Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Naked- My nervous tics

For our English class today, we had to read a story that was written by David Sedaris. He wrote this story in first person and it was really funny. I really liked the different ways he just explained his life like he wasn't embarrassed at all of all his crazy nervous tics. Some of them were quite out of the ordinary, for example every school year he would have a new one. First he had to touch and lick basically everything. Then he moved on to eye rolling, head rolling, and making squeaking noises. I felt the way he explained each of these tics was kind of amusing but you also could really relate to him. The way he wrote in first person made you feel like you were the one with the tics. I really liked the way he ended the story, with kind of relating cigarette smoking with a crazy habit. You never really think about it but in all reality it really is a bad habit that makes people go crazy, say, if they don't have a cigarette to smoke at any given moment. Also i watched the link that was posted on moodle of David Sedaris on David Letterman. They way he presents himself is quite interesting. Hes short and sort of dorky looking and his voice is funny. But the way he reads hi story sounds so realistic and funny that you just envy his style and the way he writes. Overall i really enjoyed his funny antics and his writing skills.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Writing journal #9

1.) There are many things i would like to touch while writing my research paper. The main question i would like to answer most thoroughly for my final paper is "Does the media percieve crime to be a lot worse than it is, and if what they put on TV and the newspapers, fact or ideology". To me this question is most relevant because it really explains my paper in one sentence. For my paper i want to talk about all the ways the media perceives crime. The different examples I thought of so far would be how the media puts everything on tv that was to deal with the bad things that are happening in the world around us. They only put happy things on once and awhile. By mostly putting on things like crime, it makes everyone who watches TV, and who isn't really an expert in the field of crime, think that crime is happening everywhere all the time, so they are living in constant fear. All of these ideas lead back to the main question i want to answer in my paper.

2.) Crime overall is a lot less frequent than many people today think. The media percieves it so well that it really tricks the general public to think differently. The media uses a lot of different tactics to make crime out to be something its not, whether its by using articles in the newspaper, or showing crime on the news everyday. Overall the media and television today uses a lot of ideologies instead of facts to run their buisnesses smoothly.

3.) There are a lot of things i know about my issue of crime and the media. Many facts point out the exact reason of the media expanding the truth. One statistic that i learned in my criminology class, is that the fear of crime is a lot more higher percentage wise than the actual crime amount. About 10% of crime happens to people, but 70% of people have a fear of crime, and they think that it will happen to them. To me this is a big problem because many people will live in fear due to things they watch of television, or read in the paper. I also learned how on tv their are a lot of shows and news stories that deal with different types of crime that don't happen near as frequently as people think. So this can cause real controversy on whether this information they say is a fact or an ideology. In another journal i have read it focuses in on how different media places can cause a buisness if it got caught doing something wrong, seem like they are innocent or guilty, even if they dont have any clue on which one is actually true. Also the media has a lot of different teqniques they use, to make the facts or the truth, be expanded or shrunk. Also i learned a lot about racial and ethical issues invloved in crime precieved in the media.

4. For my issue, i feel like i need more information on things like actual statistics, and stories that were portrayed. I think that having both of these to do my reseach paper will really help me show the readers of my paper, the different ways crime is and perceiced. It will also help me make it more visual for people. Another thing i need to learn more about is the details in the different ways the media gets away with fabricating parts of their true stories. Overall, i just need to read more into each part of my topic i want to cover, and really go into detail about it.

5. That violence is not caused moreso by watching TV or the media violence.
That media is a buisness, and in order to stay with good ratings they do whatever they can.
Media and TV put what they want on, because they can.
People have their own opinions on everything, so if they believe everything they hear its their own fault.

6. 1. "How not to Think about Crime in the Media." - Journal
2. "News, Truth, and the Recognition of Coropate Crime." Journal
3. Crime Prevention Approaches, practices, and evaluations. Print
4. Creating Fear- News and the Construction of Crisis. Print
5. Covering Crime and Justice. Racial and Ethical Issues. Internet Book