Individual Blog Post 3

The economic downturn is on everyone’s minds and everyday more and more people are out of jobs. I notice in the media that they’re relating almost everything going on in America to the economic downturn. On almost every news channel there is a story on how to save money or on what people are doing now in this economic crisis.

Something I found interesting in the media is that a lot of women that are out of jobs are starting to look to brothel houses in Nevada, where prostitution is legal, to go and work. The Madame at the brothel house says they have never had so many people apply to work there. They even had to let go 30 percent of their workers and even had a 72-year-old woman apply. Since times are hard women are looking to other ways to get enough money to support their families.

The brothel houses are brining in more men but they have less money to spend. The women are independent contractors so they decide what they want to charge. Since times are hard they are taking whatever they can get.

It’s crazy to me how so many stories that are circulating through the media are just like the on the brothel house. They’re stories reminding us of how hard this economic crisis is affecting Americans.

Fish Out of Water

Fish Out of Water

Oktoberfest is a festival that lasts 16 days and originated in Germany. Oktoberfest is one of Germany’s main holidays and biggest events. Germans are known for Oktoberfest. During Oktoberfest the main thing to do is to drink beer, especially Marzen. Oktoberfest is a huge party for people to celebrate, drink beer, and eat. It’s actually known as the biggest fair bringing millions of visitors to Germany every year. Oktoberfest is also held in many cities such as San Francisco and Campbell.

I decided to go to Oktoberfest in Campbell because I have heard so much about it and because I wanted to know what Germans did as a holiday. Right when I got there all I could smell was delicious food. Above every tent I could see smoke rising from the air. By this I knew there must be lots of cooking going on.

As I walked into the area, there were just tons of people everywhere. The
place was jammed packed. I figured out that all the tents had hot dogs, polish sausages, and sour kraut. Their polish sausages were about nine inches long. There were also tents of beer everywhere. People were lining up for hours just to get beer and they even had souvenir mugs that you could purchase with the beer.

I was expecting to see a lot of German people there but since Campbell is such a diverse place, all types of people were there. There was a little bit of every culture and background here, which is very different from the Oktoberfest in Germany which mainly consists of mostly German people.

As an observer from a Vietnamese background I didn’t feel out of place at all. I went to Oktoberfest because I wanted to celebrate how the Germans do and I wanted to see what their holiday is all about. I know what Vietnamese New Year is about so I wanted to see what another culture’s holiday could be like. So I drank beer and had a polish dog, which by the way was absolutely amazing, and I partied with all the people around me.

Individual Blog Post #2

Something I find in the media that is very interesting to me is all the promotion that they did on proposition 8 and what they're still doing on proposition 8. Proposition 8 passed and even though it passed there is still controversy everywhere in the media. There is even more controversy on propositon 8 than on our new president. I still go to places and see "no on prop 8" even though we already voted. I notice in the media they are still showing people that are protesting against proposition 8 like we are about to vote for it again.
Something I have also noticed is that now that we have Obama as our president I notice that when I look at magazines it's not just pictures of him on the cover, but instad every picture is a picture of his whole family.The media is trying to portray the "first family" and to get everyone adjusted to our new president. Everything in the news, magazines, and television is about Obama and what he did to get to his presidency.
Another thing in the media is how bad our economy is still doing, and when is this bailout going to start working. Now we not only have many well-known banks going bankrupt, but we also have a bunch of automotive companies that are about to go bankrupt.

Individual Blog Post #1

The most interesting thing and important thing going on in the media to me would have to be the presidential elect of Barack Obama. I thought it was so great how the media covered the whole election including the debates and the countdown of all the electoral votes. The media portrayed both the candidates very well and put a lot of emphasis on getting all people to vote including young people. This year we had this biggest voter turnout and it makes me really proud to be an American when so many people want to get involved and make a change in our society. I felt so proud to make history this year by voting for the first African American president. I also liked how the media portrayed the excitement of other people around the world such as in Kenya. The media showed people of Kenya celebrating for Obama. They also showed people in Europe and Asia celebrating which makes me feel like the world is becoming more united and accepting.