Interview with an 8 year old

I found the assignment of interviewing an adolescent to be an interesting task. My 8 year old nephew is the oldest child in my life so I figured it was best to go with him as opposed to my own 3 year old. Comparing my interview to other classmates; it seems that I interviewed the youngest person. I knew from that start that he would be an excellent interview because he loves technology more then anyone I know. My nephew knows how to work an iPad better then most adults I know.

Cooper was very willing to help me with my "homework" assignment and found it very funny that I actually had homework to do. I was impressed with his maturity and how he took the questions seriously. My original expectations were that this was going to be a waste of time and I'd have to ask a random child to help me out. I was pleasantly surprised to be wrong with my original assumption. Unfortunately I think my nephew spends too much time on his iPad on a daily basis and unfortunately it's the object that he likes the most which is why he's always getting it taken away. I was happy to hear that he wasn't playing games and watching irrelevant videos the entire time. I've learned through my own studies that games like Minecraft are challenging for the mind and it's players are allowed to use critical thinking. It allows kids to be creative and it also gives kids the opportunity to share tips and solve problems together with other players. Minecraft is also social media friendly and allows it's players to share information via YouTube which I think is an added bonus for older players, not necessarily my 8 year old nephew.

My interviewees response to social media questions was somewhat surprising to me, and I think it shows that his parents are restricting the use of social media at a young age. He is only aware of Facebook through his parents and other adults in his life. His knowledge of it is very simple and he thinks it is just a platform for sharing photos and opinions. I like that he is not aware of cyberbullying because I think he is too young to be exposed to something so harmful. I was surprised that he did not know what Instagram is because I feel that a lot of younger kids are allowed access to that platform since it is mostly just picture sharing. I was also happily surprised to hear that none of his classmates or friends has a social media account and that he actually laughed at me when I asked him that. His laugh made me think that even he knows it's ridiculous for someone of his age to have access to something like Facebook.

All in all I enjoyed the assignment very much. I had a good time crafting questions and really enjoyed having one on one time with my nephew to conduct the survey. I believe we take an adolescents opinions for granted when in fact we should listen to them more. I think that the answers to the questions that he provided also opened up his parents eyes and they are now limiting his screen time, and encouraging him to do more academic work when he is on his iPad.

Deconstructing a Print Advertisement

Looks can certainly be deceiving.....at first glance I see this advertisement and think, "Ohhhh John Snow," but as I dug through the ad more I started to see cracks in the surface. I didn't even see the words Jimmy Choo Man at first, I literally could not see past John (Kit Harrington) and then I said to myself that's odd why is he on an ad for Jimmy Choo??? At that first glance I obviously just flipped the page on the magazine and went about my day. Fast forward a few months and here I am looking at John in a different light.

I believe the people behind the ad chose my beloved hero John Snow for obvious reasons. He's sexy and attractive and women swoon over him. Is John selling the fragrance or is it the Jimmy Choo brand that is selling it? Based on the logo font that they used I would say John is doing the selling. The font blends in to the women's exposed leg and does not stand out at all. The bottle itself gets lost in the background of his jacket and you have to zoom in to see the bottom caption of the ad. As I dig deeper in the ad I see the women that is draped over him wearing an engagement ring. Does this mean that if you buy this cologne for your hot boyfriend that you too will get that large engagement ring on your finger? John's grip on the women's ankle seems odd to me, and the fact that we can not even see her face is even stranger. Why was the advertisement set up so we the viewers could not even see her face? All we do get to see is her exposed chest and bare legs, but we get to see all of John Snow in the photo. After first glance this advertisement seems very sexist and depicts to the viewer that men are in control. He's holding on to leg as she's casually draped over him in what seems to be a couch or chair. I question the brands intention on this ad, but based on other fragrance ads I unfortunately think it's in line with the competition.

I found this assignment to be very interesting. I learned a lot about dissecting an ad and seeing it from the publics point of view. I think sometimes being in the fashion industry clouds my judgment because I was taught that sex sells. We used sexy images all the time at my previous job to sell clothing, or sometimes the ads had no clothing so I questioned what we were even selling. The act of deconstructing an advertisement taught me how to look at something for a different angel and how you certainly can't judge a book by it's cover.....even if the cover has John Snow on it.

Television News as a New Media

In Television News is a New Mythic Form, Marshall McLuhan discusses how news coverage effects society in North of Ireland in the 60's. McLuhan states that the public is in their homes watching news coverage, and then they come outside when it is over to participate in covering the news and acting it out themselves. McLuhan goes on to say that he feels that the role of hired actor and the public itself is starting to merge. I could not agree more with McLuhan, I too feel that there is a blurred line between the public and the media in today's world which happens to be 46 years after this video was created. M.A. Mughal wrote a piece for Thedailyjournalist.com about three years ago that touches upon mass media's effect and influence on society. In the article he discusses violence on television and how watching it continuously could be traumatic. He specifically writes, "Our kids that are starting to grow and are shaping their personality values and beliefs can become aggressive or they can loose a sense of distinction between reality and fiction." (Mughal, Mass Media and it's Influence on Society, 2013)

Networked Publics by Varnelis touches upon the same idea of news and its effect on society but in a more current role. Varnelis writes that, "The balance of power between news providers and news consumers has shifted." (Varnelis, 2008 p. 67) He continues on later in the paragraph to write, "Video and text bloggers, DIY media activists, and professional journalists are struggling over the right to define the truth and to determine what form and practice of news production yields more credible product." (Varnelis, 2008 p.67) In this book Varnelis is saying something similar to McLuhan in that there is still a blurred line between the public and today's media. With the use of emerging technologies we the public are now able to get news out faster and sometimes more accurately then the media. The public does not need to look any further then social media to find out the latest news or what's happening in our world. There is no longer that need to wait until the 5 o'clock news to come on.

I personally believe that the use of technologies and new media has made reading about current events easier. There are also more options to researching topics and current events and more tools that can be used. We as a society have access to online databases, newspapers, and news outlets all at our fingertips. It's truly never been easier to find out what's happening around you then it is today. It should be the role of the teacher to help students understand how they can access any information at any given time of the day. As we continue to grow in the technology era I believe that we will see an increase in online news outlets and networks.




References:

References:
Varnelis, K. (2008). Networked Publics. Cambridge, Massachusetts 

M.A. Mughal. (2013) Mass Media and it's Influence on Society.
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