Media Rules Our Lives
How media affects how you
media and media literacy
Webster defines media as the means of mass communication. To me, media is the source of information. From who’s dating who to the healthcare act, all of the information is brought to us via media. Media tells us how to dress and how to act. It gives us entertainment. It gives us advice on our relationships, government, and sports. Most often, "the media" are lumped together as a single entity. But "the media" are actually many forms of communication...including newspapers, magazines, and billboards, radio, television, videocassettes, video games, and computer games. Media consumers our lives every day with its overreaching hand. For centuries, literacy has referred to the ability to read and write. Today, we get most of our information through an interwoven system of media technologies. The ability to read many types of media has become an essential skill in the 21st Century. Media literacy is the ability to understand how mass media work, how they produce meanings, how they are organized, and how to use them wisely. A media literate person can describe how media plays a role in his or her life. The media literate person understands the basic conventions of various media, and enjoys their use in a deliberately conscious way. The media literate person understands the impact of music and special effects in heightening the drama of a television program or film...this recognition does not lessen the enjoyment of the action, but prevents the viewer from being unduly credulous or becoming unnecessarily frightened. The media literate person is in control of his or her media experiences.
Distorting reality
Media
Self-conscious
Coca-Cola, America the Beautiful
Coca Cola in the America is Beautiful (2014) explains that America is filled with people from different backgrounds, religions, and sexual preferences. Coca Cola supports their stance by demonstrating that America is filled with people of different ethnicities, all enjoying their freedom. Coca Cola’s purpose is to show that America is not composed of one race, but an array of races, all of whom who make America beautiful in order to show the American public that America is a melting point, a place where anyone can come and make a life for themselves. Coca Cola writes in a supportive tone for the young and open minded people in America who know that the American landscape is changing.
Bodybuilding
One Weird Trick to Make You Happy
Why should I exercise?
Ariq Sarwar, reporter
Wednesday March 19,2014
Mississippi- Obesity has been spreading like wildfire in the United States. New studies have shown that people tend to eat when they are upset, because food is a means of comfort. Others eat when as a way of rewarding themselves when they are happy or simply bored. Therefore, eating is ultimately a means of maintaining a healthy range of emotions.
“Some people call it an epidemic; I call it an enlightenment,” says health specialist Humza Khalid.
Of course, the best way to balance out the weight gain from constant food intake is to exercise. However, statistics have shown that exercising can be quite dangerous, as we have seen sports-related injuries every day. Why exercise if it can be a hazard?
Also, we have seen a new trend of using plus-size models in advertisements. In order to avoid the pressure of being scrutinized by the media to make sure their body is thin enough to be accepted on the runway, models are now striving to be bulkier and choose the plus-size lifestyle. These models do not want to have to deal with anorexia or bulimia when they could be having the time of their life indulging on the deliciousness that is greasy food.
All in all, living the lifestyle of an obese American has fewer repercussions than having a healthy, slim body.
Cuban Missile Crisis
In 1962 the Soviet Union and the United States went into nuclear war when Russian ships passed the “line of no return” placed by US President John F. Kennedy. Russian Prime Minister, Khrushchev and US President, Kennedy, failed to reach a peace agreement which was the beginning of World War III. Initially both countries were defensive and the battles were at stalemate. The world got broken down into two categories: America and Russia. North America, South America, Western Europe, and South Asia were part of the America Powers and Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia were part of the Russian Powers. War intensified as the years passed. Both Kennedy and Khrushchev were relentless and their ideologies clashed in every battle. Every attempt at peace talks were shut down by both parties. Death toll rose day by day. The war affected everyone all over the world. Rationing was practiced by every household in the world. All most every able bodied man was forced to participate in the war. The atmosphere around the world was grim. Nuclear warfare was rampant. The impact of nuclear powered weapons destroyed millions of lives and land. The impact of the nuclear bombs is forever irreversible. Barren lands, no vegetation, and dust storms plagued the world.
The American people were suffering as much as people in Russia. People were living in slums and the American dream of living in a white picket fence turned into dreams of having a safe place to sleep. Most jobs consisted of creating weapons for the war or some war related activity. The private sector and the service industry plummeted. The standard of living decreased across the globe and poverty rate rose exponentially. Governments of the world had no choice but to participate in the war because if they didn’t their country would cease to exist.
WWIII is the bloodiest war to date with the death toll reaching 1 billion people. Mass extinctions of the human race took place. Humanity lost its human touch and greed and cynicism took over. People would get shot just for taking one step into another person’s shack. No warnings or anything, just a bullet to the head. The streets of the world were filled with the color and odor of blood. Bombs would be dropped without any notice. Entire cities would be destroyed in the blink of an eye. Many people chose to end their lives themselves due to rampant paranoia. An estimated 10 million people chose to die in their own hands rather than in the hands of the enemy. The birth rate also declined drastically due to the gruesomeness of the war and the belief that this world is suitable for children to come into.
The governments of the two superpowers were only focused on winning the war. They did not care about their constituents. Democracy was replaced by military dictatorship. Mass propaganda for the war was spread to stop the people from rioting and the constant bombings kept fear into the minds of the people which allowed governments to do anything they wanted. The world had never been the same after the Russian ship crossed the line. The world never will either until one side dominates.
*Rewritten to explain the current state of the world and how it all started
1984 Reflection
1984 is considered to be the best dystopian book ever written. We should thank George Orwell for writing such a masterpiece on his deathbed. The language used in the book reflected the agony, pain, and depression that Orwell was experiencing. The usage of gin by Winston reflected Orwell’s own usage and his dependence on alcohol. 1984 is one of those books that everyone should read once in their life. 1984 is iconic because of the writing style, the language and especially the content. The idea of an overwhelming government, controlling and inspecting every aspect of our lives is a captivating and relatable topic that can be enjoyed by everyone. I personally think the criticisms made by the book are accurate. The government has used its overbearing hand and infiltrated our daily lives with the advancement of technology. One of the most interesting and controversial part of the book for me was the ending when it said "the bullet was entering his brain." It seems like everyone I've talked to either say the ending was stupid or they didn't get it, and most people hold to the idea that he wasn't killed. I disagree. I don't think the bullet entering his brain was a literal bullet, but I do think it has the potential to be literal, depending on how one interprets the paragraph. For me, the last line in the book, "He loved Big Brother," is the part that that makes me think he was killed mostly because earlier in the book there was a part explaining how it's not beneficial for the Party to kill people who hate Big Brother, because those people would be martyrs. Martyrs make people think--they make people question the events surrounding the death--and the Party can't have that. They can't have the other people looking up to, emulating, or fighting for the same reasons as the martyrs . . . and so the Party detains the prisoners for the extent that is necessary until the prisoner is broken. Once they love Big Brother then they are no longer a threat to the established order and can be disposed of. Once Winston truly loved Big Brother, they killed him.
I would not change a word of this eloquently written masterpiece. The beautiful and twisted description of love is enticing and thought provoking. George Orwell put so much of himself and his emotions into this book that it’s almost an autobiography. He let out his repressed sexual feelings through Winston and Julia. Orwell showed us his true self and it helped him create one of the most memorable and talked about book in history.
Bullets
Gin
Twisted Love
Class reflection
Throughout the semester I have learned numerous skills that will come in handy in college. One of the most important things I learned is how to write a précis. A précis is a summary or abstract of a text or speech. We wrote a total of 4 précises and I believe that my summarization skills have greatly improved because of the four sentence limit. I will definitely be ahead in my freshman literature class in college because of my précis skills. Media literacy also taught me not to believe all the information the government lets out. Propaganda is the government’s favorite and most useful tool that they use to control our minds. The government created the NSA to spy on our lives and used the Patriot Act to justify their actions. They want us to believe that the reason they are tapping into our phone calls and watching us through our webcams is to prevent a terrorist attack.
My favorite activity was analyzing the poem, “Flirtation” by Rita Dove. Analyzing the hidden meanings of the poem intrigued my mind and forced me to make connections between two objects. Macbeth was the most interesting literature that I have ever read. The writing style and the allusions in that play forces the reader to think deeper than the written words. In class, we tried to find all the connections that Shakespeare wrote in the play. Watching the movie also helped visualize the events in Macbeth. The madness of Macbeth and the use of karma were excellently portrayed in the movie and I believe that the movie did a great job of portraying the elements of the book to students.
One thing I would change about this class is to reduce the amount of electronic assignments that students have to complete mostly because schoology is not user friendly to students or teachers. The main problem is that neither the students nor the teachers know how to use the website properly. The teachers have not been properly trained on the usage of the website and when they barely know how to use the website, they can’t teach their kids properly on how to use the website. Computer malfunction also contributes to the many obstacles that students face when they try to submit an assignment. Even for teachers, when they go to check student’s assignments, they are flustered with all types of notifications and files.