Thesis- Americans do not clearly understand the war because of the filters used in television and the media that we have grown up with.

Five Facts

• Jagged letters are used for words such as Iraq
• Bombs on the news are described as a minor annoyance
  
• American media relates Husein to Hitler.
• Press Access ban in affect in 2001 by George Bush.
• United States had larger military budget than the world combined in 2005.

Triune Brain

1. Limbic- The music taps into your limbic and makes you ponder.
2. Limbic- The way a word sounds is manipulated in the news to ease pain and fear.
3. Neocortex- Metaphors in the news are enforced with written exposure as well.

8 Trends

1. Aesthetic Shift- Viewers are susceptible to different images according to location.
2. Technological Shift- The guns became more efficient as the people got more interested.
3. Politcal Shift- Should the news be regulated or should it be unfilteted.

7 Shifts

• Should the tv companies own the right to deliver the news to the people? Answer: No, it should be a integrated network of many companies thoughts and opinions.
• What emotional transfer does the war news lack? Answer: The blood and guts reality of the situation overseas.
• What production technigues do news companies commonly use such as fox? Answer: The font styles are manipulated for different words on the screen.
• What value message does the news lack about the war? Answer: Despite having many soliders killed, we've killed many more as a country than Iraq has to us.

Techniques

1. Beatiful People- News people always in suits.
2. Nostalgia- Day dreaming of being at a fight for Army commercial.
3. Beautiful People- The weapons are looked at as beautiful and not harmful, we are desensitized to there destruction.
4. Bandwagon- They use words such as we instead of military.
5. Card stacking- Offering the benfits of the Army and not the downfalls.
6. Symbolism- Making husein out to be as bad as possible through the comparence of Hitler.

Hieroglyphics: Hip Hop is Vintage (Meditation # 4)

Hieroglyphics are one of the most original sounding true to their roots freestyle fun loving rap groups. The members include Del Tha Funky Homosapien, A-plus, Casual, Pep Love, Phesto, Domino, Opio, and Tajai. All of the artist hav eindividual careers but most would agree that they are at their best when they are together. In this case it's true, people really do bring the best out in each other. What sets Hiero apart from a lot of other rappers are the reasons as to why they have pursued a career in the industry at all. What started out as a hobby ended up being a way to make a little bank as well. I am confident that they will always stay true to themselves and the places they came from.




SOWETO





MAKE YOUR MOVE




93 Til Infinity (The original)






Hiero continues to embrace what it means to be a real emcee and how to make an honest living. I once met Adam "Aplus" Carter. We chatted for a while as he explained his values and morals in life. To this day I can remember him saying you need to be true to yourself and make good decisions in life. Attitude plays an important role in what we do and in who we are, he basically said you are in charge of your own destiny. He really inspired me to believe that you really can do anything you want when you put your mind to it, maybe even one day spit like the almighty Hieroglyphics crew themselves.

Burton (Meditation # 3)

Burton is a Vermont made and owned company that a lot of local Vermonter's are proud of. Recently, Burton moved it's manufacturing unit and fired 43 of their loyal Vermont employees. Some controversy has arose throughout this period of time, some do not like the direction of the company and fear that they will leave their roots in the past. I have been keeping track of Burton alot through RSS feeds. I started using the feeds in Elaine Young's class, a marketing teacher and advisor at Champlain College. I like having the feeds at my disposal, it's nice to hear from professionals in the business world and not have to search for your information all day. Just type in the key phrases and terms you want to look after and your off, the entire information station of the internet in your hands! Thank you web 2.0 :)




How do they make those snowboards of theirs anyway???






This is a nice preview of Burton's 2009-2010 "B Movie". Also, note the use of the music adhering to the limbic brain and the facts on screen at the end hitting up the neocortex. The film also uses a variety of filming techniques. One major technique to make note of is the use of backwards video in the teaser. The camera angles, screen shot, and lighting also play an important roll in the teaser.






For your viewing pleasure....

Reflection

After Studying media for eight weeks in this class, what have you learned?

- I learned that most of the media here in the United states is under the control of a handful of large companies. It is important to acknowledge that most things we hear and read are the opinion or perspective of someone and that we must be our own filters for propaganda. I have also learned a lot about persuasion techniques and how people can be more convincing to others through choice of words.

What is the most important thing that you have learned about yourself as a critical reader, a writer, and a critical thinker?

-I have learned that it takes a lot of my focus to be a good critical reader. I often begin to read and not even acknowledge what it is I am reading and what it's about. Overall, I am lazy when it comes to reading and finding information. I have learned through the blogs that I am a efficient writer and would be better if I made more drafts to my writing. My ideas are usually pretty good but I need to work on elaborating more on my ideals. As a critical thinker, this class helps me the most. I have learned how to recognize different trends, shifts, and techniques in every day life. The power tools have been very important in my critical thinking and I feel much more advantaged by having learned them.

What's one thing that I would do differently about this class?

- I wish that I would have taken advantage of this personal blog more. The blog is a great way to express your own opinion and feel free to talk about what it is you would like to talk about. Maybe even embrace Twitter a bit more...haha

What's one thing Dr. Dub should do different about this class?

-I feel that a bit more film would be nice in this class. Applying the power tools to all of these real life situations was essential in learning more about people and the media.

I overall enjoyed the course a lot so far. It helped to broaden my perspective on the media and allow myself to not be the subject to all of the different things that go on in the world, but to rather seek out my own information where I want to find it and where it directly applies to me.

Triumph Of The Will (Meditation # 2)

TRIUMPH OF THE WILL




BACKGROUND

This Nazi propaganda film was released in 1935 and produced by Leni Riefenstahl . It portrays the Nazi party in a different light and almost makes you believe that the German government is strong and right in their ways. This film of nearly 2 hours has little to no speaking in it but is more powerful in displaying it's point of existence than many other films with audio. The movie has a lot of good material in it and uses many different techniques to persuade the viewers beliefs about Nazi Germany.

TECHNIQUES

Bandwagoning is displayed throughout the whole film. Since this movie only really shows one side of the story, it makes the viewer feel that "everyone" supports Hitler. It makes Hitler seem like a promising individual to put your faith in and does not display any evil nature.

Symbols are used everywhere in this movie. The German swastika, originally meaning peace, is found on many things in this movie. The main part to focus on is during the night meeting. This symbol is litten up high in the night sky like the northern star. This is alluding to the fact that the symbol will show people the way in life. Hitler uses this symbol throughout his campaign and finds much success in doing so. Repetition is also used because the symbol is shown so frequently. Even kids wear this pin, this could be nostalgic.

Warm fuzzies come into play when the child hands Hitler a bouquet of flowers. This shows that Hitler must not be evil, he is receiving flowers from an innocent child. It's too bad that children can be manipulated and made to do anything.

The music throughout the movie is motivational, sad, and all types of emotions. This taps into our limbic part of the brain and draws pleasant thoughts with the music as the scene is displayed. If you have never seen this movie than I suggest watching the whole thing. Some of the feelings that it makes you have even though the war is over are incredible. Propaganda is full of different techniques and is a strong tool for persuasion. It is important to understand why the director chose to do things the way that they did, every movement in this movie has reasoning behind it.

Dance With Technique (Meditation # 1 )

-IMMORTAL TECHNIQUE-


Felipe Andres Coronel was born February 19, 1978 in Lima Peru. He later moved to Harlem, New York where he picked up most of his rap influence. Technique has always spoken the truth and speaks on very real terms about worldly debates. He has been an active MC in the rap freestyle scene and brought a lot of hype to himself over 8 years ago at different rap battles. Though still active in the underground art of free-styling he has began to produce many of his own albums in recent years. Such albums include both Revolutionary volumes 1 and 2 , as well as The 3rd World, Summer Visions, and other various mixtapes. Felipe Coronel uses many parts of speech in his raps and sells himself as a rapper without talking about himself constantly. He uses many different media meditations in his lyrics as well, some include...



Freedom of Speech

"Fuck a middle man, I won't pay anyone else
I'll bootleg it and sell it to the streets my self
I'd rather be that than signed and stuck on a shelf
And because of this executives try to diss me
Racism frozen in time like Walt Disney"

This is a great example of one of the seven principles, value messages. The long loved Disney corporation that we all enjoy so much is being directly attacked for it so called "racist" values. This is a controversial topic and very common for Immortal Technique to attack. Let's just say large corporations arent his thing.

Harlem Streets

"It's like Cambodia the killing fields uptown
We live in distress and hang the flag upside down
The sound of conservative politicians on television
People in the hood are blind so they tell us to listen."

This is the beginning to the second verse of Harlem Streets, a song from Revolutionary Volume 2. It includes the words "we" and "us". These words are commonly used to persuade via group dynamic. He is almost speaking out to people that either agree with him or live directly in the streets where he is from. He always stays loyal to where he is from and continues to use strong lyrical vocabulary.


The Cause Of Death

"Dick Chaney you fucking leach, tell them your plans, about building those pipelines through Afghanistan. "

This is direct use of name calling. This is a personal attack on a political figure and clearly shows now mercy the individual. Immortal Technique constantly has strong opinions and clearly vocalizes them in his raps.


The 4th Branch

"Flow like the blood of Abraham through the Jews and the Arabs
Broken apart like a woman's heart, abused in a marriage
The brink of holy war, bottled up, like a miscarriage
Embedded correspondents don't tell the source of the tension
And they refuse to even mention, European intervention
Or the massacres in Jenin, the innocent screams
U.S. manufactured missles, and M-16's
Weapon contracts and corrupted American dreams
Media censorship, blocking out the video screens
A continent of oil kingdoms, bought for a bargain
Democracy is just a word, when the people are starvin'
The average citizen, made to be, blind to the reason
A desert full of genocide, where the bodies are freezin'
And the world doesn't believe that you fightin' for freedom
Cause you fucked the Middle East, and gave birth to a demon".

These lyrics mention Arabs, media, and oil prices. It also refers to the war with the last sentence and the constant environmental struggle we face. We have talked a lot about these topics in class and these lyrics direct relate to a lot of which we have been speaking about.


CRIMES OF THE HEART

Barack Obama

Obama's State Of The Union Adress

1. The President talks about about a lot of important issues that we currently face as a nation. He appeals to our reptilian brain by using phrases like how it "should be", as if there is no question and this is the correct answer abiding by our morals. Our limbic is tapped into when he talks about Americas views through a family perspective. He allows you to apply what he is saying on a real and emotional level, one that feels for the pain of the average American. He adheres to our neocortex by creating simple solutions for producing jobs by exporting more goods from America. He appeals by implementing this is a rational way of thinking and a obvious answer the current unemployment problem.
2. Political shifts are demonstrated when he says to get serious and protect the economy. He also states that we need to be energy efficient and become a nation that leads the global economy.
   
3. The light in the video is bright and makes it a very clear setting for the president. He is surrounded by other colleagues and political parties that are professional and seem to agree with most of what is said during the speech. Obama's voice sounds very strong through the microphone and almost appears to echo.
   
4. Obama uses many different techniques for his argument. Strength is brought up many times in his speech saying we need "great strength" and "unity". He also speaks very strong and smoothly. Group dynamics are used when he talks about "we" as a nation need to do things. He later says he has a good outlook for us as a nation as well. He uses repetition with the words "spirit" and "embody strength". The president uses humor when he compares the bail out to a route canal, this gets a decent laugh. He also uses warm fuzzies when he talks to the parents of the nation about there children and the future for them. Last but not least he uses bribery via tax cuts to appeal to Americans.
   
5. The overall thesis from Obama is that we have struggled in the past and will continue to struggle, but we will overcome our problems aggressively, never finishing in last place.
6. (One in ten Americans cant find work). (When market crashed the future was not certain, but we overcame it despite hesitations). (The recovery act has successfuly prevented lay offs across the United States).