Something that I have yet to get over is how has this great country of ours gotten to this place where our people are bought and sold? Our country was established to free people from the reign of a monarchy and now that has been replaced with the reign of a corporate monarchy.
I know this is a near to impossible question to really answer but, how can we fix the self esteem of the people? Since apparently it is so low that we believe that what we have is never good enough.
Finally, how do we get media literacy education in our school systems? I mean come on. I am sure our schools can do without a pottery class, or weight training. Let's replace those slots with something worthwhile like learning about the history of American media.
Monday, May 3, 2010
Top Ten List
#10 Learning how to set up and efficiently run a blog. This was something that I would have never thought myself capable of doing so I am grad I now have a little more techno knowledge. Maybe I will use this again in my future endeavors, but then again maybe I would like to stay far away from computers.
#9 That we are all being watched on-line. Every account we set up or purchase we make is dually noted by someone wanting to sell something. This was a really creepy realization.
#8 Hip-hop music was really made popular in the 90's to sell merchandise. Like in that Sprite concert in "Merchants of Cool." Their images are tough, but they are really just a bunch of sell-outs.
#7 Students are being marketed to while in school. I can't believe that text books are being used to sell products. I actually argued this issue with my dad, who is a 3rd grade teacher, and he said there is no way that is going on in his classroom. I told him to look closely.
#6 The association between a consumers loyalty to a product and a members loyalty to their cult. I wish this wasn't a valid observation but unfortunately it was a reoccurring theme in so much that we learned in this class. It's all brainwashing.
#5 MTV has labeled it's most valued consumers as "Mooks," and "Mid-drifts." This is something I can really ID with since I was an MTV viewer during the height of this craze. I proudly will never allow this channel to grace my television screen again.
#4 Corporations are treated as individuals by law. This realization about knocked my socks off. The real unfortunate fact of the matter however is that where humans are severely punished for the bad things they do corporations many times get off with only a slap on the wrist.
#3 Women are treated like products in advertisements. I had never noticed before that almost every commercial or magazine advertisement that contains a woman portrays her as a body, or a bitch.
#2 Even more eye opening than #3 is that boys too are harmfully marketed too. In "Tough Guise," the staggering amount of male induced violence or murder is really upsetting. This belief that "real" men don't show emotions is so damn destructive. I thought that women were the real big victims of advertisements and image, but men are really suffering.
#1 That I have the power to filter what I see and believe. This was the most empowering thing for me and thanks to my introduction into media literacy I now know when to be a skeptic. It's funny how this little bit of knowledge has really flooded into my life. I have been constantly preaching the good word to my family and friends. Most importantly I now can see how important it is that all children and parents are taught how to filter this crap.
#9 That we are all being watched on-line. Every account we set up or purchase we make is dually noted by someone wanting to sell something. This was a really creepy realization.
#8 Hip-hop music was really made popular in the 90's to sell merchandise. Like in that Sprite concert in "Merchants of Cool." Their images are tough, but they are really just a bunch of sell-outs.
#7 Students are being marketed to while in school. I can't believe that text books are being used to sell products. I actually argued this issue with my dad, who is a 3rd grade teacher, and he said there is no way that is going on in his classroom. I told him to look closely.
#6 The association between a consumers loyalty to a product and a members loyalty to their cult. I wish this wasn't a valid observation but unfortunately it was a reoccurring theme in so much that we learned in this class. It's all brainwashing.
#5 MTV has labeled it's most valued consumers as "Mooks," and "Mid-drifts." This is something I can really ID with since I was an MTV viewer during the height of this craze. I proudly will never allow this channel to grace my television screen again.
#4 Corporations are treated as individuals by law. This realization about knocked my socks off. The real unfortunate fact of the matter however is that where humans are severely punished for the bad things they do corporations many times get off with only a slap on the wrist.
#3 Women are treated like products in advertisements. I had never noticed before that almost every commercial or magazine advertisement that contains a woman portrays her as a body, or a bitch.
#2 Even more eye opening than #3 is that boys too are harmfully marketed too. In "Tough Guise," the staggering amount of male induced violence or murder is really upsetting. This belief that "real" men don't show emotions is so damn destructive. I thought that women were the real big victims of advertisements and image, but men are really suffering.
#1 That I have the power to filter what I see and believe. This was the most empowering thing for me and thanks to my introduction into media literacy I now know when to be a skeptic. It's funny how this little bit of knowledge has really flooded into my life. I have been constantly preaching the good word to my family and friends. Most importantly I now can see how important it is that all children and parents are taught how to filter this crap.