I definitely support the judge’s decision in this case. The Daily Mail had a right to personal opinion when they said that Winslet was the most irritating actress, but they did not have the right to call her a liar when they had no truth to back this statement. In America libel has been a legitimate court case since 1964, as long as the prosecutor has proof that the defendant’s statement were made with “actual malice”. In the U.K. the laws are slightly different but uphold the same basic idea. This website  explains that libel can be used in law if a person is “defamed if statements in a publication expose him to hatred or ridicule, cause him to be shunned, lower him in the estimation in the minds of “right-thinking” members of society or disparage him in his work.”

It seems that this is exactly what happened to Kate Winslet, therefore she deserved to win the case. Some would say that the author was only voicing his opinion and practicing freedom of speech, but there’s already enough negativity in the media these days. Why waste space in a paper on bashing a celebrity when it can be filled with an uplifting and positive article? I hope that this case is an example to media producers everywhere to keep their rude opinions to themselves, and to only print the truth.

You can find excellent additional information about invasion of privacy laws and libel by following this link: http://www.personal-injury-info.net/invasion-of-privacy.htm.

This summer, along with every other summer that I can remember, I took a trip to the Delaware State Fair in Harrington, Delaware. Every year it’s the same thing, over priced food and games; I guess it’s the curiosity of “will this year be better? Am I missing out if I don’t go?” that gets me every time. If you have ever been to a fair or large festival of any sort, than you know the kind of public relations tactics different venders use to get you to buy into their product or show.

Concession stands use huge signs and pictures of delicious looking food to draw in crowds. The big, lit up billboards and signs make you think that onion rings, french fries, and funnel cakes are worth the six dollars and high number of calories. Also, the people selling the food tend to be in bright yellow, red, or orange uniforms, which draw your eye to their particular booth. Regardless of the will power that I come with, the bright, flashy lights and tempting (yet exaggerated) pictures get me over time.

Public relations strategies aren’t only seen at the food stands, but are also majorly used with the musical talents that the state fair provides. Throughout the fair, there are large posters for the different acts that perform. For example, I remember this summer seeing ads for Kelly Clarkson all over the fair grounds. There were also billboards along the road on the way to the fair, so that if the concert isn’t already sold out, it makes you want to purchase a ticket since you’re already at the concert venue.

I believe that both of these were effective methods to change my behavior. However, if I were in charge of the public relations I would take a more active stance on advertising. For example, I would print coupons out for food on the back of the ticket stubs. People tend to think that even though something is very over priced; if they have a coupon for a dollar off it is somehow a good deal. Overall, I think the fair does well with their public relations strategy.  

The website for the fair is http://www.delawarestatefair.com/.

The most obvious of these is Volvo. It is no coincidence that heart throb Edward Cullen drives a Volvo XC60. There are several scenes in New Moon and Twilight where he is seen racing to the rescue in this cool car. However, the reason for Volvo’s association with Twilight doesn’t make sense to me because the primary fan bases for the movies are teenage girls, and it’s unlikely that they can afford a car like the XC60. Still, it’s a great way for Volvo to get its name and product into adolescents’ heads. You can find a great article about Volvo’s involvement with New Moon here. Also, you should check out this funny video on all the different times you see Edward driving his car in the movie.

Another big partner is Burger King. In the movie, the human characters are shown eating food from Burger King. Not only is their food advertised in the movie, Burger King took it a step further by placing New Moon advertisements in their current commercials.

 This ad was placed in Burger Kings around the country. In addition to the posters endorsing the movie, Burger King is also giving out “Team Edward” or “Team Jacob” crowns.

If you’ve seen the movie, you probably didn’t notice some of the more subtle products advertised. The phones the characters used were AT&T, which has a partnership with New Moon and also sells downloadable wallpapers, screen savers, and pictures featuring New Moon characters. You can follow this link to read more about AT&T’s partnership with New Moon. 

As for American Eagle, I thought that I was probably one of the only people that noticed it’s brief appearance in the movie. At one point, Bella is wearing a pair of American Eagle jeans. They don’t explicitly advertise this, I just know because I own the same pair of jeans! When I did further research, I found that American Eagle Outfitters did have a small line of clothes endorsing the movie. There must have been more product placement than I initially noticed, because I wasn’t referring to the scene OR the pair of jeans in the picture to the left. This was definitely a great idea for sales because the main age group that already has or will see this movie are between the ages of 12 and 25, which is the same age that American Eagle targets.

In conclusion, product placement in popular films is brilliant, period.

There are many common themes that run through Disney movies.

The one that stands out the most to me is that the princess (the female) always seems to be waiting for a prince (the male) to come rescue her. This theme is found in Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, Little Mermaid, Cinderella, Snow White, Hercules, and Pocahontas, just to name a few. This sends out the message to children at a young age that the boys are supposed to grow up to be strong, brave, and in charge; while the girls learn to be more submissive. This theme still relates to me today at 19 years old because I feel like I’m still waiting for my Prince Charming to come along. The reality of it is, I’m setting my standards and expectations too high. Disney may even be linked to the increased divorce rate, because couples expect to live in “happily ever after” and not have to work on their relationship.

Another common theme is the absence of parents or authority figures in the movies. This theme is seen in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Tarzan, The Little Mermaid, Toy Story, Robin Hood, and many others. There is often a death of at least one of the parents leading to a broken family. This sends the message to children that they can go out on their own adventures and don’t need their parents. It also gives a bad reputation to step-parents because oftentimes they are portrayed as evil in the movies. This doesn’t relate to reality because many step-parents are wonderful to their step children. One article I found gives a complete list of the Disney movies that have characters missing one or both parents. The link to that article is here.

Growing up, Disney was a major part of my life. My brother, sister, and I are all each about a year apart, so it was the perfect solution for entertainment. Disney produced movies that even my parents could enjoy, too. To this day, my parents still have the huge collection of Disney VHS’s that we accumulated over the years from birthday and Christmas presents. Watching a Disney movie was something affordable that the whole family could to together. I think that the majority of my peers had the same experience with Disney. In addition to providing entertainment, my sister and I were Disney princesses every Halloween. Also, after many years of saving up money we took a trip to Disney World when I was nine. It was potentially the best week of my entire childhood! The truth is, as much as Disney is put under a microscope and criticized, I couldn’t imagine my childhood without it.

Myth # 1- The skinnier you are, the prettier you are.

The following is one of the most well-known myth’s that ads show us. Advertisers for the most part only use models that are very thin in their ads, whether it’s advertising clothes, magazines, shoes, face products, or even cleaning products for the home. This ad is clearly airbrushed because the fact that her head is larger than her waist and hips is scientifically impossible. This portrays the message that if you buy Ralph Lauren clothes, perhaps you can be this skinny too.  

http://shine.yahoo.com/event/fallbeauty/image-of-ultra-thin-ralph-lauren-model-sparks-outrage-521480/

Myth # 2- Big breasted women are more attractive.

This ad associates using perfume to being sexy, and they do so by having Kierre Knightley’s breasts showing. The sad fact about this ad is that her breasts are airbrushed to look at least a cup bigger then what they really are. This tells the story that to be sexy, your breasts have to be large. I personally don’t understand what breasts have to do with smelling nice, but isn’t that the whole point?

http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/beauty/were-the-quot-real-quot-women-dove-ads-airbrushed-the-air-brusher-says-yes-dove-says-no-168010/

Myth # 3- Dove uses real women in their campaigns.

Sure, the idea of using plus size models in their underwear is a great marketing technique. It uses the “plain folks” sales pitch by using ordinary people like you and me in their ads. However, this ad was also airbrushed. To Dove’s dismay, it came out that renowned photo retoucher Pascal Dangin retouched this photograph as well. He said, “it was great to do, a challenge, to keep everyone’s skin and faces showing the mileage but not looking unattractive.” It turns out that even the “real” women in advertising that we look up to aren’t what they seem to be.

http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/beauty/were-the-quot-real-quot-women-dove-ads-airbrushed-the-air-brusher-says-yes-dove-says-no-168010/

Myth # 4- Celebrities are perfect.

Okay, so they’re very close. But no one is perfect, not even the people we see on fashion magazines. Redbook, a supposed feel-good magazine aimed at women, featured this retouched photo of Faith Hill on the cover of their magazine. The slogan of their magazine is to “love your life”. As you can see, Faith Hill’s body was thinned up, and her freckles and bags under her eyes were completely removed.

http://www.switched.com/2007/08/30/worst-airbrushed-celebs-of-2007-so-far/

Myth # 5- Women shouldn’t have wrinkles or other natural “skin imperfections”.

Would you believe me if I told you that these two women are the SAME person? Probably not. The woman to the left and right is known as Twiggy, a British model that became the face of Olay products 25 years ago. The ad to the right tells the story that after using Olay’s products for 25 years, at 59 years old her complexion is remarkable and nearly flawless. A real picture of Twiggy, shown on the left, tells a very different story. So much for Olay’s slogan, “love the skin you’re in.”

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1202399/The-faces-Twiggy-59-How-airbrushing-Olay-ad-hides-truth-skin-shes-in.html

 Ultimately, the meaning of airbrushing and these ads to me is that even those people who are “perfect” enough to be in famous magazines aren’t even good enough for advertising. This sends out a bad message to consumers because we strive to look like these people, and what we’re striving so hard to achieve is actually unreal and impossible. This is the common myth that we find in all ads, airbrushed or not. It is that in buying and using their products, we will become more attractive and desirable like the people we see featured in the ads.

*Each of the links lead to the article where I found the picture and information about it.

During the past several years, FaceBook has grown increasingly popular. It started out as a small networking site for Harvard University students in 2004. From there, FaceBook grew to include college students everywhere, then high school students, and eventually it spread to all age groups.

I found an excellent article about the effects that FaceBook has on communication. You can find this article by clicking the following link: http://social-networking- tagging.suite101.com/article.cfm/ facebook_good_or_bad_for_communication. The article is called FaceBook: Good or Bad for Communication. It focuses on looking at the positive and negative effects that FaceBook is having on this generations communication skills.

Let’s break it down: Positive Effects vs. Negative Effects

Positive Effects

There are many obvious positive effects that FaceBook has on our lives. It enables us to keep in touch with those that are separated by far distances. We can view their pictures, read their statuses, and communicate by writing on their walls or sending private messages to them. A great example of a positive effect that the article gave is that FaceBook makes it easy for people in the armed forces to stay in touch with loved ones. Another positive effect is that FaceBook makes it possible for people with dysfunctional syndromes to communicate with people when they wouldn’t be able to otherwise. People who have extreme social anxiety and other social disorders can communicate with others easily through the use of the computer and FaceBook.

Negative Effects

At first glance, one wouldn’t think that a website designed specifically for social communication purposes could have negative effects on communication skills. However, according to the article there are possibly more negative effects then there are positive as far as social skills and communication is concerned. Social networking sites make social interacting too easy; “it is so convenient that people lack the drive to actually interact face to face”. This poses a big problem with the Millennials because we are beginning to lack necessary social skills that the generations before us have.  These face to face communication skills include being able to decipher body language and the meaning of tone in someone’s voice. Besides the social skills aspect, FaceBook can also cause the actual quality of social interaction to decline. This is because when the volume of people is high and there is no face to face communication, there is likely to be more gossip.

 (picture from Google Images)

My Opinion

I feel as though the article showed valid negative and positive effects of FaceBook. Personally, I enjoy FaceBook and think that the creation of such a widespread networking site is genius. It allows me to easily socialize with my friends that are far away (including some in Ireland). I’m constantly updated on how my brother, sister in law, and baby nephew are doing in Texas, which I love. However, I do think it has a lot of negative effects on people; especially in my generation, the Millennials. I have honestly spent about five or six hours total working to complete two blogs. The sad thing is, half of this time was spent wasted on FaceBook. I think that I and the majority of my peers would do better in school and on homework if there were no such thing as FaceBook. Furthermore, there are negative social effects, like the gossiping that the article mentioned. Also, relationships are commonly negatively affected. I have a perfect example from my own experience. This summer I was dating the most amazing guy I have ever met, and I broke it off with him because of pictures that I saw on his FaceBook. Who knows, maybe if there were no FaceBook we would be getting married someday down the line (hey, a girl can dream right?). In conclusion, I believe that FaceBook has its pros and cons, but like anything in life it can be great when used in moderation.

The year is 2035, and life couldn’t get any better. By better I mean I lead a more convenient, less stressful and overall improved life. I owe all my gratitude to the new and upgraded technologies that have advanced over the past 25 years.

So, I presume you’re wondering what these fantastic technologies are? Well, we’ll start with what I’m doing right now. I’m writing a blog for my Mass Communications class- although I shouldn’t say writing because as I speak my computer’s verbal translator inputs all the words for me. This avoids those nasty finger cramps one can easily get while typing, and also I can eat a bowl of cereal while finishing up homework.

Moving on to the bigger things, I never have to worry about being late for class or work like I did back in the early 2000s. My handy 2035 Super-Duper-Car gets me anywhere I need to go in less than five minutes! With the press of a few buttons, I hover to where I need to be. And the best part about this? It’s completely solar powered so I never fret about gasoline prices.

Above is an advertisement for the car I mentioned previously. Another great thing about 2035 is that no matter what you order, everything is delivered straight to wherever you are within hours. See, I told you everything was more convenient. These days, it’s all about instant access and fast results. In fact, right before I bought my car this advertisement appeared on my Blackberry. Voila! There’s nothing like a little media bombardment while you’re texting.

These are just a few examples of the wonderful world of technology I live in.

Bleak Vision

The year is 2035. Life is well, life I suppose. Actually, I should say life is “Best Life”, the new online virtual game everyone is playing. Ever since everyone became obsessed with Second Life last decade, no one actually “lives” anymore.

To tell you how virtual products took over my life, I’ll take you back a few years.

After I graduated from Towson University in 2012, I started working in a Public Relations firm in downtown Baltimore. Everything was going great until one rainy night after work. I was alone, bored, and curious about the Second Life game everyone had been raving about. I decided to check it out…

Slowly, IT TOOK OVER MY LIFE. About six months after I created my first avatar, I was completely addicted to the game. I would play so much that I was late to work and couldn’t focus once there, spent all my money so that I couldn’t afford my rent, lost my entire social life and finally had to join a “virtual world addict help group” (yes, they do exist.).

Now in 2035, like so many other people, I live at home with my parents. I spend my time and earn a little bit of cash by playing Best Life. In the game I’m a waitress at a small deli, but in real life I don’t actually do anything. One good thing about my life is my Best Life boyfriend, I love him and he’s absolutely gorgeous! I posted a picture of him below:

I would write more, but I’d rather log in to Best Life.

Various forms of media and examples:

http://www.newsoffuture.com/year_2035/ – News of Future. This website is an interesting online news publication about what is predicted to happen in the future.

Media…

I would never have noticed how much media affects my life if it wasn’t for, well, having to actually pay attention. I figured that because I don’t watch t.v. much, I was living media-free for the most part. Boy was I wrong. Media is everywhere and anywhere! Media definately affects me the most when I’m in my car. I always have music playing when I drive, no matter how short the trip is. Even though I’m sick of hearing “tonight’s gonna be a good night” by the Black Eyed Peas, it didn’t stop me from turning up the volume. If nothing good is playing on the six stations I have preset, then I resort to the old CD that I currently have in my car. While driving along and listening to song artists, I always notice several billboards. They range from advertisements for buying a new BMW, to religious pictures and quotes from the bible. This just goes to show that nothing escapes the all powerful media. I rely on music for a lot more than just driving though. When I’m not in class, I’m almost constantly listening to music. Right after I get out of the shower every morning, I turn on music to help start off my day. During the two day period of recording my media usage, I was about to go for a run. I had on my tennis shoes, sports bra, and the whole nine yards. Before heading out, of course I went to grab my ipod but- AH! – it was nowhere to be found! After searching for it for a good fifteen minutes, I gave up on finding it which resulted in me aborting the whole run idea. I suppose it’s pretty sad that I can’t even run a mile without Beyonce right there with me, encouraging my every step with the beat in her songs. Naturally, my cell phone is a very important part of my daily routine. It’s actually the very first thing I see/ hear in the morning because I use it as my alarm clock. The annoying high pitched “doo-doo-doo!” sound is what gets me to my classes everyday. Also, it helps me to overcome the issues that I seem to have with being on time. Since I don’t use a watch, I depend on my cell phone to tell me what time it is. Oddly enough, I don’t text often as a means of communication like most of my peers, but I do use it to plan lunch dates and things like that. After dating a guy for two years who was obsessive about staying in contact with me, I find it very relaxing to only text when I need to. I admit to having a slight addiction to facebook. I check it about three to five times a day, which totals up to be about an hour of each day on facebook. I do check the weather on my laptop every morning, and if you’ve ever been to weather.com you know how many ads there are (roughly a million, give or take a few). I try not to spend time on the internet and watching t.v. because there is always something productive I could be doing. Some good media came my way via mail the other day- coupons! Who doesn’t love coupons?! They advertise for the company, in this case we’re talking about Papa Johns and Smoothie King, while saving me money. Everyone wins! In conclusion, the two days that I spent monitering my media taught me that I couldn’t survive without music, but ultimately I don’t use it as much as I thought I did.

^This video is by a group called Social Media Addicts Association. I thought it was especially interesting because the people in it are British- which means we’er not the only country with this problem. Enjoy!

No Media…

When I first learned we were going to have to live without media for 48 hours, I had the same reaction as my fellow classmates- “What?! How will I survive?!”. Just the thought of it was enough to make my stomache turn as I wondered what people would think I was doing if my status wasn’t updated on facebook. After I got past the initial shock and acceptance of the assignment, I realized that this wasn’t going to be nearly as hard as it sounded. I’m part of the minority amoung my peers when it comes to media usage. I love the feeling of doing something productive, like cleaning my apartment or doing laundy, versus watching a t.v. program. During those two days, instead of watching t.v., I did homework or went shopping. Rather than chatting with friends on facebook, I spent my time chatting with my roomates and our neighbors. It was literally impossible for me to avoid all types of media for two days. As I mentioned above, I use my cell phone alarm to wake up every day. To avoid falling behind in my classes, I continued using it for that purpose. I barely texted at all, which wasn’t a big deal for me. Not being able to check the weather and facebook in the morning was tough. Instead of getting on my laptop I used my extra time to enjoy a cup of coffee. On day two of living without media, I missed the shuttle from my apartment to TU and had to drive. Let me just say that driving without music is bad, but when you add a rainy day and Towson University traffic to the mix, it turns out to be very frustrating. Music helps to keep me entertained when I’m stuck in traffic, and without it I get antsy. So what’s a girl to do when she can’t hear her favorite jams? Make her own! I hummed and sang to myself to fill the silent void in my car. In conclusion, I feel like media is impossible to avoid. It’s become a major part in our society and everyone needs it in some form or another.