To receive full credit, these blog assignments must be posted by SUNDAY night, April 18th at midnight. If you post late, please email me your post directly at sdebross@uvm.edu as soon as you are able, and I'll give you partial credit.
1. Ad Analysis
Calvin & Hobbes, by Bill WattersonChoose a popular advertisement from an Internet ad that uses environmental imagery to sell its product or service. Deconstruct the image and message using the key media literacy questions and persuasive techniques learned in class to examine the ways in which images construct meaning. Include the URL of the ad.
2. Activist Websites
Browse through the following websites and choose ONE to follow for the week. You may wish to sign up for email alerts or other services the site offers. How does the organization fulfill its mission of social or economic change? Does online activism work? Does participation in this form feel meaningful? Be specific in your support or criticism. ACME: Action Coalition for Media Education: Democratizing our media system through education and activism.
Act for change: Action alerts, activism opportunities, and activism tips.
AlterNet: Syndication service and online community of the alternative press, featuring news stories from alternative newsweeklies, magazines and web publications.
Be The Media: Enable people-powered, community-based, participatory media.
Big Picture TV: Big Picture TV streams free video clips from hundreds of leading thinkers and experts to help you make sense of the most important issues facing the world today.
Common Dreams: Breaking News and Views for the Progressive Community.
Common Sense Media: Common Sense Media is dedicated to improving the lives of kids and families by providing the trustworthy information, education, and independent voice they need to thrive in a world of media and technology.
Counter Punch: Muckraking leftist newsletter that tells the facts, names the names!
Democracy Now: A daily TV/radio news program, hosted by Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez, airing on over 800 stations, pioneering the largest community media collaboration in the U.S.
Free Press: A national, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization working to reform the media through education, organizing and advocacy.
Grist: Environmental news and green living tips from Grist, the most recognizable voice in environmental journalism.
Independent Media Center: Indymedia is a collective of independent media organizations and hundreds of journalists offering grassroots, non-corporate coverage. Indymedia is a democratic media outlet for the creation of radical, accurate, and passionate tellings of truth.
National Priorities Project: Offers citizen and community groups tools and resources to shape federal budget and policy priorities which promote social and economic justice.
New American Dream : Helps Americans consume responsibly to protect the environment, enhance quality of life, and promote social justice.
News Trust: Helps people find and share good journalism online.
Organic Consumers Association : The Organic Consumers Association (OCA) is an online and grassroots non-profit 501(c)3 public interest organization campaigning for health, justice, and sustainability. The OCA deals with crucial issues of food safety, industrial agriculture, genetic engineering, children's health, corporate accountability, Fair Trade, environmental sustainability and other key topics.
Project Censored: Locating stories about significant issues of which the public should be aware, but is not, for one reason or another.
PR Watch: A nonprofit, public interest organization dedicated to investigative reporting on the public relations industry.
Signs of the Times: One of the leading news sites for those tired of the "news" that is "reported" by the mainstream media.
Thomas Hartmann: News. Opinion. Debate. National daily progressive radio talk show.
Toward Freedom: A progressive perspective on world events.
Truthout: Truthout works to broaden and diversify the political discussion by introducing independent voices and focusing on undercovered issues and unconventional thinking.
Visionaries Institute International: Visionaries Institute International is a center for the creation and study of media that inspires positive social change in the real world.
YES! Magazine is an award-winning, ad-free, nonprofit publication that supports people’s active engagement in building a just and sustainable world.
3. PSA Group Blog Post #3:
Two weeks to go! How is the process unfolding? Are all team members participating as promised? Report on you progress. Storyboarding , shooting video, collecting images, and research should all be completed soon. Editing should begin as soon as possible to bring your message together and finalize your project. Help is available through the UVM Media Services Department.
REMINDER: Be flexible, communicate with each other, and have fun!
Dear Suzie,
ReplyDeleteMany thanks for linking to Be The Media. Much appreciated!
Best,
David
MY ADVERTISEMENT
ReplyDeleteThis image is specifically to show that Starbucks is environmental and supports things like using a reusable cup instead of paper cups (tumbler). It is interesting though because Starbucks is not really doing anything environmental it is not really contributing any money. By taking money off of people's orders is not even giving money to the cause of the environment because they over charge so much anyway that I doubt they would really be losing any profit. Also, they support that you use a tumbler instead of a paper cup, and I'm pretty sure a tumbler is a reusable mug that is sold by Starbucks. Therefore, people will probably give Starbucks more profit during this Earth Day instead of Starbucks giving anything to the environment. I think this ad is crap. People get a fake sense of environmentalism by buying coffee from a giant conglomerate; this seems so twisted. Starbucks is showing themselves with a tree and something that says Earth Day, and people who don't even read the ad will be fooled into thinking that Starbucks has some sort of environmental agenda - when they don't. Really don't.
http://capremix.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/starbucks-earth-day.jpg
I chose PRWatch.org as my site for the week. First of all, I’ll just be honest in telling you that I did not go through any other websites, I just picked one and ran with it. When I stumbled on this website, the first thing I noticed with the logos for twitter and facebook and blogger so that you could join them instantly. I did and did not like this fact. I thought it was too like “oh, we’re just like every other website, so you should just follow us blindly just like every other fad on twitter and facebook.” However, I thought it might be a good thing in order to raise awareness about PR that people have no clue about. I know that before this class I had no clue about what PR really was and it would have been cool if one of my friends had something on their facebook that I could have joined or read about. Honestly though, I thought having the logos in such a big area and having it be the first thing on the page was really obnoxious. I feel like environmental websites get a bad rap sometimes for being liberal and out there which means that should try a little harder to make their sites to be as professional as possible.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of content, one thing I did not like was the first story I noticed was entitled “McCain De-Mavericks” the story was about how McCain does not want to be called the Maverick anymore because he does feel that this name represents him. How is this PR valuable? Who cares what McCain wants to be called? I’m not just saying this because I don’t care for McCain either; I would have the same feelings if it were Obama. I was just thinking that a site like PR watch could bring a lot of valuable PR information to the public, why are they focusing on such dumb things on the slogans of McCain.
The website was effective and organized enough to get me to read many of the articles though - which I think is good. I learned that, apparently, Energy Star appliances are bogus. Apparently a company invented fake products such as a gasoline powered alarm clock and said that it used 20% less energy than its competitors and submitted it to Energy Star for approval and received it for all four of the fake products they created. Holy Crap! I thought Energy Star was a good thing, I suppose you learn something new every day. Based on stories like this I thought that the website was good for getting certain stories out that could have public value.
I did notice that most of the stories that are run are strongly democratic and not so much republican. I am not a republican but one would think that it wouldn’t be so left sided and represent the ideas of both sides. I think you would get more people to listen if you looked as unbiased as possible, I think the site had some biases. I could clearly see the left wings flying off the site.
Another thing I think would not contribute to many people wanting the information from this website would be the fact that you can’t see who some of the stories are submitted by; therefore you couldn’t tell if this was really reliable or not unless you did a lot more research. I’m struggling right now because I want to be able to get news in a place that does not require an obscene amount of effort and I feel like this site is not conducive to that desire. There are a lot of anonymous entries which makes me and I’m sure many other people skeptical of the site’s information. I wish there was a PR website that brought well researched reliable information to my hands.
Overall, I think websites like this can work if they don’t have too many ads on them, they don’t promote you following them on twitter, they have credible/well sourced articles and don’t overly display any political agendas.
I came across this internet advertisement on the site treehugger.com which I intentionally chose because I knew that it would be a prime location for some false corporate sentimentality. The group in question is the Hanes company, which helps to plunder the world with it's chemical hungry cotton fields, and extra sweaty sweat-shops.
ReplyDeleteThis particular corporation must have a really well paid marketing and PR group.
So I clicked the adorable image of the little girl holding a tree seedling and it took me to their "green" site. On this site is their most recent commercial advertisement which also stars a bunch of cute little kids. It is apparent that young parents are being targeted with this advertisement. Well, either that or maybe they are targeting unmarried late twenties- early thirties men?
Whoever the target is the message that is being sent is that if you don't buy and wear the new "eco-friendly" line of Hanes clothing you are a bad person and you will be destroying the future for all the cute little kids in the ad. There is also a real black/ white, either/or message as well with the two main characters. The one guy is wearing all of the Hanes eco-line where as the other antagonist is wearing just some regular clothes. Also interesting to note is that the villain looks a little unshaven and disheveled where as the other guy looks cleaned up and put together.
The judgments being made all come from the point of view of these small children. The unfortunate thing is that this commercial is pretty entertaining even though it is sending the message to consume more.
http://www.hanesgreen.com/
YES magazine
ReplyDeleteOne of the most stand-out things regarding the YES magazine website is that there are no advertisements. I understand that this is part of their mission statement but I am amazed to see that they follow through with it. This site is also very user friendly and isn't cluttered up with too much information. I was really surprised to see Gustavo Esteva's face on the front page. He directs the UVM Oaxaca semester and is a very inspiring individual.
This too is one of YES magazines said missions. To provide motivation and inspiration to readers to go out and say "yes." What I really love about this site is that everything is sectioned up by: Peace & Justice, People Power, Happiness, New Economy, and the Planet. Really these should always be the most important things highlighted in life. I especially like the Happiness category. To be able to read articles about everyday people taking action really puts some fire under the old butt. I think on-line activism can work and has shown to work in the past. Although nothing beats a face to face encounter when making a point, changes have been made through internet action. I trace the success of on-line decent back to the popularity of Howard Dean's campaign in 2004.
With all that aside I find no fault with this website and their mission as of yet. I mean they even make mention of Wendell Berry and provide links to TED talks which are my new addiction. What is so stand out about a site like this one is the positive action based approach to current events. YES magazine doesn't just lament the woes of our modern times but gives the reader a wonderful list of resources for change. This is actually a pretty exiting find for me since I have always followed liberal news websites like Huffingtonpost which has become too commercialized and filled with smutty news.
While I was online looking for a book for a class on amazon, I came across this whole earth day link on amazon on how to “make everyday earth daY”. There is a section on green categories, where you can find environmentally friendly items, and featured on the main page, it talks about trading in, reusing and recycling. There are a bunch of items you can but, reused, or made from reusable items. I found this whole section on amazon to be useful and helpful to many people who want to be more environmentally friendly with their purchases. It shows the right purchases to make with specific items and basically has an option in each category you can think of. I feel that for a store like amazon something like this is extremely helpful and help people make the right decisions. Even though this isn’t a specific advertisement, if you look deeper into the website you can see how some of these items are sold compared to if they were sold on their own websites. On amazon they keep the advertisements plain, but on a stores website, they try to make it look much more appealing by placing it in natural settings and with beautiful people showing them.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.amazon.com/Earth-Day/b/ref=gw_cto_earth/191-2571267-9183154?_encoding=UTF8&node=1260993011&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=left-nav-2&pf_rd_r=0AWWHSWCSQJHECY33M3C&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1259192702&pf_rd_i=507846
I chose to take a deeper look at Independent Media Center. I found the website very interesting and informative, and it had a lot of information to read and absorb. This website seems different than others because you need to go on it and read for yourself. I signed up for the email updates, so hopefully that will be helpful and other people do that because that seems that will be the only way of getting information unless you are checking the website regularly. I read/skimmed through a bunch of the articles and they all seem to have a lot within them. I feel like this type of activism would work only if you were checking it regularly or signed up of email updates. I plan on checking this website regularly and seeing what it has to say and how often. I do like to be apart of email updates on various websites because I find it one of the easier ways to stay informed and follow everyday issues. I do feel that online activism is effective as a whole, and I can only hope that it grows and more and more people start to follow these sorts of websites to stay informed.
Ad Analysis
ReplyDeleteAs I was scouring the internet I saw some advertisements with some implicit false environmental symbolism or greenwashing. One company that constantly uses the environment to its advantage is Nature Valley. Why not? It says “nature” in the name it must be natural, or straight from the forest as this image implies. The marketing strategy is obvious, it wants people to think they are buying a natural, healthy, and trustworthy product. Looking at the ingredients of these granola bars it is hard to believe they use this kind of advertising campaign because these things are far from natural. It does have granola, but the list of oils and chemicals does not exactly make it seem like this food item was picked from the wilderness. The forest used in the background almost looks like a redwood forest from the pacific northwest. This region has been plagued by some of the worst deforestation and environmentally degrading logging practices. I am not linking Nature Valley to destruction of the redwoods but the imagery is a little ironic.
http://sisterlysavings.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/naturevalley.jpg
Activist Websites
After going through some of these sites, project censored was the most interesting to me. This site offers alterative news articles and videos to corporate media, and any messages that resemble propaganda. There are quotes and references that support the sites goals of critiquing journalism and any bias that might exist. The Interviews with co-editors Peter Phillips and Mickey Huff are really interesting, these are two people that know a lot about corruption in the news and are on top of their game. If there was anything critical about the site it would be the lack of organization. If you look at every category it is easy to find what you need though. Project Censored has a good message, maybe they should expand, and add more editors or journalists since I have never heard of them. One cannot really participate with this organization, unless you purchase their literature and guides but looking at the news and articles makes visiting this site worth it.
PSA
Plans fell through to get the filming done this weekend but our story is all set and our group is still in good shape to finish. We just need a few hours to get the filming done, and an hour or so to edit. I think it is good we have not filmed yet since this gives us more time to think about the scenes and the information we will use.
1. http://www.thedailygreen.com/going-green/tips/ebay-green-products-shopping-461008
ReplyDeleteThe advertisement I found was on the daily green and it was advertising ebay’s new green section for shopping. It has lots of Earth tone colors, homemade placemats, and uses the life is good lettering style. It gives off a very simplistic natural vibe that many shoppers are now attracted to. At the same time however, it is still telling people to consume, Where your shopping shapes the world. It really helps get people jumping on the green bandwagon, but at the same time being green is really about cutting back ones consumption habits. It is a mixed message for environmentalists, but I am still happy it is up because people will still consume anyway and pointing them in the right direction is a good move.
2. I decided to choose AlterNet and I signed up for emails of main articles. I can’t wait to get the emails because then I could compare other news sources to it. I chose AlterNet because it instantly had articles that I found interesting such as one on raw milk. I guess these are more alternative articles than mainstream news, but I would rather read those anyway.
AlterNet tries to make people aware of issues and inspires them into wanting to make change. It isn’t even just inspiring people, but by bring their attention to more less known topics it makes people more aware of the world and its honesty. I believe that online activism does work and is actually very successful. Since people now a days spend so much time online it is actually quite easy to get things started online. People look up random stuff and chances are they have stumbled upon environmental articles before. Once one gets signed up for an environmental site or someone leads them to one, it could have a large impact. One of my friends mentioned the plastic gyre and he learned about that through online news.
I believe it isn’t really meaningful unless you have some one you are going to talk to it about, or who is also looking up environmental articles. I believe that there isn’t the same connection as with real life campaigns. I believe that to make it truly meaningful one must have an outlet or a personal connection, it is useful but like anything else without an outlet, it is not meaningful.
3. Our PSA is actually coming together really well! I managed to put together our two driving clips and photos into our video as well as music. It flows nicely right now. I cut out spots for the facts, which all we need to do is type in. We also need to make a credits and stuff, which looks simple. I am impressed with the rate that I was able to figure out and use iMovie; it was more simple than I had thought. We just need to sit down for a good few hours and nail the rest of it out and it should look good. iMovie magic occurred this morning and it looks professional so far!
Advertisement:
ReplyDeleteSo, in this advertisement from Clorox, you see their product, Clorox wipes, in a woodland field surrounded by innocent white flowers with some dreamlike sunbeams emanating from some light source in the background. The advertisement uses the whole green, happy environment surrounding the designated product. As for persuasive techniques used, they utilized symbols and warm fuzzies. The symbols would be the green environment and the pure white flowers that represent just all around eco-goodness. And the healthy environment surrounding the product is meant to just bring some kind of warm fuzzy to the consumer and make them feel like by buying this product everything will be green and good, and no one will have to worry. And, what I find interesting about this is that they tell you its 99% natural and biodegradable and Clorox will gladly put all of the ingredients on their green works products, but not on their regular products. Also, the Clorox logo is prominently displayed on the green works product. I believe Clorox is trying to get people to associate their name with environmentally friendly even if it’s not really. And the advertisement says that its still has the cleaning power of Clorox. So, why don’t they change all of their products to work like green works if they aren’t losing any efficiency? If it’s better for the environment and works just as good, what is keeping them from switching all of their products over to this formula that apparently the world needs? I mean, good for Clorox, making a step in the right direction, but if its as good as they say it is, why not go all the way?
http://tinyurl.com/y827euy
Activist Websites:
ReplyDeleteTo start, I looked through all of the websites, and I was slightly disappointed. They were more flashy and more over the top than I expected. I was a little put off by the amount of ads on some of them and the big Facebook and Twitter logos everywhere. Also, some of the sites seemed so left wing that they made me a little skeptical about the actual content of the site. How do I know these articles weren’t put on by some other form of PR? I was also a little put off by all of the big logos and unprofessional nature of the sites. I feel that if these sites want to reach a larger audience, they might benefit from toning it down a little bit without losing the value of their content. Also, Yes Magazine, which said they were ad-free definitely had the Facebook and Twitter logos on their site which technically is some form of advertising for those two sites. In addition, they certainly didn’t skimp on ads for the magazine or the site.
The site I chose to focus on was Grist. I thought it seemed to be slightly better than some of the others. Although it did have a rather large logo and some advertisements, I found the content of the site to be more uplifting and a little more hopeful than some of the other websites. Also, even though it’s labeled as an advertisement, the site provides you with a way, on first glance of the website to be active and sign a petition to prevent the bringing back of commercial whaling. There was also something about how to talk to a global warming skeptic. So instead of telling people they are wrong and the world is going to heat up and explode, you can use educated conversation to reason with them. There is also a neat feature that I haven’t noticed on many other sites where you can click on the authors name and find out sort of who they are and what they stand for. I feel as though this provides a little more comfort when reading things because you know it was written by for example a man who has been an investigative journalist for 25 years, versus some PR idiot. And the advertisements that is does contain are positive ones about clean canteens and conflict free diamonds. And the page is not littered with them like many other sites. It is embracing the media without over doing it, which I feel is important. The media exists; advertisements exist. Sometimes they can be helpful, as annoying as they usually seem. So claiming something is ad free, even though that particular site was not, is just not reasonable. I do think this organization fulfills its mission to social and environmental change. It is not as crazy left wing and I feel that this makes it easier to reach a wider audience. I do believe that online activism sometimes works. I think it’s a useful tool that should be supplemented with other non-online activities. I once signed an online petition to get Trader Joes to remove red-listed sea-food from their shelves, and work towards more sustainable sea-food policies, and it worked. They removed the red-listed fish and are actually trying to make improvements. So in this instance, online activism did work and was quite effective. It’s different for different issues, but I do believe it has some value. A lot of people can be reached very quickly (which could be considered good or bad depending on what light its seen in.) Participation in this form only feels really meaningful when you see definite results, although I do feel some brief hint of possible accomplishment when I sign online petitions etc... because there is always that possibility that it will amount to something and be effective in its intentions.
PSA:
Straight up done… We’ve had a few people watch it, and so far so good. I’m really excited to watch everyone’s!!
1.http://www.treehugger.com/galleries/CoolAds-Fiat-Panda.jpg
ReplyDeleteThe ad I found is for the car-maker Fiat, advertising their cars as easier on the environment. The only words they use are "Engineered for a lower impact on the environment," and underneath that it says, "The lowest CO2 emission car range in Europe." The image they use shows a panda in the driver's seat as the car crashes. The obvious techniques they're using are, simple solutions (buy a fiat save the environment), symbols (the panda is an emblem of the conservation movement, it's on the WWF logo) and warm fuzzies (again the panda, who doesn't love em?)just to name a couple. The ad plays off the environmental concerns of people in order to move automobiles.
2. I'm going to follow Alternet this week. Alternet is an organization that thinks journalism should serve a purpose beyond merely informing. They think it should inform and guide the community toward and through positive changes. They try to do this by not only aggregating important, interesting, or overlooked articles, but by engaging a wide user-base in an attempt to educate people using the internet community.
1. Ad Analysis
ReplyDeleteSeventh Generation: http://www.seventhgeneration.com/
Who is sending the message?
Seventh Generation, a Burlington, VT based corporation committed to social and ecological responsibility.
Techniques:
Symbols-the green leaf is a symbol used to represent nature to appeal to an audience who is interested in the outdoors/environment.
Simple Solutions-the Seventh Generation site certainly tries to promote their household products on the basis that if you use their products exclusively, your home will be safe. This is a simple solution because it doesn’t take into account the toxins coming into the home in food, for example.
Plain Folks-although the website is not directly targeting mothers and homemakers, it is obvious that their ads are directed towards [probably] mothers. The constant message is about keeping your home and family safe from toxic chemicals.
Warm Fuzzies-this is a big one. There are multiple images of babies and young children all over the website. This supports their overall mission of preserving the environment for future generations.
Scientific Evidence- there is a “Did you know?” section, in which statistics are given. One of them is: “If every household in the US replaced just one box of 48oz petroleum-based powder laundry detergent with our vegetable-based product, we could save 96,000 barrels of oil, enough to heat and cool 5,500 US homes for a year!” This is a great fact that will certainly help to sell their products to a certain audience, but it is unclear if the company took into account the energy costs that go into creating detergent from vegetables. Obviously, it must take a lot of processing to get from a vegetable to a detergent, package it, and get it to the store.
What lifestyles, values and points of view are represented in this message?
The lifestyle of a stay at home Mom is the first that comes to mind from the pictures displayed on the site. This could be expanded to include anyone with a home that needs to be cleaned, whom values socially and environmentally sound products. This tends to encompass younger, educated people with a stable income.
How might different people understand this message different from me?
Some people may see these products as weaker than what they are used to, silly or too expensive. The main consumers of these products are probably people with a strong environmental ethic to start with.
What is omitted from this message?
It is unclear how much these products cost, or where/how they are made. The ingredients in the products are included, which is great.
2. Activist Website
ReplyDeleteGrist-a beacon in the smog (environmental journalism site): http://www.grist.org/
I chose to follow Grist.org because I am really interested in journalism/activism. This site fulfills its mission by providing up to date articles on a variety of topics that may be overlooked in mainstream media sources. They focus broadly on climate&energy, food, living, news, and business. I looked into the news section of the page, and the first article that came up was one entitled: What the green movement needs from the next Supreme Court justice. This is a topic that I hadn’t even considered because it isn’t mentioned in the media that I see on a daily basis (granted I don’t regularly read newspapers or online news, and don’t have a TV). I’m not sure that this site could be considered activism, in that there is no obvious effort at campaign participation or organization for change. Many websites have applications to write emails to legislators or sign petitions, but this one does not so far. There is, however, a way to ‘share’ any of their articles via email, Facebook, Twitter, or a blog. Participation in the Grist.org site feels meaningful for me personally because I am interested in journalism, and certainly many of the topics they discuss, but my involvement doesn’t have an impact on our greater community.
3. PSA Group Blog Post #3
The project is going well at this point. Everyone has contributed to the research that was delegated to them. Nate and I met in the library last week to nail down our plans for which facts to use, and when/where we will film. We will get footage immediately after class on Tuesday afternoon, and after that we will schedule a time for final editing. If you have any other questions, Professor Debrosse, I would be happy to answer them or even email you the research that we’ve completed.
I chose this ad because I been seeing a lot lately on CNN and I interested in Alternative energy.
ReplyDeleteMany of you may have already seen these ads floating around now of days but its becoming more and more prevalent. What I am talking about is the campaign for clean coal by Americaspower.org. There icon is an electrical cord plugged into a lump of coal. They try to draw you into their cause by trying to tug you on your heart strings. They play a video from power plant employees on how a job at the power plant is supporting their family and part of their every day lives. I understand that this is their source of bread and butter but since they work for the company they could possibly try to convince them to look at alternative sources of energy instead of coal.
In the site the have a fact page with a map. On the map you can click your state and determine if it uses coal as a source of energy. If it doesn't it simply says that it has high prices. For example if you click Vermont it says no coal power usage = high prices. The site is a mere propaganda campaign for the coal industry.
I looked even further into the site and it is run by the (ACCCE) Which stands for the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity. It provides a list of companies signed up as members. They include excavation makers such as Caterpillar and mining companies.
It doesn't really explain the criticism provided by many other credible site on the internet. I did not see any professional references on the entire site.