Activist Project: Mother’s Against Drunk Driving

I am a firm believer in MADD, for the main reason that I stand for all of the same issues that they present. MADD is a fantastic origination because they provide support to those that have been affected by drunk driving and they also try to prevent these tragedies from occurring. “MADD was incorporated on September 5, 1980” and since then they have been fighting the battle of drinking and driving. Since the creation of MADD, several laws have been put into place that try and prevent drunk driving. This is a statement directly taken from the MADD website: “The mission of MADD is to stop drunk driving, support the victims of this violent crime and prevent underage drinking”. This is what the organization fights for every single day. I believe that this organization has a fight worth fighting for. Several people are affected by drunk driving and it is not something that should be taken lightly. People are brutally killed and injured from drunk drivers. A car is a weapon and it can kill. Many incidents can be avoided just by taking the keys away from a drunken person or simply telling he or she that they will not be driving because of the condition they are in.

MADD lets their voice be heard by showing commercials and doing presentations at schools. I recall the MADD presentation at my high school to be very informative and moving. The presentation showed brutal car accidents taking place due to drunk driving. It also educated me by showing methods of preventing drunken people from driving which I found very useful. The main target of MADD is to attract the youth of the world and educate them so they are informed on the affects of drinking and driving. The organization is open to volunteers who would like to help out with this cause. MADD is a life changing organization as the prevention of one drunk driver could then lead to several others causing our roads to become safer. MADD impacts me, as I have heard of several preventable stories of people being killed in car accidents by drunk drivers. I strongly believe in the cause of MADD and I hope to educate others about this life saving organization.

This is a MADD commercial which depicts what the organization is all about:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B87CmSPy3_s&feature=related

Works Cited

"MISSION STATEMENT." Mothers Against Drunk Driving . 2009. MADD, Web. 23 Nov 2009. http://www.madd.org/About-Us/About-Us/Mission-Statement.aspx

Participatory Culture: Gaming...Enough Said

A participatory culture that I find myself apart of is gaming. I find myself wrapped up in games for hours without end, trying to complete the task that has been set out for me. Gaming is becoming an everyday activity due to the fact that they can be found anywhere. (Ex: internet, computer, consoles, newspapers, and handheld devices) Every since I was little, playing games with my older brothers has become a habit. Since then, I continue to have a large involvement with buying new games, and playing with friends when I have free time. I find it a good way to pass the time because the games get my brain active while playing. I believe that gaming has become one of the worlds largest phenomenon’s, due to its easy accessibility and well-known games around the world such as Sudoku, and Solitaire.

Although I enjoy playing different types of games, I do notice the patterns and trends of violence constantly demonstrated. In a way, it is similar to social violence because playing these types of games could possibly trigger many to act similar to a character in the game they are currently playing. The media does this, as they are the ones who create these games for us. David Gauntlett wrote the “Ten Things Wrong with the Media “Effects” Model” which states: “To explain the problem of violence in society, researchers should begin with that social violence and seek to explain it with reference, quite obviously, to those who engage in it: their identity, background, character and so on”. This reference touches upon the idea that violence in society is created by people who are surrounded with violent acts daily, which could include games.

Games in general are becoming more apart of people’s lives, regardless of their age. There have been known positive and negative factors that have sprung from playing a wide genre of games, but based on my experience, I personally do not believe that I have had a negative side affect from playing. For many, games still remain a simple way to pass the time, while the gamer has no comprehension or thought of the way it impacts their lives, simply because people constantly have other forms of media on their plates.

Here is a humorous link that I came across depicting what games could do to children:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lgw2slDfx9Q

Works Cited

Gauntlett, David. "Ten Things Wrong with the Media “Effects” Model." mass.communication.Nov 22 2009.A Wetpaint Site, Web. http://waysofseeing.wetpaint.com/page/Ten+Things+Wrong+with+the+Media+“Effects”+Model

Culture Jamming: There is Always Two-Sides to a Coin

What is Culture Jamming?

“Culture jamming is an intriguing form of political communication that has emerged in response to the commercial isolation of public life. Practitioners of culture jamming argue that culture, politics, and social values have been bent by saturated commercial environments, from corporate logos on sports facilities, to television content designed solely to deliver targeted audiences to producers and sponsors. Many culture Jams are simply aimed at exposing questionable political assumptions behind commercial culture so that people can momentarily consider the branded environment in which they live. Culture jams refigure logos, fashion statements, and product images to challenge the idea of "what's cool," along with assumptions about the personal freedoms of consumption”.

This photo is a perfect example of culture jamming as described by the definition above. This image before it was culture jammed was a simple photo of a car advertisement. Now being a culture jammed photo, it depicts a different angle on this simple advertisement. The photo now shows how this SUV is in reality, “Poison for the Road” and that it is causing our world more harm than good. By implying these terms to the photo, it makes us think twice before seeing an advertisement, as the marketers would want us to see them. Such a simple image of a car in a commercial means nothing to the immense population of our planet because these depictions are of the norm for us.

For example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81K5zUWRkEk

This Suzuki commercial shows the similar depictions as the photo above but when looking at them without cultural jams, it seems like a good meaningful advertisement. It seems to us that it is something normal and acceptable. If this advertisement were to be culture jammed it would depict the same terms or remarks as the photo above because both advertisements share the same meaning. The world around us is full of symbols and meanings but there are several different ways of interpreting them. I believe that we should not look at things so simply and that we should decode certain advertisements and symbols to find different meanings behind them. A symbol that I decided to “culture jam” is known as Apple.

We all know this symbol as Apple, which is a giant technological company that produces the famous IPod and Mac computers. I have culture jammed this as a symbol of temptation. In the Bible, Adam and Eve are tempted by the Devil to take a bite of an apple from a tree that God stated specifically not to eat from. Adam and Eve then disobeyed Gods commands and took a bite from this forbidden apple causing both Adam and Eve to parish. This harmless symbol of an apple with a bite in it could mean both temptation and evil by simply trying to interpret certain signs and symbols in different ways. This is the way of Culture Jamming.

Works Cited

"2009 Suzuki Grand Vitara SUV Offroad Commercial." YouTube. Web. 21 Nov 2009. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81K5zUWRkEk.

"Culture Jamming." Center for Communication and Civic Engagement. Web. 21 Nov 2009. http://depts.washington.edu/ccce/polcommcampaigns/CultureJamming.htm.

Buy Nothing Day: This Could be Interesting...

There is always something new or old that people are found wanting. This then creates a market for that certain product or good which then translates into a business. People all over the world are contributing to the economy with their wallets and pocket books. This is essentially what keeps our world functioning. The growth of business is caused by consumer needs, because as the markets increase the business must grow to cater the masses. November 25th is this so called “Buy Nothing Day” which is essentially created to raise awareness about over-consumption but can this even be done? Western society is based on material wants and needs and it is rather sad that life is based around business. Everything we do within our day required or requires money making it physically impossible to have a day where we buy nothing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1a8pOb9vbTY

As seen buy this short YouTube film. “We already have enough stuff”. But this so-called buy nothing day will not stop anyone from doing what he or she has to. Buy nothing day will never fully achieve its goal as our modern day world runs on consumption. If this day even does exists good luck to those who participate in it.

John Berger states in his book “Ways of Seeing”:

The purpose of publicity is to make the spectator marginally dissatisfied with his present way of life. Not with the way of life of society, but with his own within it. It suggests that if he buys what it is offering, his life will become better. It offers him an improved alternative to what he is.

This shows how business works and how there is a constant material want to make one feel better about themselves. This is how business works and the constant improvement of life is placed in our head by mediums of the media making a day of buying nothing impossible in my eyes.

Works Cited

"Buy Nothing Day 2006." YouTube. Web. 20 Nov 2009. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1a8pOb9vbTY

Berger, John. Ways Of Seeing. London: Penguin Books , 1972. Pp 142. Print.

Net Neutrality....?

Could you imagine a world where everything you do on the Internet is monitored? A world where we have to pay for the amount of Internet usage per month restricting us to the full use of the Internet. A world where large companies can control the Internet market causing new Internet sites to be shut down. This could become our world today…

This was all new information to my ears, as I never thought to think of this issue until my professor Ian Reilly started to discuss this issue in class. This was rather shocking information and the only hope we have from fighting to not become an Internet restricted world is net neutrality.

"The Definitions of net neutrality vary, but most advocates of neutrality agree it has evolved into the principle that the Internet should be kept open and free from interference or restrictions from service providers. That is, certain users or applications should not be favoured over others".

North America is a democratic continent, which means we have freedom. The Internet is a free place that was not supposed to have any sort of restrictions but it may begin to. These restrictions include the amount of information we can download per month and the speed of our Internet. We will soon have to pay for these so-called commodities to be able to use them if something is not done to stop this. It has already begun in Canada as "Bell Canada and Rogers have admitted to traffic shaping. Bell has also admitted to throttling. Rogers has reintroduced bit caps". This essentially means that these companies have placed a price on the amount of downloading per month and the individual speed of ones Internet.

In regards to Internet speed, it is extremely unjust for this very reason: "Advocates of net neutrality say a tiered system will favour bigger companies that can afford to pay ISPs for the faster speeds, which will give them an unfair advantage over smaller firms and individuals. This could prevent the next Google or Amazon from happening, since those companies started small but were able to experiment and grow on the Internet without restrictions".

What does this mean for us? It means good luck to all those Internet entrepreneurs who want to make it big on the Internet because they will be going up against the biggest Internet companies in the world, so they better have the cash to do so. Anyone who knows how large a company like Google is knows that with these new internet restrictions it will be physically and mentally impossible to generate any sort of competition for these well know internet sites. This is solely because our wallets are not as big as those of Google or Amazon. Essentially, these implications will cause the greater population of our world to have less freedom via the Internet unless something is done…if anything can even be done to stop this.

Works Cited

"FAQ: Net neutrality and internet traffic management." CBC News. Monday, October 19, 2009. CBC.ca, Web. 20 Nov 2009. http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2009/07/02/f-net-neutrality-faq.html

Media Hegemonies/Mapping Who Owns What: Oh my God Why Disney!

After doing some research on the Internet I realized some extremely shocking news. I came to the realization that one of my favorite words, as a child owns the world. That word was “Disney.” When I saw the full list of what Disney owns, I spoke the words “This Company owns everything.” Then I thought to myself that this is pretty horrific news. This one company basically controls a portion of our world’s media leading the world to get its information from one enormous source. I see this company as a tree, the term “Disney” is the trees trunk and all of its companies are the branches. Leaving only the leaves left which are the world’s population. Without us these companies cannot operate but with us they become large, safe and wealthy companies. These companies support us and essentially rule over our lives in a certain way shape or form. If we do not like this, there is nothing we can do. If we speak, we just fall off the branches only to lie on the grass to decompose. This is the giant affect that this large company has on our world. This is a list of some companies, which “Disney” owns:

Walt Disney Pictures

Walt Disney Animation Studios

Pixar Animation Studios

DisneyToon Studios

Touchstone Pictures

Hollywood Pictures

Miramax Films

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures International

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment

Disney Theatrical Productions

Disney Live Family Entertainment

Disney on Ice

Walt Disney Records

Hollywood Records

Lyric Street Records

Disneyland Park in Anaheim, California

Disney Cruise Line

Vacation Club

Adventures by Disney

Disneyland Resort, Anaheim, California

Walt Disney World Resort, Lake Buena Vista, Florida

Tokyo Disney Resort, Urayasu, Chiba

Disneyland Resort Paris, Marne La Valle, France

Hong Kong Disneyland, Penny's Bay, Lantau Island

The Disney Store

The Disney-ABC

ABC Television Network

Disney Channels

SOAPnet

Radio Disney Network

ESPN, Inc., The Worldwide Leader in Sports

Family Channel

Disney.com

Family.com

Movies.com

mDisney

The Walt Disney Internet Group (WDIG)

After Figuring out this information I was rather shocked because of all the familiar names that were displayed. I had only thought that Disney was a childhood company and did not cater to other markets. I also came to the realization that this so-called children’s company appeals to everyone by the companies it owns. I believe that Disney has a large role in cross media ownership because of all the different companies in which it claims ownership of. Film, music and television are all different mediums of the media and Disney owns companies in each one of those fields giving them a large part of the world media sources. By Disney owning all of these companies, it places an enormous “hegemony” on the company in my eyes. I say this because Disney owns so much of our world’s media, which then causes the company to maintain and consolidate its power. By doing so the company has great power over the economic, political, and cultural direction of a given nation or place because it has a say in the media that will be distributed into our world. This is extremely dreadful because this company has an enormous hold on our media and the news and information that is translated to the rest of the world. I see this as extremely unsettling and rather shocking.

I would like to hear what others think, as this is an important topic and it greatly affects each and every one of us.

Works Cited

"Company Overview." The Walt Disney Company. 2009. © Disney. All rights reserved., Web. 20 Nov 2009. http://corporate.disney.go.com/corporate/overview.html

Reilly, Ian. "Semiotics!." mass.communication . 2009. A Wetpaint Site, Web. 20 Nov 2009. http://waysofseeing.wetpaint.com/page/Semiotics%21

Fake News! Is There Anything we can Believe?

Please Read:

Editor and Publisher Smears Iwo Jima Picture, Compares to Staged Lebanon Pictures

By Greg Sheffield (Bio | Archive)

August 21, 2006 - 13:10 ET

Editor and Publisher magazine sees one of its duties as protecting the reputation of the journalism profession, even if it means bringing up flimsy evidence against the famous WWII Iwo Jima flag-raising picture, saying that photo faced "the same charges heard today, concerning 'staging.'"

But the E&P staff admits that the evidence is "flimsy" and mere "speculation." So why bring up such charges against one the most memorable events from the war? To score a point: "But as with most of the allegations today, the theories about the Rosenthal photo were based on flimsy evidence or speculation."

In other words: Conservatives, don't attack our industry's photographers, because your treasured war photo could be accused of the same thing.

The phenomenon of questioning war photos that seem too good to be true goes back long before the birth of blogs and the current controversy over pictures from Lebanon. It has even swirled around one of the most famous and honored war photos ever: the flag-raising at Iwo Jima during World War II captured by The Associated Press's Joe Rosenthal, who died yesterday.

Every few years, until recently, reports and rumors appeared that questioned the photo with some of the same charges heard today, concerning "staging." It was fueled by the fact that a smaller flag had been raised nearby earlier that day on Iwo Jima. But as with most of the allegations today, the theories about the Rosenthal photo were based on flimsy evidence or speculation.

This news article is a prime example of false news information and how journalists sometimes change stories around to raise debate. Of course this is the article that goes against the original one and proves that the original photo was taken by Joe Rosenthal and is the real photo that was not staged. The article, which was published in the Editor and Publisher magazine basically, stated that the Joe Rosenthal picture was staged and was not captured in real time, but as you read the article you will find out that it is all just speculation. The original Joe Rosenthal photo has claimed the title as one of the most famous WWII photos of all time.

I believe that this is why there is constant aggression towards this photo, and a journalist knows that a controversial story about American war history should cause quite a stir. Editor and Publisher magazine is a fairly large company with the ability to publish such a story. I believe that major magazine companies or any other media source use controversy to sell. They do this because they know what people like. People like to question things and companies know that, which is why it is consider a selling point. It is somewhat sad that in order to make money one must desecrate an honored war photo. I am no considerable fan of the United States but that photo is a piece of history and I believe it should be just left alone. Staged or not staged.

The funny thing is, is that The Editor & Publisher Magazine is a USA print media business news magazine, which basically means that an American wrote the article against the historical photo.

What is this world coming to?

Works Cited

Sheffield, Greg. "Editor and Publisher Smears Iwo Jima Picture, Compares to Staged Lebanon Pictures." Editor and Publisher magazine August 21,2006: n. pag. Web. 9 Oct 2009. <http://newsbusters.org/node/7097>

Ideologies on the Media

Marshall McLuhan is a scholar of the 1900s. He wrote several books in his time and is known for much of his works. I of course did not even know he existed until my first year of university. I never learned of him during high school, but I am glad I have learned about him now. I am guessing that he was never a topic in high school because there were not many media courses at my school. Marshal McLuhan wrote about more than just the media, but that was how I was introduced to him. I believe that his ideologies are correct about media, because they do make a lot of sense. For example Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man is a famous book written by McLuhan that discusses how the media works and its impact on us.

McLuhan states in his book that "the medium is the message". What he means by “Medium” is that it refers to the mass media of communications. For example the radio, television, the press, the Internet, newspapers, magazines and other forms of media that revolve around us. I believe what McLuhan is trying to say is that all of these media forms are what bring us together. I also see it as a massive library filled with information where we can interpret that information in our own ways. Being an advertisement on television or an article in a magazine there is a message within those mediums, and I believe that this is what McLuhan means.

The title of the book also has meaning. The title once again is Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. McLuhan uses the term “extension” but what does he mean by this? I was told by my professor that McLuhan means that the media is our extension. He uses extension because he is speaking about the extension of our eyes and ears. If you think about this it actually makes a lot of sense. With the media we know almost everything that is going on around us, but if the media were not available then we would not know what was happening across the world almost instantly. This is how our eyes and ears extend how we can see and hear things now that we could never see and hear before. For example “culture” we can see all kinds of different cultures and learn about them just by turning on the television or going onto the Internet. This is what McLuhan means by his ideologies, and I do agree with them because they do make absolute sense in my opinion. I also think that McLuhan was quick on noticing how the media will affect us. McLuhan’s book was published in 1964 and the Ideologies in his book still have a significant influence in today’s society more that 40 years later.

A quote from his book: Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man

"In a culture like ours, long accustomed to splitting and dividing all things as a means of control, it is sometimes a bit of a shock to be reminded that, in operational and practical fact, the medium is the message. This is merely to say that the personal and social consequences of any medium - that is, of any extension of ourselves - result from the new scale that is introduced into our affairs by each extension of ourselves, or by any new technology." (McLuhan 7)

Works Cited

Federman, Mark. "What is the Meaning of The Medium is the Message?." individual.utoronto.ca. Web. 8 Oct 2009. <http://individual.utoronto.ca/markfederman/article_mediumisthemessage.htm>.

McLuhan, Marshall. Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. New York: McGraw Hill, 1964. Print.