Peer Response: Madisyn Morris

I found Madisyn's reflection of the Demassification lecture to be very intriguing. I agree with most everything Madisyn had to say about the topic but she made some good points that I hadn't thought of before. Like Maya, Madisyn offered examples that pertained to her topic to help put the content in perspective for the reader, which I admire in writing. Visiting Madisyn's blog is deifinitly worth your while. If you'd like to view this post, click here.

Peer Response: Maya M.

I enjoyed reading Maya's reflection on the Binary Models lecture. She included some interesting examples that, to my knowledge, were not included in the lecture. Her examples help put the content in perspective to me and were just plain interesting to think about. I can tell she took the time and the effort to write a tasteful reflection to Mr. Miller's lecture. I feel she really understood the material that was taught and I really enjoyed my visit to her blog. To view her post, click here.

NBC News: Breaking the 1st Yardstick and the 7th Element

NBC News  is a great example of a network that loves to make the interesting important, when it's pretty clear that their story "No Limits for One-Handed Climber" is not at all newsworthy. It is just about a random woman who was born with only one hand that enjoys rock climbing. Sure, the story is interesting but it will never affect anyone but that woman and is therefore not news. It's also clear that rock-climbing have nothing to do with the fate of the world so I have no idea why it was put in the World section of NBC news. Another example is "Baby Bear Hangs out in Hammock" which is clearly not news at all. But NBC believes that it affects the entirety of the U.S. since the video can be found in the U.S. News category. The bear is cute and all but it's much more important for people to be reading about or watching videos of actual news instead of videos about bears on hammocks and one-handed girls who can rock climb.

Newspaper Lecture Reflection

Newspapers have been an important part of daily human life since 1702, when the Daily Courant was first published. And modern newspapers have been around since 59 BCE when Acta Diurna, a Roman paper translating to Daily Acts came about. Newspapers have been around for such  long time that it's surprising that they are just now beginning to die out. With all the other news sources out there, people no longer feel that it's necessary to read the paper every day like they used to. But newspapers will never completely die out, or at least not for a long while. Newspapers are what you would call a nonlinear medium which means that you can read what you want, when you want, and at your own pace. Newspapers are also cheap, mobile, and are physical objects which make them very useful. Newspapers are also a tradition, like how some people get up and read the paper every morning. Newspapers have been very influential on the world but most importantly the world of journalism. The Newspaper lecture has been one of my personal favorites so far and I think it was both very informative and very interesting.

Magazine Lecture Reflection

Modern magazines cater to niche audiences, and there is no one magazine that could entertain everyone. Because of this, it's hard to imagine magazines as being one of the most important news and literature sources. But as I know from Mr. Miller's lecture, they were. Magazines, first created by Benjamin Franklin used to be a weekly/monthly collection of news and literature that was larger than the newspaper but smaller than a book. Magazines had a little something for everyone, even the illiterate and the alliterate. Magazines included something called serialized fiction, which was where a chapter from the book would be published every issue for the reader's enjoyment. Only the rich could afford libraries full of books so serialized fiction gave countrymen a reason to read, therefore increasing American literacy rates. Magazines also helped create a national identity for Colonial America which was something that we needed at that time. Notable innovations of magazines include: long form investigative journalism, photojournalism, mail order products, and most importantly, national audience attention. Magazines were the first to reach a national audience which therefore makes them a very important medium in the world of journalism.

Conglomeration Lecture Response

Conglomeration is a merger of two companies, normally one larger company buying a smaller one, that allows the now one business to achieve a vertical monopoly in their business. The advantage of conglomeration for these companies is that they do not have to pay other companies to produce,distribute, and sell their product but instead, do it themselves. This also allows the company to have only one accounting department, one HR department, and so on. This is good in that it's very convenient for the larger company, but it also takes away job opportunities. Conglomeration is both good and bad in many ways, which makes it very interesting to learn about. It is quite apparent to anyone who cares to look that conglomeration is very efficient. There is no hassling with other companies when you own every company that you associate with. And if one source of a companies income goes under, they won't even have to fret because they have so many other sources of income that it just doesn't matter. But as I said, for every good part of Conglomeration, comes something not so great. If it ever seems like everything you see is the same, that's because it's all from the same companies. Two notable examples of large Conglomerates would be Disney and Time Warner. Another disadvantage of conglomeration is that when they discover something popular, that milk it for all it's worth. It's like you are trying to make orange juice, but instead of just giving the orange a good squeeze and then moving on, you take the orange, squeeze out every drop, and then just throw the peel into glass and drink it all. The juice is delicious when it's only one squeeze, but no one wants to drink peel. Conglomeration is the way our society is headed and whether or not this change is good or bad is currently unclear, so I guess we all just have to wait and see.

Gutenberg Lecture Reflection

We live in a world today where everyone we know can read, everyone who belongs to a religion has a book of religious text on hand, and everyone actually has an idea about the world around them. But if you lived as a commoner in pre-Gutenberg society, none of that would be true. You, yourself would most likely be illiterate, unless by some crazy fluke you learned. You would have unfaltering faith in your religion, when in reality, the religion you're actually follow is not at all what it is supposed to be. And you would have no clue how corrupt the world around you really was. Gutenberg's legendary metal, movable type press is perhaps one of the most influential inventions of all time because of how much that's happened that couldn't have been possible without it. That is what I found most inspiring about Mr. Miller's lecture, how much was really affected by the simple invention. For example, the renaissance, widespread scientific advancement, and journalism could not have been possible which to me, is mind boggling. The most important result of Gutenberg's printing press would be the widespread literacy that it caused. Gutenberg's press will forever affect history in a positive way and learning about how it's affected us since it's invention and what life was like before it's creation was inspiring to me.

Welcome to Jessica Thoughts

Hello, and welcome to the blog entitled: Jessica Thoughts. It's pretty cool.
P.S. I apologize for my incredibly bland titles.