Newspaper Lecture Response(1st six weeks)

      Due to Mr. Miller's lecture covering newspapers, I now know how newspapers came about, why we actually read them, and the parts and pieces of them. He explained to us about the man, John Peter Zenger, the man who wrote freely and openly about the British rule of young America, and fought in court for the 1st amendment, or freedom of the press. Without him, our system of communication would be vastly different and probably delayed by decades. He also talked about the inverted pyramid style of reading, which is placing your most important information at the top of your article, in case you article were to get cut short. Along with this, is the reasons on why we still read them, which are: being affordable, diverse content, lo-tech, physical, non-linear, and traditional. Honestly, before this specific discussion, I could not come up with one reason why somebody would read a newspaper in the 20th century, however now, I understand multiple reasons and I agree completely. Maybe I'll consider reading the paper more often now!

Models of Mass Communications Lecture

During Mr. Miller's Lecture about the Models of Mass Communication, I learned about binary models, business models, and conglomeration and demassification for the first time. Because this information was something completely new to me it took some time to latch on to the idea that he was going for, but eventually I got the idea. Out of the all the binary models that we discussed (Hot-Cool, Informational-Entertainment, Elitist-Populist, and Content-Distribution) I think that Hot-Cool was both the most interesting and the most agreeable model to me. First of all, I believe that the name given to the model itself is perfectly fitting for its meaning, 100% attention --- multi-taskable. It just makes complete sense to me. Second of all, I agree that the amount of attention given to a communicational activity is quite relevant and can make a difference when debating on which style of communication is best for your business. Thanks to this lecture, I will be able to understand what the backbone of mass communication is. 

Printing Press and Books Lecture

     One of our first lectures was on the creation of the printing press and books, and I enjoyed it very much. One of the main in reasons why I enjoyed it is because I got to understand the history behind the books that we read and how much it affected the world. There was so many effects of the creation of books and the printing press that I hadn't known about before the lecture, such as increased literacy, knowledge of history, Protestant reformation spread of ideas, democracy, inventions/science, dictionaries, and maps. One of the effects of the printing press that I wasn't too sure of was Protestant reformation, I don't feel like we went over that one enough in class and I wish there was more explanation of that one. However, I agree with everything that was mentioned in class, and thoroughly enjoyed the topic and anticipate it appear in my future. 

Student Response

http://ikonxx.blogspot.com

     Kitty's response to the video we watched in class almost two weeks ago was spot-on. She covered why the photographers played such a role in capture those tragic moments for future generations to see, and why we should consider these people heroes. I just have one thing to add, is that the photographers didn't do this because they had to, or because they thought it would be a great business opportunity, they shot these pictures, risking their lives, because they knew that this was history that needed to be documented for future generations to remember. They knew that if they didn't do it, they were risking the chance that they would never be able to thoroughly remember this event visually. And after all, seeing pictures of this creates a much more emotional reaction than just reading about it. 

Student response

http://graysonsmit.blogspot.com 

Well said Ambrose!

      I agree with Grayson, his critique explains how Fox News covered something that wasn't relevant to the public. Something like this should appear on Tosh.0 or even local news on a boring day. When you turn on the TV to watch the news, you want to learn about something that affects you and the people that live amongst you, this simply, just a waste of the viewers time. Fox News undoubtedly didn't consider newsworthiness or local relevance, as Grayson said. 

Music Lecture Response

     Before Mr. Miller's lecture, I never really understood that there was another purpose of music besides just entertaining people. Now I understand that it contains more purposes than entertainment, which is to spread information and teach languages.  An example of spreading information is bards, which in the olden days, went from town from town, reciting verses from songs. And in these songs, they usually contained information of landscape, cultures, or events from the past. So, the people that were listening to the bard would most likely learn something that they didn't know. Now, there are also songs that can teach children the alphabet, in a more entertaining than just memorization, such as the ABC song that is made from the English alphabet. Now every time I listen to the radio, i'll take every lyric from a song into consideration, and try to learn something from it. 

media critique

     If you checked the news tonight you would have easily been informed of the "Mall Massacre" in Nairobi, Kenya. It was all over both CNN and Fox news, however it was quite obvious that CNN had a more in-depth coverage of the event. CNN got the big picture, including how it affects us, while Fox just included the basics of the event, things that were pretty much common knowledge. Fox failed to meet the yardstick, Explanation, which means they did not get the big picture, only basic facts without much explanation. Typically, you hear about a story through the radio or just by word of mouth, and you turn to the television news for the details, and on Fox it either stated the obvious, or what CNN shared 30 minutes before them. So next time a major event such as this occurs, CNN is where you should head to.