The beginning of the end..

Unfortunately, that is it for me. I have nothing left to write, except what a lovely (yet very hard) semester this has been. Hope everyone enjoys their summer : )

Chapter 10

Chapter 10 talked about the PR surrounding government issues, such as Escobar's prison. No offense, but if a U.S. prison contained a soccer field and jacuzzi, crime rates would be at its highest. No one would be scared of prison and would not care what they did. This country would completely fall apart. However, Escobar's prison was thought to be just like the U.S. prisons with guards and barbed wire. I don't know how one could promote something to the common people and go to bed at night without a worry. Where are the ethics, people??

unSpun Conclusion

Now this was interesting: the Hoodia Case. What's even more odd is that I just bought this EXACT supplement at GNC, because the worker recommended it. hahah I am laughing to myself. Of course a company is going to cake their product to be what it's not. They have to if they want to make money. Of course, it's never right. It all boils down to the authors saying to respect facts and not be taken for granted. Dig in and come out with only facts, no opinions. In a society like ours today, this is very hard. Everyone wants things to be easy and not have to do the work for the facts. This unfortunately leads us to believe what we see, without knowing if its factual. I suppose I will finish trying out the Hoodia, despite the advertisement spoofs.

Chapter 9

Today is a great example of what chapter 9 talked about. You mean to tell me there are still people in the world that do not believe global warming is an issue! It was 92 degrees in APRIL! Not to mention, I did not even have a winter jacket on at Christmas! How people can believe that this is NOT an issue just baffles me. Of course, many of the non-believers are from corporations that run off of things that harm Earth, such as ExxonMobil. I don't believe in the good cop/bad cop. I believe in the good cop/the ignorant.

Websites

Chapter 7 addresses internet sources and their credibility, especially for .gov and .edu sites. When researching material, many would think theses sites are credential and correct, however, they all are not. Most .edu sites can contain information based upon an opinion of a professor or student. The researcher may think this is from a creditible site without exploring where it came from and if it can be veriefied. Often times .gov websites are backed by sponsors that are misleading or contain information. Lastly, wikipedia is discussed, which is a website that acts like an online encylopedia (hence the "pedia"). In all reality, it is just a site based on common knowledge of society. Anyone can post what they choose on the sites and it will look like a part of the site. As a matter of fact, my boyfriend has edited wikipedia sites plenty of times, often replacing my name with someone elses!

Chapter 5 & 6

Hmm, crow nut cracking was the topic mostly in these chapters which led to a discussion that believe what the eye sees, whether it be correct or not. In this chapter, the crow drops a nut on the road with the intentions of a car running it over to result in it cracking. However, this seemed to fall false. This relates a lot to one's common day. A lot of people believe what they initially see without further looking into it. One instance I found that was interesting was through my research on propaganda in schools. There is a website about the global warming fallacy aimed toward children that proposes global warming really doesn't exist. It suggests that we continue to burn waste and to research further into the situation. The sponsor behind the website is ExxonMobil which makes man-made fuel that which is the main cause of global warming!

Catch up

Time to play catch up on the blogs I missed out on:

Chapter 4:

Interesting thought: We actually retain more facts than we think we do. The media over-exposes crimes which lead us to believe that crime rates are higher than they are. Unfortunately, I have researched this for my topic in Journalism 335 (Media & Ethics), and it has come out to be true. Crime rates have actually decreased in rate, yet increased in media. Perhaps the media should consider global warming or educational problems, rather than exaggerating crime. Also, often times our brains believe we have the correct facts, when in all reality, we don't.