1. Courtney had to deal with a lot of stress during Justin's illness. She was a senior in high school and was involved with many things including playing softball. She was under a lot of stress in general because it was her boyfriend that was sick. I think that she responded very well to his illness. She could have just moped around and been upset the whole time, but instead she used him as inspiration. She tried to play better in her games as if she was doing it for him, and she spent the rest of her free time either with Justin or raising money to help pay for Justin's medical bills. This helped her cope with the whole situation because it was almost as if she did not leave time for her to feel sad, and she did everything that she could so that after the fact there could be no way that she blamed herself for him not recovering.
2. Justin gave Courtney the promise ring even though he knew he was going to die because him being that ill and near death made him realize the things that were important to him and Courtney was at the top of the list. He did it to display how strong their commitment was and to show Courtney how much he cared even if he was not going tto be around in the future to make it actually happen. This factor helped them both cope with the illness because they knew they were in it together.
3. This article shows that coping with tragedy can not always be a horrible thing. Courtney didn't just get upset over her boyfriend's illness, she did something about it. She worked hard to raise money for him, and she wouldn't sleep until she felt she had made a difference. Sometimes she would spend late nights with him despite the fact that she had to get up early the next day to go to a training session.
4. I thought the tone and structure of this article was really good. It really engaged the audience into showing how strong Courtney and Justin's relationship was and how dedicated they both were. The tone of this article was definately not a happy one, but it was also not a sad one. It was almost reassuring and comforting to know that there are people out there who are so devoted and selfless.

Me: Welcome to our discussion today about the piracy of music. I will begin by asking about the consequences that people should face for downloading illegally ad distributing illegally. Do you think that everyone who illegally downloads and distributes should get prosecuted for a crime?
RIAA: I think that anyone who illegally downloads music should be prosecuted as criminals, and should be charged for their crime of stealing. There are many laws against it and if people are not following these laws, then they should be prosecuted. People who illegally sell and distribute music should definitely be prosecuted because they are trying to sell other people's creative work, without the artist making any money off of it.
JS: I don't think that everyone who "illegally" downloads should not necessarily be prosecuted. Some people are just at home listening to their music that was share over the internet. Some of these people do not have the money to pay for the music in the first place never mind the fines that would be bestowed upon them if they were to get caught. I do agree that if someone tries to sell an artist's creative work without the proper copyrights and and without that artist getting any of the money, then that person should be prosecuted.

Gun Laws on Campus

Guns should be allowed to be carried on school campuses if the person has the right training and permission. For someone to be able to carry a gun , i think that it should be required that they have an extensive background check to make sure that they are mentally competent and that they would not abuse the fact that they are carrying a gun. It should also be required that they have gun training so that they know how to operate a gun correctly. They should also be educated in gun safety, including how to safely store and carry a gun so that it does not get into the wrong hands. The University should also have very harsh punishments for anyone who carries a firearm without the proper certification.
One of the strongest arguments that I found for being allowed to carry guns on campus, was the person in the wheel chair, he said that he can't move very fast and if there was a threat he would not be able to get away in time, and he considers himself as a target. A strong argument against having guns on campus was that many people do not feel safe knowing that there is someone in one of their classes that is carrying a weapon without them knowing about it.
A strong argument against having guns a campuses was said by Professor Barbara Nash when she stated how having more guns on campus will not create a safer society. A weak argument for not having guns is the fact about people just not feeling safe, because if hey have the proper certification then it should make people feel safer.
Having teachers but not students carry guns could be a potential solution. Having just the teachers holding guns would create a more controlled environment and everyone would know exactly who is holding guns. On the other hand this could potentially be bad because if there were to be a shooter on campus, teachers would be the first targets because hey are he only ones with defense mechanisms.
The Second Amendment states that people have the right to bear arms, but as for most laws, they are different when it comes to high school or college campuses because schools have additional rules.

The first article from this reading discussed how over the years the looks of action figures have gotten to be extremely unrealistic. In making these action figures look the way they do, the author of this article thinks that it has made males have a very unrealisic goal of what they should look like starting at a young age, and it as caused them to have self esteem issues through their lives. It compared guy's issues about their looks with girl's issues about their looks. It said that action figures were trying to tell males what they should look like.
The author of the second article said that they think that it is ridiculous that people think action figures influence how people look at themselves. She thinks that they are to completely separate worlds and don't have anything to do with each other. The article talks about how action figures aren't supposed to look like real people, because they are not real people. Action figures tend to have powers and are some what mutant.
The first article's one was more serious and formal. The author used information from different studies to support their argument. These arguments were more validated because they had data to back it up. The audience for this reading would have been a more formal, educated audience. The second article had a very informal tone. It was very opinionated and didn't have any proof of what she was saying. it was almost just a rant of what she thought about the subject. This article would have an audience that was informal.
I do not fully agree with either of these articles I think that there should be a middle ground between the two articles. I don't think that the action figures physique really effects how males think about themselves. The action figures may make some guys want to look more like them but over all I think that the young boys that play with the action figures admire their powers or the things that they do rather then their bodies. When I was younger I always played with Barbies, it never made me think that Barbies were what women, including myself should look like. I think that sometimes it would be nice to look like Barbie, but she is not the only vision of a body out there. There are women all over television that don't look like Barbie, in magazines, in real life. It is true that they would make some girls or boys strive to look like their toys because they are their heroes. There are some cases where a child would want to look exactly like their toy, for example: Halloween or toys like My Size Barbie. This Barbie does not have the same proportions that a regular Barbie has, because it is made to look like a young girl so that they can fit in the clothes.

Blog Entry #3

Pro-Ana



Pro-Ana websites should be shut down. The only thing they do is encourage people, generally young women to have eating disorders. Instead of helping them with the disease, pro-ana websites make it easier for people to have it and it gives them ways to make it worse. It supports eating disorders in a positive way, rather then trying to help them overcome it. An eating disorder is a very serious disease. People with eating disorders become obsessed with losing weight and looking like what they think is "perfect".

On the other hand, these websites are a place where people with eating disorders can go to find people who are going through what they are. It gives them a place where they do not feel judged for what they are doing, they can recieve advice from other people or just write what they are feelig. Pro - ana/mia websites provide support for people that have eating disorders that no one else understand. People with eating disorders are often judged in a very negative way, many people don't understand that having an eating disorder in like having a disease, and they can't always help it. It is an obsession.

There are good arguments for both sides of pro-ana. Although pro-ana websites provide support for people who have eating disorders, they should also be helping them find a cure. They should be more of a support group, where people can go for help. It should still be a place where they can go to talk about things they are going through but they should get feedback that doesn't promote them to keep on doing it.

Blog Entry #2

Not Just Sneakers?

My initial reaction to this ad was that it appeals to a very small market of "runners". Not only does this ad attract only runners but it also puts down and criticizes people who jog. On the other hand the ad did pull me in with the heading, because it did not really have anything to do with the actual product.
I am not a runner per se, this ad made me feel a little bad about it. At the same time it kind of made me want to start running, but i was also felt like I was on the outside and didn't really understand the feelings and sensations they were talking about.
This ad promotes running, by saying that it is our given instinct to run and that we are meant to run. It goes as fr as to even say that we were born to run, and if we had not run we would not be here. It talks about all the good aspects of running, like how you can be one with the environment, and how when you are at the peak of your running your senses are heightened. This ad also tries to put people away from jogging, calling it a synonym for half-assed. It is odd because the majority of people would fall into their "joggers" category, so as an ad it is affending more people then it is promoting. It would make sense that it would be in a runners magazine , because it would not do very well in an ordinary magazine.
Pearl Izumi definitely alienates joggers from runners. This ad makes jogging look like a joke compared to running. The marketing advantage of dividing joggers from runners is that it makes the runners feel superior and therefore thinking that they need these sneakers so they can maximize their running experience. This division also has faults because if people are runners, they may think that they are not good enough for these sneakers, almost as if they are too intense, which may discourage them from buying them.
I think that this ad was really good at doing what it wanted to do. It showed a picture of the sneakers, but they weren't white and new, they had dirt all over then so that one could tell that they were really used and that all of their features were taken advantage of. I don't know if this ad was the best marketing strategy, but they really went all out for the angle that they decided to go with.
If I were to only choose one ad to run in a magazine I would run the Reebok ad. It appeals to the majority of people by telling them to run at their own pace, and it is alright to jog. It almost says that as long as you are doing something it is acceptable, and that you don't need to be an extreme runner.

Blog Entry #1

Blog Assignment #1

The True meaning of "Game Over"

This game seems to be a form of propaganda. Trying to get young people to be motivated to join the arm by portraying it as a fun game. It appeals to kids because they just see it as a game with goals, but their is a "hidden message" that is trying to get them into the army without them realizing it. This game's appearance is very life like and it tries to be very authentic to what the military would actually be like.
This game indoctrinates the ideology of war by portraying it as a game rather then a grueling battle that people have to endure. This game seems to desensitize kids a little to how they react to killing someone and people dying right in front of them. It depicts war as a fun game, not a serious issue that can affect many people's lives. They might not realize the the other soldiers and people that they are killing are actual people and have lives and families of their own, they are just a target in a game.
In real life, when one is in war and there are gunshots are firing from every direction and a soldier gets shot and dies, they cannot just restart the game and start over. Once you die, that is it. This game could possibly give young people a false impression that they are invincible and that they get many chances in "the game of war". I met an Iraq veteran once and he had been sent home after a sniper shot him in the shoulder. I don't think kids playing this video game realize how real things are, and how in the game getting shot in the shoulder would completely take you out of the game for a while. They should be more aware of what the actual consequences can be, the real definition of "Game Over".
Some like to argue that violent video games cause adolescents to be violent in real life. I disagree with this theory. I don't think that video games actually affect how kids act in places like school life. I believe that if someone takes video games serious enough to a point where they confuse the two different worlds, then that individual has other serious issues that need to be addressed other then the fact that they play too many video games.
From a marketing standpoint, it is smart to target video games for getting people to join the army. The Demographics for a video game such as this are the ages that the army wants to target for potential recruitment.