Where role has this cluster left me in?

I use to be "anti-politics" because I am uniformed. I had generalized this to other ideas in society. I had an open mind and accepted differneces, but I did not seek them out if they were not in front of me. Now, I want to seek out differences, I don't want to poin them out, but I want to take on the responsibility of the knowledge of them. I don't want to have the responsibility to act because I am part of the majority and I have the power. I want to earn this power through the acquizition of knowledge. Perviously, I was not a large consumer of media, like politics because I felt everything was biased and controlled by those in power. I still think that, but I have gained the skills to filter through the media and use it to come to my own conclusions, instead of being given the conclusion. If I so desired, I could use this power, not because of how I am grouped in society's eyes, but because I seek it out as being part of a democracy, ato tell my own conclusions and ideas to consumers of the media.

A Few Objective Men

Lippmann believes that the power of media should be held in the hands a few educated men. He felt that our society had grown too big to include everyone’s voice within the democracy in where he did “not to burden every citizen with expert opinions on all questions, but to push that burden away from him toward the responsible administrator.” Therefore, society should teach a few to represent the whole and teach objectivism to avoid the creating of stereotypes and discrimination. Lippmann says, “When men act on the principle of intelligence they go out to find the facts and to make their wisdom. When they ignore it, they go inside themselves and find only what is there. They elaborate their prejudice, instead of increasing their knowledge.” If you look at the philosophies of Mills, you would also see that is psychological theories include that the mind contributes to what ideas are held based on what information is presented to it. However, I think, as the father of agenda-setting, Lippmann forgets about the consumers of media. The gatekeepers can be trained to represent the majority; however, the few in power don’t have the ability to control the conclusions of all who consume media. According to selective perception, people seek out to interpret what they see in ways that would agree with what they already believe. I think even if media accurately represented our public, I don’t think its message and conclusions would accurately be drawn due to the simple fact of individual differences. I would, in this case, side with Dewey in that I think discussion and participation of media would be ideal, rather than being simply a consumer of what the few individuals representing the voice of “democracy” have to say.
We must acknowledge Lippmann's ability to realize man's ability to notice differences and be susceptible to propaganda and what we call stereotypes. Through selective exposure, one can shape how another thinks. He set the foundations of how he proposed we, as a whole, should handle media. However, I think we simply just need to start somewhere, and build on that with critical thinking and continued discussion of the foundations to match the changing world we live in.

Confidence

Confidence: The Story of Judge George "Tookie" James

A story of the life of a honorable man, in the courtroom, in the community, and in the home, who has lived, and continues to live a rich life we all can be touched by. Even through hardships and bad times, times of happiness and success, and even through the differences in our outer epidermis, we can have the confidence that our Lord has a plan for our lives. Things happen for a reason, and even if we don't know why at the time, our eyes will be opened to his plan.

Come here the story of the first African American judge in Beaver county, a Westminster alum, as well as a member of our local community. Don't miss an opportunity to take just a few seconds out of your life for such a rich experience.

This Thursday, May 3rd, during the lunch period in Mueller Theater.

I encourage you to be a active member of our community here at Westminster, as well as challenge the pictures in your head and question what you know as truth, as well as to explore what you don't know.

UPDATE

We are currently in the editing stage of our documentary. I have been learning a lot about editing from working with Thomas. I think we will end up with more than we need, but the hard part is picking and choosing what we think should be part of the film, and what our star of the show wanted to include. Another aspect we are struggling with is making sure the right messages get to the audience. There are many aspects of the story to be told, but we must choose which ones will make the most impact.

The Illusion will always be an illusion until someone proves it to be truth

I watched a night of prime time television this past Sunday night, and there was nothing I found interesting on. I pretty much watched NBC since ABC had reality TV that I wasn’t really in the mood for. From 8-9pm, I did the channel flip thing, watching a few programs at once, but nothing in particular. From 9-10pm, I watched "Cold Case", and after that, "Gone Without a Trace". I didn’t feel like I could agree with Meyrowitz on this particular night because I wasn’t really exposed to anything new. Cold Case did have flash-backs of suffragettes and how women fought for rights and the 19th amendment, but I could also look that up in a history book. Last night, during "CSI: Miami", I was exposed to Native American culture. It would have been beneficial if I hadn’t been exposed to it before, but what was portrayed was more a Native American political/business life, and, not that I am an expert, but there is a reservation near my parents home and one of our rivals in high school was a school on the reservation. I think in this case, my personal experience was more important than what I saw on television.

I think I would agree with Meyrowitz that this electronic era had affected the family unit. The parents are some what losing "authority" over what their children are exposed to. For instance, over Easter break, I was sent to the video store to get some movies. My nieces were going to be viewers so they sent me with title requests and my sister warned me to get "child appropriate" movies. "Accepted" was requested, and I even called to double check with my sister on the rating of PG-13 since I thought this would be on the boarder-line of what was allowed. It was okayed, but when I brought it home, my sister was surprised that it was PG-13. They are from Canada and the rating was only PG. Apparently, the US makes more liberal films, or has a higher standard of its rating system. Furthermore, I think television helps children become exposed to diversity more than young adults. I acted as a gate-keeper this weekend, and watched "Fresh Prince" and "The Andy Griffith Show" with them. They hadn't seen either, but I was questioned why I would want to watch televison in black and white. They might have sat through those shows because I picked them, and if I would have worn hot pink all day they would have too, but they still choose to watch "Deal or No Deal" for the rest of the evening. My poor dad had never seen the show before and he could just not understand why someone would want to pick the suitcases with the least amount of money in them. Of course, in his defense, he only saw a few minutes of the show here and there.

Getting back on topic, I would agree with what Baudrillard has to say about his theory about hyperreality. He says, "simulation becomes our perception of reality", and I think too often, what we see on television becomes our reality. I think his analogy of gambling works well. A moderate gambler can say no and stop whenever he or she wants, and so could a media consumer. However, in this day and age, how many people do you know that are just "average" media consumers. I think this is where the argument of Dewey comes in. The purpose of media should not be to simply inform the public, but become a discussion forum for what is going on in the world. If, as consumers, we question what we learn like students consuming knowledge, we find our way to the truth. I think too often we accept what we see as the truth without questioning it, in all aspects of our lives. People use the excuse that they are too busy to learn about a different culture, a new place, or become exposed to something outside of his or her comfort zone. Therefore, they use media as a tool, but don't check their sources. It is like using a book in a research paper written by my niece on Edgar Allen Poe. She doesn't have a clue of who she is, but could sound very intelligent on the topic if she wanted. If know one put the effort to understand that she was 12, they might accept her words as truth.

When Baudrililard refers to America as, "the only remaining primitive society," I can understand his point, but can't fully accept the statement either. I agree with Meyrowitz to a point, that media informs the mass, but I think the mass takes it too far and becomes lazy, including myself, and accepts it at face value. Media is a good tool, but it has to be used correctly to be useful.

My job as a media consumer is reflected in the ratings

At one point in my life I always managed to make it back to my room to watch my weekly T.V. show. Lately, I have been slacking as a fan, partly because most of my favorite shows have ended for the season, or all together, or I'm just too busy. If you asked me what my favorite show was right now, I would have to say, NBC's ER.

ER has that touch of excitement of someones life is on the line, which is layered with the personal lives of the doctors. Even though I still hold true that the original, as seen in "where are they now" is always best, the current season is still good. Out of 15,411 shows, its popularity contest ranks it at 20, and its rating rank is 355. Overall, viewers rate it to be an 8.9 on a ten point scale.

I think the show's popularity competes the most with Grey's Anatomy. It seems like everyone is watching it, and then calling other friends to discuss what just happened, and forget all about the big ending to the night. I think the night works for it, but the time does not. I am too busy to watch television on the weekends and I'm too tired on Monday night. Between the rest of the days, I would keep it on Thursday because I'm getting excited for the weekend and need some mental relaxation by then. It would also be more likely that I would watch it if it was an hour earlier because I could stay up for it. However, I don't think it could buy that time slot from Grey's.

The nearest city to my home is Buffalo. According to the Nielsen ratings, it is rated as 49, with 639,990 TV homes, making up .575 % of the US. ER did not make the top ten, but Grey's did with a rating of 14.4, or 15,869,800 TV households. I think for the remainder of this season, Grey's will win out. My suggestion for ER would be to bring some of the original cast back for next season.

You think you have the power of equality

Why are we attracted to things we are denied? Its an unconsious thirst to have what we know we can't because its exciting and to arouse our emotional self is invigorating. In a storyline by New Line Entertainment, a young englishmen goes to Sarawak to become part of the colonial government trying to educate and control the native village. In The Sleeping Dictionary (2003), the young man falls in love with a his sleeping dictionary, but it is a forbidden circumstance for them to have a relationship beyond that.
It brings many themes of real life down to a personal level for the viewer. For example, with myself, I don't necessarily thing everyday that I will be denied something because of my status as a women, ocupation, or culture. However, the englishmen has authority in this community over all the Iban people. There is only one other englishman over him that has been stationed in the field for many years. But, according to Iban culture and the rules of the english, it has never worked for an Iban to marry a englishmen.
The movie incorporates the seriousness of life and the realities of dissapointment and sprinkles light notes in between. When your invitation for dinner is, "If you're about to be killed at least stay for dinner," I would reconsider where my behaviors and actions were leading me. The discrimination and subordination of the Iban women, especially when a English women wants to take her picture, she says nothing to her about not wanting her picture taken. She is an Iban women who should respect the English, but not receive any respect. On the English women's side, she doesn't mean to be disrespectful, but she is uninformed about the Iban culture and takes no initiative to interact with them beyond systematically recording evidence of their existence.
I would watch this movie over and over again because I think it is a little different from the cookie-cutter movies that we see today. How often do we see the same story played out but with different character's in a different setting. Of course The Sleeping Dictionary can be coined as a traditional love story, but the underlying themes that request your attention makes the experience worth while.
To address the question of how the web is changing the role of the movie and movie critic, I would agree that he or she is being empowered. The viewer no longer needs to go to the theater or even down the road to rent a movie. It can be ordered, or even viewed online. There are also numerous outlets for publication on the web for critics to express their opinion, as I am currently doing. Viewers won't watch what they don't like. Therefore, based on the ideas of marketing, and even the psychological theories of positive reinforcement based on a system of financial rewards, producers won't market movies that don't make money. Furthermore, I contemplate whether the world wide web as a free outlet of expression and communication would be infected with more charges and bills because producers are losing money in the theaters.

Who is that person, who am I?

Do we, in today's society, understand how influential our decisions our on our life? The average person watches over 2 hours of television a day. What if individuals chose quality media to consume instead of mindless entertainment in those few hours everyday?
One of my day's choices would include the move Crash. It makes you re-evaluate your definition and identification with a specific group. The movie's website even has a mini emotional experience study to make a bigger point in that individuals interpret other's reactions in a unique way everyday. Lippmann also says, "we cannot fully understand the acts of other people, until we know what they think they know." A tag line the producers is "You think you know who you are. You have no idea." I think this fits the movie well.
Racism is a key theme in the film. It is constructed of multiple layers of stories that seem to come full circle by the end as they slowly become involved in each other. I think, for myself, I came to the conclusion that stereotypes are created out of fear rather than dislike. The younger officer actually was an advocate for the equal treatment of black citizens. However, out of fear, he passes final judgement on a character at the end of the movie based on the color of his skin. The director's character, Cameron, overdid it with accepting that he was black when he stood up to the police after he seemed to steal his own car. After the episode, he said to the carjacker in his car, Anthony, "Look at me. You embarrass me. You embarrass yourself." Anthony was fulfilling that stereotype that others created of young black men.
I think by association with other movies, characters come with a stereotyped emotional response if a viewer has already seem them in another movie. For example, I had seen Hotel Rwanda and felt like I should pay attention and have more apathy towards Don Cheadle. This preconceived concept on my part worked alright, but then I had also seen Mummy with Brenden Frasier. In that movie he seemed to have a more lovable role which conflicted with is role in Crash. I'm unsure of how to go about fixing this, but for me it seemed to have a negative effect on my viewing of it.
Overall, I would re-watch the movie, which speaks highly of a movie for me. I don't know if I would go so far as to buying it, but I would definitely rent it again and choose it when my friends were trying to decide what movie to watch on a Saturday night.

The riches of the mind don't always match the pocketbook

I would like to correct an error I made in the previous post. RCA is not paying anything to Farnsworth's family in terms of license fees. The court forced them to give him a one time sum but nothing further. I think RCA should be ashamed for the corporation's behavior. They represent a large portion of technology in today's society, yet they are willing to stand behind this decision. I think, if they are worried about how their company looks to the public, they would benifit more if they took steps to attemp to reconcile this injustice with Farnsworth's family.

More info on Farnsworth:
http://philotfarnsworth.com

An American Dreamer vs. the World

Was it a Russian scientist or a Mormon farmer's son? Majority would guess that the individual with the doctorate would be the inventor of the television, not Philo T Farnsworth. Today RCA is paying royalties to the family of the little Idaho farmer who begain his sketching at the young age of 14.

Today's world is filled with discrimination. Just like the gatekeepers of media control what the public sees, as the public dictates what they want to see, that same public gives publicity to whoever they choose. The majority seems to always win. Who will choose the poor white man trying to make a living for his family? Who will give credit to the young kid over the wise man? Those in power, the gatekeepers, create a status hierarchy that Farnsworth was not at the top of. As we learn from sociology, those in power stay in power using oppression and subordination.

Farnsworth was a genius. He started with drawing and then decided to become an experimentor. His ability to excel in Physics and chemistry allowed the beinging of the televison to flicker in a lab with a single flash of light with the movement of electrons. However, after all this work, Sarnoff, the head of RCA took the credit for his invention. Farnsworth won the fight with RCA for the patent, but not the recognition. The individual in power keeps the member of the submissive class in check and didn't give it a second thought.

Too often in this world do we see another being discriminated against and we sit by and do nothing. To stand out away from the majority is a big task to overcome and many find it easier to be passive than proud. However, Farnsworth had the courage to be one man against a gigantic corporation. But he doesn't win the recognition for his invention. The majority does not let him because media had spoon fed them the information that Sarnoff is the inventor of electric television. Just like women not having equal rights as men, blacks the same as whites, young versus old, the minority is the outgroup. It is the outgroup that faces discrimination.

In an interview with "Pem" Farnsworth, she talks about her husbands life. As his partner by his side in the lab for 15 years, she wrote the book, Distant Vision, to capture his brillance. A genius until his death last year, he didn't even live to see a pocket calculator. His story is now being told through media again, but giving him the recognition he deserves. The American dream is to be free, have the opportunities to succeed at life, and watch a game of baseball. Is it too much to ask to allow the dreamer to win an inning or two?

Don't give the power to the soil

After being told that her book wasn't worth publishing and struggling for her voice to be heard, Toni Morrison's words entered the realm of literature. She wrote to give courage to black females and give them a story of her own childhood to relate to. She told a tale of idea of beauty, of culture, and an individual's struggle of embracing herself, or the lack of.

The Bluest Eye was finally published in 1970 by Plume Books and now is a national best seller and an Oprah Book Club book. Toni Morrison also received a Nobel Peace Prize in literature. Her story is of a girl embedded in her juvenile memories. Pecola Breedlove grew up in a household of hate, violence, and abuse. It broke her spirit to trying to obtain the impossible.
What I commend the most within this novel is the ability to see through Claudia's (the narrator) eyes to another time. I was not a daughter of black family growing up in Ohio in the time of the perfect Shirley Temple dolls beautiful white models. However, through Morrison, I saw, if even just a glimpse, of what Pecola struggled with personally. It hurt me to think a girl as young as her could truly, and whole heartedly, desired to, "rise up out of the pit of her blackness and see the world with blue eyes." (pg. 174) as Soaphead Church explained. At one point in her youth, she thought dandelions were pretty and could not understand why others thought of them as weeds. When you outward expression of hatred towards these flowers begain, so did her internal decline of herself. As she saw in movies, only pretty girls had blue eyes and their life was only one to dream of. She, on the other hand, had the worse life a small girl could imagine. she thought if only she had blue eyes would the world see her as beautiful too. The fertility of the soil was mentioned and that merigolds did not grow the season Pecola's baby was to be born. Pecola always felt like she was from bad soil as well and would never grow into a flower.

I think anyone can read this book and be motivated to define who they are rather than be defined by someone else. Especially in today's society, our youth lack the self-exploration that I remember in myself. They are defined even more by what is pretty or where they stand in society. Society sets standards, but there is nothing locking an individual into a poor, or rich for that matter, life. You make of it what you want and you get out what you put in. I wish not to seem to over-look the idea of white privilege and that some individuals recieve "benefits" in society, but how will we ever change this if we don't start somewhere now and work towards greater equality? I talk of allowing individuals to establish their own values, or virtues. Morrison says in an interview, "The virtues are things you work for. To be forthright. To be educated. To be in control. To be diplomatic. To be healthy. To be graceful. These are the things you can work for. You can get them. They are available to you."

What is a documentary in today's dictionary?

A documentary should play the role of the mother by the bedside of her child telling of a time when she was young. It should be a medium to tell the story of a specific person or group of people. A mother experienced her own story, and a producer should do the same through those who lived the story. But how does this story evolve into something the public considers a documentary?

When I think of documentary, my first thought goes to the National Geographic shows of foreign lands or people I had never heard of before. I would still include these programs in my definition along with broadcast news stories, the minuteman program, and the Hmong film. I think in these examples, music wasn’t a key point, but it did help convey the emotion the narrator wanted the viewer to experience. However, I feel that reality television is scripted. Yes, it is showing a story of a real life person that has the interest of its viewers, but what is the point of telling this story? Is it something different that a majority of the viewers need to be informed of because they haven’t experienced it?

I think the role of producers is not to use documentaries as a medium of self-expression but as something more powerful. As Patricia Finneran, director of the SilverDocs documentary film festival said, "The role of the artist is often to challenge the status quo and force us to question our understanding of reality. The best result that can come out of the controversy surrounding 'Fahrenheit 9/11' is for all of us to question the intentions and manipulations of not just documentary filmmakers, but all media makers." It's purpose is initiate thought and inform its viewers.

When reading an article by Eugene Hernandez, many influential people, including Morgan Spurlock, Michael Moore, and Bingham Ray, of the field gave their defitintion of a documentary. I disagree with the idea that if it is non-fiction it is a documentary. I don't think Supersize Me or Jackass should be in the same category as National Geographic. These "documentaries" were created with a specific message to tell, not a story with the purpose to inform. I am be unrealistic in that there is no objective point of view in media, but I don't think it should be propaganda.

In today’s world, a critic must take into account the consumers of documentaries. A producer can create a story, but who will watch it? These stories, often human interest, need to take the attention of those who are willing to purchase their work. As you can see, a consumer can bring their documentaries to their home with a small fee to watch clips of foster care, the prison system, and other stories they the majority have never experienced themselves. To me, the purpose of a documentary isn't to make money for a producer, but to give a lounder voice to an indivdual. Gratification theory finds its home here. This is where I find fault in today's definition. I see a documentary being any story that needs to be told, not just a story that the consumers of media find interesting.

To summarize my thoughts, I would lay down a few criteria to meet to establish a film or story becoming a documentary. First, the story must be informing its viewers of something they are unfamiliar with. If they already know Westminster uses an overabundance of salt on their sidewalks, a documentary doesn’t need to be made entitled “The Day in the Life of the Man who salts Our Sidewalks”. The story should be real and told as unbiased as possible. My personal preference would be to allow the individuals own voice be heard and not some directors interpretation. I want to see raw footage and clips and not some magical directors trick that leads me to believe something other than the truth. I can’t control the gatekeepers, but I think there should not be an individual or agency controlling the story in a documentary. I think it is more than non-fiction, but these finer points expressed by this article seem to be in agreement with my developing idea. I agree that in today's world a documentary is a form of journalism, but I hope not in the terms of The Great Moon Hoax of 1835.

What separates you from the moster is the emotion

When flipping through the channels and finding nothing on, I usually settle for FX. In our society today, consumers want something new and emotionally invigorating. It is like a psychological killer. He or she doesn’t have the same emotional reactions to specific situations a normal person would experience. The killer needs stronger stimuli to provoke emotions, and thus kills to feel. I feel like I am that killer searching for something meaningful on television that will provoke some kind of feelings because everything else on TV has been done. I think this was the reason for the birth of reality shows.
FX is a parental unit for just such a show. Morgan Spurlock produces “30 Days,” which incorporates an episode called ‘Immigration’. It is about a legal immigrant who spends his days as a minuteman alongside his wife patrolling the borders of the United States and Mexico. Frank George is from Cuba and is offered the proposition to spend 30 days living with an illegal family in the United States. Viewers are intrigued with the curiosity of Frank’s endeavors with the Gonsolas family. The question is prompted of whether or not, at the end of his stay, Frank will want to deport the family or support their illegal life in the United States.
Frank was an immigrant himself. I was intrigued by the fact that he had such a strong belief and support for America. He was a minuteman to protect the laws that govern the place he lives in. Lippman says, “we pick out what our culture has already defined for us”. I question if Frank whole-heartedly supported American laws, or if he did because that was what, stereotypically, a good citizen would do. As a law-abiding citizen, Frank needed to rid the country of all that was bad to make it a better place to live. Frank gave this warning, “Americans, get up and save this country or they’ll be none”. However, after living with the Gonsolas family, did Frank think America was better with or without these people?
I think the justice that Frank wanted was trying to be obtained through simple stereotypes. Frank was a minuteman to protect his country. However, Lippman says, “If we cannot fully understand the acts of other people until we know what they think they know, then in order to do justice we have to appraise not only the information which has been at their disposal, but the minds through which they have filtered it.” Frank went to Mexico and saw what the family had left behind, and to me, became more human in front of the show’s viewers. Whether it was due to the gatekeepers of reality TV, or the talent of Morgan Spurlock, I felt like Frank was reciprocating real emotions, especially with Armida who believed in the “American Dream”. To understand the means for which Frank attempts justice for his adopted country, you must understand his cognitive constructs about immigration after his 30 day experience in that one bedroom apartment.
As a critic, it touched the heart strings, but it is still the portrayal of the ideas of one man. It may have informed individuals of the struggle from both sides of the border for immigrants, and changed the simple to the more complex, for which I commend the show. It seems that the man that was rejected five times from film school has made a name for himself. However, the purpose of the show was to gain viewers in any way it could. Producers can use agenda setting to bring to light what they think are the worst issues in America. If they can gain viewers successfully because viewers accept and adopt that these issues need the most attention and action from the public, I would feel ashamed to watch another show. I would like the pictures in my head to become more complex, but I would like the power to pick my own pictures to edit.

Are we all prejudiced?

Media influences what individuals think. I can't argue that. My question is how much do I let it influence me. I create concepts of people, places, and things in my head from what the world teaches me about them. However, I have no idea if it is right or wrong unless I see it for myself. Therefore, I have accepted that I, at some point or another, have given birth to stereotypes. Gorham, in Gender, Race, and Media, seemed to calm my anxiety of the stereotype of the negative connotations I have created about being a creator of stereotypes. In a study by Devine (1989), it was concluded that "low-prejudiced people used some type of controlled cognitive processing to suppress the automatically activated stereotype". Even though I may form stereotypes, I may not endorse them. I may have biased knowlege of a group of people, but hopefully I also have the potential ability to surpress biased judgement as well.

Related research by Devine

Stereotypes

I feel that a stereotype is an idea that an individual holds or has created about another group from the information he or she has gathered from the environment that has been experienced. A stereotype could be negative or positive towards a group, but most often the negative is brought to light. Stereotypes can go so far as to create an idea that has no factual basis at all. For example, in Lippman (ch. 10), the idea of distance of the German army being 5,000 miles away. Lippman also says, "In putting together public opinion, not only do we have to picture more space than we can see with our eyes, and more time than we can feel, but we have to describe and judge more people, more actions, more things than we can ever count, or vividly imagine." The media has informed me that Colorado has a big city, Denver, with ski slopes, a college or two, and rolling hills after that. I imagine many people driving SUV's and Jeep's to handle the rough terrain of the state (most likely a schema I have developed from car commercials). However, Lippman instructs that when I form a idea of Colorado, I have to thirst for more information and question what my sources tell me. For all I know Colorado could be a desert if the terrain on the car commericals showed me so. It is easy for a gatekeeper to mold an individual's stereotype on about anything. Lippman explains that if an individual thinks something is true and can find one instance of it, then I, as a consumer of media, could be molded.

Synergy is priming our minds

Making money means selling as much of the product as you can with spending as least as possible to produce it. Synergy is a great money saving tool if you are coupon clipping or money hungry. It seems that any information I seek out through media is tainted by gatekeepers. Therefore, I like to keep my inquisition more to the less objective sources of media and analyze what I see for myself. Movies are produced by numerous companies, and with limited space, I picked a favorite, The Sleeping Dictionary. The company behind this medium is Time Warner. Time Warner is one of the bigger corporations that control the media we view. Because the control books, magazines, music, cable, etc., the corporation has the ability to use one medium to advertise another. For example, previews tell the view of other movies coming out but the viewer doesn't realize by seeing that movie as well, Time Warner is ultimately making more money. By buying Time magazine, we are supporting the same corporation that might have advertisements for the same movie. A cable station, Time Warner is the nation's second largest provider, may have a commercial to again introduce that movie. A article in Lind, by Gorham, introduces a psychological term called priming. Because we see this movie so many times throughout different mediums in the media, there is a good chance that when we go to the theater we may choose the Time Warner movie. This is because the use of synergy has primed our mind and influence our schema of what we look for in a movie, and that their movie looks like a good pick.

Do I create a biased reality for myself?

In this time and age media it self is the gate keeper of the world beyond New Wilmington. An individual can live in the reality that they get from personal experience and interpersonal communication but his or her reality would only exist in the radius of travel limited to the strength of the feet. Reality is much like faith in that it extends further than the eye can see. If falling in to much worn path of media consumption, reality only extends to the specific path you choose. However, critical thought is beneficial in almost every aspect of knowledge. I think learning and knowledge must, on some level, be experienced rather that just lectured on. Mills expresses that media has the power to control what is being communicated and to what extent. To assume the knowledge of reality without analyzing what you interpret from the mass communication available to those who seek it out. This is where understanding media literacy is important. It is where the robot that is created turns on its master as Marshall McLuhan warns that as we create the world of mass communication, mass communication in turn, creates our reality. Our text, according to Hanson, communicates that the big 6 corporations control our media. Most likely an individual wouldn’t listen to just 6 people when deciding to ban tobacco, so why would he or she take as fact what any one form of media has to say?

http://www.turnoffyourtv.com/reviews/problemofmedia/problemofmedia.html

Refection question

I think my favorite form of media would be movies. Even though I don't often have time to use this media, I would miss it if it was gone. Both the theater and DVD rental would be missed. The theater is a generic form of entertainment to have something to do with friends as well as renting a movie. It is cheaper than buying a movie that I would only watch once anyway and if I really like it I will buy it afterwards. I don't like to buy movies in case it is a bad one and I have a tendency to pick the bad ones some times. Movies are a good way to de-stress because you can withdraw from what you are stressing about. They can also make you think which I think is good because it starts good conversations with others as well. In a busy schedule, it also is less time consuming than a book would be and if there were no movies, I would be reading a book. Often, books have a better story and are well work their time, but I just don't have the time these days to finish one. I think the advertising of the two lean me towards movies as well because I know what movies are about from previews. I don't really see advertisments for new books coming out. You can not share a book as easily with a friend either.

media checklist questions

1) I use the cell phone at least once a day, mostly to make "business" calls rather than to chat with friends. I probably call my mom and roomie the most.
2) The last time was probably Mid-Eastern Psych Conference last spring in Chicago. I went to support the WC majors presenting and visit the city.
3) I IM ususally everyday while classes are in session and very rarely the rest of the year. I talk the most to Lindz and Matt.
4) I email at least three times a day.
5) The last time was my first concert last year.
6) The most recent thing was Along Came a Spider because I thought my roomie was missing out because she had never seen it before.
7) I use to record ER in high school.
8) I watch Stomp the Yard in the theater and Desent on DVD.
9) The last radio station I listened to was easy listening/pop today in a van on the way home from a trip to Columbus. It made the most people happy.
10) I don't really have time to read for fun anymore.
11) I don't often read a newspaper, but a friend showed me an article in the local newspaper about three arrests made of three people who robbed her and her neighbors.
12) I don't think I have ever bought a magazine before.
13) I last time I sent a letter was probably in a card I sent to my mom last fall.
14) I visit mapquest.com often because I don't know where any place is in PA. The last time I visited it was last Thursday when apartment shopping.
15) I have a facebook account because my friends make me.

i think i need to catch up with technology

I think I'm still old fashioned and talk to people in person.