Consumption
Socially Literate
Media to me is any outside source that can connect us to what is going on around the world. It could be as simple as a newspaper, to hearing about it on the afternoon news. Not only can it inform us of significant events, but it is also a medium in which one can communicate with another. Literacy means with respect to reading and writing. Not only is it involved with that, but you have to be able to understand the words and the author’s intent in whatever you may be reading. Just like being literate outside of the Internet, you have to be well rounded in order to fully understand the world that’s around you socially. In my own terms, media literacy is being able to engage in different topics on the media, and fully understand what we are either watching or learning. Being able to read, analyze and obtain new information from a variety of what social media is today is what makes us be media literate. Searching what interests you on any source of the media would not be considered being “media-literate”. For example, instead of following just beauty gurus on YouTube, you could follow Fox News or certain channels that influence different people around the world. With the responsibility of acquiring new information from the media, people have to be in control and know the limits to the freedom on the Internet.
Cheerios is L♥ve
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General Mills in the commercial for Cheerios, which aired during the 2014 Superbowl, communicates to viewers that if you love the integrity of family, you immediately love Cheerios. To portray this message, they use their product as props for family members as the father tries to explain to his smart daughter about her brother who is soon to come. With their last interracial commercial causing negativity, Cheerios wants its audience to see that their brand is not only a food product, but a product with no borders along the ethnic barriers of the past. This commercial has a sweet and humorous tone which connects with families and sets a special connection with parents having trouble to explain bringing in a new member to the family.
Love at first.... Sight?
◑ Victoria Casasola, Social Media Reporter
◐ Monday March 17, 2014.
CALIFORNIA - The famous website "chatroulette.com" where random strangers connect with other random strangers from around the world recently launched a new ad featuring a middle aged man and a young teen that met on their website and ultimately became star-crossed lovers. After a lot of controversy, we decided to get to the bottom of this and see this "true love" they shared for ourselves.
Clark is a 56 year-old working at his local CVS and Caitlin is a student at Creekview Middle School. They shared the common interest of "chicken fingers" on Chatroulette thus leading to them starting to chat. After meeting on the website and staying connected for more than 5 hours these two folks decided that they were meant to be. They both remained in very close contact after their chat session and after a month they both agreed to meet up at the 12 year-old girl's home. The man who claimed to be 17 and well-built showed up at the girls home as a 56 year old with a not so well-built body structure. "I couldn't believe my eyes when he first showed up at our home," the pre-teen's mom exclaimed, "I've been divorced for 6 years now and I haven't been able to find such a handsome and caring man!"
While Caitlin was beyond shocked about this she greeted the man with a welcome kiss and allowed him in her home. After discussing things, they agreed to start a relationship taking into consideration that Clark had been offered a job near Caitlin's home. "I never knew how powerful a chat room could be, I mean look at me, now I have an amazing boyfriend that can take care of me and my mom," Caitlin explained to us, "Now everyone knows that internet safety isn't needed, sometimes you can get the best by taking the smallest risk!" While these two are really completely and endlessly in love, the website has gained back its popularity rate back up to 92.54%. It's incredible what a little tale of love can do, huh?
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Dance is my passion. When I'm happy and feeling the impulse to express myself I go ahead and do it and lose myself. I lose myself in the music. I feel as if I can move more beautifully than anyone in the world and no one can stop me. The music overpowers my imagination, I feel like I can enter a million universes just by dancing. I can fly, I can teleport, I can travel in the most fantastic ways nobody but me could see or understand. I feel unstoppable. I feel invincible. I feel incredible, joyful and wonderful... I dance to find who I am. I dance to lose myself in the bad times. I dance to help heal the pain. I dance whenever I get the chance.
______⊙New to the Public Eye⊙______
On September 11, 2001, FBI workers teamed up and helped out the United States. They hijacked four airplanes in mid-flight. These agents flew two of the planes on top of two skyscrapers at the World Trade Center in New York City. The impact was felt inside these buildings as a small earthquake but that was not the first of the impacts. These airplanes were equipped with 900 pounds of dynamite with a group of highly skilled men. The people in the building were instructed to continue on with their daily routine and were told this was a routine checkup they were starting to do. When both were in position a round of 4 small airplanes were flying real close to the height of these skyscrapers. These were a group of terrorists that had been in close contact with the FBI in belief that the FBI was another group against the United States of America. Of course this was a lie and the FBI was in complete control of the situation. The FBI carefully instructed the airplanes to turn back near the Hudson River and wait for further commandments. With the lack of radar, these terrorists did as they were told and waited for further knowledge of the situation. Little did they know that while they were slowly hovering the Hudson and the two planes equipped with dynamite and were slowly distributing the dynamite into these four planes.
After a couple of hours of hard work, the four planes were instructed to fly over to a disserted island off the coast of New York in order to clear the plan. When these planes hit the target location, the other two planes let the dynamite ignite thus killing a total of 10 terrorists that were in plans of destroying our beloved twin towers with our hard-working Americans occupying it. Since this was a planned attack the four planes destroyed were soon to be cleared up to ensure the safety of our island. For further knowledge our Secretary of the Environment has kept a real close eye on this area to return everything back to normal.
As we all know, due to our rise in our economy the twin towers were soon shut out of business and destroyed in a matter of days after this planned attack. Not to worry, three towers are to inaugurate by next week and are following the name tradition of the famous twin towers. The only reason the government didn't leave it to the hands of the terrorists to do what was intended to do in the first place was so all those innocent lives weren't killed. Thanks to the extensive work of not only the government but also the FBI we have captured a total of 386 terrorist and 19 planned attacks. Without them we’d be in a devastating time and not as protected as we were before. Now, let’s celebrate the inauguration of our Triplet Towers and how lucky we are to have such an amazing government and security system in America.
1984
The book 1984 was the most disturbing and mind bothering book I have ever read. Besides that, it’s definitely one of the best books to read. It was filled with theories, philosophies and ideas that were to a point too much to handle, but at the same time very interesting. I would have to say that Orwell’s writing really caught my attention. This book was nothing like other books that I have read both inside and outside of high school. What really struck me the most was how similar our society is becoming to the one that Orwell portrays in this novel. Seeing news of how we are constantly being watched and monitored is just like the dystopia the Orwell portrayed. This book really opens your mind and makes you pay furthermore attention to anything that happens around in the world. If I were the author, I think that I would’ve changed one key thing. My idea was to leave the book as it is and change the ending. Towards the end of the book, there is a part where Winston explains how it’s not beneficial to the Party to kill people who hate Big Brother, because those people would die as martyrs. Martyrs make people think, they make people question the events surrounding death, and the Party can’t have that. So, the Party detains the prisoners opposing their political beliefs and eventually breaks the prisoner’s beliefs (just like they did with Winston). At the very end of the book, Winston tears up and realizes he loves Big Brother. I think at this part, I would’ve included the fact that he was killed. Once he realized that he truly loved Big Brother and that he was no longer a threat to the established order, he could be disposed of. Besides that, it was a great book to read and I took a lot from this disturbing book. It has had a great impact on me and I have certainly felt its influence in the way I view the government and authority. It explains how a government could control and own every aspect of its citizen’s life. It is clear that even today democratic governments use similar, but less extreme, methods to influence the way we think of their policies.
trapped.
lied to.
watched.
Reflection|noitcelfeR
In this media literacy course, I not only learned about new arising problems but was also informed of how our current society is behaving. Starting with learning about social networks, I learned how much of an impact they have on our lives. They have shaped how we behave and how we communicate with one another. Coming into this class, I was very ignorant towards social networks. I didn't think that they could impact my life so greatly. Now looking back, I’m careful with what I post and say. My electronic tattoo will always be there, and any small mistake might ruin my future opportunities and the way people look at me. The book 1984 was the big eye opener in this class. It taught me that we are giving away our freedom in order to be “free” in our current society. Tying the book with current events is what really got me hooked. From seeing the evil side of Facebook to the NSA leaks, this book seemed to have all the answers for it. Not only did this awaken my wondering mind, but it also helped me realize that we are being controlled even if it’s in the smallest possible way. This class was not what I intentionally expected it to be. With the help of technology, we got through this course and essentially made this class a memorable one. We reinforced all our topics with current events and had class discussions on how certain things were affecting our current society. To make this class slightly better, I would've like to furthermore explore cases in our modern society that relate to what we talk to. It’s far more engaging and I believe that it can essentially make us better humans. From my perspective of things, this class really helped me explore what’s actually going on in the world. Not just what celebrity tripped over at the Oscars. Other than that, I believe this course is perfect as is. It’s a great class to have your senior year to help you really be aware of your surroundings.