Wake up America!

This episode of The Mark Show, an independently produced video log by Mark Reiley, addresses freely the ever pressing issues of media bias. Reiley approaches this topic in a manner that is both stimulating and thought provoking in its visual and auditory composition. In the video, entitled “#7 Media Bias and iPhone Home!”, Mr. Reiley uses the coming release date of Apple’s new Iphone (Friday, June 29th) as a clever lead in to a discussion of the day Friday and its significance to the modern press release. The video is used as well to address the effects of a big media on overall public perception and to poke fun at the stupidity of those topics which have commonly become a focal point of media interest.

Because of Friday’s fixed position on our weekly calendar, it is consistently realized as the last of our weekdays to fall before a seemingly less productive stretch of time known as the weekend. This cluster of days, which has been historically dedicated to the pursuit of total relaxation, is a time of repose in the process of American thought, according to Mark Reiley. He presents a notion, that those press releases of true controversy, the bits of knowledge which are most likely to instill anger against the establishment or induce political fervor in the hearts of our people, are intentionally given on a Friday instead of earlier in the week. He suggests that this choice of days is anything but coincidental and is in fact a tactic, used by those in power to better the chances of such pertinent and damning information going unnoticed by the public.

Reiley also points, by referencing the massive amounts of attention that is given to the trivial happenings of celebrity life in our media, to the way that Americans are currently distracted, disconnected from those matters which are of true importance to reality. A people who have become enchanted, paralyzed by the sorcery of advertising and coercion that is fed to them constantly.

This video log is a prime example of how use of the Internet as a publishing tool can surmount the overwhelming bias of a corrupt media. Because of the freedom of our Internet, Mark Rieley may present his ideas to the entire world without having first to run his convictions through a filter of power interest. This ability, this freedom, is what gives us now the power to change the condition of our people. With a muscle of independent mass publishing made available online, a citizen need not to rely on their accretion of knowledge being tied to a corrupt system of greed. The people may now instead, browse an extensive network of knowledge and analyze a broad range of perspective to form their own opinions.

The time has come and now more than ever our action is imperative. We must compel the people of our nation to turn off their televisions and pursue other forms of education. The tube has become little more than a vehicle of connection to the corrupt media establishment, a business which seeks only to increase its inflow of profit in whatever way possible. It has become an invasive and persuasive tool for implanting adulterated information into the minds of American citizens and misconstruing their perception of reality. This ignorance must be stopped America! Abandon your dependence on big media and leave your homes in pursuit of knowledge. Go out into the world and find truth for yourself, because that information you will gather independently is in fact the only information in which you can truly trust.

Critique: Ross Can

To be sure to not step on any other Super Cyber Writer's toes, I will critique my own blog on vlogs. I'd like to view the fact that I am able to forget things easily sometimes as a gift. I am far removed from this blog having not thought about it since writing it, except for the next few days of visiting the vlog I found. (Guilty; I enjoyed the vlogging world.) Now standing in an outsider's shoes (or trying as hard as I can) I will add a review to my previous post.

Combining the two worlds which would seem to never intersect, vlogs and celebrities, seems interesting, although I think that this is possible an introduction to dangerous territory. As an onlooker, I would like to see my favorite celebs, the ones I enjoy most watching and hearing about to have personal vlogs. But I am overlooking that which celebrities cherish most, that which they discuss most when being ironically interviewed and suffocated by paparazzi, their privacy.

The writer speaks highly of Ross Matthews, her research specimen more or less, perhaps she has seen his work on Jay Leno. I found it interesting that the writer argues both sides of Ross Matthews, the interesting and friendly side, and the side that can become annoying (while still being cute). Perhaps she is not clear on what to think of Ross, especially after seeing him in the vlog which is a more personal atmosphere. While to some his silly antics don’t roll in too much attention outside of the already popular late night talk show. Ross can be viewed as a struggling actor/TV personality (only based on his small appearances in shows; it’s easy to see he has a big personality). His vlogs give him a chance to appear to the public daily without the strict requirements of a day at the studio filming. In this, he becomes a natural figure, a friend. It’s possible that some “A-List” celebrities choose to stay away from the blog and vlog world as a way to maintain their status, unreachable to the everyday public, or anyone with a computer and an internet hook up. But exploring this option, what if my personal favorites, Jennifer Anniston, Kate Hudson, and, duh, Oprah began vlogging for the public. I can only assume that their sites would be slow running because of all the attention and faithful fans logging on daily.

The writer concludes with the confusion she is experiencing with the purpose of blogs and vlogs. I agree with her conclusion that they can only be meant for entertainment for both viewers and vloggers.

Technology's Effects on Writing

After reading the writing prompt for today’s blog (something of interest concerning writing and technology), I began to think about how technology effects our writing. Technology, computers, and the availability of the internet have drastically changed the writing experience. For starters, the physical aspects of writing have been greatly affected. When was the last time you wrote a paper actually by hand on paper? When was the last time you even used a typewriter? Computers and word processing programs have allowed us to write much more quickly and to edit our writing much easier. If I decide I don’t like my word choice in the first sentence, I just change it. I don’t have to get out a new sheet of paper and start all over again. If I am having trouble coming up with the perfect word (or I want to impress my readers with my expansive vocabulary) I simply right-click and I am presented with several synonyms I can use. I can even look up a word to make sure I know exactly what it means, and if I misuse or misspell a word, the computer will flag my mistake. Sometimes it will even automatically correct it for me! Technology has undoubtedly revolutionized the way we put our ideas to “paper.”

How do we get our ideas, and how do we find evidence to back them up? I remember in Elementary school writing a report about wallabies. I went to the library and searched through the books about animals. I found most of my information in the encyclopedia. Today, if I were writing a paper on wallabies, the first thing I would do would be to search Wikipedia for a page on the wallaby. Then I could find an online encyclopedia article (an official encyclopedia I could cite), and eventually I would probably google wallaby, being presented with over three million results. The availability of information has increased exponentially in the past few years, but it has complicated the problem of validating the information we find. It can be difficult to determine if a website presents true, well-researched information or if it is simply a well designed page presenting incorrect information.

Finally, technology has also transformed how writing gets to the reader. Long gone are the times when it took days for news to spread around the world. Now it barely takes seconds. Breaking news is text-messaged, emailed, posted online, and broadcast around the world in 5.1 surround sound. Surfing the web, it is easy to become overwhelmed by the multitude of information presented. Hundreds of thousands of blogs are updated daily. BarnesAndNoble.com provides a database of over one million books. I am able to use keywords to search for books of a certain topic or by a certain writer so that I can find the perfect book. Technology has definitely altered the writing process, but in the end, sometimes it can be refreshing to simply sit down and write your thoughts on paper—real paper. Sometimes the best books are ones you stumble upon in the corner of the library.

Post Secret Reflection

After reading everyone’s posts about blogs, I really think I like the one about the post secret video blog. I have actually been to the original post secret blog website several times before. One of my friends told me about it, and it sounded really interesting to me so I decided to check it out. I found the whole secretive and anonymous posts aspect of the site particularly intriguing. Once you discover this blog it can in a way become an entertainment addiction. Whenever I get really bored and can find nothing better to look at on the internet, often times I’ll just go to the website just to see what’s new. Once I do this it really is pretty hard to stop until I have successfully looked through all the new posts.

I found myself really drawn to experiencing the artistic aspect of this interactive blogging site as well. Though some post secret submissions are merely plain with a simple message, others go much deeper. Some posts are very creative looking. The collaborative cut and paste pieces are typically my favorites because it helps to express the personality of the submitter as well as the emotional inspiration behind the piece. It’s really cool that this blog site allows any and everyone to submit their secrets. I also like the fact that the secrets that the various people post on the website range from silly, light-hearted thoughts to what is perhaps someone’s deepest secret. The idea behind the creation of this website seems to be allowing people the freedom to finally say what they’ve been thinking and longing to say but just haven’t quite found the gumption to announce. Because post secret allows it’s submitters to post such secrets without anyone ever knowing who sent it, they feel more comfortable in sharing their secrets with the thousands upon thousands of active readers.

Although as I said I have known about this blog website for quite some time, I just recently learned of it’s newer video blogging posts. I found this out after reading a previous post on here about the very post secret web blog. The whole video aspect of post secret is a little foreign to me though. I don’t really understand how videos really work with the theme of the website. I searched for a few on YouTube earlier and found that while some of these video post secret submissions did, in fact, carry on the primary theme of secrecy in revealing one’s innermost thoughts and desires, a few showed the actual people in them or in some way gave hints to reveal who made the video. Though I did not like those revealing videos as much as the more secret ones or as much as the standard picture posts on the post secret website itself, I found that all the post secret submissions were alike in that they enabled people to let loose their thoughts and emotions in an artistic and often truly inspiring manor.