WSJ

Using the Wall Street Journal as our primary instructional tool in the course helps the students have motivation instead of having a big chunky book. The WSJ obviously contains new information and new headlines that we most likely are familiar with. It helps us be informed of what is going on today instead of what happened years ago. Specially for a class of Mass Communications, it is important for students to be updated with new information specially for those who are planning to continue their career within this industry.

The WSJ touches many issues concerning Mass Communications and while reading the daily newspaper we all learned different things that are going on within the media. We learned things about the e-book reader, iphone, movies books etc., topics that are most likely of our interest. One curious thing I will always remember is the randomness of the first page story. These stories were definitely different and outrageous.

Textbooks often have old information and it is really hard to keep track of what is going on today. During this course I read and learned different stories of things that are really happening today and we could compare and think of what can happen tomorrow. Using a text book I think that is limiting our knowledge because obviously does not contain current information.

I honestly wont renew my Wall Street Journal subscription due to the lack of time that I have between work and school. But I would definitely recommend this newspaper to everyone because is a complete newspaper and in my opinion, it is well distributed.

The Road

“The Road” by Cormac McCarthy is a movie that takes you to an extreme and makes you think what would you do in a situation where you barely have the necessary things to live. It makes you think and question yourself how far would you go to protect your family. This book/movie also presents the values of a family and how you should keep those values no matter what.

Personally, I have to admit that I did not like the book or the movie. While reading the book I was utilizing the audio book provided through the Internet and it was just really boring and it was a story stretched into a book. During the story some very exciting moments occur but then again they were on the road on a journey to the coast to get nothing.

This book should not have been made into a movie, at least that is my opinion. I went to see this movie with my fiance which thought the same thing without reading the book. I was actually really excited to go see the movie since the trailer was really good and it kind of made it seem like there was going to be a lot of action and a lot of exciting moments. But then again, it was the same way as the book was written.

Obviously the movie had a couple of differences from the book due to cinematographic elements. A couple of scenes I though would not be seen in the movie but did surprised me such as the one with the little boy which it ended up being the same once that the boy ended up with when the father died. This was something that was not clear in the book and we actually thought that it was an hallucination from the little boy.

If I have to choose between the book or the movie I would definitely choose the movie. First, because I am a visual person and I think I enjoy the theater and the music behind the story. Second, because for me, the book was really difficult to read maybe due to the language barrier. But I still liked the idea of reading a book and been able to watch a movie afterwards and compare the movie to my imagination.

Social-Networking Services

Our generation has created a different source of networking using the Internet. Among the many social-networking services we have Facebook, Myspace and Twitter. The main objectives of these services is to create a network that will allow you to communicate with thousands of people while they make make millions of dollars selling ads.

Currently I have a Myspace and a Facebook account. Recently, I posted an update on my Myspace stating that I will no longer have this account and asking my friends on Myspace to add me on Facebook. The reason why I made this choice is because Myspace, in my opinion, is outdated. At the beginning it was fun to make different backgrounds and to add photos and create albums. But slowly it became kind of difficult creating “codes” to do different things on the profile. Soon, I was introduced to Facebook, which at first, was only available for college students and you had to have a school e-mail in order to open the account. Facebook is very user-friendly and allows you to update messages, post pictures and even chat with friends.

The main motivation for me to use Facebook is to re-connect with old friends. I went to school in Puerto Rico, and all my friends and family remain in P.R. so Facebook allows me to keep in touch and know recent updated about their lives. I guess some of the disadvantages of Facebook is the privacy factor, but I think that no body will know what you don’t want them to know. In other words, I would not post something private because obviously the whole world would know. Another main reason to use FB is because IT IS FREE! I would not pay to use FB because I don’t think is a necessity for me although I am kind of addicted to it by having the convenience of checking any updates through my IPhone.

Nowadays, we have not only Myspace and Facebook but we also have Twitter which allows you to make updates and meet new people by the so called “Twits”. These are now used for businesses and its wonderful for bloggers. I don’t find anything I like about Twitter because what I like about the other services is the ability to post pictures and watch pictures of my friends and family. I don’t think people should know everything I am doing at every instant which is what I think about Twitter.

In conclusion, these social-network services have changes our way of communicating with our friends and family. It has also created an effective way to promote your company or product. I am sure that many people would pay a fee to use these services because I know of many friends who use Facebook and Twitter as a business tool. I just personally think that they are making millions of dollars based on ads and I would not make them any more richer than what they are by paying a fee. Yes....I’m a hater LOL.

Magazine

At this time I am subscribed to a magazines although I do not have reading habits. The time i have between work and school does not allow me to sit and read a complete magazine. I do have to mention that in some circumstances such as waiting on a doctors appointment or waiting for somebody on an office I do skim through different magazines. In this situation I tend to look at images and if a title captures my attention I do stop and read the article.

I have always been interested in magazines that enphasizes on fashion and celibrity gossip. These hold a lot of relation because most of the time, celibrities are the ones who determines what is fashion and "what's in". These type of magazines are often designed to capture your attention visually. For example, with pictures or images that most of the time are more important than the story.

Currently, I am subscribed to the magazine "People" and the reason is becuase a friend of mine asked me to cooperate with her son's school by subscribing to any magazine in the catalog provided and "People" was the only one that was of my interest. However, I don't even read that magazine. In fact, most of time I never even open it due to the limitation of time or simply not even the cover attracts my attention.

In conclusion, I do not have a habbit of reading magazines as regularly as other people. In general, the people I know that do read magazines most of the time is from things that are of their interest like body builders, mechanics or people that like technology among others. I persnally dont have the time to sit and read a magazine every day or sometimes in a month although I do think that magazines is an interesting way to get informed of different topics.