Overview from the last week (20.1. - 24.1.)

Hi fellow english-LK students. Here is the summary of the last week (by Alex).

We covered the topic "Media Manipulation". We got an excerpt from a -text- written by the famous linguist Noam Chomsky. The text focuses on 10 strategies of media manipulation.

We were supposed to explain the strategies and to find examples for them. 

Here is a summarized list of the 10 strategies:

1. The strategy of distraction

 -> draw the attention to unimportant things

 -> leave out important information

2. Create problems, then offer solutions

 -> inform the viewer about a problem and immediately about the solution for it

3. The gradual strategy

 -> big changes happen step by step (mostly socioeconomic changes)

4. The strategy of deferring

 -> call something "painful and necessary" to gain acceptance

5. Got to the public as a little child

 -> address viewers like they were little children or mentally deficient

6. Use the emotional side more than the reflection

 -> cause feelings to weaken the critical sense of the individual

7. Keep the public in ignorance and mediocrity

 -> ensure that people do not get to know how they become influenced

8. To encourage the public to be complacent with mediocrity

 -> convey the message, that it is good to be dumb

 -> show, that being stupid uneducated and vulgar is modern

9. Self-blame Strengthen

 -> let individuals blame themselves for their misfortune

 -> devaluate and guilt the individual

10. Getting to know the individuals better than they know themselves (aka "k-t-i-b")

 -> get personal information

 -> scientific analysis of society

We were also supposed to make posters to explain the strategies shortly and find examples:

For the next week we got the task to prepare ourselves for the abitur-exam. 

Have a nice day and keep on reading the hunger games!

Overview of last week (13.1. - 17.1.)

It is Prof. Dr. Dr. J.K. Gru's turn to write a breathtaking overview of last week.
We finished Radio for now and jump over to TV.
First we decided on what media does.


Media:

• entertains

• influences/ manipulates

• informs

• connects/ helps to communicate

Then we had the task to put these into order how important TV is to us.
Most common order in our course is:


TV:

1. entertains

2. informs

3. influences/ manipulates

4. connects/ helps to communicate

Last but not least we watched a clip about manipulation of media. It is called "Schwarz wie Milch"


On Tuesday our wonderful teacher was missing. We were very happy about it and celebrated the whole day. We all cried and wished he was in school so we can learn new things but smart as he is, he gave us a homework. We should write an outline and first draft of an article.


On Thursday we had to hand in the homework. Afterwards we had to work on our own because Schütti had some problems with some students of his class.
We watched the clip "Schwarz wie Milch" again, looked for the bad impact of media and wrote a mediation.
The next clip we watched is called "Mis(s)representation" and it focuses on how women are portrayed in media and how media manipulates girls especially in young ages.
All clips are linked to YouTube. You just have to click on them.


That's it for now. Do not forget to learn the vocabs and always keep on reading!

Overview of last week (6.1. - 10.1.)

Kreacher-Week

I wish everybody a happy new year again and good luck for the upcoming (hopefully) last semester. :D
The first englishlesson we started with our new topic: Media. Our first task was to create a mindmap which was seperated into Mass-Media and Participatory-Media.

Mass-Media:                        Participatory-Media:

-financed by commercials            -user-generated content channels of communication

Examples:                                    Examples:

-print-media (19th century)          -internet (20th century) -> social networks,whatsapp

-radio (1930s)

-television (1950s)

The second task was to find a definition for media. I wrote:

Communication channels through which news, entertainment, education, data or messages are disseminated.

And last but not least we searched for new vocabulary and wrote a vocabulary-test about them the next day.

The test was called "The-oh-my-god-he-is-really-serious-vocab-quiz on media" and that´s exactly what we thought about it :D.

Another important task of this week was to analyze a cartoon. Analyzing a cartoon works like this:

1. Describe visual elements
2. Describe written elements
3. Analyze the content

Our last task and our homework was to read a text about print-media. "Are we ready for the end of the newspaper?"

We discussed it thursday in class but because print-media was that boring we went on with radio. We listened to old radio shows and to one of Schüttis favourites "Gerbilling Mishap Injures Two". By the time we figured out what the radioshow was about we all thought it was really funny.

If you want to listen to it again click -> HERE <-.

We also listened to an old radio commercial for Lindsay Olives (aired in 1980) and had to search for stylistic devices in this commercial. The whole commercial was personified and some smaller stylistic devices were a metaphor, pans and enumerations.

These were our tasks and as if that wouldn't have been enough we got tonnes of homeworks to do:

1. Write an article about your favourite song
2. Read the general information about radio (on top of "The Media - Radio" sheet)
3. Learn the vocabulary from "Gerbilling Mishap Injures Two"
4. Print out "How to write an article" 

That´s it. This was my week... the oh-my-god-school-just-started-and-we-already-get-tonnes-of-work-to-do-and-we-are-gonna-do-it-all-because-we-want-to-impress-the-most-famous-english-teacher-in-the-world-who-is-a-bit-crazy-and-do-not-like-us-at-all-except-for-plüschi-and-weih-oh-lätttttaaaaa-week.
I wish good luck for your homeworks and may the odds be ever in your favor ;).

P.S.: You should have read at least 100 pages of the last Hunger Games book. If not ... READ!!! ... NOW!!!! :P ;)