11 - Extra Credit Blog

I have never used a blog before attending RTF 305; however, I’m glad we used blogs for our weekly assignments instead of the same old, boring essay style questions. The blogs kept us up to date with current technology. Most of our blogs dealt with finding examples from YouTube. This made the assignment fun and challenging. It gave us something to do that we actually liked to do: searching through video’s on You Tube. Also, it gave us a chance to search out other blogs. Before taking this class, I had never used a blog or read a blog before. Now, I find myself searching out new blogs to read. Although I enjoyed certain aspects of the blog assignments, I did run into some difficulties every once in a while. One difficulty I ran into was trying to post YouTube videos on my blog. I could post the link; however, I had a hard time figuring out how to actually make the video show up. Eventually, I did manage to figure out how to post the video’s straight on the blog, but it would have been nice to know from the start. Also, sometimes it was difficult to come up with an example because we had to show something visual. For instance, I would have an idea, but it would take forever to try and find an image or YouTube video that went along with the example. Although, eventually I would find something that worked; it would just take a really long time. I thought the blog prompts about camera shots, TV sitcoms, the three act structure, and advertising were a little more interesting because they dealt with movies and TV shows that we are interested in and therefore it was easier to talk about them. Also, the globalization blog was interesting just because it is so true and it is an issue that we are dealing with today. Conversely, I thought the first few prompts were less interesting because they dealt more with factual terms from the text and did not relate to today’s youth’s interest. Even so, I would recommend continuing using blogs in future courses because it allows the students to stay up to date in today’s society. Technology is always changing and to make students interested in what they are studying, I believe that professors should try and stay on top of today’s technology. I believe that using blogs is a perfect way to use technology to peak their student’s interest. There is only one thing that I would change about the blogging experience and that is making sure the blog prompts get out on time. The prompts are supposed to be emailed out on Wednesday and then they are due on Sunday by 10pm; however, there were many occasions when the blog prompt was not sent out until Friday or sometimes even Saturday. This made completing the assignment harder because of my schedule and assignments for other classes. All in all, I believe that the blog is a great way to get student’s involved in their studies.

Yes, you can use my blog in a paper or report.

10 - Globalization

Globalization is a process of interconnectedness among nations, cultures, and people. With the help of technology, countries are able to interact with each other faster and more efficiently. Because of this shorter time-space interaction, companies are able to expand around the world and trade with one another. However, a negative effect of globalization is cultural imperialism.


Cultural imperialism is the domination of a country's culture by another. In other words, a powerful country's culture will overpower a weaker country's culture. Then, the weaker country will begin to acknowledge the powerful country's culture as their own and their culture will fade away. The problem with cultural imperialism is that if one culture becomes dominant all around the world then multiculturalism, diversity, and identity will be lost and everyone will become the same, undistinguishable.

An example of cultural imperialism is portrayed by the film industry. Today, 80% of movies shown outside of the United States are produced in the United States. All other cultures are becoming westernized or “Americanized” with the help of the film industry because people copy what they see in films. So, if people all over the world are watching American films, they will start to act like Americans and become interested in similar things.

American culture is spreading rapidly around the world with the help of the film industry. Globalization may be brought upon by an interconnectedness of nations; however, through cultural imperialism, the world is slowly but surely becoming “Americanized.”

9 - Advertising

This Pedigree commercial is powerful and persuasive because it relies on aesthetic sensation. In this commercial, a dog named Echo gets adopted because of the help of Pedigree. You might remember Echo from a previous Pedigree commercial that states, “For every dog that get’s adopted, there’s one that doesn’t.” In that commercial, Echo is the one that doesn’t get adopted; however, in this one, he finally does. This message is even more powerful and persuasive than the one before because when I see Echo finally getting adopted, it makes me feel happy and makes me want to buy Pedigree so that I can help other dogs too.

Aesthetic sensation simply means visual feelings. It makes the viewers connect whatever emotion the commercial portrays to the product itself. This is a strong persuasive technique because most people are controlled by their emotions. There are many different emotions that commercials use to promote their products; however, one of the most powerful uses of emotion is turning a sad situation into a happy one. When commercials show a something sad and state that it can become happy if the viewers buy their product, they are more likely to do so.

In this Pedigree commercial, viewers see that Echo goes from being sad and depressed to happy and care-free. This draws off of people’s feelings towards dogs, man’s best friend, and not wanting to see them sad. By showing Echo getting adopted, the viewers feel a sensation of happiness and feel more inclined to buy the product because they are shown that their efforts really do make a difference.