ART AS MEDIA (Media Awareness Homework)

DEFINITION OF PROPAGANDA

 

“Propaganda [from modern Latin: 'propagare', "extending forth"] is a concerted set of messages aimed at influencing the opinions or behavior of large numbers of people. Instead of impartially providing information, propaganda in its most basic sense presents information in order to influence its audience. The most effective propaganda is often completely truthful, but some propaganda presents facts selectively to encourage a particular synthesis, or gives loaded messages in order to produce an emotional rather than rational response to the information presented. The desired result is a change of the cognitive narrative of the subject in the target audience.”

 

“Propaganda is the deliberate, systematic attempt to shape perceptions, manipulate cognitions, and direct behaviour to achieve a response that furthers the desired intent of the propagandist.”

 

–        Garth S. Jowett and Victoria O'Donnell, Propaganda And Persuasion

 

Source: “Propaganda”. Wikipedia.org. 26 Oct. 2007. 7 Jan. 2008. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda>.

 

DEFINITION OF POPULAR LITERATURE

 

Popular literature is written by journalists, who are employed by the magazine for which they write. Journalists cover news and current events in a field, write profiles of people, places, or events, and express political opinions. Some examples of popular literature are:

• The New York Times
• Newsweek
• National Geographic
• Psychology Today
• Natural History
• The Nation
• New Republic
• Science News

 

	POPULAR	SCHOLARLY	PROFESSIONAL
Purpose	To inform and entertain the general reader	To communicate research and scholarly ideas	To apply information; to provide professional support
Audience	General public	Other scholars, students	Practitioners in the field, professionals
Coverage	Broad variety of public interest topics, cross disciplinary	Very narrow and specific subjects	Information relevant to field and members of group
Publisher	Commercial	Professional associations; academic institutions; and many commercial publishers	Professional, occupational, or trade group
Writers	Employees of the publication, freelancers (including journalists and scholars)	Scholars, researchers, experts, usually listed with their institutional affiliation	Members of the profession, journalists, researchers, scholars
Characteristics	Little technical language or jargon Few or no cited references Absence of bibliographies General summaries of background information Contain numerous advertisements Articles are usually brief; between 1-7 pages	Little or no background information given Technical language and discipline- specific jargon PEER REVIEW, editorial board Bibliographies included Procedures and materials often described in detail Articles are longer, often over 5 pages	Application of new technology Employment issues Practitioners viewpoint Technical language used Interpretation of research trends and issues Articles are usually brief; between 1-7 pages Contain advertisements
Frequency	Frequent, on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis	Frequent, on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis	Less frequent, on a monthly, quarterly, or annual basis
Examples	Time, US News and World Report, Modern Healthcare	Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome	Institute of Transportation Engineers Journal

 

Source: Hunt, Imma. “Popular Literature Versus Scholarly Literature”. Rutgers.edu. 20 Dec. 2000. 7 Jan. 2008. <http://newarkwww.rutgers.edu/ecollege/popular.htm>.

 

REACTION (DISCRIMINATION IN MEDIA)

 

Issue: GENDER DISCRIMINATION (WOMEN)

 

Gender discrimination has never been more evident than it was way back then. This issue has existed even before I was born into this world. It has plagued media and corrupted the minds of people. Women are still viewed as weak, inferior and unable beings. It saddens me to know that people are still being fooled by media into thinking negatively of women. How can some people be so blunt and ignorant when women are being stripped of their dignity?

 

In sports, for instance, you turn on the TV and flip through the channels. All you see are basketball, American football, soccer, baseball, golf and wrestling games played by MEN. Why can’t they cover women’s sports for a change? What makes those NBA players so special when there are women out there who can play the game as well as they do? Men think sports are exclusively for them. They think women can only do nothing but shop all day or knit sweaters and bake cookies!!!! We are such an abused species… =(

 

The anime shows which I normally watch are also “contaminated with the discrimination virus”. Death Note, the hit series from Japan, portrays women as sexually submissive and physically weak through its most prevalent female character, Amane Misa (Misa looks like an EMO doll! XP). In the show, Misa is almost always sexually harassed by most of the male characters. You might say, “Aww, the poor innocent girl”, but you must know that she makes no effort whatsoever to fight back or even defend herself. She just lets them do “it” to her. Get what I mean? That is why I generally dislike her. Why did the writers have to waste their time in creating such a pathetic creature? They could have at least made her more presentable for crying out loud! She looks just like a pick-up girl in Quezon Ave. K

 

 

Some of the movies I’ve watched contain gender discrimination as well. The Harry Potter series, my most favorite movie series (because of Daniel Radcliffe! :D ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!), subtly discriminates women through one of its main female characters, Hermione Granger. Hermione is described as an intelligent student and a highly-skilled witch. However, the irony in the movie is that Hermione does possess powerful magical skills but they are rarely used in actual battle. We only see her doing magic when they need to open something (“Alohomora!” :D) or when someone asks her to do their homework. She is like a magician, a mere instrument of amusement for the audience, who does tricks like making a stupid feather levitate in air. (What a shame, I like Hermione. She’s so pretty.)

 

 

I feel so disappointed right now. Most of the things I usually watch contain nonsense or negative values which, I didn’t notice, demoralize me. I just wish that someone will put a stop to this. I can’t stand it when we are being treated like objects by men. We should all be living in equality and harmony, just like how God planned it to be! I believe that people really need to learn how to choose the right things they should entertain themselves with. That way, media will no longer be able to continue corrupting the minds of innocent people.

Message for Ms. Luna: Miss! Di ba kayo nahihirapan? Isa-isa niyo pang hahanapin homework namin!!! Why don't you create an account in a website for every section then we can all just post our homeworks there! :D that would make things waaaaaaaay easier for you. :D hehe :)