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__Navigation Bar__ 1Maddie G.'s Homepage 1Maddie G.'s Blog 1Maddie G.'s Animal Farm Page 1Maddie G.'s Tale of Utopia 1Maddie G.'s Webquest Page The media influences history every day. It twists events and information to benifit themselves. The media can change the way we see things and the way we feel about things. It uses propaganda to make us believe certain things and it stages events. You may think you know what happened in Iraq, but most of the information that you have gotten is skewed because the media has changed it and doesn't tell it for what it is. The only way you could know what happened is if you were there.

The Media can change the way an actual event in history happened so easily. The media assists in the way events are depicted and recorded. It does this by only showing part of the story, it's like when people tell the truth, but not the whole truth. The media also portrays events differently because they show the people what the people want to hear or what they want the people to hear. The governments actions are a lot of times legitimized through the media. They do this by making the governments actions look like they are all good decisions. The media also does this by using propaganda and staging many events. These perspectives can make huge impacts on historical accounts for a certain events. Peoples opinions would have changed if they would have known the whole story about the war in Iraq. The people in America didn't know how bad the US army was hurting the Iraqi civilians. I was looking at a newspaper article from Spain and it showed a little girl who had her foot and part of her leg blown off, and I don't think most Americans knew that we were hurting the Iraqi people as badly as we were. This how the media can change peoples opinions about something and how it can change events in history.

This is how the media changes information and makes events appear differently. The newspapers and television shows never showed how bad the Iraqi civilians actually had it. The media relates to animal farm because whenever Napoleon did something the animals didn't like squealer made them think differently. Napoleon is like the USA government and the media is like Squealer becasue Squealer always backs up Napolean. This is how the media influences history and events.

First Part
1. Create a list of all the types of media you or your group can think of. If you are on your own, you may need to check out other 8th graders work as the week progresses.
 * Newspaper
 * Magazine
 * TV Commercials
 * The News
 * Billboards
 * Facebook
 * Twitter
 * YouTube
 * News Website

2. Identify the purposes of all media messages – for example to entertain, to inform etc.
 * To persuade people to buy or use some product.
 * To give out information.
 * To entertain.

3. How is the media influenced by social, political and economic factors? What other influences do you think media is affected or influenced by?
 * Social, political, and economic factors influence the media because most of the time they are the ones owning the media. They have a lot of money so they can afford to make the media good for them.
 * It's influenced by big corporations.
 * Famous people influence it.
 * Politicians are always in the media.

4. What do you think are the effects on those groups of people who are not represented by these media stories and those who portray them?
 * The people that aren't represented by the media are made to look like the bad people. If the media doesn't get both sides of the story and if they use propaganda they can make people think whatever they want them to think. So those people can get a bad reputation.

Second Part
1. How are both sides of the war (i.e. Iraqis and the Americans) portrayed in these images and video?
 * The video makes it look like both of the sides are happy. It looks like the troops are coming in to save the day and lead the happy Iraqis people to take a stand against their dictator. When they show how fake the video is, it makes it look like the Iraqis people were just doing what the soldiers were telling them to do. Basically, it wasn't the Iraqis weren't tearing down the statue, it was really the American troops.

2. Your group will now undertake research on the Internet to gain a brief overview of the Iraqi culture. Consider information such as major cities, religion, government, social structures.
 * Muslims
 * Al Qaeda
 * Baghdad
 * Masul
 * Basarah
 * Irbil

3. Using the **Presentation (Resource 1),** compare the images portraying the same event. Point out the similarities and differences between them. The Areb people thought that Iraq was winning the war but when they saw the images of Saddam Hussein's statue getting taken down they were supprised The US newpapers show that the Iraqi people were helping take down the statue and that there was a bunch of Iraqi people around the statue but really it was only news reporters. They put the US flag over the statues face but later they took it down and put Iraq's flag around his neck

4. What choices were made in depicting this event in a certain way (i.e. through photographs, video, or written articles)? Instead of zooming out and showing the whole area they zoomed in to make it look like there were hundreds of Iraqi people gathered around the statue to help take it down A lot of soldiers and reports were mixed in the crowd to make it look like there were even more people

5. How did this information affect your understanding of the event? It changed our opinions about what happened because we figured out that it was staged and it wasn't spontaneous event

6. What choices were made by the media in how they captured this event? What elements did they choose to omit or select to show? What do you think the intentions were by portraying the event this way? They didn't show all the tanks around the area and they didn't show the soldiers gathering people around the statue. They did this because they wanted people in the US to think that the crowd was a bunch of people who didn't like Saddam Hussein

7. Why do you think the newspaper images were doctored? The images were changed because the media and government wanted people to think that the Iraqi people were on their side

8. What purpose did it serve? They wanted to show that the US was winning

9. Who gains from altering these images? The government and media, the people who wanted the US to win the war

10. Do you think an altered image can change history, and if so, how? Yes, because it will change peoples opinions and people believe different stories than what actually happened.

Third Part
1. Consider how the Newspaper Editors have chosen to portray the war in Iraq. Consider elements such as

a) Image size Spain has a bigger picture because they wanted to make an impact of how terrible the people in Iraq were getting hit by the war.

b) Use of colour and font size The US papers have a bigger font size so they don't have to have as much information. Also, they choose titles that make people believe that they are extremley powerful and are ultimately winning the war.

c) Dedication of space to a particular article – consider the size of the article. Does this give it more prominence?

The US paper shows all the troops that are being killed and wounded, while Spain focuses on the innocent Iraqi people that never hurt anyone yet they are being killed because they are living in a war zone.

2. Who is the audience of the newspaper? The US paper was trying to show the people in America how tough the war was and that the soldiers were risking their life for their country. Spain was trying to reach out to the people in Iraq by showing that they cared about their people.

3. Consider the ‘other’ side of the story. Who is not being represented in these newspapers? What ramifications does this have for ‘their’ side of the story? The Iraqi people were not represented at all. In most of the newspapers, there weren't many images of the people in Iraq suffering. If they would of had more pictures of what was happening people would actually know how terrible things were in the daily lives.