What is PSA?

What is a PSA? A PSA (public service announcement) is "a short film or video recording presented by a nonprofit organization which attempts to persuade the audience to take some specific action or adopt a favorable view towards some service, institution, issue, or cause" according to www.itsmarc.com. PSA's are used to get the work out about certain issues or events going on in a certain area.  PSA's are are good example of Mass Communication.  Its also a good way to raise awareness because a lot of people watch TV.

Here is an example of a PSA.

by Julia Patsios

2 Million Minutes

2 Million Minutes is a powerful film that explain how other countries such as China and India are going to beat out the U.S. in education and eventually take the jobs of U.S. Citizens. In China and India Math and Science are a big deal where as in the U.S. we are ranked 24th for how smart students are in theses subjects. If Students in China and India go to school for almost 10 hours a day while in our country, kids go only around 6 hours a day and stop studying after the bell rings. This is a wake up call for people in the U.S. to study harder so their jobs don' get taken from highly educated immigrants. 

 

-Ryan McDermott

2 Million Minutes

The documentary 2 Million Minutes provides insight on the global competition that the U.S faces in science and math related job fields. It shows how hard working countries like China are to become successful engineers while the majority of American students have little interest in achieving the most that they can. Students in India spend most of their free time studying or in school in hope to gain an advantage over the rest of the world when trying to get a job or get into a good college. American students would rather have fun while they can and do enough to get by with average grades than set high goals and achieve them. I think that the U.S is going to be far behind other countries in terms of educated engineers and doctors because we take our education resources for granted. Although it is important to study and get good grades I feel that the amount of work that students in China and India apply is too overwhelming. Teenagers shouldn't be cooped up inside studying all day, they should have time for fun and enjoy themselves because life isn't all about getting a good job and becoming rich, I would rather enjoy my life than do homework and study all day just so I can make more money when I graduate college.

-Eric Dupuis

2 Million Minutes

Watching 2 Million Minutes made me realize that Education in the US is much lower then I had though.  Compared to other countries like India and China education in the US needs to be improved.  People from India and China are coming over to America and applying for Jobs that Americans are applying for, making it a competition.  With the education you get in China and India they have a better chance of getting the jobs.  How are American Children supposed to control what they learn in school?  In the video they say that the US is raked #24 in Mathematics, there for we have a large disadvantage when we graduate College and start looking for jobs.  Because of this the government needs to re look our curriculum and teach us at the same levels that other kids are taught at.  If I was raised in China and went to their schools until my freshman year and came back to the US to finish high school I would know a lot more then the kids in my grade, and would probably be at a 11th grade level as a freshman.  Overall the video was educational and it made me think about why education means to other kids around the world and that most kids in America just take advantage of the education that they are given.  

By Julia Patsios

2 Million Minutes

              "2 Million Minutes" is a documentary that explores education and it's importance to different countries. It is based on the stories of six students coming from China, India, and America. "2 Million Minutes" demonstrates how these kids have different ideals and values for their education. The girl from America said that even though education is important to her, her parents raised her to also be sociable, while the boy from India said that his parents insist that he focus on education. I thought it was interesting that even though they worked much harder, the kids from India and China still did not get into the universities they wanted, whereas the American kids got scholarships at good universities. This might be one of the many reasons why America is so international, because it is viewed as having many opportunities and not as much competition. 

Go to their website on:http://www.2mminutes.com/

UMASS Boston & Boston Globe Media Matters Conference

The event at the university was the "Media Matters" where students from different schools took lectures on journalism. My first one was on Sports and Entertainment Broadcasting. Most of it was on learning to host your own show and being a correct reporter, meaning that intonation and improvisation are a huge part of it. However, I was more interested in my second class that was called Investigative Journalism. I could relate to it more because the lecturer talked not only about theory, but actual investigations. There are many websites that can be used for investigations and these will help your story. In general, it was very interesting and included many students coming from other places.

Reality Show

If you could make a reality show about your life, what would it be about?