PeaceFlower1016

      Today we learned about the "access" of media. Mr. Paterson told us about the first women reporter to be in the white house press conference. She had the right to ask a question in the limited time amongst the 40-50 journalists that were there. However, when George W. Bush became president he moved her to the back seat. Since Bush was not a very intelligent president and the reporter asked relatively difficult questions, he took her right to ask questions. The tradition of the previous 6 presidents was stopped; she lost access. Then a new right-wing media reporter who supported Bush took her place; who only asked softball questions. I didn't know this woman reporter or the fact that Bush removed her from his press conference, but I wasn't very surprised. I've seen many politicians in Japan that try very hard to not damage their reputation so it's not very surprising for the president to be doing the same.      Mr. Paterson also told us about Phil Donah...

     Today we dug deeper into the topic of ownership and advertising.      We first talked about the Japanese media and how the big companies are  Yomiuri, Asahi, Nikkei, Mainichi, and Sankei. I was surprised by the fact that Japan is one of the few countries that is paper dominant and loves newspapers.      Mr. Paterson also talked about the filter, advertising. I was shocked by the fact that almost every news media has been asked to kill a story a nd half admitted to killing a story as requested. I'm really curious about what topics were erased out of our news and why they were killed. If everything the journalists found were reported, I think we can make a better society. The media is taking our opportunity to debate.      We watched a documentary about the advertising aspects of media and how three journalists were told to kill a story. The documentary was about three journalists who found rBGH in milk produced by a co...

     Today I learned about the reality of media.       Mr. Paterson introduced us to the five filters of the propaganda model; ownership, advertising, access, flak, and ideology. From these five filters, the one that I didn't predict was ownership. I could have never imagined that ownership or the company that owns the media can have so much say in their cover topics. I've never thought about which news channels are owned by which company and how their business can have an impact on what we see in that channel.      We were also taught about the Japanese Kisha Club. I didn't know this even existed so I was very surprised.  I always thought that the mass media was messed up and corrupt here in Japan, but I still had a little bit of hope in them. Only allowing certain types of media has so many benefits for the government but zero benefits for us citizens. Our criticisms and opinions will not reach the government. I felt like the...

      Today in our class Mr. Paterson checked some of the bio statements that our class made. Mine wasn't shown on the screen and I was very relieved since I'm not very good at writing. There was some advice that I applied to my bio statement as well. For example, the use of vocabulary. Instead of using the phrase "right away", we should use "currently". Using these types of vocabulary, the bio statement will sound more professional. I used lextutor to check my percentage of awl so I thought that my use of high-level vocabulary was enough. However, Mr. Paterson also mentioned overusing the word "he" or "she" so I want to check on that.     We also watched a video from the company IKEA. The story went like this; there was a lamp that was getting old and it was replaced by a new one. The ad used many techniques to make the viewers feel sorry for the lamp. The one that was interesting to me was the part when the lamp was held to be thrown aw...

     Today we went outside the classroom to take photos of the school. The goal was to make people want to come to TGUISS by looking at our pictures. I took a photo in the "nakaniwa" which is the space  surrounded by the west building. It is a place where students can hang around and eat lunch, talk, or take rests. I chose this place because I wanted the school to have a welcoming and comfortable image. I had three of my classmates to be in the picture. I had them sit down facing each other, I told them to look like they are having fun. This way I could show the audience that the students in TGUISS get along well and it looks like they are having a good time in school. Even though there weren't any other students in the "nakaniwa", I took the picture so that the dead space won't show so the audience will not know that the picture was staged.      This activity was very interesting to me because when I came to this school I was fooled by the pictures on...