Monday, December 7, 2009

Wall Street Journal

There are many different tools a professor can use to help illustrate to the students the material that is expected to be learned, but by Professor Carpenter using the Wall Street Journal as our main instructional tool it helped teach the call up to date real world problems that are effecting most every topic that was covered in class. Not only were we able to learn about the events that are happening in the world of communications we were able to discuss them, and be more educated on the topic and even hold conversations outside of the classroom regarding the topics that were learned in class.

I feel that it was very effective to read the Wall Street Journal every day. Most of the topics that were read about in the paper struck our intrests and made it interesting. I feel it was more effective than if we were instructed to read about events that happened years ago, because we can't relate to those problems which makes it harder for us to pay attention or even want to pay attention. I also like how by disucssing these events that are written about the The Wall Street Journal we beomome more aware of what is effecting the world around us. Whereas if we were learning about events that took place 5-10 years we wouldn't be learning up to date information therefore we would be unaware of what was going on in the present day.

Though reading The Wall Street Journal helped keep me informed on the current news, I don't think that I will be continuting my subscrption to The Wall Street Journal. I do however plan on subscribing to a different news paper, possible USA Today or Orlando Senitnal. I think that reading the news paper and watching the news has helped given me usful information that will benifit me greatly. I did however download The Wall Street Journal application for my iPhone, and I do plan on checking it to help keep myself updated.

I am very glad that instead of using a textbook in communications we used The Wall Street Journal. I liked learning and being taught through current news and not from events that took place in the past. I think it was very helpful, and the information that we learned while reading The Wall Street Journal will benifit us greatly by keeping us well informed.

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

The Road: Book vs. Movie

"The Road" was both a phenomenal book and film. While reading "The Road" I was both intrigued and interested as to how Hollywood would portray this story, and after seeing the movie I was impressed with how closely the film followed the book. Though the book was enticing and unusual the movie quickly surpassed the book in my opinion. Though the movie followed the book closely there were some differences such as the amount of flashbacks the Father has, the illusion of hope, and the play out of certain events.

The movie surpassed the book because of the way Hollywood made the events in the movie stand out more in my mind and brought a lot more emotion and feeling to the scenes. The movie portrayed many of the important events that took place in the book and didn't leave out any detail. By watching the movie it helped me understand and bring to life the story.

One way that the movie differed from the book was the amount of flashbacks the father has of his wife. In the book the mother was briefly mentioned twice. While the movie had multiple flashbacks of the mother. One scene that stood out to me the most was when the mother finally decided to walk away from the father and the boy and to surrender to life, however in the book the mother didn't just walk away Cormac McCarthy describes the brutally suicide committed by the mother.

Another difference between the movie and the book was the sign of hope given towards the end. In the book McCarthy shows hope by describing fish swimming in the stream, whereas the movie betrayed hope by showing a live beetle fly from an open Chewing Tobacco can. Though they both show signs of hope and life one was presented while the father was still alive and the other after his death.

The last significant difference between the movie and the book is the play out of certain events. In the book the father found clean water in a house that was very crucial because it helped the boy and the father survive but that was not expressed in the movie. Also, in the movie it showed that the boy and the father were able to take a large amount of food from the bunker leaving them enough to spare a can for the robber, but in the book since the boy and the father had lost their cart they were forced to take only as much as they could carry, when they soon ran out of food before they reach the coast. Though these are two key parts of their survival thankfully Hollywood still managed to kept other crucial scenes in the movie.

All in all, the movie followed the book closely, however there were still some differences. I liked how the movie was able to include the most important events and was impressed with how well it was able to be protrayed. A lot of times Hollywood is unable to really capture the authors initial ideas, but I feel in this movie Hollywood hit the nail on the head and captured just was Cormac McCarthy was trying to protray.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Social-Networking Services

It seems that almost anyone can be found on a social networking service, and if you don’t have one, well you’re completely out of the social loop. There are many different social networks to chose from, but I feel like the two most popular are Twitter and Facebook. These two social networks have steered people away from sending an email or picking up the phone to contact friends, and they now sign on to the internet and either send their friend a message, “poke” them, and even change your status to let everyone know where you are and what you’re doing. Twitter and Facebook have become the top social networks and are changing the way people interact.
Facebook is the social-network of my choice, and the only one I use. I enjoy using Facebook because it makes it easier to stay in contact with not only those friends around you, but the friends that live and go to college in different cities. It’s very user friendly, and can has its own iPhone applications so you can log on even away from a computer. Another good aspect of Facebook is it helps you meet new friends that attend the college you want to attend or a college you may already attend, and helps you to know who your mutual friends are. Though I do enjoy using Facebook, I wouldn’t pay for it if they decided to charge for the service. Though I like Facebook, I don’t think many college students would pay for a service like that, they don’t have a lot of money as it is. I think that if Facebook decided to charge for the service it would make Facebook feel more like a dating site instead of a social networking site.
The other popular social network is Twitter, though I don’t use it, it seems like everyone around me as one. I haven’t been interested enough to get me own account to Twitter because I don’t find the importance or the fun of posting to everyone what I am doing and where I’m at. I think that it’s very popular with the celebrities because most people feed off of what is going on in their lives, because it makes them forget about the troubles in theirs. If a celebrity doesn’t have a Twitter account and doesn’t post on it regularly, they are kind of looked down to as outcasts, and eventually get an article written about them (which was done to Miley Cyrus).
I think that when it comes to Facebook and Twitter they both are equal; one doesn’t over shine the other. I do however feel that these two social networking sites are what drove Myspace in to the ground. Myspace took the reputation of being more for the younger teenagers than the high school, college, and even parent group.
Facebook and Twitter are the two strongest social networking sites that attract people of all ages. They are changing the way people communicate with each other, and found a way to combine all your social needs into one website. Its convenient, and everyone uses one which makes it easier as well. Though I prefer Facebook over the other competitors both Facebook and Twitter have become very well known and greatly used social networking sites. The only thing they need to come up with next is a way to communicate on Facebook chat using video.

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Essay 1

Allison Dickens

Film Viewing Habits

Comedy, romantic, adventure, mystery and the list can go on forever. There are many different types of movies made, and can also be watched in many different ways. Nobody really evaluates the type of movies that attract them and how they like to watch them because it comes naturally. After analyzing my own film viewing habits I realized that I like many different types of movies but my favorites are romantic comedies and action movies, and that I like to watch the action movies in the theater and the romantic comedy ones at home. Everyone has their own opinion on genres of movies and where to watch them, but there are some movies I would prefer to watch at home versus the movie theater.
One of my top favorite genres of movies to watch is romantic comedies. My current favorite romantic comedies are 27 Dresses, Bride Wars, The Proposal, The Holiday and What Happens in Vegas. I love how the movies can make you laugh and cry all at the same time, and for this reason I somewhat prefer to watch them at home so I’m not the person crying and making everyone around me feel awkward. Romantic comedies I feel are perfect date movies. A guy can feel conformable (or somewhat at least) going to one because it’s guaranteed to have something that will either make you laugh or touch your sensitive side.
Another type of movie genre I enjoy watching would be action movies. I love watching action movies, if it’s a good one it will generally keep you on the edge of your seat. The main thing I love about action movies are the effects which makes them even better to see in the movie theater and especially in IMAX if it is available. My favorite actions movies to date are Hancock, Transformers 1 and 2, and the Harry Potter series. Each of these movies have amazing effects and make them even more fun to watch. Not only do I see these movies in IMAX, but when they come out on DVD I make sure I get them on Blue Ray so I can watch the effects as they are supposed to be experienced.
In conclusion I feel that sometimes watching movies at your house are better options than watching them at the theater depending on the genre of the movie. Romantic comedies are best to be watched at home so you can experience them the best way by not being afraid to let your emotions out because you are not in a public place, and action movies are best to be watched at the movie theater so you can experience the full result of the special effects in the movie. However, people have their own traditions of film viewing, but I wouldn’t change mine. Movies help bring us out of reality and into a different world, so in a way it’s a comfort to watch movies regardless of where you’re at.