# 1 I would love to become a bad ass journalist. Value Messages have changed.
The world needs more journalist like Amy Goodman. I typed into Google "women in journalism" and read about women like Nellie Bly who documented a trip around the world, and faked insanity to understand what it was like to be in a insane asylum in 1887. Ida Tarbell who was a pioneer of "muckrackers" journalism with her contribution to publications like Mclure's Magazine. She wrote a book in 1904 titled The History of the Standard Oil Company. The book continued on to the Top 100 Works of the Twentieth Century in American Journalism. I would love to be surrounded by these women of history today. I also read about Sarah Josepha Hale and she topped it off by writing "Mary Had A Little Lamb". The perfect tid bit to know for cocktail conversation? I found that funny to think I never would have known that, had I not learned through this class the importance of a media education and resources to give myself a voice in this reality constructed web 2.0 world. In relation to the readings we did over the semester, page 70-71 of Feed, by M.T. Anderson is when they get hooked up back to the feed again while in the hospital. "It came down on us like water. It came down like frickin' spring rains, and we were dancing in it" Everyone respectively starts scanning all their favorite material things. The rain should be more of an individualized education to become a positive human. In Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves To Death, he discusses early on the medium is the metaphor. We create what we are, now more than ever knowledge is power.
#2 I have become mindful of distractions in my life. Pacing is slowing us down.
After having watched films like the "Persuaders" and reading articles like "Is Google Making Us Stupid" I have been looking around society and feel like I'm witnessing people deteriorate in personal fitness and health. Harsh it sounds, I'm no angel, but with the abundance of "infotainment" available to us over almost any virtual platform we are spending more time sitting and less time moving. Endorphins are really good for you, and so is exercise. I learned it beneficial for personal happiness to stay committed to a work out as part of my lifestyle. Reminding myself how important it is to disconnect. "Americans have about 7 hours of "leisure" time per day, more than 41/2 hours of that is spent with mass media" The first part of Feed when they go to the moon because they are bored. "but the moon turned out to completely suck." They live in a world full of distractions from maintaining their bodies and cultivating their minds with beneficial brain food.
#3 We Live in a denial rich country. Let's be honest about the situation here. What is Actually going on? The media use diversion and denial as persuasive techniques.
In relation to our media readings over the semester in Media and Society "Mass Media messages, however, do not allow for the intimate interaction of sender and receiver that characterizes personal communication. Audiences, therefore, must rely on other resources to make sense of media messages. "(pg.24) I love how Postman quotes "Most Americans, including preachers, have difficulty accepting the truth, if they think about it at all."(Pg 116) It is important to be mindful of what you are observing with your eye, and changing perspective to work on understanding of how we all interact.
#4 The visuals we see daily have aesthetically shifted from discrete to convergence. Make Art. With Paint.
We have seen over the last decades, I think a shift in the images we are exposed to, which we have little control over in such a demanding tech savvy time. Especially with the web expanding my the minute. All of the companies need to make money and advertising is the source of their revenue. Individual meaning has been stripped clean as we are screening images of people we know nothing about. These companies have one shot to make millions and get millions of people to conform to buying their product or service. Media and Society "Advertisers are doing the most important buying, the principal "products" being sold are the audiences, not the newspapers, magazines, or programs produced by media organizations." (Pg.64)
#5 Our words have changed. We are communicating using less words, and less time actively engaging our mind.
Not only that the language that we are hearing is completely counter productive. Example- don't say-indicate. answer-respond. issue idea. advice-recommendation. tell-advise. decide-determine. read-review. solved-moved forward. Some of those words all together in a certain order almost make it seem like you ended up right back where you started. Media and Society "ownership of media has become so concentrated, that by 2000 only six multinational conglomerates dominated the mass media industry." (pg..34) Another example we all explored as a class was the use of the language in the book Feed. Which a team posted on our class blog. Media Society also suggests that if we create diverse ownership we will diverse language as well.
#6 The media use fear and defensive techniques. I'm the only thing I'm afraid of.
I have noticed how the media can glamorize recruiting commercials. Another example of how the media can do this is the Dove Real Beauty Campaign. The readings from class on page 114 of Media and Society "The experience in Vietnam led the military to take the offensive on two separate fronts. First, it developed a massive public relations machine to project a more positive image of the military. Second, the military began developing a strategy for controlling the dissemination of information through the media to the public. " I looked no further than my Censored 2010 book, I wonder how many Americans now that there have been more than 1 million people killed in Iraq. (pg. 121)
#7 Production techniques are at an all time high. Images are often distorted.
Media and Society on page 189 notices "one underlying frame of reference that defines America by its combination of consumer capitalism and political freedom." Postman brings up the fluff of news media. "Everything about a news show tells us this-the good looks and amiability of the cast, their pleasant banter, the exciting music that opens and closes the show, the vivid film footage, the attractive commercials..." (Pg. 87) I love the Dove commercial below, it demonstrates how simple it is to distort images.
# 8 Commercials on TV are mostly subjective to either sex. Rarely do we see objective commercials. Discursive Shift
This could be the easiest way for the big companies to reduce cost and increase revenues, by making it so obvious who their products are for. The advertisements have also crept into every corner of our lives including the doctors office. Mentioned in Media and Society on page 71 "Rather than directly determining news content, advertising is a force that provides both incentives and constraints that influence the news in a generally predictable way." Postman on page 126 "By bringing together in compact form all of the arts of show business-music, drama, imagery, humor, celebrity-the television commercial has mounted the most serious assault on capitalist ideology since the publication of Das Kapital."
#9 I have learned the resources to expand my investigative research methods.
From the Censored 2010, Chapter 12 talks about "research for independent media and human betterment." (pg. 317) Our A.C.M.E. guide reiterates a Media Education: an educational approach that seeks to give media users greater freedom and choice by teaching them to access, analyze, evaluate and produce media. ACME-style media education emphasizes knowledge, skills, and activism. These two texts show how important it is for students to be aware of where their news is coming from and question ownership.
#10 The cultural shift of web 2.0 is occurring right before my eyes.
Postman 163 "but they did not know what they were laughing about and why they had stopped thinking."
Feed 299 "Everything must go." I am aware of myself and others emotions, responsibilities, thoughts and actions. I feel empowered to empower others with opportunity to share brain food and be an activist for positive change.
