1) After Studying media for eight weeks in this class, what have you learned? Please be specific
Now that we are eight weeks in the course I feel like I have learned a lot of things in many different areas, having taken Mass Media and Society w/ R. Williams my sophomore year, I had previously used the Power Tools that we began the class with, but I had sadly lost some of that power. Using the tools again was a great refresher and I find myself now analyzing every media that I come in contact with. So much so my brother will no longer watch the Patriots games with me. Aside from those great skills, which I think will be very important to me as a marketer. I felt I learned a lot about the United States society and how it has changed with books such as Amusing Ourselves to Death. This book showed how things over the years have changed our society and made me reflect on myself as someone who uses technology everyday. I found the information about how photography changed the way we looked at news to be particularly interesting because I have always found articles more interesting with photos but never really understood why. I think there are so many important things that we reflect on in this class, that will allow us to be more successful in the media driven society, it makes me think deeper about marketing and information I receive and makes me consider the ownership of this media and how that is reflected in the information. I believe many Americans take information without considering this and it could lead us into a society similar to the reality constructed in the novel Feed and that is terrifying.
2) What is the most important thing you have learned about yourself as a critical reader, a writer, and a thinker in this class so far?
I think the most important thing I have developed in this class so far, is realizing the importance of being a critical thinker. I have always avoided the talks on politics and government because I was to lazy to consider the issues fully, but through this course I realized that it is important to be knowledgeable about this issues as well as other news and happenings in our society, as well as other societies around the world because it does impact me. I enjoyed the reflective readings we have done in the class because it allowed me to work on reading critically. I have always been person who reads things for the general meaning, but pulling out small facts and details made me see whole other sides to the stories. I am not sure if my writing has improved but I find the class blog a great way to compare my writing to others and to challenge myself further as a writer.
3) What’s one thing you would do differently this first half of the semester if you were to take this class again?
If I was to start this class over again, I think I would begin by doing the readings more critically so I could absorb more of the information. I read all the material but I didn’t think to apply it to my life as a marketing major. A lot of the information we have read in books such as Amusing Ourselves to Death is important to consider in marketing. The history of how advertising began with newspapers and photography and knowing how people respond to that, and how it has changed is also important.
4) What’s one thing you would like me to do differently this first half of the semester if you were to take this class again?
I took Mass Media and Society my sophomore year and many of the things we discuss with the media tools are very repetitive. Although I enjoy the tools, I would like for it to go even further or use different materials because I have seen many of the media materials already.
5) Please comment on the usefulness of the power tools, our quizzes, the course blog, your personal blog, our films, and our books( Amusing Ourselves to Death, Feed, Media/Society, Project Censored) as learning tools.
The Course Blog- I find our Course Blog to be the most helpful tool in the class, I love that there is an easy and useful place that I can check in and see what we are doing, go over what we have done, and see where there is homework all in one location. I love that it is interactive and that as a class, we all get to participate in building it and the convergence of having all the material in one place is great.
The Power Tools- I loved the power tools the first time we used them, but like I said in the previous question, they feel very repetitive to me this semester. I do enjoy the insight they give me into material, as well as, the helpfulness and power they give me as a marketer. I find myself using them in many of my other classes and in my daily life.
Our Quizzes- The quizzes are a great, fun learning tool. They help me tell where I am with the Power Tools and also allow us to see a range of other content we may not just stumble upon on the internet. I think they are important but sometimes unnecessary because I have already seen some of the content.
My Personal Blog- I think its great that each person in the class has their own place on the web to create content. I think it would be interesting to do more with reading each others blogs, because sometimes it feels like we are typing to no one and where is the fun of a blog without the followers. I also have trouble with putting my own personality into this blog because it has certain defined criteria but that is understandable since it is part of a class.
The Films- The films and short video clips we have watched this semester have led me to think more critically about the content of the media that we are seeing. Reel Bad Arabs was a shocking film for me and made me consider things I normally would not have thought about and also how a change could be made.
I also found the video The Machine is Us/ing Us by Kansas State University to be a great introduction into the class and made me think about how technology is changing our society and how that is affect me as a college student, and how it will affect my future.
These, along with the short clips have added a lot of depth to the class and also a different form of entertaining content, because as Neil Postman suggests, we are Amusing Ourselves to Death.
The Books- I had read Feed by MT Anderson before this class because of a recommendation from a friend, I found that I could not put the book down, but also that it gave me chills because of how easily I could imagine the society that the book depicts. I think the shock factor that Anderson gives really wakes you up and makes you think about what technology is doing to our nation. 
Image from < http://myworldofbooks.wordpress.com/2010/02/14/feed-2/ >
Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman was a more challenging read which I had trouble getting through but the information was so important to have read. I think that the book alone would be hard but adding in the class discussion really made the time spent reading worth it.
Image From < http://www.acrossthepage.net/2009/07/26/amusing-ourselves-to-death/ >
Media Society by David Croteau and William Hoynes came across at first textbook like, but the writing remained interesting because they gave relevant stories and facts which made each text unique and worth the time to read. I found the class blog to be really important during these posts because I was able to pick up on things I missed by reading other peoples responses.
Image From < http://www.sa2.info/ARCHIVE/2002/09sepA.html>
So far I have really liked Project Censored 2011 because I find it interesting to read about the things the media does not talk about for one reason or another.
Image From < http://www.projectcensored.org/store/
