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.