More Issues in Media and Society

For those, who are interested in 
Media andSociety issues, I recommend visiting following blogs.All of them are just great.


1. https://malyshevablog.wordpress.com/
This incredible blog talks about materialism, as a virus of our society. I think that: it is a VIRUS! We see people admiring luxurious brands of bags and clothing, praying for getting a new iPhone and spending crazy amount of money for unnecessary toys. We are bombarded with such messages and posts on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. Malyshevablog describes all these issues in a very interesting way. So, please check this blog:)

2. http://aisha228.blogspot.cz/2016/04/modern-standards-of-beauty.html
Here is another awesome blog. It talks about the modern perception of beauty and beauty industry. Aisha, the author, states her point of view on the modern standards of beauty and her views are opposite to mine. It was interesting to explore what she thinks about beauty standards, and I found few interesting articles in this blog. Highly recommend  reading "Modern Standards of Beauty" blog. If you are interested, please, click on the link above:)

3. https://stmediasociety.wordpress.com/author/stmediasociety/
"Discrimination against Homosexuals in Society" is a great blog, created by my classmate. The blog talks about different issues of LGBT society, and one of the posts is focused on problems of the Russian LGBT minority. It discusses the laws that ban "gay propaganda" in Russian media. Such negative attitude towards LGBT community takes place not only in Russia but in the majority of developing countries. I highly recommend to visit this blog and spend some time on researching this media issue:)

4. https://wearemorethanthese.wordpress.com
Discrimination could be detected in all forms of media and it is an issue of  our morality. The blog "We are More Than These" analyzes media content that includes elements of discrimination. The post "Current Event II: Family Guy" talks about the satirical jokes that discriminate race and gender minorities, disabled people. The post ends up with a good question: "Harmless jokes or a reason to think?". If you agree with any of proposed options, please check out this blog and leave your comment.

5. https://childrenadvertising.wordpress.com/
Last but not least blog I want to talk about is "Children and Advertising".  This blog contains a post about Tom Brady, the well-known quarterback, who made a claim that Coca-Cola and Frosted Flakes cereals are the "poison" for us and for the younger generation. I believe it is highly important subject to talk about because there is a possibility that it would affect our health. Please visit the  blog for very useful and helpful information:)

My View

           

              Development of technologies affected the majority of the aspects of our lives. Politics and its appearance for the society were shifted by extremely frequent usage of social media, the emergence of television and radio. As the history shows media's impact on politics and especially on the election races was crucial. According to the article "US elections 2012: is Facebook 'the real presidential swing state'?", the famous television debate between Ronald Reagan and J.F. Kennedy was one of the first examples of how important and influential appeared to be the role of television. As it is stated by The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History: "The debates made Kennedy look like a winner. His practice of looking at the camera when answering the questions—and not at the journalists who asked them, as Nixon did—made viewers see him as someone who was talking directly to them and who gave them straight answers." Furthermore, the display of Kennedy on media assured the society that he is an intelligent and trustworthy candidate. The media impact on the elections' results is undeniable and has to be taken into serious considerations. 

              Previous US 2012 presidential elections were named as the first internet based elections. The win of Barack Obama serves as a proof of social media's power. According to Dr. Pamela Rutledge, The 2012 Obama's presidential campaign was focused on such social media outlets as Twitter and Facebook. The campaign was built on the most used forms of communication, which is social media networking. It has played a crucial role in the elections because it is important to communicate with people through the most accessible outlet. Therefore, in comparison of Obama and Romney’s campaigns, the usage of Facebook and Twitter was much higher for the current US president. Moreover, it is important to highlight that media and social media, in particular, are predominant aspects of our lives.  As the author of the "How Obama Won the Social Media Battle in the 2012 Presidential Campaign" article states: "Social media creates a new political dialogue.  It takes the power of political messaging away from the mass media model and places it firmly into peer-to-peer, public discourse." Barack Obama's team effectively used the social media triggers. To illustrate, the study by Pew Research Center claims that Obama’s social media profiles had 4 times more posts than it had Romney’s profiles. For today, social media market acquired more tools for posting and spreading information. Snapchat, Instagram and other photo and video based applications make the society be more dependent on social media, and therefore, create a new way for politicians to reach more and more people.  

The current events that are connected to the US presidential elections prove that social media matters in the modern world. One of the most popular candidates on social media websites gains more and more votes during this poll race. Donald Trump, the billionaire, and businessman, is being criticized for his extravagant claims and attitude. However, he is leading in the states like Nevada, Virginia, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee and many others (Smith, 2016).  The simple comparison of the social media frequency usage and votes leads to the simple conclusion that social media is a powerful outlet and denying to post and share will play a bad joke to the candidates. Moreover, the flow of the candidate's posts has to be carefully analyzed in order to be an objective voter and do not take quantity for quality.            

Works Cited

 Smith, A. (2016, February 22). Polls show Donald Trump dominating everywhere. Retrieved May 01, 2016, from http://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-polls-states-super-tuesday-2016-2

 Pew Research Center: Journalism & Media staff. (2012, August 15). How the Presidential Candidates Use the Web and Social Media. Retrieved May 01, 2016, from http://www.journalism.org/2012/08/15/how-presidential-candidates-use-web-and-social-media/ 

 The Great Debate: Kennedy, Nixon, and Television in the 1960 Race for the Presidency. (n.d.). Retrieved May 01, 2016, from https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/sixties/essays/great-debate-kennedy-nixon-and-television-1960-race-for-presidency 

 Rutledge, P. (2013, January 25). How Obama Won the Social Media Battle in the 2012 Presidential Campaign. Retrieved May 01, 2016, from http://mprcenter.org/blog/2013/01/how-obama-won-the-social-media-battle-in-the-2012-presidential-campaign/ 

For Further Research

For those, who are interested in the US 2016 Presidential elections and for those, who want to be a political expert I recommend to start off looking at following websites.

The New York Times.
The New York Times website is actively investigating in the US 2016 presidential elections research, statistics and news updating. The user of the website can find very visually pleasing and understandable  content about the candidates and
their ratings. Also, the website manages to keep the content with an element of entertainment.  "Fact Checks of the 2016 Election" and "How Trump could win" headings are intriguing for further research.

You can find everything you want to know about the elections   here: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/us/elections/election-2016.html

270 to Win
Another useful source for an informed citizen of the world is 270 to Win website. The name of the websites addresses to 270 electoral votes for the candidates to win the elections. The website proposes us the US map that shows which state gives its votes for what political parties' candidates. Moreover, the 270 to Win website allows a user to read the latest news. The most incredible part of this source is the 2016 Election Countdown Clock and 270 to Win application for Ipad. It allows to create your own maps and save it.
If you are interested, you are welcome ti visit the 270 to Win website: http://www.270towin.com/

Real Clear Politics
"RealClearPolitics is the trusted, non-partisan, convener in a content-rich media environment; thoughtfully curating the best coverage from every angle of the day's most critical issues."- said in the description. 
This source provides high-quality analysis of 2016 elections' news flow, as well as graphical content that supports the easy usage and consuming information on this website. It has maps, videos, and the voters analysis tables. 
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/