Final Presentation

Final Presentation: The debate over Red Light traffic Surveillance and how Mass Media affects both sides and their Perspectives.

Let me first explain why I chose this subject that is in a sense in relation to my blog on images and ideologies, The Statue of Liberty. I believe that these surveillance technologies are unconstitutional and I will show you in words case in point. This topic has been in the news quite often and has drawn my interest. The Mass Media is dangerous because they are taking interest in how local news is covering this topic. Phoenix just had a public debate over the legality of this issue. I am sorry to say that I went on one of the news stations website that covered the story and the story was pulled off. The debate took place yesterday, today is Friday. They want you to forget the story. This is definitely a Mass Media Problem. How do we fix this problem? I think this issue in Arizona should be taken into the street and demonstrated. I can’t say for sure, but I don’t think the issue was voted on by the people. Legislation once again voted it in on their own without We the People.


Hello everyone. I think this subject will be interesting to everyone who drives a vehicle, not only in the Great State of Arizona, but anywhere in the United States of America. Currently there are 45 other countries utilizing such red light surveillance systems and right here in the good ole U.S.A. we have 19 of our states including the District of Columbia deploying these surveillance systems and more on the way. Privacy advocates and true Americans have vocally opposed the systems due to a number of reasons such as the fact that there is a chance for surveillance creep and so forth. There is also the apparent conflicts of interest and lack of transparency with the outsourcing of police powers to private tech industry. It is possible for the information that is retained in the surveilvence cameras to fall into the wrong hands. The data can be used for purposes other than what it was originally collected for. Because information data unrelated to the violation are being collected and stored, and also because of the fact that those being accused of breaking a law have no recourse to challenge their accusers in court, meaning in-effect they are guilty until proven innocent. There is also the argument that the privately owned companies can rig or alter their technology for gains in profit. As expected, individuals in defense of their rights have developed counter – surveillance techniques to neutralize the effectiveness of red-light and speeding systems. These include measures such as destroying cameras, sprays or shields and technology to make license plates unreadable etc…

Now to the other hand, State and local authorities are claiming that the surveillance is working and there are fewer accidents, more police powers to focus their time on the real crime and of course, In God We Trust, money for the state coffers. Why not? The state is in a 2 billion dollar deficit. Let’s go on to take a look at what another state is doing, Florida. The house just passed a bill approving red light surveillance cameras on state owned property. The problem is the State has laws banning their use on State lands. Once the Senate approves, they will have the go ahead to change the law and set up the cameras on state land. Without the peoples vote on this issue The State has placed money over privacy. This is a sad, but true. Let’s go back to Arizona; my numbers might be wrong, due to the fact that they (The Mass Media) took the story off the web. I believe they said another 37 cameras will be strategically placed within the Phoenix city limits to take your privacy, your money, and maybe your safety as well because of the facts that there are more tail-gating accidents then ever before due to people slowing down real fast to beat the cameras. Right now, the local Municipal Courts in Maricopa County are tied up with over 300,000 cases of traffic fines issued from the cameras that haven’t been paid. I don’t know what the math is but I do know that the courts and ADOT, the Arizona department of Transportation are separate agencies that have to work together to make sure private driving records are current and up to date. Now with the layoffs at statewide Motor Vehicle Division offices and with the extra cameras up and running they will have their hands busy. Checks and Balances do not weigh out evenly here.

Well, there’s a lot more that can be said concerning this issue, but due to space and time I would like to comment on the totally biased based stories that held support to this presentation. I hope that I showed to some degree the functionalist view as well as the conflict side to this issue. The mediums I used for gathering my information consisted of the local news and the internet, as far as I can tell they are owned by the same forces. So what are my choices? The newspaper is still the best for gathering news at the local level but being more opinionated due to the fact they are being outsourced by local citizens who have cropped up as seasoned, educated reporters. I don’t want to spend an hour on the internet to get the true story. People say there is a lot of hostility between blogs and the mainstream media. But the fact remains true that if the mass media finds a blog worth its weight in salt, it will pay attention.

The 5 resources I would like to share with my fellow students that are relevant to my presentation are: WWW.redlight surveillance.com
WWW.Public Surveiveince: redlight.com/redlight
Just about any issue of Mother Jones Magazine. They are at motherjones.com Excellent Journalism.
WWW.myfoxpheonix.com
WWW.KPHO5 com

Chapter10

Chapter 10 Is Google making us stupid?


As I read the article, I was impressed at what he was saying in response that his reading and thinking habits have changed due to reading most of his information on the web. I think he made a sensible argument into how this might have happened to him. The problem here though with the story is that he is trying to support the fact that this is happening to everyone on the internet. While maybe this reading/thinking perception theory is happening to him and some friends doesn’t support that everyone is in this boat. He points this out when he mentions that there haven’t been any scientific experiments to support his opinions. I did like the way he correlates other stories into his own. They were along the same lines to what he was getting across to his audience. I agree with the fact that our minds are always in a constant state of change and that the way we perceive our information has a lot to do with the way we receive the information. The reason I think this article in a sense is weak is that it is to long winded and drawn out. Maybe my opinions are directly related to this article, is Google making us stupid? I had a hard time focusing in on the whole story and was taken away from the main idea of the story more than once. The section where he was telling us about the mission statement of Google was kind of scary, when speaking about artificial intelligence. This story is basically a biased one if you haven’t spent much time on the computer. I’m speaking about his part of the story, that is…

Chapter 9 scientific images

This you tube video dragged me in. Why this video interest me is the fact that this doctor did an MRI on two people of the opposite sex having sex with each other at the time. It amazed me that a doctor would research a topic such as this and then put it on you tube. I cant believe that the Internet has so much off the wall information that is accessible to all. It's kind of scary to think how big Internet media really is.



Here are a couple of images of the brain. The reason I choose these images is that there is so much science out there about how our brains function and what parts affect the others. Just about every area of science studies the brain to one degree or another. I thought everyone would get a laugh out of the male brain image. A bit of humor.

Chapter 8 Marksjrn 131

Chapter 8 – Pastiche, Parody and Remake Blog



For the life of me, I looked all over the computer and could not find an uplink to these songs, so please forgive me for not being able for you guys to hear them, but as far as remakes in music goes I think the Heavy Metal Band, Krokus did a few kick ass remakes on their alblum, Headhunters. They did American Woman by the Guess Who, Schools Out by Alice Cooper, and Smoking in the Boys Room by a band that I know, but cant think of their name right now. Lenny Kravitz and Motley Crue both did remakes of a couple of these songs as well, but in my opinion do not come close in comparison to what Krokus did with them.


When it comes to Parody, Saturday Night Lve on NBC T.V. have some of the more funny Parody acts out there in T.V. Land. Eddie Murphy always comes to my mind when thinking of parody/comedy. His skits and take about the little rascels in the 1982 season were funny, funny, funny. If you didn’t have a clue to who the little rascels were, you would be completely lost when he talks like buckweat and says some his quotes. If you do know the little rascels well, then you would get the jist of what hes saying and most people will agree that his skits are very funny.

One day I am going to go visit Los Vegas. Not only to play the slots, but to go see all of Pastiche in their architecture around town. Every time I see something about Vegas, wether in a magizine, a newspaper or T.V. it is usually an image of a far away land. This draws me in to go see Los Vegas.

Chapter 7 Advertising Consumer Cultures and Desire

When I saw this ad for mickeys big mouth ale, it took me back to the day. I used to drink this stuff back in the 80s and remember this ad. Yes, this ad sugest that mickeys is more important than girls but that girls and mickeys go hand in hand. I acually met quite a few gals that drink mickeys so maybe this ad attracts both sexes sugesting to the girls that if you drink mickeys you to can have a nice figure like the girl in the ad. In a sense this ad is sexist in attitude when it says to the male audience that women in general have big mouths. This is not true of course. The message they are selling is men will be men and women will be women.

This tipalet cigar ad is very controversial in my opinion to this day. It is of course swayed towards men and is sexist. I have researched for this assignment and have found that most of the older ads are extreme in their sexist attitdes just as they are today. They are selling cigars here, but the underlying message here is that the man is acually asking for a certain sexual favor. Back in the day, if a man gently blew smoke in a womans face, he was asking her if she was willing to perform a certain sexual act on him. This is no lie! My father was born in 1917 and he explained to me the ways men would sugest to women and vice versa. Anyways thios ad is selling sex.

This ad for Kellys Pep Pills/Vitimins are selling not only vitamins but also a mans labido towards his wife. What better way to turn your man on than to have the house sparkaling clean, his dinner made, being fresh and clean and still having energy for the evening, Ladies? Of course this turns men on. There is nothing worse than coming home to a dirty house, without dinner on the stove. I might be old fashioned here, but this message still holds true for us men. The more they do for us in the domestics, The more we do in the bedroom.

Chapter 6 Media Learning Outcomes

Outcome 1 - With each these mediums of media, you can just about find out any information you want or need to know these days. I would have to say, that with no doubt, the computer is now number one as far as where most people receive most of their news and information. The internet is fast and up to the minute when it comes to obtaining information. I think that the newspaper is still a great medium for receiving news because of the personal way the news is received. Most newspaper readers have a set, personal, ritualistic wayof reading their newspaper. Weather its at the kitcen table, parked in your car, on a recliner, at the racetrack, or even while on the crapper, the newspaper is a personal media fourm. I personally still enjoy newspaper reading everyday!

Outcome 2 - Mass Media has a major impact in all of these areas in our Society. If you look at the political area, You can find out anything you want about whats going on with Washington. Alot of people are more informed with politics these days because of all the information thrown at us by the t.v. and internet. Theres also a lot of overkill out there, people with their own opinions on whats happening. You really have to sit down and analize for yourself what to believe. Not all the news is true and more news is either biased or opinionated these days. The good news is that more people are in invoved in the political process due to the information age.
Outcome 3 - With more media tech, more economy, more connectiveness in our Society as a whole. We are a people of information and media. With the advent of information age , we are able to get things done in a hurry. we can communicate much faster than before we had cell phones and computers. This has made us a super, mega world power as a Nation. I guess as far as change in media, it has to be the fact that we can conduct buisness at a lightning fast pace now. What used to take days now takes seconds. Just get on the computer!

new creation from TheSims3.com

view more at TheSims3.com

This game looks simple enough for me. A person who does not play on-line video games. Basically you have these toddlers line up at the starting gate and who ever racks up the most points by the end of the course wins. The obstacles include potty stations! There are also turns and gates and other stuff to get points. The reason I chose this game is that it is so easy to play and the fact I don’t play video games.

The game was created by Rallpael Ninja from California. From what he states in his blog, he’s been working for EA gaming systems for quite a while and 34 other games out there. Some of titles are; Flower Power II and Potty – Napoli’s 500. I bet that game is cool. Don’t have time to find out though. I think the type of perspective for this game would be isometric because the goal here is to the first across the finish line.

Chapter 3 - Modernity; Spectatorship, Power and Knowledge

This first image of the dog apparel advertisement is interesting. I suppose it is normal for some people to buy this stuff for their pets. That’s the norm. What is not the norm is the custom made statement made for the dog on the apparel. The power and discourse is the fact that we have freedom of speech and the pet owner conveyed this with his/her pet. Avery cool way to promote this fact of American Society.



This next advertisement shows a body builder on a building that is under construction. It is normal that bodybuilders consider that their bodies are under construction and that it is a building project under way. I think the otherness is that the building its self will be fully completed soon. Building the body is an ongoing process. At the same time this ad shows perfection in the building process. Both ads of the body builders intrigued me as the audience. The discourse and power is that it shows us that lifting iron is a powerful past time just as important as constructing a commercial building which is power in its self. These ads illustrate and demonstrate power and discourse all over them.

Chapter 2 Veiwers make Meaning

This image caught my eyes in a big way as soon as I saw it. Fist of all, I really love the electric bass guitar. I’ve messed around playing the bass off and on for about 20 years. I wish that I had more time for it though. Even though this image is not a bass guitar, it is related and a main function to the guitar. That’s right, it is packaging for bass strings. Since I love playing rock and roll/ heavy metal, The lion in the image stood to me, saying, these strings got a roar and that they are a solid, smooth sounding string. That had my attention very quick. The producers of this image must have known that this image of the lion roaring would catch the attention of any avid bass player. The letters suggest that maybe these particular set of strings are for string bass and not the electric. The numbers 66 have a significant attraction to me, because I was born in 1966. Its funny, this image also with the lion signifies some of the symbology of the constellation Scorpio which happens to be my horoscope. If I were to walk into a music shop and see these strings, they would have had my attention immediately. The only thing that I could find totally unique was the way they described the wound and gauge on the package. You almost have to pick up the package and read between the lines in my opinion to know exactly what they are. I have seen a lot of advertising for bass strings in my day, but this by far has been the best at interpellating me as a viewer. Every thing in this image roars for the bass player to look and maybe buy these strings. Way cool.

Images and Ideologies

The reason I chose this image of the Statue of Liberty is the fact that it given to us as a gift from France in 1886 to represent the relationship of the two countries during the American Revolution. It also commemorates the centennial of the signing of Declaration of Independence. These are some of the facts concerning the statue. A lot of people see the statue as a free ticket to America. This is where the bias comes in. At the turn of the 19th century, when millions of people were immigrating here the first thing they saw as they were coming into port was the statue. It was a symbol hope and freedom. But the fact remains that the statue did not have anything to do with immigration. There is nothing on the statue to suggest immigration. When I was a kid, I remember watching films about what the statue stood for and most of the films would show people flooding into the U.S.A. and the process they had to go through in order to become U.S. citizens. When I read about the symbology of the statue there is nothing to suggest immigration. I am not against immigration, I believe this image has been disrepected to the fact that most Americans don’t know the true history of Lady Liberty. Another note of mention is the fact that the original torch was replaced in 1986. This image represents the original, but in fact is not the complete original. I actually respect and admire what the statue actually represents. The one thing that might have anything to do with immigration is the inscription that was set on a plaque in the interior on the second floor and not on the exterior as cartoons would suggest.

Strong vs. Weak News

I found the Hollywood gossip news report about Tila Tequila being assaulted by her boyfriend, Shawne Merryman to be a news report not worth mentioning. The reporting was shady as far as details about what really happened. Although not in the report, it is speculated that Miss Tequila was very intoxicated at the time the alleged occurred and that Merryman was keeping Miss Tequila from operating a motor vehicle while she was extremely drunk. She accused Merryman of choking her. When being interviewed on T.V. there were no physical signs on her body to show that she was choked although there were bruises on her arms from where Merryman tried to keep her from leaving. This type of reporting is of course biased and not fair to the reputation of Merryman. He has already had enough gossip thrown at him due to a 2006 suspension for the use of performance enhancing substances and then having to sit out the 2008 season due to a knee injury. Miss Tequila, in my opinion, is talentless as a reality actress and talentless as a low profile girlfriend. She should have thought about the reputation she was about to ruin due to her drunkenness. That’s the only good news reporting in the whole story. That Merryman quite possibly saved Tequila from at worst, involuntary manslaughter charges to the least a misdemeanor DUI. Way to go, The only thing left I want to say about this story is that the only one involved in this incident that has any talent is Merryman. Not only as a pro football player, but also as a person that cares what happens to his other half at the time. So much for low profile! This news in my opinion is weak due to lack of the facts in the story but also how it can also damage the reputations of professional people.
News to me that is noteworthy but not mentoned in the news these days are things people are doing to improve their communities and the world around them. What about local charities and churches? I have noticed if you read the newspapers, They focus on a lot news in the community that is positive. The local news on T.V. is terrible. Nothing but bad news. Who wants to suffer watching this junk hours on end? Not me. No thanks. I’ll stick to reading the newspapers for news.

My first blog! Wow!

Hello everyone! I finally got in to blogger.com Way cool!