Truth or Not: National Enquirer Propaganda

The way news is given and received greatly impacts the viewer’s own opinions and way of thinking, thus is why most media use propaganda to appeal to those they hope to be interested. But not every source is truthful or is even necessarily significant. Our culture tends to revolve around more dramatic events that may not even directly affect them (i.e. celebrities, food fads, fashion, etc.) Companies, such as National Enquirer Magazine, tend to revolve their “news” around celebrity scandals or viral events for entertainment. Being a magazine for pure gossip, National Enquirer had a total of 360,612 copies sold in 2014. Through their use of propaganda types such as name-calling and distortion of data, they are able to continue to make profit off information that is pure gossip and may not even be truthful.

The National Enquirer is known for their over the top headliners. This would be their

National Enquirer: Then (1960)

National Enquirer: Now (2016)

use of name-calling propaganda. Their headliners typically focus on a celebrity (or celebrities) and give a headliner either demeaning them or flat out insulting them. This typically draws the attention of readers, making them curious as to why such harsh words are being used to describe people they would typically see as being role models and good hearted. The main point for the use of this propaganda is to play with reader’s emotions and curiosity, forcing them to buy said magazine to feed their minds with things that sound interesting and wouldn’t expect. Their covers have used this type of propaganda for quite a long time. In a 2015 post on their website regarding vintage covers, examples of their propaganda use can be traced back to the 1960’s.  Though their headliners were much worse then, they have yet to let go of the unnecessary use of slander.

As for the content of the news, National Enquirer typically gives elaborate stories that are both dramatized and “entertaining”. The content themselves is considered distortion of data/ out of context propaganda due to the lack of strong sources, misuse of images, and presenting only parts of a story. The magazine claims that for disclosure purposes that they don’t name their sources but rarely discuss the person’s relation to said celebrity.  As for the images used to go along with the stories, they aren’t always clear or they depict of an event that doesn’t correlate to the story (i.e. talking about a cheating scandal yet using an image of the celebrity walking on the streets for a photo shoot). As for the story itself, the content would contain information that may have already been known to the public (i.e. Britney Spears’ melt down) then describing the events without information (i.e. Talking about Britney’s melt down but not explaining why it happened, only that it did happen) or be given information that can’t be fully validated.  The use of this type of propaganda is mainly for convincing the audience to believe in their content and to keep them interested. This allows them to toy with the reader’s emotions thus leading them to wanting to read more content, securing future profit.

A more recent example of this would be of their article regarding presidential candidate, Ted Cruz, and his supposed “sex scandal”. The article discusses how 5 different women had claimed to have had  met with Cruz for affairs, how it all began, how much they were paid, and how he would go about meeting them and hiding it all. The images of the women that are blurred out to hide their identity appear to be head shots that were posed or taken out of context. They don’t have the appearance of paparazzi like image (where they are taken at moments without their notice) or a source from their personal lives (i.e. work images, social media such as Facebook, Instagram, etc.), rather they appear to be taken in a photo shoot, as a request ( i.e. an event where journalists would ask for a portrait shot), and or taken from scenes of a show or movie. The article had created mass gossip (what the magazine is known for) thus getting back to Ted Cruz. This would then lead to him making a public announcement that the story was false.

National Enquirers sources aren’t always reliable. Their main source of information come from claims that can be sent to them via. their website. Their “Got A Tip?” button allows for you to provide your name, email, and phone number in which you can then provide what your tip is about. Due to this, there have been rumors circulating that Cruz’s opponent, Donald Trump, was behind the wild accusation. Whether that is true or not hasn’t been found yet. Though it shows how easily anyone could give out a story about any celebrity whether truth or not.

Ted Cruz Video: Claim that it was Donald Trump

     National Enquirer’s use of propaganda result in not only misinformation but also the spread of ignorance among it’s viewers. The magazine presents the classic proof of media’s reliability and how hard it is to gain awareness of news that truly matters. National Enquirer and other magazines alike, promote useless news for entertainment, influence viewers into believing that said news is important, and prevents the spread of news that would benefit the people. How is it done? All through propaganda.

 

Broken Silence: Cases of Rape

“I’m not concerned with your liking or disliking me … All I ask is that you respect me as a human being.” -Jackie Robinson

Rape has been a problem for a long time. It had been against the law for as long as the law for anything dealing with violence or abduction had been around. Different places take rape into the law in their own way, for example, Rome had defined rape as a form of abduction thus included it into the law.  As in England, it was a common law. Rape has always been issue and as a society we have been attempting to develop a way to prevent whether it be the “rape whistle”  or teaching people self defense.

Although people understand how terrible rape is, I don’t believe they understand how crucial it is and how it’s  happening every second, without anyone truly being aware.

 Multiple Cases of Rape Within the Year:  In Mexico, women are being abducted, assaulted, or murdered.  Sexual assault/ rape is becoming a fearsome norm in Mexico with no one to stop it. The International Day to End Violence Against Women had reported that 14 of the 25 countries have the highest rates of femicide located in Latin America. The statistics say that 7 women are killed every day in Mexico. All showing signs of some sort or sexual abuse.

In India, a teenager who was trying to save her father from being attacked was raped and killed.  It was reported that the 16-year-old girl had went missing after trying to save her father from being attacked by village elders as punishment for failing to repay a loan. She was found dead with what is suspected to be a case of sexual violence.  They had arrested three men that are suspected but were not charged.

In Africa,  rape is being used as a weapon of war. The vice president of the Congo had deployed his militia where they had gone into villages, raped not only the women but the men. The men were said to be pulled out in the middle of the village where everyone was to witness their rape. Not only that, some family members were forced to rape each other. Prosecutor Louis Moreno- Ocampo said that the “Women were raped systematically to assert dominance and to shatter resistance. Men were raped in public to destroy their authority, their capacity to lead.”

In Ethiopia, a 16-year-old girl was raped and murdered. She had entered a public mini-bus and was gang raped by strangers on board. According the family, Hanna was going to school when said rape had occurred. The family waited for their daughter to come home when instead they ended up waiting eleven days till their daughter had called asking where they were. The call was traced to a church where Hanna was found bloodied and abandoned.  She was then rushed to a hospital where she had died 22 days later. On her final days, Hanna explained to her family that the men inside the bus had taken her to their home and raped her for several days before leaving her on the street. She was able to point out three men who were part of it which led to investigators finding two others who were included. Later, it was said that Hanna’s sisters were almost kidnapped as well by the same people. 

Some cases of rape have completely silenced women. A Christian college, Bob Jones University, has shamed their students who are victims of sexual assault. The sexual abuse victims have been urged to no go to the police and had counseled them to repent for the blame it said they share.  The victims that were surveyed had reported that they felt the school’s response was hurtful or very hurtful. Some even reported that the counseling sessions were worse than their abuse.  Here is a video of one of the former BJU students Katie Landry, who spoke to “America Tonight” about her case:

http://america.aljazeera.com/watch/embed.html/content/ajam/watch/shows/live-news/2014/12/sex-crimes-on-bobjonesuniversitycampus

Other cases are being denied by police, giving victims no sense of justice. Rachel Bradshaw said she was raped in her high school band room in Texas when she was 17. When a nurse examined her, there was evidence of sexual assault two days after the incident and found tears in her vaginal area, but wasn’t enough for the police to conclude it was rape. Bradshaw said that within 24 hours, the police had determined the sexual intercourse was consensual. From there, she and her alleged rapist were sent to and alternative disciplinary school together. Four years later, after the case was closed, the police are still denying her a copy of her own police report.

Some rape victims can’t cope with the incident and instead, look for a new life by traveling to a far off place.  Haitian rape survivors are being sent to Canada and the US to begin new lives as permanent residences. The say that since the earthquake, hundreds of women and girls have been raped. At the end of 2013, the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) had relocated 40 rape survivors and their dependents to Canada- a total of 145 people.  Those selected were because of the level of trauma the suffered, some were minors, others had been gang-raped or raped more than once. The applications were focused on their needs for psychological treatment.

Why is any of this significant? We were raised to believe that rape is awful, then why is it that the cases appear to increase? Young women believe that society is blaming the rape on the victim, telling people “Don’t be raped” rather than “Do not rape.”  This blog is to inform others that they should be aware that rape can happen to anyone and that because it happens so much that no one is really safe. Society needs to reform the teachings of avoiding rape and rather teach to not do it and that there’s nothing to benefit from it.

Video On App That Helps Prevent Rape:

 http://america.aljazeera.com/watch/embed.html/content/ajam/watch/shows/the-stream/2014/12/rape-prevention-20

  “Everyone in society should be a role model, not only for their own self-respect, but for respect from others.”

– Barry Bonds 

Deflowering the Innocent in Socially Unacceptable Media: Japan’s “Child Pornography” Loop Hole

“Lust and greed are more gullible than innocence.” – Mason Cooley

-DISCLAIMER: SOME IMAGES MAY BE OFFENSIVE AND DISTURBING TO OTHERS. THE BLOG YOU’RE ABOUT TO READ MAY INCLUDE OFFENSIVE LANGUAGE-

  As time goes on, pornography has become part of any boys’ life. This created the belief of porn being a normality among men. Women on the other hand may have a different opinion. Some women believe porn to be objectifying and disgraceful. It’s understandable why they would think this, considering that women had been appointed as sex objects long ago. But I also understand why men would think that porn isn’t something so serious. But branching from the experimental side of pornography, things have been created that most of both genders are strongly against. One of those things being child pornography.  Child pornography has been made illegal in a great amount of places. Recently in early 2014, Japan became one of them. Statistically speaking, child pornography has been a big problem in Japan and still remains that way.  In the U.S State Department’s 2013 report on human rights practices, Japan was labeled as an international hub for the production and trafficking of child pornography. Although the law states that those found with explicit images of children will be jailed up to a year or fined up to $10,000 (Do you think that’s a reasonable punishment? Or should it be worse?) the law does not apply to anime ( Japanese animated cartoons varying from rated G to rated R) and manga (Japanese comics, same rating).

 The argument made is that the children presented in anime and manga are not real. Artists and Otakus (obsessive members of anime and manga fandom) believe that because it is mere fiction and that no real child is included, it’s perfectly fine. A famous mangaka (author of mangas) believes that to sensor anime and manga would be against the peoples’ right of freedom of expression.

http://www.cnn.com/video/api/embed.html#/video/world/2014/06/18/pkg-ripley-japan-child-porn-laws.cnn

 Another argument made by Mio Bryce, an expert on anime and manga from Macquarie University in Sydney, is that because of Japan’s obsession with “kawaii” (japanese for cuteness) its hard to distinguish whether the characters in the material are children or not. ” Cuteness means a generally more infantile character. Maybe the character is 20 years old, but maybe from your point of view, the character’s 15 years old. It’s very difficult.” said Bryce.

Although, Shihoko Fujiwara who runs Lighthouse, a nonprofit for exploited children, told CNN that she once worked on a case where a predator used a cartoon to convince a child that sex abuse was normal. “So the pedophiles might bring the animation and say ‘this is how you practice with adults,'” she said.

Some even believe that “cuteness is the problem”.  Bryce believes that cuteness is the problem especially when it comes to those with a “Lolita complex” (where one is obsessed with women over the age of 18 who look under the age of 18). She believes the complex risks giving a wrong impression of women.

Do you think that anime and manga should be censored?

 Why Is This Significant?

  Child pornography is much more serious problem then most tend to think. P2P users (those who share images) are most likely to have images of young children in a sexual or violent manner. Of P2P users arrested in 2009 33% were found with photos of children while 42% had images of children that showed sexual violence. What if this were your child? What if it was your child that was being used as lustful relief? It’s disturbing. This should be significant to everyone for not only  a child’s safety is important but their innocence as well. Keep this in the back of your mind when you think about your daughter/son, niece/nephew, or even cousins.

   Now knowing that a large amount of people have access to child pornography, how do you feel knowing that in Japan there is a loop hole to this; a way to feed pedophiles? Do you feel something should be done or not?

A World of Beauty: Defying Natural Looks for The Picture Perfect Image

Beauty is not caused. It is. – Emily Dickinson

Throughout history, women have always been subjected to being an icon of beauty and nothing more. Women were limited to being a pretty picture with certain purposes. As society develops and evolves, women are now looked as a strong independent soul (more or less). Our beauty is determined by how we choose to present it, either with confidence or dismay. They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but I also believe beauty is what is reflected from our hearts. (Excuse the cliche) But beauty is defined differently between everyone. A good portion of us (both women and men) have high insecurities and low-self esteem, thus making it harder for them to form a comfortable grasp on self-encouragement. Their mind is swayed by overly digital altered images of actors and actresses and starved processed models. This leads to their self-confidence to plummet and for them to look for “quick fixes” to their natural born body.

This is a huge problem with most women (even men) in Asia. It has become a huge trend among the wealthy or famous in Asia to have surgical transformations. These “transformations” are not what we see in America where women are given face lifts, bolder cheek bones, or fuller lips; the transformations completely take the clients face and transforms it drastically. Ranging from common touch ups such as check bones, lips, and lifts, to eye lids, jawlines, nose (full bridge and cavity), and ears; the transformation makes you look like a completely different person, almost unrecognizable. 

The previous link is of photos of people who have had plastic surgical transformations, these are the ones I found that had drastic changes:

 

Both men AND women are receiving these drastic changes for what cause? To fit in and to look beautiful. Women have stated that plastic surgery in South Korea is looked at with a positive manner. It’s become a norm for friends to go away for a while and come back with new faces.  Because of the high remarks of society, people feel obligated to try and be beautiful. Those in South Korea state that because they don’t look as pretty as (insert famous K-Pop singers name here) that they should change how they look to feel and be accepted. 

Why is it that process and unnatural beauty has become the icon of today’s society?  Is it because of the artificial enriched feeling that allows us to become what we want? But even then, what caused us to think “I want to look like this.”?

Along with the world of beauty, the media has developed a new way to create higher standards of body image. To help fit the image, the media has begun to digital alter photos of women and men so that they look like something that not everyone can achieve. This helps not only create an unrealistic goal for the average day person, but to give an imaginary pedestal to those who are famous but look nothing like they do in media.

Buzzfeed’s Video on Photoshopping Normal Women:

If you can’t see said video for whatever reason, here are GIF’s of the changes:

 

Here Are Their Reactions and Thoughts:

  

 

Once others grasp that real beauty, is being comfortable with yourself, then maybe the views of society won’t matter to most.

Here is a Video of a Women Photoshopped to Look Like a Real Life Barbie Doll:

If Video is Unwatchable:

The Model Being Used

The Makeup and Hair Touchup

Lighting Change, Body Modifications and Skin Tone Change

Finished Product

 

 

Why is this so significant to us? The question is, why would it not? Humans are naturally insecure, it’s something we can’t help to be for our brain is wired to discriminate among everyone else. It’s what we use to categorize us into groups that we feel best benefits us for survival. So why do we set an icon that is unrealistic and almost impossible if we are all insecure about how we look from the beginning? If society could stop being persuaded and brainwashed by the media, maybe our problems would lessen. Don’t think this is a problem? Try saying that too yourself the next time your daughter comes to you crying because “her nose is too flat” or “her cheeks are saggy” or that she’s too skinny or too fat and that she is being teased for it. Society’s views have created this invisible problem in which it drives others to try and inflict pain on someone who doesn’t meet what they feel is the “standard”. In this case the “standard” for women is to be petite, small body frame, considerably large breasts and buttocks, long hair, and either fair skin or have a smooth subtle tan. As for men, it’s too be largely built, have broad distinctive features, tall, chiseled facial features, facial hair, and dark hair. Why should this “standard” be the illustration of beauty? The thing is, it shouldn’t.

  

 

Personal beauty is a greater recommendation than any letter of reference. – Aristotle

Living in Fear: Russia’s Hunt for Those Who Are Gay

  “It matters not who you love, where you love, why you love, when you love, or how you love, it only matters that you love”- John Lennon

As humans, we all have our opinions. What we do, what we say, what we think, it’s all based on who we are; it’s all just a personal view. We learn to respect each others views, listen to each others opinions, and that when you have nothing good to say that you say nothing at all. As you grow up you find yourself not caring what others think about you, because it’s you. So why should it matter to us if someone thinks, acts, or appears different. We spent so much time judging others while trying to convince ourselves that we don’t care what others think of us that we created a loop of hypocrisy that grew into ignorance.

We try to fight the ignorance today by opening everyone’s eyes. But some places just cannot be changed. Today that ignorance still grows in other areas. The ignorance has grown so vast that people are being consumed by it. In Russia, many men and women are living in petrifying fear. Why? Because those men and women have a different view of love, a love that looks at the same gender with just as much passion as two different genders would have for one another.

These people are being tricked into meetings that what they thought would be an engaging evening with the same sex, that turned out to be  a brutal embarrassing night of beatings and harassment by a group of homophobes. A group known as “Occupy Pedophilia” contains “violence loving vigilantes” that share their strong opinion of homosexuals and express it through extreme matters. The group is known for trapping gay men then harassing them on video so that they will lose their jobs and be publicly ridiculed once said video is uploaded online. The police are doing very little about these hate crimes and some even join in.

What the Media Has to Say:

MSNBC On Documentary- Hunted In Russia 

Photos of People Protest Russia’s Ban on Gays at Olympics:

Documentary- Hunted in Russia

 

 

Why Is This Significant?

Throughout history we have been faced with all sorts of discrimination. We have spent so much time and effort to establish equality for all whether Black or White, Man or Woman, Gay or Straight. Why would this be so important? Because there come times where the people who have different opinions take it to a new level. That level contains harassment, public ridicule, abuse, and much more. If freedom is to be established, there must be equality. But for there to be equality, we must not turn a blind eye and instead do what it takes to see the day where no matter who you are, you can safely walk the streets and express yourself.

 

 

Juarez, Mexico: Where have the women gone?

As time has gone by so have the lives of the innocent. Although not every case can be solved, effort can be put behind it. But sadly, it appears that effort isn’t being presented in Juarez, Mexico. Impunity has been spread among the minds of those in Juarez, as women are being killed and or have gone missing within every year to come. Families and friends have been questioning why the police are showing no effort to find who is responsible for any of this. It seems that as investigations begin, shortly after are they given up on. Although many have been arrested due to confession, the killing has not stopped. Families are beginning to lose hope in justice as every year they are reminded of the horrific murder as police release news of newly found dead bodies. In 2012, there was about 60+ killings counted making 2012 the most scene murders yet. Women are reported being found raped, having multiple stab wounds, mutilated breasts, crushed heads, burns, etc. all being found at the same general area that is now known as a mass grave site. Along with these murders, women have also gone missing. There was a count of about 100+ women reported missing between 2010-2011. The families and friends of these women have grown tired of sitting in silence as more women are being attacked and going missing;to help bring awareness, a group of young women have began using hip hop and street art to express the violence that have occurred over the years.

Why is this significant to us? As a women I feel extremely uncomfortable hearing about this. The fact that this is addressed as a “femicide” leaves me in fear. Wouldn’t it to you? Imagine the day that your daughter, your niece, your mother, your aunt, any of them were to go to Mexico and never to come back again, its terrifying. But what makes it worse is that no one there will do anything about it, in fact you would be lucky if they even found out who killed them let alone put them in jail.

Read more about it from these articles:

What those have to say about the impunity 

About the cases 

New York Times article 

Video on a girl who escaped from human trafficking ring 

Government Music Video Project

https://animoto.com/play/gC4eX1ioEiZ1eZJRD0y51Q

American Government Post #4: Emma Watson’s Speech

In Emma Watson’s appealing and heart felt speech, she addresses her feminist views, what she felt was right, and the campaign she is assisting that helps support women’s rights/ equality. She points out her acquaintances’ experiences and how they felt about gender equality. She addressed the problems seen among the world on the topic and how they are still not being met.

As a strong supporter of general equality, I absolutely appreciated Ms.Watson’s speech. I have shied away from seeing myself as a feminist due to the reputation ¨feminists¨ have earned. The fact that in today’s society feminists are looked at as ¨not supporting gender equality but female superiority¨ has kept me from stating myself as a feminist.  Due to opinions evolving when it comes to what a feminist view really is, there are two different types of feminism seen by society today.  There is ¨equality feminism¨ which reflects the vies of legal and socially equality and there is ¨gender feminism”that is defined as one that emphasizes victim hood. In fear of being seen as a ¨gender feminist¨ I decided to just share my opinions on overall equality (reflecting on things such as the LGBTQ community). So I find Ms. Watson’s speech brave and inspiring, especially with all the negative views on feminism. In reality, everyone’s opinion is expressed a unique and maybe extreme way. We can’t stop ignorance in all but we can at least open each others eyes.

So far, the media has both positive and negative reactions to Emma Watson’s speech. Many bloggers are questioning the things stated and not stated as they feel that gender equality is not a great issue and that Watson’s speech was slightly ¨overly dramatic¨. Although in a positive note, recently, Taylor Swift has overly praised Watson’s speech thus giving exposure to her fans about the issue.

American Government Post #3: Affordable Care Act

 

Other political cartoons:

  

American Government Post #2: Political Socialization

Our opinions and beliefs are said to be branched off from what we’ve heard other people say. We are born influenced by those around us to form what we feel best suits our perspective, our choices, what we feel best suits our life style. People of my age tend to not think about what exactly brought us to believe in certain things. We lack the thought of where exactly our opinions originated. Not to say that everyone has to per say “choose” what we believe based on someone’s belief as much as, create a line of which our opinions and liking suit best. Not to be mistaken for conformity, Political Socialization  is the process in which others form their political ideas and values through social settings. These social settings vary from family, education systems, peers, and media. This is a “lifelong” process due to the fact that our views tend to change based on new information, this can be given by the said influence sources.

Family usually is what starts off our political ideas. Parents tend to not discuss politics with their children especially at such a young age but conversations brought between each other over the dinner table or just around the house can be unintentionally tuned in. What parents don’t know is that when kids over hear their conversations, they tend to take that with them and discuss among their little friends comparing their parents sayings. This drives children to “stick up” for their parents’ view if it doesn’t exactly match with another child’s parents’ opinion.

School being an influence should be self explanatory. Students are exposed to political facts learned through their history course. Children are exposed indirectly to how politics work through little things such as class elections and voting.  The education system encourage students to look more into how the government works thus having them create their own views.

Peer groups tends to affect teenagers and young adults political views the same way peers influence your choices (life style wise).  In psychology you learned that people are generally biased. Which causes us to group each other with people who are a like. You don’t have to like all the exact same things but you have to have a large amount of common grounds. Due to this we are more likely to be friends with those who may share the same political view. Though our friends may not always have the same view as us, they help us see the points of the side they take, which may change how we view the side we tend to represent.

As for the media, mass media is also self explanatory. The media can be anything from newspapers and magazines to the radio, internet and television. The media provides news and analysis that help form public opinion. Though media has the tendency to be biased, things such as the internet can be used find insight such as another person’s opinion.  For more informational facts, all-news outlets have websites where you can read articles on said topics you want to know more about.

Now if these sources do influence one’s political view is another story. I feel they do based on what I have observed from others. My good friend and I were having conversation about political views. She said that her father is a Republican and that her grandfather and great grandfather is too. Because of that, she ended up being a republican as well. She said she was exposed to the Republican view points and actually does agree with what they believe in. I, on the other hand, had not been exposed to politics as much in my childhood. My parents don’t really talk about politics and don’t vote so I didn’t know much about politics until a certain age when they taught it to us in school. I ended up being more of a centrist and not having a house that I side with. I am an independent due to the lack of influence. I believe that under certain circumstances, you could be influenced into your political opinion.