IB Preparation

For my IB preparation I was asked to de a Mindmap to prepare my ideas on Paper 2 task. I chose Science and tecnology option.

Describe the picture

“ God I learnt so much! Not only from my teachers but also from my classmates”

I can see in this picture a graduation from an University, where a lot of people are together, sitted below many different flags. It´s about the importance of how much someone can learn from other cultures in social relationships.

In the top left corner I can see three flags; from South Korea, Canada and the Great britain, they´re upside down and near to where the picture was taken. At the top, there are also three flags from many different countries like Bahrein and the Domican Republic and they are more at the middle background. In the top right corner I can barely identify three more flags because they are far away on the background. The rest of the picture is basicly the same, in the middle and at the bottom I can see a ot of tables and chairs with many people sitting down and a few standing, they seem to be very different people from different colours and way of dressing. When I see all those flags together I get the sense of unity and peace between the different countries and cultures, I think that studying here must have been very fun, getting to know different people and cultures, but also it must been very hard for people that aren´t very sociable or tolerant. People can learn a lot at the University, but I think that the most valuable learning is to get close and learn from different cultures, how much a normal person know about Bahrein or Korea? It´s a tremendous opportunity to get to know that. This graduation is not so different from the ones in my country, in Chile we also eat together and have conversation, but after, the graduation transforms in a big party and we dress in a more formal way than the people from the University shown at the picture, I think it´s similar to an English speaken cuntry. In my country we use to celebrate for almost everything, winning a cup or anything you can imagine, with big parties and all people invited.

Interactive oral summary

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

We started a conversation with the class about the main topics of "Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" and also related to the IB program themes. Our teacher, Miss Samaha, at first asked questions about the story, so we could share ideas and different opinions about the story. After we made quite a summary of all of what happened in the book, we started talking about the themes of the story.

We related the story of Dr Jekyll with mental health, specifically with schizophrenia. The character had a real problem of change of body and personality, but in the real life we can see something similar with that illness.
Also we linked the story with social relationships, this was the specific topic that I was asked in the activity. I told the class that as it says in the book, Mr Hyde has an active social life, so this problem of personality transformation was highly affecting his social life and reputation.

The activity lasted two classes, in which all of the class took part with their personal opinions and thoughts about the book. It was a great opportunity to learn about the book, practice our oral activity on the IB (by linking the book with the IB themes) and also share and listen interesting opinions and facts about the activity.

Image analysis

This picture is probably taken in the Antartic, because of the snowy scenary and the large territory without any building.

First of all, we can see that it is a landscape with snow and the sun shining at the top. It can be identify two groups of people, I can imagine that maybe they are scientists doing a research at this particular conditions. At the bottom we can see a big round hole without snow, only with ice. The people on the picture seem to be looking at the hole. In the background of the landscape we can see a lot of distance with a lot of snow, and also another gruoup of people walking at the distance. One of the people that are in front is separate from the group looking closely to the hole, the other three are togeteher, they look like shadows because of the sun reflection. I think this are basically the facts we can identify on the picture.

Media Power on Society – Documentary (Listening Comprehension)

Media Power in society video activity

1. What is Harold Laswell’s Chain of Communication’s Model?

2. What does the theorist Marshall McLuhan’s mean by stating that “the Medium is the Message”? 

3. Refer to Jurgen Habermas’ “Public Sphere as a Platform for Advertising”

4. What is the connection between Self-Presentation & the Celebrity Image? 
      

Harold Laswell´s implyied a 5 question basic model: Who? - Says What? - In Which Channel? - To Whom? - With what effect?

It´s a methaphor for saying that whatever the medium says is going to be our message and information.

That industries and companyes objective is to convince people, to achieve that the need to know what do people need.

Companyies create an icon with a succesful celebrity, so the audience think if that they buy that product they will similar to that celebrity. For example: Lionel Messi (Best soccer player in the world) using in a comercial the hair product "Head and shoulders"

Image analysis

There is a lot to talk about this advertisement. I think what is trying to say is that media is deciding everithing you need to know in an ironic sense using the word "Relax..." Like I had say before, whoever´s controlling media has a big influence and power in a country or in the world, because a lot of information that we acquire everiday comes from media (internet, television, radio). Imagine if a person has the power to achieve all media resources we will all finally be controlled by that person, following his personal interests. That´s why we should be aware of every information we recibe from any tipe of media, asking for resources.

Media Power on Society – Celebrity Influence on Youth Culture (class summary)

"The media occupies a unique position within our society. A collective term encompassing such things as newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations, the media plays an integral part in the shaping of our culture, while being outside it; it exists as a cog in the system, and also as an observer outside the system. It encourages and criticises, reports and contorts, informs and influences."

Power and Influence

Because we live in a society where reputation is important, and credibility is a sought-after attribute, the individual is forced to maintain an external image that is acceptable to those around them. In everyday life, people surrounding the individual are family, friends and colleagues from a place of employment or study. However, there are some individuals that are in the public eye; there are some in important positions; some making important decisions, and of course companies and corporations conducting business. For this set of entities, reputation and credibility assume far greater importance, as to let either slip may well result a loss of popularity, loss of position or power, or loss of market share, or some other financial loss. This is where the media has obtained the power it now has.

It is the judgement that the media exercises that is the critical issue. In our Western-style society it is unusual to be free from material generated by the media. Whether it be watching television, reading a newspaper, listening to the radio, even reading electronic mail, one is subjected to an array of “input” from a variety of sources. The penetration into our lives by the media leaves most of us open to the influences and pressures that the media choose to exert. It is an unusual individual that can disassociate themselves and make a balanced decision free from media-based bias.

My reflection about what we saw in class is that I agree that media is a very powerful tool in society, and specially in youth society. In my circle of friends we communicate almost all day using social networks. Twitter, Facebook, Whatsapp, Blackberry Messenger, MySpace, etc are usual in almost all teenage lifes, we are all day connected to this pages and we form a lot of our opinions and get information by this social networks, that´s why it´s so important and at the same time is dangerous, whoever´s controlling this media networks can affect on our actions, opinions and interaction in life. Media nowadays in my opinion is one of the most powerful tools of the world.