Blog Post #1

What Media I consume for 24 Hours

Follow what media I consume in one day, from binging Netflix shows to jamming out to my favorite music.

Considering that this weekend was a three day weekend, my time was mostly spent watching Netflix and sleeping. However, I chose to use Saturday as the day to observe my media consumption, because I did more than just watch Netflix and sleep. On Saturday I had my job orientation in the morning so I had my first encounter with my phone in the morning as I snoozed my alarm. From there, I woke up and played my favorite morning Spotify playlist while I got dressed and showered. I then went on to send text messages to my friends who had texted me the night before.  Throughout my orientation I would reply to my friends discreetly as the meeting went on. After I left my meeting, I was so sleepy that I went home and binge watched Netflix shows. I watched Baby, Roma, and an episode of Narcos. I ended up watching Netflix for about four hours while I answered texts and emails. From then, I was back on my phone answering texts and setting up an alarm for a nap. I was completely off my phone for about 2 and a half hours. Once I woke up from my nap I replied to more texts and browsed through social media for about an hour ( Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, Radiate etc.). This is where I really browsed and took in a lot of various media. I would scroll through Facebook and keep seeing post on the LAUSD strike that is occurring at the moment. I would also scroll past posts on how the government shutdown is affecting many people. Primarily I tend to notice that Facebook seems to be where I get a lot of my political information, while I use Instagram and Snapchat to keep up with the latest trends in terms of pop culture. After an hour long session of consuming various media through my phone, I went back to playing Spotify, I played my favorite electronic dance music while I got ready to go out with my friends.  While at the concert I rarely went on my phone for the fear of losing it, or getting it stolen. However, I did take it out from time to time to record some of my favorite moments from the concert. After the concert I ordered an uber home on my phone and went back on my laptop to watch a couple more episodes of Baby and Game of Thrones before I called it a night and completed my time consuming media from Saturday. Overall looking at my media consumption I am very shocked to see that I do tend to rely heavily on my Iphone and laptop. I realize that I don’t consume television, or paper as much which is seen more in this era as technology is becoming more advanced. As for world news I tend to be exposed to current events through social media apps like Facebook and Instagram, then I fact check it on Google to do further research, and check if the information is real news or not. I usually do spend much time on social media, and have got into the habit of keeping up with pop culture a lot, and also world news due to my classes. All in all, my media consumption is usually consumed in the palm of my hand or through my laptop. I have become a very digital person and consume media through more modern platforms as opposed to television or print. However, with fake news being spread around more and more often, my media consumption can be falsified through fake posts or news that are commonly found within Facebook and Instagram posts.

Blog Post #2

Something SMELLs fishy about his article

While reading this article on climate change and other reusable sources, I soon realized that this article may not do so well when placed against the SMELL test. With so many unreliable sources and unknown author, this article smelled a little funny to me.

After reading this article, I am left with many questions in regards to the credibility and accuracy of the issue presented in the article. The article itself is titled Innovation vs. Climate Change: The Race Is On. To start with our SMELL test, we first need to look for the sources presented. In this case, there didn’t seem to be an author mentioned anywhere in the article. Therefore, the proximity, independence, and expertise were a bit off , or more non existent for this article. In this case, having no author made it very difficult to believe much of what was mentioned. Therefore the proximity is low. The independence is low, and the expertise is low due to having an anonymous source which makes this article unreliable. Nonetheless, the unknown author of this article does have some sense of motivation. The article does inform more than it persuades. The author mentions the various ways that we can reduce using fossil fuels and instead look into renewable energy. The use of many facts and numbers also gives crucial information, by stating the plans that each country wants to propose to limit the use of fossil fuels. However, some sources seem to be quoted so vaguely like this quote from David Suriol, who is the co-founder of Vortex who said ” We can’t say anything bad about conventional wind turbines—they’re great machines, we’re just proposing a new way, a different way.” Here the author brings up the use of turbines as a tremendous renewable energy source; however, the use of outside sources doesn’t seem to be impacting to keep informing the reader. The evidence provided by the author can be seen throughout the article by stating many estimates on the reduction of fossil fuels, and the increase of renewable energy sources. The author again uses an external source from companies that are trying to find innovative ways to create renewable energy. The author includes a recent report from a journal titled Energy and Environmental Science to state that the use of renewable energy has little downside with more positive and productive outcomes. Overall, the logic behind this article seems to have compelling numbers and statistics, however the sources that are provided aren’t the most convincing. As mentioned the evidence provided seemed to be convincing, but after taking a look at the Journal of  Energy and Environmental Science, I noted that the journal only touched on the United States use and integration of renewable energy within the 50 states. This means that the expertise of this study is just specialized in the United States, and the article grasps more than that by including a global inclusion of many countries who want to reduce fossil fuels. What’s left out from this article would be facts that show the damage that fossil fuels cause. The author should add sources that are credible showing more effects of fossil fuels adding to why many countries want to switch to a more eco-friendly manner of generating energy. For instance, the author should include more negative impacts of fossil fuels in China, France, and the US. Overall the anonymous author of this article seemed not to show significant bias but wanted to get the message across that many countries are reducing their fossil fuel use. The author also mentions various innovative ways to reduce fossil fuel use, which seemed to be a main theme. The article also says that although this change will not happen overnight, it is essential that many more people realize the issue of climate change. Many people are now discovering and creating ways to invent more eco-friendly sources of energy. The question that the author tries to answer is how prevalent renewable energy will be in our society and how soon that will be. Although the outside sources may not be the strongest, the article creatively tries to include so many facts and plans from various countries to strengthen and try to answer the question mentioned in the beginning, but falls short with credible evidence.

Blog Post #3

Me, Myself, and Richard

Hello, hopefully this short paragraph gives you an insight of who I am and what I identify with. I will tie my identity to race, class, gender, and nationality.

I am Richard Gomez. After looking over the wheel of identities I can say that I do identify myself with many of the labels presented. Although I don’t like using labels it seems as though everyone needs to be categorized somehow in our society. To start I do identify with being Latino, I can say that I am proud that both of my parents are from Mexico. Growing up race was definitely one of the ways that I identified with as I knew my olive pigmentation signaled that I or my parents are from south of the border. This leads me to nationality, my parents came from Mexico, therefore,they consider themselves Mexican American. I however, consider myself American because I was born right in the heart of Los Angeles. I also identify with being a Southern California native because I love the LA weather and the beaches here in Southern California and wouldn’t have it any other way. As mentioned in Jelani Cobbs article she says “This underrepresentation of minorities is a more polite way of saying that there is an overrepresentation of white people in the media”. I agree with this quote in the sense that in the media there doesn’t seem to be much representation of my ethnicity, however when there is representation its either minor or there is a negative light shined on minorities. In the media in terms of race I mostly see negative representations of Latino representations. For instance, the main stereotypes that surround my ethnicity are the harlot which is the feisty sexy Latina, the buffoon which is the comedic childish character, the latin lover which is the aggressive and attractive male, and the cholo which represents Latinos as criminals. I also look at the idea of class as I was both undermined of my class based on my ethnicity. I was once questioned by some of my peers as to how I was able to afford such expensive clothing. Knowing that I am Latino someone said that my dad therefore, must be a drug lord because that’s the only way I would fit into a higher class. Therefore, I was offended that negative representations of my ethnicity on television and films, also affected my class. I come from a well do to middle class household from Los Angeles, and I am proud of the stable foundation that my dad set for me and my family. Therefore, I do identify with class, not to brag but, to show people that although minorities are represented as poor or underprivileged I was fortunate enough to grow up in  a comfortable household. I also do identify with being a male and see the privileges that come from being a male although I am still a minority. However, I notice the privileges and realize that much is to be done to level the playing field for women to also have equal access to rights and privileges. So, to recap, I am a Latino male who is going to the University of Southern California in hopes to achieve financial stability, as I was fortunate to come from a middle class household in hopes to disprove stereotypes that the media represents.

Hyperlinks: https://web.stanford.edu/class/e297c/poverty_prejudice/mediarace/portrayal.htm (Portrayal of Minorities in the Film, Media and Entertainment Industries )

https://www.theguardian.com/world/commentisfree/2018/nov/05/newsroom-diversity-media-race-journalism (When newsrooms are dominated by white people, they miss crucial facts)