Gay Mariage

After doing the reading the points that were brought up in Olivia's articles were rather interesting. The topic itself is a relevant and heated issue that needs to be looked at and dealt with soon as it is a real danger to the safety of homosexuals and the well being and unison of this nation. The openness of homosexuality is a ver new trend in western societies as being gay is no longer such frowned upon thing, or is it? The media need deals with this issue in many ways and looking it from geographic perspectives it is easy to see that in the Bay Area it is very easy to be pro gay and not look down upon homosexuality but if we look at the bible belt and the southern states of this nation gay, just like blacks, are very heavily persecuted by the media and the people. The media only gives the perspective of the public of that area and most of the United States is getting more comfortable with gays but still many areas are not open to the concept. The media reflects the people and in turn the more positive attitude about homosexuality that is growing in this nation is a result of a public that is changing it's opinion on the idea.

Veterans Day

One of the things that I noticed in the days preceding Veterans Day was that it besides sporting events and school kids that were happy to get the day of no one was really focused or even had the recognition that Veterans day was fast approaching. It is surprising to think that in a country that is very proud of its military history, even takes the credit that isn't deserved for winning WW2; the citizens of this nation don't seem to really care about their veterans. It isn't surprising though that the average person is unaware of this holidays because the military, unless in it, isn't very present in our society. Besides commercials and ads to join no one really hears about what is going on overseas or what veterans are doing after they get back, it is a dead subject to talk about retired war veterans as there are less and less of them and the new ones seem to make news for the wrong reasons, at least a very small percentage that overshadows the majority. This country needs to embrace veterans because they deserve it. Not many people dedicate their life to fight for freedoms of a nation and they deserve our appreciation of them. My father served in Ukraine and he deserves to receive credit for his contribution, because he earned it. no one has to agree with war or what the military does because it makes little sense if looking from a rational theoretical approach but the military is a part of our lives and so is war, we don’t need to like these things but have the decency to thank the members of our society that are willing to sacrifice their time and their well being for our safety. Veterans day deserves more attention as it is just as significant as the singing of a legal document like the Declaration of Independence.

Journalism in Today's World

The whole idea of journalism dying out in our modern society makes very little sense after some thought is put into the answer. What could be said is very significant, highly detailed, career ending stories, are no longer written at the rates they were before the internet changed the entire concept of journalism. What journalism has become is a large blog. The examples from the “yes” article demonstrate that newspapers have become a community based and run project that is done not by individuals who studied journalism or even do it for a living but by normal everyday people. The problem with this is that it does take away a lot of content but gives a lot of stories about what normal people are talking about. Bluffton Today is a great example of a town’s gossip in newspaper form but with some journalism in it. Opinio in Germany is again a newspaper that is based on people pitching, people that don’t know real journalism, which is journalism that takes a lot of time and research to do according to David Simon. Journalism isn’t even relative anymore as it has become headlines; people don’t read articles they read headlines about what happened. No one in our new age society has the patience to read a full article that has research and data in it, patience is a lost art that in many ways resulted in the death of real journalism.  The “yes” article is weak in arguing its point because it is clear that content has disappeared from the newspapers and other sources and that is what is meant by the death of journalism in today’s world. Journalism used to be a great art and skill but sadly over the creation of our greatest tool we have destroyed journalism and anything that is time consuming from this world, as Ritalin has become the only way to focus and a blog the only way to get facts, the way we use our greatest tool is making us lose the understanding of the world that we once had.

Advertising

The reading for this week was a rather interesting and informative one. In this blog i will focus on responding directly to the positive aspects of advertising that are presented to us by John E. Calfee. One of the examples used by the author was that cereal boxes become a useful source of information with advertising. The whole concept of fiber and how it prevents cancer pushed on this new ideal to be put on all healthy cereals as their hook to attract customers. As good as this may sound, because it is good that people start thinking about the effects of their food from this type of advertising, it also means that advertising is pushing forth the ideal of using scare tactics to sell products. Words like cancer are automative attention grabbers in the wrong way and advertising is encouraging people to continue living in fear. As good is the fact that people become a tiny bit more aware, because we can't know for sure how well the cereal boxes alone affected the awareness in cancer and a healthy boy, it means that as a society we only can affect people by making them scared of something. As an ideal if advertising wants to be useful in society it needs to use a level headed approach to getting customers rather then playing on the fact that we are all going to get cancer and this is what can stop the inevitable. Another think that really caught my attention is the compassion that the author felt for advertisers and the belief that they don't lie. "Sellers are less likely to stretch the truth, whether it involves prices or subtleties about safety and performance," this quote is in response to how advertisers are in constant competition and with that they play fairly and improve on informing us. The problem with this belief is that ads lie to us and they get away with it with tiny little subtext on the bottom of the screen. Their is no way to make advertisers tell the truth as they can stretch in and legal be allowed to do so. In the end ads to give us information ads are a potential tool to help us but in a competitive world they are used to sell their product with ethical or unethical means.

Freedom of Speech

Freedom of Speech is the most sacred freedom that needs to be taken back from the authority and given back to the masses.

Lyrics

I once believed words can do no harm

They worked better then any wicked charm

They spoke to me like my mother at night

They got me out of trouble and see the light

But some don’t know these words exist

As they are pure evil

The spirit of the wicked and damned

Put on this earth to pollute the space between your right and left ear

Convince you that that nothing good can be queer

That life is meant to give ones self to god and money

And forget about your individuality

A consumer cannot be unique

They have to be weak

The coldest of heart that is pure evil

Speaks on the TV for hours on end

Until you pass out in the corner or bed

Voices of other convince you that they are right

While you fight for sanity

They have stripped you of your liberty

But whatever what can they do

Words that are spoken by any individual

Are stronger then any visual

It doesn’t matter white or black

The words that are said can never be taken back

Remember to believe in the power of speech

But don’t hate as if it’ll breach

No one will ever stop you from ruining the weak minded

And creating a country that is completely blinded

The worst thing ever is someone who laughs at you

For having a unique view

Unless you let the media mold you and fold you

Don’t let the people in this world pull you apart

Take every shred of you and sell it for cash or hash

Who cares as you are not there

Your soul has been taken and ripped

As you attempted to speak

No one will hear as the verdict is done

The devil just took you

I do not know a person who is more like the devil

Then someone who affects other just to satisfy

The evil craving stronger then any high

To convince someone that they are wrong

Is the power worth more then a million

Remember to stay true to who you are

As the thoughts in your head will take you far

Farther then Fox News thinks possible

As they are stuck in a backwards continuum

Unique is the new conformist

Think for yourself as you carry a tune

Of logic and reason to make it through every season

Music Against the Establishment

There are many songs in today's world, as in the past, that attempt to fight the grain and attempt to speak out against the mainstream culture and ideals. Many bands have done a great job but one is particular, this of course being completely all of my choosing, would be System of a Down. This band, a very upbeat heavy metal bands, goes against everything that the media would want you to believe. They speak a voice that is purely unique and unquestionably theirs that no one can stop. Their audience is mostly the "others" in society, but in reality any one who takes the time to look at the lyrics of all their songs will say that this band, regardless of whether they agree with their beliefs or not, is speaking about what they believe in a manner that is true and not unproductive, in the sense that all it does is criticize and nag about how shitty the world is where they actually just put the issue forth and point out it's flaws in a manner that is almost polite. One song in particular which not only is amazing from a musical perspective but also with the message it conveys, is Lost in Hollywood. This song uses the metaphor of Hollywood as the mainstream and how mainstream culture takes and makes you into something that you are not. The message is simple and almost cliche but the truth of the matter is that this songs really attacks the mainstream as it points out how people become lost and are used for the profit of others. The band is amazing, the song is great, and their message is true. Music is a great tool to convey ideas, but we can't over do it as music will lose its credibility and becomes all about sex and drugs, not saying their shouldn't be songs about that, but their needs to be a balance before music is no longer a useful instrument to unite people together.

Response to Readings

The first reading was rather interesting from a perspective of observing what a good rant on the subject at hand looks like. The lack of support is over powered by a strong belief in the message that the author is attempting to present to his audience. Having said this, it is a good article for the reader to be able to get a nice, simple, and basic understanding of what the believers of hate speech in  news media believe in. It makes complete sense what the author, Henry Giroux, is saying. With freedom of speech and very vocal and angry commentators like Rush Limbaugh and Glen Beck it is clear that hate speech exists. the examples that are sighted are good but one thing missing would be to see how what the commentators who are being accused of using hate speech, how they affect the audience and how the outlook of the person who is receiving the information changes. The second article, by Weatherby and Scoggins, is one that uses a data collection method that in the end proves, not really, that hate speech doesn't exist on hate groups web pages but rather the groups focus on getting new recruits instead of just spreading the message of hate. This article was rather interesting but puzzling in the fact that it left the question that isn't a group that is already against certain races and is attempting to get more support, isn't that in itself hate speech and a promotion for a very negative affect on society. Both articles were nice reads and in the end the conclusion that would be adopted by me would be that hate speech exists in the media, obviously, but the affects of it aren't directly clear but it needs to be stopped regardless of if it's affects are significant or not.

Racism in America

To say this country is perfect would mean that you would be admitting to complete ignorance and stupidity. To say this country is going the right way would just mean that you are just ignorant. After the reading that were assigned for this week it is safe to say that this country promotes an idea of free speech that is utterly ridiculous. Everyone should be upset in this country about the way, a kind of educated nation like America, treats their president for the sole reason of his skin color. America has not grown up since the Civil War and the heated racism that is still between whites and blacks is a concern that needs to be dealt with immediately. No one who judges someone for their skin color should be allowed to vote and make public decisions. It can be said that this is an opinion but its isn't. No person should be holding back the development of everyone to be able to see past skin color when it is clear morally and even scientifically that their are no difference between whites and blacks. This nation is taking steps back by suppressing freedom of speech in the wrong areas, like religious quarells and discussions, and allowing for unnecessary freedom to allow people to threaten killing individuals. Freedom of speech is a great gift but no one put restrictions on it and when they did those restrictions make no sense. Fighting words are a non sense as it is all based on how you interpret the words and who is saying them to you. This nation has a lot of freedoms but those same freedoms that make people cross the boarder could be the reason chaos and tragedy that seems to be imminent.

Information Society

After doing the reading my argument on the topic at hand didn’t change. The first argument did a good job in using real data to support its conclusion that in our modern day society people are better informed. The no side of this debate didn’t use concrete data. In turn used a more theoretical approach, which focused more on the idea of being better informed, from this approach the author doesn’t feel that our society is better informed now. I have had my argument for this question set for some time and even though I did the reading I didn’t really get too much out of it. The fact of that mater is that our society is better informed but at the same time the society and especially the younger generations are not being encouraged to be informed. The question itself for this debate is not correct because the amount of resources that we have make it obvious that we can be better informed, but the real question is are we better informed considering the potential that we have and not compared to previous generations which had very few resources in comparison. The abilities of computers and the Internet give the public an amazing resource but very few people use the resources available to their full potential. In the end the potential for people being more informed are very high but the reality is that the public is still very oblivious to many things in the world and in turn is still very uninformed.

Arab Stereotypes

The issue of how Arab’s are described in the media is an issue that I have previously dealt with and discussed before. In one of my philosophy classes at Foothill College my professor showed us a debate on the issue that included politicians, authors, and individuals who have been persecuted for what the stereotype of Arab’s is in the media right now. What I got from that discussion and from the readings we did in class is that to say that the media describes Arab’s correctly and fairly is very difficult to argue for, but to add to that the media doesn’t describe any group fairly and justly as the bias of culture, recent events, and tradition are very present in the description of any group in the media. Since the United States has had very bad encounters of what we consider Arab nations, it is impossible to think that public media will depict a proper image of that group. In this country, especially post 9/11, Arab people are the scapegoat and the enemy of all things that are bad in this world and the depiction in the media of them is going to reflect the negative view that people have regardless of it being fair or not. It is also bad when a group is looked up to too much as in the United States being “white” or European gives a sense of undeserved priority and privilege. The media makes being white skinned, a genetic trait, something that gives you some societal privilege and that just like the Arab negative view in the media is also unfair. The media never depict the proper view of groups as they always show them being good or bad and in doing so the media is just a public opinion that speaks to mostly an uneducated group who share the same ideas.

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Media Reflects the Society and the Majority

It would be very easy to say that the result for the American public having such poor understanding of their bodies and as a collective group constantly striving for unrealistic expectations and beauty standards is a result of the media when it is really the result of the people in the society that allow and push forth these standards and beliefs. I do not like the images that Americans, including myself, are striving to achieve but i am willing to take the responsibility for being someone who agrees and in some ways likes the unrealistic image of beauty that many Americans strive for. I like skinny girls, that have bodies that are kept in constant shape and have a very limited amount of fat. I am willing to admit that and I'm also willing to admit that some people can't handle being so skinny or being a part of that standard but the fact of the matter is that this standard speaks for a majority, not one that is 50% or 80% but one that is maybe 1 in 3 and everyone else falls into other groups of how they view beauty. The images that are put forth by the media are ones that speak out to the largest group and the largest group, in some ways including me, likes the images and agrees with them. Don't be upset or feel inferior that you aren't skinny, or whatever else the media shows beauty to be, as others in the world and around you don't all agree to those standards and everyone has a place where they fit and can be beautiful.

Legal Weed Not Medical Marijuana

Growing up for a majority of my life in the Bay Area i have a say about if marijuana can really be used as a substance for ethical and medical reasons, as i am an expert, for the abundance of weed in the area i have spent the majority of my life is overwhelming and my constant involvment with individuals who are legal and illegal users is on a daily basis. The arguments for medical marijuana are beautiful, like a flower opening in the summer with rich vivid colors, the arguments convince you that marijuana can really be used as a substance to help the public. The cruel reality is, the world we live in isn't a summers day but a winter morning in Massachusetts with a whirlwind of cold air and snow that pull this beautiful flower out by the root. It is impossible to have marijuana be used for medical reasons as it is a substance that is abused for pleasure and not for the help that it can give. It is sad that a substance that can actually help individuals is an item that very few can use in a controlled and rational manner. Marijuana can help but our immature public is unable to take marijuana and use it the way it should for the average person is not strong enough to not fall under the negative effects of weed at this time of our development as a society.

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