Week 11, Responder 1

Brittney

The National Broadcasting Company has begun providing pro-environment ads and raising awareness about conservation and important environmental issues. Unfortunately many American citizens have a lack of knowledge and participation in societal issues. For example, Americans have a very low voting rate for presidential elections, as well as a small knowledge about ecological problems. Many people who aren’t as in tune with the environment don’t realize what danger planet Earth is in and continue to pollute it. The public service announcements and environmentalistic aspects that have recently been incorporated into the television broadcast of NBC raise environmental awareness and helps to better the environment.

I know that today in class watching videos and discussing whether or not NBC’s new stance on the environment was beneficial, lead to some heated debate as everyone has their own opinions and personal ideologies. Many people argued that NBC was being hypocritical because they themselves don’t use energy saving products, but I disagree. If NBC were saying that everyone who doesn’t conserve is horrible and that everyone absolutely needs to conserve and make the environment a better place that would be very hypocritical because they themselves may not be practicing these environmentally friendly ways of life. However, they are just trying to raise awareness and are trying to show people how simple everyday actions, such as turning off appliances and taking shorter showers, can help save the environment in large ways. NBC is merely teaching people that otherwise wouldn’t be environmentally aware, about small, easy things that can be done to conserve.

There is never going to be a time in our lives where the planet is free from environmental problems. The fact that NBC is taking an initiative at all to try and promote people to be environmentally friendly is a great thing. It seems to me like NBC would be in a bad position whether it made a green week or not. They are getting criticism from people for having green week saying that it is “fake” and “hypocritical”, yet if they did nothing they would still be looked at as the big corporation who doesn’t care about the environment. If the workers at NBC are spending the amount of time and money that they are spending to create public service announcements and to incorporate green ideas into their weekly shows, they obviously care about the environment, and I think that it’s horrible that people can’t see that.

Al Gore making An Inconvenient Truth does not appeal to everyone. Not everyone wants to sit down and watch an hour and a half long video about a power point presentation by someone who they might not even care for. The fact that NBC has incorporated friendly environmental values into their television broadcast means that it will affect many more people. Those who are affected by things such as An Inconvenient Truth can be inspired by that, while those who watch NBC television and are less aware about the environmental challenges Earth is going through today can be influenced in that way. With the wide range of people who live in the United States and all over the world, there needs to be different outlets and different forms of media and information to promote the same idea or value to the entire population. “YEAH! I’m am extremely excited to see these topics being discussed on mainstream media!” This is a comment that was left by a young adult book author responding to a post that Tom Brokaw left on the Green is Universal website. This quote proves that popular media such as NBC and public figures influences certain people, and pushes them to pursue the environmental movement. We live in an extremely diverse place where people have different beliefs, different emotions, and different ways of being appealed to. That is why it is important to have different outlets for people to get information from. The environmental movement that NBC is pursuing is important and will be effective because it will appeal to those who understand and enjoy that type of setting.

 

Week 11: Go Green With Heroes

Please explore the Universal is Green website, then watch these two videos:

1. Green is Universal: Behind the Scenes (1:50)
   
2. Go Green With Heroes (0:19)
   

(If for some reason the links do not work, you can go to the Universal is Green website, click on Videos and watch the videos with the above titles.)

Taking the readings associated with A4 into consideration (particularly Green Screen: Environmentalism and Hollywood Cinema by David Ingram), I would like to know what your reaction is to NBC Universal’s marketing campaign–especially if you happened to watch Heroes tonight and experienced the green tint to the solar eclipse, as well as the commercial where the “heroes” are on The Today Show and Sylar says, “My character wants to destroy the world, but I want to save it,” then Micah pours bottled water on a potted tree–how do you interpret and respond to this marketing campaign?

 

Hannah

While the general public’s neglect of New Orleans and its citizens in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina is tragic, the lack of attention is predictable. People tend to expend their energy (via listening, discussing, donating, investigating etc.) on what is news, and the media dictates what news constitutes, i.e. what is new, fresh, “worthy,” and perhaps most importantly, however unfortunate, what will sell. This vision tends to be narrow, fickle, and very short term. At the moment, newsworthy items include the timetable for potential pullout of U.S. troops in Iraq, Senator Larry Craig’s sexual preference, Barack Obama’s whereabouts, and Britney Spears’ lackluster “comeback” performance at the VMA’s. But perhaps it is simply a matter of practicality. The individuals or institutions likely to donate to Katrina’s cause have already done so. And perhaps, like so many other tragedies, the collective consciousness has compartmentalized Katrina into a grievous event in American history, beginning and ending in 2005. New Orleans is still suffering, innocent people are still being slaughtered in southwestern Sudan, species are still disappearing at a daunting and ever increasing rate, and on and on. We are surrounded by tragedy. So we dismiss what we cannot process or handle and become voyeurs of other people’s lives and foibles. The sexual escapades of Senator Craig, Brad and Angelina’s family life and speculation on whether they will or won’t increase their family size becomes all consuming in a subconscious attempt to evade the trauma, not out of ill-will or even insatiable curiosity, but out of a need for news that is digestible, impersonal, and void of personal attachment. In other words, if the audience isn’t besieged with news that personally impacts their surroundings, it is easy to dismiss.

 

Week 2 Posting: Katrina Foundation for Recovery Campaign

It’s been nearly two years since Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans and the surrounding area, destroying houses and lives and capturing the world’s attention.

By now, however, there’s no question that most people’s thoughts have moved on. The Katrina Foundation for Recovery is hoping to shock people into turning their attention back to the storm-ravaged region.

“Bin Laden would be smart to hide where the U.S. pays the least attention — New Orleans,” reads one of five advertisements prepared for the nonprofit, which raises money to supply clothing, shelter and other services in the area.

In another, the group plays on people’s obsession with celebrity news.

“Brad and Angelina bought a house in New Orleans (that’s a coastal city in Louisiana, in case you’ve forgotten).”

Others depict scenes of happy normalcy, such as a school bus full of kids or a church, held up against a scene of Katrina-wrought destruction.

Kathy Reeg, president of the Katrina Foundation for Recovery, admits she was a little hesitant when the advertising agency first approached her with the donated Osama Bin Laden ad.

“I’m very patriotic myself, and I just felt like it might be pretty controversial — we live in the conservative South here,” she said.

But while she didn’t want to turn people off, Reeg did like the shock value.

“We have a bad habit of moving on with our lives and leaving something behind,” she said.

The ads, which have run in newspapers in the region, are virtually certain to grab people’s attention. But will they prompt people to reach for their wallets, or donate some of their time to the area? Well, that’s a tougher proposition.

–MSNBC