Unit 4: Media Literacy

Coming into this class I really did not think too much on my level of media literacy or on how much of an impact it has on society. Media literacy in basic terms is basically having the ability to assess the meaning of any kind of message sent by the media. One can not be totally media literate or completely media illiterate, instead it is more of a continuum that we find ourselves placed on. So, as we grow older and as media increasingly surrounds us in our day to day lives, it is very important we work on our media literacy.

Practicing and increasing your media literacy is increasingly important, especially in todays world. The media is constantly in our lives and we are constantly shuffling through its messages whether we know it or not. There are three building blocks to increasing our media literacy that we as people need to be aware. The first is our personal locus, or in other words what drives our media use and what are our interests when using media. The more we apply this the more that we will be involved in the media messages we are receiving. The second block is our knowledge structures. This is taking the information we receive through media and applying it to things in our memory. This helps us to understand the information more, and therefore see deeper into the meaning of the message. Finally, the last block is our skills. Skills help us mine through piles of factors, which again helps us to understand the message further.

Using these basic blocks is how we interpret messages from media that surround us, and the more we practice and become aware of them, the more our media literacy will increase. It is important that we increase our media literacy because it allows us to create our own opinions on messages given to us, and not just follow in the footsteps of everyone else.

 

Unit 3: Social Media’s Impact

Before Mark Zuckerberg released Facebook to the world, my life was pretty simple when it came to social media. Occasionally I would get on AIM after school and message a friend, but other than that social media really did not have a presence in my life. Granted I was only about ten years old so my world was very small at the time and my focus was on playing football with my neighborhood friends, not talking to people that lived outside of the neighborhood.

However once Facebook was introduced to the public, that all began to change. At this moment in my life social media began to creep more and more into my life and rise on my priority list. I went from catching touchdown passes after school to coming home and hopping on Facebook to see what my friends had posted that day. As I got older and got a phone, it became even more prevalent and now at this point in my life I have come to realize I am almost always using social media, and not even just to check up on my friends or classmates.

Today I, as well as many people in my generation, use social media for a number of different reasons. I use Twitter and Facebook to stay up to date with news from around the world honestly probably more than I actually turn on the news. I use Instagram and Youtube to stream videos for numerous different reasons like how to videos, workout videos, and cooking instructions. And the biggest one of all, at least for me, I use Snapchat to keep in touch with my friends and see what is going on around the world.

Social media is constantly impacting our lives, and  in my opinion, as long as we know how to control ourselves and use it correctly, I think it has a very positive impact on them.

Unit 2: My Thoughts

Coming into this course I never really viewed myself as one that uses media a whole lot, I was completely wrong. At the beginning of this unit we talked a lot about media literacy, but even before that we talked a little about what media actually is. Before talking about that, I believed media to be pretty much just social media in other words Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, etc. I never really thought about YouTube, movies, or magazines as being a form of media. Once I realized that these were in fact forms of media I started to get intrigued as to how much media I do actually use, and looking back on it I am constantly surrounded by it.

As people who know me personally know, I enjoy working out a lot because of my background as a Division 1 wrestler and my future plans of going into the United States Army. I never realized how much media I use when I do work out. For one I’m always streaming music off of Apple Music, on top of that I’m always on Youtube looking up workouts for specific body parts, and even on top of that I will use an app to track my calorie intake and out put. All of that is in one way or another some form of media that I am using during my workouts, and before this class I never really realized that.

Once we started this course and talking about media literacy in this unit, I also began to look at the social media I used more thoroughly. I follow a lot of professional lifters and body builders from the United States, and I began to notice that a lot of people from around the world follow them as well. I then noticed that our culture is spread throughout the world through social media very heavily. I found this to be very surprising, and because of this course I’m starting to realize how big of an impact media actually plays on our lives, and how becoming more media literate opens up your eyes.

 

Fresh Faces Spark Husky Wrestling

BLOOMSBURG- The Bloomsburg University wrestling team has a fresh look to it as it is filled with a surplus of new faces throughout the lineup and the organization. So far in the 2017 to 2018 season this new team has proved its worth, battling opponents in the Eastern Wrestling League (EWL) and the Big Ten conferences and coming away with wins. Not only have they found success on the team level, but they have found plenty of success so far this year at the individual level.

Through the past couple of years, the Bloomsburg wrestling team has greatly struggled. It has gone through three different coaching staffs, and was nearly at the bottom of the whole NCAA Division I wrestling standings. Coming into the 2017-2018 wrestling season the Huskies were ranked 75 out of 78 total teams, however with the success they have had they have moved up the rankings and are catching the eyes of some NCAA wrestling rankers.

One of the most notable matches to this point in the season for the Huskies was their win over EWL rival George Mason University. The team mustered together a tough battle and finished on top of the Patriots with a score of 18-17 according to the Official Husky Athletics Page, this snaps a three dual meet losing streak to George Mason and was a significant win for the young team. Not only did this win move them up in the national rankings, but it also proved they were no longer at the bottom of the EWL conference, and gave a morale boost to the team. When asked about the win sophomore Kyle Murphy, the starting 174 pounder, said “It was great to go out and get a win, and not just a win but a win within our own conference. It really gave us motivation to get back into the practice room and continue working our hardest.”