Thinking is important
We need to think more
Media and media literacy
The media in my opinion is a whole bunch of propaganda and many things that they show are heavily exaggerated and misinforms the public by giving them a view that makes what they are seeing different than what it is. A good example of this is Islam in the media. Basically, Islam in the media is generally seen in a negative view, especially because of the ISIS attacks, because some terrorists claim themselves to be Islamic they give a view that many people who are Islamic are terrorists and that is actually not true at all. Even with Donald Trump where he wants to ban Muslims from entering the U.S in total because there deemed too dangerous. This is only one thing that the media exaggerates but it does it for many things in general and the media lives to just entertain the masses. I believe that to be media literate is the ability to effectively use technology in order for educational purposes. This means that you are able to use the newest technologies in an educational and beneficial way. It also means to be able to read, utilize, and create media effectively to be media literate. Literacy alone is the measure of how well you can read or write, so the literacy of media must be somewhat similar which is how I came to that conclusion. To be media literate you would have a good sense of the different medias and be able to recognize the bias, and propaganda that it brings.
Social media and Social Justice
Social Media and its future
Super Bowl 2016 commercial Precis
Precis
Apartments.com, in its 2016 Super Bowl commercial, (February 7) implies that Apartments.com has all the good apartments that you would want and that you should “move on up” by renting an apartment using their website. Apartments.com begins with Brad Bellflower playing the piano on a balloon while gradually floating up higher to explore all their “deluxe” apartments that they offer and reaching the top and confronting “George” and “Weezy” two celebrities promoting their website to ask what they are cooking on the grill with Weezy’s humorous reply reminding them of his signature apple pie. Apartments.com does this in order to convince its audience that they have fun and deluxe apartments using the two celebrities to promote their apartments. Apartments.com is targeting a young adult audience, as it targets people old enough to rent apartments, but young enough to have a liking to the celebrities, especially the cultured rapper Lil Wayne and they use a humorous tone as they included “pie not included” at the end as a very hilarious and comical joke.
We are a nation of proles
Gandhi's Salt March
Dante Setiady
Mrs. Hicks
12 CP Language Arts
4 April 2016
Gandhi’s Salt March
Gandhi is a historic figure that has been remembered as a wise and noble man, who fought nonviolently and with peace, for the independence and liberty of India. One of his protests, the Salt March was act of civil disobedience in which he led a large group of people from March to April of 1930 in India to defy British policy by making salt by seawater. (History.com Staff) At the time, Britain had colonized India and had proposed an unfair law where Indians were prohibited from collecting and selling salt, which was a staple in the Indian diet. This in turn forced Indians to purchase salt from the British, creating a monopoly where they could only buy from the British and imposed a heavy tax on the salt. (Pletcher) Many Indians suffered, specifically the poor Indians and they had lost an important staple to their diet. Mahatma Gandhi wanted to defy this, and came up with a way to rebel against the British nonviolently. He came up with a campaign called “satyagraha” meaning mass civil disobedience. He left his home to march towards the Arabian Sea Coast, in which nearly 60,000 people followed him to protest with him. He spoke to the large crowds and conducted prayers as he marched along 240 miles to create salt out of seawater. Once he had gotten there, the police had already crushed the salt deposits into the mud. Despite that Gandhi took a small lump of salt in the sand and defied British law. Many cities in India joined in on the revolt, and millions of Indians participated in the social disobedience. British authorities ended up arresting over 60,000 people including Gandhi. (History.com Staff) The revolt however, continued on without him. This protest eventually led to India’s independence in August of 1947, and Gandhi was assassinated less than one month later. This protest, was a very powerful action because it started off with just a small march and influenced India so much that millions of other Indians rebelled as well. The sheer amount of people that were involved was what made it so impactful, as well as Gandhi’s influential and noble leadership versus a tyrannical authority. So many people during this time, was greatly affected by the salt tax which is why so many other people wanted to join in on the revolt. This protest, in my opinion was one of the most powerful and influential protests in history as it led to the independence of the second largest population in the entire world, as well as has millions of people taking place in the protest and its idea of civil disobedience In India. This not only had an effect on India, but the idea itself of civil disobedience brought to light a better and more peaceful of protest that hasn’t been seen before. Most protests involved aggressive violence to get there ways and means. This can even be seen in today’s world, as many of the public protests and marches stemmed from this idea of civil disobedience. Ultimately, this can also be related to the highly influential book ‘1984’ because Winston had also shown instances of him rebelling without violence. He doesn’t necessarily attack the party himself, but does rebel by writing in the book, committing adultery, and disagreeing with the party’s ideology. These acts are seen as “political” and not violent.
"Salt March". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2016. Web. 14 Apr. 2016
<http://www.britannica.com/event/Salt-March>.
History.com Staff. "Salt March." History.com. A&E Television Networks, 01 Jan. 2010. Web. 14 Apr. 2016.
Donald Trump says false statements
Donald Trump
"Out of 67 counties (in Florida), I won 66, which is unprecedented. It's never happened before."
i. Donald Trump said this quote March 21’st in a press conference.
ii. Donald Trump claims that him winning 66 counties in Florida is something that has never happened before, yet that is a lie as there are people in the past that have done that. In 2004, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry won all 67 counties for the Democrats. That feat was repeated by both parties in 2000, when Vice President Al Gore won all 67 for the Democrats and Texas Gov. George W. Bush won all 67 for Republicans. In 1996, Bob Dole took 66 of 67 counties for the GOP primary
iii. You must know your political history in order to make a fully informed claim about this. He clearly did not know about the other candidates in the past that won 66 counties out of 67 before.
iv. I believe overall that Donald Trump says anything that makes him look better, whether it’s true or not he doesn’t care and knows other people won’t care either.
Ted Cruz also says false statements
Ted Cruz
"Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have the identical position on health care, which is they want to put the government in charge of you and your doctor."
i. Ted Cruz claimed this January 31st, 2016 in comments on "Meet the Press"
ii. The whole story is that Ted Cruz tried to attack Donald Trump by saying a statement that was not true at all. Clinton supports Obamacare, Sanders supports a single payer universal healthcare system, and Trump supports an ambiguous health care plan that goes against the other candidate’s health care plans and claims it will be terrific and take care of everybody.
iii. You must know about the other candidate’s health care plans if you want to claim that some persons health care plans are the same as the others or else you are going to make a false statement.
iv. My thoughts are that Ted just wanted to say something that would attack Donald Trump but he didn’t make sure that what he was saying was actually correct.
Hilary Clinton also says false statements sometimes
Hilary Clinton
The Clean Power Plan is something that Sen. Sanders has said he would delay implementing."
i. Hilary Clinton claimed this March 9th, 2016 in in the Democratic debate in Florida
ii. Hilary Clinton claims that Bernie Sanders would delay implanting the Clean Power Plan, yet Bernie Sanders is a strong supporter of the Clean Power Plan. He proves this in many of the things he says such as "It sounds to me like a step forward in ending our dependence on fossil fuel, and I support that effort." As well as Pres Obama knows climate change is the great planetary crisis facing us & we must move boldly to transform our energy system #CleanPowerPlan." Sanders wishes for more ambitious action for the plan which calls for more time to renovate the plan, but it does not mean that he wants to purposely delay the plan because he doesn’t support it.
iii. To make a fully informed claim about this topic you must know about his ideals and what he supports before making a false statement about his beliefs. Hilary Clinton should have known that Sanders has been advocating for climate change plans for a while and that he supports the Clean Power Plan, therefore she should not have said that without further information
iv. I think Hilary like any other candidate, was looking for a way to belittle her opponent even if it is not true.
Reflection on this course
I’d have to say, this was my favorite English class I have ever taken. At first I remember walking into the small classroom, I took a look around and thought “damn I wish I hadn’t failed AP Lang.” However, as the class went on, I actually learned a lot so much more than I had learned in AP Lang. In fact I didn’t learn anything at all in AP Lang and I learned so much from this class. I actually learned how to think properly, as I never really learned to think as much before as in this class which has helped me a lot. I got caught up on all the current events and now I always look at current events and things that are happening in our world, the CNN student news was a really good thing to look at every day in class. My initial views on media literacy were did not have much substance as I didn’t really know exactly what it was. But I learned that media literacy is our ability to analyze and examine and learn media and through media. The thing that I really loved about this class, was that we actually learned about a lot of real things that are actually helpful and important to the world. The importance of thinking, current events throughout our world, reading 1984 which was one of the greatest British literature's ever written. The fact that the class wasn’t focused on petty things like tests and worksheets, but rather actually just learning things that actually matter is what I loved about this class and what differed from every other English class I have ever taken. If there was anything that could have made the class better, even though this was a great class, was to do more Socratic seminars. We did a couple, and even though I didn’t talk much in them I still liked to listen to other people’s thoughts and opinions about a certain topic. I wouldn’t necessarily grade it, but just have a good amount of them so people can express their thoughts.
Technology has consumed us all
Technology today has consumed us to the point where every second we have to be on our phones because our attention spans have gotten so low that we cannot just sit there without something entertaining us. The original intention of social media was to connect us in times when we cannot connect, and to strengthen the bonds that we already have with each other. Yet in today’s society is it she complete opposite because people would rather stare at their phones and entertain themselves rather than go up to people and have a conversation like people should. We need to stop letting social media control us, we need to stop valuing our lives based on how popular we are on social media, and we need to stop posting a snap story on every moment you think is important just to show the world. I believe that this addiction we have can be controlled. We need to stop valuing it as high as we do, so we don’t succumb to basing our social lives on it. Social media was invented to connect with one another easier when the option of meeting up in person is not there. Yet people prefer to use social media even when we are together in person. We need to stop being worried about posting snap stories of moments that happen in our everyday lives and just enjoy it and keep it in our memories. I can tell that the addiction to social media is getting worse in our everyday lives, because I recently broke my phone and started to examine everyone around me and there phone use. At least half the time people are on their phones, and if there not doing anything, they can never just sit there or stand there and just think or do nothing. The world has come to where people can’t just stand there and be people anymore, nobody just sits there and thinks anymore they always have to be doing something. Whether it’s talking to people or looking at their phones, social media has become a big part of everyday life. We are slowly becoming less and less connected with reality that I fear one day that it will be normal to never have a conversation with one another and just text or Snapchat each other. We need to stop using it so much and placing such a high value on it in order to live life without becoming a slave to social media.