The Key Roles of Mass Media

Strong and Free
This book is definitely one that informs us about events that happen internationally. Before speaking with Becky and reading her book, I had no idea about the kind of things that still happened in the world today. I thought there was no place on earth that acted in such inhumane ways. It really makes us aware of the way a big part of the rest of the world lives, we should all be more thankful and really appreciate the life we live as Canadians.

Mean Girls
This movie has got to consume most of the cruelest humor out of all of the movies I've ever seen. The way girls back stab each other and talk behind each other's backs, they do it so much that it almost seems normal. It seems to come natural to most of these girls. In the movie there is a book they call the "Burnbook". The girls take pictures of all the other students in the school, paste it in the Burnbook, and write a nasty comment or rumor about them under it. After this movie was released, things got to the point where even girls I know were making their very own Burnbook. Life is cruel enough, we don't need Hollywood giving us ideas on how we can be even more horrible to each other.

National Geographic , "Inspiring people to care about the planet since 1888."
National Geographic is by far one of the largest and most well known magazines in the world that links us with all sorts of information we could never imagine. It opens us up to the world of anything from Cenotes to the worlds most dangerous fish. I'm sure you could list off any topic in the world and National Geographic would have done an article on it. The best part is, all of their information is researched and factual.


Lollipop
This song and video, produced by Lil Wayne, is the first video that came to mind. I've been singing this song for a few years now, and knew all the lyrics off by heart, but never stopped to think about what they actually meant until a few months ago. I couldn't believe that I had been singing those lyrics for such a long time without cluing into what they were actually saying and the meaning behind them. Songs like come everyday to us, were all at the point that we sing them without even listening to ourselves and for most of us, even after realizing the meaning behind them, still don't stop because this kind of thing is so common to us that we believe it has no impact on us whatsoever. If this were even ten years ago though, there is no way it would be playing on radio stations and seen on TV.
Also, even from working in a movie theatre, I see the way the ratings are changed. I couldn't believe it when I saw a grandmother and her young grandson walking into a sex scene during one the movies and not even thinking twice about it. What really caught me off guard though, was the fact that the grandson was even of age to see this movie, ratings have dropped so much even since we were young. Cartoons now come with swearing and what used to be a parental guidance film has now dropped to children.

The Coolest "Billboard" Ad's Ever! 
I was originally looking for the ad with the wire's travelling through the bald man's nose (advertising for nose hair trimmers) and found this site with the top 10 "Coolest "Billboard" Ad's Ever!". I couldn't choose just one so I posted them all. I think all of these advertisements are awesome, they all interact with the public and some even get them involved in making their own ad like the Sharpie ad for example, where it was a digital screen that allowed to you write on it with their digital markers in any color you chose. I also like the ad for the batteries, it made it seem like they had the strength to power an entire city bus. The ad for skydiving was the best though I thought, where they painted a scene looking downward onto a city on the floor of an elevator. That would have a huge impact on people! I know for sure I would not be able to go on that elevator, just the idea that we were crashing onto the ground would be enough to scar me. They are all very memorable ad's, ones that I'm sure people will never be able to forget about.

Simon's Cat
Simon was just a normal guy who made up cartoons about the real life experiences with his cat. He then began publishing them on Youtube a few small years ago and has gained tons of recognition since then. He has also just recently published his own cartoon strip book called "Simon's Cat". The videos are absolutely hilarious, we literally sat around for about an hour at our last family dinner, everyone crowded around the computer, watching these cartoons he published of his cat.