Monday, May 29. 2023

Today's schedule is ABCD

A Block Legal Studies - We are back in the Learning Commons / Library to work on our criminal law memo activity. It is due this week, right? Like Wednesday! You should be on your second case now. Please look at the blog posts for weblinks and assistance on the memo format along with resources for your discussion section. You'll have your final collaborative test on Wednesday and then we'll watch Just Mercy on Thursday/Friday. That means you get your final exam (civil litigation assignment) next Monday and will have 13 classes to get it finished. 

B Block Criminology - Remember, I asked you to track your media consumption for 24 hours. So for you...at the end of each chunk of time (8 am to 12 pm; 12 pm to 4 pm; 4 pm to 8 pm; 8 pm to midnight; and if necessary midnight to wakey time) that you are awake for one day I'd like you to write down what media format you interacted with for that time and guesstimate how much time you interacted with it. I know that you are a generation of multi-taskers (and that you are interacting with this blog right now) so try to be as honest as you can about what you consume/interact with.

"Did you accurately predict your daily media consumption"?

In your response to this question explain how much you thought you'd consume, then identify the actual amount. Next, identify what surprised you about your findings and explain how you consume it (do you multi-task - streaming video with listening to music while gaming and commenting about it via social networking? Do you single-task or immerse yourself in one format/content - watch one webisode or episode of something with no other media? Do you binge - save your media consumption for one dedicated time period? Do you nibble or graze - watch little bits sporadically throughout the day?). Do you mostly consume "user created" media product (You Tube, Tumblr, Facebook, SnapChat, Sound Cloud) or do you consume "mainstream" media products (cable television, Internet websites, radio or online radio like XM, Spotify or Songza, magazines or newspapers)? Finally, are you always "on" or do you "unplug" (in other words are you continually checking, reading, creating, consuming) How do the number of hours you spend online every day, the types of online content you view, and your motivations for where you spend your time online shape your everyday behaviour? (HINT** Look at points 1-8 below to help)

Please review page 16 of the text (in the pdf it's page 52)  Media &Culture: Mass Communication in a Digital Age which deals with Media Convergence.

From the Media Literacy and Critical Thinking document,  Long term Effects of Media may include...

1.  Generalizing: Media can influence new and novel behaviours in a generalized, long-term manner. 
2. Triggering: Exposure to affluent lifestyles in media and high levels of advertising of consumer goods teachers viewer over time that in order to be happy you need to attain those things. 
3. Malformed Super-Ego: The superego is something that is acquired through experience as people learn what is acceptable in society. Viewers are exposed to many different value systems, as there are channels. Also, media gives viewers no discipline or feed back on their behavior which leaves them to develop their own superego value system. 
4. FOMO: Fear of Missing Out drives much of our media interactions, especially with texting and social networking. Over time, compulsions to “interact” online can lead to anxiety, feelings of inadequacy, stress. This creates an unfortunate feedback loop- feeling inadequate? seek out more media to make yourself feel better! 
5. Addiction: Media is particularly well-suited to developing addictions. Instant gratification, emotional dependency, preoccupation, delay of negative effects, and cravings or compulsions can all affect mental and social well-being. There is particular concern over video-game addiction; compulsive playing can lead to social isolation, lack of imagination, mood swings, and even a blurring of reality. 
6. Cultivation of Fear: Heavy exposure to negative and violent portrayals lead people to construct unrealistically high estimates of risk of victimization and a corresponding belief that the world is a mean and violent place. 
7. Training: Media shapes our behavior by training us. Over time, viewers seek out the same types of actions the reinforce the conditions they have been exposed to. 
8. Learning Social Norms: People can generalize a pattern from individual media exposures without that pattern being a social norm. When viewers are repeated exposed to violence in media, a person overestimates the rate of crimes that are cleared by arrest. Although these are generalizations, they are not social norms. Social norms are generalized patterns from social information, rather than factual information. Social norms deal more with the rules of behavior in social situations rather than with society’s factual parameters. Sheer repetition of violent portrayals is enough to lead people to generalize that violence is typical way of dealing with problems in society.

From page 521 of the "Media & Culture: Mass Communication in a Digital Age" book linked above:

Many believe that media have a powerful effect on individuals and society. This belief has led media researchers to focus most of their efforts on two types of research: media effects research and cultural studies research....cultural studies. This research approach focuses on how people make meaning, apprehend reality, articulate values, and order experience through their use of cultural symbols. Cultural studies scholars also examine the way status quo groups in society, particularly corporate and political elites, use media to circulate their messages and sustain their interests. This research has attempted to make daily cultural experience the focus of media studies, keying on the subtle intersections among mass communication, history, politics, and economics. 

Check out this Media Usage Calculator

C Block Human Geography - Today we'll look at the key question "Why Do Territorial Conflicts Arise Among Religious Groups"?  It probably comes as no surprise that various conflicts have occurred between religions and governments and between governments or ethnicity using religion as an excuse. We'll try to understand religious conflict with three examples:

1. Hinduism, the Caste System and social equality (tradition vs modernism);
2. The "Troubles" in Northern Ireland (sectarian violence Catholic vs Protestant); and
3. China, Tibet and the Dalai Lama (religion, culture, language, environment, oppression and control)

D Block Physical Geography - We will continue our look at winds and pressure circulations. We'll understand where the permanent areas of high and low pressure are on the planet and figure out what that means for a macro-scale pressure gradient wind pattern. We'll also talk about the Horse Latitudes, the Bermuda Triangle, and the Doldrums. Lastly, we'll work on an activity called “Air: The High and Low of it”. You will need to complete questions 19 and 21 from page 177 in your Geosystems textbook.

To Help:
UCAR The Highs and Lows of Air Pressure
Weather Works High and Low Pressure
UK Met Office High and low pressure

ThoughtCo Air Pressure and How It Affects the Weather

And:

Don't forget that every day we are going to start by looking at the synoptic forecast along with weather maps.

Environment Canada Courtenay Weather

 

Friday, May 26. 2023

Today's schedule is ABCD

A Block Legal Studies - We are back in the Learning Commons / Library to work on our criminal law memo activity. It is due next week, right? You should be on your second case now. Please look at the blog posts for weblinks and assistance on the memo format along with resources for your discussion section. 

B Block Criminology - So, when it comes to crime, is Vigilantism good or bad? Do we trust the police or do we cave to the moral panic that crime is out of control and take extreme measures ourselves? What is a moral panic?

Moral Panic And Folk Devils (Cohen 1972)

Media Studies Moral Panic

A Sociological Understanding of Moral Panic

Studying the control of disorder Media and moral panics

The Myth of Moral Panics

Some people think that since there is so much crime happening they feel the need to take on crime themselves. Often the story of Catherine "Kitty" Genovese is cited as an example. This classic narrative of human failing was in fact hyperbole. From the LA Times article... 

When Genovese died it was the New York Times that created the shocking narrative of indifference and apathy, with a front-page story two weeks after the murder that began: “For more than half an hour, 38 respectable, law-abiding citizens in Queens watched a killer stalk and stab a woman in three separate attacks in Kew Gardens.” The story - and the number 38 - apparently originated with a conversation between New York City’s police commissioner and Abe Rosenthal, then the paper’s city editor. But the number was substantially exaggerated and inadequately checked before being allowed in the paper.

This created a moral panic/urban legend-myth that bystanders were apathetic to a woman's cries for help and ignored her - to the point that she died. Some saw this as a clarion call to act because others wouldn't. Some are some costumed "super-hero" vigilantes, like in Seattle - members of the Rain City Superhero Movement. Check out the Seattle PI article on them here. You can check out the article and video from Good Morning America on Phoenix Jones broken nose here. You can watch the Young Turks video on the Rain City Superheroes here.

 We'll watch some of the full doc today and tomorrow

C Block Human Geography - Today, we'll look at the key question "Why Do Territorial Conflicts Arise Among Religious Groups"? Jerusalem - Religious Significance for three Abrahamic Religions (Judaism, Islam, and Christianity). It probably comes as no surprise that various conflicts have occurred between religions and governments and between governments or ethnicity using religion as an excuse. So, we'll watch the Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown episode on Jerusalem

Bourdain's words...

“One can be forgiven for thinking, when you see how similar they are, that two peoples, both of whom cook with pride, eat with passion, love their kids, love the land in which they live or the land they dream of returning to, who live so close, who are locked in such an intimate, if deadly, embrace, might somehow, someday, figure out how to live with each other? But that would be very mushy thinking. Those things, in the end, probably don’t count for much at all.”

Understanding The Map Of Jerusalem, Or Trying To

Jerusalem: A Divided and Invented City

What is Jerusalem?

BBC Mapping Jerusalem

Israel-Palestinian violence: why East Jerusalem has become a flashpoint in a decades-old conflict

Monday we'll try to understand religious conflict with three other examples:

1. Hinduism, the Caste System and social equality (tradition vs modernism);
2. The "Troubles" in Northern Ireland (sectarian violence Catholic vs Protestant); and
3. China, Tibet and the Dalai Lama (religion, culture, language, environment, oppression and control)

D Block Physical Geography - Today we'll really make sense of the Coriolis force. Let's get this out of the way right now...no, toilets are not affected by the Coriolis force, but both meso (middle scale) and macro (large scale) scale weather patterns are.

We will look at winds and pressure circulations. We'll understand where the permanent areas of high and low pressure are on the planet and figure out what that means for a macro-scale pressure gradient wind pattern. We'll try to understand what the Coriolis force is and see how it affects wind. We'll also talk about the Horse Latitudes, the Bermuda Triangle, and the Doldrums. 

You will need to complete some questions from the Geosystems Core text. Don't forget that every day we are going to start by looking at the synoptic forecast along with weather maps.

Envrionment Canada: Weather Office Comox

 

Thursday, May 25. 2023

Today's schedule is DCBA

D Block Physical Geography - We will finish our Seasons activity from yesterday 

Don't forget that every day we are going to start by looking at the synoptic forecast along with weather maps.
Envrionment Canada: Weather Office Comox

C Block Human Geography - Today we'll finish looking at yesterday's topic of pilgrimages...from PBS Sacred Journeys Six stages characterize every pilgrimage:

1. The Call: The opening clarion of any spiritual journey. Often in the form of a feeling or some vague yearning, that summons expresses a fundamental human desire: finding meaning in an overscheduled world somehow requires leaving behind our daily obligations. Sameness is the enemy of spirituality.
2. The Separation: Pilgrimage, by its very nature, undoes certainty. It rejects the safe and familiar. It asserts that one is freer when one frees oneself from daily obligations of family, work, and community, but also the obligations of science, reason, and technology.
3. The Journey: The backbone of a sacred journey is the pain of the journey itself. In India, pilgrims approach the holy sites barefoot. In Iraq, they flagellate themselves. In Tibet, the more difficult the trip the most merit the pilgrim acquires. In almost every place, the travelers develop blisters, hunger, and diarrhea. This personal sacrifice enhances the experience; it also elevates the sense of community one develops along the way.
4. The Contemplation: Some pilgrimages go the direct route, right to the center of the holy of holies, directly to the heart of the matter. Others take a more indirect route, circling around the outside of the sacred place, transforming the physical journey into a spiritual path of contemplation.
5. The Encounter: After all the toil and trouble, after all the sunburn and swelling, after all the anticipation and expectation comes the approach, the sighting. The encounter is the climax of the journey, the moment when the traveler attempts to slide through a thin membrane in the universe and return to the Garden of Origin, where humans lived in concert with the Creator.
6. The Completion and Return: At the culmination of the journey, the pilgrim returns home only to discover that meaning they sought lies in the familiar of one's own world.

After we'll look at the purpose of religious calendars and the talk about ceremonies connected to death rituals in various religions. 

B Block Criminology - Two Face Part 2 

So, District Attorney Harvey Dent has a dark secret: multiple personality disorder and a violent other self. Crime boss Rupert Thorne attempts to blackmail Dent, leading to an explosion, a scarring, and the creation of the supervillain Two-Face. In this episode, it seems like Two-Face/Harvey is entirely justified in his actions. Two-Face isn’t Harvey Dent, and he isn’t Big Bad Harv. What he is is a twisted combination of the two. Big Bad Harv’s rage and disregard for human life is kept in check by a new form of justice: the flipping coin. A two-headed coin, one end scratched, the other pristine: This is the ultimate decider in Two-Face’s mind, having lost faith in a legal system that can’t keep criminals behind bars. Thorne is a criminal who blackmailed him, scarred him, and threatens the life and security of everyone else in Gotham. And if we accept the premise that Batman’s extra-legal crime fighting (vigilantism) is okay, then nothing Harvey does in this episode is that bad. He robs an illegal casino, he cripples Thorne’s finances, raids Thorne’s lawyer’s office, and in the end he was planning on doing the right thing and turning over evidence to the police to put Thorne in jail for good. Do the ends truly justify the means here? It appears so. 

Part One was gothic...part two equally so. Merriam-Webster's encyclopedia of literature indicates that Gothic Literature was expected to be dark and tempestuous and full of ghosts, madness, outrage, superstition, and revenge...hmmm fits the bill here. There are less than subtle Phantom of the Opera allusions with Harvey and the veil that covers half of his face in the conclusion. Both tragic, deformed figures, pining for love....much like Frankenstein's monster, Dr. Jekyll, Dorian Gray, and Count Dracula

From TV Tropes Batman: The Animated Series E11 "Two-Face: Part 2"

There is actually a third episode in this story arc...

So, when it comes to crime, is Vigilantism good or bad? Do we trust the police or do we cave to the moral panic that crime is out of control and take extreme measures ourselves? 

 

A Block Legal Studies - We are back in the Learning Commons / Library to work on our criminal law memo activity. It is due next week, right? You should be on your second case now. Some questions to ask of your work...

• Are all the legally relevant facts included, no matter how inconvenient?
• Have you raised all the legal issues, even if they complicate your analysis?
• Does your analysis and prediction discuss all sides?
• Have you covered all the counterarguments?
• Are you straightforward in describing the risks?
• Have you explained what is debatable given the particular facts?
• Have you considered all reasonable interpretations of the cases, statutes, and client facts, and explained arguments and counterarguments?

Please look at the blog posts for weblinks and assistance on the memo format along with resources for your discussion section. Although you are not at Law School in University, I do expect that you'll demonstrate some high level legal thinking with this activity, right?

Wednesday, May 24. 2023

Today's schedule is BADC

B Block Criminology - We got lost in traditional versus new media yesterday in class. Today we'll get to Batman: The Animated Series. From Comic Book Resources 10 Ways Batman: The Animated Series Changed DC

Batman: The Animated Series was a notable departure from DC's previous animated shows, and kid's animation in general. Previous cartoons had largely been bright, heroic, and light-hearted, but not Batman: The Animated Series. Many of the stories are tragic and focus heavily on the mental or physical illness of the villains. Even the episodes that aren't violent or tragic take themselves very seriously. Many of them spend time exploring the morality of what Batman does or take the time to highlight the collateral damage of crime in Gotham City. While cartoons exploring nuanced, mature topics has become more common nowadays, in the early 90s, it was almost unheard of for a Saturday morning kid's show to make such a bold move.

Why Batman: The Animated Series is the Most Influential Cartoon Ever

30 years ago, ‘Batman: The Animated Series’ offered a hugely influential take on iconic superhero

Why Batman: The Animated Series Remains One of the Best Dark Knight Tales

Legacy of the Batman—How The Animated Series Influenced Comic Books, Films, and TV

Can Batman: The Animated Series Ever Be Topped?

So why Batman, you ask?

Batman as a Reflection of American Culture

The polarisation of Batman and its significance in contemporary culture

The Evolution Of Batman In Popular Culture

‘The Batman’ and vigilantism in pop culture

And Why Batman in the 1990's specifically, you ask?

Media Coverage of Crimes

The Relationship Between Television and Culture

Popular culture as an ideological mask: Mass-produced popular culture and the remaking of criminal justice-related imagery

The 1990s: When Technology Upended Our World

A Block Legal Studies - We are back in the Learning Commons / Library to work on our criminal law memo activity.  Don't forget for your discussion section consider the principles of sentencing (deterrence, retribution, rehabilitation, resocialization, and segregation); the options for sentencing; along with considerations in sentencing; and finally sentencing, healing, and releasing circles. The Criminal Code has purposes and principles that provide judges with guidance in sentencing. However, it does not provide absolutes. The Criminal Code recognizes that each offence has its own specific circumstances and each trial and accused has its own specific considerations. From Criminal Sentencing Considerations at William Jaska Law (link above):

Judges must consider several principles:

1. Proportionality: The sentence must proportional to the crime, and the offenders’ degree of responsibility – s. 718.1
2. Totality: A component of proportionality, it ensures the sentence is proportional to the gravity of the offence – s. 718.2(c)
3. Parity: The sentence should be similar to other sentences that involve similar offences and circumstances – s. 718.2(b)
4. Restraint: The Judge must exercise restraint to ensure sentences are just and fair, carried out in a manner that is both appropriate and humane – s. 718(d), (e)

So, try to identify the best choices for your sentencing recommendations from among: absolute discharge, conditional discharge, probation, suspended sentence, concurrent sentence, consecutive sentence, intermittent sentence, indeterminate sentence.

Also don't forget Mitigating circumstances are a set of factors that can lessen the severity of a sentence. They do not justify or excuse criminal action, but they can result in lesser sentences or reduced charges (young offender/first-time offender/not a principal actor but a party to the offense/Significant Personal or Financial Stress/Non-Violent Crime). Aggravating circumstances are the reverse of mitigating circumstances. They are a set of factors that increase the severity of a sentence (Previous Criminal Record/Violence or Disregard for the Safety of Others/Planned or Pre-Meditated/Use of a Weapon/Cruelty or Malice).

 

D Block Physical Geography - Today we'll continue our look at weather; working on an activity called “Sunlight and the Seasons” ("Solar energy and the reason for seasons"). After you have finished this activity you need to complete questions from your Geosystems Core textbook. If there's time we'll see what Bill Nye has to say about seasons. Below you'll find what the rotation of the Earth on its axis -giving us seasons-look like and mean for us?

Don't forget that every day we are going to start by looking at the synoptic forecast along with weather maps.

Envrionment Canada: Weather Office Courtenay

C Block Human Geography - Today we'll look at the Key Question: Why Do Religions Organize Space in Distinctive Patterns? We'll look at places of worship, organizational structure, holy places, calendars, and cosmogony. Generally speaking universalizing religions are more likely to consider places holy that are associated with key events in the founder’s life, whereas ethnic religions’ holy places are tied to physical features present in their hearths, such as mountains, rivers, or rock formations. So here are a few things to consider:

The Ganges: India's Most Polluted Holy River | Rivers And Life | TRACKS

From the BBC 10 Sites of Religious Pilgrimage

Tuesday, May 23. 2023

Thanks to all of you who came on the Mount Rainier/Mount Saint Helens trip this year

Today's schedule is CDAB 

C Block Human Geography - Time to work on your questions from last week:

1. How was Hinduism's origin different than universalizing religions? When did it originate?  Where did it originate?  What two ancient peoples’ beliefs blended to form Hinduism? 
2. Complete the chart describing the origins and branches of the major universalizing religions (Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism)
3. Give three explanations for the diffusion of Christianity.  Identify the type of diffusion of each explanation. 
4. Give three ways in which Islam spread. 
5. What does the term diaspora mean in the context of the migration patterns of Jews? 

D Block Physical Geography - Time to work on your questions from last week:

1. Why are anthropogenic gases more significant to human health than are those produced from natural sources? (page 24 Geosystems Core text)
2. How are sulphur impurities in fossil fuels related to the formation of acid in the atmosphere and acid deposition on the land? (pages 24-25 Geosystems Core text)
3. Summarize the commitments Canada has made to improve air quality. (page 25 Geosystems Core text)
4. List several types of surfaces and their albedo values. What determines the reflectivity of a surface? (p. 37 in Geosystems Core)
5. Define the energy concepts of: Absorption; Diffuse Radiation; Conduction; Convection (p.35 in Geosystems Core)
6. What are the similarities and differences between an actual green-house and the gaseous atmospheric greenhouse? Why is Earth's greenhouse changing? (pages 38-39 in Geosystems Core text)
7. Generalize the pattern of global net radiation. How might this pattern drive the atmospheric weather machine? (pages 10-11, 40, 42-43 in Geosystems Core text)
8. Explain the effect of altitude on air temperature. Why is air at higher altitudes lower in temperature? Why does it feel cooler standing in shadows at higher altitudes than at lower altitudes? (page 46 in Geosystems Core text)
9. Explain the difference between marine and continental temperatures. Give geographical examples of each from the text: Canada, United States and Norway, and Russia. (pages 47-49 in Geosystems Core text)
10. Describe and explain the extreme temperature range experienced in north– central Siberia between January and July. (page 53 in the Geosystems Core text)

A Block Legal Studies - In the Learning Commons today, we will look at criminal law defenses focusing on Alibi (disputing the Actus Reus) and automatism (disputing the Mens Rea), Intoxication, Insane Automatism, and Battered Woman Syndrome. After we look at automatism as a defense, we'll also look at the "excusable conduct" defenses of self-defence, necessity, duress, ignorance of the law, entrapment, legal duty and provocation. We'll go over your handout that has some really good notes to help you with defenses. 

Feel free to use:

Canadian Criminal Law/Defences

Introduction to Criminal Law Topic 3: Criminal Offences and Defences

Remember, your discussion section presents the laws (such as legislation, cases, and defences) and how they can be applied to the case to get a solution. There are two ways to write this information:

I.R.A.C. (Issue / Rule / Analysis / Conclusion).

C.I.R.A.C. (Conclusion / Issue / Rule / Analysis / Conclusion).

The most used is the second format, since it’s more comfortable to understand the order of events and is more persuasive since it presents the conclusion twice.

From Law Tutors...I.R.A.C means:

Issue - Begin with a short thesis sentence that briefly identifies the issue and the applicable rule and states a short answer. You should also mention, if applicable, the procedural posture of the case and the burdens and standards of proof.

Rule and Rule Explanation - Next, you should follow with a paragraph that states the rule, citing any cases or statutes upon which the rule is derived, setting out the elements and sub-elements of the rule, and clarifying how they relate to one another. You should also mention any rules of interpretation pertinent to the law you are applying. You should identify any undisputed issues and explain why they are not in dispute, then state the order in which the remaining issues will be discussed.

Application - After explaining the rule, you should compare the facts and the reasoning of the cases to the facts of your case, to the extent that the facts/rules in the cases are relevant.  You will need to analogize and distinguish the cases, showing why they are similar or different from the facts in your fact pattern to explain to the reader why he/she should follow one case precedent more than another. You will also want to address any counter-arguments that could be raised but why you believe they will not prevail.

Conclusion - For each issue or sub-issue, you should conclude as to how you think a court would likely rule on your facts.

Tomorrow we'll look at sentencing principles and options.

B Block Criminology - From Friday...I'd like to watch the Batman: The Animated Series Two Face (part 1) and  Two Face (Part II). These episodes provide an alternate origin story to Harvey Dent / Two Face than the movie The Dark Knight. There are Shakespearean and Gothic Horror overtones in the episodes. “Two-Face” is the first instance in the series where we see the origin of one of Batman’s villains as it is happening, providing a glimpse of the human before he becomes the monster (consider Mary Shelly's Frankenstein). Two-Face is one of Batman’s oldest foes, dating back to 1942. His origin in the comics is basically the same as what’s presented here, handsome district attorney, face scarred for life by a criminal, a mental breakdown and the release of a second violent personality obsessed with duality, justice, and chance. The Animated Series’ major addition to that story is that Harvey suffered from multiple personality disorder before the horrific scarring. When Harvey becomes Two-Face, it’s the climax of one man’s battle against his own self, a struggle which becomes laid bare for the whole world to see in gruesome fashion.

From Talking Comic Books... Perhaps the most standout moment in Two-Face Parts 1 & 2 is the reveal of Two-Face. Having been badly scarred and evoking Jack Nicholson’s Joker from Batman (1989), Dent screams for a mirror, before stumbling out from the Hospital room. As his fiancé walks towards him, lighting flashes behind him, before revealing his newly scarred visage to her. Like the Universal Monster movies of the 1930s, this sequence demonstrates the operatic monstrosity, the unleashed anger and, perhaps most of all, the tragedy that sits at the character’s core...Gothic literature at its core. Part One can be seen here or Here

The animated series was a sort of watershed for crime serial animation in that it was styled after a "film noir" format (a gritty and dark Hollywood genre of crime dramas from the 1940's and 1950's). This episode is almost 30 years old (yep from 1992) and is a brilliant example of a cartoon series taking its audience seriously. It provided gripping, intelligent, and compelling episodes that did not shy away from important issues and was adept at examining crime from a criminology perspective (It even won an Emmy award in 1993 for "Outstanding Animated Program - for the episode "Robin's Reckoning"). It is sophisticated, mature, artistic, and faithful to the Batman cannon. From DC Comics (although they may be biased) it really is important to note just how much of an impact Batman The Animated Series had on the world of animation itself. With shockingly mature and often heartbreaking storytelling that addressed issues such as death, identity, family, and more, the series showed viewers that a cartoon could tell stories just as impactful and poignant as any other medium.

from TV.com...Harvey Dent, campaigning for a re-election, vows to rid Gotham of Rupert Thorne's crime and corruption. The tables turn when Thorne gets a hold of Dent's psychological records and discovers his alternate personality the violent Big Bad Harv. Thorne attempts to blackmail the DA with this, and the following fight in Thorne's chemical plant hideout results in an explosion that scars the left side of Dent's body, despite Batman's attempts to save him.

So when we finish the episodes we'll try to make sense of what messages they try to pass on to its audience (remember it's children), what the episode says of crime and what mass media theory we can use to explain how the creators (Bruce Timm and Eric Radomski) and writers (Alan Burnett and Randy Rogel) presented their ideas.

So, I want you to track your consumption of media for one day. Today we'll estimate how much time of the day you think you consume and interact with media. We'll look at this Kaiser Family Foundation study from 2010 and the Common Sense Media The Common Sense Census: Media Use by Tweens and Teens, 2019  it will give us a good idea about amounts. So for you...at the end of each four hour period that you are awake for one day I'd like you to write down what media format you interacted with for that previous time period and guesstimate how much time you interacted with it. I know that you are a generation of multi-taskers (and that you are interacting with this blog right now) so try to be as honest as you can about what you consume/interact with. Check out the infographics below as well...