Throughout my blogging experience for this class I learned a lot about how the media can actually influence my opinions and how I feel on a certain day. I was not aware of how often I was in contact with the media, or that it could cause me to sway in certain directions regarding certain topics.
For example, I never realized how many quick little Yahoo stories I read each day when I log in to check my email just because their title catches my eye. The first day I blogged an entry it was over a story on Taylor Swift and I only read it because her name was in the title. Once I read it I was actually upset about the material and found myself disappointed in her. Before this project I was unaware that a short story posted online would have the power to make me feel differently about someone. I also never really realized how often I am exposed to the media. In class we talked about pervasiveness, and how the media is everywhere, but I never understood it until I was asked to account for being exposed to media myself. Whether I’m checking my email, turning on the TV, scrolling through Twitter, or listening to Pandora and hearing random advertisments, I am always exposed. At first I thought of media exposure as reading the newspaper or watching the news, but now I realize that media is seen is many ways other than just those formats. Before leaving for class this morning I turned on the news to see what was going on today. I watched a brief news report over a woman who lost her left leg in an amputation yesterday.
She was one of the 260 people injured during the bombing that occurred during the Boston Marathon last year. Since then she has had 17 different surgeries to try to heal her leg, but all of them were unsuccessful and she finally decided to have it removed. She has been posting about the surgeries and experience over social media sites and many people have been following her on her journey. The most admirable thing about the story was how positive she was throughout the whole experience. I feel like when people experience tragedies they can either be destroyed by them or come out much stronger. She even got a pedicure before her last surgery and called it “the Last Supper.” In my opinion, people who undergo tragedies and come out a more positive person are definitely people to look up to. I heard a story on the news today covering a topic I’d never heard of before. They call it “uncoupling.” Apparently, it is not the same thing as divorce and instead of signing a piece of paper declaring a separation of marriage, the couple instead hands back their wedding rings and continues life as normal after conducting a ceremony.
The story I heard on the news was about a couple living in San Francisco who actually performed their “uncoupling” ceremony in front of their eleven year old son and other family members. This ceremony releases them from marriage without divorce. The couple is going to continue living under the same roof in order to raise their son. They believe this is the best way to make one another happy and not upset their son by declaring a divorce. This new method is beginning to become popular in the state of California and is beginning to spread across the country. I think it’s strange that the couple is going to continue living under the same roof, but if they truly believe that is what’s best for their son then I think that’s admirable. My parent’s got a divorce when I was Jonah’s age (the son of the couple) and I didn’t have many problems adjusting. I actually enjoyed life more after the divorce because both of my parents were happier. Personally, I feel like “uncoupling” won’t prevent different types of problems from arising within the family, but I do understand that divorce can be expensive too. I feel like it really must depend on the couple and what they are specifically going through and feeling to make the decision to “uncouple.” Today as I read the Travel section of the Washington Post, I came across an interesting article about Vanuatu, written by A. Odysseus Patrick, which is an island located in the archipelago in the South Pacific. A family of four decided to take a vacation from Vanuatu from their home in Sydney, Australia because they assumed it would be a relaxing trip.
On the trip they came across a variety of obstacles, such as seeing their friend’s three-year-old escape from the child center, touring a crater with hot lava flowing right beside them, and being expected to climb huge trees as if it was like taking the stairs. So basically not the ideal vacation you usually read about in the travel section and fantasize about being able to experience yourself. However, I found the article to be very fascinating and it almost made Vanuatu a place I am even more interested to visit. Obviously going on little adventures have heightened danger with the lack of safety guidelines and free range to see whatever you chose to see, but I also believe that could make the experience more fun. Just getting to walk as close or far as you want, without humans having already built over everything, and being so close with nature sounds like an incredible opportunity. Then again, I enjoy dangerous places and learning about things through experience rather than pictures and textbooks. Whenever I read the NY Times I always flip to the same section first, which would be the science section. That might not strange because I am an AD/Pr major and I absolutely hate studying science with my entire being, but something about science has always fascinated me. Today when I was looking through the space and cosmos section I read an article published about Triton, Neptune’s largest moon.
The article, written by Dennis Overbye, talks all about how the Voyager 2 spacecraft had passed by this moon back in 1989 and scientist’s discovered this moon might actually be related to Pluto. This moon actually rotates backwards in comparison to all of Neptune’s other moons, providing evidence that the moon cannot be made out of the same gases. Scientists want to learn more about this so in 2015 the New Horizons probe will be sent back out to collect more data. I am interested in what the data will yield and how the moon, if related to Pluto, ended up rotating around Neptune instead. This information could really help advance what we know about space today and yield even more information so we can discover even more tomorrow. Today, as I was reading the news on Yahoo before checking my emails, I came across an article that caught my attention about Taylor Swift. I have been a huge Taylor Swift fan since she recorded her first album, so when I see something with her name I’m drawn to it.
The article, written by David Bauder, discusses how Swift made the decision to drop all of her music from being posted onto Spotify. If you are unsure what Spotify is, it is a popular music-streaming site that is currently being used by over 40 million listeners. It can be accessed both on computers via the website as well as cell phones in the form of an app. I use the site Spotify to download my music over iTunes because it is free and I can easily add music without having to attach my phone to my computer to download new songs. Being a college student with a tight budget the fact that music can be accessed with no charge and it’s completely legal is a huge advantage, however, without Swift’s songs being available anymore I might be forced to switch back. At first Taylor had all of her music published on this site except for her newest album, 1989, but now it has all been taken down. When I heard this I felt like she just wanted her fans to go out and buy the new album so that she could break another record for how many albums she could sell in a week. However, as I continued reading the story it claimed that she believes she isn’t being paid enough from Spotify to have the rights to give out her music without any price. I totally understand where she is coming from and can respect this, but at the same time it’s disappointing to hear. I am still a huge Swift fan, and I own all of the CD’s she has ever published anyways, it’s just a burden to have to go onto an entirely different site to obtain only her music, whereas every other artist I enjoy can still be found on Spotify. |
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