In Response to Lucy's Movie Lecture Post

      I enjoyed reading Lucy's response to the movie lecture. Her blog post made me remember that Thomas Edison tried to take credit for the invention of motion pictures. I never  knew that Edison put his name on many inventions that were created by his employees. Putting your name on other's ideas is called plagiarizing. I find plagiarizing immoral and simply rude but many people still do it. People may make up excuses like, "Oh, its not completely the same or I just adopted the idea and I thought of the rest." However, you shouldn't have to plagiarize someone else's ideas because your brain is just as capable of other brilliant ideas. At the end of her post, she included a mini reflection where she asked herself about if she had been responsible towards her own actions. I thought the end was a real nice touch to the post because it gave the reader insight on what you were thinking after the lecture.

Link: http://livinginthefastlucy.blogspot.com/2015/10/in-response-to-lecture-8-movies-main.html?m=1/

Movie Lecture Response

      This lecture caused me to reminisce about my childhood experiences with movies. Throughout my childhood, my family would watch various old movies. I would watch a collection of Chaplin movies with my family and would always wonder why the actors walked so weird in the movies. I never dwelled on the question, so I did not know the real reason behind their weird movements until this lecture. In the past, movies were hand cranked and not automatic meaning it was hard to keep up the same rhythm. This was because eventually the person would get tired and the movie would slow down or they would get excited and speed it up. Another experience was my aunt watching tons of old Hindi movies in the romance genre. She would always say "Why won't guys be more like this?" and this is the case where women who watch a lot of romantic movies tend to have higher standards. I noticed that no matter the culture, movies set standards for the world to achieve. When I learned about the demassification solutions that movies tried to offer, I thought of the old wild west movies that my dad used to watch. Under the title it would say, IN TECHNICOLOR, or sometimes it would just say in color. I liked how this lecture related to any experience we had with movies and gave us background information to clear any confusion we had about movies in the past.

Media Critique

       An article was posted to the USA Today website on September 14, 2015 about two identical twin sisters who are pregnant with twins and are due to give birth only two weeks apart.
        "Utah twins pregnant with second set of twins," is one of the articles found in the website's national news section that violate the 1st and 4th yardsticks which are newsworthiness and local relevance. Overall, it is just another feel good story and not in anyway newsworthy. This article's topic would be considered peripheral which means the story does not have a long lasting informational impact over a vast audience. In order for a story to be newsworthy, it has to be  the opposite of peripheral. Stories that are worthy to be placed in national news should have a lasting impact on the people of our nation. The yardstick of local relevance was also violated by this story. Local relevance is how does the story affect the audience. In this case, the audience is not affected at all. They would carry on with their lives and forget they ever read the article. None of their lives would have a sliver of an impact because as time drags on, they would forget the several feel good stories they have read.

       USA Today does have a section called "Life" for peripheral topics such as celebrity and sport news as well as other unique stories. A suggestion to the story's writer, Ms. Durando, is that she should have placed the story into that section instead of the national news section.

Link: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2015/09/14/utah-twins-pregnant-second-set-twins/72262780/

Response to Maya M's Ten Elements of Journalism Post

       Maya Malawi's blog post made me realize that journalists have one of the hardest jobs. One mistake or lie hidden in the past might be dug up and can come back to haunt you which may put an end your career. I liked how she gave an example of a well known journalist who told a lie and it came back to bite him. As a journalist, you have to have reliable sources and concrete facts before you release anything out to the media. Once it is released, there isn't much you can do, unless you give the media an informed update to the story. Overall, I loved how her post was interesting and informative at the same time.

Link: http://mnm4jc.blogspot.com/2015/09/ten-elements-of-journalism-being.html?m=1

Response to Melissa's INFORMATION V.S ENTERTAINMENT

       I've read Melissa's post about specifically the elitist-populist binary model, demassification, and conglomeration. I agreed with her point that our society is more interested in the latest trends, viral videos, and celebrity gossip. The populist media appeals to our interests by demassifiying content into age groups which helps them make more money. Due to demassification, they are able to expand their audience. Also, I wish we could have gotten more in depth with conglomeration because it had been quite confusing for me at first. While discussing conglomeration in her post she asked, "Is there a rule stating that a larger company can't by out a smaller company, if they are financially stable or there isn't any particular reason to close it down?" I happened to have looked it up and there is no law against the larger company merging with a financially stable smaller one which is highly unfair. 

Link: http://pocketsecrets2015.blogspot.com/2015/09/binary-models-binary-models-lecture-was.html?m=1

Newspaper

       I was shocked to see that the history of the newspaper went all the way back to Ancient Rome. Newspaper has survived for a very long time because there weren't many technologies that challenged it. At one point, many people began to use radio instead of newspapers. However, that changed when people considered the pros and cons of each medium. You can read a newspaper at any time, in whatever order and any topic interests you. But with radios, you can't skip the topics you dislike and you have to listen to it in whatever order it is broadcasted in. Today's technology is really challenging the business of newspaper because you could do all things with a newspaper on your phone. You could share and save it just like you could with newspapers but you would need to have knowledge how to use a phone. In order to have a phone you have to buy one and they are expensive while newspapers are cheap. The only reason newspapers are barely surviving is the tradition of the elderly. A vast majority of newspaper readers are the older generation because the norm back then was waking up and reading the paper. 

Books

       During class, we learned the impact that Gutenberg's movable metal printing press had on the world. However, before his invention there were many other printing technologies. Some inventions were as simple as a stamp seal and others were very similar to Gutenberg's such as the Chinese movable wooden type press. I now understand why his printing press had such a great importance in history. Prior to the Gutenberg era, the vast majority of people were illiterate and only the rich could afford books. His invention was affordable which allowed more people to buy books and it sparked a reason in people to learn how to read. Due to the movable metal press, literacy became widespread and it had paved a way for the Renaissance. Furthermore, it helped cause revolutions in politics and religion as well as standardized maps and languages. Without Gutenberg, there wouldn't be a world for Journalism to strive in. I think the world would have been a bleak place where only the rich could enjoy the privileges of books.