Week 13 presentations

            The presentation that had to do with vlogging and the LGBT community had an affect on me personally. Personally I never read through comments that are posted on videos that I watch. But I can imagine the ones posting the YouTube videos will go through their own comments. So after the presentation to think that people hind behind a digital fake personality amazes me. Some individuals act almost as if they have nothing better to do. Digital space now days allows more and more outlet to stay anonymous to the world. This gives people leeway to post and say whatever they want to and in negative fashion. I think about my best friend who falls under the LGBT category and if anyone would want to say something harmful to him I would take it personally as well.

            The way the presentation was formed really kept me interested. They did a nice job finding examples that really connect with the harmful actions that come along with vlogging within the LGBT community. Hearing about statistics of suicides that result from this is sad. Throughout the campaign that was mention about the “it gets better” is a positive side to such negativity. This expands even outside of the LGBT vlogging community but all negativity in general.

            I am really big on following vine and YouTubers. I never comment or like I said read comments. The videos that the group showed about the one vlogger who had a positive look on the negative comments was really great. I hope some day the gap of hate with the LGBT community can lessen to no hate at all. But in the mean time we all know that is far from happening so in the mean time staying positive and laughing at what people say is the way to go I think. Keeping positive and gaining as many supporters is good. They have celebrities apart of the campaign. Celebs are people with fan bases and fans always like to follow in their footsteps. When they mentioned Celebrities are apart of the “It Gets Better” campaign is a positive sign in my opinion.

            

Week 12

Lately and even in the past has the topic of what the media feeds the public is true, exaggerated or biased. Of course it is because different media outlets will have biased opinions, as well as choosing what is said to the public. There is usually only one side to a story for most media outlets. As for using fox news and talking about the coded language that they use, this became very interesting to me. 

            The main argument about this presentation and what they showed is the one on gay marriage. There were biased opinions on this topic and usually results in religion being the reasoning behind being against gay marriage. I am not a religious person at all and have a very opened mind about this stuff but then think of my parents who are religious and are not as open minded. I wonder if there is usually another main reason for the disapproval of gay marriage. It is interesting to talk and discuss coded language and see what is actually being said in the media to give off a certain viewpoint of the topic they are presenting. Places like social media and news media abuse the use of coded language I think. The thought of coded language can be good and bad.

            Coded language as what I got out of the presentation could be seen as good because people can get a certain side of the knowledge that is out there but from what I learned from it I hope that when people go and read or view these media outlets like Fox News they always keep and opened mind and do not always agree with what the media says. Because what I have learned the media can jam a certain viewpoint in your mind. These viewpoints can be seen as racist to many people and then to the ones saying them, they could be the total opposite. I got this feeling during this presentation.

            All in all this presentation was very intriguing and they did a great job portraying what the media especially Fox News does with coded language and how it effects the people viewing their news.

Response Presentation #1

            For the major project proposal this week, the topic was on the Arab Spring Protest. This was not the first time that I had discussions about this topic. Last semester in one of the Sociology classes we watched videos and touched on this topic one of the weeks. I was very interested then and still interested now on this first groups project proposal. The main part that caught my attention both times was the man who worked at the fruit stand and lit himself on fire to get the attention of the government. The fact tat someone went to the lengths to end their life to help speak out for many more people is amazing to me. Yes it is a sad story and I wish he could be here to see what he has done to these countries to get people to speak up and the change that has occurred. Because of his actions he caused the rallies and revolutions. The Tunisian people were not allowed to fight back against the government. Just one man who was a fruit seller stood up, took a stand and changed the world.

            One of the lines from the video that they showed and the said, “Word of mouth wasn’t enough.” That for sure is the truth considering the boom of social media that happened because of who was around recording. Just telling people about it in a situation like this was not enough that is correct. The videos of the riots and the revolution after he set himself on fire caused an outbreak. The videos went viral fast and the whole world was able to access the footage of what was going on in this part of the world. Facebook was one of the main sources. There were pages made on Facebook for people to follow and become fans of. This also caused problems because it was not supposed to be aloud nor were people allowed to be apart of it. If you were caught posting on Facebook footage or associating with it, the government went to lengths of torturing and detaining the ones affiliated.

            With the fast spread and technology giving the world the ability to see what was going on, this caused for more involvement. Instead of just word of mouth you do not get the imagery of what is going on. Yet with the videos that were uploaded and made their way around the world, this topic caught many peoples more attention because of the gruesome and craziness of the matter. Technology helps revolutions and for peoples voices to be spoken to succeed. Without technology a lot in this world would still be hidden to the rest of them to see. This presentation did a really good job incorporating what technology and social medias effect is on the world.