HOW DOES MASS MEDIA INFLUENCE YOUNG PEOPLE? (Final exam)

The media, in this case television, has a big influence in society habits. The media makes billions of dollars with the advertising they sell and that we are exposed to. We buy what we have been told is good. After seeing thousands of advertisings we make our buying decisions based on what we saw on TV, newspapers or magazines and what we believe is a product that we can trust. We also purchase products based on what everyone else is buying because of their decisions which are also based on the media.

The media, which surrounds us and is an essential part of our life, affects people’s health because it influences people to smoke cigars as celebrity movie stars do. Constant exposure of sex images, the excessive images of violence and exposure to thousands of junk food ads also affect our health. Another fact is that young people who are in a stage of life where they want to be accepted by their peers, copy the standards of beauty created by Communications Medias causing them to fall into eating disorders  such as anorexia, bulimia and obesity.

Another effect on media is the increase in violent behaviors. Violent series and movies, which have a predominant presence in T.V schedules,   train people, especially young people who are most vulnerable, to solve problems with violence.

A third fact is that media influences the public opinion. For example, after the attacks of 911 the media gave a huge coverage of the event and blamed Osama for the attack, as they were told by the authorities. This shaped the public opinion to support the war on terrorism, the same happened with the war on Iraq. The problem is that if by chance the media received inaccurate information then the public opinion supported a wrong cause. This is an example of the power that public opinion has and its capacity to influence people. Other ways to influence are with polls and trends, especially in political campaigns. The candidates that can pay for more TV and media exposure have more influence on public opinion and thus can receive more votes.

My experience as a writer

I am definitely a romantic and idealistic writer. I write what I feel and think about topics given during the course. As I mentioned in many classes, I have very strong and firm values about polemic and transcendental topics related to human life and these values or thoughts are the ones that I defend in my essays. I always want my compositions to reflect as possible who I am in terms of personality, for example, the colors chosen for blog appearance, the images used and so forth. I try to make my writings easy for everyone to understand.  In order to have most of my readers to quickly understand my ideas, I keep vocabulary and grammar structures simple. There are a lot of ways to  lighten compositions. One can take advantage of  extra material for readers to increase their knowledge of the topic and from different point of views, such as videos, links to documentaries and publications. I enjoy using the blog because it is a very dynamic resource that makes  reading more active. I believe that I grew during the course not only as a writer but also as a person with the variety of topics analyzed during these weeks.  Researches made to obtain information required to write the pieces gave me a larger cultural background and allowed me to learn about other points of view and to understand why people have different concepts of a same situation.

 

 

 

Outline grupal composition: Recomending UIA (Composition week 10)

Studying English at UIA

 

UIA is a good place to learn English for several reasons.

 

A. The syllabus for English carrier is different of others universities.

1.       2 branches

a.        Teaching

b.       Translations

2.       Specific courses

a.        Phonetic

b.       Grammar

B. Easy to access at the university

1.       Several means of transportation

a.        The train

b.       Almost all the Guadalupe buses

c.        Barrio Escalante Bus

d.       University Buses

e.       University has a parking lot for professor and students

f.         Surrounding the area there are like three more public parking lots.

2.       The schedules are favorable for working people

a.        6:30pm instead of 5pm (which is the schedule of mostly other universities)

C. University counts with sever food options

1.       Two internal cafeterias

2.       Two more surrounding cafeterias

 

D. Quality and level of professionalism of the professors

1.       The grade of compliance with the student

2.       They tried to give the best material and give support for the students’ course deals.

 

For these reasons UIA is good choice as a place to study English.

***Ver composición en blog de Mónica Astúa***

Euthanasia: Right to die? (Reading week 12)

Euthanasia is the termination of a very sick person's life in order to relieve them of their suffering, but does an individual who has no hope of recovery have the right to decide how and when to end their life? For Craig Ewert is his chose to give an end to his illness. He went to Switzerland, Belgium to practice an Assited suicide which is one form of euthanasia. This usually refers to cases where the person who is going to die needs help to kill themselves and asks for it. It may be something as simple as getting drugs for the person and putting those drugs within their reach. He was motivated by his degenerative disorder ALS (Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), which is a is a form of  motor caused by the degeneration of neuronst. The disorder is characterized by rapidly progressive weakness, muscle atrophy and respiratory compromise. Why a person like Mr. Craig Ewert want euthanasia? Most people think unbearable pain is the main reason people seek euthanasia, but some surveys in the USA and the Netherlands showed that less than a third of requests for euthanasia were because of severe pain. Terminally ill people can have their quality of life severely damaged by physical conditions such as incontinence, nausea and vomiting, breathlessness, paralysis and difficulty in swallowing. Psychological factors that cause people to think of euthanasia include depression, fearing loss of control or dignity, feeling a burden, or dislike of being dependent. He thought this was the best way to end his life, do you agree with him?

More about euthanasia
John Paul II speech about euthanasia	http://www.fluvium.org/textos/lectura/lectura534.htm
Catechism of the Catholic Church	http://www.es.catholic.net/escritoresactuales/524/1319/articulo.php?id=12871