Activist Project

I’ve always been involved with volunteering and fundraising in high school, but there was never a project that I felt very strongly about. When I turned 17 I started donating blood, and continue to on a regular basis. This is my activist project. “Approximately every minute of every day, someone in Canada needs blood. In fact, according to a recent poll, 52 per cent of Canadians say they, or a family member, have needed blood or blood products for surgery or for medical treatment.” With this information, I know that my blood donation counts. I think I have such a strong connection with blood donating because I’m really patriotic. I know Canada is in need, but often times we give aid to other countries. I think that more Canadians should donate blood, it only takes an hour, and you can save up to three lives. People don’t realize the urgent need for blood Canada is constantly in. My one donation, is one unit of blood, the average liver transplant requires approximately 100 units of blood (Who). I have a B+ blood type that is only common with 9% of the population, if someone with my blood type needed major surgery, they would have trouble getting the required blood because of low amount of people that donate. Donating does not take a lot of time, and it doesn’t hurt. One person can only donate every 56 days, that’s only 6 times a year, which is why more people need to start donating. What if it were you on the operation table?

Works Cited
“Who Needs Blood.” Canadian Blood Services. 26 November 2008. < http://www.bloodservices.ca/centreapps/Internet/UW_V502_MainEngine.nsf/page/E_Who%20Needs%20Blood>.

Participatory Culture

Participatory Culture
I first heard about Post Secret through my high school, and have participated in it ever since. Post Secret is a blog created by Frank Warren to help people. On his blog, Warren posts secrets people send him. People write these secrets on pictures, or post cards, and mail them to Warren. By expressing their secrets Warren feels that they will liberate themselves and inspire others (Frank). There four books that have between them thousands of secrets. Some of the secrets are sad and some are happy, but most of the people that write in are inspired by other’s secrets. They feel better because they’re not the only one with a certain problem, or they feel better when they read a worse secret than theirs, with an author who got through it. The post secret program is really inspiring. The people that participate, and read the secrets are from all over the world, with all types of secrets; it’s nice to see people come together.

Works Cited

“Frank Warren, PostSecret Founder at Depauw University.” [Video]. 16 June 2008. 25 Novemebr 2008.
.


This is a video of many different post secrets.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McFVN5VpgVU

Culture Jamming

“Culture jamming is an intriguing form of political communication that has emerged in response to the commercial isolation of public life”
To me, a culture jam is like a metaphor: two or more seemingly unrelated things put together in an effort to show a comparison between the two. Culture jams can be seen in many different forms, such as billboards, videos, music, or posters.
An example I found is shown below. It is a culture jam in music video form that was posted on youtube. It features the song “I’m too sexy” by Right Said Fred. The beginning of the video features popular beauty product slogans, it then goes on the many different pictures and video clips of different models and celebrities. It then contrasts these images with normal women, and their struggle to achieve this. The final picture shows a severely anorexic girl and the L’oreal slogan “Because you’re worth it.”
When L’oreal uses this slogan, it is accompanied by a beautiful model that their target audience would envy. By doing this, women who strive for the model’s Photoshopped perfection will buy L’oreal products. By accompanying the slogan with a picture of an anorexic girl, it questions L’oreal’s ethics. It suggests that L’oreal expects every woman to conform to that image, and that they are aware of the repercussions of their advertisements.

Works Cited
“Real Beauty” [Video]. 25 March 2007. 20 November 2008. .

Buy Nothing Day

Buy Nothing Day is an annual event in which people are encouraged to ‘buy nothing.’ This event happens to promote the consumerism in our country. The purpose of the event is prove to people that we spend unnecessarily everyday. We buy coffee every morning even though we have some at home. We decide to walk through the mall and pick up a few things that we don’t need, and often can’t afford. Why do we do this? I personally find this answer in nearly every Sears commercial I listen to. After spending a pre-set amount of money, you receive a free gift, and next week, buy two get the third free. With this mind set, we think it necessary to purchase three spatulas, but we reassure ourselves, “Christmas presents.” Once we see how unnecessarily we spend our money, we are in a better position to make more conscious decisions. They say 5% of the population controls 95% percent of the wealth, most Canadian deny it, but we are in that 5%. Canada is ranked the 15th wealthiest country (according to GDP) with an incredible low population in relation to the countries that rank higher (Rank). The sooner Canadians realize we are part of the problem, the sooner we can fix it.

Works Cited

“Rank Order: GDP (Purchasing Power Parity).” CIA World Factbook. 20 November 2008. 23 November 2008. .

Net Neutrality

The Internet is something my generation has come to rely on. It’s where I start most of my research, where I find most of my entertainment, and how I connect with family and friends. Because I’ve always had the Internet, I’ve never questioned it, or realized how much I appreciated it. When we discussed the ethics on which the Internet is based, I truly realized the potential of the Internet, and how much we need it. Now, we have Network Neutrality, this “prevents Internet providers from blocking, speeding up or slowing down Web content based on its source, ownership or destination.” The Internet allows for the marketplace of ideas that major media hegemonies does not. The newspapers and news programs we rely on have obligations to their networks and the corporations that own those networks. The freedom of the Internet allows people to do what I am doing now, to state and publish their opinion. Network Neutrality has been a hot topic during the U.S presidential election. Newly elected president, Barack Obama stated that if “providers start to privilege some applications or websites over others, then the smaller voices get squeezed out and we all lose” (Barack). A lot of our news is already censored by corporate interest, if phone companies control the Internet and corporations become involved, the Internet will no longer be an equal, neutral playing field. Www.SaveTheInternet.com has more information on net neutrality, and information on how you can help save the Internet.


Works Cited
“Barack Obama: On Net Neutrality” [Video]. 14 November 2007. 15 November 2008. .

Media Hegemonies

The ‘market place of ideas’ allows for people to express and publish their ideas. With publishing costs so high however, the average Joe does not have the funds necessary to express and publish his thoughts. To create a balance, journalists from various news agencies are expected to be objective and publish every angle of every story. What it often comes down to however, is corporate interest. With very few corporations controlling the majority of media, the needs of the corporation need to be met first, before news, and before objectivity. Most people probably haven’t heard of News Corp, but are probably effected by them daily. News Corp. owns 47 television stations, 11 film production companies, 28 newspapers, 6 magazines, 45 book publishers including 13 children’s books publishers, as well as a variety of sports teams, radio stations, websites, and other various media companies (Resources). Having this many media companies On January 15th 2008 Canada’s Regulators for Telecommunications (CRTC) announced a policy that ensures that “a person or entity will be permitted to control only two of the three types of media outlets — radio, TV, or newspapers — in a single market” (CRTC). These restrictions prevent a person or corporation from holding a monopoly of media. Though this does not ensure better journalism, it puts forth an effort that will hopefully stop corporate interest from influencing the news that is publish, and that which is cut.

Works Cited
“Resources.” Columbia Journalism Review. 7 August 2008. 8 November 2008. .
“CRTC Imposes Cross-Media Ownership Restrictions.” CBC News. 15 January 2008. 8 November 2008. < http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2008/01/15/crtc.html>.

Fake News

Fake news is the reason it is mandatory for us to take Internet Survey and Research. We are so bombarded with information; we are so busy trying to retain everything that is thrown at us everyday, that we lose sight of what is reality and what is not. In our Internet class we learn how to distinguish between a credible source, and an unreliable source. The overall message I’ve take from that course is that all sources are credible, depending on what you’re looking for, and that all sources have a bias and an agenda. We are the test generation of the information age. We are bombarded with this information and are taught to decipher it. This is the most prominent point for me because of the audience of fake news. An article from the ctv website states that satirical news shows, specifically the Daily Show “has more viewers in the coveted 18-to-31 age demographic than any other nightly news program in the United States” (Janus). If we are the target audience what are we getting from this news? A journalist is ideally objective, whereas these shows are usually quite opinionated. Many young people are discredited because of their lack of interest and involvement in the news and politics, but are we being misinformed? Or are we just not interested in an objective point of view anymore? Personally, an opinionated perspective is something I cherish. Though this is not the accepted, traditional form of news deliverance, I think there is something to be said for this style. With all the information out there, one doesn’t know how to decipher it, when John Stewart puts a spin on it, I better understand the information, and the different perspectives available for me to choose.
Fake news shows often reject the regular news stories we read. Often politically slanted, fake news dismisses PR sugar coating. With the control major corporations have on the media, the media deliver the news, but choose to omit some facts that would damage reputations. I tend to think fake news journalists are the ones that bring up the controversial issues other journalists can’t bring up without fearing job loss.

Works Cited

Janus, Andrea. “Is ‘fake news’ informative? Study Tests Fun vs Facts.” CTV News. 15
September 2008. 1 November 2008. ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080912/news_feature_080912/
20080914?hub=TopStories>.

Social Uses/Implications of Technology and Media

Though I used music as my strongest media influence for my media autobiography, I am going to discuss my computer, more specifically the Internet, and its impact on my life. Every morning, I wake up and turn on my computer, waiting for it to start, I shower, and get ready. Before I get dressed, I check the Weather Network for today’s forecast, and then put on one of my favourite radio stations on via their website. Before I leave for class, I check my e-mail and Facebook page. I then shut my laptop, and take it to class. In class I use it take notes, and to look up concepts I don’t know on Google. I then come home, check my e-mail again, and do my homework, which almost always involves the Internet, I then usually catch up with people from home on MSN, and finally go to bed, to do it all over again tomorrow. I don’t know what I would do without my computer. I wouldn’t know what to wear, sometimes I would be lost in class, and I would get bored of the music on my iPod. The way my dorm room is set up even shows how my life revolves around my computer. When you walk in, my room is usually very clean, with not much stuff lying around, and my chair and my computer waiting anxiously for me on my desk beside my printer. I think I’m so drawn to the Internet as opposed to television or print media because I feel as though I have more control. I do not have to sit through commercials, though there are advertisement banners, I feel they are easier to ignore. To me, the Internet is more of a personal form of media, but still has the ability to connect you to the masses. I can listen to music, or connect with friends, or I can learn about the latest technology in Japan if I really wanted to. As much as I enjoy the Internet, I do believe that it has some negative implications. A lot of the information is not trust worthy, and the media is more hidden than in a television commercial. An example of this are those sneaky pop-ups that claim to have a million dollars waiting for you just because you’re the ten millionth visitor. There have been times where I am so distracted by what I am doing on my computer, that I have ignored reality. I think this is a really dangerous, and ignorant type of behavior and try to stay away from it as much as possible, but the Internet is so encompassing… speaking of which, I have just received a new e-mail from Facebook.

Theory/Praxis

Media literacy. This is a term that was foreign to me prior to this course. I never appreciated the need to fully understand everything I saw and heard from the media, until I realized how much I didn’t know. When watching a commercial, or listening to the radio, I rarely looked beyond the surface of the ad. After reading McLuhan, and seeing the Media Autobiography presentations, I am better able to conceive the truth behind the message, or rather decipher the equivocations. Through researching the theory, I came across a definition I find to be parallel to my own understanding, “Media literacy education must aim to produce students who have an understanding of the media that includes a knowledge of their strengths and weaknesses, biases and priorities, role and impact, and artistry and artifice” (AML). I’d heard the term “don’t trust everything you read” but didn’t know how ignorant I was to the impact of the media. I really appreciate the idea of media literacy. To me it means taking something for more than its face value, to find out what is really being said (or meant), and to think critically for oneself. I am so easily sucked into ads, and am the target of cross merchandising. Now I can actually see the marketing behind the advertisements; I’m able to see why certain companies use celebrities, and who they’re appealing to.
Rather than taking everything at face value, people should look deeper and find the true meaning behind the message.


Works Cited

“What is Media Literacy?” The Association for Media Literacy. 06 October 2008.

Decoding and Deconstructing an Advertisement

The advertisement I am analyzing is one I found in the September 2008 issue of Vogue magazine. Michael Kors, the self-promoted “leading American designer for luxury sportswear and accessories” is the subject and the hefty funds behind the full-page ad (Kors). This ad features a man standing beside an old-fashion car with a large group of paparazzi behind a fence in the background. The most interesting part of this ad, in my opinion, is the fact that half of it is distorted by lens flare. Because of the sunspots, the main subject of the photo lacks detail. Rather than seeing the handsome facial features of the model or even the superb fit and texture of the clothing we are used to seeing in advertisements, we instead are graced with the presence of this obviously important gentleman. The luxurious ambiance of this photo is displayed without the need for detail. Though I cannot make out the hood ornament, the car is obviously high-end; it is a classic creamy white, very clean, looking as though it has never been used, complete with white walled tires. The model is in a dark navy-blue suit, and seems very nonchalant with the situation he is encountering, acting as a well-seasoned celebrity might when stepping out of a car into a crowd of crazed photographers. The subject’s attitude towards the whole situation gives the impression that this is a regular occurrence. This leads us to believe that the subject’s Michael Kors suit and matching sunglasses are the reason he is able to handle this event in such a classy and sophisticated manner. The message is that the clothing is of such a prestigious caliber that one who wears Michael Kors should expect to attract attention. For Michael Kors to sell his clothing, he does not need to advertise them. What he is instead advertising the life style this ad portrays.


Works Cited

“About Us.” Michael Kors. 2007. 6 October 2008. missionstatement.php>

Mass Media

After discussing the term media in class, my original ideas abut ‘the media’ were changed. I had always thought of media as being newspaper, television, the radio etc. I’m not sure ‘the media’ know what media is; Dictionary.com defines media as “the means of communication, as radio and television, newspapers, and magazines, that reach or influence people widely” (Dictionary). This is a general and basic definition, widely excepted by most people, and one I have come accustom to. I never thought outside the realm of journalists and photographers. After discussing McLuhan, and the way media affects us, I better understood the term media. The process is information or any idea that is delivered to someone. In this process the information is the content, and method of delivery is the medium. Taking this into consideration newspaper is a medium, but so is the apple you ate this morning. Both deliver some form content; the newspaper delivers the daily news, and the apple delivers the common connotations that people hold when they look at an apple. This may seem like a stretch, but everything we see carries some form of personal connotation. The apple for example, comes with religious connotations, as mentioned in class, and perhaps memories of Autumn. This shows us that an apple is a medium, just as rightly as the newspaper, and a basket of apples is the media. From this, we can re-work Dictionary.com’s definition, and make it less specific; I define media as the means of communication. After narrowing this definition, I can look more at mass media. Mass media is a medium that delivers a message to a large group of people. Within this line of thinking, I also think that this same idea applies even if the message received isn’t perceived the same by every individual it reaches.

“Media.” Dictionary.com. 05 October 2008. browse/media>

The Ecology of Media

After our in-class presentations of media autobiographies, I noticed how connected we all were by music. Because I was one of the many that chose music as the dominate medium in my life, I was really able to look at its impact on me, and on our past and present cultures as a whole. McLuhan spoke of an oral culture and how it was more balanced than the print based lives we’ve come to know (Norden, 6). I believe that a large part of losing that oral culture is what has made us all so drawn to music; it’s as though we’re compensating for its loss. Because at one time we were all so connected through our phonetic sense, we need something to fill the gap that formed when that culture was lost. Though our print-based society may set dominance on the eye, we balance it through music.

Music has always had diverse uses and roles as a medium. We can look back on a time when we used music as a form of direct communication, an example of this being war drums (War Drums). Now, we use music more as a form of entertainment, but we also use it to tell stories, share our opinions, and to connect with one another. Because music reaches such diverse audiences, it’s often interpreted differently than the artist intended. Many artists make use of metaphors and similes that can be taken literally by the listener. Also, artists tend to write on what they know, and if a listener is ignorant to that situation, it can misconstrued to mean something else. After reading through “Semiotics for Beginners: Encoding/Decoding” relating it to how one might interpret the meaning of one lyric to another, we can begin to see that David Olsen may be right about “what is ‘meant’ is invariably more than what is ‘said’” (qtd. in Chandler). I think that Olsen is trying to explain the relationship between intent and content; the words are content, but intent is the meaning behind those words. We discussed this briefly in class, and I identify this relationship with sarcasm, or the common "it's not what she said, it's HOW she said it". Depending on the context, words take on different meaning, just as lyrics do.   
Defining music’s purpose and function is difficult because it varies so widely from culture to culture, person to person, and verse to verse. There is a reason that songs are written, and listened to. As listeners, what are we trying to get out of that song? Sometimes we get more from it than we were expecting. It may be a realization, a memory, goose bumps, or even a shiver running down our spine. That’s a lot more than entertainment, but was that the purpose? The function of the music? Musicians decide what we hear and listeners define what they interpret.

So the question "is it the artist, or the listener?" is really saying is it the content or the intent? The medium or the message? Where is the defining point? I believe the artist does the best he or she can with their particular message, but if that content carries an entirely different message when perceived by the listener, it becomes out of the artist's hands. 

Works Cited

Chandler, Daniel. “Semiotics for Beginners: Encoding/Decoding.” (1995): 1

Norden, Eric. The Playboy interview: Marshall McLuhan. March 1969. McLuhan, Marshall.  Interview. 20 September 2008.

Media History Project. "Who Used War Drums?" 18 May 2007. 20 September 2008. 

           

Academic Blogging

When I first read the syllabus and saw that fifty-percent of my total grade would be based on blogging, I was extremely skeptical. I don’t really consider myself the blogging type, and I wasn’t sure if I would be able to come up with enough topics to make the grade. After going over the purpose of the blog, how we would be evaluated, and being reassured by the required blog posts I felt slightly better about the situation. It wasn’t until Professor Reilly explained writing as a recursive process, and I was reminded of J.D. Salinger’s novel, Franny and Zooey, that I fully understood. I related the idea of recursive writing to that of praying incessantly, “The idea, really, is that sooner or later, completely on its own, the prayer moves from the lips and the head down to a center in the heart and becomes an automatic function in the person, right along with the heartbeat” (113). In my mind, this kind of says practice makes perfect. Once something becomes such an embedded part of our routine, it's no longer a hassle, or something that takes a lot of premeditation. I often have trouble starting a piece of writing, and was really reassured with the thought of having writing come naturally, right along with walking and talking. With this, I endeavored into my first blog; my role in contributing to a public sphere.

To have your work out there to be judged by not only your professor and his teacher's assistant, but also your peers and anyone else that comes across it. To be honest, the idea is overwhelming, but it's also exciting and motivating at the same time. I’ve never been one to believe that one can change the world; to me, that thought is too definite. I do believe in us, however. Our thoughts and opinions out in the open, mingling, if you will, with one another. The possibilities are infinite. I believe enough in people, that we can change the world, even if it is just with a blog.

Works Cited

Salinger, J.D. Franny and Zooey. New York: Little Brown Books, 1961.