Wednesday, March 21, 2018

Thursday, March 22. 2018

Today's schedule is D-C-Assembly-B-A

D Block 9:00 am – 10:00 am
AG 10:05 am – 10:15 am
C Block 10:20 am – 11:20 am
Assembly 11:25 am – 12:25 pm
Lunch 12:25 pm – 1:05 pm
B Block 1:10 pm – 2:10 pm
A Block 2:15 pm – 3:15 pm

D Block Human Geography 11 -Today we'll look at the key question, "Why Is Access to Folk and Popular Culture Unequal?" We will really focus on the diffusion of popular culture and look at the mass media of television. The world’s most popular and important electronic media format is television (TV). While the Internet has grown in popularity and importance in recent years, TV remains the foremost electronic media format. Television is a mirror of our world, offering an often-distorted vision of national identity, as well as shaping our perceptions of various groups of people.

In March 2011, then U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made the argument that U.S. television was giving people around the world a distorted view of Americans. "I remember having an Afghan general tell me that the only thing he thought about Americans is that all the men wrestled and the women walked around in bikinis because the only TV he ever saw was Baywatch and World Wide Wrestling," (a side note, at its peak, Baywatch was broadcast in 142 countries and around the world more than 1 billion people have watched the show).

So you'll have some questions about television to work on today (tomorrow it's the Internet and Social Media) including "Why do developing nations view television as a new source of cultural imperialism?"

How to stop foreign TV eroding local culture
What is reality TV's influence on culture? 
How have 24-hour sports stations changed society?

We'll also examine the Internet and Social Media's influence on popular culture.


The Internet has made pop culture transmission a two-way street. The power to influence popular culture no longer lies with the relative few with control over traditional forms of mass media; it is now available to the great mass of people with access to the Internet. As a result, the cross-fertilization of pop culture from around the world has become a commonplace occurrence.

Valerie Berset-Price wrote a lovely piece called From Pop Culture to Global Culture: How Millennials and Technology Are Influencing Our World. In it she states

For Millennials (that would be you - my inset), two things are happening simultaneously: culture is impacting technology, and technology is impacting culture. On one hand, culture serves as a standard of judgment. It places an importance on what is acceptably good, valuable, and ethical. It conditions how and what we communicate, and it is the lens by which we perceive the world and, in some ways, the way the world perceives us. On the other hand, technology has served as a force for sweeping cultural change, joining the ranks of war, colonization, religious influence and military expansion as cultural modifiers. The expansion of the internet has allowed global communication and information to permeate everything from apartment walls to international borders...Such global exposure has provided the basis for peaceful international homogenization as well as deep conflicts of perspective, and technological advances have increased the speed and frequency of both.
In addition to individuals contributing to culture, Multinational, nongovernmental corporations can now drive global culture. This is neither entirely good nor entirely bad. On one hand, foreign cultural institutions can adopt successful American business models, and corporations are largely willing to do whatever makes them the most money in a particular market. However, cultural imperialism has potential negative effects as well. From a spread of Western ideals of beauty to the possible decline of local cultures around the world, cultural imperialism can have a quick and devastating effect. (from Understanding Media and Culture: An Introduction to Mass Communication).

Today you'll need to answer:
  1. Why do developing nations view television as a new source of cultural imperialism?
  2. Social media (Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube) is changing the way that popular and folk cultures are diffused. Give and support an argument for how the Internet might aid the preservation, or even expansion, of some folk cultural elements.
  3. Why do many governments consider it important to limit the freedom to use social media?
  4. A recent study of University of Maryland students found that not using any electronics for 24 hours produced anxiety, craving, and other symptoms akin to withdrawal from alcohol or drugs (FOMO). How do you think you would react to a 24-hour ban on all electronics?
C Block Criminology 12 - Today you need to work on your shoplifting poster. Remember:
You work for the Retail Council of Canada and have been hired to create a poster campaign about shoplifting. The poster campaign has two purposes:
  1. To help employees identify people who are shoplifting and
  2. To explain how to reduce shoplifting in stores (target hardening and target removal strategies)
Look at yesterday's blog entry for tips on how to spot shoplifters and for more check out:
Preventing Retail Theft (you can't make a profit it your merchandise is free)
Using Customer Service to deter theft
Simple steps to deter retail theft
Loss Prevention & Security
Shopliftingprevention.org

B Block Introduction to Law 10 - Today I have the library booked so that you may work on the Clue Us In crime scene investigation project. Remember you need to create a crime...replicate the crime scene...investigate the crime as if you were an R.C.M.P. officer...and prepare a dossier file to hand over to Crown Counsel so that they may prosecute the case. It's due Friday...Good Luck.
Check out the Crime Museum (Crime Library Forensic Science) website for sweet info. If you are finished then you may work through the Rookie Training simulation on the Rice University's CSI: The Experience Web Adventure . Please do the training for Forensic Biology (DNA), Toxicology, Firearms and Toolmarks (Ballistics), Medical Examiner (Pathologist) and CSI Ethics. When you are done you may work through Case Two (Canine Caper) - I'll have a lab/work sheet for you to complete as you progress through the case.

A Block Law 12 - I'll have you work the "Key Components of Criminal Code Offenses" worksheet that I'll hand out today (the worksheet is a partnered activity). You should also check MyEDBC to see what you need to hand in to me hey?

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