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Immigration

For this post, I chose Trump and his Immigration Plan. President Trump recently won his Presidency for 2016 and is now currently working on the proposals he said he was going to change and implement and one of them is this Immigration Plan.

Trump grew up as a Christian, or claims he’s a Christian. Going to church every Sunday, reads the Bible and basically anything that was on the Bible is what he abides by. But, how could he say that but then talk about this Immigration Plan and plan on deporting 11 million immigrants? From all the Christian/Republican Presidents before Trump, this was never one of their proposals. Indeed, they tied God with most of every speech they had, but Trump’s immigration plan sounds more like a “Hitler” type of move where he specifically targets “illegal immigrants” those whom do not have citizenship here in the U.S.

This impacts me because I feel like there are a lot of hard working people in society and without “illegal immigrants” work load would be added onto us. I think that Trump’s decision of building a wall and deporting illegal immigrants is a bad decision and it already is cause a lot of fuss. I feel that a President should be loved by society, but in Trump’s case most people hate his guts because of his actions.

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Sworn Oath

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/inauguration/obama-to-take-oath-on-bibles-used-by-martin-luther-king-jr-lincoln/2013/01/09/b9e7d3be-5aa1-11e2-88d0-c4cf65c3ad15_story.html?utm_term=.bb3ef0ade909

When Barack Obama was chosen for Presidency; he was shown being sworn in by Martin Luther King Jr.’s bible-- one in which was also used by late President Abraham Lincoln as well. I thought this was pretty interesting because Martin Luther King was a topic we mentioned in class and how he fought for the freedom of not only African Americans, but overall the equality of everyone in general. 

I found it interesting to learn that Martin Luther King Jr. also predicted that there would be an African American who will take on the Presidency within 30-40 years because it really did happen with the Presidency of Barack Obama. This is a strong message in my opinion about race and presidency (or politics). A lot of misconceptions were placed among those of different color. Though, not sure if Obama was aware what message he was sending out when he swore in with his Bible--to those of African American descent, it might be a powerful message as well as a reminder to them about equality. To think that Obama decided to be sworn in on the day that Martin Luther King Jr. was born, it serves as a remembrance of this civil rights leader whom impacted and changed the way the world views African Americans.

This Bible that Martin Luther King Jr. was carrying around during his travels was according to Washington Post, a book he had turned to for inspiration to keep fighting for their freedom and equality; and having Obama be sworn is kind of like saying he too will be fighting for freedom and equality here in the U.S.

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Madalyn Murray O’Hair as learned in class was what you can say the image of an Atheist--positive atheist to be exact. She is clear and certain about what she believed. She was the person responsible for preventing children to learn about the Bible in public schools when she had found out that her first son--Bill, was being forced to practice prayer in the school.

Recently on March 24, Netflix launched a movie / “documentary” about O’Hair. I chose to talk about this because I had recently just watched this documentary that was aired on Netflix. I would never have watched this if it weren’t from this Religions and Politics class. I wouldn’t have bothered seeing what this was about, but since this was aired, I was interested in hearing more about what happened and as to why she was hated by so many people.

I found it very interesting because in the beginning she didn’t annoy me the way other reviewers were annoyed by her. It seems like she was just a person with her own view points. But, after realizing it in the film she was actually using her “fame” to make money. She liked the fact that she was the most hated woman in America, and she even partnered up with some guy who was on a show with her to make more money. I feel like Madalyn Murray O’Hair was greedy from the very beginning but my thoughts of her prior to this movie was that she was a very bad person, but honestly, she wasn’t so bad. She cared about her grand daughter like any grandparent would and she loved her son like a regular mom would; she was merely just expressing her own opinion openly.

Watching this movie opened my eye to how she is. She wasn’t as crazy as I thought she was. Towards the end of the movie, I felt sad, she watched as her son was suffocated to death and her grand daughter (who was killed first) was raped or atleast was getting sexually abused and I’m assuming the grand daughter fought it and ended up getting killed. But you can see while watching the ending that she did care about them. She cried and was telling them to take her life since her two important people died.

Madalyn Murray O’Hair should not be remembered as someone who was crazy and hated. Yes, I am sure most people hated her because of what she fought for-- but people are allowed to speak their own opinions.

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Religion vs. Religion

This is a perfect example of religion versus religion. Though this may not concern politics this topic is discusses the issues between beliefs of a Mormon and an Evangelical Protestant. It is clear that the Evangelical part is obviously attacking the Mormon not just because of it’s title “The Lord Jesus vs. Mormonism” but because when you look at the very bottom they stated and quoted a verse from the Bible about how God says that no person will be given in marraige--and that is exactly what some Mormons believe in.

These differences in beliefs is partly the reasons why religion started splitting (specifically speaking about Roman Catholics, Christians, Mormons). As discussed in class there was a difference in beliefs which is why there was a Catholic-Protestant split. The Mormons whom are Christians, also separated themselves from Christianity and became a separate religion because of their additional belief in The Book of Mormon.

In my opinion, I feel as if religion is now a battlefield of which religion is supreme. Different religions are calling each other out just like this image and I think that religion should be respected no matter what you believe in. This just causes more separation and a superiority of one religion over another.

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Salvation

I looked for another example of the three kingdoms and I know that this has already been shown as an example in class, but I just wanted to emphasize the differences between Mormons and Christians. As a Christian, I believe that life was created by God and that there is a Hell and a Heaven. Heaven is where we all can live together with God. However, Mormons have a different belief from the time of birth to their death. As mentioned in class, Mormons believe that there is this “world” before we are born to our parents that’s called the “Pre-Earth Life” as is says in the image. In this image, we do not belong to anyone and that once it was time for us to be “born” or created and enter into “Earth Life” our memories get erased from the “Pre-Earth”.

They also believe that once you die, there are three places you can go to--Telestial, Terrestrial, and Celestial. Celestial is where Mormons believe God is, and that is their ultimate goal--to be with God. Also learned from class is that there are only aa few hundred people who will be allowed in God’s kingdom. I chose this because I thought it was very interesting to know what Mormons believed and how completely different their salvation is compared to Christians and Catholics. 

Telestial Kingdom is looked at as the lowest of the three kingdoms, this kingdom does not have the Son or the Father, however they are those who are saved from Hell or what they called the Outer Darkness. Terrestrial is the kingdom where people can receive the presence of the Son and the highest of the three is the Celestial Kingdom where they can live with the Father.

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The Holy Trinity

This is for me, a very powerful image. This picture depicts the trinity in which Christians all believe in. As learned in lectures as well, it is learned that there is a Trinity--The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit. All go in correlation with God, but each is not the same as each other. This can be confusing to some who do not understand the trinity but, in the Bible, it was believed that God sent his son, down to Earth to save us all from our sins.

The Father is God, but he is not the son. The Son (or Jesus) is not the same as the Holy Spirit. Each entity are different from one another though they are all together God. There has been confusion that God the Father was Jesus, but from what I believe in, is that God is God, Jesus is the Son whom is a part of God since he made him out of his own flesh. This picture helps people understand the Holy Trinity better because it shows who God is and what each is not.

This was something completely different from the Book of Mormon, because in the book, they have said to believe that God and Jesus showed themselves to Joseph Smith revealing to him the Book of Mormon in which Mormons also read besides reading the Bible. This is controversial because Christians believe that God does not reveal himself because God is the Holy Spirit and He can not be seen unless He wants to reveal himself.

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Too Cool for Church

This picture depicts what I think most Atheist were before taking this course. I believed that most Atheist did not believe in God and that they were “evil”. But taking this course, opened up my eyes about Atheism. Atheism is not just someone who doesn’t believe in God, Atheists are people who are “without God”. It does not necessarily mean they do not believe in one. Based off of the lectures, it seems that Atheists are those who believe in the scientific version of human life. They are the ones who believe that everything happened through evolution and biological ways. 

This is a good example of a positive atheist. A positive atheist is one who denies the existence of God. This picture is a perfect example, because it says “I’m too old for fairy tales”, which is basically saying that God is a made up “fairy tale” that people compiled together. Though I do not believe this because I am a Christian and I believe in God, I do find that taking this course gives me a better understanding of different beliefs especially someone who could be an atheist. Though only a few are seen as atheists, no more than 4% of the population, it still is a lot of people who are atheist looking at it in worldwide population. Even though there are people who are atheist, I learned in class to respect people and what they believe in because everyone else practices different beliefs. I just chose this quote because is gives a good example of what they believe in and what they see God as (a made up “fairy tale”). Whereas negative atheist or an agnostic is someone who lacks the knowledge of the existence of a God so they end up being put in this category.

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This is a small entry/journal a person put together in her journey as a person who grew up in a Polygamist family. In her journey she mentions her life as a child as well as a female in one of the most known Mormon church communities--LDS (Latter Day Saint). She describes her role as being a female in a Mormon community and how she has to wait for a husband to get married off to.

Reading this journal, I learned a lot more than i thought I did while we talked about polygamy in class. In our class session, we watched a clip from a Mormon family who practiced polygamy. In this clip/movie, one of the girls got interviewed and she had mentioned that she was basically waiting for God to show her her husband. It was also absurd when one of the mother’s spoke out and said that she had met the husband at such a young age (sixth grade). As they were filmed and interviewed the women (wives) of the household looked OK--not happy, just OK. You can tell by their expression of their eyes.

After watching this film, I thought to myself, don’t they get jealous of one another? Having to share a man whom you love? Because in the film, all the ladies seemed content. But, after reading this journal, the female mentioned how there was lots of jealousy involved and that they (women) were forced to “look sweet” and obey and keep faith in God. They were not allowed to do much things as if they were restricted.

Also, I learned that God was not the one showing them to the person they were suppose to marry, it was going to be the head of their church (FLDS) or what they called the Prophet. Polygamy is often practiced in fundamentalist latter day saint churches just because in their own version of the Bible it says that a “man can only enter the Celestial Kingdom if they marry 3 or more wives”. 

Polygamy is a huge problem though not a lot of people practice it. Seeing that someone has to be married off to someone especially if its young children being married off to elder men--is so wrong. I think that children are not old enough to know what’s going on and their bodies are still developing. Another issue is that they have to share their man with multiple women, and as human beings we will get jealous. It sucks to know from the journal that women were not entitled to say anything and had to obey the principles that was given.

There were many things about this journal that surprised me and i chose this because this shows the struggles that some people have to face in which they do not choose to want to live in a polygamist family. 

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Snakehandler Controversy

http://www.wkyt.com/home/headlines/Man-dies-in-Bell-County-after-he-was-bitten-by-snake-during-church-service-318868451.html

Snakehandling is part of a religion practiced that poses possible dangerous outcomes. This one is just one example of a snakehandler dying from a snake bite and refused to get treated.

Another example is in one of the short films we saw in class, Snakehandlers, such as Jamie Coots, highly believed that snakes or “serpents” were a way of showing God’s mercy. It was believed in their eyes that serpents’ (snakes) bite will not kill you if you believe in God.

This poses as a problem for society, especially those who are not familiar with this type of practiced religion. However, snakehandlers do not believe so. They believe that a snake’s bite will not kill them because God is on their side. They do not seek any sort of treatment after being bitten as well.

This is where the controversy starts. If a paramedic/doctor’s job is to try to keep a person alive, where do the patient’s own values stand in this? A lot of debate was happening in class about doctor’s and the patients rights to certain types of treatment, and my input would be that doctor’s should be able to respect other people’s values especially if it heavily relies on their religion and their beliefs. I agree that a doctor does have the right to save their patient; but if their patient is not willing and accepted the situation, they should not be able to try to do anything about it. Just like they respect those dying patients in hospitals who wish to not get resuscitated (DNR).

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Keeping Religion out of Politics

This is something that was talked about during class, about how religion influences politics. There are a lot of controversy of whether it is a good idea or not to have religion be a part of politics. As many discussed, most Republicans living in America are mostly all of Christian faith, whereas Democrats consists of Christian-Catholic faith. A lot people mentioned during class that religion does affect politics in a sense when it comes to making decisions.

An example of how it affects politics is the Election of 2016. Most Republicans since they are of Christian faith wanted Trump to win because of his wishes to abolish the rights of women to have an abortion. Whereas Democrats chose Hilary because she was fighting for women’s rights to abort or not. This can be heavily influenced by their beliefs and faiths. Christians do not believe in abortion thus causing them to vote more for abortions.

I chose this because I somewhat agree in a sense that politics and religion should never be mixed. Politics should strictly just be politics and not have any religion mixed in because it then becomes biased based off of people’s beliefs.

[rlvregal-blog]

I agree that San Francisco is doing a way better job at utilizing a wide variety of posting techniques to increase the attention of their audience. For your 5 recommendations for San Diego, I think i posted almost all except for your last one which is the call to action. I like that idea to kind of give their audience in trying to push them to repost or like their page -- though it might not always work it’s still good to initiate that “call to action”. I also do agree that both need to post during peak hours in order for more people to see what was being posted. I liked that you also thoroughly searched what was more interesting in both facebook pages and mentioning how San Diego’s post usually has photos involved. I think this was one of their techniques in catching peoples interest and attention.

Social Media, Part 2, Analysis Activity #1, PH 402

After analyzing the two pages, I found that San Diego had 17,649 likes, an engagement rate of 3.96%, and that they averaged about 2.35 posts per day. On the other hand, San Francisco had a massive 255,038 likes with only about 1.68 posts per day. However, with the giant amount of likes, the website showed that San Francisco has a much lower engagement rate than San Diego, scoring at only 0.08% engagement. The data showed that the city of San Francisco is utilizing “hashtags” in their posts, while the city of San Diego does not use them. It seems that San Francisco is doing a better job at using a wide variety of posting techniques that vary from photo posts, comments, videos, and check-ins, whereas San Diego is only focused on utilizing photo posts, video posts, and check-ins on their page. I really liked how the San Francisco facebook page used phrases and key words that teens and young adults would understand and relate to, such as the motivational post that was titled “major key” (a phrase coined by DJ Khaled in today’s pop culture). I love the fact that in San Diego’s facebook page, they use a photo or a video in almost every single post! As a viewer, I would personally be much more likely to read the story behind the post if there was a relevant photo or video attached!

5 recommendations for San Diego:

o   Use “hashtags” in posts to increase user engagement, gain new readers, and to increase the overall number of likes on posts

o   Make more creative photo posts in order to keep viewers interested and to capture their attentive

o   Post at peak times in order to secure and engage more users

o   Continue posting on a daily basis in order to stay current and to keep users informed!

o   Use “call to action” posts, such as “like this post if you agree with ____”, or “if you enjoyed this post, share it with your Facebook friends!”

5 recommendations for San Francisco:

o   Post at the peak times that people would be visiting these pages in order to increase user and reader engagement

o   Post more often, like how San Diego does, so as to increase reader engagement and attentiveness

o   Post more than once a week to maintain a solid base of readers and city awareness

o   Continue the utilization of “hashtags,” since they reach a greater audience and add to the engagement percent of the site

o   Same as one of my reccommendations for the San Diego Facebook page, San Francisco should consider using “call to action” posts, such as “like this post if you agree with or love ____”, or “if you enjoyed this post, share it with your friends now!”

2 Top Posts for San Diego & San Francisco:

@globalcommunicationproject

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I agree with your evaluations on san diego. I didn’t really see it in that perspective that it wasn’t really intended for a larger audience and it was only targeting older adults. I liked that you noted that in order for San Diego to gain the interest of audience to use “understandable language” because it’s true that we tend to just brush of things we read if we seem to find it boring or too hard to understand. I also think that your improvements for San Francisco was good. I had similar ideas about posting more events that tend to a not just older people but also the young. I feel like the young are the ones that are most involved in media now and they will most likely be the ones who will help increase their like ranks --this could also apply to San Diego too just because San Diego’s posts do only show more favor for the elderly with all the posts. I wouldn’t even bother liking any of the posts that they put.

Social Media, Part One, Analysis Activity One, PH 402

San Diego County’s web page does not capture the attention of all age groups and only caters to the older individuals residing in San Diego County.  The information they are posting is similar to news articles you would see on the television.  It does not seem like they put much effort in reaching out to their audience and appealing to what they may like as each article is commonly known about due to it being the popular topic during that time.  There is a big focus on just text on their webpage and it does not reach out by using enticing photos that would make someone want to read what is on their web page.  

Unlike the San Diego County, San Francisco’s city and county web page really reaches out and includes a large audience.  The usage of hashtags and emoji icons makes it easier for all age groups to relate and catch their attention to what the city is trying to say. There is a lot of images and videos that they use to reach out to their audience.  Not only do they talk about the popular trending topics, but they also include a lot of unknown activities so people are able to explore their city.

           To improve San Diego County’s web page, the usage of hashtags can help their posts become more accessible and available to all people in the audience.  San Diego can also use more than just the topics that are talked about on a day to day basis.  They should be able to reach out to a bigger audience by talking about topics, such as activities around the country that everyone can be involved in.  San Diego County can also engage their audience more since their current engagement rate is barely at 5%.  What they can do to engage their audience is include more media that educates and also entertains the audience so they keep coming back to the web page. The county’s website can also share other stories to help engage the audience at different levels.  Most of the language that is used on the country’s website is not very understandable for most people.  By using an easily understandable language, it can reach out to more people since not everyone can understand the big vocabulary they are currently using.  

To improve San Francisco County’s web page, they should also post more events other than the typical one’s one may see around town.  Most of the posts they have only enticed the older generations, so the inclusion of things the younger generations may like can reach out to a larger audience.  They already use entertainment on their web page, but they should also include the education aspect in their entertainment to give the audience that learns in a different pathway a better way of gaining new information.  San Francisco can also include more demographics in the campaigns that they are promoting to show its citizens that people from all ethnicities are welcomed. To add on to the different demographics of San Francisco, there should also be posts that reach out to those who don’t have English as their first language.  By having some posts in a different language, it allows all of the San Francisco community to become engaged in their web page.

@globalcommunicationproject

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Social Media, Analysis Activity #1, PH 402

@globalcommunicationproject

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I liked all your posts. I especially liked your example of changing a behavior. I was literally laughing while reading. I always hated seeing guys with their pants sagged all the way down.. i felt like there was no need for it and it looked really unprofessional. This would most likely force guys to stop sagging so low since it was compared to those who were inmates and were wanting to get penetrated. I also liked the inform video-- i liked that it was telling us to vote and it shows a bunch of famous and not-so-famous people and how our one vote does matter and making sure we vote. I liked how they had a motivation to vote as well. I feel like the most influential people are those that we see everyday on TV’s so by using famous people--we (as the viewers) tend to listen and do what they say (not all the time but some people were probably influenced).

@globalcommunicationproject

Entertainment Education, Activity #3, PH402

This is an example of “sell.” The goal of this piece is to get people to purchase gatorade. I think the destination is activation because the advertisement used a key influencer (Dwight Howard) to motivate people to purchase gatorade. The channel is a magazine. I do not think this matched the intent of the piece very well because it will not reach athletes well enough. 

This is an example of “inform.” The goal of this piece is to get the audience to go to savethedate.vote and vote on November 8, 2016. I believe the destination is both advising and activation because it is telling the audience when to vote and they are motivating people but saying Mark will be naked in his next movie. I also felt they were motivating the audience by using key influencers and making the viewer feel important. The channel is Youtube. I believe the channel matched its intent because they are targeting everyone. Anyone who watched television or youtube, they want you to vote. 

This is an example of “change behavior.” The goal of this piece is to get people to stop sagging their pants. I believe the destination is advising because they are telling people where sagging pants derived from and why it even started. The channel of this image is Instagram. I believe it matched the intent of the piece well because many people have social media and will be able to run across this image. 

This is an example of “entertain.” The goal of this TV show is to entertain people with its problems such as: family trust, parenting, traditions, and sexuality. I believe the destination is advising because it teaches the audience about awareness when going to the doctor and awareness about parenting. The channel is television and i do believe it matches the intent of the piece well because the show is from a women’s perspective and I believe majority women are the ones who watch more tv programs about pregnant women. 

@globalcommunicationproject

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@globalcommunicationproject

I like the elaboration you made about the two songs. I chose Where Is The Love also and I agree that there are so many problems that we should be compassionate to one another and help each other out in times. I think i put also that the songs purpose was to try to persuade people to go and HELP or love one another at least. Your second song i liked also since you chose one that could happen is people did show love to one another. This song i agree will help people actually hope for the best in the world instead of saying it’s the end of the world. It gives people HOPE that there is still something good about the world that we can look forward to.

Entertainment, Part three, Research Activity #5, PH402

Activity #5:

Song #1: Where is the love? by Black Eyed Peas

The primary goal of this song is to bring back love, respect, and kindness to the world. The message that they want to communicate is that we’re letting hatred and violence take over, and how the world has loss compassion and respect towards one another. There are already so many problems in the world like poverty, war, and tragedies and the last thing we need is a world that lacks love and compassion towards one another. The song is trying to persuade people to come together during these difficult times instead of fighting against each other. The route of persuasion used would definitely be peripheral, because it’s more emotional and relies on other cues to get the listener to agree with the message. I believe the song is very effective and pulls at the heartstrings and opens people’s eyes to what’s going on in the world and the need for change.      

Song #2: Imagine by John Lennon

The primary goal of this song is to in vision a world that allowed people to be at peace, free, and with no worries. A world where we’re all equal and there’s nothing to separate us like religion, social class, or race. Hoping for a world where we all come together and work as one. The route of persuasion would be peripheral because the song again more of an emotional appeal and easily creates a belief change of a better world by listing all the things we would no longer have to worry about. I believe this song is super effective and reestablishes hope that one day we can live in a world like this.

@globalcommunicationproject

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Entertainment-Education, Activity #5, PH 402

@globalcommunicationproject

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Entertainment-Education, Activity #3, PH 402

@globalcommunicationproject

SELL STUFF:

INFORM:

CHANGE BEHAVIOR:

ENTERTAIN: