extravaganza

I most like the warnings in the news or anywhere else in media. I mean I find them useful. For example; just like the weather conditions which gives an idea for what to wear or some announcements like “do not go to Taksim there will be a protest today”. I think these warnings are so important and there is a need for such a strong power like media to reach millions of people. But if we consider just news as a whole, there are things that I do not like. One thing I hate about the news is that they love dramatizing the stories about the people who are poor, sick, old or whatever. I am not a hard hearted person but trying to make something worse than itself just makes me think that it may not be even real. They always do the same things; if it is a newspaper you see an old woman crying photograph, if it is TV you hear a song which says like “it is really bad, isn’t it?” and slow motion crying again etc. I am not sure about if this is in only Turkey but I guess it is. Our seemingly sensitive people in media… Another thing I enjoy is the sport news like anybody else who is a male in Turkey. In the meantime, I usually prefer TV as a media outlet because I do not like media in some written documents much as I think TV seems to inform quicker than any outlets. The most enjoyable programmes in TV are qualified movies, comedy series and football matches. These fully need visual effects and that is what TV for. Finally, I hate politicians’ shoutings at a stand and lying over and over. They may not be lying all the time maybe, but I just see them as actors or actresses and I cannot get rid of these thoughts while I am watching them trying to control their voice, be impressive, reliable etc. As a result, I do not like the artificial things in media outlets; not the dramatic news nor the politicians.

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The most obvious difference between Turkish media and the other international medias is that Turkish media cares more about the competitive between each other, I mean for example a channel and another which both are in Turkey, than the appearance of the country to the whole world. Just for an example; if there happens a big fire which is caused by faulths of Turkish people, they immediately show it on their channels. Another example is the football matches and the fights happening in the stadium. I have witnessed this obvious difference for many times; in Turkey, our cameramen would do whatever they need to show that fight and their bosses appreciate them because of it but although there are happening fights in most of the other countries, too, they would never take those scenes and their bosses would not want them to do so. An another example is the situation in the wars, if our soldiers having troubles in bad conditions they never think about any effect of showing it and just show it, but nearly all the other countries would not do such a thing ever. But on the other hand, it is said that Turkish people are patriots. Isn’t there a dilemma? I totally accept that media must be free but is using this freedom against to your own country just fair? If they do not see the negative results fot this being unresponsible, then they must be educated well to be a good media holder; if they see and know everything, then the situation is much worse: They are not patriots a bit.

The most obvious difference between Turkish media and the other international medias is that Turkish media cares more about the competitive between each other, I mean for example a channel and another which both are in Turkey, than the appearance of the country to the whole world. Just for an example; if there happens a big fire which is caused by faulths of Turkish people, they immediately show it on their channels. Another example is the football matches and the fights happening in the stadium. I have witnessed this obvious difference for many times; in Turkey, our cameramen would do whatever they need to show that fight and their bosses appreciate them because of it but although there are happening fights in most of the other countries, too, they would never take those scenes and their bosses would not want them to do so. An another example is the situation in the wars, if our soldiers having troubles in bad conditions they never think about any effect of showing it and just show it, but nearly all the other countries would not do such a thing ever. But on the other hand, it is said that Turkish people are patriots. Isn’t there a dilemma? I totally accept that media must be free but is using this freedom against to your own country just fair? If they do not see the negative results fot this being unresponsible, then they must be educated well to be a good media holder; if they see and know everything, then the situation is much worse: They are not patriots a bit.

As the author mentioned, after the third military coup, of 1980, the public were discouraged from discussing politics, but encouraged to discuss more on religion and popular culture. Before that, there were great discussions between leftist and rightist militancy. In fact, discussion was a very little part of the problems between them. It was more like a war. So before this coup, politics was so common in media and in a violent way. There was not much tabloidization as we have today. Because people used to read things which support their ideas. There is not a big gap like that now and visual effects, good qualitified of publishing and press in the newspapers etc. now have a great affect and importance on people. The article gives two names as an example; Ali Kırca and Reha Muhtar who are the anchormans. Their movements from a channel to another made great changes for channels. Why are the programmes like televole so popular? Because it seems so active and enjoyable with quailitified effects. So, according to me, main thing here is good advertising in politics or whatever the issue is.  If channels are good at advertising by visual effects, using important people like Ali Kırca; they are becoming more popular. What we must concentrate on is that this tabloidization can cheat people so dangerously, it can block our attentions to politics, real situations in the country or guide us to some big powerful people’s ideas by using those fascinating features of technology in television or radio or newspaper. As a result, we must be so careful and selective about this cheating media, we cannot just rely on their reputed quality because they are so proffesional in their jobs.

• •At the beginning of the text, Murrow says that some people may accuse his text of having dangerous thoughts. Why did he choose such beginning according to you? Do you think that he is right?
• •“Nobody politic is healthy until it begins to itch” (p. 226). What could Murrow mean with this sentence?
• •Is it true to get all show business, advertising and news under one roof? What can be its negative effects?
• •How can TV insulate people?
• •“The trouble with television is that it is rusting in the scabbard during a battle for survival”. What does Jackson mean with this?

Jim and Irene Westcott are the parents of two children. They sometimes have economic problems. But they are normally doing well enough. They differ from each other in many ways but the common pleasure they have is music, they spend so much time listening to music on the radio. Because the radio they had has some working problems Jim buys a new one with good amount of money. The function of the new radio is that later on it let them hear what neighbours were talking about, what problems they had and what kind of characters they were. Irene becomes addicted to listening that radio after this. For example; one day she went out for lunch with a friend of hers but although they had already decided to go also shopping, Irene excused to her and did not go to anywhere else after lunch but to listening to the enormous radio. She started having psychological problems because of learning other people’s lives with their so many problems and bad characteristics. She became really upset and in a conversation with her husband, which made Jim fix the radio again, from what she said it was clear that she was trying to be sure that they did not have lives like the neighbours had. But in the end of the story it is understood from Jim’s speech to her that she, in fact, had similar characteristic and made similar mistakes, maybe worse things. So the story simply tries to give a message to the reader. After that radio, Irene just sees the people so bad and she just pretends to see the situation like she was a real angel. So the radio brought Irene self-criticism and it helped her be aware of the mistakes and not to do them again. To conclude, we can say the message can be like: a person, who is aware of his/her characteristics and has self-criticism by looking at other people’s lives, has a more truly life because of examining her/himself everytime.

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American Beauty

There is a family which have three members; Lester Burnham (the father), Carolyn Burnham (the mother) and Jane Burnham (their daughter). This family has serious problems about the relationships between them. They do not have any money problem, not so rich perhaps but they are doing well. In general they have interaction problems, they do not spend any special moments together which a family should have, they are just doing their jobs and do not allow any time to each other, Lester and Carolyn go to work and Jane goes to school, the family means like a shelter to them. The parents just try to live together without any love, for example; they do not have sex anymore, maybe once or twice in a year, and Lester tries to get his sexual needs by masturbating a lot. He does not feel any response about all these bad situations and their daughter’s problems. Carolyn tries to take the authority and take care of Jane but she is not succesful, either. Also, she has problems about the goods, for example she wants her furnitures to be always in order and look beautiful. Lester hates her about this issue and so they mostly disagree. All of these problems affect every members of the family in a negative way. Carolyn starts having sex with another man from her business life who has a very good career but then just left her, Lester starts buying marijuana from a boy in their neighborhood named Buddy and using them, the girl, Lester, who has grown up without any care and love and who does not like her breasts and even collects money to make them bigger starts having sex for the first time at a young age with Buddy. As a result, every members are looking for something to have satisfaction because of loneliness. They might be seen like living together but in fact the situation is so different. So, the family is one of the most important things in people’s social lives. Even at the old ages, people can suffer from the troubles in the family.

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In Tiny Little Smiling Daddy, the father is clearly against Kitty’s choices and he does not respect her at all. When Kitty said she is a lesbian he refused her and did not want to see her again. He felt really ashamed of her own daughter. In fact that was not the only time he refused her but in any time in anything about Kitty which he does not like. He is a dominant person, behaves without any respect to anyone and wants to have the authority in the family. So Kitty moved away and really hated her father (she wrote something bad in a magazine) In the movie, Sum of us, Harry (the father) is always respectful to Jeff (the son) and he is so friendly to him. So Jeff is always being honest to Harry, never lies and talks about everything with him. Even if he does not like the situation (Jeff’s being a gay) and always hoped that he would just love a girl for once, he never felt ashamed and always talked to him so kindly. He even met his mates and let them in their house who were having sex with his son, drinking together and spending romantic times etc. The most different part between these stories are the fathers. Kitty’s father was ashamed of his daughter but Harry would never be. So the results were different too. Kitty moved away and her father was really in pain but Jeff did not think about going anywhere and stayed with his father even when he had a stroke all over his body and Jeff looked after him. Although Harry had a stroke, he was happier than Kitty’s father. As a result, the situation was like Kitty’s father was punished by the girl’s hate and her article in a magazine and Harry was rewarded because the son never left him even in his very bad days and looked after him without any being tired. So both of them argues that good fathers win, bad fathers lose.

Kitty loved her daddy in her childhood so much but as the time goes by she hated him. She found the games which her daddy and she used to play disgusting and then hated him when she became a teenager. She said she is a lesbian and her father refused her, later on she moved away from the family and started to live without them. One day she wrote something about him and the father wonders what it is etc. The whole story is about the relationship between the girl and the family, especially father. I want to touch upon the fact that why their relationship had become that problematic. I mean what might be the reasons for this? It is clear that the father is a very dominant person and he wants to control everybody and everything, so he wants Kitty to be just like the way he wants. It is not known that maybe he used to refuse everything about the girl which were against his wishes. Before refusing her because of her being lesbian, there must be many things that he didn’t like about her. All those games don’t mean that he always respected her. So as a result, her being lesbian and all the abnormal behaviors could be just because of his pressure. I think the situation must be like this, the father damaged the girl because of his silly anger and the girl has gone crazy at last. Even in the beginning we can make this comment, it says that he does not have many friends so this shows that he tries to control everybody but like his daughter many of them didn’t like him, leaved him, hated him. Kitty’s style, being lesbian, having problems at school etc. are all because of the father’s behaviours.

Connie is a girl who is caring about her look so much and sees this issue most important than anything. For example, even her mother behaves much better to her sister, June, she thinks that she loves her more just because she is prettier. She is not steady as her sister and she meets with boys and goes some places to dance, does not study much etc. Shortly, she is a girl that no usual parents want their children to be like. But I want to emphasize the reason why she acts like that. I think the main reason is about her parents, I mean her parents’ comparings between her and June. The comparisons affect the children in a bad way, it causes phsychology problems. For example, the reason why Connie acts like that could be her persistence to the parents. It is a different aspect of the story but maybe the girl’s fall to Arnold is just because of her family.