Activity 17
It is indeed true that over the last decade, the variety of shows being aired on televisions have increased. One particular variety that has started to gain strong traction in the said industry is the reality TV show variety. These are basically television shows that exude a certain level of realism in them, which is their main selling point. Most people watch television in order to get entertained by fictitious storylines that may be either in the form of drama, comedy, and even romantic soap operas. What makes reality TV shows unique is that they are based on real and camera captured experiences and not a product of pre-written scripts and tedious directing and shootings.
There are a lot of types of reality TV shows just like how there are numerous types of television shows. There are reality TV shows that feature the story of how a person found his or her wife or husband; there were even too unique shows that focus on the life of a gold miner. In general, there are seven types of reality television shows and they are documentaries or documentary series, competition and elimination TV shows, maker and renovation, dating, hidden camera and amateur content, supernatural, and travel and aspirational television shows. Reality TV shows about dating were the ones that got popular several years ago.
However, this trend has already started to break as more and more people become less interested with the way how love is being portrayed by such Reality TV shows; as a result, audience viewership is starting pick up slowly but surely in soap operas about love and romance. One Reality TV show category that is still on its way up at least based on popularity and audience viewership is the documentary type of Reality TV shows. It seems that television viewers are starting to shift away from the euphoria being offered by television shows based on fictional stories and more towards the educational component being offered by documentary shows.
According to Anna Godas, the chief executive of Dog Woof Pictures, which is one of the most active companies when it comes to producing documentary films and television shows, one major reason behind the sudden upward spike in popularity of reality television shows is the fact that they have simply become more entertaining. This is largely because of the latest discoveries in film making. Gone are the days when documentary films and television shows sported not even a small amount of cinematic scenes and animations. Today, documentary film makers and television show producers are starting to find the importance of infusing the elements of entertainment in their practices.
It cannot be denied that people always look for the entertainment value that a show can offer; although there may also be other considerations and factors that they tend to look at such as the educational and moral value which is where documentary films and television shows score particularly high at. Nonetheless, documentary television shows and films indeed are starting to show concrete signs that they are on their way to dominate the television show industry as evidenced by high television viewer ratings, among others.
Activity 18
The article chosen for this activity is entitled “Why communism eventually fails” which was published in The LA Times last 2014 . Below is an outline that summarizes the key points of the said article.
Why Communism Eventually Fails
It cannot support sustained economic development
The high level of censorship and oppression (of the people) eventually leads to social unrest
It has sustained a bad image when it comes to promoting stability through popular political participation in governance
As one can see, the way how the text was organized was linear and simplistic. This is one of the most common ways how articles and or editorial entries in popular newspaper and newspaper websites are published. This is because the goal of the authors of such works is focused more on achieving a high level of entertainment value; and of course, in getting the message of their work across—or rather to inform. To inform the public about the current events is the fundamental rationale of existence of newspapers and their respective online websites after all.
This structure, based on my years of experience reading newspaper articles, is highly effective. Firstly, it gets the message or the main ideas across easily. It makes the task of reading not a chore that has to be finished but rather an entertaining thing to do. It also prevents the readers from being bored from reading, something which has to be avoided at all costs because otherwise, the viewership of the newspaper would eventually dwindle. The key is to remember that the easier for a material to read is, regardless of how complex or complicated the topic or issue is the better. I, however, think that the article in question in this case was written in a too simple manner. I think the author may have done a better job had he introduced some mildly complicated concepts in his editorial rather than focusing on too easy to comprehend and not so mentally stimulating ideas and concepts.
Activity 22
I think one of the most significant times in my life where I stood up for something I believed in even though it was clearly not the most popular or would be loved thing to do is now. Just a few days ago, reports about the legalization of same sex marriage on a federal level spread all over newspapers, news sites, and social media articles; it is important to note that such reports are not hoax, they are real. The Supreme Court really just made it constitutional for two people of the same sex to get legally married. I, being a firm believer that only two people of the opposite sex must be allowed to marry, immediately aired out my thoughts about the move to legalize same sex marriage to my friends, family, and to my class in one situation where we had to discuss an elective social issue—it turned out that that issue was same sex marriage.
I voiced out my arguments, which were by the way based on historical recounts about the concept of marriage and from the Bible mostly, but based on the reaction of my classmates, I knew that majority of them disagreed, especially those who were involved in same-sex relationships themselves. I understand that these people (i.e. members of the LGBT community) hate to be persecuted and just want to be treated equally and fairly. But if that means that people like us, the heterosexuals, would be forced to shut our mouth and be the ones who would have to suffer from the lack of equality and fairness that shutting our mouth and not being able to express our thoughts and feelings bring, then that would be too unfair would not it?
We are all entitled to voice out our concerns about something. The fact that I discussed my position about the issue in the class means that I am merely voicing out my thoughts about the said issue. If being fair and equal means I have to suppress my own thought processes, then that would be more like yielding and compromising, something which I and I guess all people facing the same dilemma would be very much unwilling to do because doing so would violate the very concept that these people (i.e. LGBT people) are fighting for.
Works Cited
Engel, J. Why Communism Eventually Fails. The LA Times (2014).
