The Media Fair was held on June 8th, 2016 as part of our final unit “Media”. Each student was asked to choose a topic of their choice and research how different sources of media can portray a certain topic in many different ways. The information collected by the student was organized into a poster, where they showed the attitude towards the topic and key features of the certain type of media.  The purpose of this fair was for the students to share our work with our peers.

The first poster I found interesting was Julia’s poster. Her topic was about the Kylie Jenner Lip challenge which was a trend that went viral on the internet in 2015 and the controversy it caused . Her poster was mainly focused on the negative opinion of this issue from news reports and articles. Although the majority of her sources are against the Kylie Jenner Lip Challenge and that it only has a negative influence towards society. However, there were a few positive opinions towards this challenge which were from successful youtube tutorials and an article which . One interesting point she brought up was how all of her sources were aimed towards teenagers and our age group.

Zerric’s poster was about the controversy of teacup dogs and how it is portrayed in the media. He explored different types if media, ranging from photographs to reports, which brought up some interesting (and completely opposite) points. While some sources state that teacup dogs are completely healthy, others state that there are only negative aspects and how unhealthy they are. I found this topic interesting because his poster emphasized how advertising medias only state the positive aspects of a controversial topic while there is a clear negative side.

Sam’s poster was about Man buns are portrayed in social Media and the opposing opinions towards it. Her poster, included various sources which showed both the positive and negative attitude towards this topic. An interesting point in her poster was how she analyzed an advertisement for a Vogue magazine which featured a man with a man bun, she stated that is was a positive interpretation towards this topic as Vogue is a high fashion magazine meaning it mus be considered fashionable or accepted if it were used in this ad.

The story  

Unit 731 was a undercovered biological and chemical warfare research experiment developed by the Japanese army during the Second-Sino- Japanese- War (World War 2). In which they undertook numerous lethal human experiments, it was responsible for some of the most notorious war crimes carried out by Japan. It is said that between 3000 to 250,000 men, women, and children prisoners died during the human experimentation conducted by Unit 731. These human experiments were conducted in their camp based in Pingfang, China. It is said that the victims they experimented on were mainly Chinese, Koreans and Mongolians. Approximately 7% of the victims who died in the camp were Chinese. This unit received generous support from the Japanese government up to the end of the war in 1945, instead of being charged for war crimes, the researcher involved in Unit 731 were given immunity by the United States in exchange for their data gained from the human experiments. One of the many experiments tested on  included Vivisection, some victims had their stomachs surgically removed and their esophagus reattached to the intestines. These experiments were conducted to further the understanding of the effects certain diseases can have on the human body.

What were they trying to find out?

Vivisections were conducted on prisoners after being infected with various diseases, researchers performed invasive surgery on these prisoners to remove their organs to study the effects of the certain disease on the human body. Some prisoners also had their limbs amputated in order to study blood loss. The limbs that were removed were sometimes re-attached to the opposite side of the body while others had limbs frozen then thawed to study the effects of Gangrene and rotting of the human body.

Was this ethical?

Here there are a few points we need to determine. Whether the Japanese government asked for permission to the prisoners if they were fine with having vivisections being conducted on their bodies, and whether they were aware of the consequences. Although it is an assumption, most likely the answer is no, as the humans used in the experiments were prisoners. It is said that most of these experiments were conducted while the patients were still alive since it was feared that the decomposition process would affect the results. Adding on, newborn infants were also included as test subjects. As Japanese surgeons impregnated pregnant women.

How else could the information have been gathered? 

The main problem with the “Unit 731” is that it was conducted without the subject’s consent. Although it is hard to believe that anyone would give consent to such harsh experiment So the information could have been collected differently if the prisoners were aware of the consequences and what the Japanese Army were planning to do to their body. Another option would be to test these diseases on animals beforehand. Although this does sound very harsh, it is evident that many science experiments are tested on animals. By doing this it might have prevented many prisoners to die during this experiment as the Japanese army would have known the consequences of the disease and the after effects. Also by having a blood donation the army could have found the effects of a certain disease quicker and easier.

Work Cited

November 21, Wednesday.5:00am. I was woken up by the chattering of my roommates. Time to get ready.

As I got out of bed, still shivering I slowly reached for my fuzzy socks, thick ski jacket and my knit beanie. Not Still in myPJ’s I waddled through the hallways, as I met up with my friends from the other rooms. Being 2000m above ground level, atop Tsurugi-san, the second highest mountain in Shikoku, the air should was cold yet refreshing. Hesitatingly, I zipped up my ski jacket to the my chin, and stepped out of the lodge. Instantly, the cold breeze hit my face. I dragged my numb feet up the stairs, waving to my friends who were already awake. The sky was gradually getting brighter, I clinged on to my beanie seeking for warmth.

Watching the sunrise was a truly amazing feel that cannot be described in words. Just being up there, cuddling with my friends for warmth, trying to take a panorama with shivering hands, laughing and complaining about the cold to the teachers. It was not only the utterly beautiful sunrise that made that day so special, it was also the random moments I shared with my friends and teachers. Without realizing it, my sleepiness was gone and I was fully awake. As the sun went up, it made me realize on what we had accomplished the previous day and how amazing and memorable that experience was.

The hike up the mountain was a very stressful. Exercise has never been one of my strong points, so it was major struggle for me to continue walking a never ending steep hill. However, I tried to keep my self moticated by talking to my friends and simply enjoying the nature surrounding us. Although I constantly stayed at the end of the line, surprisingly I was somehow able to enjoy our hike. Once we got to the top, I forgot all the struggles I had. The view from the top was truly amazing, I was very proud on what my peers and I had accomplished as a group.

In conclusion, I can say that this field studies was one of , if not the best field studies trip I’ve ever been to.

For the past few weeks in design class, we have been working on creating a PSA. For my PSA, I have decided that my issue will be about the pressure from Body images because this is something I feel against very strongly about.

Here is the design brief for my PSA:
The problem I’m focusing on is the pressure from body images and body insecurity. This problem is very important because it is a problem which is affecting many teenagers all around the world. It is causing bullying, hard deathly diets and worst suicide. I strongly believe that all teengers should feel safe and confident in their bodies, and the fact that no one should feel excluded because of their appearance. So my message is about “Being confident in yourself, and accepting your appearance and increasing your self esteem”. I’m going to create a short but very effective video, which will allow the audience to stop and think about whether social media should continue putting out photos of skinny women which will make many other girls feel self conscious about their appearance. Also whether it is better to spend their time on deathly diets or spending their time increasing their self esteem and working on being confident and accepting your body and who you are. I’m planning my video to be around 50 seconds, and I’m also planning to add shocking facts that many people do not know about the negative affects body images make. I know I can find good information because I was able find very trustworthy secondary sources, which include many interesting facts about body images. From my research of existing PSA’s I found out that short videos, which include voice over and eye catching visuals are most effective. So through out this video, I’m going to make it dramatic but serious at the same time because from my research I found out that those videos.

Here is my PSA, Enjoy 🙂

In english class we have been exploring visual techniques of graphic novels. In this unit, we focused on a graphic novel called “Anya’s ghost” which reflected on many issues that teenagers face. Such as body insecurity, peer pressure, love relationships and many more. In this assessment we had to create a one to two page comic, which explored a theme or issue that is important to us and people are age. For my graphic novel, I focused on how teenagers can be very judgmental and how teens can be pressured to not show their real personality.

I found Keina’s comic very interesting. Her comic was focused on the issue Cyber bullying. I think this issue was a good choice, because many people our age can relate to it, whether it is a more extreme or more casual. Since the internet is becoming a big part of our lives, many teenagers use chats or anonymous sites to write mean comments towards to each other. This is a very important issue, because cyber bullying can cause many problems for a teenager,o a worse case it can also lead to deathly diets and suicides. I think that this is something that people should take more seriously.

There were many good visual techniques Keina used that helped me understand the meaning of the story. One of them, was her idea of having a close up of the mean comments which the protagonist received. The close up panel stood out out of all panels, which helped me understand how big of a affect this comment this had on the protagonist. The close up helped me that the comment was the problem Keina was trying to show through out the comic. Also by having the comment in bold letters it emphasized the fact that the comment was a very important part of the story. Another technique was the fact that she added many bird eyes views of the room, where she was alone facing the computer. This emphasized how the protagonist was lonely and how she did have anyone to ask for help to.Which is also a big reason why Cyber bullying causes many serious problems. By only having the computer and the protagonist in these panels it also reflected on the problem about how teenagers spend too much time on the computer.

The main difference between reading a graphic novel and reading an article is the fact that you either understand the story through pictures or words. Also reading an article gives you more freedom when visualizing the story, because there are no pictures which expresses the characters, setting etc and you can visualize in your head reading the words. Whereas reading a graphic novel, your visualizing is limited because there are already characters and setting that the author set. In my opinion, I think graphic novels are more effective because I find it more fun to read and I can really focus on their facial expressions and how they are feeling.

For the first semester, in design we have been working on creating a educational game on scratch. The purpose of this game was to help the lower es students to learn a topic we chose. For my case, my topic was Spelling so I had to create a game which will help the students to improve their spelling skills.

We had 4 criteria in this unit. In Criteria A we looked at games the upper grades created, and we analyzed the games we chose. In Criteria B we started brain storm our game and created 3 game designs. At the end we chose our final game design. In this process we also made a design specifications and story boards. In criteria C we create our actual game and we talked about the differences of our story board and our plan. Lastly in criteria D we evaluated our game and the success of our game.

Heres my game!! Enjoy:)

I’m fairly proud of the game I created but I think there are a lot of things I can improve on. For next time I would like to extend my technical abilities and create a game which includes more complex options.