Media versus Character

Each part of news media is biased. New channels televised or online i have seen will be favoring toward one side of the political party, such as in the election. One news coverage channel will say negative comments about one of the candidates. Now wit hate president, i noticed the first site i visited, yahoo news. President Trump has decided not to attend The White House Correspondants Dinner. Yahoo.com says how it will be “an interesting to see who does RSVP to come” and added that “last year, however, the dinner was upbeat and light-hearted as usual,” with President Obama’s attendance and speeches made. 

On the front page of a hoax news site, abcnews.com.co, there are no top stories about President Trump. ABC news is considered a main news source. There should be numerous stories about his recent Executive Orders. Instead, on the front page there is a story on the former president Obama signing an Executive Order. This would seem suspicious to me, to have to go search for the latest news that I may have been hearing form other news sources already, or even from my exposure of my peers talking about it as well. 

As an editor of our school’s paper, i have had to learn to pay great attention to writing and printing biased pieces. A big indicator of an objective piece would be the use of descriptive language to describe an event or person used by the writer. This is then placed in the opinion section so readers know that it is not classified as news and that it is going to be portrayed using someone’s inner feelings over the subject. 

I think this can be an indicator of fake news, because it can not ethically be described as news. Although all news channels are going to have a bias stance, there are stories out there that are completely untrue. 

In regards to the media producing the truth, i believe that they take their version of the truth and add their opinion. This then isn’t the whole truth. The purpose of the story is then to get their agenda across. News media coverage of the president, which is a majority of the topics in our news channels today. President Trump is in a negative light and they help feed into that. It is interesting that on the contrary, Trump is trying to control the media by limiting their coverage. He is trying to manipulate and decide what goes out there by him constantly criticizing what is put out there about him since it is negative. Wit this being said, the media is challenging him because they are not congruent because the coverage is negative and against his character. They are far from working together. Them media is going to take advantage of this and hype of his actions to be even worse than they may be. 

Joystick Influence

The shooting in Isla Vista, in Santa Barbara in 2014 holds some violent influence from video game exposure. Inside official documents reported inside he LA Times, it is said that the suspect’s interests involved playing video games (featured on Pg. 50) both alone and with others. His favorite game was “Halo,” which is a violent, shooting game. This also seemed to be the most social interaction he had experienced throughout his life. He would interact with others through his enjoyment of video games, and through the actual playing of those games. 

http://documents.latimes.com/isla-vista-investigative-summary/

I think the worry on marketing weapons inside video games can be considered completely warranted. A young boy or girl, wouldn’t normally be educated on their own, aside from if their parents had an interest in teaching them, what types of guns are out there, and especially how they are used. The document listed above also includes the shooter’s online search history. No searches listed were on guns, but were on knives, and Hitler’s life. His knowledge of how to kill, and what weapons of mass destruction to purchase, as he did, was not listed under his search history in detail, and could very well be from the knowledge of his video games. 

Video games are hardly rated “M” for mature anymore because that decreases their consumers. Even if they are rated “T” for teen, they contain guns and show destruction of buildings and people in result of those guns used. 

These videos games are in some cases meant to be taken literal. No, not to harm innocent people anywhere, especially not a college campus, but to be prepared for the military. For example, Stuart White who produced “Ubisoft’s Ghost Recon series” created his work based on his studies in military technology. He stated, “We’re not going to reinvent a new way because we get all these kids into the military, they already know how to use a 360 controller, they’re already familiar with it. So we’re just going to use that in how we’re building the technology.” He would want accuracy in his work, but he points out that the sole purpose is so “kids” sadly learning this at their age, will know how to use those weapons already. 

Why would these kids need to learn how to use the weaponry? How many of the players of the game are actually going to enlist in the military and benefit in the program by playing this game? How do we know that will be their path? White then can be seen to want to influence them to do so. If these “skills” or knowledge of those weapons aren’t used in the military, then will they be used somewhere else?  

http://www.forbes.com/sites/gregvoakes/2012/05/30/how-do-video-games-and-modern-military-influence-each-other/#6acec5a328c1

Happy Violence Advocated in the Media

Happy violence includes videos that don’t promote violence for the sake of being aggressive to win, but to make a change. Some may argue that violence is necessary for changes to be accomplished. Violence so often ends in one side, or both sides acting in it getting hurt. Happy violence can be someone acting out strongly to make a change or to show their feelings widely on an issue occurring in our world. The happy violence doesn’t include causing harm to anyone but making statement or being an activist for something that is wrong. 

An example would be Macklemore’s music in a strong way through his lyrics, to make an impact. This can be a watered down version of violence because the focus will solely be on his lyrics and the feeling behind that to make a change. He is going to sing on touchy subjects that are controversial to the media, as most artists work is produced to be. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlVBg7_08n0

Another sample of happy violence would be Beyonce’s new album. There are music videos for each song to show what  she went through this past year in her personal life. She may have aggressive language, but this is to express herself. She is advocating for many things in her album. She is advocating for women’s rights and for black lives. Another place she is being a representative and a voice for the mass media for is for worm who have been in infidelity situations or standing up for themselves against their husbands. This can be considered happy violence in providing her voice. As an artist, this is how she is going to continue to express herself whether it is telling stories of the world, or her own personal life stories. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDZJPJV__bQ&index=1&list=RDWDZJPJV__bQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxsmWxxouIM&list=RDWDZJPJV__bQ&index=2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeonBmeFR8o&index=3&list=RDWDZJPJV__bQ

Media Controllers and Advertising

I normally watch beauty tutorials on youtube. Google owns youtube. That means that because google tracks what you search and finds ads to fit what you shop for, that while I watch videos it does the same. Youtube also has a suggested playlist of videos to watch next, of people that have similar channels to what you already search. 

The ads usually seem to be the same, and are interesting because they usually aren’t the same as the ones you find on television. as of right now, there are Super Bowl ads every outlet we tune into. Otherwise there are car commercials, or lotion commercials, or more wholesome commercials in my opinion. They aren’t always steered toward buying normal  household products or food. They aren’t restaurant advertisements. They are more about technology including cars, or beauty products. This will make us want to buy what we see int he videos and outside of the videos. 

It is a never ending cycle, and that is the media’s goal is to always make us adjust our lives, in this case buy more. I can simply choose not to watch these types of videos and not expose myself to caring about makeup as much or what new beauty products are out there. 

Each type of media is going to have a narrowed focus to a specific audience. Google isn’t putting original thoughts into my head, but feeding into what I already am interested in buying or looking at, so that I would have a less chance of straying away from the exposure.