"Fake News"

Fake news has become a phrase that just about everyone will recognize. Donald Trump has used this phrase countless times in speeches and, as of July 24, has tweeted this phrase 72 times. I found this exact number along with each Tweet using this phrase on ew.com and if you click here, you could take a look for yourself. It appears as though Trump labels news as "fake news" whenever it makes him appear to be disengaged in the process of making a decision, even if only slightly, or if a comment is made about him or his family that can be taken in a negative way. Although he is trying to make people stop paying attention to these news companies it appears as though he is bringing more attention to them by constantly Tweeting and talking about it, it makes you wonder why he doesn't simply ignore the comments. I don't think it is fake. Yes, every celebrity, star, or government official has rumors spread and fake stories are told, so I won't say that everything said about him is true, but the amount of things he says are fake is alarming and concerning. The words and phrases Trump uses when talking about news agencies also makes me think it is not all fake, he isn't professional in how he handles the matter and it seems like if he knew it weren't true he wouldn't be going to extremes to show the US that. For examples, look at the Tweets and how he uses the word sleazebag or how he calls the New York Times, a news company that has been around and deemed credible for quite a while, "A Fake News Joke." An article is written about this and can be read here.

I agree that he is harming the right of Freedom of Speech and the rights that accompany it in the First Amendment. People have been fired from their jobs because they printed information that Trump attacked by calling fake news and going after those who wrote it. People may end up fearing for their jobs if they write about news that involves Trump or his administration that he doesn't want printed for the world to see. It hasn't even been a year into his presidency and people are already becoming concerned for their freedom of speech and press, it leads me to wonder if there will be more rights people are questioning whether or not they still have.

With the state of affairs and Trump blasting his thoughts on Twitter it's put other people in an awkward situation. We live in a country where our government is formed through democracy, but the president is still more in control than most people. It would make sense that out president should be professional and respectful, but the Tweets we see don't match this description. This administration is weakening the use of social media by making a joke out of his accounts, if he were to one day apologize and begin to use Twitter in a way to positively reach thousands of people, I'm not sure if people would be able to take him seriously or not.

News Today

As I have said many times before, I'm not very good at keeping up with the news today and current events. Most of my news comes from Facebook via friends sharing links or from status updates about things they have heard or seen happening. My other news outlet is through word of mouth. I work with a lot of people who are into politics and keep up with what is going on in our country and they talk about it at work where I then hear about it. I take all this news information with a grain of slat though until I can further look into it because I know word of mouth and Facebook aren't the most credible of sources. Facebook can lead to looking at credible sources, but it is still important to double check statements before accepting them as truth. I believe news is important and I try to look into what is going on, but I honestly don't look into it enough to think that the local news has too much of an impact on my daily life. I don't plan on living in Corvallis forever and have only been here three years so some of the very local changes don't affect me as much as someone who has lived here their entire life and plans on staying longer. If local were to mean the state of Oregon I would say it is concerning to me what happens, but I don't think of it on a daily basis.

I don't subscribe to any news websites or newspapers and the only reason I have basic cable (which includes a few news channels) is because Comcast offered me a deal if I got it to pair with my internet. This isn't because I don't value the news, but I think there are ways I can reach reliable information without paying for it. Many big newspaper companies have online resources as well, and with access to multiple free newspapers it can be simple to fact check information. I also know myself well enough to think "Would I really read the newspaper if I subscribed to one?" The answer is no. I lack the motivation to read it, it's a habit I am trying to break. I don't want to brush off the news and what is happening today. I just do.

It isn't just news like what our government is up to or what is going on with other countries and our relations with them. I'm entirely out of the loop when it comes to news. I don't know much about celebrity lives or who is coming out with a new music album or even what movies are in theatre. If I were to be honest with myself I would have to say on a scale of 1-5 on how informed I am I would say 1.5. It's not like I am oblivious, I know what changes are being made in certain areas, such as our education system, because I want a career working with children and this could potentially land me working in the school district so I keep up with that area of information. It's important to me to be informed in this area not only because it could potentially affect a career for myself, but affects all the children who will be attending school when these changes occur and they cannot get back these years of school and do them again for a better education.

WikiLeaks

First off, I have to admit I do not know much when it comes to our government and what current events are going on in the world. I know that I should be more involved in knowing what is going on, but I am not. I don't know what news sources are reliable nor do I know background information that will set me up to understand what is going on today. I know the basic premise of some things, but beyond that I am unsure.
As far as WikiLeaks go, I think that much of the information they release is information the public should have access to. It is useful for people to learn more about what is going on and to see what is going on "behind the scenes" because we all know some information about current events is filtered before we see it on the news. Since our information is filtered, people often have a skewed idea and opinion on what is occuring in our world today. The video Julian Assanage showed of soldiers shooting people and laughing while doing so isn't something you would expect to see, but is important to, it makes you question what is going on and what we're really doing in the war. Sure, not everyone is laughing while shooting at people and this is just one video, but it gives an idea to people who don't see this every day as to what war is actually like. TV shows sometimes make it seem glorified or people think that all wars are the same, but seeing a dose of reality is important in the decision making of how many people to send off to fight. I could also argue that this is important to see because what if people were in our country, shooting, and laughing. How would we feel? Julian said innocent children were hurt and I can't imagine that anyone would want that to come to our homes.

WikiLeaks could potentially be harmful as well. If they release information about something, for example a planned attack, before it has occurred, it could get many people hurt because the other side could find out plans and counter them.

Freedom of Speech is an important right and the extent to what it covers can be confusing at times. I have to say that I am not well enough informed about our current state of government to find our limits alarming yet. I do see how they could be getting worse and how our free speech is becoming not so free, but at this moment in time it is not something I think about. We are allowed to say what we think about out government, whether we agree with them or not, we can say what we think about war and laws. WikiLeaks has a website that is actively accessible, these are only a few examples of things we can do and say that is illegal in other countries. I am thankful that I can say my thoughts about the current president and not worry about being arrested because I have a right to say what I want, but I do fear that the rights for freedom of speech will be trampled on at some point, as I can see they are starting to be done so in creativity with copyright laws.

Copywrite

Copy writing  and plagiarizing go hand in hand, sort of. Both are illegal and are claiming a product as your own creative outcomes when they aren't, but it is acceptable to take someone's writings and information to add into a paper of your own as long as you site the source. This is done plenty in school, on scientific studies as a way to double check ones work, or on websites with information on just about any topic, but with sound and film people will see something similar  or hear a few lines from their own song and sue right away. This is crazy to me, especially because it didn't used to be this way. Walt Disney made a little scene starring Mickey Mouse as Steamboat Willie based off of the character Steamboat Bill. People thought it was funny and we still see that little clip of Mickey whistling and driving the boat sometimes today. Today if something like this were to happen, the person creating the copy would usually get sued.

One popular genre of music is song mashups or remixes, but people are getting sued when they try to do their work. Artists are starting to fight back and say that their 1st Amendment and their creativity is being trampled on, buy the companies who own the rights to the songs. This was probably one of the most interesting things to me that was said in the film, especially after an estimate of the prices Girl Talk would have had to pay for his album if he went to each and asked permission to use snippets of their songs in his. His parents were talking about how they thought he was smart and creative, but they worried that one day he would be sued. So many artists do remixes and it makes me wonder if they asked for permission and paid to use the song. I went to a concert a year ago and there were many remixes of songs that I knew or mashups. I thought nothing of it because its creative and the music was great, the guy who was doing it only took credit for the mashups and not the songs within them. I can see both sides of the argument, that the original artists are upset because they feel as though they are being ripped off when another person uses their music to make money, but I can also see how using a 10 second part of a song shouldn't be seen as stealing as long as the person doing to remix only takes credit for the remix. It makes me wonder how far people will go and how long it will take before its almost impossible to create something without it sounding remotely similar to music or film already created. It's concerning that these large corporations are suing up and coming artists for their creativity and then continuing their hunt by suing people who have downloaded a few songs off the internet as well.

When the documentary switched from discussing music and films and brought up patents on living organisms or medical research I thought it had gone too far. This is ridiculous that someone can find a potential cure for a disease, cancer for example, but then be limited to whether or not their research and medicine development can continue because of a patent. Medical industries claim to be about saving people, but this makes it seem more like they are in it for a guaranteed pay check. I think something needs to be done about this and to change the idea of a patent, at least in the medical field. Maybe, rather than being able to patent a living organism or and idea of a way to process ingredients for medicine we could limit the patent to the recipe of the pill itself, but even doing this is still harmful. With a sole person or company having the rights to a pill they can rack up the prices to what they want because there is no competition. We shouldn't be able to patent ideas that can in the end save a person's life.

Media Project 1

In a previous post I wrote about a commercial for Budweiser, but it was less about advertising the beer and more about bringing awareness to drunk driving and saying to not drink under the influence. I’m bringing this commercial back up because it is powerful and it is unique. Many people die every year from accidents where someone drives under the influence (this commercial focuses on alcohol, but you could relate it to any drug that causes the brain the become impaired). People love their animals and tend to have a unique connection with them, and that is why I think this commercial is so powerful.

This commercial starts out with a younger man bringing home a puppy, then there are short clips strung together of the man and his dog playing together, you can see that the dog is growing older and you know they’ve spent a lot of time together. Budweiser bottles make a few appearances at the time. During these clips there is music playing,  a song called I’ll be Waiting (When You Come Home) by Dan Rodriguez. In the song it says “you are me, we are made for love,” giving the viewer a sense of the connection between the man and his dog. As the words “I’ll be waiting here for when you come home to me,” play from the song the man is leaving with his friends, Budweiser in hand, and tells his dog goodbye. This song stops and music without words plays as the dog lays on the couch, waiting for his owner to return., looking up each time a car’s lights shine through. Words pop up on the screen saying “For some, the waiting never ended,” and then “But we can change that.” Quickly, the commercial goes to the man opening the front door, the happy music starting again, and telling his dog he thought he shouldn’t drive home that night and stayed at his friend’s house. Words pop up on the screen one more time and say “Make a plan to make it home. You friends are counting on you.” At the very end of the commercial the Budweiser logo is on the screen.

In 2014 this minute long commercial made its first debut. Budweiser has used puppies in a few of their commercials, but there is no story between them with the dog, nor is the actor is this one in other Budweiser ads. I remember seeing it on TV, no special event going on or anything, just in between other commercials and my show, but it became a favorite of mine. I didn’t know at the time, but it was released during the 5th Annual Global Be(er) Responsible Day. There are so many don’t drink and drive ads, but introducing a dog and showing the companionship between the him and his owner makes it stand out from others.

Emotions are greatly impacted with this commercial and are the prime persuasive technique being used. Using pathos rather than swarming the viewer with statistics regarding drunk driving, gives the commercial a new appeal. By starting the commercial with the dog as a puppy we are given a story which gives the impression that the dog and his owner have become big parts of one another’s lives and that they have spent many years together, if it had started in the middle of the video montage of a grown dog playing with his owner we wouldn’t have known or understood the relationship: that if the man hadn’t come back the dog would have lost his best friend and would need a new home. The writers of this commercial took advantage of this platform in the best way. Pictures and still ads can be used to tell minor stories, but not as clearly as a video can. With a video, as this commercial is, the words on the screen can change and don’t have to be there at all times. When we are intended to be watching the bond grow between the man and his dog we are able to pay attention to this alone and when we are supposed to be reading the words that tell us what this ad is really about they are the only thing on the screen. This gives each part of the commercial it’s own time to be focused on.

Budweiser has accomplished creating a memorable commercial. Most often, it is people in their 20’s who drink and drive, this commercial gives people in that age group a chance to relate. The man is in his 20’s, appears to be single, and lives alone with his dog. Other campaigns against driving drunk tend to portray children being left behind or spouses which a lot of people in the young college age don’t have yet. I believe that this is one of the strengths of this commercial, giving the chance for the younger generation to relate and to think about how their animals are family too. That their choices make an impact on the lives of others. I personally don’t see any weaknesses in this ad. It’s powerful as it is and is unique from other ads against drinking and driving. Although, I could see why someone would say the lack of statistics could be a weakness. Potentially, the writers of the commercial could have found something in regards to how many pets must be rehomed due to drunk drivers or the number of people in their 20’s in these accidents, but I believe that this would have taken away from the commercial. The words which take over the screens to say that some pets never stopped waiting for their owners are powerful alone and appeal to emotion. Putting statistics into it may have turned some people away from reading what was on the screen because they feel as though they have heard it all.

Many online news companies wrote about this advert. One, Daily Mail, says that when the commercial was uploaded onto YouTube it quickly reached seven million viewers (this article being written in 2014, we can see the views has increased even more since). At the end of the article it mentions how the Vice President of marketing at Budweiser says that they are trying to connect with beer drinkers in memorable ways, not just through drinking their beer, but through promoting responsible drinking and actions as well. YouTube is clearly is very successful social media aid for this ad, but another articles mentions how Twitter is being used to talk about how this commercial made them feel. USA Today writes about the success of this ad and ads in actual tweets people have posted in regards to watching it, all being about how it made them sad and hit home. These tweets prove the successfulness of the commercial and how it makes people think about their pets that they have at home, waiting for them to come back. A few more tweets can be seen in an article on the website Mashable. This ad is less about a product than it is about being responsible. However, if I were one to drink, this ad would make me think about supporting a company that wants to bring awareness to being responsible rather than other beer companies which display parties or sexualize girls to attract attention from potential consumers and I would recommend others do the same. If other companies see the impact Budweiser made by creating a commercial like this one then maybe they will do the same.

While researching this commercial I discovered why it was created, as I mentioned before it was a part of global day about drinking responsibly. I also learned that the dog in the commercial is actually multiple dogs, they had a few in each age group so the dogs could take breaks from set and weren’t being treated poorly. This doesn’t have much to do with the commercial and it’s message itself, but it shows even more how Budweiser is a company that truly cares.

Attempts at Being Persusaive

When scrolling through my social media I came across an ad for 1upnutrition, which before this I had never heard of before, I watched the ad mostly because I thought it may come in handy for an analysis for class, which it did! https://www.instagram.com/p/BWJSOzln5-0/?hl=en&taken-by=1upnutrition

At first I honestly didn't know what this was an ad for aside that it was fitness related. By the end of the video I came to the conclusion it was simply promoting fitness, it wasn't an ad for the company because it never shows any name or logo for them at all. I like the idea of an advertisement simply made to promote fitness and weight lifting, but this video is so sexualized I couldn't believe it! Many shots are made that linger on her butt and chest when she is bent over doing lifts to target her back. In the very beginning she takes her shirt off so that she is only wearing a sports bra and shorts and it is clear she has put oil on her skin to emphasize her muscles. The entire ad is just her doing various lifts to workout.

The target audience appears to be people, both male and female, in their 20's. This could either be people who already currently workout and they want to persuade them to use their product/continue working lifting or to convince people to begin to workout. They try to persuade by targeting emotions. For women they want them to look at the girl in the video and say "I want to look like her," and for men they want them to look and think "I will go to the gym and maybe see girls like her," targeting thoughts about self image/health and sexual emotions, respectively. I would say that this could be both a hit and a miss, some may notice the over the top sexualization and ignore the ad, while others may be targeted through emotions exactly as planned.

One of my favorite commercials is a commercial for Budweiser, this isn't because of the company it is for, but rather for the message it sends. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56b09ZyLaWk

This commercial shows a man who brings home a puppy and it shows them play together and shows the puppy getting older, forming a close relationship with his owner. Budweiser does show its logo on bottles throughout the commercial, but this ad is to send the message to not drink and drive. At one point, the owner of the dog leaves with his friends, says goodbye to his dog, and the dog waits. His owner doesn't come home soon quickly and it shows him waiting some more before the words "For some the waiting never ended," show up on the screen. Then his owner comes home and says he had too much to drink and stayed the night at his friend's house.

This ad is targeting anyone who drinks or knows someone who does. It is a broad audience, but an ad like this can be relateable to many people. Emotions are yet again the way we are being persuaded. When watching the commercial and seeing the dog wait with a sad look on his face we wonder when his owner will come home, and when the words take over the screen we wonder if he even will. Targeting emotions when relating to an animal is very powerful, many people have pets and have a special connection with them. Thinking about leaving your animal behind can be saddening and that is why this is such a great ad.

Why do I follow advertisements?

As I've said before, I have a love for Instagram. I follow many people, some I know and many I do not, I follow companies, food blogs and Etsy shops, but why do I chose to follow those that are basically displaying ads in my feed? I ask myself this question, but I do not know the answer, I just know that I won't be clicking the unfollow button anytime soon.

One company I follow is Live Fit Apparel. I stumbled upon them through a fitness page I like to look at where a bikini body competitor posts about her workout, fitness tips and other various motivational pictures and stories. She isn't a model for the company, but wears their clothes quite often in her video clips and pictures, making quite a good advertisement the company is not paying for. This is one way the company is using social media to

reach out to consumers, if they didn't have an Instagram page, others wouldn't be able to tag them. Since they can be tagged it gives people quick and easy access to a link for their website. Another way they use Instagram well is tagging other models in their pictures. Now the Live Fit Apparel page is on the person's page if one were to click on tagged photos. To see their Instagram page it is @live_fit_apparel.
I think this source of media is very effective for them. It seems to be geared more so towards people in their 20's and into their 30's, people who would be likely to be into social media and Instagram. The fitness community within this particular social media outlet makes it especially beneficial for them. There are many body builders, fitness instructors, nutritionist, or even simply regular people who enjoy going to the gym who post their workouts, brands they like and much more. It is easy to send other people pictures that are posted on Instagram or to tag them in the comments, making it easy to share new released clothing or ones in stock they like. I think that this is working for them. I see many people wearing Live Fit clothing on Instagram and I myself have been looking into buying something. I have been sucked into the consumer black hole created by advertising and even though I am aware of it, I still let it happen.
The one thing I would recommend to the company is to think about doing a giveaway. I see many little shops, often those I follow from Etsy, and other fitness companies, such as PEScience, doing giveaways for free product or a gift card simply by following them and tagging friends in the comments. This would lead to more followers and potentially new buyers.

Photos are from the Live Fit Apparel Instagram page.

Technology: The New Best Friend?

Technology and the internet are becoming a more prominent part of people's lives at an alarming rate. People are replacing face to face interactions with typing letters on a screen so they pop up on someone else's. In her second Ted Talks, Sherry Turkle talks about this among other new developments being made. Turkle says that we are setting ourselves up for isolation in this web of trying to be connected. An idea she gave to increase face to face interactions was to create zones where you couldn't have any devices of any sort. When I was in middle school and high school my parents did this. The downstairs part of the house was a no cell phone zone and I had to ask permission in order to watch the TV, they said that if I was downstairs and with them I shouldn't be on my phone. The only exception to this rule was when I was with friends and we were hanging out downstairs I could have my phone because I wasn't with my parents anyway. At the time I hated this rule and thought it didn't make sense, but looking back now I see how important it was. Especially because my parents now both have smart phones and my two younger sisters have tablets and when I go to visit them at holidays they often spend time sitting together with the TV on, all on their own devices. Occasionally one will laugh and show everyone a meme they thought was funny or find a video they want to share because of the news it contains, but this is very different from the childhood I had.

I have been trying to make an effort to become a better listener. I took an interpersonal communications class where we had to create a goal for ourselves and find a way to help progress towards accomplishing that goal. Mine was to become a better listener. I do this by putting my phone down, turning down music in the car if that is where we are, and looking at the person speaking. I try to ask them questions and remember details about our conversation that I can bring up another time. For example, I have a friend who is getting married and when she mentioned meeting with a wedding planner I asked her a few weeks later about how that went.

I'm not saying that I don't use technology, I'll admit to my love for Instagram, but I am aware of it and try to limit my fueling of my Instagram love when I am spending time with other people and I try to make an effort to hangout with people rather just text them to keep in contact. I wouldn't go as far as saying I'm part of any community on social media, but I do see them. I appreciate the InstaMom community and the support they have for one another. Often times these moms will have little shops on sites like Etsy and other moms will promote them through pictures when they purchase things from them. These moms are able to earn a little extra money while staying at home with their children. Fitness is another community on Instagram that I enjoy. Many people make fitness Instagrams where they post videos of them working out and post motivational progress and pictures and various other thing on their page to help people who are newer to lifting. Another community is the gaming community, I don't know much about it at all because I do not play any online games, not even those like Candy Crush, but I know that there are gatherings like ComicCon where they will get together and dress up as characters. This is a way that online gaming does bring people together for face to face interactions.

To Tweet or Not to Tweet?

In the past I created a Twitter, I used it for about two months and thought to myself that it was a ridiculous form of social media. Who would want their number of characters to be limited and who wants to read the little snippets from people'e lives about mundane things? I followed a few news companies, such as The New York Times, Huffington Post, and Wall Street Journal, but in between the posts about what is going on in our country and the current events I see posts from friends saying things like "Finally enrolled in Amazon Prime, my snacks should be here in two hours" and "Update: my package arrived early" or one exact quote said "trying to get 21 savage drunk tonight." This is why I left Twitter, I couldn't handle the little tweets people left to update people about every moment of their lives, it made me wonder just how much time they spend on their phones rather than with other people and talking to them. Following news crews has brought about a different view for me about Twitter, it makes seeing what is going on much more accessible and I can view multiple sources at once, often times giving me a few perspectives on one event. I followed the three I stated before, because, one, I know someone who writes for the Huffington Post, and two, I liked how they developed from news papers. Being able to survive and function as a news paper means they must have been popular. They are also well known as reliable and that should be something one looks for in a news company.

The New York Times posted an article titled Cruella de Trump and left a little post of their words with it, which stated "Opinion: You can never be sure of anything that comes out of this White House, Except the cruelty." I read through the article and it became apparent to me that this was something I would share with others. It covered how Trump treats others and how he picks at the appearance of other people, mistaking cruelty for strength. This particular tweet stood out to me at first because of the title of the article, I thought it was clever, and then I read the little snippet about not being sure of the current White House today and thought that in that short sentence the New York Times was able to say something so powerful that many people could identify with.

I feel as though social media allows for more participation from the people in our democracy, but it isn't always used this way. I will be honest and admit that I mostly go online for fun and to look at Facebook Instagram and the pictures people post. Sometimes I will see an event that a friend said they were interested in or are attending that will peak my interest and I will look into, but I don't seek them out. I have no statistics and no proof that this is true, but I think that this is what a majority of people use social media for. One example of how it does provide a way for us to become involved is when the Women's March happened Facebook pages of the event became popular. They were created for cities participating and people could say whether or not they were attending and then further post information on these pages. I was involved in the Portland Women's March page, although was unavailable to attend the actual event. For those who saw it on the news or heard about it from others, this event was huge. Cities all over the country and overseas participated and I don't believe this could have happened without social media. It would have been more difficult to spread the word and updates on the event, people who needed a ride to the cities were able to through contacting others on the page who were going, and now these pages exist with many passionate people who could easily contact one another again to create another similar event.