Media Literacy
Interpreting media and literature and connecting to life
What i believe Media and Media literacy is.
The media is anything that is used to convey information. Whether that information be true or false. Forms of media include the news, newspapers, magazines, and many websites. The news is one of the most popular out of the few. The news gives you information on what’s in the world today like politics, world disasters, or sometimes cats stuck in trees. Magazines are notorious for saying lies about celebrities, which makes them the least reliable for concrete information. Many website including CNN.com have replaced newspapers over the years.
Media literacy is the ability someone who read or writes one of the forms of media.
Media
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Media literacy
Social media
Learning about Social media and its effects on the way we think, act, and media as a whole. Social media has become the biggest avenue for “protests”. It’s the easiest way to share your ideas with hundreds, thousands, and sometimes millions of people. Social media has its good and bad.
Social media is a phenomenon. It was boosted up by Facebook and later by other applications like Snapchat and Instagram. Social media is known to take the social aspect out of everyday life and put it solely online. This made a generation of people who cannot function without a phone or a computer. In the olden days if you wanted to see what your crush in 3rd grade was doing you would have to do some serious investigating but now all you have to do is type in a few words and stalk their Facebook. Do not get me wrong this is a cool concept but in reality it’s just sad. It promotes dwelling on the past when in life we should always move forward.
My final paper was about social media’s part in spreading awareness about mass shootings. A lot of people are fake activists online. This means they claim to be helping the cause online but in real life they nothing. Although social media has made a big impact on awareness for mass shootings and how to help prevent them. I also wrote another paper on the boom of a social media application known as Instagram. Instagram grew to be huge in only a short amount of time. A lot of my friends and have Instagram and use it daily. It’s become one of the most popular social Medias for users and also advertising. Advertisers pay big money for “Instagram models” to pose with their product. This industry pays peoples bills so it’s obviously working.
I enjoyed learning about social media and its effects on society today. Social media has shaped not only our nation but the world. I’m proud to be alive during a time during such advancements and progress. Social media as a whole is an important part of life today.
Super Bowl Commercial
Apartments.com’s Commercial “#Moving on up” (2016), that was Played during the Super Bowl, suggests that getting your apartment from their website will make you have a more pleasant experience by showing a man bringing a piano up a skyscraper while singing the title theme to “The Jefferson’s” apartment but when he reaches the top he sees George Washington and Lil Wayne barbecuing in a luxury apartment. The commercial makes people laugh in order to gain there interest in Apartments.com, it’s supposed to persuade people into thinking that their website will find a dream apartment. Apartments.com uses multiple elements in order to widen its audience. The audience in this commercial is either people who are old enough to remember The Jefferson’s theme song or anyone who is young enough to listen to rapper Lil Wayne, also the authors tone is joking and nostalgic.
Prole
This passage written by Orwell, perfectly describes the life of an “average” American in today’s society. This passage describes the Proles doing a things that we consider normal, but to the higher up people it’s considered repulsive. Well, except for the part where he explains how all the Proles grow up in the gutter, that’s only some American’s. He explains how they are born and started working at a young age which is true for a lot of American teens getting jobs at around 15-16 years old. And Orwell even goes in to our passion for football which is America’s most popular sport. That is a direct shot to the back of America. He goes on about our love for beer, films, and even an urge to gamble. Then he drops the realization bomb with “To keep them in control was not difficult”. Are we too distracted by all these things and more to protect ourselves and our rights as people? Or is this just an exaggeration of what our society is already?
This book was a good representation of how the world in the future would be. One thing Orwell didn’t know was going to happen was the terror of social media. How could he have known that his new-speak would become real? Social-media? Or Antisocial-media? Social media affects us in was like the telescreens do. There’s always the threat that someone will record you, so naturally people change their regular behavior in order to keep from getting ‘socially vaporized’. A lot of students get in trouble based on the posts they make or the videos they take. Especially fights, for some reason people have a need to record fights.
1984 was ahead of its time, literally. Orwell predicted a lot of how society is today. We are a societal dystopia.
Uprising
The uprising I chose is the most important one in American history. The American Revolution took place in the last half of the 18th century in America. Colonists came to America in hope of a new land. But they were still under control of the British king. He was a tyrant and a terrible person. Colonists wanted to be free and to do this they had to fight. They refused to be ruled from overseas without representation. War broke out throughout the 13 colonies until eventually the states one and were free of their warden in October 1781. In April 1775 British soldiers exchanged fire with colonists at Lexington and Concord which was deemed the title “The Shot Heard Around the World”. And you cannot forget about the Boston Tea Party, which was a protest by the sons of liberty. This was a reaction to British Parliaments changes in the Tea Act.
History.com Staff. "Boston Tea Party." History.com. A&E Television Networks, 01 Jan. 2009. Web. 12 May 2016.
History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 12 May 2016.
Media Literacy as a Whole
Media Literacy is a course where I learned how to interpret media sources as well as literary pieces and connect them to real life. My original thoughts on media literacy were way less defined. I thought the course would be about how newspapers, magazines, and news websites change how we covey information thought media literacy was someone’s ability to read or write media. I guess I wasn’t wrong but that was just a small part. I thank Mrs. Hicks and Mrs. Davis for the opportunity to be educated on these subjects as I will need them in my college education. The main reason Media literacy stands out from my other language arts classes is that I actually enjoyed this class. We did things like watch TED talks and Socratic seminars, which I had never done before but thoroughly enjoyed. I also like the fact that we had two teachers to help me throughout the rigorous process of précis. The fact that there was no pointless writing was important for me. All writing we did required thought and actually helped me grow as a writer whereas previous classes would just throw you a basic topic and say write 5 paragraphs. The only thing I believe that could be done differently is more Socratic seminars. I appreciate getting the opportunity to hear opinions other than my own.
Can we Auto-correct Humanity
Inventions are made to make life easier. That’s what all inventions are for. And social media is the next step in that evolution. Just like the wheel made for easier transportation Social Networks made it easier to connect with other people without the “hassle” of human interaction. I’m not saying this is right, I’m just saying it’s expected. But our relationship with our online status has gone beyond unhealthy and I honestly believe there is nothing practical we can do to stop it. Social media is going to be there no matter what so why not make it a way to literally connect with people instead of in a chat room. In the video, Prince Ea calls out Mark Zuckerberg telling him to call Facebook what it really is “an Anti-Social Network”. Social Networks have a lot of potential to bring us together. They could be used to sanction events or meet old friends as well as new ones. Instead of becoming a slave to the madness use them as an aid not a support. The only way to control social media use, I believe, is to delete it all for at least a month and enjoy what is around you, do something in your city you’ve never done before. Then after while get all your Networks back then realize how much you use them has significantly decreased. People will riot if there social networks are taken away because they’re addicted so the only way to stop the madness is to change the people view on it.