Gary Webb: Journalism hero or zero?

So after watching the movie "Kill the Messenger" I figure we might as well write a blog about it.  So your assignment is to blog on the movie and in your blog I want you to focus on the question "Was Gary Webb a journalism hero or zero."  To help you with the thought process I included a link to and article published in the Washington Post.  Click here to see article

I would like your opinion to my question and a basic response to how you felt about the movie and anything else.  I think 400 words is enough.

A Loss of Innocence

Part I
I want you to read the following article located here.  My question is "Did a nation really lose it's innocence after the JFK assassination?"  What effect did the assassination have psychologically and sociologically on the American people?  World?  Future of the United States?

Part II
Do you think 9/11 had a similar effect on America and it's people?  Do you think people blamed themselves for 9/11? 

Part III
Who killed JFK in your opinion?  Why was JFK killed in your opinion.  Is it a coincidence that RFK and MLK were killed with in a few years of JFK?

I would like a 800-1000 word or more response to the above questions along with any thing else you want to include.

Rape Culture

So we have been studying socialization and one of the agents we concentrated on is media.  As we have discussed, media as a socializing agent can have many negative aspects and side effects.  These undesirable effects of media can definitely influence the culture of a society or even a country.  Maybe even several countries.  When I looked at the lyrics of  the song "Blurred Lines" I could not help but think that this song would be controversial.  Let's take a closer look at a widely unknown culture that is heavily influenced through media and its effect on our culture.

 "A rape culture is a complex of beliefs that encourages male sexual aggression and supports violence against women." Robine Thicke's huge summer hit, Blurred Lines (it reached #1 in 14 countries), has been widely discussed as an example of rape culture. It is so controversial that at least 5 universities in the United Kingdom have banned the song.  Many of the bans were led by student union groups of the universities.  It is suggested that the song objectifies women-that there "are ‘blurred lines’ when it comes to sexual consent." The problem many people have with the song is that the lyrics are similar to phrases that are used by attackers on potential rape victims.  Check out project unbreakable to see what I mean

For example, the main lyrics  "I know you want it" is a line given to many victims, and implies that women really want sex when they say they do not. There is also a line  "Nothing like your last guy, he too square for you."  A person may dissect that to mean a woman doesn't want the nice, down to earth, sensitive, thoughtful guy who will treat her with respect.  Women would prefer the guy to be forceful, disrespectful, "the bad boy type."

So  Robin Thicke's response to this is that it is a song about his wife and this is an appropriate way some couples  talk  and act within a marriage.  Which many people say that they understand, but then the video he made is meant to be construed how?

 As this video from Dreamworlds 3 illustrates, music videos socialize us into prescribed gender roles regarding sexuality. And in a video where the women are all barely dressed (or nude in the unedited version of the video), and never speak, it is easy to see why women will continue the need to fight the stereotypes and gender bias towards them.  And as far as young boys and men are concerned, the temptation to see women as sex objects who are not gender equals will continue a culture that has made great strides but is far from reaching its goals of gender equality.

 So in retaliation, parodies of the video have come out, including the Law Revue Girls' "Defined Lines" where they respond “Yeah we don’t want it/ It’s chauvinistic/ You’re such a bigot ... You can't just grab me/ That's a sex crime.”  Unfortunately, it will do little to change the damage that a song like "Blurred Lines" has done to women and gender stereotypes.

Game Theory Reflection blog

So what started out as "Watching a Beautiful Mind" in relation to John Nash and our psychology unit on Intelligence has turned into one of the more interesting units I have put together this year.  My experience with Game Theory, Prisoner Dilemma, Nash equilibrium, and John Nash himself had been very limited.  Realizing just how often and important the above play in our current lives politically, socially, economically, and historically has gave me a whole new perspective that I hadn't considered before.  I am interested to learn if you can apply the above theories to your lives and the world around you.  I am hoping you learned and now can consider how history and your daily life has been and will continue to be shaped by what we have learned in the last few weeks.  It would be great if at sometime in your life you can use the information and lessons learned to help you out in your quest for greatness-whatever the definition of that is.  On a separate blog answer/write the following:

Please describe the following in your own words in two sentences.(look them up if you don't know)

Nash equilibrium-


Game theory-


Prisoner dilemma-


Go to the following link Serendip online interactive prisoner's dilemma

Describe your experience and thoughts after you have played the game a few times.(50 words)




Read the following blog on Game Theory and answer the questions below:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/nash/sfeature/sf_dixit.html

Give an example of Game Theory/prisoner dilemma:

In history:

In Government:

In economics:

related to sociology:

related to psychology:

In your everyday life:


Tell me your thoughts on the oil pricing activity and the other group activities we did in class. 





On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being great rate the activities we have done in class with the unit.  What are some things that can be done to improve the overall unit?

Rorschach Inkblot test

So we have been studying Intelligence and Intelligence testing recently in Psychology.  I thought it would be fun to end the unit with another test.  It is called the Rorschach Inkblot test.  We will take a look at the plates that are used with the test.  We will then self diagnose ourselves using the criteria on the corresponding blog.  After you self evaluate your answers you will write a reflection blog on test and what you learned about the history of the test.  Is it valid or invalid and how should the results be used.  I think 200 words is enough to do this in.  You can even compare it to Wikipedia.

Also the one time I will use Wikipedia-you can scroll down and see some common answers

A Beautiful Mind and a Prisoner's Dilemma

So in class we have been studying Intelligence. 

John Nash:  A Brilliant Madness documentary

 

Four patients with schizophrenia

 

A Beautiful Mind movie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8tD9eJBn7k-Deleted scene about the game HEX

A Beautiful Mind and Prisoner's Dilemma blog

Go to the below link and under the "Exercise your Mind" tab do the four activities and record your results.  A Beautiful Mind webpage
Extra credit if you can crack the code on the website-so far I haven't had time to crack it either so it might be worth quite a bit of extra credit.

Article on Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia on 20/20

A Brilliant Madness-website on John Nash
-Game Theory/Prisoner Dilemma/Catch 22

Some activities we may use

Game Theory/Nash equilibrium/prisoner dilemma explained in video

Game Show Theory in "Golden Balls

A prisoner's dilemma explained on youtube

Soccer shootout
Christian Laetner game winner
Russell Wilson interception in superbowl

Prisoner Dilemma activity
Prisoner theory-game simulation class activity

Serendip online interactive prisoner's dilemma

Intelligence and Sociology?

Intelligence activities

I hope you will enjoy these activities and experiments.
 

BRAIN STORIES-20pts

Please summarize one story about the brain in 150 words.  I prefer you deal with mind, brain, intelligence or find an article dealing with autism and it's link to intelligence.  You will present your summary in class orally also.
       

  Complete the various intelligence tests located below.         Present a written summary of the following for each test:

1. Your score on the test.  Does this score have any meaning?
2. Your impression of the validity and reliability of the test. Is the score an accurate measurement of intelligence?  Use the psychological definition of validity and reliability found in your textbook.  Be specific.

After you have summarized each test, answer the following questions:

A.  What is intelligence?
B.  Which is more important:  emotional intelligence or intellectual intelligence?  Present reasons to support your answer.  Choose one side.
C.  Is intelligence learned or inherited?
D.  What did you learn about yourself after completing these tests?

THE INTELLIGENCE TESTS

Please note that these are informal tests - do not take them too seriously.  We are using these tests as a learning experience and to help guide you with discovering the meaning of intelligence.

1. Emotional Intelligence Test 
2. Intelligence Testing:  Mensa Workout
3. The Online IQ Test-note you must finish before you close the browser