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Reflecting on a Relationship with Media

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Although the amount of media that I consume hasn't changed since the beginning of this blog, my awareness of the implicit messages being given and other things like appeals and ethics has increased.  Being aware of media consumption changes the way that I interact with media, because now whenever I check social media or look at advertisements, I'm continually thinking in the back of my mind about if this is too much media for one day.  In addition, whenever I see an advertisement in my everyday life, I am more aware that it is there, while in the past, I'd watch ads and commercials and not even be able to remember what they were about a few seconds after watching them.  Now, I constantly catch myself analyzing the techniques being used by the advertisers which I find funny, but also good, because it allows me to recognize what feelings the advertiser is trying to create within the viewer. I think that being able to remember the ads I see is helpful because it allows me to...
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Racial Steretypes in the Media

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Ever since the start of my critical thinking class, I've been paying closer attention to the messages of the media and one in particular has significantly caught my attention.  That would be the basic and most often false stereotypes portrayed about particular races.  Channels like Disney channel portray false images about race in their TV shows, but also in their movies, which troubles me because of the audience that enjoys watching Disney channel.  If stereotypes about specific races are continually portrayed in shows and movies that children watch, they will grow up assuming that, for example, all Asians are smart or all African-Americans are good at football and basketball.  They might even continue to believe that these stereotypes are accurate as they grow older, if they live in areas that lack ethnic diversity.  Racial prejudice and stereotyping also exists in the news.  For example, after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans and the city began to flood...
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The Essence of Adidas

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The past month or so, in my zero period critical thinking class, I have been analyzing the advertisement techniques of the Adidas company with a group.  We've looked at their advertising strategies with print ads and commercials and we feel that we've finally captured the essence of their brand.  Adidas, as many know, is an athletic company that focuses on selling products that will appeal to athletes, for example, the cleats and running shoes that they make.  The question is, how do they get people to buy products specifically from them if other companies like Nike are basically selling the same thing.  The answer would have to be the essence of the brand, the ideas and appeals they incorporate in advertising, and the consequences they attach to the purchase of their products.  In this post, I would like to focus on the appeals of ethos, pathos, and logos, and whether or not Adidas uses them in a balanced matter, or focuses too much on one, and not the others....
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Toyota Holiday Commercial

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While at the movie theaters waiting for my movie to start, there was the typical ads and trailers, but one in particular caught my attention.  This one was the Toyota holiday commercial, however, after watching the commercial, I was utterly confused about how it had anything to do with cars.  The commercial starts with a sad song and a woman driving with her husband down a road.  The husband says that he's heard that her parents are upset.  She answers saying that the tree meant a lot to them.  This brings into the equation that they are probably driving to a tree that in some way was damaged or cut down, because otherwise there would be no reason for her parents to get upset about it.  The only Toyota products are the trucks that are being driven to cut down the tree.  The commercial continues and they take pieces of the tree back home to make a table out of it.  While the husband makes the table, the main character (the lady) looks at family ...
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Miss Representation

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The documentary: "Miss Representation" focuses on the message that social media portrays about women and the roles that are "appropriate"for them to fulfill in society.  Unfortunately, the things that media tells women are negative and result in a largely patriarchal society that considers itself a democracy even though equality doesn't seem to take priority especially when it comes to race and gender.  Although I was already aware of a lot of the problems discussed in this documentary, I enjoyed watching it because it expanded my knowledge of the problems faced by women that are successful or who aspire to break from traditional views and values.  What I found fascinating, however, were the statistics that were presented, which really brought into perspective the struggle of the female sex.  For example, one in four girls experience teen dating violence.  This data means that not only are women increasingly seen as objects that are to be possessed rather than p...
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#Why?

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With the emergence of hashtags, the way that social media is being used, has changed.  Previous to the invention of the use of hashtags, I believe that social media had a slightly different purpose.  Currently, I feel like hashtags group people into clans/tribes based on what the name of the hashtag one uses is.  For example, according to medium.com,  the most popular hashtags of this year are "#love" being at number one and other hashtags like: "#instagood", "#happy", "#cute", and "#followme" following in the top ten.  The words used in these hashtags, although they may seem insignificant at a glance, can show an individual many things about the people that use them in their posts.  For example, hashtags like: "#happy", "#cute", or "#love" can be attributes or feelings that posters want others to associate with their life.  If you're constantly using these hashtags in pictures or videos of...
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No More Net Neutrality?

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As many may know, net neutrality protections were repealed on December 14th, because the FCC's Republican majority approved chairman Ajit Pai's plan.  To learn more about this subject, I looked for articles and eventually ended up on the website: savetheinternet.com.  Although the name suggested that the article was going to be strongly opinionated, I decided that I would read it anyway and see what I thought about the issue and the stance that the people running this website were taking.  What immediately caught my attention were letters in bold font that said: "What will happen to the internet now?".  I began reading, because I wanted to know the things that I should be expecting to see since I'm only a couple of years away from being an adult.  In my opinion, it is important to be aware of the world that you are about to enter as an individual without the constant help of your parents.  The paragraph stated that companies like Verizon, AT&T, and Comc...
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