Animal Activists

I have always been a huge animal lover and I hate seeing animals be tortured by idiots. If I see anybody chasing around cats, or scaring squirrels out of their trees as they gather their food I whip rocks at their tiny craniums. Luckily, I was born with a soft spot in my heart that allows me to think that animals should be treated just as equally as humans. I have heard too many horrible stories about people abusing their pets, and wild animals too. If you're going to have a pet, why would you hurt it? Pets are around to give you good company and studies show that if you have a pet you are less stressed than non-pet owners.
PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) is an animal activist group. Although I no longer live the vegetarian lifestyle (anemia settled, couldn't be bothered taking iron supplements), I support everything else they stand for such as anti-cruelty, anti-fur, and anti-experiment. I think products should be tested on human criminals because who cares if they go blind from hairspray? They deserve to be in the slammer, so why not? Humans have been smart enough to create fake fur, so it would make the most sense to wear fake fur (which is made quite easily, and bloodless) instead of skinning animals alive.
When I read the headline "Lindsay Lohan Gets a Face Full of Flour", I thought to myself "I knew she wasn't done sniffing the white powder!" But as I read on, I became more and more amused. Turns out that an anti-fur activist doused Lohan in flour while she was at a nightclub in France. Lohan has been frowned upon in the past for wearing fur, along with the Olsen twins. My only regret is that I wasn't the person to dump the flour.
I have a cat at home. I deeply love her like I would if she was my child. If I had it my way, I would own 14 cats. Every month, my mother and I donate money to the Toronto Humane Society and the Canadian Wildlife Federation, and in return we have received really adorable Christmas cards, vegan gloves, and vegan t-shirts. It really pays off to donate to a great cause, especially ones that support animal rights, because you know that money is going towards something positive. Hopefully one day the world will wake up and see that abusing animals is not civilized and is just plain wrong.



Bartlett, Joe. PETA. November 14th 2008. November 25th 2008. <http://blog.peta.org/archives/2008/11/lindsay_lohan_g.php>

Participatory Culture

As an aspiring photographer, I frequently take photographs. Everywhere I go, I have my camera. Like any photographer, I enjoy presenting my work to the public and by doing that I display my photographs in online albums, particularily on Facebook. Since almost everybody has an account on there, I receive frequent feedback from different people. As Ian said in class, we all go on Facebook for one reason: to obtain information. I never thought about it that way until he mentioned that, and then I thought about it, and that couldn't be more right. I don't only go on Facebook to get information though, I also provide information through photographs in creative ways. By doing this, I am part of a participatory culture, which is the choice of sharing creative pieces of work especially on the Internet. The Internet is a popular place for participatory culture because it is easy to access, and whatever you choose to display has the ability to reach large populations of people in a small amount of time. Flickr is one of the most popular photo-sharing websites out there. It gives people the opportunity to view people's work and also give feedback. I do not have a Flickr account for I haven't worked up the will to create a Yahoo account first, but I do visit Flickr often to marvell at the brilliant photography the world has to offer. This relates to Net Neutrality: the choice we have to view anything and everything we would like to at any time on the Internet. I have the choice to look at images of anything possible on Flickr, and that gives me a sense of freedom.
Professor Henry Jenkins said that participatory culture is beneficial because it increases participation of creating media, which also increases competition. He says it shifts the focus of literacy from one individual expression to community involvement. If one person shares his or her work throughout a community, the community is automatically involved because it addresses them to look. Participatory culture is hard to ignore. Everyone everywhere is interacting, sharing ideas, and communicating those ideas with eachother and making improvements. Even this blog represents participatory culture. My ideas+a medium+community=participatory culture.

Jenkins, Henry. Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century. "Digital Media and Learning". November 25, 2008.

Culture Jamming

We are exposed to 3,000 advertisements a day. Whether they are television commercials, magazine pages, flyers or billboards, marketers want to paste their ad's anywhere that is visually possible. Actually, some companies have even considered placing ad's in outer space that can be seen from earth. Should we not feel bombarded by all of this advertising? Many people let ad's affect them; they marvel, they accept, and they buy the product. Others will briefly look at ads and then go back to reading their books or listening to their ipod, feeling unmoved. And then there are participants of culture jamming; people who take action in creative ways. Culture Jamming is a form of communication that targets consumers and tries to inform them with shocking facts, images or videos that what they are buying is unhealthy and unnecessary. Practitioners of culture jamming believe that advertisements have negatively influenced people's social values, and try to bring out the real, not-so-noticeable sides of advertisers.

An example of culture jamming is artist Ron English. Ron and his team of billboard liberationists take ads, manipulate them in their own ways by using artistic abilities or political conduct and plaster them in similar places where the originals are. What is the point of this? To inform the world that corporations are bombarding us. Ron pokes fun at food companies like Coca Cola and McDonalds, cigarette companies like Marlboro and Camel, and political figures such as Bush and Obama. Ron dedicates his life to creating these anti-advertising billboards to raise awareness about current events and social conditions, and some are just for fun to create humour without overt social commentary. What Ron is doing is illegal, so he has to be careful. He does his work during the day because if he were caught at night, it would be obvious that he is doing something illegal. Ron also does paintings in the same content.
It is important that the message gets across somehow: that we are over-consumers who cannot get enough of spending and getting, and maybe, just maybe, culture jamming will open our eyes, and people like Ron will continue to provide the public with truth and reality.

CCCE. "Culture Jamming". November 25th 2008. <http://depts.washington.edu/ccce/polcommcampaigns/CultureJamming.htm>

Ron English. "Popaganda". November 25th 2008. <http://www.popaganda.com/billboards/index.shtml>

Buy Nada Day

It is assumed that Black Friday, the day after the American Thanksgiving holiday, is the busiest shopping day of the year. To kick off the Christmas spirit, millions of Americans heard public transportation or scurry into their vehicles and rush around to raid the nearest mega malls and boutiques. People are buying what they cannot afford, and they are haggling for the lowest prices. Employees are faced with never-ending line-ups, prude customers and disastrous messes. What if Americans just put down their wallets and tuned into life for one day? You know, stay at home and do activities with the family sort-of stuff. Well, there is a very special opportunity that comes around once a year that offers just that. Not only in America, but world-wide is a day called Buy Nothing Day. For 24 solid hours, people all around the world can take part in the fight against over-consumption by not purchasing a single thing. That includes no bus fair, no coffee, no gas, no alcoholic beverages and obviously no spending pretty pennies at the mall, and best of all - it is free.
We always hear talks about how Christmas has lost it's deeper meaning - spending precious time with family, sharing laughs and love, and eating a wholesome meal with loved ones. Instead Christmas is associated with spending lots of money, sharing and receiving material goods, and celebrating the long and joyous life of an important male figure - Santa.
On Saturday November 28th, take part in Buy Nothing Day by doing something other than spending money. This day is supposed to create awareness of people's insane spending habits. There are many fun things to be done. Put your wallet in a bin of toxic waste and watch it being eaten away while waving your home-made Buy Nothing Day flags and blowing into your dusty trumpet that you will dig out of your closet. In New York City at Union Square, Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Gospel Choir are hosting a FREE dance party called "Dance Your Debt Away". Wouldn't you much rather boogie down than stock up? There is also a Zombie Walk where you can dress up zombie style and creep out shoppers. Be one with the living dead!
Overall, this is a great excuse to save a days worth of spending, and to help out the economy which is slipping ever so quickly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UErPxYZb0M
Don't be a consumer monster. Participate and fight over-consumption for one day at least!


Reverend Billy. November 25th 2008. <http://www.revbilly.com/events/buy-nothing-day-2008-dance-your-debt-away>

Buy Nothing Day. November 25th 2008. <http://www.buynothingday.co.uk/>

Net Neutrality

People are faced with choices and decisions every day. What will I eat? Should I start working on my assignment or go to my friend’s birthday party? What colour underwear do I feel like wearing today? Some choices are much easier to decide than others, but all these examples express how we have the power over our own choices. Having said that, everyone would agree that we have the power to choose what websites we visit, when we visit them and what we can see on these websites.
We choose to log into Facebook daily to seek information. We choose to go on MSN Messenger whenever we want to, and we choose the people we get to talk to. Net Neutrality allows all of this to happen. Net Neutrality prevents our internet providers from building a firewall between you and the websites. For example, you are walking down a beautiful forested pathway and you see a delightful white fluffy kitten rolling around in the grass in your path. You know that kitten is dying for you to pet it, and you know all you want to do is pet the kitten. So you approach it and reach out your hand but a giant brick wall forms from the ground, making it impossible for you to pet the kitten. You now feel ripped off. The kitten represents a website you are trying to access, and the brick wall represents the firewall that the Internet service provider has set up so you cannot access the website.
Without Net Neutrality, we will no longer have a choice to view what we want to. Net Neutrality is a big issue in the United States. In November of 2007, then Senator Barack Obama discussed in Mountain View, California that if he is elected the new U.S president, he wants to continue to support Net Neutrality. “The Internet is perhaps the most open network in history, and we have to keep it that way.” Barack Obama is now the President of the United States, and if he keeps his word, which millions of Americans hope that he does, then Internet choices in the U.S will be in the hands of the users and not the providers.
Net Neutrality is evidently a serious issue that affects not only the States, but everyone world-wide. It is important that Internet users support Net Neutrality if we all still care about choice, and the freedom to browse whatever we want whenever we want.

YouTube. "Barack Obama on Net Neutrality". November 14th 2007. November 22nd 2008. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-mW1qccn8k>

Schmidt, Eric. Google Help Centre. November 22nd 2008. <http://www.google.com/help/netneutrality.html>

The Walt Disney Company

When I used to think of Walt Disney, I thought of him as the mysterious and magical man behind the curtains of my favourite animated movies such as Snow White and Alice in Wonderland. I also thought of him as powerful, for his productions have caught the attention of millions of children and parents world wide. I didn't let my mind wander further then that but I've just recently learned, 10 years later, that Walt Disney and The Walt Disney Company sure do a lot more then just produce enjoyable films for children - they reel in billions of dollars from owning a variety of different things.
Walt Disney and his brother Roy Disney worked together for many years to provide entertainment to the world. The brothers brought smiles to children's faces with cartoon animation through a number of movies, and television shows. The brothers also brought in a lot of money by being a major media company.
According to Robert McChesney, Disney is one of eight transnational corporations that dominate the U.S media, so if you like I, thought that Disney just created movies and opened a theme park up in Florida, then you are incorrect.
So what exactly does The Walt Disney Company own? Aside from owning Walt Disney Pictures, they also own Touchstone Pictures, Hollywood Pictures, Miramax Films, and Pixar. The Walt Disney Corporation is also involved with television, owning broadcast television in over 10 states and cities, and over 20 channels in cable television. The Walt Disney Company also owns radio broadcasts over 55 states and cities across the U.S. Tons of books and magazine companies are also owned by The Walt Disney Company. They also created and own 8 theme parks world wide including in the United States, Japan, China and France. Disney also owns some retail: 720 stores world-wide, filled with merchandise. Disney owns music companies like Hollywood records and Disney records and also various theatrical productions like Lion King on stage. If all of that is not enough, the Walt Disney Company also own over 16 miscellaneous companies and productions such as The Baby Einstein Company, Disney on Ice, and the Walt Disney Internet group.
So I asked myself: "How does The Walt Disney Company not feel extremely bombarded with owning all of these companies and productions?" Then I found myself my own answer: that people like us, the public, are responsible for helping and funding this billion-dollar company. Without our attention and our money, there would be no company. There would be no progress. And that goes for any company in the world, but I did not realize until now that Mickey Mouse was reeling in our money and continues to do so. In my opinion I think large corporations such as The Walt Disney Company are unhealthy for smaller companies, but I still support them by watching Aladdin once in a while, and if it keeps children - and me happy, then why not?

McChesney, Robert. The Nation. "It's a Small World of Big Conglomerates". November 11th 1999. November 18th 2008. <http://www.thenation.com/doc/19991129/mcchesney/3>

Columbia Journalism Review. The Walt Disney Company. July 30th 2008. November 18th 2008. <http://www.cjr.org/resources/?c=disney>

Manipulative Schemes

"Do you want to hear the good news or the bad news first?"

Most people choose to hear the bad news first, so that the good news can act as an electric comfort blanket to drape the bad news out. It seems though, as if every time I tune in to the news on television or read about news in the newspapers, all I tend to hear and see is bad news. It's as if the good is too boring, and the bad, unfortunately, acts as entertainment. It gets the publicity. The public eye is also being hypnotized by the Public Relations industry, and their improper use of VNRs (Video News Releases)


"A VNR is a prepackaged segment that looks and sounds like journalistically reported information but is produced by either a public relations firm or a government body with a vested interest in the product or service being described" (Joe Garofoli, Chronicle Staff Writer).

These are much like those weight-loss commercials where you see about 4 or 5 people saying "I lost 20 pounds with [enter various diet pills here]". It can be of great skepticism that those people didn't even try the product, even though before and after photographs are shown. If that isn't bad enough, in most circumstances, those photographs have been digitally manipulated to look real, which distorts the perception that the public has on these products.

We live in a time period where we can alter just about anything in our lives to change the way we feel. Fake breasts, fake meat, fake hair, fake smiles and now, fake news. In the book "Toxic Sludge is Good for You", the authors Stauber and Rampton elaborate on how the Public Relations industry create fabricated facts to convince the public eye to buy into their schemes. Literally. The book depicts the lengths PR Representatives will go to make sure the truth is concealed and the lies are blinding. We being the public eye need to be aware of their schemes, and "Toxic Sludge" acts as a personal hand guide for the public to recognize the strategies PR reps use to manipulate us. This book strongly suggests that we need to be more skeptical of what we hear on the news, and it elaborates on certain ways PR Representatives can blindfold us, such as improper use of VNRs.

Another work that explains the manipulation of news that feeds the public eye is Edward Bernays "Propaganda". This book is also a how-to manual, showing us how corporately funded PR firms seek public acceptance by manipulating a particular idea or product. Edward Bernays was Sigmund Freud's nephew, and by writing this novel in 1928, Bernays found a way to use his Uncle's psychoanalytic theories to recognize the manipulative ways that PR firms control not only consumer behavior, but also political thought. "Propaganda" is a conceptual model for governments, corporations, and lobbying firms to show the principles behind swaying public thought and opinion and controlling the masses.

These two important works allow the public to fight for their right of knowing the truth. We shouldn't have to be lied to anymore. By reading these texts, we can obtain the knowledge needed to fight propaganda and false information.

Joe Garofoli, Chronicle Staff Writer. "Probe of Non-News News Sought". Hearst Communications Inc. November 2006. October 2008. <http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/11/15/MNGB4MCURM1.DTL>

John Stauber, Sheldon Rampton. "Toxic Sludge is Good For You". Centre for Media & Democracy. 1995. October 2008.

Edward Bernays. "Propaganda". Ig Publishing. Brooklyn, New York. 1928. October 2008.