Analysis: Popular press

The article ”Heidi and Seal are getting divorced” written by Martina and Lisa can be seen as a typical tabloid article.

On the first sight one can see that the article which is about the divorce between Heidi Klum and Seal and possible backgrounds shows typical appearence for a popular press article. It got a large, colorful picture which shows Heidi Klum and Seal divided by a great, red flash which was added with an image editing program. As it is typical for a popular press article there is a great headline with eye-catching information with the result that everybody knows what the article is about and wants to go on reading. Moreover it got more small headlines which are integrated in the article to act as eye-catching elements.

The text itself contains a lot of rumours and speculations which seem to be very entertaining. Often they are just based on ”unknown sources”. It is striking that the text tries to overbid every information it says by another. First it starts with the divorce of Seal and Heidi, then it goes on with the speculation about a baby, next there was a fight between Arnold Schwarzenegger and Seal and then the text is about the terrible consequences for GnT-Fans. The Article is very entertaining and partly incredulous which is fine and another evidence for popular press.

All in all one can say that by analyse the article concerning form, language and design it can bee seen as a popular press article which one can find in today’s tabloid press.

 

Analysis of charts

Both upper charts of ”The changing news landscape” are bar charts. They were taken from the ”Pew Research Center for People and the Press” and are about the change from analog to digital media. The bar chart on the left hand side shows the percentage of people who read a newspaper the previous day between 1993 and 2008. One can see that the percentage is falling constantly. Between 1993 to 2008 it fell from 58 to 34 percent. Indeed from 2002 to 2004 the percentage increased by one percent but the general trend is that the percentage is decreasing. The chart on the right-hand side is about the digital way to read news. It shows the percentage of people who read news online, three or more days a week in the same period as the chart on the left hand side. It shows as well the beginning of the online news because in 1993, as one can see, nearly nobody read news online. Since 1993 it increased from zero to 37 percent. By comparing both charts one can see that in future there will maybe just a few people who read newspaper and the majority of people will access there news online.

In contrast to the ones above the four charts below of ”The changing news landscape” are pie and bar charts. Each of both types complement each other in their claims. The pie chart on the left hand side shows the total  percentage of all people who read or saw no news the previous day in 1998 which is 14 percent. And the pie chart on the right side shows the percentage for 2008 which is 19 % total. The  two bar charts below divide the results of the pie charts in age groups. One can recognize that the number of people who did not read any newspaper the previous day in 1998 is falling with increasing age. The same in 2008. But it is striking that the number of 18 to 24 years old people that did not read any newspaper increases from 1998 to 2008 from 25 to 34 percent. In general one can see that the number of people that are not interested in information and news is increasing and this is disturbing.

Analysis of the cartoon

The cartoon,  drawn by the cartoonist Clay Bennett and published in ”The Christian Science Monitor” which is a religious influenced daily newspaper, deals with the social, delicate side of the global warming movement. Which is that people prefer a comfortable lie over the uncomfortable thruth.

The cartoon shows a daily life scene. In the foreground one can see people standing in a row to enter a theater. Their face expressions indicate that they are happy. Above the ticket booth one can see the inscription ”A Reassuring Lie” which seems to be the name of the movie. Next to the theater one can see another theater which bears the inscription ”An Inconvenient Thruth”. Nobody is entering this theater or is trying to see the movie. The women in the ticket booth is watching perpelexed towars the line infront of the other theater.

A possible interpretaiton is that Clayton Benett tries to draw attention to the social problem, on the one hand of the global warming but as well in general, that people favor a reassuring lie over a inconvenient thruth.

I can totally identify myself with his view of society. I like his depiction of people are afraid of facing the truth by let them watch a movie. Keeping with the motto ”As long there is the reassuring lie, I’ll watch that one”

Main categories of globalization

Technolgy	Culture	Economy	Politics
-          World Wide Web-          Social Networks(facebook, twitter) -          Better Transportation Ways -          Low transportation costs	-          Globalization of language ( English as world language)-          Western lifestyle spreads all over the world -          Different culture meet (conflicts like terrorism against western civilization starting from Arabia)	-          The economy all over the world is connected-          Outsourcing -          Workers of different nations are influenced by each other	-          United Nation-          Conflicts -          Interference by states in other states business

Definition of the term ”untouchables” according to Thomas L. Friedman from ,,The World is Flat”

According to Friedman ,,Untouchables” are people ”whose jobs cannot be outsourced, digitized, or automated” (p.27, ll.71-72). He splits all working people in three categories. Beside people in the third and last categorie which includes all middle-class jobs, people of the first and second categorie can be counted among the ”untouchables”. These are on the one hand, people who are VIP’s or scientist who are so specialized that can never be outsourced or automated. On the other hand, people whose jobs are tied to a location. That means their jobs can just be done at this place.

International Peace Keeping: Role of the USA and the UN

 

 

- After the second world war the peace keeping function lies by the two superpowers (Russia and United Nations)

 

- In the Post-Cold War Period America established itself as the most powerful nation in the world concernng military, economy, politics and culture

- high commitment to freedom and democracy in this period 

 

- And today: One-sided approach in dealing with global problems, just looking at own interests

 

 

- was founded with three major aims: maintain international peace and security, develop friendly realtions among nations and to promote the cooperation among nations in solving international, social, cultural and humanitarian problems

- After the second world war the peace keeping function of the UNwas overlaid by the two superpowers

 

- In the Beginning of the 1990′s the UN played an important role in the First Gulf War, Yugoslavia and in several african states.

 

- The Bush administration tried to undermine the peace-keeping role of the UN 

 

Task: Comment on the last sentence of the text ”Behind the Brand McDonald’s” by Peter Salisbury

In his text ”Globalization of Fast Food. Behind the Brand McDonald’s” Peter Salisbury mentions that ”by buying McDonald’s in the UK, you are still buying from the same clown”. By naming the ”clown” he  refers to the global advertising character ”Ronald McDonald”

Peter Salisbury says that in the course of  criticism that McDonald’s had to face in the late 20th century they started a campagne of rethinking. But just in the UK. Because of the allgeation that McDonals is for example responsible for exploitation of children, wrong advertising of their foods, low wages for their workers and indirectly sponsoring cruelty to animals, they started a agressive campaign to improve their image. Since then they wanted to represent themselves as a eco and farmer friendly company. They printed ingredients lists on their products to make themselves more transparent for customers. In the course of this movement they undertook other measures. For example the UK’s McDonald’s guarantees that animals are not fed with genetically modified grand or there is no factory farming anymore.

I totally agree with Peter Salisbury, because even if the UK’s and European McDonald’s can guarantee for their eco image there are other branches in other countries that all belong to the McDonald’s company. And the food that is served in other branches, for example in the US, comes from animals that were fed on GM crops or were cultured on livestock farms. And this food somewhere on the planet comes from the same big company that cooks your food in Europe, named McDonalds.

 

The Need for a New Middle

The Need for a New Middle

In the text ”The Need for a New Middle” written by Thomas L. Friedman and published in the book The World Is Flat, the author points out the characteristics of jobs which still will be needed in the future influenced by globalzation

Referring to Friedman it is important to make sure that you have a job that cannnot be replaced by any other person in the world or by technical progress. He calls this ”to make yourself an ‘untouchable’ (p.26, l.67). According to Friedman this means that your job cannot either be outsourced to a person in another country, digitized or automated by technical progress  (cf. p.27, ll.70-72). In addition he notes that referring to analyst David Rothkopf most jobs are not outsourced to another country but replaced by technical inventions, ”they get digitized and automated”(p.27, l.75). He notes that in the era of globalization 3.0 there will be ‘fungible and non-fungible work’ (p.27, l.81). There will be  categories of non-fungible work. First are ‘Special or specialized people’ like VIP’s who just cannot be automated, digitized or outsourced because they are too specialized (p.27, ll.90-95). Second are people that jobs are fixed to one place (p.27, ll.98-100).

All in all, one can say that it is really important in the future era of gloablization 3.0 to make sure that your job is unique and cannot be outsourced in the near future.

Analysation of the cartoon

The cartoon which was drawn by Jeff Koterba and published in ”The World Is Flat” by  Thomas L. Friedman deals with the progressing development of Globalization. The cartoon shows a little girl who is asking her father, whether she may outsource her homework to india, this shows how far globalization is already gone and how strong it effects our private social life.

On the left side a man sits in a big comfortable-looking armchair, he is holding a newspaper in his hands but he is not reading it in the moment. He is wearing a shirt with sleeves rolled the other way and a tie. In the lower left corner of the cartoon, in front of the man, one can see a black and white dotted dog. The view of the man is directed to the lower right corner of the cartoon where one can see a little girl. She has her arms crossed and because of her facial expressions she looks a bit angry and frustrated. Besides her lies a backpack. Both persons are located in a small room, which seems to be a living room, because of the big armchair and the pictures at the wall in the backround. In the center of the picture is a speech bubble, which belongs to the man, saying: ”No. You may not outsource your homework to India”.

The cartoon tries to show exaggerated how far Globalization is already developed. That even a little girl wants to outsource her homework to india, which is completely rediculous. The cartoonist was inspired by the progressing golbalization in the USA, especially in the educational sector ( for example: e-tutoring). Koterba uses the idea of a little girl sending her homework to india to produce the desire effect, because a little girl, is the last one who the viewer would expect to be the symbol for globalization.

I think Koterba really made his job, because it got me thinking about globalization and it make me smile. And i think that is what a cartoon should effect on the viewer.

homework: Narrative perspective of ”The Drover’s Wife”

word document:

Narrative Perspective