Blog #3

Blog #3

            The sentence that stood out to me most was found in chapter 11.  The sentence says, “like fish immersed in water we swim constantly through media, which develop and shape our perceptions, goals, desires, and beliefs.”  This is saying that not only is our media trying to show us what they are buying, but that they are also shaping our mind frames we use in our lives.  It seems to be more common, now and days, for media to be selling a “life style” not just a brand.  It wasn’t until after reading this passage that I realized how this has been going in the world around me. 

            One example of this is Whole Foods.  Originally, Whole Foods was designed to sell organic food.  However, it has become a brand for vegans and ‘hippies’.  Whenever I think of Whole Foods, I think of girls in their mid-twenties, wearing flower headbands, looking for organic fruit.  I realize now that this perception of what I would see when I walk in the store is from what is being advertised to me.  The way how the media presents the idea of Whole Foods and eating organic food has shaped my perception toward hippies. 

            Another example is Nike.  They’re not only selling shoes and sporting clothing, they are selling success.  Their slogan, “just do it,” along with the Nike swoosh is two of the most recognized things across the world.  But it is not just the iconic swoosh that are apart of the success they’re selling.  The faces that are in the advertisement are a huge reason of why people associate it with success.  Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Michael Phelps, and Serena Williams are among the celebrity names.  These are all people who are known for their success in their fields.  When someone watching an advertisement sees Michael Jordan wearing his ‘Air Jordans’ and they see the greatest basketball player of all time.  They then associate the shoes with being the greatest basketball player ever.  He is selling success that you can find in the shoe, not just the actual shoe.  Now youth who are trying to reach their goals of being the best, they associate these shoes with reaching their goals.   

            After reading this passage, my eyes have been opened to this phenomen.  Since reading this I have seen this happen in more than one advertisement.  The media has a lot of access in shaping how we see the world around us. 

Blog Post 3

Natalie Cotelos

Blog Post 3

The thing that stuck out the most to me this previous month was the Poetry Bombing clip we watched in class. The metaphor behind the "bombings" struck a chord with me. I am a very open minded person, I don't have hate towards any group, type of person, or anything, so for me, to live in a world where I constantly have this fear of being attacked for no reason in the back of my mind is absolutely insane. The number one concern for young people in our society is the fear of terrorism, (I think it was this class that we discussed this) and it honestly makes me a little afraid to travel, gather in large spaces, ect. I still do these things, but when I'm out, I can't help but think "what would I do if something happened"? I can't even begin to imagine how people who identify with a different race, gender, or sexual orientation that is a "minority" in our country must feel. I hope that through educating the youth that we are able to teach them that everyone is an equal, no matter who or what they identify as. Another thing I found incredibly interesting was how Kendrick Lamar visited the school that critically looked at the lyrics of his songs. I hope that through different forms of communication, such as Kendirick's music, people are able to learn something about a different group of people, and see them in a more positive light. I would hope that people realize that even though there are different sexual orientations, races, religions, and so on, that at the end of the day, we're all just people. We're made up of the same stuff. We shouldn't divide ourselves based on such minuscule details, because at the end of the day, all we really have is each other.  

Word Wielding womb Blog Post 3

Alexandra Olin

COM 160

001

            “No longer will man be born from dust or rib, but force and violence.” This line from Amy Arellano’s writing: Word Wielding Womb: Using the Body to Fight the War on Women, is so vital to understand not only because it addresses the world’s current war-ravaged climate but because it can be related to numerous amounts of issues being faced by women today. Her writing is also vital in our studies due to the relativeness to the information on tolerance and advocacy we address and focus on in class. Without the knowledge of proper advocacy, how can we as students properly understand the world of communication around us? Arellano’s writing plays a major contribution not only to future advice but to the current issues being addressed today.

In today’s world, war ravages countries, and the effects can be seen on all fronts of social media. Children and babies being pulled from rubble and debris that are half starved and screaming accurately represents Arellano’s sentence. These children are born not from peace and prosperity as we can derive from Arellano’s comparison of ‘dust or rib’, but from force and violence. The violence that has ravaged so many countries and left not only children but their mothers war-torn and desperate for peace. Arellano’s writing speaks so profoundly to this issue of babies and children engulfed in the fights of others who have no one to speak for them or represent their well-being. Her line: ‘no longer will man be born from dust or rib,’ relates directly to the book of Genesis where God takes a rib from Adam and puts it in Eve and creates both man and women from the dust of the earth. This symbolizes peaceful creation wherein our basic needs as humans are represented and cared for by either our families or those surrounding us. But in today’s violent and forceful word, children are born into war, violence and dangerous situations wherein they fend for themselves.

Moreover, Arellano’s sentence pulled from her brilliant poetry addressing the current political and social issues facing women today not only shows the need to change certain aspects of society we still cling to but urges others to change their way of operating only for selfish gain and to focus on the needs of those without a voice. A perfect example in social media to represent Arellano’s writing where women and children have no voice and are born into violence and forceful behavior is the new hit show The Handmaiden’s Tale. This show depicts a young woman in a futuristic yet conservative way of life wherein the women in the world’s population can no longer bare children. Therefore, in certain parts of the country where the military controls these women, the government forces the women who can still have children to have ritualized, forced sex with government officials whose wives cannot have children. After the handmaiden gives birth, the child goes to the official’s wife who raises the child as their own only to have the handmaiden sent back to the prison-like circumstances to be bred again. This violent government controlled way of producing children accurately represents Arellano’s words addressing children being born into violence and forceful behavior. And while this future may not exist yet, Arellano’s words of warning may yet be remembered if the actions of the world do not give voice to women and the children they bare. 

F**k Bullying

Kyle Cady

Communication 160

Sect. 001

October Blog (3)

11/02/2017

F**k Bullying

            Bullying has and always will be a part of the development of children. From schoolyard scuffles to online cyber-bullying, bullying is unfortunately something that almost everyone can relate to in one way or another.

            Personally, I have been the victim of bullying, and I would say that my experiences have guided me to the person I am today, as well as a direct influence to my personable, but often standoffish behavior. According to Adams & Berry, there is no single definition of bullying. This is something that I would agree with due to the fact of the ever-changing technological landscape with the emergence of social media applications (Adams & Berry, 2016, p. 52). There really is no way to prevent bullying 100% of the time.

The best course of action, in my opinion, is education. The best thing we can do is educate anyone that will listen on the dangers and signs to watch out for if you or someone you love is experiencing bullying behavior. Bullying occurs due to an imbalance in power between two or more individuals. It is this imbalance of power that creates and fuels a conflict that can have devastating results like suicide and other self-harm processes. Education about the topic of bullying won’t stop bullying, but what it will do is give both the bully and the victim a chance to step back and look at the whole situation. The ability to understand what it going on in any conflict is crucial to an individual’s relational growth. For example, I am thankful for being bullied. As backwards as it sounds, bullying made me a stronger person and it helped me come to terms with the idea that life isn’t fair and if I am not happy with a situation, I am the only one with the power to change it. At the end of the day, I can only control my actions and there is saying that I like to live by that says “if you want something done right, do it yourself.” Not every Bullying situation is as black and white as mine was. My life is not easy; it is a never ending struggle of anxiety and a mind that won’t turn off. Giving someone affected by bullying the tools to do something about is the key to making a difference in a child’s life.

Unfortunately, it is not always so straight forward. In my experience, I never had anyone to talk to me and help me figure out what to say, how to act, and just take the time to give me some advice. I am a fighter. I learned that about myself when I was faced with the realization that I had lost all my friends, pushed what few I had left away, and dug myself a mental hole so deep that it didn’t look like I’d ever see the light of day again. It was at that moment that I came to the conclusion that I an only rely on myself. I needed to stop relying on others and just start making things happen. It was a rocky road with frequent interactions with law enforcement, a handful of schoolyard dust-ups, and a couple life altering ass chewings from my father. I won’t ever overcome the bullying that I experience growing up. I don’t want to. I have embraced my past to guide me into the future.

I can’t stand bullies and I will always stand up for those that feel like they don’t have a voice. I don’t even care what the topic in a conflict is over. No one should ever have to go through the traumatizing times that I had to experience. I don’t wish that on my worst enemy.

            However, I cannot say that I hate bullies or despise them. Though I can’t stand them, rather than attacking them verbally or even physically, I will try and find the root of the issue and help them work through whatever underlying issues they may be going through. Not every bullying conflict is so easy to work through. Every now and then, someone may come across a bully that does what he/she does just for the fun of it.

My advice: Breathe. Step back. Accept that you are perfect the way you are. Then continue doing your thing. Don’t ever let someone disrespect you as a human being and always defend yourself.

https://www.stopbullying.gov/media/facts/index.html

Reference

Keith Berry & Tony E. Adams (2016) Family Bullies, Journal of Family Communication, 16:1,

            51-63, DOI: 10.1080/15267431.2015.1111217

Blog number three

Media has always been interesting to me. There is so many different media platforms that all have one purpose, to spread news. Some examples of these different platforms include news about celebrities (TMZ, People, BET, ect), Politics (Fox, CNN, MSNBC, ect), Music entertainment (Billboard, Rolling Stones, ect) and so on. Media platforms inform its audience about what's going on and what the audience should know about. In Chapter 11, Mediated Culture, this particular quote stuck out to me. “Media are neither all good nor all bad. How we use the media makes the difference- do we pay attention to our critical minds, or do we allow the authors to create meaning for us?”. I interpreted it as that people love media that appeals to them.

What fascinates me about media is how different news outlets can tell the same story, but appeal to their audience. Political news outlets do this all the time. An example would be Fox News and MSNBC covering the same story. Fox News is going to give the politically right wing viewpoint while MSNBC will give the politically left wing viewpoint. Although they are covering the same story, both outlets changes the view point. What has always made me think was who’s telling the correct story? Both outlets are telling the story, but their changing the story to appeal to their audience. My question to this has always been “why do we choose to listen to biased news rather than listen to the honest truth?”. I guess the answer is that people will do what they can to hear what they want to hear rather than the truth. What makes me nervous about this is people who solely rely on news and information from biased outlets and believing that its the truth they are receiving.

Another media question I’ve always had is about the celebrity gossip. Companies like TMZ are based completely off of celebrity gossip. Essentially speaking, they talk about other humans who are known by other humans and talk about their personal lives outside of their careers. Yet, people are drawn to this form of media. I will admit, I am one of these people who turn into celebrity drama/gossip. Even though it has nothing to do with my personal life, I am drawn to the drama between celebrities. This form of media is more entertainment rather than actual news we should be paying attention to. However, these kind of entertainment media sites draw a large audience who constantly want more. These media platforms are also known to alter the information about celebrities in order to make the drama “juicer”. Recently, BET claimed that the new Migos song “Motorboat” made Nicki Minaj angry because Cardi B was also featured on the song. In reality, Nicki Minaj knew Cardi B was also on the song and had to publically address that the rumors were false. Celebrity entertainment is a form of media focused on entertainment rather than news that would be considered important to be shared with the public.

The media has a lot of power over the general audience of consumers. People are drawn to the media but seem to only pay attention to the stuff they want to hear. People listen to news outlets that give their political biases and about the lives of celebrities. Instead of hearing the truth about the current news, people would rather listen to what they want to hear. We chose to let the media make the decisions for us on how we feel about certain topics and issues rather than get the truth and made decisions from that. We are also focused on the lives of celebrities that we forget about some of the more important topics we should be focused on. The media has a lot of control over the audience and what they want to think about topics.

http://www.xxlmag.com/news/2017/10/nicki-minaj-clears-up-migos-moto-sport-collab/

Blog3

“One of the effects is the need to be first, not even to be true anymore. So what a responsibility you all have; to tell the truth, not to just be first, but to tell the truth. We live in a society now where it’s just first. Who cares? Get it out there. We don’t care who it hurts, we don’t care who we destroy, we don’t care if it’s true. Just say it, sell it.” ~ Denzel Washington

As we've talked about communication and culture in our class and we came upon a chapter and some readings regarding media or the presentation of information. I'm a little bit sensitive to this subject as I've seen media change for some time now. I've noticed that media, information, has become more of a drug than a tool. Information is really just content that is derived from truth. Now I've seen that truth doesn't matter hypocrisy doesn't matter and convincing someone of truth is a wasted effort. These three concepts have really sucked the life out of communication because now it just seems like a waste of time.

Have you ever been on a playground and heard a rumor? When you were younger, as evil little kids, we just took what we heard and ran with it. A lot of times it was to be sure you were in with the cool crowd the other was to just get in on the rumor. Face, everyone wants to hear rumors, secrets, anything that we can invest in to take us away from our monotonous lives. Well in 2017 that's what the world has turned into, a giant rumor/secret playground and most of everyone is getting in on the scoop. We've got sponsored media, who align with a particular view and they put out information only to have another source counter the claims. Just like on the playground, children arguing over whats true and whats not. This is a disservice to us. One, it takes away any value as to what information actually is, a derivative of truth, and turns into hearsay. Most information can be said is to lead to problem solving but with sides taking place, it just leads to more problems stacking up like Jenga. Well, we as a civilization are Jenga. To many problems and it's going to crash. The media's disservice to us is negating truth. Rumor's should never be taken as fact. If they're false, then lives and in some cases livelihood is jeopardized. A good example of this is the vaccination panic we're in. A story of a completely false medical journal was ran about a medical official who declared that vaccinations lead to autism. People panicked and the anti-vaxxer movement took place. Well it was later deemed that this medical official made the whole thing up. The sad thing that happened was that people still continued to site this medical journal as proof of vaccinations. My problem with this situation was it's portrayal in media. As soon as a side said it was a false claim, another would counter their claim. The side countering the claim still used the false document as it's fact checking even when the publisher of the document said they made it up. How can providers of information ignore the source of the information? This is why truth doesn't matter anymore. Truth isn't trendy and if its not trendy then it isn't entertainment.

Hypocrisy is a term that's meaning has come to nothing. Which is sad as it used to keep people in check. I want to disclose I do not affiliate myself with any political party. I think it's naive to only align with a side and completely agree with everything they stand for. As for a small example of how hypocrisy doesn't mean anything anymore; Nancy Pelosi while endorsing the Affordable Health Care act stated that, “We have to pass the bill to see what's in it.” Speed up to 2017 and when the Senate (majority republican) wanted to pass their proposed bill, Nancy Pelosi stated, “We can't pass this until we've reviewed what's in it.” -Crickets- Not a word was said about this hypocritical move. Media that aligned with the democrats never once mentioned how this is the opposite of what her party spoke of when trying to pass their bill. What stuck out to me the most was how the story died and we all just moved on. It seemed to be just accepted. Celebrities, politicians and media figures are called out daily on hypocrisy and they continue to push on and its just swept away. So, what was once a powerful word that people avoided to be has now become a meaningless word that holds no baring.

So I used Denzel's quote as I think it's important to communication as a whole. The race to get information out first without any regard if it's true causes a discord in communication. It start conversation that is misguided and can potentially be dangerous. This can be essentially called miss-communication. And we all know what happens when we miss-communicate, we fight. A thing I've noticed is that as media takes stances they get people to take sides. It's like a team mentality. My team is going to beat your team, regardless if what I'm defending is true or not, we are going to win. This isn't good for anybody. We have to go back to media being a tool and giving us information so we can adapt and be better as a society. Hopefully we get there sooner than later.