Fake News

Citizen Journalism is when a members of the public play an active role in collecting, reporting, analyzing and disperse news and information to the rest of the public. I feel that citizen journalism is a movement.

This movement has been developed over time and it’s now explosive with outlets on the web such as Twitter, Youtube and the many blogs that are self run by an individual. Not all of these outlets are used for telling breaking news stories or information that applies to the general public, they have have something different and sometimes insightful.

I feel that this is important because it gives journalism a third dimension. People are stepping out of the boundaries of only letting professionals telling the news stories and providing the public with information, their taking the matters into their own hands. This is can provide the public with a fresh new out look on an old topic, or give them something new that they would never suspect from a conventional news source.

“John Seely Brown, chief scientist of Xerox Corp., further elaborates on participatory journalism in the book The Elements of Journalism: ‘In an era when anyone can be a reporter or commentator on the Web, ‘you move to a two-way journalism.’ The journalist becomes a ‘forum leader,’ or a mediator rather than simply a teacher or lecturer. The audience becomes not consumers, but ‘pro-sumers,’ a hybrid of consumer and producer.’ ”(Browman, and Willis)

I completely agree with this statement. The audience is now the ‘prosumer’. This means that the audience is an active part of the new movement and they are becoming the ones who have the information that other people want to read.

I think that this has become a popular way of gaining news information, because its new to the public. I know that when I’m looking at news or information I want the subject to be different then it would be conventionally, and I want it to be delivered in a more appealing way then just in a newspaper. I think that the public feels the same way.

Work Cited

Browman, Shayne, and Chris Willis. "We Media ." Hypergene. July 2003. The Media Center, Web. 7 Oct 2009. <http://www.hypergene.net/wemedia/download/we_media.pdf>.

Theory/Praxis

“[T]he media environment, which consists of language, numbers, images, holograms, and all of the other symbols, techniques, and machinery that make us what we are.” (Postman)

Media literacy, is what we do with these aspects of the media environment. It’s how we analyze and evaluate. While at the same time we are creating messages in a variety of media modes, genres and forms that we see. Seminotics, forces us to consider what’s happening and this is how we analyze and evaluate what it is that were looking at.

I’m faced by this everyday. I’m constantly near new and different types of media. From advertisements on the sides of buses, to webpages that I learn about while in class. As a person I have to analyze. I analyze by asking my self internal questions. What am I looking at? Is it a product? An idea? Where is does this fit into my life? After asking my selves these questions I answer them and try to comprehend and evaluate what they mean to me. What this all means to me, and how its effecting me on a personal level.

After this is done I put that information to use, if it’s a specific product I may go out and try it and if I find it was worth my while I’ll share this experience with the people I know. From there the whole cycle begins with the next person.

Work Cited

Postman, Neil. "The Humanism of Media Ecology." Media Ecology Association. 17 June 2000. Fordham University, Web. 5 Oct 2009. <http://www.media-ecology.org/publications/MEA_proceedings/v1/humanism_of_media_ecology.html>.

Decoding/Deconstructing Advertising

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqflNCQmHi4&feature=player_embedded

Hair Bath by Diesel

Summary of the commercial: In ad there is a women who is naked in a bath tub filled with hair. The hair swallows her body, leaving her legs,arms and head exposed. In the commercial she is opening letters and talking to her audience about the letters she has received. These letters are from people who are writing to her about their hair and how they feel about it. Each letter includes a snip-it of that persons hair. Once the hair is added to her bath tub she talks about how she loves to collect hair, and then she encourages the viewers to send in their hair. The ad ends with a thank you message and an address where you can send you hair. After that 4 is shown in roman numerals and then diesel.com is underneath.

What I see from this commercial in a broad sense, is a women with a seductive attitude in a bath tub full of hair. Her voice sounds seductive, but at the same time creepy, which is amplified by the music that plays in the background, and the black and white film that is used. The setting for the film is plain and I feel that this is to make the viewer pay closer attention to the girl.

By the end of the commercial I was left a bit confused not knowing what the commercial was trying to sell to the audience. I also didn’t understand what the commercial had to do with the diesel clothing line.

When I looked at what the commercial was trying to represent to the public, I noticed that she is promoting us to send her pieces of our hair. I feel that the hair is to represents pieces of the audiences self, and by send pieces of our selves to the company (diesel) we are feeding into the franchise.

The company has also decided to use a woman for this ad. This changes the type of impact that the commercial will have on the audience. This impact is also different depending on if the viewer is male or female. I know that the when a women is placed in the media there are different meaning then men. This is because when women are placed in the media, her presence is “manifested in her gestures, voice, opinions, expression, clothes, chosen surroundings, taste” (Berger 40) and this is what the audience focuses on. Because, the audience is focusing on this were transfixed on her and we pay more attention to what she’s saying. I know that when I watched it I was sucked in by this and I felt that she was selling her self to the audience more then the idea of sending her my hair in the mail. I feel that this ad is geared towards guys more because of the sexual nature of the commercial.

Work Cited

Berger, John. Ways of Seeing. London, England: Penguin Books, 1972. Print.

Mass Media

Mass media is a section of the media that is indented for a mass audience. I think that mass media is like a giant message, as like all media, that is sent out into the world. This message usually has great significance.

As Mc Luhan said “Effective study of the media deals not only with the content of the media but with the media themselves and the total cultural environment within which the media function” (“Playboy”) I feel that what Mc Luhan is trying to say here is, that media is not only about the content, it’s also about the media as a whole and the cultural impact it has on people, who the media control. This statement describes the way I see the media.

The media controls us, and we fall for it every time. We feed into these sometimes false ideas and I feel that the whole media spectrum is surrounded by a money hungry society. Everyone feeds into it. I know I do and I enjoy it to. I don’t think that there’s anything wrong with this. It’s not like all media is controlling us in a bad way, some even inspire us to do better in our lives.

As a media studies student, I’m currently in between positions in the media. I’m the sender. I send out media into the world for those to speculate. I’m also the receiver, because I’m a student I’m constantly leaning about the different aspects of media, and for my classes I have to keep in touch with the media.

Work Cited

"The Playboy Interview: Marshall McLuhan." Playboy March 1969.: n. pag. Web. 7 Oct 2009. <http://heim.ifi.uio.no/~gisle/links/mcluhan/pb.html>.

The Ecology of Media

The cellular phone is a technology which has taken over most of our lives. It doesn’t matter if your a highly respected business executive or your a kid in middle school, chances are that you own and use a cell phone throughout the day. I think that main intention of a cellular phone was a means of quick communication when a landline was not available for use. Mc Luhan explain the telephone as “The telephone, which gives the ear relatively little data, is thus cool, as is speech; both demand considerable filling in by the listener.”("Playboy ") as he explained that a cool media includes. Which, a cool media means that it is an inclusive media. This is good for our society, yet I feel that since the cellular phone has progressed, the cell phone is a bit too inclusive. I feel that people rely on this form of technology a bit too much then what was intended of the technology when it was first produced.

As the cellular phone progressed, so did its importance in peoples life. The purpose is now different from the function that it serves to those who use them. The function of the cell phone is much more then verbal communication. It has extended it’s function, and people now use it to send out print such as text messages, e-mails. It also allows people to now go beyond the basic function of communication and is now a source of information and social networking. these types of media can also be looked at as a new form of print media which Mc Luhan is a supporter of the print media, however I fell that this form

The telephone is a piece of technology that our society barely uses any more of a way of communication. Since the cell phone was introduced it has had a cultural impact on society. “By the end of 2008, there were over three times more mobile cellular subscriptions than fixed telephone lines.”(Sami Al Basheer)

To me this means that even though this technology is useful to many, the basic form of inclusive media is becoming a little too much inclusive and where missing out on the basic inclusiveness through the verbal language in which it was intended to be when the telephone was developed.

Work Cited

"The Playboy Interview: Marshall McLuhan." Playboy March 1969.: n. pag. Web. 7 Oct 2009. <http://heim.ifi.uio.no/~gisle/links/mcluhan/pb.html>.

Sami Al Basheer, Sami Al Basheer. "Measuring the Information Society." International Telecommunications Unit. 2009. International Telecommunications Unit, Web. 7 Oct 2009.

<http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/publications/idi/2009/material/IDI2009_w5.pdf>.

Academic Blogging

Blogging for most can be a tedious, and at times complicated task. The process of setting up a blog isn’t complicated. There are many different domains to choose from, however the hard part is maintaing your blog.

Over the past years I’ve felt the same way. I’ve started blogs and then fail to keep up with them because I’m much to busy with everything else going on in my life. Once I realize that I’ve neglected my blog, I feel the need to go on a blog binge while eventually I’ll fall into old habits. For those times when I’m blog bingeing. I feel like I’ve accomplished something bigger then what I would have by being caught up in my daily life. I’m sending a message out to the world, and that counts for something.

The idea of having a blog for Mass Communications is insightful. I feel that were sending out messages to the world wide web that many don’t (but in my opinion should) discuss online. By being a part of this blog I’m contributing my input and allow my voice to be heard.