Cookie Monster

Google defines "cookies" as: [cookies] are stored by the Web browser on your system's hard drive, and you can view them to see which Web sites that you visit are associated with your cookie files. I looked at my hard drive and have come to the conclusion that I have been living with the cookie monster for a long time. I had tons of cookies from tons of different websites. This scares me just a little because I know I have been tracked by websites and companies to get information about me. One website had 37 cookies underneath it and I don't even know remember getting on that site or why. This does explain why whenever I get onto social media websites that the advertisements are always on point and have to do with things I just looked at or are interested in. Thinking of it in that terms makes me happy that there are cookies because it's almost like I have more of a personal experience. On the other hand, I still don't like how we can do this without consent of the user. 

Contest of Politicians or Advertisers?

I have never been a fan of politics or political advertisement. The messages with the ending "I approve this message" quote always have some type of negative attack on people. The others seem to focus on the facts of politicians. To me, I wouldn't want a negative public figure that puts others down to put himself up. What does that say about his/her leadership goal? It sounds to me that he/she will be more likely to put the people down to get him up. Most of the audience though will not think like this because they have not taken the same classes that I have that have expanded my view on ads. They will think, "Wow, that other person must be awful. I don't want them to represent me." On the contrary, they are both probably just as bad and just as good as their opponent. The real contest is between the advertisers and who will get paid more money.

#Gamergate ?

I keep reading different stories about gamergate and I am still a bit confused. What I've collected is that an ex got mad at a girlfriend who broke up with him and they are both in the gaming community. After threats and people being mean anonymously, a talk of ethics was brought into this and now people say ethics was the main solution they were trying to bring to the table.

Ethics is a battle that will never be won or lost. Ethics can change a persons way of thinking and we can dub "true ethics" every year. but not live by it and still call ourselves ethical with people to back us up. In my opinion, If the gamers want light on poor journalism in the gaming community, they need to fix the problem with these angry people attacking this girl.

The attacks on the girl did bring light to the situation, but now it is the main situation when that wasn't the intention. Fixing the problem and saying that these death threats are wrong and need to be stopped is the first step to getting to the point of the poor journalism. The girl adds the entertainment aspect of this story which is morally wrong, but it might have been necessary to get the public involved.  

A True News Community

I have discovered http://wkunews.wordpress.com/ through another classmates blog and clicked around. My first guess was that WKU's news websites would be full of events that happened on campus and awards and football game announcements. I was right. What I was wrong about was the importance of these articles to the community.

As I searched deeper, there was a tab marked "IN THE NEWS". Some of the articles about WKU were used by bigger publications such as Daily News and Fox News. If these producers are using our stories, I think we should have some of their stories on our website too.

Many students don't watch the news, but will talk about news happening on campus. We'll get snipbites of information about worldwide news and piece the puzzle together the best we can. I think if we can find a way to put these worldwide news articles in a way that is easier for college students to read and understand without falling asleep or under-prioritizing onto the WKU news website, our community would be better educated. Off campus gets our news easy, now on campus needs their news easy.

More Than Princess Movies

Looking deeper in Disney, I found that Walt Disney Motion Picture Group, obviously owned by Disney, owns Disney Animation, Pixar Studios, Lucasfilm, The Muppets, and more.

I'm may be the only one who didn't know, but that means almost all of our kid movies are owned by Disney. I always thought that Pixar was in competition, but now I see they're just another group with a slightly different style. I even googled Newest Kid Movies and the first page to pop up was Disney Movie Club. I also googled Kid Movies not Disney and stumbled upon a blog with a list of kid movies, all that I've seen multiple times, and none of them were animated. Such movies included Annie, Willy Wonka, The Secret Garden, etc. The last thing I googled was Animated Kid Movies Not Disney. The results were impressive, I impressed myself by knowing all of them by heart. The unimpressive thing was that some of the movies were still distributed from Disney and the latest one is from 1999, The King and I. It seems that no one wants to compete with animation as much and if they do, Disney will just buy them up like Lucasfilm.

Rain or Shine

My mom didn't necessarily grow up with a TV in her home. The newspaper was a big part in her life because her farther read aloud the articles every morning during breakfast whether anyone was listening or not. Once a TV became more accessible, she would occasionally watch the news with her family.

Her farther is a statistics kind of man and he watched it regularly to know simple things like the weather, not just for his hometown but for everywhere that they would talk about. Watching news on a television gave him insight about places that he was passionately curious about.

His curiosity for the world still exists today. He will turn the news on and find the weather for the United States and call my mom to tell her what weather is coming our way. Without the news being broadcasting in this medium, curiosity of millions wouldn't be satisfied.

Through news and regular TV shows, my mom also started to learn English so she could have a small understanding once she moved to America. She examined how people spoke and how they order things and what to say when asked certain questions. Since news channels normally have a lot of pictures, it was easy to learn what simple words like sun or rain meant.

News channels also let my mom know whether to take us to school or not in the winter, as most parents did. In elementary school, we all remember waiting for our parents to watch the news to tell us if was a snow day or not and I think that is one of the greatest means of the news :)

Fashion Magz Karate Chop Ads

Two magazines I am familiar with are Teen Vogue and Seventeen. Both are intended for age groups around 10-20 (in my opinion). The advertisement in both of the magazines are surprisingly different.

In Teen Vogue, you see more of fashion advertisements through the pictures of the editorial, if you could call it that. There are few "real" advertisements and the ones that are there are for makeup such as mascara and only depicted on one or two pages.

Seventeen has the same advertisements, but also has "real" advertisements. Every other page has a side portion dedicated to nail polish or books to read that teens will most likely enjoy such as vampire love stories. Seventeen is a larger magazine and has actual editorials. For example, they will pinpoint one recent and up coming artist and tell their background story to getting famous and how they feel about the new publicity. These sections won't have an advertisement, but flip to the net page and it'll be a full cover of 20 must haves under $20.

Since Teen Vogue focuses extremely on fashion and mainly just have pictures of photo shoots, I am guessing the artists behind the pictures may pay more money to get the photo in and not have an ad distracting the audience. Whereas Seventeen doesn't have an actual focus, besides entertainment for that age group, and need to put in more advertisements to help pay for the upkeep of the magazine.

Another take on this is that Seventeen is just a magazine of ads. The pages dedicated to trending music could be counted as advertisement. The list of places to go for spring break could also be counted as advertisement. Looking at it this way, a magazine is just pages of advertisements whether it be direct or indirect.

Russian Vodka (How many said it in an accent?)

Growing up with a Russian family, I have always heard the comments from my parents and relatives about how Americans perceive them in movies. For example, in the cartoon movie, Anastasia, Russians in St.Petersburg are singing about the mysteries of the lost princess. Although I love the movie, my mom always points out that when they sing their tongues stick out excessively. No movie producer would put that in just for nothing. It makes American children subconsciously think Russians are stupid because only people who are making fun of someone who is not as smart makes those faces. When in fact, American speak more with their tongues than Russians, and neither cultures stick their tongues out while talking.

Another movie that has had a lot of controversy in eastern Europe is Chernobyl. Chernobyl was a terrible disaster that affected millions in many countries and for many generations. My grandpa was the head doctor treating the patients once the accident happened and my family is well known for for that. Being said, once the movie came out about the Chernobyl victims turning into zombies, a lot of people were angry. In their eyes, it would be like making a movie about the 9/11 victims turning into zombies, doesn't seem like a good movie idea when you think about it like that.

Gangs, drunks, villain, and prostitutes: that about sums up the roles Russians play in American movies. In most American movies, Russians are up to no good. With the help of the movie industry, even children associate a Russian accent with a villain. Even if a movie shows a Russian as someone smart, they backfire by making them evil or drunk. Growing up, I didn't understand why my parents would get mad, but looking back, they didn't want me to associate being Russian as something bad.

NPR- Not Persistently Rad

One of the most diverse radio, in my opinion, would be any station that is part of NPR (Naional Public Radio). WKU Public Radio is an extension of this programming and comes on a few channels. Many people down grade NPR and say it is boring and only old people listen to it. Every time I listen to one of the stations, I learn something new. The topics will range from a five-year-old talking about her outlook on parents getting a divorce to women empowerment in foreign countries.

WKU Public Radio is a commercial-free station whose mission is to "to enhance the quality of life in this region by presenting unique, non-commercial programming of exceptional quality." Because it is part of a national radio station, you get information pertaining to all sorts of people, making it so diverse. Music stations only play their specific genre of music because people tend to have a favorite. WKU Public Radio is like being able to listen to  all the genres without changing the station, although WKU Public Radio does not have as much music.

News Satisfaction

Growing up I remember seeing adults reading newspapers, but it never seemed appealing to me, possibly because I was too young and worried about riding my bike faster than everyone. Years passed and the newspapers started being replaced with magazines. The next time I actually read a newspaper was in my high school business class. Our teacher ordered the Lexington Herald and The New York Times every week for us to sum up certain articles and keep up to date with what's happening around us. Out of class, instead of reading the actual newspaper, I always had some sort of app.

With an app, I can look up not only this weeks news, but the news from months previous. Apps also allow you to be able to watch a video and see the report they gave when aired. It's very easy to go from local news in my hometown and then clicking one button and seeing an article that deals with a national issue.

The Lexington Herald has a print issue, app version for free,and a website that needs no subscription. No matter where I am, I can always be connected to my hometown and what is happening. They meet the needs of both local and national news and that's why I believe they are striving. A smaller town may see it differently and not enjoy it as much, but for the people who live in Lexington, I would say that if it's free, the people must be liking it enough to keep it that way.

#AVerenich

12 Hour Sanity

For those who read titles, no, I do not have a typo. My twelve hours without social media or my phone went better than expected. Sure, I had about ten mini heart attacks that day because I thought I had lost my phone, but that quickly passed. The experience would have been different if I wasn't with my boyfriend. I was not trapped in my mind with no communication to others. As long as I have another person around, I would say that going without social media and my phone is very beneficial for me.

Normally, Instagram and Facebook flood my brain before I eat breakfast. In this case, I ate breakfast in a frenzy, thinking I was out of time. The only instance I'm not on my phone in the morning is when I'm running late and I have to prioritize. Although, I had missed new updates like who is now pregnant and who got robbed last night, I was in a better mood. Primarily, when I scan my Instagram, I'm looking at new outfits and all the events that took place in Lexington. At times I'll complain that I wish I had money to go buy that new shirt or I wish I had the looks to go take a silly picture and still get 100 likes on it. That morning was different; my confidence wasn't crushed by social media. You're probably thinking, "Well, you shouldn't worry about looks and all that crap anyways. You must be way too self-conscious." You got it. Social media has made me reconsider what beauty is. I'll see a picture that I think is beautiful and I'll notice it only has ten likes. My brain registers that as it wasn't good enough compared to the other picture that got twenty likes.

I know, it's not all about looks. My day goes on regardless. The same day I had gone to the mall and to make things go by faster my boyfriend had told me to go to Victoria Secret and get what I needed while he did his shopping. This was fine with me until I remembered I didn't have my phone. What if I couldn't find him when I'm done? What if someone tries to kidnap me? What if there's a fire and the whole mall gets burnt down and I can't find my way to his car? My iPhone isn't just a way of communication; it is a security blanket. With it, I know that my chances of getting out of a situation are pretty high. I shopped as fast as I could and once I found him I realized that my "security blanket" has made me crazy. Being raised in a generation where you're taught if you have your phone in your hand at night, no one will grab you, has made me paranoid to not have my phone with me.

Thinking more into it as we left the mall, I thought about how even if our parents can't reach us using our phones, they assume we've died. We rely on phones to keep us safe in some instances, but in return for our safety, we have given phones our sanity. Realizing that I am perfectly OK without my phone gave me some of my sanity back that I didn't know was missing. I probably won't go anywhere still without my phone, but twelve hours without it has made me think more about how I need to be in control of things and not let social media and iPhones dictate certain aspects in my life.

#AVerenich