CAN WE TRUST IN MEDIA?

CAN WE TRUST IN MEDIA?
By Matías Weitz

    Nowadays we live in a globalized world, in which media have an important role in human’s life. Media have an incredible power and influence in humans, and we have to take care about this. I mean, we believe all what media tell us, but we don`t take care about something very important: media is controlled by people, and we don`t know the intentions that this people have. This is very important because sometimes the information can be modified, showing us something that isn`t real, or in other cases, media create an image of certain groups by stereotyping those groups of people. From this, I make a simple question: can we trust in media?

                Throughout time passes, we have testified different examples in which media have modified the information, making us believe something that isn`t real (fake information about real events). One of the most impacting examples is the 11/9 terrorist attack to World Trade Center. I venture to say that a huge part of the people believe in what media tells us about what happen in that terrorist attack: some people of Al Qaeda takes control of some commercial airplanes and make them crash against some specific USA places, such us the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. But the problem is that nowadays, we can see different documentaries that tell us, that the 11/09 terrorist attack was fake, and it was prepared, to have an excuse to mobilized troops to Iraq.  After the attack, media transmit information about the attack during weeks, showing us different speeches of important people of the President Cabinet (including George Buch Speech), a lot of testimonies of people, etc.  But later, us I said, different evidence (that wasn`t presented by media in that time) came to light, showing us a different reality of what really happened.  The evidence that this TV programs present is very convincing, and it makes me think about the power of media, that it makes us to get touched us during years, making us believe that USA was victim of this attack. How we can believe in media if, as we can see in this example, it shows us the president telling something, and now we now that the things can be completely different?

                Other example is what happened in Chile some years ago. CHV (TV channel) showed a report in which a woman talk bad things about the maids, saying in other words that maids are ‘less important’ or a lower social class. The problem was that CHV only showed some fragments of the whole interview, cutting the important parts of the interview. Later CHV transmit the whole interview, and I get surprised because in the complete interview, Ines Perez Concha (the woman) defended the maids, trying to transmit to people that watch CHV, the problem that maids of her neighborhood had. Here the media controls the information that they had, showing us a fake reality of the opinion of this woman, making, in this case, a huge damage of her reputation or image.

                Media controls what to show and what must people believe about what is happening around us.  Other interesting element is the use of stereotypes. Media creates in our mind some connection with some words. For example, when someone listens or sees a commercial of a sport car, we instantaneously relates it to a man driving it, because media have modified our perception about this, stereotyping those cars. Other example is that we relate women to the housework. Why this did happen? Because when we see TV or an ad at the newspaper about detergents, it always shows a beautiful woman cleaning the house and using the product. That is a wrong perception of reality, I mean women and men can drive sport cars, and not only women are in charge of the house cleaning. Media have influence us in a huge way, and the power that have must be take in consideration.

                Concluding, I will to make a call to all the readers of this great blog: go deeper in what media tell us, and don’t believe in all what you see on the TV, Internet, etc. We don`t know who is behind the redaction of the different information that media present us, so we don’t know the intentions that media have. Us we see in the 2 examples that I have, we believe in what media tells us, but sometimes we must not believe to much, because of the  intentions that it have: convince us of something that isn`t truth (11/09 fake attack and Ines Perez Concha case). Also stereotypes that we have in our mind, have been molded by media, by all the advertisement and different situations that it present, in which they characterize a group of people.

                Finally I will like to share a quote that y take from an image: ‘relax… your friendly media conglomerate will decide what you need to know’. A clear quote that reinforces what I’m trying to explain to you, that media have the power to make us believe what they said, and we trust in it, and we don’t take in consideration that they manage what we must know; in other words, media have the control of people, and we must be careful about this.

Rationale

        

         I decided to do an opinion column, to present in a better way a theme that affect us. As the  column said, media is an important element in our daily life, and during the time passes it have acquire more power and influence in humans. So presenting a formal opinion about a topic that affects us, describing the point of view of someone that is affected by this, it helps to attract the audience, convincing them, or making them is aware about this topic.

         The audience of this text are the readers of my blog, in which they can appreciate my personal opinion, based on my experience of this topic.

         By relating the personal experience of a person (in this case, me), it makes more convincing what the text is trying to tell us. As I said, it creates a conscience in people who read this, making them thing if they can trust in media or not. Also, presenting examples of real life, such us the 11/09 terrorist attack or CHV case makes it more reliable, showing this cases of how media can modify or adapt what we have to know, or in another way, what media decide that we have to know.

         In this opinion column are presented the stereotypes, making reference to something that affect, because media have created some classification about certain groups.

         The objective of this task, was to create conscious about this topic, based in this call to the society, by this opinion column, to be aware about how unreliable can be media, which has control over us.

Text: 879 Words

Rationale: 264 Words 

Documentary

1. What is Harold Laswell’s Chain of Communication’s Model?Based in 5 questions: Who - Says What - In Which Channel - To Whom - With what effect?

2. What does the theorist Marshall McLuhan’s mean by stating that “the Medium is the Message”? 
 Is a symbolic reference that tell us that the medium affect or influence how we perceived the message.

3. Refer to Jurgen Habermas’ “Public Sphere as a Platform for Advertising”
 Industries tries to convince people, so they need to know what people need. Knowing the ideas of the people this target turns easy.


4. What is the connection between Self-Presentation & the Celebrity Image? 
 They create the stereotypical image of something, I mean, if you want to be succesfull us this celebrity, you have to be like what we are presenting.       

Ad Analysis

Last post I quote the phrase of the picture beside.

The message begin this ad is that people nowadays believe in what media said, and only stays with that media give to people. I mean, is someday we saw in the TV that dogs have 2 hearts, many of the people will believe in that, a  few will investigate more about the theme. Society is so superficial, so we don´t go deeper about something.

I have being conveyed by media many times, but the most significance is the case of the 11/09 'terrorist attack', that as the media (TV, newspapers, political speeches, etc) said it was a terrorist attack. But nowadays the truth about that attack is in doubt, because some documental programs or blogs, say and have many evidence that the 11/09 is a fake terrorist attack, and it was all something that the government of the United States creates to have an excuse to attack Irak.

Media Power on Society – Celebrity Influence on Youth Culture

Media, nowadays, is very important. because in a way, media shape our culture. I mean, media is all around us, in newspapers, TV, Internet, etc. A problem that society have is that we have too much credibility of what media said, so we get convince very easily when we saw (or read) something in newspaper, for example. 

Media is very powerfull and have a huge influence in our society, because they choose what to share to the society and in what way. As I said, we believe in media, so we believe all that media tell us, but we don´t think about that media is presented by humans, and as they are humans, media isn´t perfect. Media isn't perfect because in some cases it present biased information, fake information, etc. 

In youth people the influence by media is bigger. Sometimes we saw a persuasive technique used by media, that is the used of a celebrity. For example if a 15 years old boy saw a comercial in wich Messi said 'use this thing' (and the boy is a big fan of Messi), we will be convince by this comercial, because the message that it gaves to the kid, is that he can be like Messi using the product that he is promoting. Media throughout the time passes, media becames more important, with more power and more influence in the society.

Finally I want to share with you a interesting phrase that I get from a comic, that said: 'Relax... your friendly media conglomerate, will decide what you need to know'.

Paper 1, Basic tips

Before writting our pape 1 text analysis, we saw in classes some tips about how to write in a better way.

The objetive of this paper 1, is to analysis one of 2 unseen text in 1, 5 Hours.

Here are the tips for a better writting:

• Clauses at the beginning of a sentence: good idea, but avoid really long ones.
•  Avoid 'it' as the subject of a sentence.
•  Use the right verb tense.
•  Use (relative) clauses.
•  Watch out for wordy sentences.
•  Never start a sentence with 'But'.
•  Use parallelisms.
• Use active verbs.

Source: http://www.englishalanglit-inthinking.co.uk/skills/8-writing-tips.htm

Paper 1 Outline.

Some days ago I publish my Paper 1 written task. Now I will publish something I had pending: the outline.

'Why Aruba and Barbuda?'

• Formal Language. 
• Purpose: Convince people to go to Antigua and Barbuda.
• Words of the begining that are highlighted tell us a part of the audience, those that are looking for relax, beaches and luxury. 
• Use of words such us 'rich' 'famous' that reinforced the idea of a part of the audience that is looking for beaches and luxury.
• Use of persuasive techniques such us the rule of three (to beautify the language) and use of celebrities (in an indirect way).
• Also it present the cultural aspects of those islands, making bigger the audience of this text (more people will be interested in going to Antigua and Barbuda, because as the text said isn´t only beaches).
• Use of image (important element that help us in our impresion of the place; persuasive element also).

FOA Written Reflection

Area to which the task is linked. (Please include the sub topic to which it is linked)

Language in Mass Communication; Persuasive language in Media.

Activity type:  Oral Presentation.

In the table below, candidates must list the source of all support materials that relate to the presentation. (You should also attach a properly formatted bibliography, as appropriate.)

Title of Work/Text	Author	Text Type
Persuasive language in media text.	Iris Breuer & Melanie Napthine with Rosemary O’Shea
We choose to go to moon.	John F. Kennedy	Political Speech
Victory Speech in South Carolina	Barack Obama	Political speech

Title of Work/Text	Author	Text Type
Safe a Life	Safe a Life Company	Advertisement
'Will To Win'	Nike	Advertisement
	Axe	Advertisement

The objective of this task was to comprehend in a better way how persuasive language is used by media in different types of text or advertisement, showing the different techniques that media present.

                   

 First we (me and my partner) mention the techniques that media used (rule of three, use of celebrity, etc) and the definition of the clue words of the presentation. Then we put those texts that the tables above show, and later we explain who persuasive language is presented and the different elements that tell us that this type of language is in those texts. I think that this is the better way to explain something, because, you explain through the examples, making your explanation simpler.

In my personal opinion, with this presentation, I learned that media have a powerful persuasive power. I mean, for example the ‘Save a Life’ ad is very persuasive using that strong connection with emotive language (in this case the picture of the girl that got hit by a drunk driver). Also the Nike ad was a very persuasive or inspiring one, because it present many techniques (celebrity, rule of three, alliteration, etc) that make the perfect combination of that feel of ‘I want to be like him’ with I very interesting phrases on it.

Also during this work, I realized that 'we are victims' of persuasive language. Persuasive language is all around us, in different things and with different objective behind this and sometimes with a ‘hidden persuasive objective’ such us nationalism in John F. Kennedy speech.

Bibliography:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVyDi-iwuNY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2xPvYgTvr8I

http://www.managetrainlearn.com/page/an-appeal-from-Aristotle

http://changingminds.org/techniques/language/persuasive/persuasive.htm

http://medialiteracyproject.org/es/language-persuasion

http://www.famous-speeches-and-speech-topics.info/speech-topics/persuasive-speech.htm

http://www.speechgems.com/persuaders.html

http://www.famous-speeches-and-speech-topics.info/presidential-speeches/john-f-kennedy-speech-we-choose-to-go-to-the-moon.htm

Written task; Paper 1

The text 'Why Antigua and Barbuda' from the website wheretostay.com, is an informative and non-fiction text with a varied audience. We can say this because the text presents specific information of this place, such us 'Antigua is the larger of the two islands...', the twin nation of Antigua and Barbuda...', etc. information that is real about this nation, a real place (isn't a fictional place). About the audience we can say that this text present different options of what to do in Antigua and Barbuda, as I will explain later.

This text present a very interesting structure. First, above the name of the text we have an outline with some words highlighted. What does those words mean? The words are: Beaches, Antigua. Barbuda, Luxury. These words represent the words that define a section of the audience, the one that people who like to relax in a luxury hotel near a beach. Also reinforcing this idea, in the comparison between both islands, we can notice some words like 'rich', 'famous', that support the idea of this of a section of the audience with interest in luxury.

The use of image is very important in this text, when we read something, we imagine what we are reading, but if we have an image, it reinforces our perspective, in this case, of the 2 islands that the text describes. Also, the use of image helps with the idea or purpose of the text: convince people to go to Antigua and Barbuda. It helps, because, for example, if  I read 'the long reach of the British Empire is still evident' or '...the beaches are beautiful' I can imagine many things about what I just read, but they might not be what the place it really is. The use of image give us a real impression of what the place is about and also it helps to join the good things that the text is saying about the place with a real image of it. So we can say here that the image is a persuasive element, that shows the beauty of a place attracting people (a very powerful one).

Another persuasive element is when in the description of Barbuda, it says that the resort K-club is a secure place (private) that sometimes hosts rich and famous people. I think that is kind of a persuasive technique to say 'come and feel like a rich or famous', because it's giving you an invitation to be or go where our idols or important people go. I mean, we always try to be like people that we see on the TV or important people (use of celebrities: persuasive technique). Mentioning this, it reinforces again what I said in the beginning about this section of the audience (those who are looking for luxury, relax and in this case also privacy)

During the description also the author also puts some information about cultural aspects of this tourist destination (British influence) and interesting places, such us Nelson's Dockyard, the Frigate Bird Sanctuary in Barbuda, etc. Why did the author put this information? As I said in the paragraph, the text have a varied audience. The author mention this cultural aspect to involve more aspects than only the beaches and the luxury of the resorts, because maybe somebody isn´t looking only for beaches, so it presents more options (cultural option) to convince people that Antigua and Barbuda isn't only stay all the day resting in the beach.

Concluding this informative and non-fiction text, tries to convince people to go to Antigua and Barbuda, trying to include also the cultural aspect, in stead of describing only the beaches and the luxury of the place. In the structure it present some interesting elements such us the Outline of the beginning that present some words highlighted that shows us a section of the audience (the one that is looking for luxury). Also it have some persuasive elements such us the use of celebrities (when it mention famous people), the rule of three ('...is wild, woolly and barely inhabited) and the use of image. The last one is very important because it helps us to make a good and real image of what the place is about, something that helps to the purpose of the text: convince us to go to Antigua and Barbuda.