The Phantom of the Opera

The Phantom of the Opera opens at the Paris Opera-House in the late nineteenth-century, with the production of “Hannibal” (the elephant-tamer, not the face-eater) coming to a halt when its temperamental star, La Carlotta (Minnie Driver, sporting the worst Italian accent since Nicholas Cage in Captain Corelli’s Mandolin), walks out during a dress rehearsal after threats from the mysterious Phantom (Gerard Butler), who has haunted the opera house for years. The theatre’s inexperienced new managers (Ciarán Hinds and Simon Callow) are at a loss, so they replace her with the young ingénue Christine, who has been taking singing lessons from this “opera ghost,” all without ever seeing him, yet believing him to being an “Angel of Music.” 

Phantom of the Opera, still running on Broadway after sixteen years, is a rapturous spectacle. And the movie, directed full throttle by Joel Schumacher, goes the show one better. With a cast of young hotties, it smolders. Emmy Rossum, 18, has an aching loveliness to match her singing voice as soprano Christine Daae. And she can act. Gerard Butler, 35, brings a raw, full-throated masculinity to the Phantom, a musical genius who prowls the theater with a mask hiding the disfigured half of his face but nothing cloaking his mad desire to make Christine a and his lover. He'd kill for her and crosses swords excitingly with his pretty-boy rival Raoul (velvet-voiced Patrick Wilson). The actors do their own singing, except for the scene-stealing Minnie Driver, who is hilarious as a diva with an indecipherable Italian accent.

What does the movie version of “The Phantom of the Opera” prove? It proves we need more movie musicals. “Moulin Rouge” was spectacular, “Chicago” was a real killer, and “The Phantom of the Opera” steals your heart.

Enough with the bad remakes of action movies we didn’'t care about in the first place. Let’s see more musicals with entrancing and entertaining stories populated by talented, engaging actors.

Seminar on Media Literacy: "Mobilizing the Millenmials as Socially Responsible Prosumers"

During our GramCom class, our prof said that we should go to the Audi because there is a seminar about Media Literacy.

There are three speakers, they are Ms. Edmallyne Remillano, Ms. Jan Meynard Nualla and Ms. Lian Nami Buan. They are from GMA.

First of all, what is media literacy? 

Media Literacy is a 21st century approach to education. It provides a framework to access, analyze, evaluate, create and participate with messages in a variety of forms — from print to video to the Internet. Media literacy builds an understanding of the role of media in society as well as essential skills of inquiry and self-expression necessary for citizens of a democracy.

1. All media are constructions. Perhaps the most important concept in media-literacy education is that the media do not present simple reflections of external reality; they present productions, which have specific purposes. The success of these productions lies in their apparent naturalness. However, although they appear to be natural, they are in fact carefully crafted constructions that have been subjected to a broad range of determinants and decisions. From a technical point of view, they are often superb, and this, coupled with our familiarity with such productions, makes it almost impossible for us to see them as anything other that a seamless extension of reality. Our task is to expose the complexities of media texts and thereby make the seams visible.
2. The media construct reality. All of us have a "construct," the picture we have built up in our heads since birth, of what the world is and how it works. It is a model based on the sense we have made of all our observations and experiences. When, however, a major part of those observations and experiences come to us preconstructed by the media, with attitudes, interpretations, and conclusions already built in, then the media, rather than we ourselves, are constructing our reality.
   
3. Audiences negotiate meaning in media. Basic to an understanding of media is an awareness of how we interact with media texts. When we look at any media text, each of us finds meaning through a wide variety of factors: personal needs and anxieties, the pleasures or trouble of the day, racial and sexual attitudes, family and cultural background. All of these have a bearing on how we process information. For example, the way in which two students respond to a television situation comedy (sitcom) depends on what each brings to that text. In short, each of us finds or "negotiates" meaning in different ways. Media teachers, therefore, have to be open to the ways in which students have individually experienced the text with which they are dealing.
   
4. Media have commercial implications. Media literacy includes an awareness of the economic basis of mass- media production and how it impinges on content, techniques, and distribution. We should be aware that, for all practical purposes, media production is a business and must make a profit. In the case of the television industry, for example, all programs - news, public affairs, or entertainment - must be judged by the size of the audience they generate. A prime-time American network show with fewer than twenty million viewers will not generally be kept on the air. Audience sampling and rating services also provide advertisers with detailed demographic breakdowns of audience for specific media. A knowledge of this allows students to understand how program content makes them targets for advertisers and organizes viewers into marketable groups.
   The issue of ownership, control, and related effects should also be explored. The tendency, both here in Canada and in some other countries, has been towards increased concentration of ownership of the individual media in fewer and fewer hands, as well as the development of integrated ownership patterns across several media. What this means in practical terms is that a relatively small number of individuals decide what television programs will be broadcast, what issues will be investigated and reported. For example, many cities in Ontario have only one daily newspaper, and often it is part of a large chain. This has many implications for the reporting of controversial stories and for investigative journalism.
   
5. Media contain ideological and value messages. Media literacy involves an awareness of the ideological implications and value systems of media texts. All media products are advertising in some sense - for themselves, but also for values or ways of life. They usually affirm the existing social system. The ideological messages contained in, for example, a typical Hollywood television narrative are almost invisible to North Americans, but they would be much more apparent to people in developing countries. Typical mainstream North American media convey a number of explicit and implicitly ideological messages, which can in include some or all of the following: the nature of "the good life" and the role of affluence in it, the virtues of "consumerism," the proper role of women, the acceptance of authority, and unquestioning patriotism. We need to use decoding techniques in order to uncover these ideological messages and values systems.

Plagiarism

What is plagiarism?

Plagiarism is the act of taking another person's writing, conversation, song, or even idea and passing it off as your own. This includes information from web pages, books, songs, television shows, email messages, interviews, articles, artworks or any other medium. Whenever you paraphrase, summarize, or take words, phrases, or sentences from another person's work, it is necessary to indicate the source of the information within your paper using an internal citation. It is not enough to just list the source in a bibliography at the end of your paper. Failing to properly quote, cite or acknowledge someone else's words or ideas with an internal citation is plagiarism.

There are 4 forms of plagiarism: 

Direct plagiarism – Taking another person’s ideas word for word without giving proper citation.

Self-plagiarism – Submitting your own previous work as part of a current assignment without permission.

Mosaic plagiarism – Quoting another’s work without quotation marks. This can also refer to replacing words in another’s work with synonyms while maintaining the same overall structure and meaning.

Accidental plagiarism – Forgetting to cite sources, misquoting sources, or paraphrasing sources without giving credit where credit is due.

How to avoid plagiarism?

• Quoting involves using exact words, phrases and sentences from a source, setting them off with quotation marks, and citing where the information was taken from.
  
  
• Paraphrasing and summarizing are very similar. Both involve taking ideas, words or phrases from a source and crafting them into new sentences within your writing. In addition, summarizing includes condensing the source material into just a few lines. Whether paraphrasing or summarizing, credit is always given to the author.

• Cite - Citing is one of the effective ways to avoid plagiarism. Follow the document formatting guidelines (i.e. APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.) used by your educational institution or the institution that issued the research request. This usually entails the addition of the author(s) and the date of the publication or similar information. Citing is really that simple. Not citing properly can constitute plagiarism.
• Citing Your Own Material - If some of the material you are using for your research paper was used by you in your current class, a previous one, or anywhere else you must cite yourself. Treat the text the same as you would if someone else wrote it. It may sound odd, but using material you have used before is called self-plagiarism, and it is not acceptable.
• Referencing - One of the most important ways to avoid plagiarism is including a reference page or page of works cited at the end of your research paper. Again, this page must meet the document formatting guidelines used by your educational institution. This information is very specific and includes the author(s), date of publication, title, and source. Follow the directions for this page carefully. You will want to get the references right.

What are the consequences when you plagiarised?

Destroyed Student Reputation- Plagiarism allegations can cause a student to be suspended or expelled. Their academic record can reflect the ethics offense, possibly causing the student to be barred from entering college from high school or another college. Schools, colleges, and universities take plagiarism very seriously. Most educational institutions have academic integrity committees who police students. Many schools suspend students for their first violation. Students are usually expelled for further offences. 
Destroyed Professional Reputation- A professional business person, politician, or public figure may find that the damage from plagiarism follows them for their entire career. Not only will they likely be fired or asked to step down from their present position, but they will surely find it difficult to obtain another respectable job. Depending on the offense and the plagiarist’s public stature, his or her name may become ruined, making any kind of meaningful career impossible.

Destroyed Academic Reputation- The consequences of plagiarism have been widely reported in the world of academia. Once scarred with plagiarism allegations, an academic’s career can be ruined. Publishing is an integral part of a prestigious academic career. To lose the ability to publish most likely means the end of an academic position and a destroyed reputation.

Legal Repercussions- The legal repercussions of plagiarism can be quite serious. Copyright laws are absolute. One cannot use another person’s material without citation and reference. An author has the right to sue a plagiarist. Some plagiarism may also be deemed a criminal offense, possibly leading to a prison sentence. Those who write for a living, such as journalists or authors, are particularly susceptible to plagiarism issues. Those who write frequently must be ever-vigilant not to err. Writers are well-aware of copyright laws and ways to avoid plagiarism. As a professional writer, to plagiarize is a serious ethical and perhaps legal issue.

Monetary Repercussions- Many recent news reports and articles have exposed plagiarism by journalists, authors, public figures, and researchers. In the case where an author sues a plagiarist, the author may be granted monetary restitution. In the case where a journalist works for a magazine, newspaper or other publisher, or even if a student is found plagiarizing in school, the offending plagiarist could have to pay monetary penalties.

Plagiarized Research- Plagiarized research is an especially egregious form of plagiarism. If the research is medical in nature, the consequences of plagiarism could mean the loss of peoples’ lives. This kind of plagiarism is particularly heinous.

Sources: 

1. http://www.ithenticate.com/resources/6-consequences-of-plagiarism
2. http://en.writecheck.com/ways-to-avoid-plagiarism/
3. http://www.grammarly.com/blog/2015/5-most-effective-methods-for-avoiding-plagiarism/
4. http://www.lib.usm.edu/legacy/plag/whatisplag.php