage could actually be helping to perpetuate the violence.

In the aftermath of the Trayvon Martin shooting, #BlackLivesMatter arose as a popular hashtag on Twitter to protest the violence that plagued the African American community. Soon the hashtag evolved into an organization geared toward ending the injustice of police brutality. But the attacks on the community have not stopped, and some feel the community and individuals continue to be targeted due to racism and unconscious bias.

“My interaction with the police has absolutely 100 percent always been different from my peers around me,” CSUN’s Black Student Union President Robert T. Wilson III said. “Personally, it would be nice to not have to feel scared; it would be nice to not feel nervous when interacting with the police, and I could be held accountable [only] for the things I do, or the things I do not do.”

The shootings of Trayvon Martin in Florida in 2012, and Michael Brown in Missouri in 2014, generated an emotional response because they were young men, both under the age of 18.

“I’m a black mother of a 33-year-old black male and I’m constantly holding my breath,” CSUN Africana Studies Professor Monica Turner said. “There’re no words to describe that kind of torment: when you think about a child that you have loved and nurtured and cared for, [and] someone shooting them down like an animal in cold blood. There’s nothing to describe what that feels like. I really feel terrorized.”

Many politicians and law enforcement experts are calling for a closer examination of police training methods.

“’Just being black’: most police officers will say that’s a reason for excessive force,” Glocke said. “I know there’s a standard, and there’s supposed to be this whole judgement of when you use force, [but] many police officers don’t care. They will shoot first, and ask questions later.”

To view the complete interview with Robert Wilson III, President of the Black Student Union at CSUN, please click here.

Moderator: Thomas Gallegos

Anchor: Ke-Alani Sarmiento

Producer: Alicia Dieguez

Social Media Editors: Nick Torres and Jackie Wawee

Reporters: Alicia Dieguez, Thomas Gallegos, Susana Guzman, Ebony Hardiman, Ke-Alani Sarmiento, Nick Torres and Jackie Wawee

San Francisco 49ers Quarterback Colin Kaepernick re-ignited athlete-driven protests with his stand against police brutality, and he’s empowered many other athletes to speak out.

In 2015, The Washington Post documented close to a thousand fatal shootings by police, ninety-three of which involved people who were unarmed. Black men accounted for about forty percent of the unarmed people fatally shot by police, and were seven times as likely as unarmed white men to die from police gunfire.

Now the argument over whether or not professional and collegiate athletes should be able to use their platform as a personal means of expression has become a large national issue.

This isn’t a new movement. Athletes like Mohammed Ali and 1968 Olympic Medalist Tommie Smith are known for making athlete-driven statements decades ago.

Since athletes are technically at work when they decide to make these protests, the debate stems from whether or not they should be penalized for doing so.

“Some of them may feel they are not at that level to take that risk,” CSUN Africana Studies Professor David Horne said. “[Their employers might say] ‘we expect you to not conduct yourself in a way that would embarrass the team or the business’.”

But athletes have only their professional platforms to make a statement. Whether they are in an interview or on the field, they have a limited amount of airtime, but they often have a large following.

“It’s their right to do so,” said Reverend Jewett Walker, President of 100 Black Men of Los Angeles. “If someone chooses to do that, I think we should embrace that, honor that, and respect it.”

Many athletes have messages that aren’t meant to start controversy.

“My responsibility was to be an example,” said CSUN Women’s Basketball Coach, and former college basketball player, Jason Flowers, “so somebody that had the same background as me could look [at me] … and say ‘that person was able to succeed, and I’m capable of it too’.”

Moderator: Jordan Williams

Anchor: Kiesha Phillips

Producer: Daniel Saad

Social Media Editors: Delmy Moran and Celene Zavala

Reporters: Delmy Moran, Brittni Perez, Kiesha Phillips, Daniel Saad, Jordan Williams and Celene Zavala

California has recorded more than 700 cases of human trafficking this year, according to the National Human Trafficking Center.

The first laws in California for protecting minors involved in human trafficking were in 2005, written to protect young men and women starting at the age of 12 years old.

“These are kids and it is important that kids are being treated as kids,” said Director of Saving Innocence, Amber Davis. Saving Innocence advocates for victims of sex trafficking.

Last month Governor Jerry Brown signed another bill, introduced by Sen. Holly Mitchell of Los Angeles, to help decriminalize minors involved in sex trafficking.

“There is no such thing as a ‘child prostitute’,” said Mitchell. “We needed to change our state law so we would not victimize or criminalize young women and men who are victims of sex trafficking.”

Los Angeles is one of three cities with the highest rate of sex trafficking in California, according to Human Trafficking Research. In the San Fernando Valley, Sepulveda Boulevard and Lankershim Boulevard have the highest number of arrests made.

“Prostitutes migrated into low income, minority, ethnic, more franchise communities at the time,” said CSUN Professor of Urban Studies Dr. Henrik Minassians. “More Asian Americans, African Americans and Latino communities ended up establishing their own businesses there.” Minassians is working with the L.A.P.D. to try to find ways to change urban environments in ways that would discourage prostitution.

Journey Out is an organization in Los Angeles that helps victims whose lives have been destroyed by sex trafficking.

“We started out helping adult victims of human trafficking,” Executive Director Stephany Powell said. “We have now partnered to a youth aspect of it. We get our clients through other organizations such as court systems, and we have an agreement with the city attorney’s office that if a person is arrested for the crime of prostitution, we have a diversion program that they can go through.”

Powell said 80 percent of trafficking victims are being exploited for sex; the other 20 percent are being used for labor, according to a sex trafficking report at dosomething.org.

Trafficking survivor Kanthi Salgadu says she came to America in 1996 to help provide for her family in Sri Lanka.

“I went to an agency, where they said I did not have to look for a job [in the U.S.]; they would help me find one, and they found me a place to work as a house keeper and nanny,” Salgadu said.

Salgadu was held captive in a Los Angeles house for four years before a neighbor reported suspicious activity to the authorities, and the Immigration Customs Enforcement rescued her. Salgadu is now an advocate for survivors, who speaks all over the country about her experience.

“[Survivors] want out; they want to start their lives,” said Stephanie Molen, Director of Partnerships at CAST. “They came to this country to start their lives and to work, and they want that opportunity.”

California law enforcement officials continue to make attempts to crackdown on human trafficking, by arresting the highest number of pimps in the country in 2014 and 2015, according to a FBI report.

Powell says giving survivors a safe place to live is the priority. Without that, there is no way to keep them from going back onto the street.

To watch the full interview with Professor Henrik Minassians, click HERE.

For a January 2017 update on the Task Force’s efforts, click HERE.

Moderator – Gabrielle Ortega

Producer – Gabrielle Ortega

Anchor – Sophia Ashley

Social Media Editor – Scott Sanders and Joshua Spidel

Reporters – Sophie Ashley, Alexandra Chidbachian, Gabriella Ortega, Danielle Pendleton, Scott Sanders, Joshua Spidel

California voters face an important decision in this upcoming November ballot, about making marijuana legal for recreation use.

Prop 64, also known as the Adult Use of Marijuana Act, will let Californians decide whether to allow individuals 21 years or older possess up to 28.5 grams of marijuana for legal use.

The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws says four states: Colorado, Washington, Alaska and Oregon, have legalized the use of recreational marijuana without any major problems, while other states have legalized it for medical use.

The initiative would create a 15% excise tax on the retail price of recreational marijuana. “The government of California would rake in a substantial amount of revenue from that,” said CSUN economics professor Dennis Halcoussis. The projected revenue from legalization is expected to exceed $1 billion.

Marijuana retailers also expect to make money from the new law. “I think [business] is going to be even better,” said Garden Secrets Medical Marijuana Dispensary owner Tommy Amady.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the revenue that will come from taxes will be used for substance abuse education and treatment programs, environmental improvement, and more.

“Our biggest win, that I think is unprecedented compared to all the others states, is we have a $50 million reinvestment fund that will go to communities previously harmed by the War on Drugs,” said Campaign Program Associate for Californians for Responsible Marijuana Reform, Leslie Otañez.

Voters will have their opportunity to cast their vote on November 8, and decide whether they are ready for a change in the marijuana industry.

Moderator: Thomas Gallegos

Anchor: Jackie Wawee

Producer: Susana Guzman

Social Media: Alicia Dieguez and Ke-Alani Sarmiento

Reporters: Alicia Dieguez, Thomas Gallegos, Ke-Alani Sarmiento, Nicholas Torres and Jackie Wawee

In this November’s ballot, a proposal to tax property owners as a means to better community parks, could pass, depending on voters in Los Angeles County.

Measure A proposes that voters pay higher property taxes to pay for park projects. If it passes, supporters say Measure A should bring in $94.5 million a year.

According to the Los Angeles Times, there is a large disparity in park access. Countywide, there was an average of 3.3 acres of parkland per 1,000 residents. Communities in central and South Los Angeles, southeast county areas and parts of the San Fernando and San Gabriel Valleys had the most park-poor areas.

“Measure A addresses quite a few things,” said Program Associate at the Trust for Public Land, Yadira Cerrato. “It would be providing upgrades for existing parks. It will also provide funding for future parks, help protect water sources like rivers and creeks, as well as keeping our beaches safe, clean and protecting outdoor open spaces.”

University of Edinburgh researchers suggest it is healthy to spend time outdoors. Their 2013 study found that walking in nature and spending time under leafy shade trees actually causes electrochemical changes in the brain, that can lead to a highly beneficial state of effortless attention, lower frustration and higher meditative states.

“Nature is therapeutic because it builds empathy and it improves our health,” Eco-therapist Suzannah Ferron said. “It lowers every stress marker we have: it lowers our cortisol, our blood pressure and our heart rate. It increases our sense of connection, our sense of fascination, and it builds our bio-philia…[an] innate sense of belonging to each other, to nature, to all of life.”

Many CSU campuses have Outdoor Adventures Programs, allowing students to get in touch with nature. This month a San Jose State student, who was a leader of the program, drowned while on a trip to Sequoia National Park.

“Tonight we have our trip leader meetings, so we are talking about what happened, and I have already sat down with our risk manager, HR, and my director, talking about what we can do,” said CSUN Outdoor Adventure program founder Tim Szczepanski. “We are looking at training our students at being lifeguards, wilderness first responders, and first aid and CPR-certified.”

Resources like the Outdoor Adventure program can help students and communities spend more time outdoors, but it is up to Angelinos to vote, on this upcoming November’s ballot, to decide if local and national parks will enrich the lives of future generations.

Moderator: Celene Zavala

Anchor: Delmy Moran

Producer: Brittni Perez

Reporters: Delmy Moran, Brittni Perez, Kiesha Phillips, Daniel Saad and Jordan Williams

It is becoming even more expensive to rent in Los Angeles, according to the new 2016 Affordability Report by the California Housing Partnership.

With over 4 million residents,  Los Angeles has more people living in it than ever before, and experts say there is just not enough room. It is no longer economically feasible for most to live in LA County.

On average, residents pay over $2,000 dollars a month in rent. The area has a high number of low-income tenants, and many are rent burdened.

“The common thinking is that you shouldn’t pay more than 30 percent of your income in rent,”said Elizabeth Blaney, the Co-Executive Director of the Boyle Heights community organization Union de Vecinos. “I think that should be a little bit lower, because 30 percent still is a lot for a lot of low income and extremely low income families,”

New data shows that on average, those who are considered low income are spending 71 percent of their paychecks on rent. They are left with only 29 percent to spend on food, transportation, health care, and other needs.

“What you have is an increase in demand, which means the economy is doing really well,”said CSUN Economics Professor Shirley Svorney, “so it’s kind of like when we have congestion on the freeways. It’s because people are buying houses; that’s what pushes up the prices. On the supply side, there’s a lot of restrictions on building, regulations, zoning, and other types of government requirements that make it more costly to build.”

Svorney said another factor driving up housing costs is that Los Angeles is an agglomeration economy. This means that more jobs are located closely within the area, making the real estate even more valuable.

“A lot of middle class people are leaving,” said CSUN Political Science Professor Tom Hogen-esch. “Teachers and firefighters, even people in the traditional professions, are facing this. They’re sort of middle class, housing poor, and so almost everybody is under at least some pressure in terms of the cost of housing here.”

The Ellis Act is a state law that says landlords can rightfully evict tenants in order to “go out of business.” The entire building can be cleared out. This is one of many tactics used by landlords to tear down affordable housing and turn it into high priced housing.

California is the number one state in poverty rates when housing is taken into accounted. The 2016 homeless count by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority found that 46,874 homeless people are living in LA County. Experts say there are many reasons for homelessness, but lack of affordable housing is certainly one.

In order to rent “burden free” in this city, a household would need to make more than $40 an hour, four times the current minimum wage.

Moderator: Haley Kramer

Anchor: Ajo Adelaja

Producer: Valerie Hernandez

Social Media Editors: Ajo Adelaja and Valerie Hernandez

Reporters: Ajo Adelaja, Harry Bennett III, Jarvis Haren, Valerie Hernandez, Haley Kramer, Sofia Levin and Mariah Robinson

Passwords, code combinations, and security questions – there are multiple ways in which we try to protect our information online and on our devices today. Yet the reality is that there aren’t any constitutional laws that protect our online privacy.

In this digital age we perform numerous actions on the Internet everyday that require us to share our personal information. It has become such a habit for us to do so that many of us no longer think twice of who this data can be accessed by, and for how long it will be accessible.

“In reality what we’re doing is that we’re all surrendering information, we’re not sharing it,” said CSUN Marketing Professor Kristen Walker. “All we have is faith in our interactions and exchange of information, in particular on our mobile devices.”

The question of who has the right to the information we surrender gained attention this spring as tech company Apple and the FBI got involved in an encryption case. In the aftermath of the fatal terrorist attack in San Bernardino in December 2015, the FBI wanted the iPhone belonging to one of the suspects unlocked. Apple refused to help the FBI in their encryption request, saying it would endanger both personal privacy and national security.

“This is really just two villains facing off each other,” said CSUN Communication Studies Professor Gina Giotta. “Nobody wins, because our rights are being trampled in both cases: on the one hand in the corporate sector, on the other hand in the government sector.”

The Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution protects us from unreasonable searches and seizures by our government, and is seen by many legal scholars as also central to all forms of surveillance and privacy. In today’s era of technology, the Fourth Amendment has also been interpreted by some as a broad protection of our privacy on digital platforms as well.

“Our technology is advancing in an unprecedented pace, and our legal system is not keeping up,” said Guardian reporter Nellie Bowles. “You have these two really separate cultures, moving in two different paces, and we’re starting to see a lot of situations where that is becoming a major problem.”

This tech privacy zeitgeist may be more noticeable for some than for others. Older generations were used to having only their name and contact information in the white pages accessible to others. The amount of personal information that we’re forced to surrender today can be difficult for these generations to accept.

“Technology might be going too fast, according to our mentality,” said Pierce College Computer Science Professor Luis Celada. “If you ask a person born in the last 15 years, there’s no such thing as being careful with their privacy, because they have always been exposed to it. Prior generations see that difference.”

Giotta said the so-called Millennials should be careful with how and what they share about themselves online. This care should also go for popular social networks, where information usually is shared only with users known and trusted.

“To suggest that the mutual or peers surveillance that we do on social networks isn’t a big deal is kind of dangerous,” Giotta said. “When we feel the constant gaze of our friends, co-workers, and parents upon us, we’re much less likely to be concerned when one of those gazes becomes that of the government.”

Moderator: Sofia Levin

Anchor: Mariah Robinson

Producer: Harry Bennett III

Social Media Editors: Harry Bennett III and Mariah Robinson

Reporters: Ajo Adelaja, Harry Bennett III, Jarvis Haren, Valerie Hernandez, Haley Kramer, Sofia Levin and Mariah Robinson