PSA

Our PSA project was fairly easy to do once we got our idea set in stone. We were unsure of whether we wanted to go with a PSA on texting etiquette or texting while driving. No one in our group has any experience in filming and none of us were interested in acting so we decided to take clips of Youtube. After sifting through a variety of videos we came up with a song and a variety of facts. With Trevors patience and learned expertise we were able to complete our PSA.

As far as its effectiveness as a PSA I think that it is pretty good. It has the ability to hit home and maybe make you think twice about texting while driving and the facts help reiterate this. The video is clear and concise. We state the facts right away, however, I wish we could have come up with a catchier title. I really think that due to our lack of expertise in the area, we did a really good job. I know that everyone in our group was a little nervous about the editing part, but we pulled it off. The storyboard was the hardest part, however, in the end we knew that simplicity would probably be better, since that seemed to be the case with the most effective PSA's that we looked at in class. All in all, our team worked well together and were able to designate duties fairly. I am sure Sarah would agree as well, but thanks to Trevor because he stepped up to the plate to learn how to use the program and try to edit it all together. He did a great job!

Media Commercials

1. I thought it would be interesting to go with an advertiesment that was meant to be purely green. The Toyota Prius is a great example of this. It is a great invention and something that we should have invented decades ago, however we didnt know how necessary it was. It is a vehicle that is green, however, I wanted to check out its ads. I watched the "harmony" ad for the prius, one which is truly astounding considering all of the scenery is made with humans in costume, showing the connection between humans, their car, and nature. For one, I don't really think they were showing the connection, only the fact that using less fossil fuels is better than the environment. However, they never showed the connection between the earth and humans and why it is important that we take care of this planet. It was also astounding when I watched the making of the commercial about how important it was in the making of the costumes. There were hundreds, maybe even thousands of costumes made for the movie which is a complete waste of products. I did find the commercial satisfying and it gave me "warm fuzzies", however, there was a bit of misleading information in the ad.

http://www.toyota.com/prius-hybrid/commercial.html


I decided to look at the "Yes" website. Although I was unable to follow it for a week, the website was very intriguing. What really made me interested was the fact that it had no advertisements which is almost impossible in anything you read via internet, magazine, or TV. They seem to be a very liberal magazine promoting peace and justice, creating a healthier environment, and urging power of the people to take action in educating citizens on common beliefs and media literacy. I can definitely see how they could be appealing to the online activism, however, I feel that they are only marketing to people who already have like beliefs. The website is highly liberal, therefore, more conservative people would likely shy away from even reading or believing anything the website has to say.
I think online activism can be a useful to for reaching out to a broader audience, however, it is not something that would ever work for me. I spend very little time on the internet and I would spend much less time on it if I was not in school. I do however, think that this day in age the internet is going to be the way to go since promoting it on TV or the internet would be highly unlikely given how they are all owned by similar or the same corporations.



Our project is coming along well. We all decided we were going to do our share over the weekend. I decided to look for music that we could use in the ad. I have three different songs that I think would be good. Since Trevor figured out how to use the program he decided that he would work on composing what we had found into one set of images. When we meet this Tuesday we will figure out how to incorporate facts and the music

Democracy and the Media

"The 20th century has been characterized by three developments of great political importance: the growth of democracy, the growth of corporate power, and the growth of corporate propaganda as a means to protecting corporate power against democracy."

I truly believe that democracy has lost its meaning over time. What our government meant democracy to be is very different from how our government is today. Our government originally wanted the power to the people and for the people, with the peoples interest at heart. It is now the corporation that is in charge. It is as if they run the government and hire people to agree with their practices. Because these corporations carry so much power, the government has no other choice but to succeed to their power and give them what they want.

Our interests has turned from having a healthy and happy human population to having a powerfully rich government who could give two shits about the health of the average human being because sickness creates money and we all know the the healthcare industry is one of the biggest industries in the world. The PR industry only makes this worse. The have the power to convince us that what they are doing is healthy or better for us. It's easy. Humans are very gullible and with little proven fact, the majority of us will believe it. However, over time we have realized that this isn't always the truth. DDT proved to be one of the worst pestcides to ever be used, which caused and is still causing massive amounts of cancer in the United States. While the government may have admitted this an issue after outlawing its use, they are still making a massive amount of money on hospital fees that cancer causes.

I feel as though we have lost our rights. It's hard to know who to believe now. Americans want to trust the government and the majority do, but that is problem. This trust is being put in the wrong direction because you never know when they are being true or when they are being savvy. We have lost our own rights and part of that right is trust. The government is truly worrying about the economics of our society which is one if the most prominent issues as the moment. It is no lie that our country is trillion of dollars in debt, so why wouldn't the government try to find ways to make more money to make them look good; even it is hurts the rest of the human population in the end. If they make more regulations for corporations then that makes it harder for these corporations to produce maximum benefits, even if it means sacrificing the environment.

If you haven't been able to tell from the rest of this blog, I am very frustrated. It is like a circle with no end... it just keeps going around and around. I feel as though our economy and money is always going to be the most prominent issue because money is what has always brought power when it comes to government and the United States cannot back down from that expectation. However, I do believe there is a little bit of hope. We need to step up and educate people in anyway we can, both formally and informally on the the negative aspects corporations have on the environment, human health, and the way they manipulate the way in which the majority of the human population views them. We have the potential to create a "nation-wide Erin Brokovich story". The government also needs to realize the affects they are having through educating them as well. They are the leaders of this country and play a part in making laws. If we can change their minds then they will by law have to change the minds of the corporations and thus the PR system. It will work its way down (or up depending on how you look at it).






I have done the thirty minutes sitting in nature and then sitting in front of the TV before, but I did it again. It is something that I do often. I have always gone out and hiked or just sat in nature for atleast a half hour, infact just sitting there is one of my favorite things. You can actually hear all the noise that is going on around you...and I mean every little sound, from the wind to the bugs swarming around you. A lot of the time I have my dog with me which can be a little distracting, but it only ads to the natural excitement. Being outside is just so calming to me which is the reason I moved out the Jericho. I like the silence, which when you realize isn't silent at all. The "quiet" is full of silence. In a way it mimics the sound of the city only it is natural and for that reason much more calming.

As for watching the TV for 30 minutes. It is definitely different and can almost give you a headache depending on what you are watching, but for me it is normal. TV really just makes me tired and I actually tend to zone out alot. Both being outside and being in front of the TV have the ability to put me to sleep but I thin being outside is a little more soothing.







Our PSA project hasn't fully taken off yet, but since none of the people in our group of "video-inclined" we have decided to check our youtube to see what they have to offer and through emails we have sent back and forth to each other about what we have found, I feel that we have enough to decide what we actually want to use and start to edit this next week. However, since none of know how to use any of these programs we think it is probably going to be very challenging and we may need some guidance from the media library.

Toxic Sludge...

1. Being an environmental studies student, I have always read articles on how corrupt the EPA and other governmental programs are with concerns for the environment and every time I read them I get more and more upset. I feel hopeless. It makes me realize how much large corporations really do have a strong hold on our society.
2. It's crazy that the EPA just wants us to expose of toxins "in the cheapest way possible". The truth of the matter is is that human waste can be used as fertilizer but the process takes so much time that it probably wouldn't be financially beneficial for companies to do this. It would take a lot of space and a lot of time. It can be done though and efforts should be made to do it correctly, but I don't think it ever will. More effort and money needs to be put aside to properly dispose of waste and keeping our waters clean. We spend way too much money on war other things that are unneccessary that we no longer have what is important to our health as a priority.
3. "The big corporations, our clients, are scared shitless of the environmental movement...The corporations are wrong about that. I think the companies will have to give in only at insignificant levels. Because the companies are too strong, they're the establishment. The environmentalists are going to have to be like the mob in the square in Rumania before the prevail" Corporations have way too much control over this country. There needs to be boundaries and every time any kind of boundary is set, it is ignored making it easy for corporations to get around these boundaries. Unfortunately I don't believe our governmental system will ever be able to get over this because according to the government, these corporations are what make our economy.
   
4. What really bothered me in the article was when Kathleen Marquardt, a member of Putting People First, a group against laws about natural resource exploitation states as she accepts her award, "Here is our enemy-the Sierra Club, the Nature Conservancy, the Humane Society....a radical animal rights cult...a front for a neo-pagan cult that is attacking science, health, and reason." I am a huge supporter of animals rights and have been given them money for years. I don't understand how anyone can ever look at an organization such as this and say that about them. It makes me sick to think that organizations such as this are not doing what is right for society. How much better would we be as humans if we allowed extreme amounts of animal testing?
   
5. I also was upset with corporations saying that it is the people that need to change their habits, not the corporations themselves. It is the corporations that have made us into who we are and have created our massive consumption habits, therefore they, as well as us need to put efforts into fixing what we have created.

My Question is....will the government ever place the blame on these corporations and will there ever be a separation between corporation and government.


My PSA project involves Sarah and Trevor. We are focusing on text messaging and particularly the culture it has created. We want to create awareness on proper cell phone etiquette and potential risks involved in texting such as car accidents.

Dear Mr. President...

Dear President Barrack Obama,

I would like to start of by saying, "Thank You!" for taking the time to read this letter. It has come to my attention, through a media literacy class I attended at the University of Vermont, that the media is strongly affecting our culture, and not in a positive way. Millions of people are consumed by media through television, billboards, internet, and a variety of other advertising mechanisms every day. People are wasting away years of their life surfing the internet and watching TV, and who is to benefit from all of this? The answer is a minute percentage of the population.; people who control big corporations such as Disney and NBC. Although this may lead to an economic gain within our country, the truth is we are seriously harming our own people, culture, and environment.
In a book I recently read, titled, "Culture Jam", (I highly recommend it) the author states, "The moment you fail to understand why the natural world might have relevance in the day-to-day lives of human beings, you become, to quote my physics teacher, 'a lost ball in high weeds.' Abandon nature and you abandon your sense of the divine. More than that, you lose track of who you are." While I applaud you for your efforts concerning the environment we need to understand that we also need to take into consideration the reason for why we are consuming so much and creating such massive environmental destruction to the Earth. We are bombarded by media everyday telling us what we should wear, who we should be, and what we need to buy to be that way. It's the media that has created the consumption habits and unless we put a control on the media we are going to continue to see environmental catastrophe no matter how much of a cap we put on green house emissions and driving hybrid cars.
Education also plays a role in stopping this. Several countries in Europe and Australia have incorporated Media Literacy classes into their public education system because they have seen the detrimental affects it has had on American society. Did you know, 9 out of 10 girls thinks their is something wrong with the way they look? It's not because they are female, it's because the media tells them their is something wrong with their body. If they don't look like a Barbie doll then they will never match up to societies standards, therefore, in their minds, fail at life. Rates of eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia have sky-rocketed since the creation of advertising and mass media. Before mass media there was no one telling girls how they should look other than their peers and family.
While one may say, "well that is just a product of technology and there is nothing we can do about it", the truth is is that we can. We can put bans on ads promoting violence, sex, and drugs. Why do you think our country is plagued by rapists and pedofiles and why porn is one of the number one industries? We have raised human beings that are addicted to sex. Even potato chips ads use sex to sell and their is no reason why you need sex to sell a potato chip, especially since children and teens see these ads and eat these potato chips.
I guess the bottom line is that we need to fix what we have created. We know that the environment is being harmed because of our consumption habits but it has harmed us as well. We are not the same people we used to be. Our culture is changing. We need to stand up for our own country and for ourselves as human beings. Our country was founded on activism so why not take a step in the name of our ancestors. I am sure they would be pretty disappointed if they saw us now. In order to do this we need your help. We need governmental pressure to create massive awareness. We need to hit every home in America. There needs to be laws on the media and education in the schools. If we lose this battle, we will lose ourselves. As Kalle Lasn, the author of "Culture Jam" puts it, " The loss of a language, tradition, or heritage- or the forgetting of one good idea-is as a big loss to future generations as a biological species going extinct." Do you want this to happen?

Sincerely, a deeply concerned citizen,

Amber Imm

Corporate Culture

Five Important Ideas from "Culture Jam"

1. Half of all exotic dancers were once beauty-pageant contestants. I find the crazy and believable all at the same time. It reminds me the show on TLC entitled, "Toddlers and Tiaras", where parents thrive in their childrens beauty making them look and act as if they are 16-25 years old when in reality they range from ages 3-16. Its sickening to watch, but then reading the statistic makes me realize how scary this show actually is.
   
2. I didn't know that products I buy at the store such as brussel sprouts (which I love) contain almost no trace of vitamins. I knew this was true of some products but not BRUSSEL SPROUTS!!!!
   
3. Flight attendants sometimes use Coke to unclog drains...I don't even want to know what that is doing to my intestines. Fortunately for me I don't drink soda very often
4. I think that if people actually believed that our environment and existence really is in danger, we would make drastic changes, but most humans fail to believe this, therefore, it will remain almost impossible for us a society to change. We need to change individually in order to change as a whole. This is something I struggle with from day to day as I do what I think is right but at the end of the day I feel hopeless due to all the other people that regret to realize the trouble we are in.
5. I realize that I am not abnormal and there are a lot of people just like me but we are an exception to the norm. We are the "uncool" of what most people think as cool and we are infact offsetting the media, which in my mind makes me feel pretty good!

The film, "Corporation", was very depressing to me. I couldn't believe that people don't actually understand the implications they are having on the environment. To see the tremendous amount of c0mpanies that have been fined for not complying with the law in order to make an even larger profit is astounding. There were companies there that you would not even think would do such a think to their customers. It gives me hope that their are people out there that do really care and that over time, each and every company can make an impact on another company. What this country really needs is stricter laws and better enforcement to make sure these laws are being followed. The fines also need to out-way the financial gain of breaking the law in the first place, which I don't always think is the case.

1. 
   

Consuming Culture

When i first started reading the book I felt it was a little extreme, however, as I kept reading I realized that the reason I thought it was so extreme is that, perhaps, I was afraid of the truth. I have grown up in this culture and have had not other to choice to unknowingly conform to this way of life. As I have grown up I have realized what the media has affected me and who I am, and while I may be conscious of this I am no different from anyone else. I have the same desires of wanting more than I really need. I want to wear nice clothes, I want to eat good food (probably too much of it) and I want to drive a nice car(which i don't but wish i did).
I agree with what Lasn concepts of how recognizing the environment may aid in helping alleviate some aspects of this. He writes, " Abandon nature and you abandon your sense of the divine. More than that, you lose track of who you are." I think that the main reason why I enjoy nature so much is that I can escape from the crazyness of real life and slow down. I don't feel rushed and I feel like I can actually breathe. I think understanding nature aids in understanding life and by that I mean what life is supposed to be like. Enjoyable.
I also really connected with what he said about our loss of language and culture. As mentioned in my memoir, I grew up in a very strong Inuit culture. Native cultures are being lost entirely as massive corporations are taking over their land and livelihood. Many of these people are forced to work for these corporations in order to make money. In one of my favorite quotes he writes, "The loss of a language, tradition or heritage- or the forgetting of one good idea-is a big loss to future generations as a biological species going extinct." Our culture has already been lost, but we are killing ourselves as a species. We are killing who we are. I feel like we have become strangers in our own bodies. It saddens me to think about where we will be in fifty years and how much more things can change. It makes me scared to have children because who knows what their childhood will be like. It has already changed so much since I was a child which was only twenty years ago.