PSA Reflection

Our experience in making our PSA was awesome. It was really fun to put together and we are all very excited about the topic. We used short clips of multiple interviews that we shot all over campus. Britny did most of the editing and then we got together and polished with the final touches. It's good that we changed the topic abruptly, because our original idea seemed tired and overdone. I really like the sequence of our PSA, and I think its interestingly flexible, because of the variety of ideas expressed throughout it. I think our group dynamic was successful, and we built well on each other's ideas so it was easy to make group decisions. The interviewees did a good job of expressing a variety of different views on Beauty, and I think that it ended on a positive note that gave hope to non-conformist ideas of beauty that are heavily influenced by the media. There is a good balance between the shots of people and blocks of text, and they timing works well with the music as well. Although it was sometimes tricky to line up the perfect timing, but there we're no major problems so everything went smoothly. Our tools and props were simply digital cameras and imovie, which made everything a lot simpler, and very fun to play around with. Overall, I think we were very efficient and motivated to creating a positive film supporting individuality and strength in beauty in a society so heavily influenced by the superficiality of the media today. I think this is a good tool for environmental activism, because it reveals so much about the connective diversity between every other individual and one's self, which touches a distinctive humanness that people can relate to on an emotional level.

Ad Analysis

I chose McDonalds’ website, which wasn’t so green-washed as I thought it would be, but it did give insight on the kind of exposure they are trying to get in that area. There was more focus on their food sources and different ingredients they use than I thought there would be, as opposed to fluffy image-based expression. Although the information seems to be flawed and lacking, and the images that are used are minimally indicative, their sources are listed in the “Meet Our Suppliers” section. The images of their prepared food are obviously perfectly manicured and their captions are simplistic on a white background. I think its hilarious to refer to McDonalds workers as chefs and to display their “kitchen” as a place with culinary expertise and label themselves a restaurant. They have step-by-step video clips that show how they make different items on their menu, which are all performed by a diverse and attractive cast, and very assuring in their personality and camera angles. There is also an interactive question/answer page on their website that allows you to ask questions about their food and food production etc.. which I think is interesting, and could maybe be a good outlet for activist tomfoolery. In the kids section there is a series of captions that say, “He’s here, he’s there. Man, the guy is everywhere. A trusted friend both honest and fun. There’s a little bit of Ronald in everyone”. Very creep. They have a page on their environmental commitments, and what organizations they contribute to in order to keep their image green friendly. Persuasive techniques used: Symbols, BIG LIE, hyperbole, bribery, bandwagon, simple solutions, fear/defensive nationalism, testimonial, plain folks, warm fuzzies, beautiful people, group dynamics, strength, scientific evidence, card stacking, and the race card. http://www.mcdonalds.com/usa/good/environment.html

Activist Website

I chose ACME (the action coalition for media education) whose mission of social or economic change is broadening the reach of media education, and stressing the overwhelmingly growing impacts of media in the world today. I really liked the variety and interactivity of the videos they posted, and the way in which they target a broad audience of people affected by media (everyone). I think online activism does work, because the internet is the most advanced and connective outlet that exists on a massive scale around the world. However, because of this scale participation in this form does not feel very meaningful. I think the way to solve this consuming problem is to keep track of the popularity of your activist input, and the growing network of followers you or your cause gains. It’s a difficult process for sure, and hard to stay organized, productive and motivated at times, but definitely can make a difference. I support this website completely, I think its awesome and publicizes an important message.

PSA group blog post

We changed our topic completely from composting issues at UVM to beauty and how it is portrayed in the media. We are much more excited about this topic, I think it will be much more creative and fun to make happen. I got four interviews so far, which were very successful, definitely got some good input from folks.

Toxic Sludge is good for you.
Democracy is the labeled American system of government which claims dedication to freedom for all citizens for self-governance and the pursuit of happiness. It has become stereotyped in my view, with a kind of democracy-washing that occurs from my frequent disappointment, or prepackaged influences from its systems. I think real democracy has been lost or greatly diminished for a long time, and is found in more local functions like town meetings or grassroots efforts. From reading this chapter I recognized the struggles of PR against angry and combative American citizens. I think this is an important perspective to consider when trying to overcome their propaganda and take collective action against them, and to know the harder you fight, the harder they sweat. So it's only a matter of publicity and getting as many individuals involved as possible. Although this is much easier said than done, it's important to understand the potency of activism and the fluidity of power. I think the first step of adjusting the capitalist economic system is by eliminating the “conflict of interest” by somehow acknowledging and awarding those who use of PR is well intentioned and honest, as well as those who are economically mindful. Otherwise, I believe grassroots activism will make the biggest difference, because you really can't fool all of the people all of the time and people are getting more sick, more quickly of this pre-packaged molding for American cultural consumerism. I think a truly just society wouldn't use Americans' boredom and systematic categorization to regurgitate back to us and basically control our economic tendencies and demographics. I hope to find a meaningful role in this, and at this point I have yet to be involved in major activism, but I would be interested in taking action in the future for ecological causes and what not. Otherwise, I talk about these things with lots of folks and love getting heated over a good debate.
Sitting in centennial woods: I had a good experience, it was very sunny but still a bit chilly. I saw a lot of birds: Black-capped Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, House Finch, Downy Woodpecker, White-breasted Nuthatch, and some Turkey Vultures. It is still very moist and really muddy in some parts, I'm getting excited to go foraging for Fiddleheads!!!!!
Watching TV: South Park, latest episode on facebook and “getting sucked in”, was funny. Watched it with a bunch of kids, good interactions during commercials, some not good ones.
Watching TV was definitely much easier, because I only had to go down the hall to a friend's room, whereas I had to walk a good distance to the woods. Although there is no real “info flow” in the woods, it was easier to see what was coming during my outdoor experience than on the television, where it was an unknown ending. The experience in the woods taught me a much less obvious lesson than South Park, where it was all spelled out in the plot. It gave me a time for self-reflection and mind clarity, where as the show filled my head with images and sounds that were distracting. I think knowledge is portrayed more elegantly in the natural world, and very redundantly on television. I think this experience tells us the importance of time well spent in nature, and that people need to shut their tvs off right away to save their sanity.

PSA: My group is doing well, we did some video recording on friday at the davis center trash cans, which was successful. We are going to download what we shot during class and outline the sequence and layout of the PSA.

Toxic Sludge is Good For You

Ch.8

1. “You think of ‘biosolids’ and your mind goes blank.” I think this is a very true and important point because most green washing is PR language skills at its best. I believe it was in “Consuming Kids” where the strength in language use and application is brought up as a manipulative tool. I was also blown away by some of the different names that they came up with to make toxic sewage sludge sound more “tasteful”.
2. The scariest part of this chapter was definitely all the horror stories of people dealing with the long term health risks of living or working near sludge composting sites, and the way in which they were undermined for the irresponsibility of certain areas’ sewage disposal. Some of the explanations in defense of this method of disposal were ridiculous. One I found particularly perturbing was by Sarah Clark, a former board member of the Environmental Defense Fund, where she stated that sludge farming is the best means of returning nutrients that were originally removed from the soil, when in actuality, it provides 3% of usable nutrients to plants, and the remaining percent is highly contaminated with toxins.
3. The fact that this is a case where a high population density area is illegally “haul and dumping” sewage sludge in rural areas that are relatively poor and economically defenseless makes this a blatant case of environmental racism. I can’t believe it has effected so many people and animals that there’s actually a “Help for Sewage Victims” group.
4. The whole capitalistic aspect of “free fertilizer” that only reveals its negative side effects after two years of contamination is so evil and predictable. The very nature of this disparity between different economic and location based advantages portrays the industrial “use and abuse” relationship with the environment. I just don’t understand why its worth it for people to disregard other people in the short term when its obviously going to end badly and (hopefully) blow up in their faces.
5. The way the author refers to the fact that sludge people are really pushing to compost on organic farms is very scary to me. It just goes to show how flexible different aspects of our food industry is through corruption. Sometimes I think people go overboard when extremely limiting the foods their children are allowed to have, especially if they don’t follow their same example, but I would be just as paranoid if I had a baby depending on me and I was depending on our food system to provide me safe food. The combination of unknown, unregulated chemical wastes being leaked into public sewer systems and the toxicity levels that carry pathogens that can be carried and harmful in so many different ways is frightening, and its being dumped on the food we eat.

My question is… Why does most of the testing of company products or ecological effects done by the company itself? How can we eliminate this, and have separate research done in an efficient way?

Ch.9

1. The “Torches of Liberty Contingent” publicity stunt for “female emancipation” was very effective, “Within months, in fact, the politest of American ladies were puffing in public and sales of Hill’s Lucky Strikes were soaring.” Why are females constantly targeted and so easily influenced by the media?
2. “Also disconcerting is the fact that the 150,000 PR practitioners in the US outnumber the country’s 130,000 reporters”. I am curious what the ratio is in other countries and the different disparagements in comparison. The whole PR ordeal is so overwhelming to me, and it is scary to see modern day propaganda feeding so many industrial motives. The way in which people take advantage of the corporate system is so misanthropic and suicidal in its nature.
3. I was shocked at Kathleen Marquardt of Putting people first when she described the Sierra Club, The Nature Conservancy, and The humane Society as a “radical animal rights cult” (Dowie, 127). I think that is a completely inappropriate assertion to make at a Wise Use Leadership Conference award speech, however that was in 1992, so I’m sure they’re no longer as cavalier about it, which is a small step forward.
4. The fact that green organizations are given cash contributions by corporate polluters is so obviously hush money to pay for the dirty work that works towards solving the very ecological damages they create in the first place.
5. The “Shifting the Blame” and “The Selling of Earth Day” sections were really interesting, they are both such cop-outs to solving real problems. It all boils down to a break down of the system and punishing those responsible to the fullest extent and charging them with true costs. I also think it’s a shame that Earth Day is a logo. Something so radically opposing justifies that there is something seriously wrong with its purpose and function.

My question is… How can environmental groups/ activism keep up with corporate legalities when they are constantly advancing and while we’re [companies] are working with them, they don’t have time to sue us.”-Frank Boren? How to outsmart the good cop/ bad cop scheme?