Inspiration

“As Eleanor Roosevelt once said, The Future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. So class of 2008, follow your dreams, but don’t forget where you came from.” As I delivered these closing lines to my fellow graduates, a wave of relief washed over me. After nearly fifteen days of agonizing, my speech was finally complete.
When I was told that I would be the salutatorian of the Edgewood High School class of 2008, I was instantly overwhelmed. I wanted to be inspirational yet interesting, reflective yet memorable. But more importantly, I wanted to prove to everyone that I deserved the title of salutatorian.
Writing has always come naturally to me. This speech, however, did not. I faced an admittingly difficult task; saying something meaningful while maintaining the attention of my audience. For weeks, I looked for inspiration everywhere. I poured over movies, books, even songs looking for inspirational quotes. At one point, I even considered starting my speech with a poem. But as graduation came closer, I grew further from completing my speech. There were just so many memories, so many experiences that I did not want to leave out.
One day, while sitting in front of my computer, I finally found my inspiration. I didn’t have an epiphany or receive words of wisdom from a respected teacher; I simply looked back on my own journey through high school. Quotes and lyrics can only help so much. I realized that to write well, you must write what you know. Thus I completed my speech, or so I thought.
On the morning of graduation day, I encountered yet another roadblock. My principal decided to place a time limit on the salutatorian’s speech for the first time since I had been in high school. This meant that I would have to rewrite much of my speech. With only a matter of hours before graduation, I frantically turned to the internet for new inspiration. After reading the speeches that others had wrote, I had a revelation. While others were primping for graduation, I was putting the finishing touches on my speech. It is only is fitting that high school would end this way for me.
Some say that graduation is the first day of the rest of your life. For me, writing this speech truly symbolized that. Through the struggles of writing my speech, I truly realized that writing is my passion.

Is The Daily Show truthful journalism?

Recently the news has been filled with coverage of the Swine Flu. Even The Daily Show with Jon Stewart has gotten involved. The actual way in which these two sources cover the same story varies, but in the end, they still manage to get similar information across to their viewers.

The mainstream news stations have covered the swine flu story in the typical dramatic fashion in which they cover any major news story. Each newscast features representatives from the Center for Disease control explaining what the disease is, and how you can prevent contracting it, as well as an update on the number of cases reported so far in the United States and schools that have been closed. Words such as “pandemic” and “outbreak” with phrases such as “public health emergency” accompany hourly updates on the swine flu. It’s no wonder people are panicking so much.

Local news stations such as WBAL and ABC2 news cover this story a little differently than national news stations such as MSNBC and CNN. On the local nightly news, they mainly cover what is important to people in the state of Maryland. For example, on a newscast over the weekend, they had someone from the Maryland State school system explaining what will happen if any swine flu cases are reported in the Maryland Public schools. Even though their coverage is far less dramatic than that of the national news, they still overdo it.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart takes a radically different approach to news reporting. The show does give actual news, but does so with a comedic twist. There are three main ways in which they mimic mainstream news. Local news stations have graphics, usually in the top left corner, that accompany each story. For the swine flu there was a graphic that looked like a graphic straight out of any local news station expect for one small detail; the words “Snoutbreak ’09.” This ultimately makes the news more interesting to watch as opposed to the boring monotony that accompanies news on mainstream television stations. Another important fixture of mainstream news is on site reporters, which The Daily Show included. In the episode that I watched, they had a reporter at The Center for Disease Control who was giving true facts and another reporter at The Centers for Stuff That I Heard from Some Guy who was giving completely off the wall information that had no basis in fact. Finally, Jon Stewart would report something that was factually true (“swine flu began south of the border in Mexico, and has killed 149 people so far”) then interject a joke after it (“list of things that can kill you in Mexico”). This brings me to my next point, The Daily Show’s appeal to a younger audience.

It isn’t a secret that today’s younger generation just isn’t watching the news. It’s simply much too boring to hold their attention for very long. Instead, they turn to sources such as The Daily Show for their news. Some argue that these sources are much less accurate than the mainstream news. The article “CNN Discovers Downside of ‘Citizen Journalism”” talks about how news and photos on the Internet and other sources aren’t always true. However, based on the episode of The Daily Show that I watched, I strongly disagree with those arguments. As I mentioned before, much of what was said on The Daily Show was factually based and could be seen on mainstream television channels, in a far less entertaining way.

Unlike mainstream television outlets, The Daily show has to report news differently. Since it’s on a channel like Comedy Central, people turn it on and expect to laugh. On the other hand, people watch mainstream news channels when they want instant and accurate updates on major news stories. In my opinion, it is such differences between the two that make it unfair to compare them. Mainstream news channels appeal to a much different audience than that of The Daily Show and each serves an entirely different purpose.

Because it has an aspect of comedy, The Daily Show can get away with challenging the coverage of other (real) news stations. In her article “What can the Mainstream Media Learn from Jon Stewart,” Rachel Smolkin talks to Hub Brown who is a chair of the S.I Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. He said that he became addicted to The Daily Show during the beginning of the Iraq War because “he felt most of the mainstream media were swallowing the administration's spin rather than challenging it. The Daily Show did not.” This relates to my modern example of the swine flu. News stations have become so absorbed with the government naming the swine flu a national health emergency that they haven’t taken a chance to step back and really look at what they’re reporting. So far, Jon Stewart has been the only one who has stood up and said how ridiculous this news coverage really is. And he’s absolutely right. In today’s society this fake journalism has almost become more accurate than real journalism. Who knows, in the future, The Daily Show may become out main source of news.





Harmanci, Raymond “CNN Learns Downside of ‘Citizen Journalism’” sfgate.com 2008

Smolkin, Rachel “What Can the Mainstream News Learn from Jon Stewart?” ajr.org 2007

"the medium is the message"

“The medium is the message.” What does this mean, and how does McLuhan’s message impact our daily lives both consciously and subconsciously?

To understand what McLuhan meant by “the medium is the message,” we must first understand the meaning of the word medium. Many of us, myself included, would think of medium as things like television, radio or even the internet. According to McLuhan, however, this definition is much broader. He says that a medium is anything that is an extension of our body. This medium is something that allows us to do something that we could not have done without it. Based on this definition, everything from the brushes used to write on papyrus tablets during the first dynasty to something as simple as a light bulb can be considered examples of mediums. So how does this relate to McLuhan’s message?

Overall, it seems to me as though McLuhan is saying the medium which is being used becomes a part of the message that is being communicated, and ultimately influences the ways in which society perceives this message. This goes back to the idea of technological determinism, which basically says that technology determines what happens in our society. In fact, these two concepts seem to be closely intertwined.

In my opinion, technology absolutely determines the patterns and development of our culture and society, and not the other way around. At first, it almost made sense to me that we determine the uses of technology, and ultimately the ways that these technologies affect our society. Have we not made things such as facebook and text messaging, both arguably new technologies, into everyday necessities? However, after reading McLuhan’s work, I realized that the opposite is in fact true.

One important point that McLuhan makes is that as a society, we have become so focused on the content of the medium that we ignore the changes that gradually begin to appear in our everyday lives as a result of that medium. Mark Federman puts this point more simply in his article “What is the meaning of ‘the medium is the message’?” According to him, as a society we look only at what a new technology can do for us and how it will improve our lives, generally ignoring the effects it could potentially have on us. Only after a long period of time do we “look backward and realize that there were some effects of which we were entirely unaware at the outset.” One of my favorite modern examples of this point is instant replay in sports. Growing up in a house full of guys, watching sports became a way of life. Because I have become so used to having instant replay right there in front of me while watching games, I have failed to notice how much it has really changed my mannerisms. However, this extends far beyond the personal level. Instant replay has also changed how society as a whole watches live football or baseball. At live football games, I admit, I am guilty of looking for the yellow line to appear where the first down marker is located. When at baseball games, I automatically turn toward the screen to see the replay of the previous play. I know that in the beginning, I did not realize that having access to instant replay when watching a televised game would change the way that I watch the same sport live.

So how does technological determinism factor into the instant replay example? Technology has basically made it so that we look for a yellow line on the field or to a screen to see a play that we missed again. These examples illustrate what is meant by the term technological determinism. As you can see, this is closely tied the unnoticed changes that are a result of new mediums.

Another one of McLuhan’s major points is that the medium itself, and not the content that is carried with it, should be studied. Television offers a perfect example of this. In today’s society, many parents try to restrict the amount of television that their children are watching each day. For example, they may limit their child to watching two or three hours of television a day. However, in these two or three hours that they are watching television, they could be watching anything, whether it is appropriate for them or not. By doing this, the parent is focusing on the message that the medium itself is conveying, and not the content of that medium. The medium, or simply television, is the message. The message that it’s carrying could include things like television is bad for you or it makes children less physically active and more violent. On the other hand, if you are limiting what the child is watching, you are now focusing on the content of that medium. Overall, the message that television carries focuses on the simple fact that television can be bad for you, despite the content that it includes.

Technological determinism plays an important role in this television example. This technological determinism influences parent’s thoughts on the detrimental effects of television. One of the earliest examples of technological determinism that we learned in class highlighted the fact that watching too much television can cause children, and even adults, to become less active, and ultimately more overweight. This shows how closely technological determinism relates to “the medium is the message.” Technological determinism is basically the result of the message that the medium is conveying.

Something as simple as the nightly news is a perfect example of McLuhan’s “the medium is the message.” Everyone focuses on the content of the news; stories of murder or other crimes. However, in doing this, they do not realize how their own personal attitudes are changing. They may be less likely to go into a certain area because of the reports they are seeing every night on the news. Overall, the goal of the news isn’t just about communicating the stories themselves, but to change the attitude of the public as well. This is a perfect example about how the medium (the nightly news) is the message (there is too much crime in modern society). Technological determinism is also a part of this example. The fact that viewers will develop an opinion of crime is a result of the technology.

The previous example also illustrates another point that McLuhan makes in the chapter about understanding radio. McLuhan discusses how the medium of television changed politics, specifically the presidential race between Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy. As a medium, radio conveyed a message based on the politics of each candidate. However, the message that the television is sending depends primarily on the appearance of the two candidates. It didn’t matter what either candidate was saying. Based on appearance alone, society perceived Nixon as “a phony” in the words of Marshall McLuhan. The medium of television was sending a message based purely on what the viewers were seeing. In this case, content (or what the candidates were saying) was unimportant to the audience. Overall, this shows the importance of the dots which make up each picture on a television screen. This goes back to McLuhan’s point that the medium itself should be the focus of study and not the message that is carried with it.

As technologies continue to be developed, they will continue to impact not only our lives, but our society in unforeseen ways.



Federman, Mark “What is the Meaning of the Media is the Message?”

McLuhan, Marshall. "Understanding Radio." Communication in History; Technology, Culture, Society. 5th ed. Boston: Pearson Education, Inc., 2007. 234-40.

My Longest Day

The twenty-four hours I spent without any electronic media was perhaps the longest day in my life. How did I get through and what did this experience teach me?

Before starting this assignment, I predicted that it would be much more difficult to accomplish then it actually was. For the first part of the day, I barely noticed the absence of my cell phone. I occasionally would look down expecting it to be there, but even then I didn’t miss it ridiculously. But as the hours passed, my self-control slowly began to wear down. I started counting down the minutes until the assignment would be over and I began to feel more and more anxious. Despite this, I still did not have an overwhelming urge cheat or give up. I am proud to say that I made it twenty four hours without any forms of electronic media.

Overall, the youth of our society feel the need to be connected with each other constantly. As stated in The Washington Post Article by Howard Gardner, “young people seem to have a compulsion to stay in touch with one another all the time.” I proved this statement to be true. As the hours passed, I began to feel increasingly disconnected from the world. For the first time in memory, I did not know what my friends were doing every second of the day, which made me feel uneasy.

In the past, there was a common view in society that electronic media decreased the amount of time that children spent with their parents. However, as newer technologies were created, the definition of family time began to change. In fact, electronic media has begun to bring families together. When my older brother and I are both home from college, it is common for my family to watch television together every night. Even my little brother, who is hardly around, joins us. Because of this assignment, I was forced to miss out on this family time, something which nearly persuaded me to give up and fail the assignment.

I admit that I never really realized how saturated today’s world is with media until I was forced to go without it. Things such as radio and movies, two things I never considered media, dominate today’s society. Without these things, it was difficult to find things to do. I have grown up in a world where video games are king and television is a way of life. Without electronic media, I turned to print media. For the first time, I read the entire newspaper, forgoing my usual morning routine of skimming through the sports section and checking the weather forecast. Because of this assignment, I can now see why newspapers are becoming a thing of the past. In his article, Gene Weingarten agrees. As he puts it “newspapers are famously dying.” Normally, I would check the news on my laptop instead of picking up an actual newspaper. Only when I was forced to go without it did I read an actual newspaper in order to get my daily news.

Without constantly having electronic media in hand, I had time to do things that I never would have made time for before. For the first time since I started attending UMBC, I was able to not only start reading a book, but finish it as well. I spent time actually talking to my older brother instead of texting my friends the entire day. Overall, I noticed a huge boost in my face-to-face communication. When my friend came over, I had much more to tell him since we had not been texting all day like we normally do. This assignment made me realize how much I am lacking this type of communication in my daily life.

In my opinion, the society in which so-called Millennials (anyone born between 1980 and 2000) have grown up is much more at fault for media dependence than personal habits themselves. According to Danna L. Walker’s article in The Washington Post, Millennials are “the first generation to link up through cell phones and instant messages. Personal computers came of age as they were born, and they grew up with the World Wide Web and e-mail, not to mention Nintendo, Game Boy, Sony PlayStation, GameCube and Xbox.” When I first got a cell phone, two hundred text messages a month were more than adequate. However, as society became more obsessed with the text messaging craze, so did I. Now I honestly cannot remember a time before I had my cell phone. I can’t even imagine how I communicated with friends on a daily basis without having instant contact via text messaging or even a phone call. During this assignment, I was only able to talk to one of my friends, and that was because he had already planned to come over to my house. I basically had to go an entire twenty-four hours without talking with my two best friends, as the only way we can communicate is through texting or instant messaging. For me, this was by far the most challenging aspect.

Some of the technologies that we were forced to go without have become essential to our everyday lives. I am not saying that video games or even radio are vital, but televisions and cell phones are. Cell phones allow people to communicate important information instantly. For example, my dad usually calls home a thousand times a day. Because of this assignment I could not answer any of these calls. What if something had happened to him and he was calling because he needed help? I had no way of knowing whether he needed something important or if he was simply calling to check up on me. Cell phones have become a vital part of today’s society and are something that everyone, even the older generation, cannot go without. Television is also essential in our daily lives. I’m not saying that entertainment or reality shows are necessary, but the news is. Many people do not have the time to read a newspaper every day. The nightly news then becomes their source of news and weather. I did not know about anything that was happening in the world until the next day when I was able to check my laptop. We may have become dependent on our cell phones and television, but this is only because they are most convenient for us.

Overall, I believe this assignment would have been much easier to accomplish had I been at school. When I am at school, electronic media is not nearly as prominent in my daily life as it is when I am at home. While at school, I rarely, if ever, watch television and much of the time spent on my laptop is used for writing papers or doing discussion board posts. The only electronic media I use with frequency is my cell phone, and even then I am not texting my friends constantly. When I’m home, I have a chance to catch up on reruns of my favorite TV shows or watch movies that my mom has rented from Netflix. Cutting that part out of my life for twenty-four hours was much more difficult than it would have been if I were still at school.

As a side note, I just want to say that I am glad we had to go without electronic media as opposed to being overly saturated with it like Gene Weingarten chose to do. As I was reading his article, I began to realize how damaging too much media can become. As Weingarten says “I am doing something that no one else likely has ever done before, something no one should ever do again.” I never thought that too much television or radio could have such effects on a person.

This assignment made clear what I had expected from the start; I am much too reliant on my cell phone, laptop and iPod. Simple things like listening to the radio in my car or checking my facebook page every morning have become almost too necessary in my daily life. Living without them made me realize that a change in my lifestyle is a must. I now realize that I waste too much precious time updating my facebook page or instant messaging my friends from home. From now on, I will make a conscious effort to reduce the amount of dependence that I have on all forms of electronic media.



Gardner, Howard “The End of Literacy? Don’t Stop Reading.” WashingtonPost.com 17 February 2008 < http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2008/02/15/A
R200802150298.html>

Walker, Dana “The Longest Day” WashingtonPost.com 5 August 2007 post.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/01/AR2007080101720.html>

Weingarten, Gene “Cruel and Unusual Punishment” WashingtonPost.com 23 March 2008

Speech vs Writing: Which Dominates Today's Society?

Before the days of writing, daily communication was very different. Words had no “visual presence.” [Wong, 66] They were simply sounds. When writing was invented, it completely changed the culture of not only the United States, but the entire world and the human race as well. Through written communication we have given meanings to words which were once empty sounds.

At first glance, it almost seems as though communication through speech dominates today’s society. Both of the articles from the Washington Post seem to argue that the literacy and intelligence of Americans are steadily on the decrease, and the problem is only going to get worse with new technologies. However, I disagree. Based on my experiences so far, I believe that overall, today’s society is dominated mainly by communication through writing.

Some argue that leisure reading among young adults, and even adults, is at an all time low. Maybe this is because they are so busy text messaging or checking their facebook page. As stated in The Washington Post Article by Howard Gardner, “young people seem to have a compulsion to stay in touch with one another all the time.” For today’s youth, commenting their friends’ latest pictures or replying to a text is much more appealing than reading a book that they don’t necessarily have to read. The most important thing in their life is constantly communicating with their friends, even at the expense of their learning.

Another argument for a speech dominated society is the slow and steady elimination of newspapers. According to Susan Jacoby, “the decline of newspaper and magazine reading is nothing new,” and it isn’t. In recent years it has made local and even national news that many newspapers are being forced to eliminate staff members and even stop printing because of a decrease in readership. Recently The Rocky Mountain Press was forced to shut down after nearly one-hundred and fifty years in business. However, walking around the UMBC campus, you would never guess that the newspaper industry is in trouble. On any given morning, you can see numerous people reading the paper while eating their breakfast in the dining hall. On college campuses such as UMBC, newspapers are the primary source of news for students. Many of them do not have time to turn on the news every night to find out what’s going outside the UMBC campus. As a former staff member of UMBC’s own student-run newspaper, I have witnessed the popularity of newspapers on college campuses. This challenges popular belief that people no longer read newspapers, either online or written, to get their information daily.

Coming from a tiny town in southern Harford County, I have witnessed how writing can affect a small town culture. For years, both my high school and the surrounding area have been the subject of ridicule by a local newspaper. Because the area is so small, the community is dependent mainly on this newspaper for all of their news, despite the validity of the stories. The media has complete control over the public’s opinion. Many of the ideas in these small towns are communicated through writing rather than speech.

The recent facebook phenomenon further proves our society’s addiction to communication through writing. Facebook has become almost a necessity to college students. We check our page hourly to see who has written on our wall or updated their status. It has become almost an addiction, and is now an important part of culture. I wrote an article for The Retriever Weekly last semester about how facebook is now being considered as part of the admissions process for some colleges. Fifty years ago, this would have never been a factor. While researching for the article, I found out that eighty-six percent of students in four year colleges have a facebook and fifty-nine percent have a myspace. These numbers are shocking. In my opinion, this fact alone proves how much of a role writing has on today’s society.

Instant messaging and text messaging have further turned our society into a writing dominated culture. Almost everywhere you look people are text messaging. For us, texting is the most convenient way to remind people we need something or to simply let them know we are thinking about them. When we are in a crowded room or in the middle of class, it’s the easiest and most discrete way to talk to our friends. This is the perfect example of the rise of written communication in today’s society.

Even the older generation is starting to get involved in this new written culture. Parents, who before didn’t know how to properly use a computer, are now creating facebook pages so they can make sure that their kids are behaving. My cousin, who is in her late fifties, recently created a facebook so that she can keep in touch with her friends, as well as family. Instead of picking up the phone to tell me about family news or other things that are going on in her hometown, she simply leaves me a comment on my wall. This shows how society as a whole, frequently spreads news through writing, not speech. However, the older generation is not just using facebook. They are now text messaging as well. My mom barely knows how to use her phone, yet she will text me at least once a day to check up on me instead of picking up the phone and calling me. This further proves my point that written communication is seen as the best communication, even between loved ones.

Today, offers a perfect example of the influence WashingtonPost.com of writing here at UMBC. When updates were coming in on the status of classes this morning, many people were getting them through a text message. As lazy college students, it would be an inconvenience for us to get out of our nice warm bed and hear on the tv that school has been cancelled. In addition, many people would want written confirmation that classes were cancelled to ensure that they had not misheard the news anchor.

Only time will tell which form of communication will continue to dominant. Evidence seems to support that future communication may be a mix of speech and of writing, as more and more technologies are being created.


Gardner, Howard “The End of Literacy? Don’t Stop Reading.” 17 February 2008

Jacoby, Susan “The Dumbing of America” WashingtonPost.com 17 February 2008

Ong,Walter. "Media in Ancient Empires." Communication in History; Technology, Culture, Society. 5th ed. Boston: Pearson Education, Inc., 2007. 66-72

How I Communicate

As the years have passed, and as I have changed as a person, the ways in which I communicate with others on a daily basis have also changed.

When I was younger, writing letters on paper or over email was my main mode of communication. After moving to Maryland however, this is the only way I could communicate with my New York friends. We wrote letters back and forth for nearly four years. However, this changed with the invention of cell phones. Texting allowed me to hear back from my New York friends in a matter of minutes, instead of having to wait days for a response. In the past year, I have written only one letter.

Today, my cell phone is almost too important in my daily life. I almost always have it with me, and I have only turned it off a couple times in the last year. I admit that texting has become an obsession of mine. For me, it’s so much easier and more convenient than calling someone, especially if I’m in the library or on my way to class.

However, since entering college, I spend more time actually talking on the phone. In high school, I saw my friends almost every day, so phone calls were not necessary. Now that we are spread out at schools all over the East Coast, a simple text message is simply not adequate enough. I call my parents almost every night, and my brother in Salisbury at least once a week to get help with my biology homework.

Overall, technologies such as instant messaging and text messaging have weakened the grammar skills of today’s youth. Words and phrases have been shortened to only a few letters, and spelling errors are common, and even accepted. I know that sometimes when I’m typing papers, I used the shortened version of a word without even realizing it. Texting is allowing our already lazy society to become even more careless and lax.

Face to face communication has been drastically eliminated by the rising use of text messaging. There are people who text their friends who are sitting right next to them. This phenomenon may be a result of our growing need for privacy. It is much more convenient for us to text a secret to our friend sitting across the room, then to actually get up and leave.

Even the older generation is starting to get involved. My parents have recently discovered texting, and feel as though they’re obligated to text me every day to make sure that I’m eating well and getting enough sleep. Before, I would have never imagined that I would be getting text messages from my parents.

Social networking sites such as myspace and facebook have also changed the way in which we communicate. Facebook has almost become an obsession among college students. Instead of talking in person, we write on each other’s walls or comment on our friends’ latest statuses. Like texting, this has cut down on face-to-face communication. It’s easier to message someone when they’re on their facebook, then to actually pick up the phone and call them.

With these latest technologies, face to face communication is slowly declining. In my opinion, this is a growing problem. In life, it’s important to be able to speak effectively with others. Because of text messaging and instant messaging, we are slowly losing these valuable and necessary skills.
I look forward to doing the media deprivation project over spring break. It will be interesting to see how long I can go without having my cell phone constantly with me.

all about me

Heyy my name is Courtney. I am a freshman and double major here at UMBC. Many people define media in many different ways. I, however, see it as any source through which we get information whether it be a newspaper or social networking site. Overall, media plays a very important role in my life. Since a young age, writing has always fascinated me. As a child I spent hours interviewing those around me and making up stories. By the time I graduated from high school, I had decided to persue a career in sportswriting. In both high school and here at UMBC, I have had many valuable experiences writing for publications. Much of my free time has been spent doing interviews, perfecting my stories, or creating catchy layouts. In a way, this has changed the way in which I view the media. Often when I read articles, I think about how I would write them differently. Like many people in my generation, I do not get information on current events by reading a newspaper or watching the nightly news. Much of what I know about current events comes from my peers or from online newspapers. My favorite online source for news is the New York Times http://nytimes.com/. Someday I hope to write for this newspaper. As I grow older, media will continue to play an important role in my everyday life.