Final Exam 2 Blog 3

Mass media poses many effects on our society and that statement alone can sum up exactly what mass media does.  Mass media projects images, advertisements, commercials, texts and many other types of visual influences in an effort to usually sell something or expose us to a message or ideal.  Mass media is also such a broad topic it is a hard one to cover and the broad range of effects on our society becomes evident as well.  Mass media bombards us with images of beauty, gender roles, racial and economic status in an effort to influence us to buy or feel a certain way and it usually works because just about everybody views people, feels a certain away about something or about themselves due to the images that they saw or heard from mass media.  For example, the media portrays advertisements of unrealistically skinny women and this has caused many eating disorders and a general dissatisfaction of women’s appearances by both genders.  The media also portrays certain races such as African-Americans as being thugs or trouble-makers on TV shows and on commercials and this usually causes people to develop stereotypes against groups of people.

            These real life examples show that the impact of media supports learning outcome 2 which is the awareness of potential for educational, political, or ideological influence of the media.  The claim that media exposes us to so much in an effort to sell something or expose us to an ideal and the real life examples show that media has the potential to affect all of the things stated in the learning outcome.  It fits perfectly because obviously, media has a tight grip on many if not all of the aspects of our lives.

Final Exam 2 Blog 2

Bob Mondello claims, in his article, Our media, ourselves: are we Headed for a Matrix, that as a society, we are becoming more attached to the screen and we are losing things and as a result, we are becoming like a society from the Machine Stops.  He claims that our rooms are becoming emptier and we are stuck to the screen these days.  His main claim was that we are comfortable in this society and that we cling to all of these things so that we won’t lose what makes us and the connections that they represent.  According to Mondello, our biggest fear is the emptiness inside us, not of empty rooms.  Mondello hits the mark with being afraid of emptiness inside, but at the same time, he seems misguided on his claim that we have a fear of losing ourselves. 

            The main example that he provides to support his argument was comparing our society and the Machine Stops society to the one in the Matrix.  He states, “in that film, as you recall, people interact in a reassuringly cluttered but virtual reality.  Actual reality is barren.  No stuff at all.  Nothing physical to establish that one person is different from another….The fear of losing ourselves as we lose our stuff-.”  I do agree that in our society, many objects and things such as the media take away some of our individuality, but I would say that the Matrix is a bit of an exaggeration because even though some traces of this has occurred, individuality is still present and we have not gone to the extremes of the sci-fi stories that he provides. 

            In his article, he mentioned that we are simply afraid of losing all of our possessions because they make us who we are.  He was close, but I believe that we cling to our possessions because it is what makes us comfortable and it does possess some connection.  For example, in the Machine Stops, there is a moment when Kuno ignores Vashti when she is hesitant to let him visit her and the story states, “For a moment, Vashti felt lonely.  Then she generated the light, and the sight of her room, flooded with radiance and studded with electric buttons revived her.” This shows that the objects, that she is connected to, represent a comfortable surrounding that she can go back to at anytime.  It seems like a comfort issue more than an issue of losing one’s self.

            I believe that in today’s society we have lost some of our individuality and even if there is a subconscious fear of losing one’s self, we do not seem to pay much attention to it because we continue to take away the individuality of others.  I believe that we do have connections to our possessions and this creates a comfort with them and whenever we feel the need for comfort, we cling on to them.  I believe that Mondello doesn’t realize while some strive to be different and individuals, many are more afraid of being different and not having a comfortable place in society.

Final Exam 2 Blog 1

Image one is a public service announcement on the issue of enslaved workers that are forced to make jewelry.  From a first glance the image, I can see an African’s hand that has blood on it by the wrist indicating that it was cut off and it has a wedding ring on the ring finger.  There is a text in cursive writing above the hand and there is times new roman text under the hand.  The ring could represent marriage and the severed hand could show a problem with marriage or violence that occurs from marriage or with the jewelry.  There is clearly a message and it could be there is violence and oppression related to the making of the wedding ring.  The audience seems to be married couples and future married couples and one could see this in a jewelry store or magazine. 

            After taking a closer look at the colors in the image, one can began to learn more behind the image.  The colors that stand out are the red of the blood and the silver of the ring.  The blood could represent the blood shed with overseas jewelry-making or and exaggeration of the problems of marriage.  There is not a lack of color in the image, but the image does not take up too much room, so there may be a small lacking of color.  There are also some interesting features aside from the colors.  The hand still appears lively and not dead even though it is severed off.  Also, the texture and dark color of the skin suggest possible race or ethnicity involved.  The most important part here seems to be the text. 

            The upper text has a phrase that says, “For every hand taken in marriage, another hand is taken away.” The lower text discusses how Guerilla’s will cut off the hands of enslaved workers in case they think about stealing the jewelry that they are working on.  It also says, “Beauty isn’t worth death.”  It is also important to see that the upper text has more elegant, cursive font style as opposed to the times new roman text at the bottom.  Perhaps they wanted the fact to be bold and simple and easy to understand and they wanted the message to be seen easily.  The image is hard to interpret without text and the text is there to show the problem behind the hand.  The producers of the image seem to be some help organization for Africa and this shows that it is a problem that lies in Africa.  It is assumed that the audience plans on getting married and purchasing rings for marriage, therefore they can get there message out to these people.  The text is persuasive in being straight to the point at showing the brutal truth that the jewelry we buy has blood behind it.  The appeal of death and the suffering of others in order to get what we want make people feel guilty for buying rings that were made by these people.  Guilt is one of the most effective strategies and it is used here to get the message across as well.

Final Exam Blog- Why We Can't Wait

The book Why We Wait by Martin Luther King Jr. has done an excellent job at portraying the learning outcome of how audience and purpose affect the structure and content of texts.  For example, there is a passage from Dr. King's letter to Birmingham that says, "There comes a time when the cup..... our legitimate and unavoidable impatience(93)his was written to the clergymen who doubted his methods and questioned on his timing.  In this passage it is clear that Dr. King wants to use emotion to explain why the time is now for the movement.  He also knows that because of the critical audience, he must sound intelligent and that is why he includes many examples of figurative language here, such as the cup of endurance and abyss of despair.  He wants to persuade the clergymen that he knows what he is doing and that they have already waited long enough so he includes these brilliant metaphors to show it.  The most important aspect seems to be that he makes a great effort to sound intelligent and this makes his structure complex and full of concrete details.  Another example that portrays this learning outcome is, "Nonviolence is a powerful and... Negro Revolution of 1963." (16)  In this passage Dr. King uses the metaphor that describes nonviolence as a sword that fights against injustice without losing wars.  He knows that he has many white readers as well as black readers, so he again uses figurative language to seem intelligent.  He cleverly uses words such as injustice and "healing sword" to make the white readers believe that his method of nonviolence is just as well as his cause.  His purpose of rallying everyone to use nonviolence for this cause forces him to include moral support in his text to make the readers believe that it is justified.  His text includes concrete details as well as abstract concepts to appeal to the audience and to clearly show his purpose.