Media & Culture @ HM

"How Robber Barons hijacked the "Victorian Internet" Ars revisits those wild and crazy days when Jay Gould ruled the telegraph and Associated Press reporters helped fix presidential elections. Is government supervision really the worst thing that can happen to a communications network?"

"On March 16, 2007, a great thing happened in Culver City, California. For the first time ever, all three contestants of the game show Jeopardy, without ending in a score of zero, tied. At the time, at least two incorrect interpretations of this event were made; one being that it was a chance occurrence, the other that it was caused by mistake."

"This LipDub has been produced during the integration week of UQAM (Quebec, Canada) with 172 communication students. Made on September 10th 2009 in 2h15min."

Epic.

This articles gives viewers tips on how to analyze television commercials, because they can affect us in many ways even if we do not realize it. This article mentions six main questions that are important to keep in mind while viewing commercials. First one must consider what the product or service that is being promoted is, next one must consider what advertising techniques the companies are using to market their products. Thirdly one must determine how the music in the commercial is helpful in marketing the product. One must also consider how the actors affect their view of the product, and specify what the advertisement is doing to capture the viewers attention. Lastly one must determine who the commercials target audience is, and after a person has answered all these questions then and only then will they understand media literacy.

This article isn't talking so much about how people are using media literacy but is rather really showing how much it is needed today. Here we see that the Chinese people feel that it is really a necessity to have media literacy in high schools and elementary schools as well. They also believe that it is important to have media literacy because it will enhance global citizenship as well as domestic citizenship. This idea was also organized by the Communication University of China

This article talks about how it is essential for young children to be educated in Media Literacy so they can thoroughly evaluate and analyze bias' in this technological age that these kids become increasingly immersed in as the grow older. The author of this article suggests that the education of Media Literacy should be universally implemented into school's curriculums to train these children to become critical thinkers in the Media World

I think that the article I have chosen because it explains the fair use of media literacy through its legalities, principles, and heard of myths. They create five key principles that explain what the true legal use of media literacy should be. The writers of this document even support their words with sections on the passage entitled "What This Is" and "What This Isn't". This document proposes possible arguments that could pass as media literacy and then shuts them down describing how they are improper understandings of media literacy. The writers do their best to show the true form of "copyright education". This article mainly describes the legal aspects of fair use of media literacy.

This article highlights the lack of media literacy education in Canada and the need for it. It recaps Canada's 4th annual Media Literacy Week, recounting the calls for improved economic education in this area. In an age where digital media is all around us, this makes a lot of sense for the youth population of Canada who commonly use and create the most digital media. Canadian Teacher's Fund President Mary-Lou Donnelly put it best by saying, "Media and digital literacy are life skills that should be included in the curriculum along with traditional literacy and numeracy skills. Students are not simply users but creators of media. As teachers, we must nurture this creativity while helping them to be engaged and responsible e-citizens." Media literacy education is definitely an important initiative and the fact that Canada is moving to integrate it into its education system is a good sign.

Shirley Middle School teaches students about the importance of Media Literacy. Each semester students in 8th and 7th grade have the opportunity to take part in this course about how to write scripts, create storyboards and use video production techniques. Students learn how to shoot commercials and how to appear to the right audience. This teaches the students about how Media Literacy affects their everyday life.

Media literacy is the ability to sift through and analyze the messages that inform, entertain and sell to us every day. It's the ability to analyze all aspects of the media like music videos, online environments and the many advertisements in sports. There are three stages of media literacy. 1: BE AWARE. Know what you watch and limit the amount of time on the internet, television, games, and other forms that market to the masses. 2: BE ABLE TO QUESTION AND ANALYZE THE MEDIA. Learn to analyze what you are watching by observing what is in the advertisement and what is left out. 3: KNOW BACKGROUND INFORMATION. Ask questions like who produces the media we experience and for what purpose? Who profits? Who loses? And who decides? This analysis allows us to understand who drives our global economy and ultimately allows us to make better decisions based on our own opinions.

My article is about what specifically media literacy is and how we can implement it into classrooms to give children a better understanding of our society. The article features 7 excerpts from other articles about media literacy, such as "The 3 Stages of Media Literacy", which states "the principles and practices of media literacy education are applicable to all media- from television to T-shirts, from billboards to the Internet". I believe that media literacy, while it is something that is not needed, can greatly enrich a person's life, especially in the society that we live in today that focuses so much on advertising and different forms of communication.

Through things you've searched, videos you've watched and e-mails you've sent, google creates a profile about you, whether you have a google account or not. Though google claims it uses your profile to make its services work better, it actually uses this information to sell you to advertisers. By the things you search, google decides what advertisements to show.

This article is about the concept of teaching young kids how to be "media literate." This article believes that it is very important for the kids to learn about media because it is important to know how to use media and analyze media. In the 21st century media is the most used resource in the world. This article believes that media is the best way to bring news into your home and be able to comprehend what is going on in the outside world. To be able to read media and analyze it is probably the most important skill in today's environment and without it you would not be able to fetch news from the web and have the freedom and choice to surf the web and be part of the big overall community. In my opinion all kids should be taught media literacy so they can thrive in the open world.

We have all seen a commercial that we can't remember immediately after watching it, but when we see that product instantly recall the commercial. This article discusses how the advertising industry has used subliminal messaging to increase product sales and the way we remember product information.

POPWRAP | Gossip | Entertainment | News

"A Quebec woman on long-term sick leave is fighting to have her benefits reinstated after her employer's insurance company cut them, she says, because of photos posted on Facebook. [Her insurer] confirmed that it uses the popular social networking site to investigate clients."

this article gives us a lot of information on media literacy. it is divided into 4 parts the definition of media literacy, building on experience, the current landscape, and toward a media literacy movement. in the first part of the article it focuses on the idea of media literacy being different for everyone and that people of all ages use media literacy to understand media for all different reasons. but it does summarize that almost all use it and it is useful for all. as for the second part, it talks about how media literacy is a challenge in the United States of America but there is always some kind of new device or way to spread media literacy and make it more common in the USA. the second part also talks about how media literacy is spread/used in Germany and Canada and how its starting to be used and spread in the USA. part three talks about the challenges that the spread of media literacy has, not allowing it to spread as much as it should. in addition it takes these problems and states some opportunities that come out of them for the spread of media literacy. the fourth and final section of this article talks about the future and what people need to do if media literacy is going to be spread. after stating the needs that media literacy has in order to spread it then supplies the approaches that one/a nation should take in order to overcome these problems. overall this article attacks the problems that media literacy is facing that prevents its expansion but not only does it do that it also gives us many many many ways in which we can approach these problems a fix them, making media literacy a national and one day global ability.

Obesity as many of us know, is a growing problem in the United States. It is extremely prevalent among the younger generation, as kids are more susceptible to advertisements on television and on the Internet. As this article states, children have a great influence over the food their parents buy. To put it bluntly, children can be annoying. They can scream and yell, essentially embarrassing you into buying them whatever they want. Years ago, discipline amongst parents was much stricter and a child who mouthed off would be subject to corporal punishment. However, society has greatly evolved, and in many families, the power balance among children and adults has shifted. Fast food advertisers are aware of this and take full advantage by placing commercials during popular television networks like Disney channel and Nickelodeon. Also, as the Internet has become more popular amongst young adults, advertisements for sugary snacks and greasy fried food have also increased. Obesity will continue to be a big issue in the United States but we can no longer only place the blame on the lack of options in supermarkets or parents themselves but rather advertisements in media that are negatively influencing children causing them to make bad decisions.

"In some ways, this marketing push has been happening for years: Companies hawking a variety of goods, from diamonds to digital cameras, have been eager to get parent bloggers to write posts that tout their products. But recently, these bloggers say, food companies have upped the ante, bombarding them with free trips to corporate kitchens and mountains of edible swag."

Cable TV operator Comcast Corp. is expected to buy a controlling stake in NBC Universal, perhaps as early as this week