What is taking over our lives?
Media and Media Literacy
Media gives people a larger connection to the world and to each other. It also has a great influence on what we today feel is acceptable and appropriate. Radio, Internet, television, magazines, and newspapers are all forms of media- some more easily accessed than others. Social media has taken the world by storm by connecting people all over the world in the click of a button. It has become so easily accessed that many could not even imagine their life without it. Websites such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter have given a whole new meaning to staying in touch. These social media sites have connected us to people that we may only see once every ten years or have never even met face-to-face. The need to communicate by phone or in person has decreased with the coming of social media.
To be media literate is to be able to analyze, evaluate, and access media in a way to make it useful. Both companies that use the media for advertisement as well as musicians trying to grow their fan base would greatly benefit from being media literate. Most young ones in this day in age are completely capable of using media to their advantage. The average person uses it only for entertainment and is not truly media literate. People are quick to believe what websites have to say on a manner simply because they are too in a rush to think for themselves. However, it is unwise to trust everything you see on television or read on the Internet. It is easy to be deceived by the media so it is important for everybody to become media literate.
life in motion
Media
Overwhelmed
In Volkswagen’s commercial ‘Wings’ (2014), they are creative in the way that they portray “the power of German engineering”. Volkswagen uses the father’s imagination to show that their cars hit 100,000 miles very often. Using humor and some good editing Volkswagen makes an entertaining commercial to state that they have “more vehicles on the road with over 100,000 miles than any other brand”. It is obvious that this commercial is family oriented, because it starts off with the father trying to make his daughter believe that hitting this many miles is a big deal and it ends with the daughter adding her own piece of imagination.
Independent
Satirical News Article
Gwinnett County School’s Finally Make a Good Decision
By Marissa Tedone
GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. – Social media is everywhere. Everywhere except Gwinnett County. Gwinnett likes to do their own thing so they have been holding back on allowing official Twitter and Facebook use for police or any other function.
The recent snow that shut down the whole state of Georgia may have a little bit to do with their sudden change of mind.
Getting breaking information from social media is life. Gwinnett County is basically not agreeing with life.
“I just love, love, love to get all this information from it,” Gwinnett resident Michael Sanchez said.
If you live in Gwinnett, you best believe the county has so far refused to join the crowd. They claim there are legal and safety concerns.
“What can I say? We hate to make things easy for the people of Gwinnett. Oh and we’re conservative,” Gwinnett County Commission Chairwoman Charlotte Nash said.
Normal metro Atlanta police departments, cities and other agencies use social media every single second of the day to get their messages out.
On Tuesday afternoon Marietta and Snellville police got all smart and stuff and asked for social media help to find missing persons.
The hip ‘n’ happenin’ Atlanta police department tweeted out the location of a few wrecks and traffic spots.
During recent storms several agencies decided they wanted their people to stay alive so they used social media for road and safety information.
Gwinnett officials are showing up a little late to the social media party. They are now considering using Twitter and Facebook for emergency situations. Finally.
“It takes a beating on the head for us to realize that we need to change our thinking,” Nash told Thomas.
In all of Gwinnett County’s four-and-a-half years of having a Twitter, they have one tweet.
Let’s get it together, Gwinnett, shall we?
1984
During the reading of George Orwell’s 1984, there were points of interest and there were many times when it was hard to continue reading. The overall theme of this novel was interesting in that it connects to today’s world where we see an increase of technological power. Orwell did a great job setting up relationships in this book, not only with Wilson and Julia, but also with Mr. Charrington and O’Brien. Orwell showed that you can never trust people in times of hardship, because they will always turn on you. Part 3 of 1984 was definitely the most interest arousing. Orwell really makes you feel deep sympathy for Winston as he is being forced to fight against himself to be “made sane”. The ending of the book holds onto your emotional appeal and brings it to a bittersweet close.
Reflection
In this year’s Media Literacy class I learned quite a few important things about the society we are living in today. Social Media has taken the world by storm. It affects all of our lives in both positive and negative ways. It is important to be aware of how social media sites work for and against us to be sure not to fall into some of its sly traps. Whether it be through attention grabbing television commercials, influential Facebook posts, or satirical newspaper articles, companies and people alike will try to wrap you around their finger. As we read George Orwell’s novel 1984 about a dystopian future where technology is in a high position of power, I started to see just how far media can reach. Orwell wrote of these telescreens that were placed in every public area and in all homes and watched the citizen’s every move. Similarly, today, we have security cameras as well as cameras on personal phones and computers that can watch and track our every move. It was scary to read 1984 because our technology has the ability to reach the point of power that Orwell had imagined. Countries such as Russia, China, and North Korea have already taken its citizen’s freedoms by censoring what they can view on the web. We can only hope that the American government will hold onto its belief of freedom and not reach that point.
This Language Arts class was not like my past three years of Language Arts in that there was a lot more discussing and online work. I personally like this approach better, because it is more like college courses and I feel like it prepared me well for that. The only problem with online instruction is miscommunication. There needs to be spoken clarification in order to stop confusion.