Native Advertisement

 The existence of Native advertisement is the proof that shows us the large impact that advertisement is creating in society, besides of this it shows us that advertisement is present even in situation in which we do not notice. Before analyzing how native advertisement is present in media, it is important to define specifically what a native advertising is.

Native advertisement is the technique in which the advertisements use specific content to build trust and engagement with the would-be costumers. In order to do this, native advertisement is promoted for example on Twitter, it can be suggested in a post of Facebook. But the important idea is that nowadays the brands work together with the Social media companies, in order to reach the people.

As we can see in this picture, the picture is the post or article of an electronic news company called The Washington Post. The post is talking about a political issue, being more specific the company is putting a headline that says Russian forces expand their control of Crimea. First off the structure of the post has a picture, a column and a Headline. The post has a picture taken in Ukraine, showing connection with the theme of the post. In the picture we can see a Ukrainian soldier who is in a situation that transmits concentration and tension, so it transmits us the idea that the information that is shown in the post is real therefore, it has logos. Besides of that the column that the post has talks about the political issue, so it is related with the theme of the post. The persuasive language also is present since the post has ethos and logos. Besides of that there is a Microsoft advertisement in the post that is a native advertisement. We can say that it is a native advertisement because it is advertised in a popular electric webpage, and since many people trust the information of the electronic news posts, they will also believe that the product that is being advertised is also good.

Generation Like

First off, before watching this documentary I already knew that companies are affecting society through media, but after watching it, I understood how they manipulate so much information that we, the viewers, watch and therefore, affect our thoughts and personalities. 

When individuals structure their identity around commercial products and initiatives they generate benefits for the company that creates the products, by spending so much time sharing the believe that specifically one product is so good, and that everybody should consume it, or buy it. The personality of all these individuals gets affected, because they lose their capacity of self deciding if a product is good or not. 

When the word empower is related with media, in my opinion it makes reference to the fact that one person with many followers will have a lot of influence in the life of many individuals, such influences can be very different, the influence can be the way a person dresses, or the food that a person decides to eat. Therefore, the media does empower an individual, if the individual becomes so famous and gets millions of followers, which will result in the gain of influence, because the followers of the individual will consider copy certain things from their idol.

As the documentary shows us, when a person shares many information about a product, it is interacting with other individuals in order to spread the idea that a certain product is good, but at the end of the day the individual will not interact with the other individuals with a different purpose, which will keep the individual apart from society. This idea is related with the Hunger Games, because as we can see many players collaborate, but at the end of the game there can be only one winner, so the player will be alone, even though he or she has interacted with other individuals.

Besides of this, nowadays the audience interacts so much with the media, which in my opinion is a bad thing, because as more attention we give to media, the media becomes more benefited, and the individuals that interact with the media do not get benefited. Besides of that the individuals not only do not get benefited, but also they get influenced and manipulated by the media.

Lastly, a person with many likes and followers will have a large influence in the thinking of his or her followers. Because of this, many companies ,knowing that these individuals with millions of followers have influence, will manage to make a deal with the famous individuals so that the individuals convince their audience about the liability of the product that the company wants  the individuals to present. In these deals the famous individuals receive money instead of promoting the idea that the product is so good. But the important thing here, is that the individuals are able to receive that money because of his or her followers, the explanation for this is that  the followers of the individuals are the ones who give them the influence and the power by clicking the like button of their videos or pictures, therefore, we the audience, are the ones who are feeding the power of media in society.

Pop Culture

A Critique of My Chemical Romance’s song Teenagers

Not doubting in singing what they sing, My Chemical Romance releases this new hit called Teenagers, where they portray their thinking about how teenagers are treated nowadays by society. The main aim of my Chemical Romance in this song is to tell the audience that teenagers are being controlled in everything they do, and that the government controls all the information that the teenagers learn at school, and all the information that they receive by media, not allowing them to question if what they learn is real, or that if what they learn can be trusted. Besides of this, this music band wants to portray the idea that the system of the country is made in a way in which teenagers are not able to question if the way in which the country is being ran is a fair and just way for all the people of society.

As we can notice in the lyrics, the government or the persons ruling the government are depicted as people who are manipulating the teenagers as we can understand by looking at the lyrics. Examples of this can be, They are going to clean up your looks, "with all the lies in the books'',''to make a citizen out of you'', which are phrases that transmit the idea that the government is going to rule in some way in which the teenagers do not have the possibility to think outside the box, so that the teenagers become the kind of citizen that the government wants.

Besides of this the song is transmitting the idea that the government, or the way in which society is being ruled, is excluding all the teenagers from society, so that they do not have the power, or abilities to decide if the way in which they are being ruled is correct and fair, and therefore not being able to carry a revolution, or start to wish a change in the system. As Gerard Way, the singer of the band sings ''Maybe they’ll leave you alone but not me'', he portrays the already mentioned idea, but furthermore the singer also sings They could care less as long as someone’ll bleed. This last verse goes even further, first off by saying they, Gerard is referring to the government, but the shocking thing here is that he is openly saying that the government manipulates the teenagers, ruining their possibilities to fulfill a dream, not caring about it, and making benefit of it.

Besides of this, a related information about the hit is that because of the content of the song the video-clip of the song was banned, mainly because the group decided to use images of catastrophe explosions as slogan of the hit, which transmit the idea that government is destroying the life of the teenagers.

As a personal opinion I think that what My Chemical Romance is trying to portray by this song is a real issue, teenagers are being controlled and manipulated by the government In some countries, and besides of that the government is benefiting himself. 

Written task #2

How does the text conform to, or deviate from, the conventions of a particular genre, and for what purpose?

This advertisement is transmitting the idea that the female should be the only genre that has to cook in a family. Besides of this, the advertisement is portraying an atmosphere in which the man is the person who has to work in an important job, earning a good amount of money, while the main role of the woman is to stay at home, and cook for the man and the rest of the family.

The purpose of the advertisement is to sell a mixer, so the advertisement is presenting this product as a pretty useful device that all women can use in the kitchen. In order to present the product, the advertisement, as already mentioned, is using the image of a women, making a juice for her husband.

Besides of this, the structure of the advertisement helps us to understand why the women is presented as the genre that cooks for the rest of the family. First off the structure of the advertisement is predominated by a picture of a young couple smiling in the kitchen. The man has an expression of happiness, and is wearing a suit. The fact that the man is wearing a suit portrays the idea that the man has an important job, and that the man is not the person who cooks in the family. The women is wearing casual clothes, and also is wearing a chef hat. The fact that the women is wearing a hat, in some way portrays the idea that she is the person in charge of cooking for the family all the time. Besides of the couple, the picture presents the mixer that is being announced, and also some pieces of fruit and a juice appear in the picture.  Furthermore, the advertisement presents a written sentence in the middle of it which  in fact is totally related with the fact that the women is the person who cooks since it tells us that just wives are in charge of cooking.  Finally the picture has a small secondary picture in the right low corner or the advertisement which has the name of the brand being announced.

 The persuasive language used in this advertisement is Ethos, Pathos and Logos.

 Ethos is used since the brand of the mixer is being announces in the right low corner of the advertisement. Pathos is used because the couple is showing emotion, since they are smiling. And lastly the advertisement has Logos, because the situation has evidence, since it is showing us the mixer and the juice being made by the woman.

FOA Reflection

In my further oral activity I had to discuss about how media was showing us the way in which the society is being affected by the addiction to drugs. In my opinion I think that I covered all what we have learnt about breaking down an advertisement by recognizing the theme of the advertisement, the purpose of the advertisement, the targeted audience, the connection of the structure of the advertisement with the theme of the advertisement, the persuasive technique used by the advertisement and the persuasive language used by the advertisement. In my opinion, my presentation was structured properly, I understood all the language that was needed for this presentation, and I could recognize all the characteristics of the advertisement properly. On the other hand, my nervousness affected in a bad way the first two minutes of my presentation. Looking at the criteria I believe that I covered all the criterions that are listed. I chose this advertisements because I thought that they were transmitting pretty well the reality of the situation of how drugs are affecting individuals of society nowadays.

Besides of this, completing this activity has helped me to understand how advertisements are structured and developed to persuade the society. Lastly, I think that this presentation has helped me to understand how to structure a presentation, and besides of this, it has helped me to express myself properly, so that the people that is in front of me can understand perfectly the ideas that are being discussed in a presentation. 

Advertisement and Culture

In the add that I presented in class we can see a picture of a father asking his child in a calm and quiet atmosphere the question “Help me understand why some kids your age smoke cigarettes". Since we are talking about cigarettes, in my opinion the message that the add wants to transmit is that nowadays teenagers start smoking cigarettes at an earlier age.

 

 The fact that the parent is trying to understand why this happens through asking his child, in my view, tries to say to the audience that one of the reasons why this happens is because some parents do not control enough their sons and daughters. So in my opinion, I would say that the add tries to draw the attention of the parents, to control their sons and daughters and to educate them properly, making sure that they are not going through bad experiences or situations which can lead them to smoke cigarettes.

 

The most important characteristics of the add is the fact that the father is asking her daughter why do teenagers start smoking at an earlier age, trying to understand the reasons behind, which in some way transmits the idea that parents should be aware of their sons’ and daughters’ reasons and situation in order to make sure that they are not forced to any situation that can produce to them the need of smoking to release stress.

 

In my opinion, since this is an advertisement which promotes the idea that cigarettes started being consumed more and more by teenagers at an earlier, it tries to raise awareness about that fact, but it does not say anything about how bad cigarettes are or the unhealthy effects of cigarettes in our lungs, so in my opinion I think that in some way the companies which produce and sell cigarettes are being empowered because the product itself is being publicized. 

Persuasive Argument Post

Should Videogames be considered a Sport?

The opinions about this topic are normally varied. In my opinion I have to say that I completely believe that video-games should be considered a sport. First off we have to know that even if they are not a physical sport, video-games require as much skill and mental focus as physical sports if not more.

Besides of this the competition is at pretty good level, and believe it or not, video-game professional players have to train so many hours. If chess is considered a sport, we cannot deny that video-games is a sport, just as chess, the video-games that are played nowadays at high competitive level, like for example League of Legends, or Star Craft, require so much strategy and skill, which has to be practiced just as chess or any other sport.

Furthermore the coordination needed at video-games is pretty important, if we compare them with football or soccer, there would be no difference of coordination level. Another factor important to consider is that as in professional physical sports, electronic sports are paid so well, a professional electronic sports player can live perfectly just with the salary that his team provides him. Besides of this, nowadays video-games tournaments are played worldwide, and the amount of money that the champion or the finalists can win could be perfectly millions of dollars, as an example we can take the League of Legends worlds tournament that took place in 22 September of this year, where the winners, Samsung White, won 8.5 million dollars. Since we are dealing with millions of dollars, how can we deny that video-games cannot be considered sports?

Lastly, besides of all this facts it is important to know that video-games tournaments have the same crowds of supporters watching them or supporting them as the large number of persons who enjoy watching a physical sport or supporting it, buying merchandising or going to watch the games to the fields. We can take the example of the last League of Legends world’s tournament as proof, where roughly 11,000 persons were in attendance there, and over 32 million persons watched the live streaming of the tournament.