Media of Mass Communications

Edwin Vega

Mr. Ken Carpenter

MMC 1000

December 5, 2011

Media of Mass Communications

            The Media of Mass Communication class has greatly affected my thoughts on my future career plans. At first I considered myself extremely lucky that Valencia College was offering a class that had to do with my major, so I told myself I had to take it. As the course went on, I loved the whole idea of having to read the WSJ, post Blogs, and learn about the media, for a moment I did; however, I got a little tired of the Love Medicine book and the WSJ due to the fact that the majority of the portion I had to read was a bit uninteresting. The whole experience in the class increased my understanding of the media and opened the doors for new stuff like reading a newspaper every day, which I never did in my life. Even though the experience in the class was a great one I am going to finish my A.A at Valencia College and not take any journalism classes at Valencia because I am going to do it at UCF, I was just getting my feet wet on the field this semester.

            I can say that I am a mass communication consumer and that the whole world is. The media is everywhere and some way or another someone in the world has and will invest on some type of way on it because mass communications is one of the biggest factors that make the world go round. Media of Mass Communications makes people come together and have a better type of communication around the world with the internet, radio, magazines, television, newspapers, film, advertising, and many more. Media is everywhere and without it we would be pretty doomed in every way possible.

            The three major things that I have learned in Media of Mass Communications are how to blog my own work, how to read a newspaper properly, and a lot about what is happening with new technology throughout the world. The first time that I had to post my essay was very interesting because I never used blogger before and did not know the program existed, I’m old school and always try to turn in a hard copy, but blogging is way better to show your work. Reading the newspaper The Wall Street Journal was a great experience because I never had picked up a newspaper in my life and didn’t even know where to begin reading with so many columns of paragraphs and now I enjoy reading newspaper once in a blue moon. Finally most importantly I learned about the hottest topics in the world and technology that continues to reinvent itself.

            Reading the Wall Street Journal is way better than a text book in every way. Having to pay only thirty dollars for the subscription was pretty uplifting to my pocket. Moreover the news paper is constantly advancing itself every day coming out with new stuff and textbooks only do that at certain times and for this field we need resources that are constantly upgrading, so the students can be up to the date in the media world; therefore, when the Wall Street Journal is compared to a textbook, the advantages of the newspaper are way higher than a book. Also the assignments on textbooks are narrower to as the WSJ the teacher can be more creative with the assignments and have fun with it. I prefer the WSJ one hundred percent because it has it has suited me in every way possible.

My Four Indispensable Websites

Edwin Vega

Mr. Ken Carpenter

MMC 1000

November 16, 2011

My Four Indispensable Websites

            As I think of the many websites are indispensable in my life, I have four that surpass every other website. Google, Facebook, YouTube, and Wikipedia are major components in my life. Google has been there for me ever since I was in elementary school, and has been the major help for my homework, projects, and assignments throughout my life. Facebook has given me the networking opportunity to meet people across the world and keep in touch with those I don’t get to see often. YouTube has been my entertainment resource throughout several years: on YouTube I laughed at funny videos, learned tremendous amount of information in the videos, and I get to upload my own videos for audiences to see. Last but not least, Wikipedia is the final website in my top four because the website is filled with tremendous amount of information that can be used to enhance an individual’s knowledge right at the tip of their fingers.

            Furthermore, I visit all four websites everyday regularly on a daily basis. I spend agonizing amounts of time on all four websites, which makes me feel at times like I’m wasting my life; however I keep doing it and I truly believe I spend eight to nine hours every day in the internet looking for random information. Facebook is the website that I spend the most time on, being that I know so much people and keep in contact with all my eight hundred and seventy eight friends, a lot of my time is wasted on it. I log into Facebook several times a day and while I’m communicating with friends I open three more tabs to cover YouTube, Google and Wikipedia. I’ll say I’ll be on YouTube three hours, Google one hour, Facebook four hours and fifteen minutes,  and Wikipedia forty-five minutes.

            If there was a monetary value on all four of these websites, I would have to cut at least one because my financial status is not so thrilling at the moment; however, when it comes to Facebook I will pay any amount of money for the service due to the fact that I’m such an addict of the social network. For You Tube and Google I would pay ten dollars a month no more than that because we live in a recession. Finally, I would cut Wikipedia because Google provides me with numerous websites where I can find answers to my questions.

            If I could design the perfect website to suit my specific needs it would incorporate Facebook, YouTube, Google, and Wikipedia all in one. The service will be called “Life Link” and it would be free for all. It would give the opportunity to network with others through your profile, find all the videos that the populations want to watch, and have a global reach for data on all topics just like Google. The perfect website combination to execute any type of activity an individual wants to perform.

Film

Edwin Vega

Mr. Ken Carpenter

MMC

October 10, 2011

Film

            “Colombiana” was the movie me and my pal selected to go see on Wednesday October 5 for the class assignment. I chose the film “Colombiana” due to the fact that plenty of my friends gave the movie a lot of good reviews on their facebook statuses and was the topic of conversations in school for quite some time. Moreover, the motion picture gave the leading role to Zoe Saldana, which is one of my favorite actresses, and that influenced me greatly to consider watching the film in the theater. I adore watching attractive women fight and kill men while looking sexy at the same time, so that was when I decided to pick the film “Colombiana”.

            The film met all my expectations to the fullest. The movie had amazing action scenes and Zoe Saldana (the actress) was the cherry on top of the ice-cream. The plot of the story was very interesting and it kept the audience at the edge of their seat. In addition, the movie had a very Hispanic flavor in it; being that I am Hispanic it made me understand and relate to the movie even more, specially in all the family scenes. Movies like “Colombiana” is what makes me actually want to pay to go to the theater and enjoy motion pictures instead of watching it online.

Furthermore, being that I am such a film freak, I give the movie “Colombiana” a nine out of ten, which is really good considering that I never give a movie a ten. In my opinion the movie was intense from start to finish and was one of those movies that kept the audiences’ attention at all times. Also one thing I loved about the movie was that it was not predictable at all whatsoever and I do enjoy putting the pieces of the puzzle together as I am watching the movie and not know what will happen next. For me Zoe Saldana reminds me of a younger Angelina Jolie, they are both beautiful women who make action films get away from the normal tradition of male domination. The movie overall has had mixed reviews within its critical response and has been criticized for stereotyping the Colombian culture; however, the movie did well bringing in $60,145,421 worldwide and it’s honestly one of my favorite films.

The movie theater is something I do enjoy going to a lot, but I don’t do it often due to my hectic schedule and because the film has to really stand out in some way or another for me to make a decision weather I will go to the theater or not. Most of the time, I just watch movies online for free and that hinders me from going to the movie theater. Watching movies online is way more convenient for me due to: time, money, finding someone to go with, and transportation; therefore, I go to the movie theater once every two months due to my circumstances. The disadvantages of going to the theater are many, but so are the advantages and at the end of the day we cannot lose the old tradition of going to the theater because it brings society together.

My Reading Habits

Edwin Vega

Mr. Ken Carpenter

MMC

September 11, 2011

My Reading Habits

            Throughout my life, I always detested reading with a great passion. As a kid, my mom would always force me to read because my elementary teachers required that of me. I assume that is why I hated reading so much, because I strongly dislike when other individuals tell me what to do in a demanding way. I was a decent reader growing up; however, I could only read Spanish being that I was raised in the island of Puerto Rico. Spanish is my first language; all my elementary school years were spent in the island. Even though teachers in Puerto Rico teach a little bit of English due to the fact that it is part of the Unites States, I never learned how to write, read, or speak it, I only understood a couple of words because the English teaching system in my country is pretty awful.

            When I finished elementary school I came to the United States (2003), I had to start middle school and I had the tendency of hating to read, I did not know English at all and was completely new to a fresh country, and I had multiple factors that could potentially make me unsuccessful through my middle school years. My mother became really strict when it came to reading even more now because my school required twenty minutes of reading everyday, she knew that it would help me learn English, and I had the FCAT test coming as well and knew that if I didn’t pass it I had the risk of failing the grade. In view of the fact that I had to read regardless, I started reading everything just to read and not paid attention to what I was reading, so if someone asked me a question about the story I read, I did not know the answer because I never tried to understand the stories that I was reading. Moreover, my mom took me out of public school and put me in a private one because she feared that my reading skills would never assist me on passing the FCAT and private schools do not have FCAT tests; Therefore, I passed middle school without a problem.

            Then came High School, at this time I already knew how to speak English very well and my reading and writing were respectable. I had a mean English teacher that made us write essays in the class and out of class almost everyday, she also made us read the novel “Native Son” consistently, at first I hated the teacher, but now I thank God that he put her in my path because my English teacher named Mrs. Rigsby was the individual who unleashed the journalism potential I had in me. I fell in love with writing to the fullest; however, reading not so much, but I never had a problem with reading again, if I have to read something I can do it with no problem though is not something I enjoy as much as writing.

            Nevertheless, being that my reading habits have gone through pure dreadful stages, I can proudly say that they have changed over the past months for the better. I feel very comfortable with my reading habits now because I have performed well in all my English classes at Valencia College and my major now is communications. My personal challenge now is that I want to read consistently the W.S.J for the class, and after the class continue to read it because I know it will enrich my life in multiple positive ways.