Mass Media Hum 121 8.2 blog on Zeitgeist

In class today we had an excellant discussion about the movie and how we felt about it afterwards. For me it was a total eye opener because i'm not really into politics and the government because I can't do anything to change it. I do watch the news but i'm not going to be one to follow the story on CNN or any other 24 hr news channel. I did get mad because I could not believe the evidence that was presented to support that our government intentionally made up terrorists just so we could go to war with Iraq, get Sadam out of power so we could get the oil and because Bush was mad because Sadam tried to kill his daddy. I have always believed and said that the media only gives us what they want us to see and hear because they are only allowed to give that. This world is controlled by maybe 3-5 people that have been sooooo powerful for sooooo long that no one could take them down. Our government is being controlled by these people because we all know Bush is not smart enough to be making the decisions the he is. Lets face it we only tune into what the media mesmerizes us with. For example the explosion of the twin towers if we would have looked past the huge billows of smoke from the pictures that were played over and over and over and over we would have seen what they showed in the film. Because we are trained not to look at the bigger picture only at whats at hand or what the media gets us to focus on we are like little puppets until someone brave enough shows us the truth. People say everything happens for a reason and this is true I just feel that if we always remember that we all might look at the bigger picture and start questioning more than just letting it go by. There are tons of examples of this like

• the vice president owning the company that was awarded open ended contracts to supply our soldiers in Irag with stuff
• NORAD doing exercises 2 yrs before 9/11 with aircraft as weapons and using the twin towers as a target
• never seeing any of the hijackers or others involved in the attacks brought to justice

all of these got media attention then got swept under the rug. I am glad though that people like Michael Moore and others are standing up and showing us with evidence another side than what we were exposed to and letting us decide how we believe. After watching this movie it sure does make me think more and broader than I did the day before. I dont think I will ever forget what the movie said to me and how I need to step back and look at the bigger picture in life.

Mass Media Hum 121 5.7 Zeitgeist related to social

Zeitgeist........ WOW what a good movie. I am very glad you assigned us to watch it.
There are a lot of parts of this movie that would relate to social dialogues of the current era.
The one that comes to mind instantly is about Jesus. Some religious cultures would have disdain for this film while others might say that is the truth about the GOD that I know.
A lot of people worship a GOD and depending on your religion, he may be the GOD that most people know from the Bible or he may be totally different. The movie said it best and that is that we all worship some form of GOD and that form which we worship is our choice.

Psychology 8.2 chapter 12 free write

Work and family roles:
Todays society almost requires a 2 incomes household to make it, this is just surviving not being able to save money. This situation is very stressful and a lot of woman have opted to leave the work force and stay home with their children.
When you have both parents working the family roles are usually shared by both parents in an effort to have time to spend with each other and their children. Sharing the house responsibilities also relieves a lot of stress from the woman who in her opinion is responsible for keeping the house together. Men are now more than ever helping out and most of the woman are very appreciative of this stress relief.
For woman having to work with kids is very stressful because they need to find a job that works around their schedule which a lot of companies are starting to embrace and some are punishing for. Now more than ever before woman are valueing their family before their jobs. Meaning that their job needs to work around their schedule or it is not worth sacraficing family time.

Psychology 8.1 video psychology

Psychopathology is the study of the origin, development, and manifestations of mental of behavioral disorders.
There has been a question about if alcoholism is genetic. I believe that it can be, maybe not in all cases but there is a chance that if your parents (either one) is an alcoholic or if members of their family have alcoholism then your chances are greater that you have the gene and could become and alcoholic.
There are people that do not believe this saying the alcoholism is learned behavior or is a disease but if you are born to an alcoholic parent (mother or father) you could have received that gene upon conception.
So then we are left with questions like are

1. depression
2. anxiety
3. bipolar
4. schzophrenia

genetically passed on to ones chilren? The answer is that sure it can be but we dont know for sure.

Psychology 7.2 Zeitgeist instead of conformity

I am going to just write about the first part of the movie pertaining to psychology.
I have been told that if you control someones emotion then you control them. Most Christians that believe in GOD are taught by Preachers and by reading the Bible that God is a man born to the virgin Mary through emacuate conseption, on December 25, 3 Kings came bearing gifts, was crucified, and resurrected 3 days later. I was of this belief too. When you are taught and believe one way until you are shown or know different you actually know no different. The explanation of the Zodiac is very believable, especially when you have more than one person that was born on the same day, with 12 Deciples, being resurrected, started their work at 30 and had healing powers. It all does make sense. The question is what do you believe in? It is an eye opener to how your psychology can make you question yourself and what you believed in when presented with different evidence.

Psychology 7.1 Chapter 7 essay

Movies are big money but they also take big money to make. Movies today really are starting to show us what is going on from government to the war. They are showing us a lot of information that the media does not. Movies such as the Bourne series, Syriana and others like it make you kind of wonder how much more we dont know and what else is going on.

Take Micheal Moore for instance he has made 3 movie documentaries that have showed us a lot of things that the government doesnt necessarly want us to see. I personally have not seen any of his movies except for the trailers but have seen him on the late night talk shows like The Tonight Show and the interviews that he has given have shown me that he is a man that is passionate about showing the world things that are wrong and we dont know it.

Movies are also great entertainment and if you sit back and think about it there are some people that have great imaginations and are very creative.

I personally dont go to movies because the theaters are always hot and you cant pause the movie when you need to go to the bathroom. The price also deters me from going by the time I buy a ticket at 9.75, popcorn and soda 8.00 im at 17.75 and if I just wait and save 3.00 more I can buy the movie on dvd and watch it as many times as I want, pause it to go to the bathroom and best of all I get to sit in a comfortable chair and not have to listen to the other people in the theater and I can actually hear the movie.:)

Psychology 6.3 persuasion

The power of persuasion can be abused in many ways. Hitler is a good example he was a very persuasive speaker charismatic he persuaded all of Germany to World War III killing millions.

I think the power of persuasion is being abused in the marketing campaigns these days it seems like everyone is using sex appeal to sell everything even a bottle of shampoo or a pack of gum. I think this type of persuasiveness in advertising is going too far. Divorced families can also abuse persuasion by using the children to get information about the other parent or get the child to come live with the one parent and not the other. Persuasion is very powerful if a person knows how to do it he/she can get the person their talking to do, say or buy just about anything they want them too.

Persuasion can be good also like persuading your child to walk or talk. This is good persuasion because your using positive behavior to get them to do what you want them to do.

Persuasion is good and bad you have to be careful how you use it and also how you view it.

Psychology 6.2 descrimination and prejudice

Lets start by defining prejudice and discrimination
Prejudice is a negative attitude toward members of a group.
Discrimination is behaving differently, usually unfairly, toward the members of a group.

Modern discrimination is when people privately harbor negative attitudes toward minority groups but express them only when feeling such views are justified and its safe to do so.

Prejudice is Authoritarianism, known now as, Right Wing Authoritarianism and is characterized by:

1. Authoritarian submission : exaggerated deference to those in power
2. Authoritarian aggression : hostility towards targets sanctioned by authorities
3. Conventionalism : strong adherence to values endorsed by authorities

RWA are commonly found among political conservative more so than political liberals. Why are right wing prejudice?

1. They organize their social world into 2 groups the in groups and the out groups and view the out groups as threatening their cherished traditional values.
2. RWA are self righteous they believe that they are more moral than others and they feel justified in derogating groups that authority figures define as less moral than themselves.

Stereotyping is a big factor in prejudice and discrimination. People are particularly likely to make fundemental attribution error when evaluating targets of prejudice. Defensive attributions are people who unfairly blame victims of adversity to reassure themselves that the same thing wont happen to them. Expectations can foster and maintain prejudice and discrimination.

The fact is that social thinking is automatic, selective, and consistant meaning that people usually see what they expect to see when they look through the eyes of someone who is prejudice and discriminatory.

In our culture everyone is prejudice and discriminatory at something or someone and it will not change in the future. Look at what happened after 9-11 people of Arab descent were taken and looked at closely because of their skin color. It happens all over the world today. If someone is fat, is a homeless drunk on the street, dresses to express themselves, has lots of piercings, wild hair color they are discriminated against or shown prejudice by someone. The future is still going to see prejudice and discrimination maybe not as bad as it has been but it will never go away, even in the political arena.

Psychology 6.1 self esteem and self efficacy

Self esteem is ones overall assesment of ones worth as a person. Self efficacy refers to people conviction that they can achieve specific goals. Self esteem is developed in early life from involvement, acceptance and support from parents laying the foundation where as self efficacy is developed from 4 sources (mastery experiences, vicarious experiences, persuasion and encouragement and interpretation of emotional arousal).
Self esteem is a global self evaluation that blends specific evaluations about ones adequacy to whatever is personally relevant like:

• self image
• social self image
• emotional self image
• acedemic self image
• physical self image

The importance of emotional self esteem is that it is strongly and consistantly related to happiness and low self esteem is more likely to lead to depression. The interpersonal realm is that people with high self esteem claim to be more attractive, likeable, have better relationships and make better impressions than those with low self esteem. But these facts only exist in their minds because objective data doesnt support their views. High self esteem can become Narcissistic, this is where one has the tendency to regard oneself as grandiosely self-important causing them to be sensitive to criticism.

Self efficacy is not concerned with the skills one has but with the beliefs about what one can do with the skills they have. Self efficacy beliefs vary according to the persons skills, for example one may have high efficacy to speak in front of people but low self efficacy when it comes to asking someone on a date. Self efficacy effects :

• commitment to goals
• performance on tasks
• persistance towards goals in the face of obstacles

Self efficacy is learned where as self esteem is a behavior layed out early on in life. Self esteem is the foundation that your parents layed down for you by thier actions self efficacy is a learned behavior that you can change by using the 4 sources mentioned previously.

There is one common fact between self esteem and self efficacy and that is that they both effect the present and the future.

Psychology 5.3 extra credit 1%

Social interactions and human values. Your human values may be not to judge others, honesty, loyalty, accepting people for who they are but when your with your friends do you really hold true to your values?
People rely on 5 key sources of observation information because we can not read peoples minds. Those 5 key sources are:

• Appearance - physical features such as height, weight, skin and hair color give us some cues to help read people
• Verbal behavior - what people say helps us observe the kind of person they are
• Actions - people don't always do as they say or lie so we rely on their action to tell us what kind of person they are.
• Nonverbal Messages - facial expressions, eye contact and body language are all helpful in determining peoples emotional state or disposition
• Situations - the setting in which behavior occurs provides crucial information about how to interpret a persons behavior.

So using these 5 key sources can help you determine who people are but you really don't know until you put who you think they are to the test. People may be one way in a social setting and another in a private setting.

You have a best friend that you find out is cheating on her husband what do you do? Your values are that you are loyal and honest and would never do this but do you have the strength to confront that friend tell them what they are doing is wrong and goes against your values and don't want to be friends with them anymore or do you turn a blind eye?

Your child is doing things to hurt themselves do you keep it in the family or do you get them the help they need immediately which is what you know you need to do. A lot of people deny their problems which is against their human values.

The relationship between socializing and human values can be good or can get really ugly it just depends on the situation. The rule is that you always adhere to your human values when socializing because if you don't you could be in the wrong place at the wrong time or did you intentionally put yourself in a bad situation.

Mass Media Hum 121 5.6 Project blog

The specific media area I am choosing is reality shows and how the media portrays or edits them for best ratings. These shows may have started out as entertainment but in a lot of them it has become one of disrespect and degrading society. The media is also making a lot of money off of this and it is just wrong.

Mass Media Hum 121 5.3 reflection movie industry

Movies are a great to go watch with a friend, to see the technology, and to see things that interest us. Movies impact our society by showing us stories like Apollo 13, the 9/11 movie, the Daniel Pearlman movie, the documentary from Michael Moore about healthcare, the President Kennedy movie and ect. These movies show us a little more than what the media informs us about the truth of people stories of what is really going on in the world. Media like news and newspapers only tell us a little bit but with the movies about that subject or person we are told the truth and the whole story.
A good example of how movies impact society is the Michael Moore movie Sicko about our health care. I personally have not seen it but the trailer for it show one important piece and that is that the prisoners in Guantonimo Bay get better healthcare, in fact it says they get the best that the U.S. has to offer, but out senior citizens are limited. This is just one example of someone exposing the government so hopefully they can be held accountable for their actions. If it not for the brave efforts of Michael Moore and many other film directors we would not know have of what actually happened. I think by doing those sort of film society is waking up and instead of turning a blind eye to things that are wrong we are now standing up together and demanding action.

Mass Media Hum 121 4.3 evolution of music

In 1877 Thomas Edison invented a little thing called the Phonograph (which means sound writer). In 1887, Emile Berliner developed a little thing called the Gramophone, which replaced Edison's cylinder with flat discs. Berliner joined Eldrige Johnson to form the Victor Talking Machine Company that would later become know to millions as RCA Victor. Early players required large horns to amplify the sound, later becoming housed in the cabinet below the actual player.
In 1927 the first Jukebox was manufactured and brought music to restruants and nightclubs. 1947 Peter Goldmark while listening to Brahms' Second Piano Concerto hated the interuptions from having to turn over the record and the sound defects he detected created the LP (long playing) record which could play for 23 minutes and were larger that the 78rpm records of the World WarII era. William Paley, of CBS radio and records, realized he was taking a big risk introducing LP records when he knew most people didn't own the proper record player to play them. He contacted RCA exec. David Sarnoff to convince him to partner up and make a record player to play the LP records but Sarnoff refused. In 1948 Sarnoff introduced his own 7 inch, 45rpm record, they were perfect for jukeboxes. Eventually Toscanini convinced Sarnoff to manufacture LP records to include33 1/3 spd on RCA record players and in turn CBS would use 45s for it's popular songs. Eventually a record player was made that could play all 3 sizes of records.
1950s saw the introduction of rocknroll and the developement by London Records of High Fedelity. Quadraphonic(4track) and 8 track were almost destined to become the standard of the 1970's but that pesky cassette tape was holding up pretty good. 1979 Sony introduced us to the walkman as a personal stereo.
Today the CD is transforming music in to digital code on a 4.7 inch disc read by lasers. In 2000 CD players that included a CD recorder and computers with a CD-RW drive meant consumers could burn data such as music to a blank CD, play it and then re-record on the same disc.

Mass Media Hum 121 4.2 compare diff in media audiences

All of the magazines that are on the news stands all have one goal and that is to sell the magazine to the consumer but which consumer and how they target that consumer is the difference.
The magazines have 5 divisions for work to be done in to get the magazine ready for newstands:

• Editorial handles everything regarding magazine content except advertising
• Circulation Sales manages subscription info
• Advertising sales responsible for finding companies to advertise in magazine
• Manufacturing and Distribution manage production of the mag and getting it to consumers
• Administration takes care of organizational details (hiring, paying bills, and manage office)

All the magazines have the same 5 divisions but their content and their target reader are different. Magazines divide into 3 different types:

• Consumer magazines - all magazines sold by subscription, news stands, supermarkets and book stores.
• Trade, technical, and professional magazines - magazines sold to specific subscribers and professional associations for their specific members or subscribers
• Company magazines - these magazines are produced by businesses for their employess, customers and stockholders.

Now how do magazines target their particular customer they write about womens issues, social crusades, arts, politics, by doing investigative journalism, sports, mens issues, todays trends, fashion, and different cultures.

Magazines such as People, Us Weekly, Life and Style and In Touch just to name a popular few target mostly woman readers with celebrity news and stories of interest. Readers Digest is poplular because it is published at an 8 grade reading level, which makes it easy to read, and people like the content. Magazines such as Ladies Home Journal, Sports Illustrated, Bride, Business, Boating and Yachting are all magazines targeting someone in particular that at that time in their life are wanting ideas or information about subjects these magazines provide. Magazines such as Time and Newsweek target news and politics. Then you have the imfamous Star and the National Enquire that have stories so outlandish that you don't know whether to believe in it or not and most readers read it for fun.

Magazines are a popular form of mass media and can target a wide range of readers.

Mass Media Hum 121 4.1 news

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows the 7th and final book in the Harry Potter series and maybe one of the most anticipated because someone dies and everyone wants to know if it is Harry or not. One girl in Fairbanks, Ak camped out for 11 days to find out and on the last day of waiting she was being interviewed by a radio station and the interviewers while on hold spoiled the ending and before it was even to be on sale they ruined the anticipation for her. On the t.v. interview she was very good about it in saying that even though she knew the ending finding out how it got there would be interesting. I was also very impressed that she did not reveal to anyone else the ending.
All the reports said none of the books were to be release until the said release date but people all over somehow got ahold of early copies and posted them on the internet which in my opinion was totally wrong. Some online book stores sent them out early and those people got the privilage of being able to read the story before anyone else. So how does this happen?
The media frenzy was felt around the world with the release of the movie Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and a week later the last book in the series Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows. The Scholastic Co. had shipped the books to there destinations and the instructions were for the pallets to remained sealed until the release date 1 minute after midnight on that day. They even had security guards guarding the books so they would not be released early but as one would expect there were copies that were released early how this happened is anyones guess. The media phenomenom surrounding the release of the last Harry Potter book was that of Presidential porportions.

Mass Media Hum 121 Blog about media text

Today of all days I decide to relax in the quietness for a minute, take a little time to myself and turned on the t.v. and of all things the new show is on talking about the rehab centers all the celebs are going to and are they for real or just a get away spa.
So yes let us look at that for a moment, because it interests and frustrates me. I have no doubt that the rehab centers like the Betty Ford center and the newest one Promises, that they do work. The problem that we have is that if the person is not there of their own recognition then chances of them getting out and staying sober is a low percentage. Just because it is an expensive or exclusive facility does not make the basis of the program any different. There are a lot of differences in that the more exclusive have personal trainers, pools, and ect but when it comes down to it the basis of why the person is there is the same. I think that in the last few months the high profiled celebrities that have gone into the rehab facilities have only done so because of being forced to. Brittany and Lindsay have both already fallen off the wagon. They tell you whether it is dieting, quiting smoking, quiting drinking or quiting drugs it is a life style change. This means that you can not go back into the bar and say i'll just have water or soda because at some point it gets to you and you say oh just one won't hurt and then it eventually turns into more than one. Brittany Spears was not ready to leave her rehab stint and from all the news reports and headlines she is in total denial of having a problem which means she never got the proper treatment and Lindsy Lohan even though she was wearing an ankle monitor still went off the wagon even after staying in rehab through her 21st birthday. It all goes back to the basics if you want help you can get it from the rehab facilities whether they are exclusive or not and you have to make a life style change if you don't it will still be the same and the rehab was a waist of time.

Mass Media Hum 121 3.8 chptr 5 online resources

Downloading on line, whether it be music, files, pictures, or video has become very popular. Chapter 5 talks about the music industry and provides a good bit on what happened when the mp3 player came out and people started downloading songs from the internet. FREE is always a temptation for people whether it's legal or not. I remember the whole Napster deal as it played out on the news.
The artists have to make their money also and I really don't think it is right for anyone to be able to download their song(s) for free. I mean put yourself in their shoes, if you put a lot of work into producing an album for your fans to buy and then they don't have to buy the album or even spend any money to get the songs from the new album, I think you would be just as mad as they were when they found out about web sites like Napster and Kazaa.
I did download songs from the likes of Napster and Kazaa also but not very many cause I was too afraid of getting caught and sued. Napster I know then went to the membership plan where you had to pay per song or per month to be able to download songs.
There is a lot of companies now on the internet that you can download songs from but I don't know of any that are FREE. The one I found to be a good one so far is Ares Ultra where you pay a one time fee of 40.00 and you can download as many songs as you would like. The only problem I have found is that sometimes the songs you want are not always available and it can be a little slow. For me it is perfect because I don't really download a lot but when I want a song I can usually find it.

Psychology 5.2 Impressions people make on each other

They say first impressions are everything but for some it is not. For example myself most people upon first impression of seeing me think i'm a bitch because of my facial features but those who choose to say hello find a nice, giving, sharing and often too talkative person. So first impressions are not always everything nor are they accurate. Because someone wears all black one can not assume that they are goth or worship the devil or are unruley. Impressions are not always accurate in fact sometimes they are the opposite. Impressions can and often do affect long term relations with people because for instance going to get a job application you are not dressed properly so when you go in for an interview you will be remembered for the way you dressed to come to get the application and that may have a negative affect on your prospect of getting the job.

Psychology Personality

Personality refers to and individuals unique constellation of consistant behavioral traits. Personality trait is a durable dispostion to behave in a particular way in a variety of situations. Some words to describe personality traits is honest, dependable, moody, impulsive, suspicious, anxious, excitable, domineering and friendly. There are 5 high order traits known as the BIG 5. People who score high in:

• extraverson : are outgoing, sociable, upbeat, friendly, assertive and gregarious
• neuroticism : tend to be anxious, hostile, self-conscious, insecure and vulnerable
• openness to experience: are associated with curiosity, flexibility, vivid fantasy, imaginativeness, artistic sesitivity and unconventional attitudes
• agreeableness : tend to be sympathetic, trusting, cooperative, modest, and straight forward
• conscientiousness : tend to be diligent, disciplined, well organized, punctual and dependable

Personality can be described by measuring these 5 basic traits. The 5 factor model is a dominant concept of personality structure in contemporary psychology( having been characterized as the latitude and longitude along which personality should be mapped) .

The structure of personality includes : Id, Ego, and the Superego.

• Id is the primitive, instinctive component of personality that operates according to the pleasure principal (demands immediate gratification) Freud referred to the Id as the reservoir of the psychic energy
• Ego is the decision making component of the personality that operates according to the reality principal. Freud refers to the Ego as like a man on horseback who has to hold in check the superior strength of the horse.
• Super Ego is the moral component of personality that incorporates social standards about what represents right and wrong. The superego emerges out of the ego around the age of 3-5yrs old. For some people the Superego can become irrationally demanding in it's strive for moral perfection.

According to Freud the Id, Ego and Superego are distrubuted along 3 levels of awareness the unconscious, conscious and the preconscious.

There are so many personalities out in the world it makes it very interesting to engage people, interact with them and gather some helpful and maybe useful information.

Psychology 5.1 coping strategies essay

Coping refers to efforts to master, reduce, or tolerate the demands created by stress. Everyone has different coping strategies, some people are :

• active (taking additional action to get rid of problem)
• planning (make strategy about what to do)
• suppression ( put aside other things to concentrate on problem)
• restraint ( for self to wait for just the right time to take care of problem)
• seek social support (asking friends what they did in same situation)
• social support emotional reasons ( talk to someone about how I feel)
• positiveness ( look for the good in situation)
• acceptance ( learn to live with it )
• religion ( seek God's help)
• focus on emotions and vent ( when upset let emotions out instead of keeping them inside)
• denial ( refuse or deny that it happened)
• behavioral disengagement ( give up attempt to get your way)
• mental disengagement ( turn to other things to keep mind off of situation or problem)
• alcohol/drug disengagement ( abuse drugs or alcohol thinking it will take care of the problem)

There is another way of coping it is called constructive coping. Constructive coping refers to efforts to deal with stressful events that are judged to be relatively healthful. Constructive coping involves :

• confronting problems directly (involves effort to rationally evaluate options in an effort to solve the problem
• is based on reasonable, realistic appraisals of the stress and coping resources
• learning to recognize and manage potentially disruptive emotional reactions to stress
• learning to exert some control over potentially harmful or destructive habitual behaviors

There are a lot of ways to cope with stress, pressure, or other problems but there are a few things that should be remembered:

• the stress/pressure/problem will never go away till you deal with it
• alcohol/drugs only complicate or prolong the problem
• and finally taking it head on when it shows up is the only thing you can do. Worrying about what is, was or what could of or should of been is not good. As they say " hind sight is always 20/20". You can only do your best and be honest.

Psychology 3.4 xtra credit 1% family/happiness

The family, as I have found out lately, very much so affects your individual happiness. Think about it, for instance you are married and you come home everynight to a mad, depressed wife that in turn has set the mood for the children, so after working 8-10 hours you come home to an unpleasent house filled with depressed mood. I would rather stay at work. Another example is that you are not happy, the children sense it and feel like they are the cause of it. For most people family is very important key to their happiness. Most men are generally happy if their significant other is happy and as we all know if the woman of the house is happy the whole family is happy if not then it can be pretty miserable. Having family support is also a key to individual happiness. Having family support means you have someone close to turn to, to get help from, to tell your secrets or problems too without being afraid of judgement.

Mass Media week 3 2007

Last time I wrote about how much press coverage Paris Hilton is getting and now Brittany Spears is on the front page. What I have noticed is that the media has really brought down their professionalism in my opinion. Stars are captured in what ever pose, with or without proper clothes, and now some magazines have the DIVA or Not section. Yes I hear all of you that are yelling well they are stars and get paid for it so they just have to deal with it. That is true to a point but these stars are people too and deserve just a little more privacy than the press is giving them.
Now lets talk about the Mass Media and the war that is going on. I am sitting in class listening to a radio commentary from World War 1 and I am comparing it to the coverage that todays media is giving the war in Iraq and there is no comparison. In the Iraq war coverage all we get today is how troops are dieing and gross images of the aftermath what has happened to covering what they are doing day to day. What are they encountering? How are they being treated? How are they treating the Iraq people? Maybe I am just not watching the correct news channel but local news and CNN all show the same. I respect and admire the troops that are fighting for my freedom (and everytime I see someone in uniform I thank them for their service) but I truely get tired of hearing how many are dieing and what the government is not doing because they are too busy fighting over who is right. When 9/11 first happened and there was talk of us going over to fight back I admit I was influenced by the Mass Media and was all for it but whatI did not know was that we were going to go over and drag our feet with out troops lives at stake while the president, congress and the house fought over who was right on how we should conduct the operation. Media sometimes is entertaining and fun but at other times can be sad and non-informative. Sometimes I think that the improvements in technology for the media is hazarous and we should go back to the old way.

Psychology week 3 2007 STRESS

Stress is defined as: any circumstances that threaten or are perceived as threatening to ones well being and thereby tax ones coping abilities.
In todays world we need to come to realize that stress is part of our everyday lives, whether your stressed because you woke up late, the kids are giving you a hard time getting up, your boss gets on you first thing in the morning, traffic is backed up and not moving, or just that you spilled coffee on your work clothes and have to change. The key question is how do you deal with it?
Stress is in the eye of the beholder. There are 2 types of appraisals, primary which is how you view the stress and the other is secondary where you evaluate how you will deal with the stress. Some people deal with stress by reacting without thinking and others think about how to cope with it and act upon their decision in how to cope. There are all kinds of stress, your environment, you culture, pressure to get something done within a time table, outside interference, changes in you life, your friends, family and many more. Stress can have a lot of medical effects on you, such as high blood pressure, cardiac conditions, it can make you unhappy all the time which can lead to depression, or it can lead to agression all of which can be very dangerous to yourself and other around you. One way to deal with stress is to have a positive attitude, take action(don't let someone or something stress you out and not take action on it... solve the problem), exercise (great way to get agression out and feel better about your self), don't dwell on the unknown deal with the facts and solve the issue based on fact, be flexible and think of more than one solution if possible and always remain calm (you always get more without yelling) and be respectful.
I have a lot of stress in my life right now because i'm going to school full time, not bringing in any income(not contributing to the household is very stressful to me as I have always worked), having to deal with my daughters father ( who is a pain in my behind everyday ) and I have had to mature a lot but my way of dealing with stress is positive attitude and hugging my babies cause there is no greater love or stress relief than you child hugging you and saying I love you mom. Somehow it makes all the worries go away and I always smile.

Mass Media HUM 121 week 2 2007

I wrote for my phsycology class about people killing their family members which leads into my mass media blog.
In the recent months and weeks I have read about many killings where people have killed their family members. Most recently the police officer from Ohio who killed his girlfriend (maybe his mistress would be a better title) and mother of his 2 children (1 unborn and 1 2yrs old) and then there is the WWE wrestler who killed his wife and son then himself. The media puts this in the news heavy for about 3-4 days then it just disappears and you never find out why it happened or what caused it. Since starting the mass media class it has really opened my eyes to what I do or watch my children also get educated. I have for the last week and a half have found myself listening to music and keeping the tv turned off. My children have benefited because they are outside enjoying the weather and I also have been taking more walks with them. My husband has also enjoyed it because the atmosphere of the house is more upbeat. The other day the tv had been off all day and I thought I might catch a good movie on or something so I turned on the tv only to turn it back off 5 minutes later because there was nothing on but sad news and junk tv shows. I can't believe how much of impact mass media can have on a person. I was surprised after the first class and I really started paying more attn to what I watch when the children are up. It never occured to me that they were paying that much attn to what I was watching even though they were playing with their toys and not directly watching the tv. Amazing

Psychology week 2 2007

I have had many ideas in the last week to blog about but found myself out of time in the day. There is never enough time in the day for me at least to do all the things I want and need to do. The one thing that has been bugging me the most I think is all of the stories about people killing their spouses, kids and then themselves. I have 3 children 15yrs old, 3 1/2 yrs old and 5 1/2 yrs old, they try me a lot but I can not fathum them getting me so upset that I would kill them. I have a very hard time understanding the mind of a man or woman who is willing to kill their children. To me life can not be that bad and if it is give the child to the next door neighbor or another family member to take care of. It sounds like a simple solution to me but in the mind of someone who is willing to kill their family it probably is not. I wonder what does go through their minds that makes it ok to kill someone?

Mass Media 2007 HUM121

Paris Hilton lets talk about her again and again and again. How important to society is she really? The mass media coverage of her is enormous with no signs of stopping. How did she become so popular anyway besides her parents owning the Hilton hotels? What does society find so fascinating about Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Brittany Spears, Angilina Jolie and ect? Are these famous people that interesting that we forget who we are and what is going on in the real world around us? Since taking this class (actually before that) I became self consciously aware at what the media was doing to me. It really had a hold on me as far as some of the news, like when Paris was given good behavior time. I said to myself good behavior time for what being caught for driving on suspended license, driving while intoxicated and being late to court? Then when the sheriff let her out after one day I knew then that money controlled the judicial system. Now after she went back kicking and screaming like a baby because a judge actually stood up and said in not so many words that famous people with money are not above the law she is being again noticed as a strong woman and a good example for taking her more the deserved punishment. If you ask me her punishment was way too short. If it was any ordinary joe we would have not recieved such a leineint sentence. Well enough about Paris, look im complaining about the her getting too much coverage and her I am wasting my time giving my opinon. I am now going to go spend my time more wisely by enjoying my 3 children who deserve my attn.

psychology week 1 2007

ok so I am very late in starting and posting my blog for Psychology. I am a nooby at this so forgive me if i sound dumb at first but i will get the hang of it.
I would like to learn about men and their psychology because sometimes they are very complex contrary to what everyone says. Men are said to be happy as long as they are fed and have sex but this is not always true.
Also what about children. The house can be quiet they are being good and you go to make a phone call and they come in screaming or fight with each other or need you for something.