Chapter 11 Media and Politics

In this chapter we explore the beginning of mass communication and in drastic turn towards a more liberal bipartisan view. The first mass communication came with the invention of the printing press and before this movable type began to create a mass medium it was Linotype which was hand placed into presses creating a pain-staking process of printing papers. The invention of the printing press allowed newspapers to be produced at rapid rates while being extremely cost-efficient. The newspaper brought information to all areas of the country and with the help of telegraph produced information across the country to be received in time for the morning paper. The newspaper assisted with the amount of literate people and gave them a chance to communicate of events and political topics.
The newspaper began to be viewed as a liberal influence since its primary audience was lower class citizens. The paper to this day along with other mediums have become politically influenced by their owners own personal beliefs. This will continue to remain the same as long as the people with the money own the media outlets.

New Technologies and Essay Mills

With time comes advances in technology and new ways to systematically challenge the educational system by finding different ways to get around essay and assignments. They are saying that essay mills are exploding throughout the country and have even gone global, offering papers to anyone that are written by professionals and not duplicated. However the risks that come nowadays is intense. Plagiarism or even the potential for plagiarism can have a student kicked of a University and even have them blackballed in the future. I believe that a number of students still will not take the risk of trusting someone else's word that their essay they received is completely original and not traceable to the company. The risk does not outweigh the reward. With the chance of explusion and the possibilty of not attending another university I believe that a majority of the students will either write the paper on their own or find less volitle measures to accomplish their needs.

Media and Social Structure

Our society's social structure is built from the ground up. It begins with the media creating social norms and ideals. The media alters our perception of the world around us allowing us to create virtual realities to live in. The virtual realities that we create our based our views, background, and development. We are able to be placed in "fairy tale" lives where we imagine that all dreams are possible and can be achieved in some form. From the beginning we have been lived our lives imaging that any profession and wage is something that could be achieved if one really wanted it. However as we age our virtual reality is shattered by real life experiences that challenge are thoughts and desires. We all still imagine different things when we reach certain ages.

Beauty, perception and cultural interpretation

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" is a common saying that is frequently used in the cultural perception of beauty. In the United States beauty is seen as a slender woman with "baby skin" or clear complexion. However for woman to achieve this perceived beauty a woman must use what our culture considers appropriate beauty aids. These appropriate aids were once considered just makeup to cover blemishes or skin discoloration but now it is acceptable to use Botox and surgical procedures to achieve society's cultural interpretation of beauty.
While not all women partake in this physical alteration it is said that these woman are beautiful in the eye of the beholder. Each person is unique in their own way and society projects this image that all people must be drones and follow our cultures perception of beauty.

New York Post Cartoon

One could say that the cartoon make both the police officers and Obama seem unintelligent. The police of are appearing to have a lack of intellect by their physical makeup. However it is difficult for one to get past the continuous racist remarks of African Americans being recognized as monkeys. This stereotypical response has embedded in a number of minds usually due their lack of intelligence or large amount of ignorance. The Post should have been conscious enough to not publish this cartoon due to the number of ideas this image represents. Every person has a different opinion of what this image represents and one should consider all possible meanings.

For example on the opposite side of the fence one could say the image is portraying the actual cabinet as monkeys because they allow people to control them. Monkeys could appear to some people as puppets or as easy manipulated creatures. The administration as a whole could be portrayed as puppet who allows people to pull their strings. Basically saying that the bill was not created by one individual it was a committee of individuals that decided the necessary components of bill.

Modernization, Modernism and Post Modernism

While these terms may technically have different meanings their core is primarily the same. All of these terms are historical processes, cultural practices and a experience of change.

Modernization is the change of the world through historical processes beginning from the industrial revolution, capitalism and colonization of Europe and the Americas. Modernization is number of interrelated parts within the bigger picture. It was the introduction of capitalism which brought about distribution and consumption of products and new markets to explore. The introduction of new technology that reduced the need of manual labor and causing the reduction in slave trade because of items such as the cotton gin. With this need for manufacturing facility personal were needed in the larger cities to assist with production. The demand created a place of opportunity for immigrants. The newcomers brought a culture that created what we are today, a melting pot. Also with large amounts of good s being exported the amount of income increased and the cities were able to build museums and libraries for the public.

Modernism is the cultural developments that occurred during the 16th and 17th century. This new culture brought art and literature to a rise. The impressionist gave way to different art that took the public by surprise and writers such as Virgina Wolf made reading a desirable leisure activity. Overall modernism is the new found culture of the Americas.

Post modernism is the change we have experience after World War II. It is the introduction of new communication technologies such as the computer. The introduction of migrant workers coming to the country and extremely multicultural society. Post modernism also took the form of architecture. We begin to see cities building upward towards the sky, reaching new heights.

All of these terms functionality is the same as some form of change did take place.

A Gift from the Maasai

The Maasai are an extremely proud group of people from what have read. The cow is a sacred animal that is only used at ceremonial gatherings and special occasions. The cow represents a the most valuable possession possible. The Maasai really opened their hearts to Americans when they offered the cattle to the United States, it was sign of hope and sympathy. They almost in a way allowed the United States people to feel as if they are considered a part of the tribe.

Models of Communication

The transmission model is based on a linear concept, that one message is transferred to one person and that the message is then transferred to another individual. The models challenges the idea that is it impossible to transmit a message without communication error from the sender to the receiver. This model seems extremely important because how one interprets a message is based on their background. There is not just one meaning in life, there is multiple interpretations.

The cultural model is based around the theory that everyone shares a commonality. It is seen as the groundwork for which community and communication have been built upon. In some form this could be true because you see a number of languages that have words that sound remarkably close. For example the Arabic language is seen by the culture as beautiful to large number of other cultures that borrowed words from their language.

Representation

One could wonder though why people follow one representation of a person over another. Our society uses the media as a guide to life's decisions. We allow what is stated and expressed on a media to always be considered credible even if we know an accusation to be false. Media representation has always been seemingly different than I guess one could call "actual representation". The media is able to create an image of a person and apply media representation to this image. The media creates a false meaning and exploits its due to human curiosity. The true meaning that they speak of is lost in transition when it becomes a media representation. The media has always been sought after as a reliable source however this image they created of themselves has been blurred and they to have multiple meanings.