Week 13 Response

Our PSA was more interesting to plan that it was to film, considering we only had to film for about ten seconds. I went in as the lead editor without knowing much about editing, but I'm glad I did because I now know how much work has to go into a well edited movie. I was able to tell friends and family members about why I was making a public service announcement about turning off lights, electronics, and water when you're not using them and it seems like I got my message through to most of them. Our group worked very well together once we actually had time to meet up and get work done. Colin provided most of the facts and figures we used, and James helped with the final editing cut since he's the most media savvy of the 3 of us. The only thing left to do is to find the perfect piece of music to use in the background and to complete our credits scene.

Week 12 Responses

If this isn't the biggest example of greenwashing a product or company, I don't know what is. I don't understand how you could possibly make concrete more environmentally friendly, and I don't think people even know what the term going green means anymore. To begin deconstructing this brilliant spectacle, I would love to start off with the fact that a cement company advertisement uses grass to exemplify their attempt to go green. They clearly know the only way to go green is to abolish the use of cement and let grass grow, but they chose to use it to advertise their product anyway. In a way, it's funny that the average consumer wouldn't even notice this, but it's sad at the same time because now that consumer thinks that they will be helping the environment when they rip out trees and grass to put in their new concrete backyard. One of the bonus features that makes TCL's new concrete more environmentally friendly is the fact that it has increase impermeability. That's great, now rainwater won't be cleansed by grass, dirt, and other natural occurrences as it rushes to the nearest lake or river, collecting chemicals, trash, and toxins all the way. One last thing that caught my eye was the line, "acting as a responsible corporate citizen", proving the fact that corporations truly have the same rights as those of a human being.

2. Common sense media is a website designed to give parents an accurate opinion on what media they should be letting their children experience. They have a rating system that goes by age and judges movies, TV shows, music, video games, and websites. The problem is that kids happen to be maturing at much younger ages as they experience new age media and therefore might consider this kind of website as biased, or representing old ideals. The site seems to be aimed at younger children, those younger than 15, and is very reasonable in the reviews that say no children should be allowed to watch a certain movie/show. I think this is a great site for concerned parents but I don't believe kids will support the safety the site is trying to give, especially if parents flat out tell them they can't visit a website or see a movie. Online activism is definitely apparent on Common Sense Media because the creators are trying to repress the illusion that kids today can view anything without being influenced in the wrong way. Children of any age can flip through TV channels and see violence, sex, cursing, and many other bad examples, and they should know what all of this means.

3. Our PSA hasn't had much progress this week, but the addition of James to our group is good because he has some knowledge of editing, so I am not worried about running out of time when we put all of our pictures/clips together with music. We are doing good in terms of content to use in our PSA, while James and Colin have been working on getting facts about energy and water use to put as subtitles. Editing is all we have left to do.

PSA Status

Over the weekend, Colin and I got some great shots of the lake, a bunch of different electric meters, running water, electronics that use a lot of power, and buildings lit up at night. Although some of our PSA might contain video, the majority of it will consist of still images and facts about our topic. We haven't decided whether to narrate it or not, but we can always add that in later. Once we get a few more good pictures/videos, our focus will be mastering the basics of iMovie editing. I have high hopes that it will come together well.

Week 11 Responses

1. As Toxic Sludge Is Good For You says, real democracy must be the common work and invention of all of us acting together. However, this statement and democracy don't account for how small grassroots organizations and citizens pose a greater threat to PR industries than environmental protection agencies do. The PR industry is constantly working to keep the public in the dark as long as we continue consuming blindly. A true democratic society is governed by the people, for the people. I wouldn't necessarily say that we are governing ourselves anymore if all we are doing is listening to what the PR industries tell us to do. It's good that democracy can sometimes be hard to predict, because this throws the PR industry off balance. Thinking back to Feed, a corporation won't be able to classify you as the average consumer because your actually using your mind and not letting other people's examples influence you. It's sad that money=power in our current political system, because corporations can now control policies that are in their favor, continuously sweeping democracy under the rug. I feel as if we no longer make our own decisions, and even though I haven't had much experience with politics, I've never felt further out of the loop with my own government. If the only way to hear about political news is through PR influenced TV, internet, and radio, I don't have high hopes for democracy.

2. I spent closer to an hour down by the waterfront today, and I just have to reiterate that I love being outdoors. I am lucky enough to live in a rural part of New Jersey, so while outside when I'm at home, I don't have to listen to the drone of highway noise or loud neighbors. Being next to the water gave me this same sense of satisfaction because the cool breeze and splashing waves drowned out any noise from cars and other people. I was able to clear my mind for the first time in a while, and the warm sun mixed with the breeze made for a very calming sensation. Some find the calls of seagulls to be annoying, but I didn't mind them one bit as I sat there. I admit that I should have left my cell phone at home because I found myself answering texts from time to time, but it was otherwise a very refreshing media free experience.
My half an hour of media was spent watching Hulu on my computer since I don't have a TV in my room. The show I decided on is called Modern Family, one of the only shows on TV I find remotely funny, and the first commercial that comes up is the World's First Reality Hair Star. What is the world coming to? Women in the ad describe their hair as "the most important part of their body and their daily routine". I laugh out loud because I find this more funny than anything that happened on the show so far. As the show continues, besides the occasional funny lines, I find myself growing restless, and I realize I haven't blinked in minutes. I also realize that not once do they show a scene outdoors or people doing anything active. I don't necessarily feel as if I've wasted a half an hour of my life, but I definitely would have rather spent it outside doing something fun.

Week 10 Responses

Chapter 8
-I thought it was funny how the WEF marketed its new biosolids to be used on farms and orchards, because most of the general public doesn't know that farms already use a fertilizer that contains human waste and remains from the industrial sewage industry.
-Sludge contains most of the things you would think it consists of like many types of bacteria and chemical compounds, but I had no idea of all the other harmful things that could turn up in sewage such as arsenic, lead, mercury, and asbestos.
-It is amazing that the selective use of government money to research toxins and sewage goes only to the EPA to find new uses for the sludge, and not to toxicologists and public health officials that would use the research money to find out how bad these chemicals actually are.
-The part about how stealth is New York City's new weapon against the war on sludge is somewhat ridiculous because it's basically just like sweeping dust and dirt under a rug. New York now keeps all information about where they dump their trash very private even to the point where the townspeople of the town they decide to dump in don't know it.
-It's scary to imagine that current science and technology can't even uncover the truth about the dangers of most chemicals in sludge and waste. Sure, they can assess the risk of common things like pesticides, chemicals, and radioactivity, but the evolving microbes of new pathogens are developing immunities to our antibiotics and becoming whole new threats we don't even know how to gauge.
-My question is how do I know if my town harbors these sludge dumpings from big cities and if it really is legal to deceive whole towns and even states with private dumping?
Chapter 9
-Public relations experts who work for companies who's sales would take a blow from new pesticidal information like the Velsicol employees should not be able to lie to the public like they did when Silent Spring was published. Instead of spending budgeted money to cover up what people write about their products, they should be investing in safer chemicals to use.
-Greenwashing and environmental public relations are all around us, trying to tell us that anyone who stands up to their companies for polluting or not being as green as they could be is an eco-terrorist fear monger. When a company announces how they are becoming greener, further research should be done to make sure they're actually doing anything about it at all.
-"EDF assists McDonald's in fooling the public into believing that something significant has occurred". This type of lying should not be legal in the slightest, and now McDonald's can go on polluting and selling pesticide covered foods while the public believes that they're trying to be more environmentally conscious by using recycled materials for their bags one day out of the year.
-Some popular PR campaigns that corporations use now try to make it seem as if you are the one at fault for spoiling the environment instead of them. I hardly believe that pollution percentages are more greatly affected by my everyday actions rather than a corporation pumping CO2 out of it's smokestacks 24/7.
-Changing your name doesn't make you a different person. Changing a corporation's name doesn't change the fact that they pollute more now than they did under the previous name. It is shocking what some people will believe just by changing their surroundings.
-My question is when is government going to step in and lay down some laws for the legality of public relations, because as I see it, they lie their way out of every corner.

Week 9 Responses

1.
Dear Kalle Lasn,
After reading your book Culture Jam, my eyes have been opened to a whole new world of activism and things of the sort. As a child that had grown up for many years without the influence of television, my youth wasn't shaped by brands like others' were. I had my own relative sense of cool, and until I had taken a media literacy & environment class in college, I didn't understand how corporations and brand names could control a person's life so acutely. Here at college, I have realized that everyone subconsciously follows trends and that it actually is very difficult to be different and fight the system. For instance, during a walk down a busy block or college campus, you would be hard pressed to find a t-shirt or jacket that didn't have the brand clearly printed somewhere on it, and there are almost no shoes you would see without the classic swoosh or UGG logo's screaming out at you. As an environmental studies major at the University of Vermont, I share many views with my classmates about the problems about consumer culture nowadays. I had heard of the things activists do to protest politics and corporations they believe are harming the environment, but I wasn't as keen as they were to join rallies and those sort of things. Culture Jam explained a whole new way of protesting to me, and I particularly enjoyed the chapter titled The New Activism. Unadvertising and educating yourself on how to battle the effects of advertisements are important to today's culture jammer, and I now have the tools to do just that. Every time an advertisement comes in front of me now, I find myself analyzing it and realizing how powerful they can be to the uneducated mind. Being a college student has definitely put a dent in my checking account balance, but even before school I had never been the type of individual that went and shopped/consumed just for the hell of it. At a young age I realized the devastating effects modern consumerism had the the environment, which was what got me interested in environmental studies in the first place.Your book has helped elevate my knowledge of how to unlearn these types of lifestyles and to make it known to others that they can change too. I have even shared your views with people close to me, and without even reading your book, they are making changes in their lives because the reality of it all scared them so much. Thank you for sharing your insights in this wonderful book.

2.
The end of the corporation was one of hope for the future, which was impressive seeing that the previous 2 hours of the movie was just bad news stacked sky high. One thing that was most surprising to me was the fact that corporations have basically the same legal rights as a person as made clear by the 14th amendment of the United States Constitution. When a corporation does something illegal, how do you punish something that has the rights of a human being but is just a name on paper? Something that aroused agitation was the suppression of an investigation of Bovine Growth Hormones by FOX news company. With the power of expensive legal advisers, FOX basically got away with many illegal things such as forcing employees to avoid the truth but at the same time not lie to the public. This shows how much power corporations have when it comes to politics and legality. A significant new item of learning is that the CEOs of most major corporations have no idea of the atrocities they're committing in the countries in which they manufacture their goods.The interview between Michael Moore and Paul Knight was an eye opener. One question I have after viewing the film is; what can the public do to help speed up the deconstruction of corporate America? What can people besides movie makers like Michael Moore do to get the attention of these corporations and get them to change their ways?

Week 8 Responses

1. One of the first sections I read sparked a realization for me about new vs. used cars, a debate I have argued with friends and family about for as long as I've been able to drive. My 98' civic gives me more of a sense of security and trustworthiness than any other car I have driven, presumably because it's the car I've spent the most time in and tending to. The fact that cars change in style and design every year is only to gain advantages in sales over other car brands, and only a few minor things change in performance adjustments every few years.
The section on dieting, calories, and eating disorders interested me as well. It's true that food companies have promoted convenience and good taste instead of nutrition and healthiness, making our conscious food-purchasing no longer enjoyable or free. Why go to the grocery store and prepare the food you buy yourself when you can take the easy car ride down the street to McDonalds and pick up a hot pre-made meal.
Thirdly, ecological economics is a worldview that I myself have studied, from classes in college to books explaining the movement, and I really believe that this is what we need to change the direction the United States and the world are heading in. The expansionists, or classical economists, put their trust in technology to save us in the future from depletion of resources and such disasters, but they don't realize that we are already consuming at a rate faster than the earth can handle.
The section about the evolving definition of the word "cool" is interesting because the people who may believe they're cool are in fact the ones that are controlled by corporations and taught to follow trends. The people who are legitimately "cool" nowadays are the ones who rebel against these corporate giants and their tag lines. Americans are now lazy and can do things with the push of a button, unlike the old definition of cool, where people actually had to have physical talent in a certain area to excel in it. Cool is no longer a part of knowledge or academia, it's how well we can coincide with consumer culture.
Finally, an observation of the section on memes led me to realize that I support every one of the culture jammers' arsenal of metamemes. Although I haven't joined rallies and marched to city halls to debate these views, it feels good to be a part of the movement to fix the global economy.
My question to the media conglomerates is whether or not they realize they're destroying the world as we have known it and do they have a backup plan if their work comes crashing down on them?
2. The movie has opened my eyes to how much wrong can be done in the world without anyone noticing it. The fact that companies would rather pollute and pay the fines when they get caught as opposed to not polluting and greening their companies astonishes me. There is also the fact that there are countless numbers of companies that do this, and the large name brands we have heard of only scratch the surface of the list. The section which reveals that Phil Knight, the Nike CEO, has never even visited the factories he has built in developing countries, let alone visit those countries, should be a crime. The worst part is that the developing countries actually view these sweatshops as opportunities to enrich their lives, because even the meager pay they receive is more than they would have gotten without the factory work.