Advertising analysis

The classroom’s assigned chapter this week discusses advertising. Advertising is the main gross for money in the mass media industry. Advertising is not a mass medium, but it is all over the mass media world. It grabs the attention of a consumer and convinces them to buy a product. Advertising spots can cost major dollars in certain mass mediums.

            Advertising carries messages that are sent to the consumers in the mass media world. Advertising began in 1200 B.C. with messages being written on stones by the Phoenicians. These stones were in places where people would commonly walk. This was much better developed later in the 13^th century A.D. when the British began requiring trademarks to protect buyers and identify false products. The first man to use a print advertisement was William Claxton. In 1478 Claxton used print to advertise one of the books he was selling.

            Advertising is everywhere you look now days. It’s on television, radio, the internet, in newspapers, and in magazines. Ads help pay for the mass mediums in the world. The television is a great example of how ads are used to pay for media. A television show may be scheduled for thirty minutes but it only runs a total time of twenty-two minutes. Advertising companies buy the other eight minutes for commercials. Advertising on television brought in almost forty billion dollars for the television industry in 2007. One big time programming that helps bring in this revenue is the super bowl. The commercials during the programming pay about 1.3 million dollars for a 30 second spot.

            Advertisements must grab your attention to be useful. Commercials and ads in newspapers are very colorful and loud to grab the attention of the consumer. There are many ways to get the attention of the consumer. One of these attention getters is the use of sex. This is mainly seen in alcohol commercials and ads. The ads and commercials will have a very attractive female with the product wearing a bikini most of the time. In commercials in today’s world the women are used to sale many products.

            In the future of advertising there will be parallel changes made in the media. Three factors that will affect the industry will be international markets, changing technology, and shifting demographics. International advertising companies are becoming more popular in today’s world. With all the new developments in technology the media will have to learn how to adapt. One development that is being discussed is the use of lasers to advertise in the night sky. As the ethnicity in the country changes there have been predictions that advertisers will have to reach out to new audiences.

Gas goes up economy goes down

            This week’s topic is one that has been hot all over the United States over the past week. The topic is gas prices and how high they have jumped in the last week. All information provided was found in the article “Gas prices surge 17 cents in a week” by Ben Rooney on CNNmoney.com. This article was chosen because it is something that everyone can relate to. It was also chosen because it affects the prices of other products.

            The article was presented to the reader as stating the problem right off the back. The article starts with the total amount of the price increase, which is 17 cents. After discussing this it showed a national average of the price of gas. Then it showed the state with the lowest priced and the state with the highest priced gasoline. The article states the problem and reasoning for the extreme jump in gas prices in the last week. It next states what is to come in the near future for the prices of gas. The author states some ideas of how the energy cost will change the economy recovery for the United States.

            Gas prices shot up last week by 17 cents. Thursday February 24, 2011 gas prices went up by 6 cents in one day. This was the highest price rise in a single day since October 2008. Gas prices are predicted to continue to climb up as the next few weeks approach us. The price of a barrel of crude oil is now at $103 dollars. For every dollar increase in the price of a barrel gasoline prices will rise by at least 2.5 cents. This is because crude oil is the main ingredient in gasoline.

            Just on last Thursday I rode by the gas station as the pandemonium about gas prices were beginning. Thinking that the gas would not raise much over the next 30 minutes I proceeded to wash my car. After 30 minutes I come back to the gas station to find that gas prices had raised by 10 cents in a 30 minute period. The crude oil price had risen almost by 10% Thursday causing this dramatic change. This change affects everybody in the United States. This will change the prices of food, clothes, and the cost of living in general.

            With the prices of gas growing so rapidly, it will affect the economy’s recovery plan. This is because for every dollar increase in the price of oil costs the consumers of America $1 billion dollars. Consumer spending makes up a lot of the gross domestic product. In the last three months the chart read that the GDP has only grown to 2.8%. The normal growth rate of the GDP is 3.2%. This statistic is an example of how the prices are already affecting the economy’s recovery.

Film Response

In JMC 201 there was a presentation given about the film industry. The presentation was given by a group of students that are in the class. The students’ names are Katie Bitz, Lyanna Saito, and Henry Heaton. They put together an exceptionally well presentation that lasted about an hour and a half. The presentation covered most aspects of the film industry. They also covered a few jobs in the industry as well.

            The presentation started off a little slow and did not catch my attention. The project seemed as if Katie had created the whole presentation by herself. The group changed this image around as the presentation continued. Each member appeared to have contributed an equal portion of the information provided to the class. Each member was well dressed, and spoke loud and clearly throughout the presentation and discussions.

            The group used a power point as the visual aid. The power point was put together excellent. It was filled with information and pictures to help the audience keep interested in the presentation. They information and pictures were also used to help the audience understand the discussion topics. They also incorporated videos into the power point. This provided great examples to the audience of how films have changed since the industry began. These videos helped develop discussion topics, and brought the audience more into the presentation.

            There were some weak spots in the presentation. The group did not have great discussion questions at the beginning to get the audience involved with the presentation. There were some holes in the presentation. Some of these holes were located in the section of the presentation that discussed the careers in the film industry. The group skimmed over this part of the presentation, and did not give much insight about the careers. This was not helpful to the members in the audience looking to go into the film industry.

            Overall the presentation was good. The group did a great job putting the presentation together. A couple of simple things could have been changed to make the presentation great. The group came in confident about the knowledge that they had on the topic. They were slow starters but finished great.

Cuts in the Right Place

            The article of the week is House approves $60 Billion in budget cuts by Jennifer Liberto. The article was structured out to state a mass majority of facts. There were a lot of numbers and dates stated throughout the article. After discussing the budget cut details the article discusses how the cut will affect the U.S. debt.  Afterwards it presents arguments of why the government almost vetoed the budget cuts. This article like most other articles that are discussed used quotes. There were not any sources stated in the article besides the people that the author quoted.

            The $60 billion dollars in budget cuts was approved on Saturday February 19, 2011. These cuts were made in the federal spending portion of the government’s money. Every Democrat in the House along with 3 Republicans voted against the bill. This was unfortunately not enough votes for the bill to be passed. All of the cuts may not be included in the spending plan for the final months of the fiscal year. The bill must next pass through the senate, which has said that it would veto any measure containing all of the cuts.

            I agree to the budget cuts that have been approved. In the past two weeks the government has been discussing cuts in the educational spending. This is what I do not agree with because we need education for our youth in today’s world. Our youth is our future and if they cannot afford an education the United States will fall from being one of the most powerful countries in the world. Cutting spending from the government’s budget is better than cutting from the educational department.

A statement made in the article caught my attention."When we say we are going to cut spending, read my lips: We are going to cut spending," said House Speaker John Boehner. The reason for this being so interesting is because it shows that we are making an effort to dig our way out of debt. We are making a positive effort to cut in the right places and this may be a great help to everyone in the United States.

Education Grants

The article that has been reviewed for this week is titled “Obama’s budget to target education Pell grants” from www.CNNmoney.com written by . It started out by stating the issue that the article is about. After stating the issue it discusses the issue into depth. It explains how the cutting students off from being able to have two grants would save the government money. The article is structured to so the steps involve to help save the government money without really hurting students. The article uses creditable sources and quotes. These sources and quotes help provide stability in their position on this issue.

            President Obama will be making a new budget proposal on Monday February 14, 2011. The budget will propose cutting one hundred billion dollars from the Pell grant program. The proposal states that students will still be able to receive the full Pell grant amount of $5,500 dollars per school year. Students, as of now, are able to receive a Pell grant for the regular school year and may also receive one for the summer term. If this budget proposal is approved then students will only be eligible to receive the one Pell grant. This change will help the United States save $8 billion dollars next year and $60 billion dollars over the next ten years.

            Another part of the proposal is reducing loan subsidies for graduate and professional school students. The government pays the interest on loans currently for graduate and professional school students. With the proposal the government would let the interest build up and students wouldn’t have to start paying the loans back until after they graduate. This would save the government $2 billion dollars next year and $29 billion dollars over the next ten years.

The reason that I have chosen the article this week is because I find the situation important. It also needs to be discussed and brought to the attention of many Americans. Students need to be made aware that the things that are helping them pay for school are slowly being taken away. Students are not aware of this issue and may be in risk of not being able to pay for college. I find this issue of money being removed from education purposes becoming more popular in today’s news. Just last week the topic was donated money needing to be removed from schools and given to charity. Money should not be being taken from schools to help save America’s debt. We should be cutting budgets from somewhere else.

Charity Going Down the Drain

An article posted on the CNNmoney.com titled Americas wealthy turn less charitable by Charles Riley has caught the attention of America. Research has been done on the top charity donors of America. This research shows that they only gave $3.3 billion in 2010. This was the smallest donated amount since 2000. Out of the 400 wealthiest people in America only 17 of them appeared on the top 54 donors list.

Almost all of the 65 gifts of $5 million went to universities and colleges. This upsets people in America who believe that the money can be used to help other causes. The world’s youngest billionaire donated $100 million to the Newark, N.J., school system. “The lack of high-dollar gifts is likely to cause pain as charities work to survive a tough economy.” This was stated in the article to signify that one of the reasons charities are struggling is because they have a lack of gifts being given to them.

A statement made in the article that caught my attention discusses how all the money given to schools was not just to get their names put on a building. “But not all that money went to the "put my name on a building fund." Some of the gifts were specifically earmarked for student scholarship funds, or clean energy research programs.” This shows that people are donating money to the schools for the right reasons. Even thought the money is not being giving to charity it is still being used to help students who cannot afford to go to college.

Along with the statement about the schools receiving the money some people may argue that it is not needed there most. If students are not able to pay for college then we would possibly have more kids out of work and dropping out of school. The reasoning for the students dropping out would be not having anything to look forward to after high school. The money being handed out is being put to a good use even though it is not being used for charity.

Middle East Drop Off

The CNNMoney.com layout is amazing, it is very easy to navigate and find stories. The page contains several ads along the right side of the page. Most of the ads deal with investing and saving your money. Also the ads discuss how the stock market is doing and offers you chances to buy stocks. Along the right side of the page is also stories that are on the "Hot List". Along the left side of the page are ads about following them on Twitter and Facebook. The left side also contains a picture of the author of the article. The page contains the article itself plus a short clip of the video done about the issue from CNN.

The Middle East was the topic of last week in the CNN Headline News. Today the Middle East is still a big topic, the topic concerns Egypt and Suez Canal. Concerns about if the Middle East will fall off and how will it effect the economy have been floating around. A follow up was done by Paul R. La Monica in an article titled "Egypt shows that risk is alive and well". The article explains how the stock market has reacted to the crisis in Egypt. The stock market fell by at least 14% last week and increased by 7% as of today. Egypt's debt to investors comes into the article next, in which the investors are worried because of this one incident. It was stated in the article that the investors have nothing to worry about.

The opinions in this articles come from the author Paul R. La Monica. He retrieved his facts from time Warner, the source CNNMoney, and Abbott Laboratories. These are creditable sources used by many journalist. A quote from Andrew Fitzpatrick, was used in the article concerning Egypt. 


This article is a great article to read, especially if you are into the stock market and are concerned about the stock market. The comment made by Fitzpatrick can be argued between others, which is his statement about Egypt not being an important role in the stock market. If Egypt is not important then why did the stock market fall by 14% last week.