Attendance Statement

In Media Literacy, the attendance policy is that students should come to class and if you are not going to be able to make it, make sure to let Rob know beforehand. By doing so, you will be excused. For every unexcused absence, our final grade would drop by 20 points. Basically, attendance is required, but two excused absences are allowed.

For me, I did not miss any classes. Nor did I come in late for Media Literacy. I came for every single class and made sure to take notes on lectures. I was on time and in the classroom for all lectures, movies, projects, work days, and rants by Rob. When in class, I came prepared, ready to soak up any and all information about the media. Critical thinking was always evident in the classroom and I always made sure to take notes, jotting down simple phrases to complex ideas. Overall, I came to all the Media Literacy class times with an open mind and my notebook, ready to take notes on the media.

Critique Paper

            We are the media. The media has been with us since the beginning of time, whether you believe in the Old Earth or New Earth. Each and every one of us has a real history, an actual archive of where we came from. The media has travelled with us through time, encountering artificial intelligence and questioning what the future may hold for human life. Advancements in technology could shift the way we communicate with people. The media will continue to be with us though, even if some sort of super intelligence controls us, because the media is archived in our lives forever, for we are the media.

            The archaic root of the media began six thousand years ago. For some though, the root is much deeper. For those that believe in a monotheistic religion, six thousand years ago is the creation of not only man but the spoken form of communication as well. This root began at the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Here, the “heavenly tape” of the Book of Life began; the life of the human’s origin or archive began here. When talking about religion and God, a subject that can come up is angels. Angels are in existence to protect and guide us human beings as well as carry out God’s tasks. Angels are the messengers of God, protecting us along our path of life, which makes me wonder, are we the media of the angels? If we carry out God’s tasks, doesn’t that mean that we are his media? Are we not the “Sims” of God? He has created this world for us to live in, with plants, animals, and people to interact with. Could it be said that it is His virtual world we are living in? He made it possible for humans to communicate and to get their ideas across to one another, as well as creating an archive that we live in. It was stated in class that we are digital creatures, guided along on a path that is always on play. If we are digital creatures, when will the rest of life become digitalized and artificial intelligence be the norm?

            Computers are a part of modern media. Google helps us find certain articles, facts, and stories. Computers also allow us to play games, allowing us to become our avatar. With all the advancements computers have brought to us, will computers actually succeed the human race? Artificial intelligence is the science and engineering of making intelligent machines, such as intelligent computer programs. Alan Turing was the inventor of the Turing test, which tests a machine’s ability to demonstrate intelligent behavior. In the test, a human engages in a conversation with another human and a computer, designed to generate a conversation indistinguishable from that of a human. If the human cannot tell the difference between the machine and the other human, then the computer is said to have passed the Turing test. If this type of testing was being done in the 1950s, what is to come of this? Could computers actually be as convincing and realistic in conversation as a human being? This produces a curiosity within me: will we live our lives within computers? The computer serves us with information. With advancements in technology every day, maybe one day we will have to serve the computers. Or will we even know the difference if computers are so life-like?

            With artificial intelligence a possibility, singularity is a factor that may become a reality for our future. This singularity refers to a hypothetical future appearance of a greater-than-human intelligence through technological means. Would that mean that these “super intelligences” design the future generations to come, as if they are the controllers of the humans, or “Sims”? Today, we can play games against the computer online, such as Jeopardy!. If the computer can beat us at that game, what will occur with the increasing technological advancements? Will the computer be able to build a skyscraper without our help? Maybe the life of a virtual world or video game is to be our day to day life.

These are all unknown aspects of the future, but one thing for sure is the importance of actuality. We know we have a real history or an actual archive. We have an account of where we come from. We may be digital creatures on play, where one day we could have conversations with computers and have our “God” be a freshman in college controlling our lives like on the Sims. Whatever our future may turn out to be, we have our archive, our story in the Book of Life.  Our origin began there and our origin is the beginning of the media. I may not know what the future may be—our media may solely be through computers, being in their virtual world. What I do know is that without a doubt we originated and created the media, and the media will continue. We are the media.

Close Encounters of the Filmmaking Kind

These are the photos that go along with my special news report, Close Encounters of the Filmmaking Kind.

Background:

First photo : Connect with audience through eyes of the actors.



Second photo : Social impacts of film

Third photo : Transformation in filmmaking industry

Official Documentary Week

(Midterm Essay)

                A documentary film is a movie that attempts, in some way or another, to document “reality”. Dictionary.com says that ‘documentaries’ are “factual films or television programs about an event, person, etc., presenting the facts with little or no fiction”. The scenes are not scripted and the people in the documentary are not actors; they are your average Jack and Jill down the street. In Media Literacy class, we were faced with the task of documentaries. In each of the documentaries, from The American Dream, to Food Inc., the purpose of the films was to tell society what we are facing with; to tell the reality of life. Before these documentaries, I never thought about how the government is hiding information from us, or how today, farms are no longer farms with green grass, but factories with antibiotic filled animals. Documentaries reveal different sides of life and inform us along the way. Not only does it make me aware of the life we are living in but also makes me critically think and wonder what else is going on in my life that should be uncovered.

                 Anything that has to do with politics, the government, or how our system works, does not mix well with me. I simply do not understand those aspects of life. So, for me, the cartoon, The American Dream, made me critically think. As well as the Alex Jones documentaries, their focus was to reveal to us, the people of the United States of America, what is going on in our government. The films shot out numerous amounts of information at us, from Alex Jones saying that we are living in tyranny and the government is hiding information behind our backs, to The American Dream stating that the Federal Reserve is in control of the bank’s money. Had I ever thought of this before coming to Media Literacy class? No way. This experience made me wonder what else is being hidden from us, the citizens of the United States. Being that I am a citizen, shouldn’t my government not keep information from me? These documentaries really stirred up a lot of questions in my mind.

                From our government, to how the meat we buy in our local grocery store comes from filthy, often mistreated farms, documentaries try to uncover the truths of what is going on in society and how it affects us. In the disturbing and revealing documentary, Food Inc., the realities of what we eat is brought up to the front burner. When you buy a hamburger from your favorite restaurant or eat your school cafeteria’s chicken patty sandwich, do you sit down and ask yourself, where did this food come from? I know I don’t. I thought Food Inc. brought forth the disturbing truths of how the products that we eat are altered and treated. The produce that we buy may say “farm fresh”, but does that necessarily mean that it was grown on a luscious green farm, with leaves swaying in the cooling breeze? No. Today, we are solely producing food. Our food is a mass production, not a farm. These revealing truths about what we eat made me stop and think about what I consume; is what I am ingesting safe or was the animal treated poorly? It honestly makes you not want to eat. It sent a shock through me because the factual truth was right in front of our eyes. For example, the chickens we eat today were shown to be twice the size they used to be and get to that size twice as fast. Yet, we still consume it, not worrying.

                If the government is corrupt and we are living in tyranny, or if the food we eat is coming from places of mistreatment, what else could be uncovered in our daily lives? Documentaries are set out to reveal the realities of what we are living through every day and they do so by presenting revealing facts and truths. These documentaries made me stop and think; is my government hiding information from me or where did my pork chop come from? The documentaries are set out to inform society of what is happening in our lives and sometimes, the reality is hard to swallow.

Shattered Glass Ops:

Judge: Cleaner Owes Me $65 Million for Pants

Washington— The Chungs, immigrants from South Korea, realized their American dream when they opened their dry-cleaning business seven years ago in the nation's capital. For the past two years, however, they've been dealing with a nightmare: a $65 million lawsuit over a pair of missing pants.

Jin Nam Chung, Ki Chung and their son, Soo Chung, are so disheartened that they're considering moving back to Seoul, said their attorney, Chris Manning, who spoke on their behalf. "This has destroyed their lives." The lawsuit was filed by a D.C. judge, Roy Pearson, who is also representing himself. According to court documents, the problem began in May 2005 when Pearson became a judge and brought several suits for alteration to Custom Cleaners in Northeast Washington. A pair of pants from one suit was not ready when he requested it two days later, and was said to be missing.

Pearson asked the cleaners for the full price of the suit: more than $1,000. But a week later, the Chungs said the pants had been found and refused to pay. That's when Pearson decided to sue. The Chung's attorney said the cleaners made three settlement offers to Pearson, and he denied every one single one. Pearson wasn't satisfied. Because Pearson no longer wanted to use his neighborhood dry cleaner, part of his lawsuit calls for $15,000 — the price to rent a car every weekend for 10 years to go to another business.

But the bulk of the $65 million comes from Pearson's strict interpretation of D.C.'s consumer protection law, which fines violators $1,500 per violation, per day. According to papers, Pearson added up 12 violations over 1,200 days, and then multiplied that by three defendants.

5/3/2007

Custom Cleaners: http://www.yelp.com/biz/custom-cleaners-washington 

In October of 2007, Roy Pearson lost his court case and his job.



Essay on Earliest Media History

          The media are everywhere in our daily lives. We pick up a newspaper and read about the events in our hometown or across the globe. We can see and hear the latest breaking news on our living room television. We can even learn information from our friends. All of these types of media are connected in one way or another, originating back thousands or tens of thousands of years ago, depending on if you believe in either the New Earth or Old Earth theory. No matter what theory you accept as true, the origins of media are old forms that modernized into what we know today.

          As said on businessdictionary.com, the media are “communication channels through which news, entertainment, education, data, or promotional messages are disseminated”. The beginnings of these communications depend on what theory you personally believe. The Old Earth theory says that the earth began 4.6 billion years ago, and follows the ideas of evolution, whereas New Earth theory believes that earth was formed 6,000 years ago when God made creation. Whatever you believe, word of mouth can be stated as the “most ancient and organic form of media”; Adam talking to Eve in the Garden of Eden or cavemen talking to other homo sapiens. This interaction through word of mouth is when the process of media began.

          From word of mouth, other forms of the media and the ways to communicate erupted. Printed or written media came to the surface, such as hieroglyphs in Egypt or the many different types of the alphabet, such as Chinese or Greek alphabet. Each of the alphabets were formed and built off the one before it, where it eventually became our modern alphabet of twenty six letters. Other printed media includes the newspaper and the printing press. The printing press was invented by Johann Gutenberg and this new advancement can be credited not only for a revolution in the production of books, but also for the rapid development in the arts, sciences, and religion through the diffusion of texts. The printing press allowed for the spread of literacy, people’s ideas, research, and news to be spread about. When Gutenberg first brought out his printing press, it could print 240 pages per hour rather than the few pages if done by hand. Over time, with revolutions in technology and innovation, such as the Industrial Revolution and steam power, the printing press transformed and made it possible for thousands of pages to be printed. These improvements allowed for mass communication to escalate, thus making the printing press to be the "turning point in media". It created a way for tens of thousands of people to become connected and informed of what was happening in society. Today, there are thousands of printings available for us to read and each of the companies responsible for the print-outs can produce massive amounts of product at a fast rate every day.

          The basis of media is to get the word out of what is happening. Besides word of mouth and the printing press, there were many other various forms to inform and communicate with people. To get this message out, different cultures and societies used different resources: pigeons, postal service, drum codes, or even fire. Of course, there are other numerous types of media. All of these earliest forms of media though, have transformed into modern applications. One example is homing pigeons. Homing pigeons debuted in 800 BC for the outcome of the Olympic Games. The pigeons would send results of the events to other cities. These birds could send messages as far as 1,000 miles to the destined receiver. Throughout time and advancements in technology, we as a society went from pigeons to Twitter. No more do we need to send a bird out for hours or days to send a message, but rather mere seconds to tell the world what is on our mind with a “tweet”. These improvements of speed and technology of today shows how messages have modernized
          The forms media are ancient, but throughout time, they have changed and evolved into modern application, with an increase of speed, quality, and innovation for the dispersing of communication. Whether we believe in New Earth or Old Earth, the media went through many numerous forms. Media allows us to communicate news, entertainment, stories, data, education, messages, and to get our ideas across to the masses. Without these ancient innovations, who knows how society would be today.

Books and People in Media Literacy

1. Eric Schlosser - "McDonald's Golden Arches," he writes, "are now more widely recognized than the Christian cross." This refers back to a quote that Rob said at the beginning of the Media Literacy class (check my quotes)

2. Marco Tempest - The Magic of Truth and Lies (and iPods) - Ted Talk

3. Meadows, M. S. (2008). I, Avatar: The Culture and Consequences of Having a Second Life. Indianapolis, IN: New Riders. 

4. Cobley, P., & Jansz, L. (2010). Introducing Semiotics. Manchester, UK: Icon.

5. Kurzweil, R. (2006). The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology. New York: Penguin.

6. Steve Jobs - creator of Apple. His logo of the apple is known throughtout the world (semiotics) and because of him, communications and media are possible.

7. Ray Kurzweil - author of The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology.

8. Alex Jones - documentary filmmaker, radio talkshow host, political activist

9. Johann Gutenberg - inventor of the printing press

10. Stephen Glass - the movie Shattered Glass is based on Stephen Glass and deception

11. Glass, S. (2003). The Fabulist: A Novel. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster. 

12. Jackson, B., & Jamieson, K. H. (2007). UnSpun: Finding Facts in a World of Disinformation. New York: Random House Trade Paperbacks. 

13. Adam and Eve - New Earth Theory; earliest form of media

14. Fidler, R. F. (1997). Mediamorphosis: Understanding New Media.. Thousand Oaks, California: Pine Forge Press. 

15. The Ascent of Media: From Gilgamesh to Google via Gutenberg. (2011). London: Nicholas Brealey Pub.

16. We the Media: Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People. (2004). Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly Media Inc.

 17. Dominick, J. R. (2009). The Dynamics of Mass Communication (10th ed.). Boston: Mcgraw-Hill Higher Education. 

18. Pollan, M. (2006). The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. New York: Penguin Press.

19. Michael Pollan - author of The Omnivore's Dilema

20. Walter Cronkite - He anchored the CBS evening news for over 20 years; he was the daily prescence in the American home. Walter Cronkite brought CBS to the pinnacle of prestige and popularity in television news.

21. Steven Spielberg - He is an American film director, screen writer, film producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur.

22. Barnouw, E. (1990). Tube of Plenty: The Evolution of American Television (2nd revised ed.). London: Oxford University Press.