Attendance Statement

Throughout the semester, I believe that I missed class a total of three times. The first time was because I didn't feel well and had come down with a cold, I tweeted you that I would not be in class, but I made up the work promptly after missing class. The second and third times that I missed class were because I overslept. I simply did not tweet or email you at all, which I feel bad about, as I'm sure you would have been understanding. I did my best to make up the work that I missed in class as promptly as I could. I enjoyed this class and it was a fun and interesting class to take my first semester in college! I enjoyed it so much, I actually took it as an introduction to what I was considering as a communication minor. I think it gave me a good look into what a communication minor would actually consist of, and it was educational and enjoyable at the same time. Thank you for the enjoyable class experience!

Literacy Journal Entry

Disney’s Improper Image Portrayal to Children

By:  Nikki Mealey

     Nearly every American child watched Disney movies, and became drawn in by the story lines starring beautiful men and women. Disney became very popular among children for their interesting stories that usually entailed a woman in distress who needs to be rescued by a masculine man. Disney portrays females as beautiful women with perfect hair and makeup and who are unreasonably small-waisted in suggestive poses, (Gender Roles in Disney Movies). “Males are portrayed as hyper-masculine and violent with bulging muscles and strong facial features” whose main goal is to win the love of a woman, (Gender Roles in Disney Movies). As children though, we never realized the level of sexism and improper gender roles that Disney portrays in its movies, especially Disney princess movies. This type of sexism is not good for the children in society, as the roles portrayed are not socially accepted, nor properly demonstrated.

     To start off, most of Disney’s movies portray women with perfect hair and makeup, and in suggestive poses with unreasonably small waists as beautiful. Disney movies make children believe that this is how people are supposed to look in the real world. These indirect messages influence young girls and boys unintentionally, but definitely affect them mentally for years to come. For example, Jeffery Zaslow, a writer for the Wall Street Journal, interviewed 100 fourth-grade girls from Marie Murphy School in Wilmette, Illinois in January 1986 and asked them all the same question, “Are you on a diet?” (Zaslow). The results showed that more than half of the fourth-grade girls were dieting and 75% of the girls said they weighed too much - even the skinniest girls. Rozi Bhimani, one of the fourth-grade girls spoke saying, “Boys expect girls to be perfect and beautiful. And skinny,” (Zaslow). While one of the fourth-grade boys said, “Fat girls aren’t like regular girls. They aren’t attractive,” (Zaslow). Even in 1986, girls were forced into thinking that the social norm is to be skinny. Media, such as Disney princess movies, have been influencing young girls into thinking that they need to be skinny to be beautiful and liked by boys prior to 1986, continuing into recent times. Disney is also affecting how boys think of girls. By only showing the beautiful, skinny women in their movies, boys believe that is how girls are supposed to be; forcing girls to think that they need to be skinny to be liked by boys.

     The same fourth-grade girls who were interviewed in 1986, were re-interviewed in 2009 at the ages of 32 and 33, and told Jeffery Zaslow that they still hadn’t escaped society’s obsession with body image. The women believe that society’s influence on body image for young girls has gotten worse since 1986, (Zaslow). This increase in demand for body image may be due, in part, to the creation of Disney movies produced since 1986. Snow White, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty were the only three Disney princess movies made before 1986; while, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas, and Mulan all came out later, starting in 1989, (Disney Princess Historical Timeline). There has been time since 1986 for Disney to promote their princess movies and indirectly submit improper female body images into the minds of children. Women do not need to be unreasonably skinny to be seen as beautiful.

     Females are not the only ones being portrayed improperly, males in Disney movies are hyper-masculine and violent with strong facial features whose main goal is to win the love of a woman. This makes boys believe that they are supposed to look like the princes and men that appear in these Disney movies. Take Gaston from Beauty and the Beast for example, he is very “manly” in appearance. “With his cleft chin, broad shoulders, brawny chest, wavy hair, and towering height, Gaston fulfills the stereotyped image of male beauty,” (Jeffords 170). Gaston from Beauty and the Beast acts as the hyper-masculine male in the movie. All of the single women in the town dwell over him and wish to be with him, while “bullying [and] intimidating those who do not succumb to his beauty,” (Jeffords 170). Portraying the message that men are supposed to look like Gaston, and other Disney males such as, Hercules, John Smith, Prince Eric, and Aladdin, is simply wrong for the minds of children. Children should not be forced to think about somebocy’s looks in such a way, especially when the character’s looks are hard to obtain in a healthy setting. Portraying these images to children also makes boys believe that they are ugly or unattractive to girls if they do not have a “manly” appearance. Children should be taught that it doesn’t matter what someone looks like, but it’s how kind-hearted they are that really matters. Looks aren’t everything.

     A trait that men, like Gaston, have is their main goal to win the love of a woman. Disney portrays the idea that women are less than men to its viewers. Men are supposed to be the providers of the home, while the women are supposed to be the home keepers and child bearers. The men believe that women will be better off with a man than alone. Gaston plays the role of the hyper-masculine male, deciding he wants to marry Belle without even asking her opinion. Gaston, like other men in Disney movies, expects Belle to take care of him and the children while doing all of the housework when they get married. Gaston describes “their wedded bliss [to Belle as]: ‘a rustic hunting lodge. My latest kill roasting on the fire. And my little wife massaging my feet while her little ones play on the floor–six or seven of them,’” (Jeffords 170). Gaston gives viewers the idea that handsome men, like him, are able to pick whichever woman they choose and that she will be willing to be his home keeper. This creates the idea that “women are passive” and “men are aggressive,” which is incorrect because that is not how all men and women are in the real world, (Gender Roles in Disney Movies-SOC 101). This passiveness of women is demonstrated in Sleeping Beauty as Aurora is passive and mostly in a dream throughout the movie. The Beast from Beauty and the Beast demonstrates the aggressiveness of males and that is acceptable to be aggressive, (Gender Roles in Disney Movies-SOC 101). As real people in the society, children should not be taught that men are aggressive and women are passive, as it is not true to most women or men. Think about the 2008 presidential candidate, Sarah Palin, she was not passive, nor allowed things to pass that she didn’t believe in; or think about the Indian civil rights leader, Mahatma Gandhi, he was a very peaceful man that supported peace and independence of the people. These two political figures are only two examples of the millions across the globe that are not strained to the two main personalities, (passive and aggressive), given by several Disney movies.

     Allowing children to watch and enjoy Disney movies creates subliminal messages in their minds about how one should look; boys, hyper-masculine and a great body, and girls, perfect and abnormally skinny. These messages are unfit for children, as they should know that hardly anyone in this world looks like, or even acts, like the men and women from Disney movies. People can still be beautiful and kind-hearted people even if they are bigger than the characters from these movies. The images that are set by Disney in these movies are not set correctly for people to follow and try to accomplish, as they are over-exaggerated images of men and women who look unhealthy because they are so skinny or muscular. Also, the personalities that are portrayed by characters subliminally to children are improper for today’s society because children are encouraged to express themselves in whichever way they choose, not by guidelines set from a movie or anyone else. Although Disney does not come right out and say in their movies that they believe these ways, these messages are definitely in most princess movies and can be noted when observing each movie. Next time when deciding to watch a Disney movie, look for small clues to improper image portrayal and personalities. Disney movies are not discouraged from watching, as they are part of nearly every childhood in America; but I would recommend parents to have conversations with their children about what they see in these movies. Be sure that children aren’t picking up on some of these subliminal messages Disney is unintentionally portraying. Children should not be basing themselves off of someone else they’ve seen in society or a movie, instead of being themselves.

Bibliography

"Disney Princesses Historical Timeline." Scribd. Web. 04 Dec. 2011.             <http://www.scribd.com/doc/30439656/Disney-Princesses-Historical-Timeli

ne>.

"Disney and Gender Roles (PS: Activate Closed Captions) - YouTube." 

YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. 15 Nov. 2010. Web. 05 Dec. 2011. 

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_syxny9nXw>.

"Gender Roles in Disney Movies - YouTube." YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. 

10 Dec. 2008. Web. 05 Dec. 2011. 

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kLHZ2xGmUk>.

"Gender Roles in Disney Princess Movies-SOC 101 - YouTube." YouTube - 

Broadcast Yourself. 3 Mar. 2011. Web. 05 Dec. 2011. 

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lFB0BQDw3g>.

Jeffords, Susan. "The Curse of Masculinity: Disney's Beauty and the Beast." 

From Mouse to Mermaid. Ed. Elizabeth Bell, Lynda Haas, and Laura 

Sells. Indiana UP, 1995. 161-171. Print.

Photograph. Web. 4 Dec. 2011. 

<http://disney-clipart.com/Beauty-Beast/characters/gaston.gif>.

Photograph. Web. 4 Dec. 2011. 

<http://4.bp.blogspot.com/Disney-Princess-Jasmine3.jpg>.

Zaslow, Jeffrey. "Girls and Dieting, Then and Now." Business News & 

Financial News - The Wall Street Journal. 2 Sept. 2009. Web. 04 

Dec. 2011. 

Analysis of Lecture Essay

     After listening to Rob's mind-boggling lecture, my mind was all jumbled up. Hearing Rob's theories about the beginning and the future of the media was very interesting, and about a topic I wasn't very familiar with. There was one subject that I took extra interest in though, the idea of creating machines that are given human emotions. Why would someone want to create something that is supposed to have very similar emotions to humans? There must be a lot of risks that go along with creating such a machine; such as, having the machines believe they are alive and beg for their own life and the risk of having machines take over the world and outsmart us.
     The idea of humans creating machines that are nearly as smart as we are, and having emotions that are similar to us is very frightening. It doesn’t make sense why we, as humans, are trying to create these machines and make them comparable to us. It seems like it would make the most sense to leave machines as they were, with hardly any intelligence. Giving machines any intelligence seems like it would only be negative for the human race. Think about the idea of having machines and robots take over the human race because they become more intelligent than humans, and because the humans felt bad if they had to turn them off, as they were begging for their lives. This is a scary thought, and it doesn’t make sense why anyone would want to enhance the performance of these machines by this much. It seems unreasonable to give machines so much power.

Video Pictures!

Here are the pictures I would like to use in my video, thank you so much!

Background Image:  http://www.wallpapers1920x1080.com/cartoons/disney-princesses-1686/

1st point image:  http://www.pspgo1.com/upload/2009-09/090926201354642.jpg

2nd point image:  http://rapunzelfromtangled.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Jasmine.jpg

3rd point image:  http://www.metalsucks.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/gaston.gif

Halloween History

The history of Halloween is best described in this short video made by National Geographic, enjoy! 

Happy Halloween!

http://www.halloweenhistory.org/

Documentary Week (Midterm Essay)

      The past week of documentaries in Media Literacy has been interesting, to say the least. The documentaries ranged from political titles by Alex Jones, "Police State 4: The Rise of Fema" and "Fall of the Republic: The Presidency of Barack Obama," to a political cartoon "The American Dream," and a documentary about food, "Food, Inc." Some of these documentaries by Alex Jones were hard to follow since I am not extremely educated about politics, but I still found them to challenge the mind. The political cartoon "The American Dream," on the other hand, was much easier to understand. It told us the same type of information that Alex Jones' documentaries did, but it was in a form that was much easier to understand. "Food, Inc." was very interesting and educational, it told about how our food is grown and produced. It was very disturbing to see what the major food producers are feeding us!

     Since a documentary is "a movie or a television or radio program that provides a factual record or report," I would hope that the information we watched in class was factual. Watching Alex Jones' documentaries, it was a little hard to believe at times. I'm not saying that everything was a lie or anything, but Jones did seem a little crazy. He would start to yell or go off on a tangent at times about things in the government most of us have never heard of. Jones would present some support for his claims by having interviews with various people involved in the government, video clips of the president, or text documents written by the U.S. government. Having this support helped me to believe that the information being presented was true; but thinking about it now, I didn't really know what Jones was trying to tell us. Most of the information was going right over my head. Why should I believe Jones? He works without any sponsors out of his basement. How reliable can this information be?

     "The American Dream" had similar concepts to that of Alex Jones, but it was in a cartoon. This was much easier to understand than it was to listen to Alex Jones go on rampages. The cartoon mainly told us that the government is not on "the people's" side. It is there, along with the banks, to take all of our money. The banks make us believe that we are able to have "the American dream" by giving us money to spend on new houses, cars, pets, etc. Then one day the bank comes to our house and tells us that we have to pay them back all of the money we borrowed, plus interest. Credit cards also make us believe that we have much more money than we actually do; it allows us to spend a bunch of money "on credit," at one time, then just pay it back later with interest. The bank and credit cards are what are ruining "American dreams."

     The last documentary, "Food, Inc." was the most interesting and most effective on me, personally. It showed us what we are actually eating when we buy food from the supermarket. The chickens we purchase were raised in a dark, window-less, shed, standing in their own fecal matter. They were grown at twice the rate they naturally should have been, their internal organs were unable to keep up; their breasts are so large that they are unable to walk more than a few steps before falling over. Consumers prefer the breasts over legs, wings, and thighs, so the large chicken producing companies design their chickens to have large breasts. Cows are fed corn, rather than eating grass because it is cheaper. Corn is used in many different products because it is easy and cheap to grow. The major food producers in this nation are trying to take the easy way out by cutting expenses and work. These shortcuts are affecting our health.

     Overall, I think that this documentary week was very educational and made me use my critical thinking skills.

Shattered Glass Ops

Pennsylvania Bridge Theft

NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- A 50-foot-long bridge in western Pennsylvania has been stolen, and its owners say they're baffled by the crime and have no idea who took it.

New Castle Development spokesman Gary Bruce said Friday that he "couldn't believe it when they told me it was gone."

A state police report says the 20-foot-wide span in North Beaver Township went missing between Sept. 27 and Wednesday.

The bridge was made out of corrugated steel and valued at about $100,000. Thieves used a blowtorch to cut it apart, presumably to sell it for scrap metal.

The bridge was used occasionally as a back entrance to the company property. It's in the woods along a railroad line about 60 miles north of Pittsburgh.

Bruce says he doubts the company can replace the bridge.

Look up more at:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ and http://www.wgal.com

History of Media Essay

     The earliest form of media is different for a lot of people. It really depends if one believes in the “Old Earth” theory or the “New Earth” theory. Both theories are assumed correct in our society, but people tend to lean toward one or the other. The “Old Earth” theory says that we were created approximately 4.6 billion years ago from the Big Bang Theory, a scientific approach. It also says that we descended from microorganisms and apes through evolution. Whereas, the “New Earth” theory says God created us in seven days, approximately 6,000 years ago, and we evolved from Adam and Eve. The Islam, Judaism, and Christianity religions believe this theory; which is about 3.5 billion people in the world. Depending on which theory one believes, it will affect the oldest form of media to that person. I personally believe in the “New Earth” theory and that the Earth evolved within the last 6,000 years.

     Word of mouth is the oldest form of media to me. It evolved at the Garden of Eden when God told Adam and Eve they could eat fruit from any tree in the garden, except from the tree of knowledge. Adam and Eve heard what God said and were going to obey God’s command, until the serpent convinced Eve to eat from the tree of knowledge. The serpent told Eve she would be more like God and that she wouldn’t die if she ate the fruit. After some critical thinking from Eve about whether or not to eat the beautiful, succulent fruit, Eve eats it. She then gives the fruit to Adam and he eats it as well. Both become aware that they are naked and cover themselves with fig leaves to hide from the sight of God. This early form of media uses word of mouth from God telling Adam and Eve not to eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge; as well as, critical thinking from Eve when the serpent tempted her to eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge. Along with this, word of mouth was continued on to repeat the telling of this story to many more generations after it took place until it was recorded in the Bible. Word of mouth is still used today in many ways. We often times hear stories from our friends and go on to tell that story to someone else. Some people like to call it “gossiping;” but it is used in the same way as word of mouth. Word of mouth is not the most trusted way of getting one’s information or insight about a subject, as some of the details get twisted or lost along the way from one person to the next. A more trusted source is someone who writes the information down and allows everyone to read it versus taking the risk of losing the details by telling the story to one another.

     Another form of media that dates back to nearly 3,000 years ago (1,000 BC) used by the Egyptians and Persians are carrier pigeons. The pigeons were used during the Olympics to carry the results of the games to other countries. “When used as carrier pigeons in pigeon post, a message is written on thin light paper and rolled into a small tube attached to the bird's leg. Pigeons can only go back to one "mentally marked" point that they have identified as their home. So "pigeon mail" can only work when the sender is actually holding the receiver's pigeons. (Homing Pigeons)” This method of communication has been linked into more recent times as well. For example, the carrier pigeons were used during World War I and II to deliver important messages. Also, carrier pigeons are linked to today’s social networking site “Twitter.” Twitter’s icon is a bird, and it allows people to “tweet,” like a bird, about what they’re doing. I would have to say that the creators of Twitter thought that it would be a nice tie between the pigeons and a social networking site, to allow the user to “deliver messages” to his or her followers. 

     These two examples of media show a nice relationship between historic media and the media now. It shows how the quality changes from the old word of mouth, to the word of mouth in recent times. Word of mouth means a lot more to Adam and Eve than it does to us, because there could have been a lot more changes to the original story, making it less trustworthy, as well as we have more sources of media in this day and time than Adam and Eve did. The theme of birds from the carrier pigeons to Twitter is not just a coincidence; the creator thought about the relationship between the two and made a more modern version of the carrier pigeons. There are other similar relationships in media, but I only chose to elaborate on these two. Media continues to develop from older forms and will for many years to come.

Bibliography

"Homing pigeon - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Oct. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homing_pigeon>.

Books and People in the Media

1. I, Avatar

Meadows, Mark Stephen. I, Avatar: the culture and consequences of having a second life. Indianapolis, Ind.: New Riders; 2008. Print.

2. Mark Stephen Meadows

The author of the book I, Avatar, as well as many other books (follow the link to see the list of books he has written).

3. The Singularity Is Near:  When Humans Transcend Biology

Kurzweil, Ray. The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology. New York: Penguin, 2006. Print.

4. Ray Kurzweil

The author of The Singularity is Near. Ray Kurzweil has been described as “the restless genius” by the Wall Street Journal, and “the ultimate thinking machine” by Forbes (read more about Kurzweil at the link provided).

5. Introducing Semiotics:  A Graphic Guide

Cobley, Paul, and Litza Jansz. Introducing Semiotics. Manchester, UK: Icon, 2010. Print.

6. Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs was the Apple chairman and former CEO who made personal computers, smartphones, tablets, and digital animation mass-market products. The "apple" symbol (semiotics) became known world-wide.  

7 & 8. Eric Schlosser states this in his book Fast Food Nation:  The Dark Side of the All-American Meal, "A survey of American schoolchildren found that 96 percent could identify Ronald McDonald. The only fictional character with a higher degree of recognition was Santa Claus. The impact of McDonald's on the way we live today is hard to overstate. The Golden Arches are now more widely recognized than the Christian cross."

Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American meal. New York: Perennial, 2002. Print.

9. The Fabulist

Glass, Stephen. The Fabulist: a Novel. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2003. Print.

10. Stephen Glass

The author of the book The Fabulist and the man the movie Shattered Glass is based on. To read more about Glass and the things he did, follow the link on his name.

11. Marco Tempest with his video "The Magic of Truth and Lies (and iPods)" on ted.com

12. The Bible is an important book in our culture and also in media literacy is it is an example of one of the older forms of media.

Coogan, Michael David, Marc Zvi Brettler, Carol A. Newsom, and Pheme Perkins. The new Oxford Annotated Bible: with the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical books. 3rd ed. London: Oxford University Press, 2001. Print.

13. Alex Jones

Alex Jones is an internationally recognized veteran broadcaster, documentary filmmaker, and investigative journalist. Alex Jones has been featured as a prominent figure of the 9/11 Truth Movement in such publications as The New York Times, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone Magazine and Popular Mechanics. (Read this and more at the link provided)

14. Michael Pollan

Michael Pollan is an award-winning journalist and world-renown food expert who has authored five books, including The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals and In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto, which were used as reference material for the film "Food Inc."

15. In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto

In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto written by Michael Pollan was used as one of the sources in the film "Food Inc." produced by Robert Kenner. The book tells about what we are really consuming instead of actually consuming food. Also, where we are when we consume food plays a role in our lives as well.

Pollan, Michael. In Defense of Food: an Eater's Manifesto. New York: Penguin, 2009. Print.

16. The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals

The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals is written by Michael Pollan as well. It is also one of the books referenced to in the film "Food Inc." produced by Robert Kenner.The book addresses what we should eat and what we should avoid eating.

Pollan, Michael. The Omnivore's Dilemma: a Natural History of Four Meals. New York: Penguin, 2007. Print.

17. Barbara Kowalcyk
After her 2 1/2 year old child Kevin died from E. coli, she has since become a food safety advocate, fighting to give the USDA the power to shut down plants that repeatedly produce contaminated meats. She was seen in the movie "Food, Inc."

18. Kevin Kowalcyk
Kevin, Barbara's 2 1/2 year old son, died of E. coli. Kevin's family believe that he became sick from eating a hamburger. Approximately 2 weeks after getting sick, Kevin passed away.

19. Joel Salatin

Joel Salatin is a self-described environmentalist capitalist lunatic farmer, or as the New York Times calls him, "the high priest of the pasture." Joel Salatin was also interviewed in the movie, "Food, Inc." and told about his method of farming versus the new method being used today. 

20. Folks, This Ain't Normal: A Farmer's Advice for Happier Hens, Healthier People, and a Better World
Joel Salatin tells why 21st century farming is not "normal." He believes that people should be more connected with the land and people they love.
Salatin, Joel. Folks, This Ain't Normal: a Farmer's Advice for Happier Hens, Healthier People, and a Better World. New York: Center Street, 2011. Print.

21. Stirring It Up: How to Make Money and Save the World
This book was used as a source in the movie "Food, Inc." as well as some other works by the author, Gary Hirshberg. In Stirring it Up, Hirshberg calls on individuals to realize their power to effect change in the marketplace - "the power of one" - while proving that environmental commitment makes for a healthier planet and a healthier bottom line. Drawing from his 25 years' experience growing Stonyfield Farm from a 7-cow start-up, as well as the examples of like-minded companies, such as Newman's Own, Patagonia, Wal-Mart and Timberland, Hirshberg presents stunning evidence that business not only can save the planet, but is able to simultaneously deliver higher growth and superior profits as well.
Hirshberg, Gary. Stirring it up: how to make money and save the world. New York: Hyperion, 2008. Print.

Wikis in Media!

The sources for the following wikis are hyperlinked to each title of each wiki.

1. Ostrich Eggs - South Africa - 55,000 BC

Researchers found a cache of ostrich eggshells engraved with geometric designs that demonstrate the existence of a symbolic communication system around 60,000 years ago among African hunter-gatherers. The large sample of 270 engraved eggshell fragments, mostly excavated over the past several years at Diepkloof Rock Shelter in South Africa, display two standard design patterns, each enjoying its own heyday between 65,000 and 55,000 years ago.

2. Cave Paintings - Chauvet Cave - 30,000 BC

The oldest known symbols created with the purpose of communication through time are the cave paintings, a form of rock art, dating to the Upper Paleolithic. Just as the small child first learns to draw before it masters more complex forms of communication, so homo sapiens' first attempts at passing information through time took the form of paintings. The oldest known cave painting is that of the Chauvet Cave, dating to around 30,000 BC.[2] Though not well standardized, those paintings contained increasing amounts of information: Cro-Magnon people may have created the first calendar as far back as 15,000 years ago.[3] The connection between drawing and writing is further shown by linguistics: in the Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece the concepts and words of drawing and writing were one and the same (Egyptian: 's-sh', Greek: 'graphein').

3. Maya glyphs - Guatemala - 3rd Century BC

Maya glyphs were the writing system of the pre-Columbian Mayan Civilization of Mesoamerica, presently the only Mesoamerican writing system that has been substantially deciphered. The earliest inscriptions found which are identifiably Maya date to the 3rd century BCE in San Bartolo, Guatemala, and writing was in continuous use until shortly after the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors in the 16th century CE. Maya writing used logograms complemented by a set of syllabic glyphs, somewhat similar in function to modern Japanese writing.

4. Petroglyphs - Africa or Oceania - 10,000 BC

The next step in the history of communications is petroglyphs, carvings into an rock surface. It took about 20,000 years for homo sapiens to move from the first cave paintings to the first petroglyphs, which are dated to around 10,000 BC.

It is possible that the humans of that time used some other forms of communication, often for mnemonic purposes - specially arranged stones, symbols carved in wood or earth, quipu-like ropes, tattoos, but little other than the most durable carved stones has survived to modern times and we can only speculate about their existence based on our observation of still existing 'hunter-gatherer' cultures such as those of Africa or Oceania.

5. Alphabet - Ancient Egypt - 2000 BC

The origins of the alphabet are unknown, but there are several theories as to how it developed. One popular proposal - the Proto-Sinaitic theory - is that the history of the alphabet began in Ancient Egypt, more than a millennium into the history of writing. Under this theory, the alphabet was invented to represent the language of Semitic workers in Egypt, and was at least influenced by the alphabetic principles of the Egyptian hieratic script. If correct, nearly all alphabets in the world today either descend directly from this development or were inspired by its design.

6. Smoke Signals - China - 900 BC

In Ancient China, soldiers stationed along the Great Wall would alert each other of impending enemy attack by signaling from tower to tower. In this way, they were able to transmit a message as far away as 750 kilometres (470 mi) in just a few hours.

7. Printing Press - Holy Roman Empire - 1440 AD

The printing press was invented in the Holy Roman Empire by the German Johannes Gutenberg around 1440, based on existing screw presses. The invention of the printing press in the late 15th century gave rise to some of the first forms of mass communication, by enabling the publication of books and newspapers on a scale much larger than was previously possible. 

8. Morse Telegraph - United States - 1837 AD

An electrical telegraph was independently developed and patented in the United States in 1837 by Samuel Morse. His assistant, Alfred Vail, developed the Morse code signaling alphabet with Morse. The first telegram in the United States was sent by Morse on 6 January 1838, across two miles (3 km) of wire at Speedwell Ironworks near Morristown, New Jersey. The message read "A patient waiter is no loser." The Morse/Vail telegraph was quickly deployed in the following two decades; the overland telegraph connected the west coast of the continent to the east coast by 24 October 1861, bringing an end to the Pony Express.

What are billboards?

A billboard is a large outdoor advertising structure, typically found in high traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertisements to passing pedestrians and drivers. Typically showing large, ostensibly witty slogans, and distinctive visuals, billboards are highly visible in the top designated market areas. 

Different types of billboards:

9. Painted Billboards

These billboards were painted in large studios. The image was projected on the series of panels that made up the billboard, then "pounced" on the board, marking the outlines of the figures or objects. Then, using oil paints, the artists would actually use large brushes to paint the image. Once the panels were installed using large hydraulic booms on trucks, the artists would go up on the installed billboard and touch up the edges between the panels. These large, painted billboards were especially popular in Los Angeles where historic firms such as Foster & Kleiser and Pacific Outdoor Advertising dominated the industry. Eventually, these painted billboards gave way to graphic reproduction, but hand-painted billboards are still in use in some areas where only a single board or two is required. The "Sunset Strip" in Los Angeles is one area where hand-painted billboards can still be found, usually to advertise upcoming films or albums in the heart of the entertainment industry.

10. Digital Billboards

A digital billboard is a billboard that is created from computer programs and software. Digital billboards can be designed to display running text, display several different displays from the same company, and even exist to provide several companies a certain slot of time during the day. Because of the versatility and increased potential revenue for these signs, they are likely to become the standard for the future.

11. Inflatable Billboards

An inflatable billboard is an inflatable framework with an attached banner ad. Most of them famously appear near sports events or exhibitions. Inflatable billboards can be installed nearly everywhere standing free. They are secured with counter weights and tensioning ropes.

12. Multi-purpose Billboards

A multi-purpose billboard that acts as a lighting structure, an advertising board, and a telecommunication antenna.

Some billboards are not used only for advertising ends; they can be multi-purpose, meaning that they can have more than one function. So, an advertising sign can integrate its main purpose with telecommunications antenna and/or public lighting support. Usually the structure has a steel pole with a coupling flange on the above-fitted advertising billboard structure that can contain telecommunications antennas. The lighting power supply cables and any possible antennas are placed inside of the structure and fastened on appropriate steel wires.

13. The First Magazines!

This isn't the first Gentleman's Magazine, but the original magazine is no longer in print.

The Gentleman's Magazine, first published in 1731, in London, is considered to have been the first general-interest magazine. Edward Cave, who edited The Gentleman's Magazine under the pen name "Sylvanus Urban", was the first to use the term "magazine", on the analogy of a military storehouse of varied materiel, originally derived from the Arabic makhazin "storehouses".

The oldest consumer magazine still in print is The Scots Magazine, which was first published in 1739, though multiple changes in ownership and gaps in publication totaling over 90 years weaken that claim. Lloyd's List was founded in Edward Lloyd’s England coffee shop in 1734; it is still published as a daily business newspaper.

14. Avvisi and Gazettes

Avvisi, or Gazettes, were a mid-16th century Venice phenomenon. They were issued on single sheets, folded to form four pages, and issued on a weekly schedule. These publications reached a larger audience than handwritten news had in early Rome. Their format and appearance at regular intervals were two major influences on the newspaper as we know it today. The idea of a weekly, handwritten 

news sheet went from Italy to Germany and then to Holland.

15. North American Newspapers

In Boston in 1690, Benjamin Harris published Publick Occurrences Both Foreign and Domestic. This is considered the first newspaper in the American colonies even though only one edition was published before the paper was suppressed by the colonial officials, possibly due to censorship and control issues. It followed the two-column format and was a single sheet, printed on both sides.

In 1704, the governor allowed The Boston News-Letter, a weekly, to be published, and it became the first continuously published newspaper in the colonies. Soon after, weekly papers began publishing in New York and Philadelphia. The second English-language newspaper in the Americas was the Weekly Jamaica Courant. These early newspapers followed the British format and were usually four pages long. They mostly carried news from Britain and content depended on the editor’s interests. In 1783, the Pennsylvania Evening Post became the first American daily.

16. Corantos

Newspaper publications, under the name of corantos, came to the Dutch Republic in the 17th century, first to Amsterdam, which was a center of trade and travelers, an obvious locale for news publication. The term coranto was adopted by other countries for a time as well. The coranto differed from previous German newspapers before it in format. The coranto dropped the highly-illustrated German title page, instead including a title on the upper first page of the publication – the masthead common in today's periodicals. Corantos also adopted a two-column format, unlike the previous single-column format, and were issued on half sheets.

17. The types of magazines in circulation today!

The definition of a magazine according to Google is "a periodical publication containing articles and illustrations, typically covering a particular subject." There are three main categories that the sales models fall into. One can receive magazines through the mail, newsstands, bookstores, vendors or free distribution areas.

Paid Circulation

In this model, the magazine is sold to readers for a price, either on a per-issue basis or by subscription, where an annual fee or monthly price is paid and issues are sent by post to readers. Examples from the UK include Private Eye and PC Pro.

Free Circulation

This means that there is no cover price and issues are given away, for example in street dispensers, airline in-flight magazines or included with other products or publications. An example from the UK and Australia is TNT Magazine.

Controlled Circulation

This is the model used by "insider magazines" or industry-based publications distributed only to qualifying readers, often for free and determined by some form of survey. This latter model was widely used before the rise of the World Wide Web and is still employed by some titles. For example, in the United Kingdom, a number of computer-industry magazines, including Computer Weekly and Computing, and in finance, Waters Magazine.  

18. TED.com founded in 1984

TED is a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. Along with two annual conferences -- the TED Conference in Long Beach and Palm Springs each spring, and the TEDGlobal conference in Edinburgh UK each summer -- TED includes the award-winning TEDTalks video site, the Open Translation Project and TED Conversations, the inspiring TED Fellows and TEDx programs, and the annual TED Prize.

TED.com has a bunch of new technological ideas presented by brilliant people around the world, free to everyone. Check out the website and watch one of the many videos they have!

Jay Bradner: Open-source cancer research | Video on TED.com

19. MySpace

Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors. Myspace was founded in 2003 and was acquired by News Corporation in July 2005 for $580 million. From 2005 until early 2008, Myspace was the most visited social networking site in the world, and in June 2006 surpassed Google as the most visited website in the United States. In April 2008, Myspace was overtaken by Facebook in the number of unique worldwide visitors, and was surpassed in the number of unique U.S. visitors in May 2009. Since then, the number of Myspace users has declined steadily in spite of several redesigns. As of October 2011, Myspace was ranked 103rd by total web traffic. In June 2009, Myspace employed approximately 1,600 workers. Since then the company has undergone several rounds of layoffs and by June 2011, Myspace had reduced its staff to around 200. On June 29, 2011, Myspace was sold to Specific Media and Justin Timberlake for approximately $35 million.

20. Facebook

Founded in February 2004, Facebook is a social utility that helps people communicate more efficiently with their friends, family and coworkers. The company develops technologies that facilitate the sharing of information through the social graph, the digital mapping of people's real-world social connections. Anyone can sign up for Facebook and interact with the people they know in a trusted environment.

Facebook is one of the most-trafficked sites in the world and has had to build infrastructure to support this rapid growth. The company is the largest user in the world of memcached, an open source caching system, and has one of the largest MySQL database clusters anywhere. There are over 800 million active (users who have returned to the site in the last 30 days). Facebook employees 2,000 + people. Members: Mark Zuckerberg, Marc Andreessen, Jim Breyer, Don Graham, Reed Hastings, Erskine Bowles and Peter Thiel; Observer: David Sze; Observer: Paul Madera.

21. Twitter

Twitter is a real-time information network that connects you to the latest information about what you find interesting. Simply find the public streams you find most compelling and follow the conversations. At the heart of Twitter are small bursts of information called Tweets. Each Tweet is 140 characters in length, but don’t let the small size fool you—you can share a lot with a little space. Connected to each Tweet is a rich details pane that provides additional information, deeper context and embedded media. You can tell your story within your Tweet, or you can think of a Tweet as the headline, and use the details pane to tell the rest with photos, videos and other media content. See it in action.

22. Blogger

Blogger was started by a tiny company in San Francisco called Pyra Labs in August of 1999. This was in the midst of the dot-com boom. But we weren't exactly a VC-funded, party-throwing, foosball-in-the-lobby-playing, free-beer-drinking outfit. (Unless it was other people's free beer.) We were three friends, funded by doing annoying contract web projects for big companies, trying to make our own grand entrance onto the Internet landscape. What we were originally trying to do doesn't matter so much now. But while doing it, we created Blogger, more or less on a whim, and thought — Hmmm... that's kinda interesting. Blogger took off, in a small way, and eventually a bigger way, over a couple years. We raised a little money (but stayed small). And then the bust happened, and we ran out of money, and our fun little journey got less fun. We narrowly survived, not all in one piece, but kept the service going the whole time (most days) and started building it back up. Things were going well again in 2002. We had hundreds of thousands of users, though still just a few people. And then something no one expected happened: Google wanted to buy us. Yes, that Google. We liked Google a lot. And they liked blogs. So we were amenable to the idea. And it worked out nicely. Now we're a small (but slightly bigger than before) team in Google focusing on helping people have their own voice on the web and organizing the world's information from the personal perspective. Which has pretty much always been our whole deal.

23. LinkedIn

Company Information

LinkedIn started out in the living room of co-founder Reid Hoffman in 2002. The site officially launched on May 5, 2003. At the end of the first month in operation, LinkedIn had a total of 4,500 members in the network. As of June 30, 2011 (the end of the second quarter), professionals are signing up to join LinkedIn at a rate that is faster than two new members per second. The company is publicly held and has a diversified business model with revenues coming from hiring solutions, marketing solutions and premium subscriptions.

LinkedIn Facts

-As of August 4, 2011, LinkedIn operates the world’s largest professional network on the Internet with more than 120 million members in over 200 countries and territories. 

-More than half of LinkedIn members are currently located outside of the United States. 

-There were nearly two billion people searches on LinkedIn in 2010. Headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., LinkedIn also has U.S. offices in Chicago, New York, Omaha and San Francisco. 

-International LinkedIn offices are located in Amsterdam, Bangalore, Delhi, Dublin, London, Melbourne, Mumbai, Munich, Paris, Singapore, Stockholm, Sydney, Tokyo and Toronto. 

-The company’s management team is comprised of seasoned executives from companies like Yahoo!, Google, Microsoft, TiVo, PayPal and Electronic Arts. The CEO of LinkedIn is Jeff Weiner. 

-LinkedIn is currently available in ten languages: English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, Russian, Turkish and Romanian.

-As of June 30, 2011 (the end of the second quarter), LinkedIn has 1,515 full-time employees located all around the globe. LinkedIn started off 2011 with about 1,000 full-time employees located all around the globe, up from around 500 at the beginning of 2010.

24. myYearbook

myYearbook is a social site where you can connect with friends and make new friends while playing social games, earning Lunch Money, supporting your favorite causes, and much more!

myYearbook is different from other social networks. On myYearbook, you can:

Play Match to find your Secret Admirer

Buy and sell your friends' photos in Owned! 

Battle your friends for "Best Looking" or "Most Gangsta"

Earn Lunch Money playing dozens of Games 

Turn your Lunch Money into real money for real charities in Causes

Watch full episodes of your favorite TV shows

And play many more social games!

myYearbook was started during Spring Break 2005. It started in just a couple high schools and spread fast. In September 2005, we expanded to all schools in the world. Now we have millions of members, and tens of thousands of people joining everyday!

25. Wikipedia

Wikipedia is a multilingual, web-based, free-content encyclopedia project based on an openly editable model. The name "Wikipedia" is a portmanteau of the words wiki (a technology for creating collaborative websites, from the Hawaiian word wiki, meaning "quick") and encyclopedia. Wikipedia's articles provide links to guide the user to related pages with additional information. Wikipedia is written collaboratively by largely anonymous Internet volunteers who write without pay. Anyone with Internet access can write and make changes to Wikipedia articles (except in certain cases where editing is restricted to prevent disruption or vandalism). Users can contribute anonymously, under a pseudonym, or with their real identity, if they choose.

26. Phanfare

We love photography. We started Phanfare back in 2004 because there was no internet service where we wanted to display all our photos and videos. Existing solutions were too print-focused and gave us no sense of ownership over our media. We wanted our own online presence with our own destination URL.

Building a subscription-based service made sense to us so that we could focus on the needs of the customer without having to please advertisers. And we liked the straightforward relationship of customers paying for what they were getting, rather than giving away mediocre hosting in exchange for the purchase of prints, like the online photo finishers.

Our first solution combined the power of network connected desktop clients with synchronized per-family websites. We have evolved the system over the years, adding the features that we believe photographers want and need. At the same time, we have tried to keep Phanfare simple.

We aim to serve people who value their personal media, want a better experience and will pay to preserve it. Our customer support is amazing, backed up by real people who are always ready to solve your problems and go the extra mile to help.

27. Flickr

Flickr - almost certainly the best online photo management and sharing application in the world - has two main goals:

1. We want to help people make their photos available to the people who matter to them.

2. We want to enable new ways of organizing photos and video.

Flickr continues to evolve in myriad ways, all of which are designed to make it easier and better. Check out the Flickr Blog to stay apprised of the latest developments. The fact that you've read to the end of this entire document and are hanging out at the bottom of this page with nothing but this silly text to keep you company is proof of a deep and abiding interest on your part. What are you waiting for? Sign up now!

28. YouTube

Founded in February 2005, YouTube allows billions of people to discover, watch and share originally-created videos. YouTube provides a forum for people to connect, inform, and inspire others across the globe and acts as a distribution platform for original content creators and advertisers large and small. Visit youtube.com to see some awesome videos, or to post your own. 

29. KLOUT

The Klout Score measures influence based on your ability to drive action. Every time you create content or engage you influence others. The Klout Score uses data from social networks in order to measure: 

True Reach: How many people you influence

Amplification: How much you influence them

Network Impact: The influence of your network

Check out your Klout Score at klout.com.

30. BibMe

BibMe is a free automatic citation creator that supports MLA, APA, Chicago, and Turabian formatting. BibMe leverages external databases to quickly fill citation information for you. BibMe will then format the citation information and compile a bibliography according to the guidelines of the style manuals. If you prefer, you can enter your citation information manually. BibMe also features a citation guide that provides students with the style manuals' guidelines for citing references. That's pretty handy for a college student to know, just visit bibme.org to get started! 

31. EasyBib

EasyBib is an automatic bibliography composer. When you have sources you need to cite properly for your research paper, EasyBib will help you format your sources quickly and accurately. Millions of students a month use EasyBib to cite sources for their papers. EasyBib is a service of ImagineEasy Solutions, a tiny company that makes big products. Visit easybib.com to use it now!

32. The Internet

The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to serve billions of users worldwide. It is a network of networks that consists of millions of private, public, academic, business, and government networks, of local to global scope, that are linked by a broad array of electronic, wireless and optical networking technologies. The Internet carries a vast range of information resources and services, such as the inter-linked hypertext documents of the World Wide Web (WWW) and the infrastructure to support email. It is estimated that in 1993 the Internet carried only 1% of the information flowing through two-way telecommunication, by 2000 this figure had grown to 51%, and by 2007 more than 97% of all telecommunicated information was carried over the Internet. The Internet is also responsible for all of the wikis in this post. 

33. Lulu.com

At Lulu, it’s free to publish, and authors can create everything from hardcover books to eBooks, photo books to calendars. Authors keep all the rights to their works and retain 80 percent of the profit they set when their books sell. We operate a global print network and provide worldwide distribution so that authors can reach readers just about anywhere, including on Amazon.com and the iBookstore. If authors need any help along the way — with cover design, editing, formatting, marketing or the publishing process in general — our services team can provide expert assistance through a la carte offerings and bundled packages.

34. easycanvasprints.com 

Check out easycanvasprints.com to upload your very own photo to be published on a professional canvas for a reasonable price. With your custom canvas prints, you can easily turn your very own image into a stunning work of art on canvas. Upload your own photos and pictures, and create a personalized print on canvas. We offer small, medium, and large canvas prints. Whether you want to decorate your home or office, canvas printing wall art can be used everywhere because you create it!

35. paper.li

Paper.li is a content curation service. It enables people to publish newspapers based on topics they like and treat their readers to fresh news, daily.

We believe that people (and not machines) are the ones qualified to curate the content that matters most. We also think that these same people can greatly help their own communities to find their way through this “massive content world” we live in. We’re here to help!

36. Taylor Swift and her song "Mean"

Taylor Swift wrote a song called "Mean" that is talking to the critics that wrote a bad review about her about how she will be successful, and all the critics will ever be is mean. She also relates the song to a young girl who wears a dress that differs in color from the other girls her age, so the other girls just make fun of her. This tells girls that they don't need to impress other people and deal with people who are mean to you. This message is very important to portray to people, that some people are really mean and you don't have to deal with that. A lot of the songs that Taylor Swift writes portray positive messages to people. Some of the lyrics are:

Someday I'll be living in a big old city

And all you're ever gonna be is mean

Someday I'll be big enough so you can't hit me

And all you're ever gonna be is mean

37. David Mamet

David Alan Mamet is an American playwright, essayist, screenwriter and film director. Best known as a playwright, Mamet won a Pulitzer Prize and received a Tony nomination for Glengarry Glen Ross (1984). He also received a Tony nomination for Speed-the-Plow (1988). As a screenwriter, he received Oscar nominations for The Verdict (1982) and Wag the Dog (1997). Mamet's books include: The Old Religion (1997), a novel about the lynching of Leo Frank; Five Cities of Refuge: Weekly Reflections on Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy (2004), a Torah commentary with Rabbi Lawrence Kushner; The Wicked Son (2006), a study of Jewish self-hatred and antisemitism; and Bambi vs. Godzilla, a commentary on the movie business. David Mamet is one of the authors that Rob mentioned in class, as Rob had a book that he had written. This book was a book that taught actors how to be more successful and portray a message, which is what the media do.

38. The Quran

The Quran is a book similar to the Bible for Muslims. Muslims believe the Quran to be verbally revealed through angel Jibrīl (Gabriel) from God to Muhammad gradually over a period of approximately 23 years beginning in 610 CE, when Muhammad was 40, and concluding in 632 CE, the year of his death. Muslims further believe that the Qur'an was precisely memorized, recited and exactly written down by Muhammad's companions (Sahaba) after each revelation was dictated by him. Shortly after Muhammad's death the Quran was compiled into a single book by order of the first Caliph Abu Bakr and at the suggestion of his future successor Umar. This book communicates the messages from God to Muhammad, and gives the Muslim people a good look into their religious past. It also gives a lot of us, who are not Muslim, a good look at what they believe.

39. 50 Facts that Should Change the World

      This book was brought in by Rob to show the class as it is on his bookshelf.
     50 Facts That Should Change the World is a series of snapshots of life in the 21st century. From the inequalities and absurdities of the so-called developed world to the vast scale of suffering wreaked by war, famine and AIDS in developing countries, it paints a picture of incredible contrasts. These are the facts YOU need to know.
     50 Facts That Should Change the World contains an eclectic selection of facts that address a broad range of global issues. Each is followed by a short essay explaining the story behind the fact, fleshing out the bigger problem lurking behind the numbers. Real-life stories, anecdotes and case studies help to humanize the figures and make clear the human impact of the bald statistics.
     The facts paint a picture of a world of inequality: unheard-of and often ludicrous prosperity living alongside crippling poverty. Some of the facts will make you rethink things you thought you knew. Some illustrate long-term, gradual changes in our society. Others concern local issues that people face in their everyday lives. Many will shock. All of the facts remind us that whether we like to think of it or not, the world is interconnected and civilization is a fragile concept. 50 Facts that Should Change the World will make us think about some of the hard facts about our civilization, and what we can do about them. Jessica Williams is a journalist and television producer.

40. Acting:  On Stage and Off

This book demonstrates how offstage performance can be effectively adapted for the theatre, as well as how onstage training can be applied toward leading a full life outside the theatre, ACTING: ONSTAGE AND OFF is a humorous yet informative book that discusses the interplay between life on and off the stage. You'll learn everything from the phases of actor training to body-relaxation techniques. This book helps to teach people how to portray messages to an audience. This book was also one that Rob brought to class.


41. The Art of Dramatic Writing

Rob also brought this book into class to tell about its importance in media. The Art of Dramatic Writing is a concise guide to all forms of creative writing, from premise to characters to plot. Dramatic writing is important because it is also persuasive writing most of the time; and being able to persuade people into believing your same beliefs is a strong skill. Dramatic writing is also an important skill when trying to tell a story well to an audience, it conveys your message more clearly.


42. Running Scared: Fear Worry and the God of Rest
     In Running Scared, Edward T. Welch investigates the roots of fear in the human soul and the ramifications of living in the grips of anxiety, worry, and dread. Welch encourages readers to discover for themselves that the Bible is full of beautiful words of comfort for fearful people (and that every single person is afraid of something). Within the framework of thirty topical meditations, Welch offers sound biblical theology and moment-by-moment, thoughtful encouragement for life-saving rescue in the midst of the heart and mind battlefield of rampant panic-stricken responses. This comprehensive primer on the topic of fear, worry, and the rest of God will have readers retreating to scripture for invariable constancy, stalwart care, and robust comfort, instead of as Welch terms it hitting the default switch by responding with characteristic human independence, control, and self-protectiveness. Running Scared affirms that, through Scripture, God speaks directly to our fears: On money and possessions On people and their judgments On death, pain, and punishment   Welch's lively text provides convincing evidences that humanity's struggle against active and dormant fears are countless. The good news is that God provides both the remedy and the cure for this malady in the person of Jesus Christ, the work of the Holy Spirit, and through powerful, life-altering promises in Scripture. Far more than merely another psychology self-help guide, Running Scared serves as a biblical roadmap to a life of serenity and security.