Sara Inoue

       In today's lesson, we mainly worked on our websites. Using Canva to create the banner was very efficient and easy. Our slogan is "Healthy News for a Healthy You". Meaning, our explicit reports provide truthful content and enables individuals to access unmasked facts. With manipulative and inaccurate news permeating through the media, it is exceedingly difficult to trust any sort of news company. Therefore, our website can impart voices that have been enfeebled by large organizations. In the process of designing the banner, I paid close attention to the font, color, and size. Oftentimes, the banner is the first thing readers look at and giving wrong impressions is the last thing we want to do. Fitting the image of health, we chose to go with a dark blue color and kept it simple. Each of our team members is working on different parts of the websites, as well as preparing for our video.      John Pilger, who made the documentary "Palestine is still...

     At the beginning of class, we took a look at websites that past senpais had created. They included short intro videos talking about each of their news. Our group has also decided that each of us film a 1-minute video introducing our topics. Moreover, the design of the website was simple and clean, making it look professional. A few of the websites had book review tabs, which I found curious.  Not only is the content salient for websites,  but also the color scheme and designs that attract the audience. Furthermore, we divided jobs and were each in charge of different areas. The jobs consisted of making the logo, coming up with a slogan, website designs, and video edits. After a lengthy discussion, we settled on a team name, "Reality Reports". We wanted to include alliteration and emphasize the main purpose of our website. We aim to rectify information and keep people updated with accurate information. Therefore, reporting reality matched our intentions. We ...

      New groups were formed to discuss what we planned in the previous class. Other teams included debates and reports to write at the end of the unit, which had a similar purpose to the presentations that we included in our schedule. It was interesting to hear all the different ways of coming up with the order. Some groups divided lessons by separating big and small topics. From this discussion, I was able to understand what each group valued the most regarding the way they teach. Our group finally decided that the five filters would be introduced to students by showing examples, in the span of 3 weeks. After that, we made groups for our website. In this lesson, we talked about our common interests and possible news to write. As for right now, some members will write about current sports, Olympic-related articles, and health/lifestyle news.       We shared documents, created a team on canva, and proceeded to make our website. I was interested in...

     "Insider", an American online media company published an article regarding the censorship of the "tank man".  Tank man is an unidentified Chinese man who stood in front of several tanks that were killing hundreds of pro-democracy demonstrators. This happened in 1989 and Bing censored all searches relating to this incident. Depending on the area, the number of images differed, as well as search results. We were then split into groups of 5 and were told to create a plan of a 15-week class schedule. It would be targeted towards university students and mostly about the things we have learned.           As Mr.Paterson had mentioned, Bing is owned by Microsoft and, purposely manipulating data. I believe it was simply to please the Chinese government, but was shocked when I heard google has done the same with other news. I also found an article in Japanese; however, no position was stated by the writer which made it difficult to determine ...

     A short clip of Palestinian children commuting to school was shown at the beginning of class. In this footage, adults and children were arguing with the guards who control the gates. These gates are everywhere through the occupied land, making conveyance extremely difficult. In addition, the guards control the gates simply depending on their mood. Too often, keeping people out in lines for hours, which goes the same with military gates and checkpoints. After the video, we learned about John Pilger, an Australian journalist, writer, and filmmaker. We took a look at one of his famous documentaries, "Palestine is still the issue". John Pilger could not be more neutral, yet he went his way making a documentary, calling out for change.      "Palestine is still the issue", is narrated by John Pilger himself, and has influenced a wide audience through the years. In this documentary, he interviewed people from both Palestine and Israel, including residents, fo...

     Today, our class split into two groups, each researching articles related to Israel and Palestine from both traditional and alternative media. The NYT, Daily Telegraph, and Haaretz were introduced as traditional media. The other half had articles where local reporters collected stories. I was paired up with Mitsuki and was shocked to see the different contents in each media. Mr.Paterson gives us time to research on our own and separates it with the time to share with our peers. I find this highly effective for learning since we get the opportunity to understand and take in the information twice. Once when skimming through websites and the second time, when explaining it to someone else. Moreover, there is a lot of movement within each lesson, preventing students from boredom, and sharing ideas with different people creates a better environment for new thoughts and ideas.      Although all articles had paywalls on the NYT and restricted content, headlin...

     In the first half of today's class, we shared what we had learned in the previous class, regarding the case of Steven Donziger. Explaining the whole situation to others, enabled me to know what I truly understood last week and what I was missing. We then talked about the Bhopal incident which was strangely similar to Donzigers'. Union Carbide, an American chemical corporation moved their factories to India, due to the low safety standards. Even though the safety standards in India were already remarkably low than in the US, they still managed to make them even lower, breaking Indias' safety laws. Just until things could not get any worse, poisonous gas spread through a large part of India. This incident, also known as the Bhopal disaster killed more than 30,000 people which is about 10 times more than the number of people killed in 9/11. Despite the tragedy, Uni Carbide closed down all offices in India and moved back to America, avoiding any sort of responsibility. I...