Media Literacy
By: Madison Wilson
What Media Literacy Is
Social Media Take Over
Social media is a key part of our everyday lives. In my opinion it has its up sides and its down sides. Popular social networking sites such as Facebook, Instagram, and twitter have caused people to adapt in ways that are not necessarily for the best. We get so use to talking on social media in short phrases and abbreviated words that most kids growing up with this technology don't even know how to write a formal letter. Adults and teenagers struggle with this same concept. If you really look you will notice that people in general now a days speak and communicate using less formal ways such as not using full words and some people don't use punctuation at all. Another down side to social media taking over is that if we start putting everything on the internet and don't have any hard copies anymore is that the internet could crash and we would lose everything. While most of you are saying that could never happen it is a possibility, even unsinkable ships can sink. On the up side, it has made a major impact in activism and is another major resource that people now have. We have the capability to get a message across the world within a matter of seconds sitting right at our fingertips. Social media has helped raise more awareness for childhood cancer and has even helped out the families of the kids with this disease. You can set up accounts to raise money for research and inform people on what the long term effects of this disease really is. There has even been accounts set up to raise money for families that can’t afford hospital bills or treatment as well. You have the power to help change a child’s life without ever even moving from behind your computer screen, smart phone, or tablet. While, social media has its faults and impairs our ability to communicate formally and verbally, it also is a much more powerful tool than I think most of us realizes. It’s more than just posting pictures for fun, it’s an outlet and a way to make a difference in the world that should not be taken for granted.
Audi Super Bowl Commercial
Audi, in its 2016 Super bowl commercial, relates Buzz Aldrin’s astronaut days to the new Audi. They start with voice recordings from some of the “commanders” launches representing him missing those times, then his son comes in saying “okay commander, come with me”, trying to cheer him up he takes him to the driveway where he finds an Audi, finally while they are taking the car for a drive it shows clips from launches comparing Aldrins love of flying the space ship to the Audi. While Audi is trying to get you to buy their car they are also connecting on an emotional level by using a historical event and person to sell you on their vehicle. The audience of this commercial is more targeted to older adults because they will understand the significance of the astronaut and who Buzz Aldrin is where younger kids might now know him, the tone of this commercial is very deep and sentimental even emotional.
Hillary Clinton Politifacts
"You are three times more likely to be able to get a mortgage if you're a white applicant than if you're black or Hispanic, even if you have the same credentials." - Hillary Clinton
Politifact ruled Hillary Clintons statement said on Thursday, February 18th, 2016 to be false. The Clinton campaign admitted that she had made a mistake. The source she got this information was Zillow and they gave the denial rate not the approval rate like Clinton referenced. Another major mistake that she made was that she said even with the same credentials, which was not what the statistics were from. I think that this is a very serious accusation of racism and ethic discrimination which should not have been made without 100% certainty.
Donald Trump Politifacts
The Trump Winery near Charlottesville, Va. is the "largest winery on the East Coast." – Donald Trump
Trump said this on Tuesday, march 8th, 2016 in a news conference. Several wine industry analysts said that to figure out a winery’s size the best measure is not acres of vines but the amount of wine produced. By this standard trumps winery is not the largest winery on the east coast in fact it isn’t even the biggest one in Virginia I disagree with trump making this statement. I also thing in the end all it turned out to be was a failed attempt to make this business success look better and more impressive but just back fired.
Barack Obama Politifacts
"The economy, by every metric, is better than when I came into office." – Barack Obama
Obama said this on Tuesday July 21st, 2015 in an interview with Jon Stewart of “The Daily Show”. While he had some statistics to refer to this was not an accurate statement what people need to know is that politifacts found many important things that went in the wrong direction during Obama’s time in office. For example, weekly earnings fell 1.4% and the percent of people in poverty went from 13.2% in march 2009 to 14.5% by march 2014. I find it slightly irresponsible to make such a statement by providing almost a sense of false hope knowing that these things have gone wrong under his command.
A Nation of Proles
Today’s society is not much different than the one in 1984 when you think about it. We are constantly being manipulated even when we don’t realize it. Retail companies make posters with models of how they think you should look and you go along with it. You see a size 00 girl on the front of a fashion magazine and you think that since you aren’t a size 00 that means you aren’t as pretty or attractive as her. This happens even in other areas of our lives even with the food we eat. Companies make commercials with famous people eating their food and since your favorite movie actor or singer likes it you think that it must be good and you buy it. This just goes to show that movies, TV, and sports play a huge role in controlling our society. While something like making you buy a different brand of soda may seem harmless there are other situations that turn out to be anything but harmless to some people. Making young girls think that they have to look a certain way to be attractive can be detrimental to their mental health and cause long term self-esteem issues. Many of this controlling ads and commercials are about more serious matter like to distract you from the real problems going on around us. They try making something humorous so it doesn’t seem so heavy. When in reality it’s usually a serious issue that we need to address. When we cover up all the problems we don’t want to deal with it starts to add up and then you have an even bigger problem. That problem is that the people are not properly informed and in order for us to react properly we need to know all the facts and know what we need to ask for. Most ads you see today are based off beauty and sexual desire. Even adds that have nothing to do with the topic they make people think it’s the norm and that’s not the case it just another case of manipulation. If we never stand up and do something about the matter then it’ll never change. If we never say the half-naked girl in the insurance company commercial is inappropriate then know one with ever think anything about it.
You Say You Want A Revolution
The Warsaw ghetto uprising happened in the spring of 1943. This individual uprising was the largest revolt by Jews. With the force of hundreds of Jews fighting the Germans and their subordinates in the middle of the streets of the ghettos. They disobeyed German orders and would not report to assembly points for deportation. “Between July 22 and September 12, 1942, the German authorities deported or murdered around 300,000 Jews in the Warsaw ghetto SS and police units deported 265,000 Jews to the Treblinka killing center and 11,580 to forced labor camps. The Germans murdered more than 10,000 Jews in the Warsaw ghetto during the deportation operations.” (ushmm). As a result of the deportations the Jews created an underground armed self-defense unit. “Under the most adverse conditions, Jewish prisoners succeeded in initiating resistance and uprisings in some Nazi camps. The surviving Jewish workers launched uprisings even in the extermination camps of Treblinka, Sobibor, and Auschwitz-Birkenau.” (ushmm). The reason behind the revolt in Auschwitz other than the horrific treatment was that prisoners assigned to crematorium IV learned they were going to be killed. In the end the Germans crushed the revolt and and killed almost all of the several hundred prisoners involved. “On October 14, 1943, prisoners in Sobibor killed 11 SS guards and police auxiliaries and set the camp on fire. About 300 prisoners escaped, breaking through the barbed wire and risking their lives in the minefield surrounding the camp. Over 100 were recaptured and later shot.” (ushmm). Not all of the uprisings ended in death of the Jews. for example, the Lipowa street labor camp, dozens of prisoners escaped to join partisan units.” Despite being vastly outgunned and outnumbered, some Jews in ghettos and camps did resist the Germans with force. The spirit of these efforts transcends their failure to halt the genocidal policies of the Nazis.” (ushmm). I connect this uprising to 1984 because it’s about conformity. The Germans and their partners in this whole situation had an Image of how the world and the people should look and what race they should be. In 1984 big brother and the party had a mold that everyone was suppose to fit and if you didn’t then you would be distinguished just like how the Jews were killed because they weren’t what they thought was the superior race.
"Jewish Uprisings in Ghettos and Camps, 1941–1944." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Council, 29 Jan. 2016. Web. 04 May 2016.
Media Literacy Reflection
At the beginning of the semester, media literacy to me was just any form of sharing information on the internet or social media sites. Now I know that it is so much bigger than just sharing information. Media literacy can be a vast range of things from raising awareness of an awful disease by pulling on the heart strings a little to just pure facts of the things going on around us in the world today. We all have the power to change the society we live in sitting right at our fingertips. This class has helped me realize even more so than I already knew that the world is not black and white. There is always going to be grey spaces there wont always be a right or wrong answer. Sometimes in life we have to infer from our own moral standpoints and make the best decision possible even when there is points on the other side of the argument that we might agree with as well. The thing that I loved most about this class is that we got to think for ourselves. In other classes it feels like teachers are always trying to tell you that they are right and if you don’t believe what they do then you are wrong. The non-judgmental environment of our classroom made me feel like I could really state my beliefs and feelings on a topic without being forced into something I don’t agree with. Two things that I wish we had done more in this class would be speeches and Socratic seminars. I think that if we had done more speeches I would feel more comfortable with it and better prepared for future situations when I might find myself speaking in front of a large group of people. Socratic seminars are my favorite forms of learning. I feel like I benefit more from talking to the class freely about topics and being able to see other peoples stand points expands my perspective. I personally have gained a wider perspective from this class on all kinds of world issues and I cherish that learning experience the most.
Social Media and Our Unhealthy Relationship
In society today we have a very unhealthy relationship with social media. We don’t realize what we have sitting at our fingertips we get addicted to the wrong aspect of it. If we would take that passion and addiction to posting what we ate for lunch and put it into something that means something like raising awareness for important issues, we need to change in the world today then we could make it a better place. Social media doesn’t have to be a negative thing that we look at as addictive and controlling but something that we look at as empowering. It gives us the capabilities to do things and spread information in ways that we never have been able to before. We can start a whole movement with one hashtag. We can’t let the power turn into an addiction we must know when to limit ourselves and how we should use it. We have to disconnect sometimes or we do run the risk of becoming addicted and oblivious to the power it holds over us we don’t need to use social media to post a picture of every meal we eat or every place we go during the day. We have to get off our phones and tablets to have face to face time with the real people in our lives not just computer screens. Don’t let the connection disconnect you.