Synthesis Post

By: Emily, Victoria, Curtis, Johnny and Gigi

Throughout the course of this assignment, we have discovered just how diverse our field is. We have been put in a rather advantageous position where we literally have the pick of the litter in terms of our future job prospects. While some may find this freeing, others may find the variety of choices disconcerting and also difficult to decide his or her path.

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Despite this, as a team, we embrace the multifariousness of media and believe this is exactly what attracted us to our majors in the first place. Below are some of what we believe are our key findings throughout this process:

History

Philosopher and poet George Santayana once argued “those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it”. In this statement he captures the idea that if artists don’t know  what has been done before, we enter a realm of repetition and not innovating. Furthermore, not knowing the history of your field leaves you incapable of appreciating the strides that your industry has made. Thus, as we set out to explore the various aspects of media we emphasized including the history of media, video games and platforms such as Facebook.  With these articles we aimed to clarify what has been done and where we ought to start as we start as future pioneer of the media industry. Knowing some parts of the industry's history also gave us a holistic view of our field and moved us away from the highly glamorized aspects to the more studious components of the field.

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Classes

In comparison to taking math and science classes, taking a communication or media based class may seem like a waste of time to some, but in reality those classes are beneficial to any career path. Having successful interpersonal communication or even successful media communication in the workplace will set you apart from the average employee. Many schools offer a variety of communication classes that are beneficial to whatever skill you wish to take away. At Michigan State University, there’s well over 25 different communication class options ranging from Interpersonal Communication to Leadership and Group Communication. Taking one of the many options of communication classes offered will set you up for success in whatever you wish to do because communication is necessary in any setting.

Career

With a vast number of jobs in media and communication, choosing a college degree can be stressful. Which one do I chose? What jobs will it lead to? Allow me to fill you in. With media and especially communications being so incredibly diverse, it’d take pages on pages explaining every single possible job. Sufficiently covering all of the bases and then going into some minor details will be most appropriate and beneficial here.

Career Focus:	Media	Communications
Jobs:	telecommunications, television and radio broadcasting, motion picture/video production, publishing, directing, marketing, advertising, graphic design, etcetera.	writing and editing, internal communications, public relations, publicity, customer relations, journalism, counseling, etcetera.
Degrees:	Advertising, Media and Information	Communication, Journalism

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Social Media

Communication is a powerful tool, without the ability to communicate, people would not be people but similar to machines. Social media can be very helpful for people and governments but can also be a thorn in the side for governments. Relating to one of the posts that Victoria wrote, social media can allow people who are not on the scene to be able to understand and talk about their views. Social media allows people to have social groups to talk to. The recent presidential election is also a good example. Throughout the use of social media, people talk about the presidential election and sometimes present their political standpoints. People may also be scrutinized because of what they have said on their social media.

The influence of Social Media is another matter that we have tried to explore as it is a medium that is rather close to our hearts as millennials. Social Media has spawned the rise of privacy issues, as well as cyber bullying and short-term memory loss. Nonetheless, we feel that the good outweighs the bad, as social media’s instantaneity has offered us opportunities that was never possible before. For instance, as Victoria has discovered, Social Media has actually played an important role during the 2015 Nepal Earthquake in getting people the urgent assistance that they needed.

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Media Issues

Throughout this entire process, we’ve also discovered various issues that have subsisted the media industry as of late.

The first thing we felt was imperative to note was that advertisements are carefully crafted to impact consumer behavior, through the use of various tactics such as love and sexuality or fear. Also, with the rise of social media came more creative ways of advertising, which allowed brands to customize or personalize their ads. We have explored both of these here and here.)

Another point of contention the controversy over video game violence; whether violent video games causes people to be violent. Curtis has delved into this controversy here and here. While it is still up for the debate, we have offered the point of view that there is little correlation here.

Indeed, we cannot leave this out the impact of media on our 2016 Presidential elections. In the first week, Victoria scrutinized the role of media in democracies, while Emily explored media influence on our political behavior. After the shocking results of the election, there were waves of protests around the country, where social media was used to coordinate the large groups of people. It is also important to note that this doesn’t just happen in America, but around the world as well.

We hope that our blog has helped you attain a better understanding of the world of media while we concurrently seek answers to that for ourselves.

Prompt 10: Recognizing The Truth

By: Gigi

Click here to watch: UnREAL

Unreal is a show that follows the life of Quinn and Rachel, an executive producer and producer respectively of the Everlasting (a spinoff on the Bachelor). When watching the first episode of the second season of UnREALl you are greeted with Quinn and Rachel at a party trying to secure the suitor for their show, at the party there is a lot of cocaine, sex and a them getting a tattoo of their mantra dick, money and power. This beginning scene would tempt you to believe that the life of media professional is of parties and interacting with celebrities. Furthermore, that the working in media is not a real job but instead an attempt to take of the world and that you do whatever it takes to get high ratings. However, reading this blog will clarify these misconceptions especially the following two:

   

      1. Myth: Producers causing meddling with the actors in order to make a scene more believable. In UnREAL we constantly see the producers of everlasting whispering in the contestant’s ear saying, “She said this about you.” The producers purposefully being manipulative and deceitful in order to great dramatic scenes on TV. 

Fact: Producers usually assist with casting and thus, have performers who know how create believable characters. The producer will offer assistance and direction if needed by the people in front of the camera. When it comes to reality shows the producer will ask questions to contestants and encourage them to be authentic. However, they will not be deceitful and malicious in their actions.

    2. Myth: Assistant producers attempt to sabotage executive producers, so that they can get promoted.  This is seen at the end of the first episode of the second season of UnREAL, where Rachael (the producer) goes to speak to the head of their network about the issues on set insinuating that she is more fit for the job of executive producer.

Fact: Like any other profession your qualification and experience are what land you a promotion. In order to become an executive producer, you must be able to show that you can manage people and filming. It is a rigorous process being interviewed and be thoroughly checked to see if you are the best candidate. The producer cannot simply state you aren’t competent and thus you lose your role.

Overall, watching UnREAL shows a version of media professional that is skewed to perpetuate false stereotypes about the field, however, whilst as one takes the time to research about the field of film and media they see how flawed the representation is.

Social Media Impact on Society

By: Curtis

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Media has come a long way; from books, newspapers, and comic books to the now the Internet and the social media. Social media has now become one of the things that people can’t live without. Social media has become a huge part of our world. The groups and pages in Facebook for example allow people with similar interests to come together and talk about their interests. Social media not only allows politicians to address certain views, it also allows certain big events to be known to all.

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Even though people are on social media a lot of the time, there are some negative effects that come with social media. People have been too consumed in their virtual groups that they are ignoring their outside world. Social media has also become a place for people to harass and commit cyber bullying. With users too focused on their social media accounts, they tend to forget where they are and what they should be doing. For example, workers may be so caught up in their social media comments and tweets that they fail to use their time to its fullest. I personally know some people who stay up most of the night because they have to maintain their status on the social media networks.

Social media has its advantages and its disadvantages, it all depends on what people use it for and how they use it. People uses the social media’s to their advantage while others use it to commit crimes.

Works cited

Ta, Jenny Q. "What Impact Has Social Media Truly Had On Society." Business 2 Community. N.p., 13 Aug. 2014. Web. 20 Nov. 2016.

Personality and Communication

By: Johnny

What is personality? Obviously we all can think of what personality is in our heads, but how would you put it into words? Personality... what is it? What is it not? 

I'm currently taking Psychology 101, and from my professors lecture on personality, it's defined as important, relatively stable characteristics that account for consistent patterns of behavior. Weird, right? Not weird in the sense that that definition doesn't fit with personality because it's near spot on, but in the sense that it's weird seeing that word defined in the first place.

In psych we learned about a man named Phineas Gage. His story is fascinating and I suggest you check him out, but what he is known for is he was the first demonstration that the brain gave rise to personality. Damage to brain can cause someone's personality to drastically change without having any motor or cognitive function change or damage. A man by the name of Sigmund Freud had a psychodynamic personality theory, who's underlying assumption was that one's personality was comprised of unconscious forces, such as wishes and motives, as well as conscious forces. These two go well together when claiming that personality is not entirely deliberate.

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Personality and communication play crucial roles in the media and communication industry. Having the ability to identify a colleagues personality and then modifying your own behavior to cater to that colleague could be a huge advantage in the professional world. The dominant view of personality in psychology is a view where personality is broken down into five dimensions. These dimensions are:

• Openness to Experience: imaginative vs. close minded
• Conscientiousness: organized vs. unorganized
• Extraversion: extroverted vs. introverted
• Agreeableness: easy-going vs. uptight
• Neuroticism: worried vs. calm

Why not resort to science when trying to get what you want in the workplace? A promotion or a raise could be a lot closer in reach than one might think.

Works Cited

Halpern, Diane, Gazzaniga, Michael, Heatherton, Todd. Psychological Science. Fifth edition.

              W.W. Norton & Company. 2015.

Women In The Media Industry

By: Emily 

President of the Journalism and Women's Symposium, Megan Kamerick, gave a thought provoking TED talk about women’s roles and representation in the media. Kamerick joined JAWS because she wanted female role models and was upset about the lagging status of women in her profession and what it meant for women’s image in the media. Surprisingly, only 24% of the people in the news are women, and stories written by men are often skewed in favor of their sub conscious ideals because news stories are essentially constructed by the writer to portray their ideals of the situation being reported. The Global Media Monitoring project found that news stories written by female reporters are more likely to challenge stereotypes. This information is very important to me and any other female wishing to go into the Media industry because it shows how important to the whole system a variety of views is. Another example of female misrepresentation in the media is the cover of Wired magazine. Women are more likely to be portrayed as victims and more likely to be defined by their body parts, and Wired magazine did just that in one of their issues. They wrote about breast tissue engineering, but the magazine had a provocative image of a woman's breasts as the cover. The change the industry needs can be done by employing and encouraging women to hold top jobs within the industry. A recent global survey found that 73% of the top media management jobs are still held by men. Kamerick states that one way to get more women into leadership is to have more women mentor them. She concluded her talk with a very thoughtful statement explaining that with a variety of views we’d all be better off if we had “the full picture” of stories not skewed by personal bias.

Works Cited

Megan Kamerick. TED. "Women Should Represent Women in Media" Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 21 August 2013. Web. 13 November 2016. sonal bias.

Press Freedom

By: Victoria

The Press Freedom Index is an annual ranking published by the Reporters Without Borders. They measure the level of freedom the press has on reporting information. What may surprise you is that the United States was actually only ranked 41 out of 180 countries in 2016. The Reporters Without Borders attributes this to the U.S. government’s “war on whistleblowers” (as cited in Wagner para. 3), with the most famous example of Edward Snowden having to seek asylum in Russia. Finland finds itself at the top of the list, while Eritrea is considered to have the worst press freedom in the world.

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Freedom House finds that only 13% of the world has free press; where a journalist’s safety isn’t threatened, and there is minimal state intervention in the press (Dunham para. 2).

On the flipside, 46 percent of people live in countries where they do not enjoy free press (Dunham para. 3). For instance, in Egypt, where almost all their media outlets are pro-government, few journalists may dare to cross the line or even criticize the government in their writing (Dunham para. 10). Furthermore, Syria is one of the most dangerous places for journalists, where at least 14 were killed in the past year (Dunham para. 12).

In the top-ranked countries, the media as a fourth estate is generally considered what is important for a democracy (Gill para. 1). This is where the media can, as Gill’s puts it “to be the people’s watchdog” (Gill para. 6).

While many agree that media freedom is better than having none at all, the 2015 Charlie Hebdo attack left people wondering if too much a good thing may be detrimental after all. The Spanish interior minister discussed the need to “strike a balance between freedom and security” (as cited in Dunham para. 17), but was criticized by groups that advocated for free expression (Dunham para. 17).

This particular media issue is definitely a rather controversial one and best left for each country’s governments and most definitely along with their people to decide which they value more. 

Works Cited

Dunham, Jennifer. “Press Freedom in 2015: The Battle for the Dominant Message.” Freedom House, n.d., https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-press/freedom-press-2016. Accessed 14 Nov. 2016

Gill, Kathy. “What Is The Fourth Estate.” US Politics About.com, 23 Mar. 2016, http://uspolitics.about.com/od/politicaljunkies/a/fourth_estate.htm. Accessed 14 Nov. 2016.

Wagner, Laura. “U.S. Ranks 41st In Press Freedom Index Thanks To 'War On Whistleblowers'.” National Public Radio, 20 Apr. 2016, http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/04/20/475017281/u-s-ranks-41st-in-press-freedom-index-thanks-to-war-on-whistleblowers?refresh=true. Accessed 14 Nov. 2016.

“2016 World Press Freedom Index.” Reporters Without Borders, 2016, https://rsf.org/en/ranking#. Accessed 14 Nov. 2016.

The Ultimate Writer's Challenge: Writing a Full-Length Screenplay or Novel

By: Johnny

People who enjoy writing like to do lots of things when it comes to satisfying our writing desires and our writing cravings. We like to read to practice our understandings of certain forms of writing. We like to write to practice the ideas that we learn. All the different kinds of reading and all the different kinds of writing fall into the category of the ways us writers can be satisfied from our writing desires and cravings. Out of all these different forms of reading and writing there is one practice that stands alone as for the attention to detail and dedication required for its completion.

Writing a full novel-length story is something that's so incredibly daunting it can sometimes just seems unattainable. The amount of pure writing that's required is enough to heavily discourage most people from even considering trying it out. Whether this full-length story is in the form of a novel, or a script or screenplay, the workload necessary for it to be full length, and then to be a solid piece of writing, is astonishing on almost all levels. All of the brainstorming and planning that goes on beforehand, to the actual writing of the story, to all the editing and revising that happens before the piece is a finished final draft. It's an overwhelming amount of work to even think about and then I'm assuming the actual process is a grueling, but eventually highly rewarding one. 

Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg started writing the script/screenplay for 
Superbad in 1995. The movie hit theaters in 2007.

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I have a goal in my life, that I certainly hope to accomplish in the near future (maybe within 5 years), and that's to write a full-lengths story. The story will be fiction, and I'm sure I will have to start small. Writing a short story that's got a great deal of material to work with at first, and then eventually expanding and elongating it to reach its full novels length. I feel this process will only do good things for me as a writer, as it will be an enjoyable, satisfying, painfully thoughtful, and then immensely rewarding one. I sincerely cannot wait.