Chapters 13, 15, and 16 Posts

Chapter 13:
1. Are you exposed to popular culture from other countries? Why or why not? Give some examples. I believe I am exposed to popular culture from different countries, but I think I just do not realize it. I know one popular culture that is from another country and that is the dance workout known as Zumba. I like it because it helps your body move around and work the cardio and lose weight. Another is that it feels like I am at a night club dancing with other people around me and just having fun. I have looked at some of the websites and videos of people doing this workout program and they do this in the United States and in foreign countries as well.

2. Do you read international news? Why or why not? I do not read international news. The main reason is that I cannot understand some of the languages that put on the websites of the international news stations and their newspapers. But also, I try to keep my focus on the things that are going on here in our own country because I like to know the facts that go on here in the United States. But I do think that it is my duty to start reading some of the international news that could possibly be printed on the local newspapers that are distributed in towns and cities that are here in the U.S.

Chapter 15:
1. What are your main concerns or criticisms about the state of media studies at your college or university? I do not have a lot of concerns or criticisms about the media courses here at my school, but I do have one little concern about it. I always wondered if one media course was about horror movies and one of the students became a complete psychopath and started killing people on campus just that he could make a point about some theory about horror movies. I saw something like that happen in a movie, and that could not possibly happen, but what if that really did happen? But I have to say that some of our media courses here are outstanding classes and that the professors know what they are teaching to the students.

2. One charge that has been leveled against a lot of media research-both the effects and the cultural models-is that it has very little impact on changing our media institutions. Do you agree or disagree, and why?

I agree to this. Mainly because that there are a lot of cultural models that will affect the media institutions and that it can be hard to change on some of the things that go on the world. I think that impacts to the media institutions would help things move along in the world.

Chapter 16:

1. Have you ever had an experience in which you thought personal or public expression went too far and should be curbed? Explain. How might you remedy this situation? I might not have had an experience but I do believe that personal or public expression can get too far when giving out news or gossip. One thing that I do not like is the personal expression is about someone that I am very close to and would hurt me very bad to hear something like that going on during the news. I believe that personal or public expression should be curbed, especially if it is spreading false statements about people and it ends hurting them and giving them bad credit. That kind of stuff would hurt their reputation with the public and make them lose the respect that they had.

4. Who is Judith Miller? Should the United States have a federal shield law to protect reporters? Judith Miller is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist. She was later involved in the disclosing of Valerie Plame's identity as a CIA agent. She spent three months in jail for claiming reporter's privilege and refusing to reveal her sources in the CIA leak. I believe that the United States should have a federal shield law that would protect reporters, but the reporters should be required to give their sources if their stories involve a murder or a very serious crime. The police should have the information that could help them catch the bad guy behind the crimes but if the reporter had stories that were about embezzling money for different companies, then they should have the shield laws protect them.

Chapter 12 Posts

Chapter 12:
1. What do you think of when you hear the term public relations? What images come to mind? Where did these impressions come from? When I hear the term public relations, it means to me that the public gets interactive in the community through the media. Some images or ideas that come to mind are people taking pictures and posting them on the Internet. The pictures would be photos about the community and there would be news reports from about the things that go on in the community. I imagine that there are people who are in charge of letting the public know about the organizations that want to let the community about them and to franchise about them. My impressions of public relation agencies came from just watching about these on the television.

3. What steps can reporters and editors take to monitor PR agents who manipulate the news media? Some steps that reporters and editors can monitor PR agents that they are not manipulating the news media, is that they can have the agents present what they would do in the news briefings and be able to understand how they want to present. Another step is by making sure that they present the facts and not any stuff that would ruin the organization. They editors can make that they are highly informative to make sure that the PR agents do not manipulate or take over the paper company or the magazine. I believe that the reporters and editors can make sure that PR agents do not manipulate the news media get taken over.

Chapters 10 & 11 Posts

Chapter 10:
1. What are your earliest recollections of books? Do you read for pleasure? If yes, what kinds of books do you enjoy? Why? My earliest recollections of reading books was back when I was around 7-years-old and then I started reading just plain children’s books. I will read books for pleasure on occasion and then I will read books for reasons that I need to do for assignments. I’ll read all kinds of books. I’ll read some horror and science-fiction along with drama and romance books. Those kinds of books always catch my attentions whenever I read them. I like to read horror books because they really keep me in suspense whenever I am reading and they give exact details that are going on in the book.

6. Would you read a book on an iPod or a Kindle? Why or why not? I would not read a book from either an iPod or a Kindle. I like to read books with them just sitting on my lap and just turning the page. I like to save the spot where I am in a book by just folding the corner of a page and marking where I was on that certain page. If I was reading a book through an iPod or a Kindle, I would have a hard time looking at the screen and would start having headaches. Plus, I can’t mark where I stopped reading and I would have to recharge the batteries of iPod or the Kindle.

Chapter 11:
1. What is your earliest recollection of watching a television commercial? Do you have a favorite ad? A most-despised ad? What is it about these ads that you particularly like or dislike? My earliest recollection of watching television commercials was when I was about 5-years-old. My parents always allowed me to watch television when I was younger, just as long as I didn’t watch anything that was not inappropriate for me. My favorite ad was seeing the advertisement for the new iPhone that would be available from Verizon. The ad that I didn’t like so much was the ad the T-moble phones. I don’t like those ads because they try so hard to get people to buy their phones but people end up buying phones from Verizon and AT&T. I like the ad for Verizon’s iPhone because I always wanted an iPhone but was unable to because my phone plan was to Verizon.

4. Should advertising aimed at children be regulated? Support your response. I believe advertising aimed at children should be regulated because there are ads on television that children love. Some of the ads that are provided for the children, especially for the younger aged children, are about toys, stuffed animals, children’s clothes, and services for children. The advertisements for toys or stuffed animals really catch the children’s attention because children will want to have toys and stuff animals and want these items. Every time the children go to the stores with their parents, they spend money on the toys and the profits for those toys will go up and make the advertisement commercials become even better.

Chapter 9

Chapter 9
1. What are your earliest recollections of magazines? Which magazines do you read regularly today? Why? My earliest recollections of magazines were when I was around 9-years-old. I always got subscriptions of National Geographic almost every month. The funny thing was that, I hardly ever read the magazines. But I also read some of the interesting articles that I was interested. The magazines that I read today, is People magazine and read on what is going on with the celebrities in today’s society. I do not get the subscriptions in the mail like everyone does; I would usually read them while I am sitting in the waiting room of a doctor’s office or at a local book store.

7. Do you think the Internet will eventually displace magazines? Why or why not?

I think that the Internet will displace magazines because all the magazine publishing companies are now posting the articles online to the magazine’s website. It just like the newspaper companies now going online and posting their articles it would not have been long before magazine publishers started doing the same. Another thing is that if the magazines could not have put enough stories on the magazine subscriptions, then they could at least put the stories that were unable to be put on the subscriptions on the Internet. More people look up things and articles on the Internet more than they do from reading the magazines.

Chapter 8 Posts

Chapter 8:
2. Why do you think people aren't reading U.S. daily newspapers as frequently as they once did? Why is newspaper readership going up in other countries? I believe that people are not reading many U.S. daily newspapers that frequently is because they are now getting use to watching the news in the mornings while getting ready for work or for school. Another reason is that some people really don’t want to keep paying the subscription to their newspapers anymore due to the fact that they are turning their attention to the television news stations and that the newspaper companies also post their news articles on the Internet on their websites as well. Newspaper readership goes up in other countries because they people in some of those countries do not have news stations and that all they have to know about any of the world events that go on during today’s society.

5. Will blogs and other Internet news services eventually replace newspapers? Explain your response. I do believe that blogs and other Internet news services will replace newspapers sometime in the future. The reason I believe this is that a lot of people in today’s society post blogs about the events that go on in the world today and they post new blogs up almost every hour or so and they keep posting about a certain event until another news worthy event happens, then they blogger will just move on to that event. And also, some of the newspaper companies like The New York Times and USA Today have their own websites to where they just put up the articles on the Internet and it could make it easier for people to read instead.

Chapter 7 Post

Chapter 7:
2. Do you remember seeing a movie you were not allowed to see? Discuss the experience. My parents were very strict on me about watching movies that had some of the stars in movies almost taking their clothes off. It was many my mother who was strict on me about that, because I was just a young child and that she did not want that to ruin my personal mind and have any situational thoughts. As I got older, my parents did care about any of the movies that I watched as long as I did not do anything that would get me into trouble or anything that would hurt me. I really liked the Jackass movies and my parents didn’t mind me watching them, as long I didn’t try any of the stunts from the movies.

3. How often do you go to the movie theaters today? How often do you play DVDs on a television at home, or watch movies on a computer? Which experience do you prefer and why? I go to the movie theaters about two or three times a month. I do not go every week because the ticket prices for the movie theaters are just high and would kill my checking account. I play my DVDs both on my DVD player and on my computer. I would play movies on my laptop whenever I am on a trip or I am not near my television. I watch movies on my television almost every week whenever I am not busy with homework or any other work that I have to get done. I actually prefer watching movies from DVDs because the ticket prices at the movie theaters would put me in debt in my checking account.

Chapter 6 Post

Chapter 6
1. How many cable channels do you watch regularly? What programs do you watch? What attracts you to a certain channel? I watch about at least about 12 different cable channels regularly but not all in one day. Some of the different cable channels that I watch are CBS, TBS, SciFy, TNT, Nickelodeon, Spike TV, and the CW. Some of the programs that I watch on these channels are Friends, CSI: NY, Justified, Supernatural, Family Guy, iCarly, and Spongebob Squarepants. What attracts me to these certain channels is because of the shows that they stations broadcast and what goes on during the programs. I love to enjoy what comes on the programs and how they keep me in suspense when they show clips of the new episodes that premieres the following week.

4. CNN and MTV have changed our society as well as the global culture. Have these changes been positive or negative? Explain. I believe that the changes of CNN were positive because CNN gives people events that are going on in the world today. It also presents even the small events go on in the world. But they talk about the major news stories on the television and they keep talking about them for almost a half hour. I believe that the changes for MTV were negative because originally it was a music station for people wanting to listen to music. But now the station was changed to have reality television shows that are just plain stupid and barely show music videos done by some of our favorite artists and make their videos shown early in the morning. After that, they just show programs of people doing normal things in their daily lives.