Reading Responses to October 4th:

Ten Things Wrong with the Media Effects Model

I really enjoyed reading article because much of it made sense to me. I also enjoyed the fact that it was the type of article that I could jump around with while reading, meaning that I did not have to begin reading at any particular point in the article, but read what interested me most first.
The article was intended to be persuasive, but not in a manipulative way. It is made clear in the title "Ten Things Wrong with the Media Effects Model" that only one side of the argument is being examined. I found that knowing this immediately made me less cautious of allowing myself to be persuaded, because I knew which side was being looked at.
However, I did not find that there was enough information given outlining and explaining what exactly the media effects model is. If this article was intended to be seen by a very general audience, then there should have been more background provided. The criticisms of the model sound justifiable, but I think that there needs to be further specific ties to the model made in order to prove each point.
I did enjoy reading the article. There was a lot of good insight provided, especially regarding the generalizations that are often made in the media. These points were brought up regarding how all people respond to violence and how children respond to media. Therefore, this article was very insightful, but would have been easier to relate to had further information about the media effects model been mentioned.

Semiotics For Beginners: Encoding/Decoding:

I feel much more equipt to write my semiotic analysis having read through this article. It confirmed a lot of what we had discussed in class. The points that I found confusing were cleared up in our class discussion this week as well.
Aside from what I found helpful to include in my semiotic analysis, I also enjoyed refreshing my memory about the communication model.