Magazine Feature

Ipads and tablets and its effect on young children.  Is it better or worse for them?  What do teachers think? 

Magazine collage

My collage is about light, dark, and space.  On the left side there is a dark sky with one beam of light, I added a storm trooper to the bottom so it looks like he is holding the light.  Next to that is a car that has all these really cool colors.  To the right of that is a cut out of words saying "Lights in the Dark."  Above that is a picture of what looks to be a lunar module that is glowing pink.  On top of that I put a cut out of a sentence that says "he sees it as a way to take a look at a parallel universe...."  Then above that is a picture of a sky that says "Let's Go Places."  In the middle of everything is a man made of colored lights that looks like he is breaking through the page.  I chose these pictures because the story it is telling is "to break out of the dark and into the light," to go places, and be yourself, to be different. 

file:///Users/dariannecardino/Desktop/IMG_1929.jpg

Proposals for Featured Articles

1. Fast food and its affect on people's lives (Ex. McDonalds) How will people's lives be different if they continue to eat like this? Will fast food exist in the future if we know its bad for ourselves?
2. Children having tablets, and learning off of iPads, kindles, etc. What will that make the future like? Will the way of teaching be different?

Adbusters Magazine

Adbusters magazine describes itself as "a global network of artists, activists, writers, pranksters, students, educators and entrepreneurs who want to advance the new social activist movement of the information age.”  Adbusters is an “anti-advertising: it blames advertising for playing a central role in creating, and maintaining, consumer culture.  This argument is based on the belief that the advertising industry goes to great effort and expense to associate desire and identity with commodities.”

The first five pages are just black, with either one sentence or nothing on it.  After that there are two pages of animals on it.  Then after that there are a bunch of comments made by people about the previous edition of the magazine.  There’s honestly a bunch of random articles in here that don’t appeal to me, and make me not want to read it.  There are a lot of weird pieces and pictures in here.  Two pages next to each other are a blown up picture of a coyote or dog-like animal thats dead and was hit by a car. I can’t tell who the targeted audience it.  Online it says it is anti-consumerist and pro-environment.  Therefore anyone who believes in such topics is probably attracted to this magazine. 

Wired Magazine

Wired is a monthly American magazine that reports on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics.  It is headquartered n San Francisco, California and has been in publication since January 1993.  

This magazine’s audience is for people in their mid 20‘s to mid 30‘s, because most people older than that are not connected to the technology world.  The Wired magazine edition of October 2012 has a cover of a man holding a “machine that will change the world.”  The machine he is holding is the new replicator 3-D printer.  Having this machine on the cover perfectly describes the kind of magazine Wired is.  Inside the magazine there are more articles on technologies.  One example is, there are two pages on 7-inch tablets, the Nexus 7, Nook Tablet, Toshiba Excite 7.7, and Samsung Galaxy Tab 27.0.  Another page shows a bunch of smartphone toys.  

The advertisers in this edition of Wired are: Omega, RadioShack, Lexus, Rolex, Delta, Movado, Cadillac, Kohler, Samsung, Banana Republic, Bulova, Marriott, Bud Light, Dodge, Xerox, Honda, Heineken, hp, Dyson, Skype, Volkswagen, Columbia, Diet Coke, Geico, Hyundai, AT&T, Windows 7, ups, Verizon, IBM, monster, Gillette, Otter Box, incase. 


This magazine was informative and technical.  It had a lot of information on technology.  For someone looking into tablets, phones, or even the 3-D printer, this magazine could help answer a lot of questions. 

Time Magazine

Time is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City.  Time was founded in 1923 and for decades dominated by Henry Luce.  Time has he world’s largest circulation for a weekly news magazine, and has a readership of 25 million, 20 million of which are based in the United States.  

For the Time magazine published in October 2013 is directed towards people looking to start a family and settle down and buy a home.  The cover photo is the state Texas made up of all the other states in the U.S.  This issue of the magazine talks about why Texas is America’s future.  Inside the magazine there are a couple of pages discussing Texas and there are articles stating why Texas is the place.  The net population in Texas is growing, while in New York it is decreasing.  In New York, $300,000 will buy you an apartment with one bed and one bath, meanwhile in Texas, with the same amount of money you can buy a house with four beds and three bathrooms.  State tax is cheaper in Texas and the change in employment is increasing.  

The advertisers in this edition of the magazine are: BMW, Chevron Human Energy, Citi, United, Emirates, Carbonite, Lumosity, Rosetta Stone, Toyota, and Tylenol. 


I believe this edition of Time magazine was informative.  I’m not at the age of buying a new home and having a family of my own, but I still found the information very informative.  I’m not going to lie, but it makes me have thoughts about living in Texas. 

The Social Bowl

These days the Super Bowl has a different meaning then it used to when it first began.  In the early years of the Super Bowl it just meant watching two of the best football teams competing in one game to find out who is the better team.  Today the Super Bowl means much more than that.  The Super Bowl is now a cultural event and no longer just a sporting event because of all the advertising before and during the game.  The Super Bowl is so well known for the commercials that get played during it that people get so excited just to watch the commercials.  This cultural event gains hundreds of millions of viewers and because so many people are watching it, it is a great advertising opportunity for companies.  There are so many commercials before the Super Bowl talking about it and the half time show, and there is so much hype leading up to it.  It costs 4 million dollars for a 30 second commercial during the Super Bowl.  Companies are willing to pay top dollar for one of these commercial slots because they know that there is a large amount of viewers that comes with it.  In an article called “Yes, A Super Bowl Ad Really Is Worth $4 Million” stated that “Several studies have proven that 50% of the Super Bowl audience tunes in just to watch the ads.  Commercials are often considered interruptions to the entertainment we love. But Super Bowl ads are different, instead of being intruders, they are like the “must have” guests that keep a party rockin’.”  I’m personally one of these people who just watch the Super Bowl for the commercials because I find them very entertaining.  With that being said you can tell that the advertising companies spend a lot of time trying to grab hold of your attention for their commercials being played and it works.  

http://www.forbes.com/sites/onmarketing/2014/01/29/yes-a-super-bowl-ad-really-is-

Letter to the future

Dear, future grandchild 

By definition consumerism is “a social and economic order that encourages the purchase of goods and services in ever-greater amounts.”  The consumer culture is our society that is trying to grab hold our attention for advertising and selling products.  The advertisers will use many different techniques to get your attention, some techniques are slogans and sex appeal.  Marketing agencies use these techniques to manipulate people into buying their products.  They blind you with eye pleasing advertisements like commercials and billboards.  They don’t tell you the negative affects of buying their products for example, processed food, or that their products are planned obsolescence meaning made for the trash.  My advice to you is to keep your eyes open and see past the marketing agencies.  Don’t conform to society.  Just because everyone has this one product and it is advertised so well that doesn’t mean it’s the best product of its kind.  In the future I’m assuming our technology will be much more advanced so that means media will be around you even more.  You are influenced by the media everywhere to conform and you think it won’t conform you, but by thinking that you actually conform even more.  

Sex In Advertising

Its no secret that sex sells.  Today sex and sexual material is everywhere in mass media and there is no way to avoid it.  Advertisers put sex in their advertising to capture the attention of  the many people who are drawn to the word in itself.  When viewers read sex in the media they're usually looking for either beautiful women or handsome men which serves as bait to lure in consumers.  Take, for example, the sports illustrated swimsuit edition calendar.  Every year this calendar extra sells millions of copies.  But what is it that is so appealing to readers?  It is simply the sex appeal.  Men in their teens and early twenties are the predominant demographic that the calendar caters to.  With no writing and high resolution color photographs of scantily clad women, the calendar has very little to offer, except for visual pleasure.  On January 8th, Adweek.com posted an articled called “Hefty Is Now Sexing Up Garbage Men.”  The article is about the recent commercial for hefty ultimate bags.  As stated in the article, the commercial is about “super sexy garbage men in tight shirts that drop all sorts of weird innuendos that make zero sense when discussing garbage bags.”  One of the garbage men say "And that gripping drawstring? So tight.” As the housewife behind him is making awkward expressions of arousal.  This commercial grabs the attention of women because they use attractive muscular men even though the commercial is an attempt to sell “unsexy” products.

This example is not limited to just the sports illustrated calendar and the hefty commercial, it is expressed in media everywhere. This type of advertising is most commonly used to grab hold the attention of men, but is still used for women too.  As you can see attractive men are used to get attention of women, and attractive women are used to get attention of men.  There are some people who feel uncomfortable to sex in advertising, but it still has proven to be a topic of very high interest, bringing in all sorts of viewers for its various reasons.

Reporting for Digital Citizen this is Darianne Cardino 

SEX!! Now that I have your attention...

Its no secret that sex sells.  Today sex and sexual material is everywhere in mass media and there is no way to avoid it.  Advertisers put sex in their advertising to capture the attention of  the many people who are drawn to the word in itself.  When viewers read sex in the media they're usually looking for either beautiful women or handsome men which serves as bait to lure in consumers.  Take, for example, the sports illustrated swimsuit edition calendar.  Every year this calendar extra sells millions of copies.  But what is it that is so appealing to readers?  It is simply the sex appeal.  Men in their teens and early twenties are the predominant demographic that the calendar caters to.  With no writing and high resolution color photographs of scantily clad women, the calendar has very little to offer, except for visual pleasure.  Another example of this is pop star and now sex symbol Miley Cyrus.  She is a talented singer who has recently gained extreme popularity in the media because of her scandalous music videos and her shockingly revealing outfits. Wearing only a bra and underwear and touching yourself is bound to get attention from all kinds of viewers which is part of the exact reason that she does these things.  This example is not limited to just Miley Cyrus and the sports illustrated calendar, it is expressed in media everywhere.  Men find it attractive while most women don't, but it still has proven to be a topic of very high interest, bringing in all sorts of viewers for its various reasons.

Assignment 4: 2 Proposals

1. SEX!! Now that I have your attention...

2. Sexy people selling unsexy products

Podcast on Consumerism

https://soundcloud.com/dcardino17/digital-civilzation

Consumerism

What is consumerism? According to Wikipedia Consumerism is a "social and economic order that encourages the purchase of goods and services in large amounts." Our nation is known as the nation of consumers, all we do is shop. Being aware of consumerism matters because it is good to be aware of what is going on. There are many things in the media that encourage us to purchase goods and services. Such things are commercials and advertisements. It is good to know where the products you buy come from. There are four steps to consumerism. The first step is extraction, extraction of resources from the environment, like trees, water, and animals. After the resources are extracted they are mixed with toxins, this process is called production, which is the second step. The third step is distribution, after the products are made they are distributed to stores. Products prices are kept low so that they are sold quick and more shipments of goods can come in faster. Products change every year just to make consumers purchase new products every year. We consumers want the new, updated, and in-style products. Without them we feel out of date and like an outcast. Advertising is used to show us consumers the new products that are created. The media and advertising also hide the steps behind creating products. They don’t tell you about the environment they destroyed and the toxins that are put in your products. Also since most products are planned obsolescence, pretty much meaning they are designed to go to the garbage, this is the fourth step, disposal. These products last about six months before they break and are thrown out. When they are broken they go to disposal, and they are either disposed by incineration or they are thrown into a landfill, both which create pollution. A very little percent of the waste gets recycled and then the cycle of consumption starts all over again. This is why it is good to be aware of consumerism. There are alternatives to consumer culture though, such as “...a strategy known as ‘voluntary simplicity,’ otherwise known as ‘downshifting. Our planet urgently needs us to explore alternative ways to live, and one promising way to lessen our impact on nature is to reject the high-impact lifestyles of consumer culture and voluntarily embrace ‘a simpler life’ of reduced consumption.”1 As stated before, our culture needs to downshift because we are having a huge impact on the environment. We need to cut back on this consumer culture and start living a simpler life before we ruin the planet. 

1.http://simplicitycollective.com/start-here/full-simplicity-essay

Ally DiUbaldo

After a long drive from Long Island, New York to Fairfield, Connecticut, and passing through the main entrance of Sacred Heart University, Ally DiUbaldo immediately fell in love with Sacred Heart.  After seeing how the campus was perfectly laid out and a perfect size, she knew this is where she wanted to be for the next four years. Ally is eighteen years old and is a freshman at Sacred Heart.  At Sacred Heart she is in a sorority, and because of that she was able to make a lot of friends.  Ally is currently undecided, but she thinks being an orthodontist would be interesting so she wants to lean in that direction.  Ally also enjoys sports, back in high school Ally played lacrosse and she rowed, but she doesn't play any sports at Sacred Heart.  In Long Island Ally is an only child and lives with her parents and her dog. Ally looks forward to her time here at Sacred Heart and hopes to be an orthodontist.