Free Political and Symbolic Frame Analysis Diversity at the New England Aquarium Essay Sample

Political analysis

This aquarium is a product of an ambitious effort by the government. It was funded by government money, which has only focused on bringing in only a select section of the youth. That is the members of adolescent youths who are from the inner city to this department so that they can also participate in youth programs. Apparently and as a result, the youth programs that were deemed to be successful appears to attract sharp divisions within the department as a result of conflicting expectations among these groups of the youth regarding how to manage the state of affairs.

 
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The words that were exchanged from the warring factions had political and racial undertones attracting even the attention of the senior management officials at the aquarium so as to diffuse the tensions this political move had created. While the aquarium was successful in attracting the public to visit it, it there was evidence that some segments of the population were neglected and were staying away. As a result, it was not welcoming to the local communities of color.

The aquarium has cast itself a blurred image of an inaccessible, predominantly ‘white’ institution that gave special treatment only communities of color. The staff of the education department also  had trouble understanding people of color.

Volunteerism efforts at the education department exposed to some extent, marginalization of the vulnerable groups in this society. Almost all of the volunteers in the education department were high school students, younger than the interns and many of the volunteers; and unlike the volunteer corps, they would be paid for their work. All of them came from economically disadvantaged homes, and few could claim any familiarity with the aquarium.

Symbolic analysis

The absence of significant minority staff is symbolic of the fact majority of the people are not being welcomed at the aquarium.

Moreover, giving of jobs to the inner-city youth was symbolic and underscored the fact that there was massive categorization and differentness of various cadres of staff at the aquarium.

The under-representation of the poor and the under-privileged people at the aquarium symbolizes the segregative nature of the government of the day. This gave mainly the whites a lot of dominance in the society.

As such, members of local minority communities were chronically under-represented among the aquarium’s visiting public and among paid and unpaid staff. Various initiatives by the aquarium aimed at reaching a more diverse audience had not made much of a dent. There continued to be, in the words of one trustees’ report, a “perception that the Aquarium. This was symbolic of the fact that the local people held it low esteem and saw it as alien thing in their way of rational thinking.

Heavy reliance on the public, volunteers to support the mission of the aquarium points to the probability that it could not sufficiently generate funds on its own to fund its own initiatives. Over-reliance on volunteers and interns most of whom were underpaid is also significant of the aquariums inability to hire those who are fit for the job. This also gives it an image of a white elephant project that has fallen short of funds. To some extent, it also shows that the aquarium has been mismanaged by the members of its staff and therefore did not have anything to use sustainably, hence over-reliance on volunteers and interns. 

 

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