I understand that making a living and selling a story is at the top of every journalist's list. I understand that what the public wants to read is not always what the public needs or deserves to read. We buy the magazine with the topic "Jolie, pregnant again!" on the cover before we buy The New York Times. I understand that this will probably never change. I think that Americans are so caught up with the idea of entertainment, that the important stuff seems to dwindle to the bottom of the stack. However, I believe that reporters should hold their morals a little bit higher. There needs to be a higher standard for what is put on the cover. The public deserves more and reporters should bite the money bullet and do what is morally right. Ask themselves the question "Does the public really need to know this?" before reporting on it. Reporters will sit out front of the home of a British, American Idol's home and bully her about whether she will make a CD before sitting out front an important government worker's home bullying him/her about the actions that are being made on the Obama health care plan. Privacy is hardly ever respected and reporters will put a picture of Brittany Spears' vagina on the cover of a magazine and no one will sue, but when a 14 year old downloads a song because he/she doesn't have the money to buy it... all hell breaks loose. Our priorities are mixed up. At the beginning of Chapter 14, the book describes Nellie Bly and her efforts to expose different businesses, organizations, etc. She was respected and honored. People trusted her and realized the difference she was making in society... what happened to that kind of reporting? "We need to see people not as readers, non-readers, endangered readers, not as customers to be wooed or an audience to be entertained, but as a public, citizens capable of action." --Davis "Buzz" Merritt, Wichita Eagle, 1995. This quote from the book says exactly what the public wants journalists to understand and take action on. This leads one to question how the public will handle and react to the truth. We have already seen how people can blame movies, music, and other forms of entertainment as the cause of epic murders and mass killings. Chapter 15 talks about how people are blaming entertainment as a cause of unspeakable behavior. If the media begins to show the honest truth, the deaths, the lying, the killing... What will the public begin to think of the government and even man-kind. Will we have more copy cat killers like the Virginia Tech student who thought of the Columbine killers as idols? Will there be more suicides like the Rutgers student? If we put all of the unsightly information out there, what will be the effects of it? Maybe people will become more giving. If the pictures of poverty from the U.S. and world wide are constantly shoved in our faces, will the Peace Core volunteers increase? We wouldn't be able to change the channel like all of us do when the adopt a poor, starving kid from Africa commercial comes on. It could be beneficial to mankind to show more of mankind.

Now They Tell Us Nothing

Michael Massing speaks about the war in Iraq and how Americans were pretty much excluded from all information on why or who we were fighting. Journalists were black-mailed out of asking the questions that would put our government at stake with the public opinion. Before reading this book, I had absolutely zero knowledge on the war and why we were/are there. Something about WMDs and oil...? I don't know. I hate to admit that. However, I think that the same goes for most Americans and it's not really our fault. We aren't told anything. Even now, after Bush has left office, Americans don't seem to want to hear about the gory details, so reporters don't report it. In my opinion, I could read up on the news and pay attention to every bit of over-seas information that is given to me, but I still would be out of the loop. For those years after 9/11, Americans were kept in the dark about everything. I feel like I will never really know the truth or be able to follow or understand what happened. This book enlightened me, though. Everything in the book was new information to me. I asked my "hard-core" republican friend to read the book and he scoffed. He said that he didn't want to read a liberal, biased opinion on the war. When I described the book, he said it sounded like another hippie that wanted to rant about something they knew nothing about. Based on that experience, I started to realize that that mentality is true for most Americans which makes us seem ignorant and ill informed. Americans are so loyal to our government that they can't see wrong. They can't see that they have been deceived and that our soldiers have died for no reason or that our soldiers have killed for no reason. We (Americans) don't want to see the images of the bodies, therefor we don't think that anyone is dying. At major universities, professors are discouraged from speaking about their opinion of the war. Going against the government is like admitting our defeat, admitting that we were wrong, and admitting that we killed for no reason. I think that we had reason to protect our country after 9/11, but I don't think that that is what Bush set out to do. It's even hard for me to admit that. I look forward to being in my 80's and reading what the high school history text books will say about the war in Iraq.

COSMO vs MAXIM

Somehow... MAXIM cost more, yet was a lot smaller. I think that is the true puzzling factor in this blog. I'd say it's because MAXIM has less advertisements compared to COSMO, but I don't think that's the case. I got my fill of perfumes/colognes, watches/jewelry, and styling products from both magazines. However, MAXIM was able to squeeze in some male enhancement ads. I'm sure COSMO would do the same if there was a female equivalent.
COSMO was packed full of excerpts, articles, pictures, and products. MAXIM was able to squeeze in how to stop a toilet from overflowing and the safest ways to remove your own tooth, it just didn't seem to compare to COSMO. Despite MAXIM's barely covered pictures of women... COSMO also kicked ass in the raunchy aspect. Reading COSMO is like reading soft-core porn. MAXIM seemed to stay about from any emotional talk or even sexual talk and focus on the pure facts.  A big difference I found between the two magazines was when they each touched on the topic of relationships between a male and female. COSMO had "Secrets of Male Arousal" and "75 Guy Truths_Their Weird Behavior Explained" as two main articles in the magazine. MAXIM, however, had one article that touched on the relationship topic... "Sex with your Ex". Women will spend their time reading about how to please their man or understand their man better, while men proceed to read about how to get laid with out gaining commitment. I mean, if that doesn't say anything about our society today... then I don't know what does. I'm kind of pissed, but I also feel inspired to start my own magazine called "How to be a decent man and treat your woman right"... I'll work on the title.

CHAPTER 8-13

Newspapers<Online Blogging
Books<Magazines
Books<E-Books

People are still as interested in what is happening today as they were in the 1800's. The desire to be updated with information on a regular basis hasn't changed. The willingness to seek that information hasn't changed. The way we receive the information HAS changed. With the growth in technology, society has found easier routes to take in order to gather what the media has to say. TV is a major news source. We will have the Today Show running in the background while we get ready for work in the morning. We read The New York Times on our ipads and catch up on our favorite blog on the computer. The idea that society has moved from newspaper to online news media or television is to be expected with the change in technology and the fast pace lifestyle we all lead. We want things cheaper or for free, we want them to be easily read, and we want it to be quick. People are starting to see newspapers as a nostalgic form of media. The bulky appearance is thought of as annoying or inefficient. Instead of becoming concerned with how people are receiving their news, we need to be concerned with the quality of news we are receiving. What I have come to realize is that we (society) are provided with many well-respected news sources. Whether we choice to listen to them is the question. I think that people find what they want to hear out of certain media sources based on their own beliefs and, in turn, they won't question the quality. The media source knows exactly who their target audience is. We are just mice caught in their media maze. We will believe what ever they say because we want it to be whole-heartedly true. With the media's understanding of us, what we want to hear, and the way to capture our attention comes advertisers. Advertisers know their target audience and they use the media to get to them. It's a very simple concept that we as society can not escape. Personally, I don't mind advertisements. I hope to one day make a career out of being the mind behind an advertisement. It's apart of our life now. I think that our minds would have a mental melt down if we were to go a week without being entertained by some form of advertising. The only form of advertising I have an issue with is billboards. I hate that advertisements have made their way into the sky. It's an eyesore and everyone can agree. I enjoy the little ads on the subway or in my magazine because I am a consumer and I enjoy shopping and ads make me feel like I am buying the right product. I question something more if I have never seen an ad for it. I hate to admit that, but it is true. There are so many products to choose from, ads make my decision making for me. I enjoy that... One less thing to ponder over in my day. I feel like a true conformist.

Reality Bullshit

One of the largest debates of society today is whether or not reality shows are respectable or compare to sitcoms. Reality shows are crap. Sitcoms kick butt. It's hard to say that though, reality shows are directly relatable to what seems like everyone in North America. If you are pro or con reality TV, you will end up finding a show that captures your attention at some point. Maybe our society is obsessed with the idea of the nobody becoming a somebody, or maybe we've seen all the "do good" "Cosby Show" bits and we just want some raw real life drama to entertain us after a long days work. However, I don't think Snooki will ever be quoted as much as Bill Cosby has. 
I don't watch reality TV. I don't have internet or cable. I steal my internet and watch Hulu. So my only opinion is based on the fact that when I hop on Hulu after a long day, the last thing I want to watch is anything about the reality I'm trying to escape.

Got to love a well produced mockumentary bashing America's bad habits.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLgh9h2ePYw

MASS COMMUNICATION

The evolution of mass communication is an outrageous subject to think on. The book touched on everyday life (YouTube, texting, popular TV) to how media and society handle events such as Michael Jackson's death. Our society has gone from believing what others believe to believing what we want. This could be good or bad. Having ideas being thrown at us from multiple different media sources creates a mass amount of controversy. This controversy leads to more media and so on. However, people seem to pick and choose what they want to hear. I see this as close minded but also mindful. If I was to question every opinion I take on a subject, I might lose it.  It only makes me question what will happen in my generation's future. How are we going to end up handling politics and television. Even the TV shows we find funny now would be considered crude 30 or less years ago. There might not be any humility or censoring left in the media. I can't think of any thus far. The amount of change that has happened since even the 20's is unbelievable. By change, I mean state-of-mind and how we handle day to day life. In my eyes, every form of "class" or dignity that used to exist in media, politics, and day to day life has diminished. We all need an ettique class from the queen and a lesson on "what really matters" from Andy Griffith.