"Media"
Media & being media literate:
There are many different perspectives and definitions of media. To me, media is basically a mass communication system. It consists of many different people with different ways to channel information around the world to its people. Everything the media displays isn’t always correct or pleasing to viewers but without media, the world would be boring. Even though everything the media brings to one’s attention isn’t always true, there are parts of the media that only state facts like the news. Media is what brings society together and allows everyone around the world to know what’s going on everywhere else around the world. Media can be from you posting a picture on your Instagram account, to reading the newspaper, to you turning on your TV and hearing about the latest murder on channel 2. Media is what keeps us all connected.
Being media literate is when one is able to analyze and understand the media world. Being media literate is an important asset to possess in the current world because it’s the way most information that matters is issued. Everyone won’t be an expert in knowing every aspect of the media world, but when the time is right and one starts to mature, most should know what’s going on in the daily news and be able to elaborate in some way or be able to get on a device and check out the latest celebrity gossip. Being media literate isn’t always just being able to understand media, but also to actually create media. Believe it or not, posting a tweet on your twitter feed or even status on your Facebook is creating media. Anything you create and you can share with someone else with information attached is media. Media is everywhere.
Media Literate!
Media!
Media is life...
America the Beautiful...
Coca-Cola in the commercial, “America the Beautiful”, suggest that Coca-Cola brings everyone together. Coca-Cola supports their suggestion by illustrating an image of many Americans of different races coming together and all singing the same patriotic anthem. The author’s purpose is to show that the only thing more beautiful than America is its inhabitants in order to promote the Coke product. The author writes in an informal tone to all Americans of any race.
Obama Outlaws Sagging
In recent news, Congress just passed a law stating that anyone that sags their pants receives the death penalty. This law has no exceptions and anyone caught sagging will be penalized. The president says that he is looking into investing in pants that automatically come up when one sags them below their waist. Obama announced this new law, not realizing what a riot this would cause among the ratchets. Hundreds of boys in the hood, drug dealers & wanna be's were infuriated. We interviewed many and these are some of the things the people of our country had to say.
"I have to sag, man." says a young black man that just got finished participating in a drive by shooting ", it makes me feel like a man to have my butt showing. It just makes me me."
We went on to interview 19 year old, exotic dancer, Keisha, a Caucasian woman, who was also very emotional about the new law. "My baby daddy can't even sag anymore, this is real messed up Obama. I won’t ever find a real man with this new law you passed. "
a deeply saddened president appeared before the nation last night to address everyone with a message...
"My fellow Americans, i am so so so so so sorry for this. i wish i was addressing the nation under different circumstances. I know that this law is very startling for some but do not worry, Yes We Can and oh, we most definitely will."
Kinetic Typography
Bu Blux Blan
The beginning of the Bu Blux Blan was innocent. In December 1865, a group of young black men living in a very segregated part of Mississippi decided to organize a social club all for fun. Their meetings were very secretive and devoted strictly on activities they planned on doing. Members of the Bu Blux Blan would disguise themselves with a costume made up of a red sheets to cover their bodies, ghost like masks to hide their faces and pointed headwear that made them seem more intimidating. The leader of the group was called ‘Big Dog’.
Soon after the start of this club, terrorizing former white slaves became very common among young black Americans and the transition of the BBB from an innocent social club for fun and games to a ruthless vigilance committee began. The Bu Blux Blan was based on going around the south and terrorizing the former slaves (the white people) and killing them off little by little. It is said that the Bu Blux Blan was the white child’s worst nightmare. They feared they would creep in their homes in the night and take them to be hung among other former filthy white people, sort of like the boogeyman. The Bu Blux Blan went around killing any white male that looked at them in a funny way, or even if they did nothing at all. It has also been said that the men would rape the white women in front of their spouses and children even. When they killed, they aimed for whites that had some sort of importance in their communities like political leaders. They also took heads of families which were the white older males, along with the leaders of churches and community groups, because these people had important roles in society. They even aimed to kill off any black American that sided with integration.
By 1870, the Bu Blux Blan had branches in nearly every southern state. Blan members often wearing their red mask and dressed in the organization’s signature long red robes and hoods usually carried out their attacks at night. They acted on their own in support of the main common goals of defeating Radical Reconstruction and restoring black supremacy in the South. Among the most common and known zones of Klan activity was South Carolina, and in January 1871 500 masked black men attacked the Union county jail and lynched eight white prisoners. Across the South, the Klan and other terrorist groups used very harsh violence to intimidate Republican voters. In Kansas, over 2,000 murders were committed in connection with the election. In Georgia, the number of threats, hangings of whites and beatings was even higher. And in Louisiana, 1000 white people were killed as the election neared. In those three states, Democrats won very distinct victories at the polls.
The Klan burned churches and schools and drove thousands of white people out of their homes. Local law enforcement officials were unwilling to stop the Klan and it rose and conquered the south for many years. The Bu Blux Blan ended victoriously, killing off as many white people as possible. Members were rewarded by local policeman for every head of a white person they brought out. The BBB was a very successful organization.
I wrote this because I hate white people and I am racist because even though they made my people slaves, tortured, killed and anything else hurtful you can think of to black people they somehow made us look like the American threat today.
Internal Conflict
The song Amazing by Kanye West featuring Young Jeezy perfectly fits the theme of 1984, a novel written by George Orwell. In the first verse Kanye raps about how he is exhausted from standing up for himself and what he believes in. This reminds me of how Winston Smith in the novel is always getting frustrated and tired of being in all the lies of the party and going against them, but not being able to say or even think about his feelings. In the second verse Kanye is portraying himself as a monster. Kanye is saying that there is no way to stop him and no way to figure him out (solve the problem in verse 1). That confusion Kanye causes in him keeps him going as well, and that’s why he doesn’t change and he states his problem “can’t be solved”. This reminds me of how Winston goes to the Ministry of Love and he thinks he is a problem that can’t be solved. He knows the truth but he is manipulated by torture to believe false facts which confuses him in all. In his last verse Kanye says he is the only thing he is afraid of. That line makes me think of how in the end of the novel, Winston finally loves Big Brother and conforms out of his on ways and becomes happy.
Reflections...
This semester I learned a lot about things I never knew existed in everyday media usage. When I look back at this semester from when I first defined the very meaning of media to having to actual analyze create and discuss it, I have some very good skills I can use for future references. I learned a lot about how media keeps us connected and there is more depth to media than just watching the news. Many new vocab words were introduced to me dealing with media like slacktivist and media literacy. This Language Arts class was very different from my past classes because we never really did much reading of literature, but we focused more on real life, interesting writings like current news reports and articles on things that were happening in our current time. I learned more about the sites I use on an everyday bases like Twitter and Instagram and about their privacy policy, things I never knew about them before. I learned how media is sometimes censored and not many people who are “people” in the world of media can't express their opinions on how they really feel about today’s trending topics. We all took simple, thirty second commercials and analyzed them deeply and wrote about the true meaning behind the commercials, other than to entertain viewers. We all even got to create our own past and change history anyway we wanted it to. This class was very interesting and helped my mind explore and go to places I never thought it would. Although I was not here often, which I do regret, I enjoyed your teaching skills and I don’t think you should change anything. There were never dull days when I was present and I will be taking a lot of what you taught me when I leave high school. Thanks!