The Obama Deception
In Alex Jones’ Film “The Obama Deception” there are many critical evaluations made of the way our world is currently functioning. In the recent change of power Alex Jones’ has gone out and tried to find truths about the way President Barack Obama, the most “powerful” man in the world makes his decisions and what kind of background influence there might be. In this film Mr. Jones is trying to prove that there is a “Globalist Agenda” that is creating every decision made by our government. There is a large group of bankers, corporate owners, and financial masterminds controlling the US.
This film works extremely hard on the triune brain. Starting with the limbic we are constantly exposed to images and sounds that stir emotional responses. Alex Jones’ deep and ominous voice sets the tone for viewers to become seriously critical of all topics he brings up. The neocortex is working overtime as there are many messages being analyzed, the whole “Wall Street is Killing Main Street” idea is a great example of just how deep you have to think while watching this film. And the reptilian is pulled out of hibernation when Mr. Jones starts yelling through the bullhorns at the Bilderberg group.
When a critical film like the “Obama Deception” is produced it has to contain many different modes of persuasion so it can win over the viewers. Persuasive techniques like Plain Folks, Hyperbole, Bandwagon, Fear, Testimonial, Big Lie, Name Calling, and Repetition were used. Plain folks show up when Jones continues talking about Middle America being taken advantage of. Jones makes himself seem like he is part of the American struggle and tries to relate to viewers on their level. Hyperbole is constantly used for example when Alex Jones’ is in the Hotel and he makes it seem like everyone is out to get him, there is no actual evidence that he was confronted, just his story. Bandwagon is shown when the groups of people are standing outside of the Bilderberg conference joining together to fight the system! Fear is conveyed by the images that are photoshoped of Obama with dark ominous figures behind him controlling him. One of many testimonials in the film was given by Daniel Estulin, this helps sell Jones’ idea that much more. One example of Big Lie is used when he shows Henry Kissenger starting the “New World Order.” Jones repeats terms like puppets and Wall Street council to get his point across that there is a Global Agenda in place. The use of name-calling comes into play when he states that the government are profiteering and when uses the terms liberal and conservative to put a face with the ideals.
Some general principles used were the production techniques; jump cuts and fading were used to move to the next point or idea he was trying to make. The creation of images and the use of the “Ken Burns Effect” brought more emotional responses out of people as they saw pictures of Obama with Wall Street behind him.
Some of the media matrix themes that were brought up were the personal shift, the political shift and the cultural shift. The personal shift was used when Alex Jones’ finished the film saying that they only way anything in this situation will change is if individuals take the initiative to go out and discover the truths themselves and inform others around them. The cultural shift from privacy to surveillance is brought up when talking about the individuals monitor the American people and the Patriot Act was brought up to explain a form of control. And the political shift has gone to deregulation because of the small group of powerful individuals that form an oligarchy to control the way our country functions.
During the film Alex Jones refers to many groups and topics that I know very little about. Due to my lack of knowledge in certain areas like the Federal Reserve, the Bilderberg group, and Info Wars I decided to look further into these groups. The Federal Reserve is the first topic I decided to research and I learned more about the Reserve than I ever knew before. The Federal Reserve System is the central banking system of the United States. Created in 1913 by the enactment of the Federal Reserve Act, it is a quasi-public (government entity with private components) banking system that comprises the residentially appointed Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System in Washington, D.C.; the Federal Open Market Committee; twelve regional Federal Reserve Banks located in major cities throughout the nation acting as fiscal agents for the U.S. Treasury, each with its own nine-member board of directors; numerous other private U.S. member banks, which subscribe to required amounts of non-transferable stock in their regional Federal Reserve Banks; and various advisory councils. This group sounds pretty elitist, but I also questioned the purpose of this bank. “The primary motivation for creating the Federal Reserve System was to address banking panics. Other purposes are stated in the Federal Reserve Act, such as "to furnish an elastic currency, to afford means of rediscounting commercial paper, to establish a more effective supervision of banking in the United States, and for other purposes" (federalreserve.gov). Banking crises like the current economic slump we are in? Alex Jones talks about the Federal Reserve being able to control situations like this one in the US and even though I think he’s crazy he begins to make some sense now that I understand more about the “Fed.”
Jones also brings up the Bilderberg group and its influence on world affair. He states in the movie that this group has a “Globalist Agenda” and that they are trying to create a “New World Order.” So what is the Bilderberg group exactly? “The Bilderberg Group is a group of influential people, mostly politicians and business people, whose existence and activities are private, and due to its secretive nature is the subject of numerous conspiracy theories. The group meets annually at five-star resorts throughout the world, normally in Europe, although sometimes in America or Canada. It has an office in Leiden, South Holland.” Alex Jones brings up the point that many Presidents of the US have been “puppets” in Bilderberg schemes to control the world. Barack Obama is no different as he’s shown in the film attending a meeting with this supposed group of powerful individuals. It seems like the only information I can find about Bilderberg comes from conspiracy sites and videos so it’s hard to be sure the factual evidence and the fictional.
Info Wars is a group that Alex Jones runs which is trying to combat “the war for our minds.” At their website they talk about the endgame created by groups like Bilderberg that is planned to end in global enslavement. Info Wars seems to have many conspiracy theories jumping off the page at you while reading on the website. This media group functions to inform people about the danger that we are in, and the actions that we need to take in order to survive as a free society. The website infowars.com has multiple places to post your opinions and read about the deep truths on topics that the mainstream media only hits the surface with their coverage.
The Obama Deception was a very thought provoking film that I enjoyed watching and critiquing. When reflecting on the texts that we have read I realize that the book of Censored Stories has the same general objective that this film has. To inform people around the world about hidden topics that the government and mainstream media don’t want you to know about. Feed also creates parallels with Alex Jones’ film. The construct built by secret organizations to control us is relevant in both the film and the novel. To end with a thought about Feed and the Obama Deception, the idea of the Bilderberg group is similar to the idea of the Feed controlling us, both are hidden to the common person but they exist behind all the clutter, they are there to keep us in line and stop us from thinking for ourselves.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Food for Thought...A Truckload to Be Exact
Media Revelations
1. The first media revelations that I have discovered deals with the financial world’s control over our government. In the film, “The Obama Deception” Alex Jones makes it known that Wall Street big wigs are controlling President Obama and his cabinet. Before watching this movie I never had given a thought to direct control by some larger group. Alex Jones constantly references the Bilderberg group as a higher power that is Obama’s “puppet masters”. The “Globalist Agenda” is what comes first and Jones shows this by stating the fact that the economic recession is all part of restoring order to the Bilderberg’s plans. With this whole situation I feel like I am part of the environment that Anderson creates in “Feed.” Near the end of the book the main character tries to help his friend understand the situation but he barely knows all the facts. “That’s all I knew how to find. So I told her partial stories. The small parts of these stories I could find. I told her what I knew. That the Global Alliance had issued more warning about the possibility of total war if their demands aren’t met” (page 296). If I were to try and explain Alex Jones’ theories to a friend I feel that I would sound like the main character from feed, telling partial ideas that I understood mildly.
Posted November 2006
Also had to add this Alex Jones Video...very interesting stuff!!!!
2. The second media revelation I had deals with the Web 2.0 world. People that are using these social networks are becoming less interactive with the real world. These networking sites allow people to provide small bits of information without having to spend a large amount of time or effort describing daily events. In an article by Clive Thompson, “A Brave New World of Digital Intimacy,” he brings up many good points about Web 2.0. Thompson brings up the idea of ambient awareness. “Ambient awareness is very much like being physically near someone and picking up on his mood through the little things he does — body language, sighs, stray comments — out of the corner of your eye. Living in a world of ambient awareness is good because individuals can express themselves on a daily basis and think about life a lot more than they would if they couldn’t blog about their feelings. The problem becomes the potential lies and manipulation that ensues, since most people understand the effect of web 2.0, they can use it to their advantage.” Being able to control your image gives you the power to make yourself look better without actually having to better yourself. It is much like the Peek a Boo world that Neil Postman talks about. “Its like a crossword puzzle, you only need to know a little, about a lot.” This is a dangerous tool to play with because if an employer learns that you aren’t what you say you are on your Facebook page, and then you might lose your chance at a job or a position in that career field.
Posted January 2009
3. The next revelation I had during this semester dealt with how a person in power can persuade people to think a particular way. The Obama inauguration was a great example of this. During his speech he used multiple tools to win viewers and voters over. Specific tactics like group dynamics, warm fuzzies, and nationalism helped him gain the trust and confidence of the American people. Neil Postman states in “Amusing Ourselves to Death” that we wrongly seek truth through the media. And the way that the Inauguration was televised made the American viewers believe in everything they saw.
Posted January 2009
4. My fourth revelation deals with how the media represents the social world and the idea of hegemony. Hegemony is an ongoing contested process of reality construction, elites versus the masses. This idea is not only brought up in the book “Media Society” but it is also seen in the films we have watched over the semester. Toxic Sludge being one of the films that shows how we are part of a constructed reality that Public Relations creates so that important issues like war can be easily accepted using many different tactics. One way that the PR has sold the war is by creating images that draw certain emotional responses out of citizens. Like the images of the girl explaining how babies were being thrown out of incubators. This sort of horrific display can win over a crowd of confused Americans very quickly. And the idea of hegemony is well documented in our country as the rich elite tend to control most of our country’s power.
Posted August 2007
5.My fifth media revelation is the hidden slavery and guest worker programs that continue to happen right under our noses. Its crazy to think about but guest worker programs are a tough reality that need to be dealt with. Through Southern Poverty Law Center reports that the H-2 program brought about 121,000 guest workers into the US in 2005, with approximately two thirds of those in the H-2B section. “H-2A program provides legal protections from foreign farm workers- such as a guarantee of at least three quarters of the total employment hours promised, free housing, transportation compensation, medical benefits, and legal representation. In the process of attaining a H-2 guest worker visa, workers typically fall victim to bait-and-switch schemes that force them to borrow huge sums of money at high interest rates in order to land short term, low wage jobs” (pg 52 Censored Stories). These scary facts show just how real the struggle to attain American citizenship is. We talk about media controlling us, in this situation people are actually controlling and taking advantage of others by means of deception, it is all very similar.
Posted November 2007
6.My sixth revelation the realization of corporate consolidation. In the film “Rich Media Poor Democracy” it is shown how very few companies control such large parts of our world media. The synergy of power through cross promotion, cross production, and deregulation has given companies like Viacom the power to control a large part of what we view. Media has monopolized journalism in the name of “objectivity.” But instead of seeing two sides of each story we only see one fabricated side to each issue happening in the world. On page 281 of Project Censored the idea is really driven home. “ In the US there is a rift between the what is real and what is reported to us. There is no longer a media credibility gap, but rather a truth emergency.” People in the US need to look further into a topic if they want to get the truth about an issue. Personal research has become the only way that truth can be reached.
Posted October 2007
7.My seventh revelation focuses on the idea of a “Peek a Boo” world and how this term has changed over the years. When Postman first wrote his book he used the term “Peek a Boo World” to describe life at the beginning of the 19th century. With the invention of the telegraph the world suddenly became “subjected to a constant flow of information without any relative substance” (page 68 Postman). Media today follows that exact description he used. Lets take Twitter as a news medium now. Businesses and individuals use this new Web 2.0 phenomenon to keep others updated on what they are doing. The problem is that there is such little description that a viewer never really gets to understand the full story. “Again, Thompson instructs us to put up with thousands of idiotic and maddening tweets in order to "get" the full beauty and bounty of the site. Only after we burn swaths of our lives reading mindless tweets will the Twitter oracle reveal the wisdom it reserves for dedicated supplicants” (Alexander Zaitcheck page 1). The other side of the issue is privacy in a time easy information and full access online. The follow film displays how presenting yourself online may contain very little description but it also may hurt your chances to get a job.
Posted on June 2007
8.My eighth revelation focuses on advertising in the present day “becoming the atmosphere.” In the early days of advertising we were mildly subjected to ideas posted by businesses trying to boast about their product or service. In today’s “clutter” filled world we are constantly being exposed to messages. Lets use webisodes as an example. Advertising has become entertainment by using actors like Clive Owen who star in a mini-episode created by BMW to make viewers more interested in the car. Another example of how engulfed we are in advertising is shown in subliminal advertising. Marketers place advertising where the viewers wouldn’t think to see it. Product placement in television shows makes businesses millions. Putting a Pepsi can on a table in the middle of an episode of “Seinfeld” might make the viewer want to go out and buy a Pepsi. All these tools and tricks are just another example of big business controlling individuals.
Had to put a link for this video because embedding was disabled. Watch the full video to understand the experiment of subliminal marketing.
9. My ninth revelation is that messages reach us faster than they ever have before. In the book “Media and Society” Croteau brings up the fact that it wasn’t too long ago that it took days for messages to be received. Its amazing the transformation of the way we deliver media. The graph on page 10 illustrates that in the late 1700’s it would have taken 44.5 days for a message to travel from NYC to Cincinnati. 47 years later the required time had been reduced to 7 days. Just to think that 215 years ago messages took that long to travel and in today’s society news is wired instantly from Tokyo to NYC. The delivery of messages is astoundingly quick and the mass groups a single message can reach is mind-blowing. In 2000 99 percent of homes have a radio, 98 percent have a television, and 51 percent have a home computer. All these facts contribute to the idea that someday we will be able to instantly gain a message without having to do anything but think about it. Bill O’reilly talks about the potential of someday having brain chips implanted like in Feed. O’reilly believes that we will only have to think about a topic and the knowledge will be automatically relayed to our brains. The real issue with that becomes the lack of interaction and effort needed to gain knowledge. On page 208 of “Feed” this idea is shown. “Men locked into giant wheels with their arms and legs spread out with no control over their actions. The men in wheels stared blankly into space, mouths open, eyes wide looking at everything flashing by. Just looking at the world helpless, in circles, the world going by.”
Posted February 2009
10. My final revelation deals with the idea of viral marketing. Viral marketing is the way a company will relay a message to an individual that in turn relays that message to all their friends. Think about it, in this situation we all are becoming marketers. Without knowing it we are promoting products for companies that we have nothing to do with. I might buy an I-pod then go brag about it to my friends who then decide they want to experience the same audio satisfaction that I am. At the beginning of the semester we learned that the brain receives 400 billion bits of information a second and the we only consciously process 2000 bits. These numbers contribute to the realization that we really have very little control over our own lives. And with that idea I leave you with a quote from Postman, “In the second half of the 21st century we have changed from a typographical culture to a telographical one, and we are now descending into triviality” (page 8.)
The following clip shows how small business' use viral marketing.
Posted August 2008
1. The first media revelations that I have discovered deals with the financial world’s control over our government. In the film, “The Obama Deception” Alex Jones makes it known that Wall Street big wigs are controlling President Obama and his cabinet. Before watching this movie I never had given a thought to direct control by some larger group. Alex Jones constantly references the Bilderberg group as a higher power that is Obama’s “puppet masters”. The “Globalist Agenda” is what comes first and Jones shows this by stating the fact that the economic recession is all part of restoring order to the Bilderberg’s plans. With this whole situation I feel like I am part of the environment that Anderson creates in “Feed.” Near the end of the book the main character tries to help his friend understand the situation but he barely knows all the facts. “That’s all I knew how to find. So I told her partial stories. The small parts of these stories I could find. I told her what I knew. That the Global Alliance had issued more warning about the possibility of total war if their demands aren’t met” (page 296). If I were to try and explain Alex Jones’ theories to a friend I feel that I would sound like the main character from feed, telling partial ideas that I understood mildly.
Posted November 2006
Also had to add this Alex Jones Video...very interesting stuff!!!!
2. The second media revelation I had deals with the Web 2.0 world. People that are using these social networks are becoming less interactive with the real world. These networking sites allow people to provide small bits of information without having to spend a large amount of time or effort describing daily events. In an article by Clive Thompson, “A Brave New World of Digital Intimacy,” he brings up many good points about Web 2.0. Thompson brings up the idea of ambient awareness. “Ambient awareness is very much like being physically near someone and picking up on his mood through the little things he does — body language, sighs, stray comments — out of the corner of your eye. Living in a world of ambient awareness is good because individuals can express themselves on a daily basis and think about life a lot more than they would if they couldn’t blog about their feelings. The problem becomes the potential lies and manipulation that ensues, since most people understand the effect of web 2.0, they can use it to their advantage.” Being able to control your image gives you the power to make yourself look better without actually having to better yourself. It is much like the Peek a Boo world that Neil Postman talks about. “Its like a crossword puzzle, you only need to know a little, about a lot.” This is a dangerous tool to play with because if an employer learns that you aren’t what you say you are on your Facebook page, and then you might lose your chance at a job or a position in that career field.
Posted January 2009
3. The next revelation I had during this semester dealt with how a person in power can persuade people to think a particular way. The Obama inauguration was a great example of this. During his speech he used multiple tools to win viewers and voters over. Specific tactics like group dynamics, warm fuzzies, and nationalism helped him gain the trust and confidence of the American people. Neil Postman states in “Amusing Ourselves to Death” that we wrongly seek truth through the media. And the way that the Inauguration was televised made the American viewers believe in everything they saw.
Posted January 2009
4. My fourth revelation deals with how the media represents the social world and the idea of hegemony. Hegemony is an ongoing contested process of reality construction, elites versus the masses. This idea is not only brought up in the book “Media Society” but it is also seen in the films we have watched over the semester. Toxic Sludge being one of the films that shows how we are part of a constructed reality that Public Relations creates so that important issues like war can be easily accepted using many different tactics. One way that the PR has sold the war is by creating images that draw certain emotional responses out of citizens. Like the images of the girl explaining how babies were being thrown out of incubators. This sort of horrific display can win over a crowd of confused Americans very quickly. And the idea of hegemony is well documented in our country as the rich elite tend to control most of our country’s power.
Posted August 2007
5.My fifth media revelation is the hidden slavery and guest worker programs that continue to happen right under our noses. Its crazy to think about but guest worker programs are a tough reality that need to be dealt with. Through Southern Poverty Law Center reports that the H-2 program brought about 121,000 guest workers into the US in 2005, with approximately two thirds of those in the H-2B section. “H-2A program provides legal protections from foreign farm workers- such as a guarantee of at least three quarters of the total employment hours promised, free housing, transportation compensation, medical benefits, and legal representation. In the process of attaining a H-2 guest worker visa, workers typically fall victim to bait-and-switch schemes that force them to borrow huge sums of money at high interest rates in order to land short term, low wage jobs” (pg 52 Censored Stories). These scary facts show just how real the struggle to attain American citizenship is. We talk about media controlling us, in this situation people are actually controlling and taking advantage of others by means of deception, it is all very similar.
Posted November 2007
6.My sixth revelation the realization of corporate consolidation. In the film “Rich Media Poor Democracy” it is shown how very few companies control such large parts of our world media. The synergy of power through cross promotion, cross production, and deregulation has given companies like Viacom the power to control a large part of what we view. Media has monopolized journalism in the name of “objectivity.” But instead of seeing two sides of each story we only see one fabricated side to each issue happening in the world. On page 281 of Project Censored the idea is really driven home. “ In the US there is a rift between the what is real and what is reported to us. There is no longer a media credibility gap, but rather a truth emergency.” People in the US need to look further into a topic if they want to get the truth about an issue. Personal research has become the only way that truth can be reached.
Posted October 2007
7.My seventh revelation focuses on the idea of a “Peek a Boo” world and how this term has changed over the years. When Postman first wrote his book he used the term “Peek a Boo World” to describe life at the beginning of the 19th century. With the invention of the telegraph the world suddenly became “subjected to a constant flow of information without any relative substance” (page 68 Postman). Media today follows that exact description he used. Lets take Twitter as a news medium now. Businesses and individuals use this new Web 2.0 phenomenon to keep others updated on what they are doing. The problem is that there is such little description that a viewer never really gets to understand the full story. “Again, Thompson instructs us to put up with thousands of idiotic and maddening tweets in order to "get" the full beauty and bounty of the site. Only after we burn swaths of our lives reading mindless tweets will the Twitter oracle reveal the wisdom it reserves for dedicated supplicants” (Alexander Zaitcheck page 1). The other side of the issue is privacy in a time easy information and full access online. The follow film displays how presenting yourself online may contain very little description but it also may hurt your chances to get a job.
Posted on June 2007
8.My eighth revelation focuses on advertising in the present day “becoming the atmosphere.” In the early days of advertising we were mildly subjected to ideas posted by businesses trying to boast about their product or service. In today’s “clutter” filled world we are constantly being exposed to messages. Lets use webisodes as an example. Advertising has become entertainment by using actors like Clive Owen who star in a mini-episode created by BMW to make viewers more interested in the car. Another example of how engulfed we are in advertising is shown in subliminal advertising. Marketers place advertising where the viewers wouldn’t think to see it. Product placement in television shows makes businesses millions. Putting a Pepsi can on a table in the middle of an episode of “Seinfeld” might make the viewer want to go out and buy a Pepsi. All these tools and tricks are just another example of big business controlling individuals.
Had to put a link for this video because embedding was disabled. Watch the full video to understand the experiment of subliminal marketing.
9. My ninth revelation is that messages reach us faster than they ever have before. In the book “Media and Society” Croteau brings up the fact that it wasn’t too long ago that it took days for messages to be received. Its amazing the transformation of the way we deliver media. The graph on page 10 illustrates that in the late 1700’s it would have taken 44.5 days for a message to travel from NYC to Cincinnati. 47 years later the required time had been reduced to 7 days. Just to think that 215 years ago messages took that long to travel and in today’s society news is wired instantly from Tokyo to NYC. The delivery of messages is astoundingly quick and the mass groups a single message can reach is mind-blowing. In 2000 99 percent of homes have a radio, 98 percent have a television, and 51 percent have a home computer. All these facts contribute to the idea that someday we will be able to instantly gain a message without having to do anything but think about it. Bill O’reilly talks about the potential of someday having brain chips implanted like in Feed. O’reilly believes that we will only have to think about a topic and the knowledge will be automatically relayed to our brains. The real issue with that becomes the lack of interaction and effort needed to gain knowledge. On page 208 of “Feed” this idea is shown. “Men locked into giant wheels with their arms and legs spread out with no control over their actions. The men in wheels stared blankly into space, mouths open, eyes wide looking at everything flashing by. Just looking at the world helpless, in circles, the world going by.”
Posted February 2009
10. My final revelation deals with the idea of viral marketing. Viral marketing is the way a company will relay a message to an individual that in turn relays that message to all their friends. Think about it, in this situation we all are becoming marketers. Without knowing it we are promoting products for companies that we have nothing to do with. I might buy an I-pod then go brag about it to my friends who then decide they want to experience the same audio satisfaction that I am. At the beginning of the semester we learned that the brain receives 400 billion bits of information a second and the we only consciously process 2000 bits. These numbers contribute to the realization that we really have very little control over our own lives. And with that idea I leave you with a quote from Postman, “In the second half of the 21st century we have changed from a typographical culture to a telographical one, and we are now descending into triviality” (page 8.)
The following clip shows how small business' use viral marketing.
Posted August 2008
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
The State of Live Music
The US desperately needs to re-create the outdoor mega-concert scene again. Not to take anything away from Coachella, Ozzfest, Lollapalooza, or any of the other large outdoor events but the other countries around the world currently have us beat. Lets take PinkPop and Rock AM Ring for example. The energy that the crowd expends is amazing and I can only wish to be a part of an epic show like one of these that I've provided. Hopefully the US audiences can bring this kind of dedication and love to music again. Please support live music all around the world!
This Pearl Jam Video is Old School....But Still Displays the Quality I'm Speaking Of.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
LET THE TWEETing BEGIN!
After "reading" our four TWITTER-focused texts below, develop a list of THREE specific pros and THREE specific cons associated with Twitter, and then tell us a personal Twitter story in which you describe your own personal use of the technology (if you have a Twitter account) or any conversations you have had about Twitter with friends, colleagues, or acquaintances (if you do not).
CONS
1. It takes a great number of tweets to actually create a picture of what someone is like and how their personality is. This takes devotion and time just to be able to get a small idea of who a person is. “Again, Thompson instructs us to put up with thousands of idiotic and maddening tweets in order to "get" the full beauty and bounty of the site. Only after we burn swaths of our lives reading mindless tweets will the Twitter oracle reveal the wisdom it reserves for dedicated supplicants.” Alexander Zaitchik shows his displeasure with the phenomenon here, and tend to agree with part of his angry rant.
2. Personal intimacy is lost. Everyone knows what you are doing when you are on Twitter and privacy doesn’t really exist if your part of this network.
3. Friendships through social networking sites seem to be very superficial. Its tough to experience any real sense of emotion through a tweet and people that are following you can’t actually formulate accurate opinions on your posts. I suppose that you can put exclamation points throughout your messages, but in the end it is always better to call someone up and explain how your day went.
PROS
1. You can expand your network both professionally and personally. Those people that only use Facebook and Myspace are missing out on a new niche audience that expresses themselves through tweets.
2. It’s a fast way to learn tidbits about people that you admire or can’t exactly become in contact with. Many celebrities are tweeting and individuals like myself can follow them and comment on pictures or blogs they are promoting.
3. Twitter can be synced up easily with your phone so no matter where you are or what you’re doing, you can still be tweeting. Twitter is also an amazing way for industries like radio to promote themselves. The station I work for has a Twitter page where they update listeners on prize giveaways, upcoming shows, and new music.
My Twitter Experience: At work we constantly have Twitter up on our studio computer so we can stay updated with musicians that are posting information and we can continue posting information. I spend a lot of time at the station on the weekends and I’m responsible for keeping our Buzz listeners updated on what’s happening with us. Last week I posted a tweet saying that we were going to be giving away 311 tickets to their show and shortly after my post I received multiple phone calls into our hotline asking about the post. I am very surprised at the positive feedback we’ve received since becoming a part of the Twitter network. Many of our listeners are responding to our tweets and becoming more active with the radio station.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
About Facebook...OMG...Actually BRB
1. Drawing on the reading and your own Facebook experiences, list and describe TWO specific criticisms Hodgkinson makes of FACEBOOK that you find meaningful, and TWO specific criticisms of FACEBOOK that you find weak, misleading, or a "stretch." Be sure to explain your reasoning.
A. I agree with his criticism at that beginning of the article. “Doesn't it (Facebook) rather disconnect us, since instead of doing something enjoyable such as talking and eating and dancing and drinking with my friends, I am merely sending them little ungrammatical notes and amusing photos in cyberspace, while chained to my desk?” In my experience many incoming students that are new to college are very well versed in any type of computer program but they seem to be less personable and less comfortable in social situations. Social networking sites are the new way to create connections, but many of the innovators and leaders in today’s society value people who can strike up a conversation and be articulate through speech not type.
B. I also agree with the statement he makes about Facebook appealing to self-importance and a sort of vanity. Many Facebook users that I have come across try to create an artificial representation of themselves. And with this social networking site having a better quantity of friends is more important than sustaining a better quality of friends. “The more friends you have, the better you are. You are "popular", in the sense much loved in American high schools.”
C. His point about the creators of Facebook is weak. He spends a lot of time talking about Peter Thiel, and it sounds like he has some personal vendetta against the guy. Using that much text to show that one of the creators of Facebook is a greedy capitalist doesn’t really help sell his point at all. He beats down the creators and just to build them up by saying that Facebook is a genius business operation.
D. His argument against the big business and advertising in Facebook also doesn’t sell me his point at all. “Sign up to Facebook and you become a free walking, talking advert for Blockbuster or Coke, extolling the virtues of these brands to your friends. We are seeing the commodification of human relationships, the extraction of capitalistic value from friendships.” Its obvious that any company that explodes with success like Facebook would be looked at as a great investment for any advertisers. With so many young minds using this web 2.0 tool, brands like Coca-Cola can interject new promotional ideas through this portal.
2. Next, take a look at this 1 minute embedded FACEBOOK video above. What criticisms of Facebook do our Champlain student colleagues seem to be making? Do you agree with the conclusions their video makes? Why or why not?
These students are making the point that Facebook has become more of a trend than a networking tool for some people. There are users that join the online service and don’t understand half of its capabilities or why they are part of the revolution. I agree with the conclusion their video makes because many friends that I have on Facebook are using a million new applications but aren’t actually networking at all. Their interaction with this website becomes more about entertainment and less about meeting new people and continuing friendships no matter where in the world you are.
3. Finally, share a personal FACEBOOK experience here, in 4-5 sentences, that helps us understand the pros and cons of FACEBOOK as a Web 2.0 platform. Do the PROS of Facebook outweigh the CONS in your mind? Please explain your reasoning.
The birthday experience on Facebook generally outweighs anything else I have seen during my 4 years using the program. It blows my mind that I receive 2 phone calls on January 2nd (my birthday) and 45 Facebook messages on my wall from people I haven’t conversed with in years. This shows that Facebook as a Web 2.0 platform is generally very superficial and its hard to be genuine when writing a message on someone’s “wall.” In the end I believe that the Pro’s of Facebook do outweigh the Con’s because despite the commercialism and vanity it is a great networking tool and if used properly you can keep in contact with old friends, co-workers, or family.
A. I agree with his criticism at that beginning of the article. “Doesn't it (Facebook) rather disconnect us, since instead of doing something enjoyable such as talking and eating and dancing and drinking with my friends, I am merely sending them little ungrammatical notes and amusing photos in cyberspace, while chained to my desk?” In my experience many incoming students that are new to college are very well versed in any type of computer program but they seem to be less personable and less comfortable in social situations. Social networking sites are the new way to create connections, but many of the innovators and leaders in today’s society value people who can strike up a conversation and be articulate through speech not type.
B. I also agree with the statement he makes about Facebook appealing to self-importance and a sort of vanity. Many Facebook users that I have come across try to create an artificial representation of themselves. And with this social networking site having a better quantity of friends is more important than sustaining a better quality of friends. “The more friends you have, the better you are. You are "popular", in the sense much loved in American high schools.”
C. His point about the creators of Facebook is weak. He spends a lot of time talking about Peter Thiel, and it sounds like he has some personal vendetta against the guy. Using that much text to show that one of the creators of Facebook is a greedy capitalist doesn’t really help sell his point at all. He beats down the creators and just to build them up by saying that Facebook is a genius business operation.
D. His argument against the big business and advertising in Facebook also doesn’t sell me his point at all. “Sign up to Facebook and you become a free walking, talking advert for Blockbuster or Coke, extolling the virtues of these brands to your friends. We are seeing the commodification of human relationships, the extraction of capitalistic value from friendships.” Its obvious that any company that explodes with success like Facebook would be looked at as a great investment for any advertisers. With so many young minds using this web 2.0 tool, brands like Coca-Cola can interject new promotional ideas through this portal.
2. Next, take a look at this 1 minute embedded FACEBOOK video above. What criticisms of Facebook do our Champlain student colleagues seem to be making? Do you agree with the conclusions their video makes? Why or why not?
These students are making the point that Facebook has become more of a trend than a networking tool for some people. There are users that join the online service and don’t understand half of its capabilities or why they are part of the revolution. I agree with the conclusion their video makes because many friends that I have on Facebook are using a million new applications but aren’t actually networking at all. Their interaction with this website becomes more about entertainment and less about meeting new people and continuing friendships no matter where in the world you are.
3. Finally, share a personal FACEBOOK experience here, in 4-5 sentences, that helps us understand the pros and cons of FACEBOOK as a Web 2.0 platform. Do the PROS of Facebook outweigh the CONS in your mind? Please explain your reasoning.
The birthday experience on Facebook generally outweighs anything else I have seen during my 4 years using the program. It blows my mind that I receive 2 phone calls on January 2nd (my birthday) and 45 Facebook messages on my wall from people I haven’t conversed with in years. This shows that Facebook as a Web 2.0 platform is generally very superficial and its hard to be genuine when writing a message on someone’s “wall.” In the end I believe that the Pro’s of Facebook do outweigh the Con’s because despite the commercialism and vanity it is a great networking tool and if used properly you can keep in contact with old friends, co-workers, or family.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Censored 2009 Fini
Chapter 11 (First I have to say that the political cartoon is extremely powerful, very straight forward about our oil obsession.)
1. The survey on the most trusted news sources says something about the US people. BBC was one of the most trusted news sources but Al Jazeera was extremely low on the list, I believe this has something to do with the way our society is fixated on the Middle East being a terrible place and most people think of foreign news when they hear Al Jazeera.
Out of all the survey questions, one of the most indecisive for the voters was revealing the truth about 9/11. It still seems that most Americans feel that it is too early to question any of the details about that earthshaking day. All of these questions have more than 65 percent strongly agreeing when question number 7 has only half of the voters strongly agreeing and the largest percent of voters showing neutrality on the issue.
My question is...what are the options for creating knowledge about foreign opinions on important world topics that the US has a driving force in?
Chapter 12
1. Its weird that I’ve only seen the acronym IVAW a couple times before. It seems that the Iraq Veterans Against the War would make more headline news with protests but the mainstream news media turns their back on them i guess.
The term Stop Loss is new to me as well. Keeping these soldiers until they feel their time has been fulfilled seems a bit unethical. I’ve heard the term thrown around before, but the example they use in this chapter is terrible. A soldier that went through that much trauma, to return home and have mental issues seems rough. But attempting to bring him back into duty and the attempted suicide shows how some of the combatants are dealing with the war.
My question is...what kind of mental training programs do the soldiers go through before they are deployed, I’ve heard horror stories about post war problems but how well does the army prepare their troops mentally before hand?
Chapter 13
1. The parental approval for military service is down to 25 percent this year from 42 percent in 2003. I feel like a large reason for the hesitance is because of the way the US military is marketing and pushing themselves onto the public and the school system. If people wish to serve their country they will come forth and do so, all the advertising dollars spent seems to be wasteful and over the top when it comes to the US military.
Only 1 in 20 qualify for the higher learning bill through the armed forces. But advertisements say, “Join the Army and earn up to 70,000 dollars for college.” Its easy to look at the Army as the evil but American citizens need to be smarter too. When you see a vague add like that (up to 70,000) people need to research the facts and have deeper knowledge before they join if going to school is their intent.
My question is...if the armed forces spent less money on advertising themselves and pushed those dollars elsewhere, what should those funds be going to?
Chapter 14
1. Its absurd to silence the critics of politicians and government. This is why mainstream news doesn’t really inform us at all. With Dan Rather regretting his “blind nationalism” and Bill Mahr stating that the US are “cowards” we as citizens are only receiving more opinions that help us see two sides of a story. Bringing back the term “McCarthyism” is hilarious, but this is truly how the large conglomerates look at the naysayers.
I never realized that news media had such an affect on the Spanish American War. Hearst news led the charge creating the saying, “Remember the Maine and to Hell with Spain!” This shows just how important media can being during times of war.
My question is...news media has such a strong effect on the US people when we are at war, do you believe that with the mainstream US media pushing for withdrawal that it actually could happen?
Chapter 15
1. 46 percent of the US disapprove free trade agreements on the ground that they are making foreign multinationals richer and taking jobs from our citizens. I didn’t realize the free trade agreements had such a negative impact on the Latin American countries. In theory free trade sounds great but it seems that the Project Censored authors believe that the US is taking advantage of the agreement with the Americas.
In 1996 President Bill Clinton passed a little known federal law paving the way for a national identification card. When created in 1996 it was on page 650 of the bill and the legislation was moved through with very little fanfare or publicity.
My question is...After reading this book on censored stories in the US and seeing mainstream media shun these stories on a daily basis, how can we as Americans truly decide if the Censored Stories are propaganda or if the news we receive everyday is just a haze of lies and manipulation?
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Social Networking at its Finest!
The following responses refer to an article written by Clive Thomson, "A Brave New World of Digital Intimacy"
1. Describe what Thompson means by the title of this article - "Brave New World of Digital Intimacy" - in 3-5 sentences.
A “Brave New World of Digital Intimacy” refers to the online social networking world that provides people a new way to learn about others every day. The title seems to mock the term digital intimacy, as there is none with Facebook and Myspace taking over the world. “Brave New World” was a book written in the 1930’s and this novel stated the anticipated developments in reproductive technology and sleep-learning that combine to change society. Thompson created this title with the message of that book in mind, technology has changed society and the digital networks that are created on a daily basis change individual lives.
2. Describe three PROS and three CONS of this new world, according to the research and individuals profiled in Thompson's article. Be specific.
PROS
A. These networking sites allow people to provide small bits of information without having to spend a large amount of time or effort describing daily events. Thompson states, “Each little update — each individual bit of social information — is insignificant on its own, even supremely mundane. But taken together, over time, the little snippets coalesce into a surprisingly sophisticated portrait of your friends’ and family members’ lives, like thousands of dots making a pointillist painting.”
B. The digital age brings new entertainment value to peoples live. “Merely looking at a stranger’s Twitter or Facebook feed isn’t interesting, because it seems like blather. Follow it for a day, though, and it begins to feel like a short story; follow it for a month, and it’s a novel.”
C. Thomspon also admits that this new world is a great way to meet new interesting people and forge intimate relationships or very scarce acquaintances. He told a story about a woman he met through Twitter that caught his attention and they began interacting. She had some solid rules in the web 2.0 world that she was living by. In the interview she said, “I either have to know who you are, or I have to know of you.” That means she monitors the lives of friends, family, anyone she works with, and she’ll also follow interesting people she discovers via her friends’ online lives.”
CONS
A. The idea of “weak ties” has some positives and negatives associated with it. The negative is that you may spread your emotions too thin, trying to keep up with many online relationships, and they true solid relationships you have may suffer.
B. Another problem with this new world is the new social problems that arrive because of the constant access to people’s information. Thompson interviewed a woman in this article that broke up with her boyfriend but didn’t take him off her friends list on Facebook. Soon after the breakup her ex had started dating someone new and her knowledge of this began to annoy her. Situations like that one can make the world of digital intimacy very uncomfortable.
C. Another con of the new digital world is in the title, intimacy. There become problems when Facebook was feeding information about every little change to a news page. Whether you were breaking up with someone, posting a new picture, or explaining the way you feel, everyone would see all the changes. This sort of “mind reading” power creates a feeling of invasion, and I was personally happy to see that Mark Zuckerberg changed the privacy policies.
3. What does Thompson mean by the phrase "ambient" awareness"? What do YOU think are the specific pros and cons of living in an online world of "ambient awareness"? Do you accept Thompson's conclusion that "ambient awareness" can have some therapeutic effects - making you a "happier person, a calmer person," or are you more skeptical? Justify your position.
Ambient awareness is very much like being physically near someone and picking up on his mood through the little things he does — body language, sighs, stray comments — out of the corner of your eye. Living in a world of ambient awareness is good because individuals can express themselves on a daily basis and think about life a lot more than they would if they couldn’t blog about their feelings. The problem becomes the potential lies and manipulation that ensues, since most people understand the effect of web 2.0, they can use it to their advantage. If a guy wants to create a new image for himself then he can change his profile and become a whole new person. I agree with Thompson’s conclusion though, the idea that you can pour your emotions and feelings into a social network can be very soothing. Take an hour and reflect on your life, then type some feelings into a blog, after reading that text back to yourself it becomes easier to gain perspective on events in your life.
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