Monday, January 22

Today's class was a bit of a continuation of Friday's class. We were able to look at the beginning of a documentary called Bowling for Columbine, which showcased how easy it was to obtain a gun in the state of Michigan. Granted, the documentary was shot in 2002, but it is still a relevant topic today. In the clip we saw, the host sees a bank ad advertising a free gun if you open up a bank account with them. The host visits this bank and opens an account. The audience is brought through the process of getting the gun, which was completing a brief background check. After watching the short clip we were asked to determine the host's purpose, tactics, and audience. We concluded that the purpose was to show how easy it is to get a gun, tactics were showing the leniency of the background check, the simplicity of it all, and the unbelievable questions the host asked. He asked for both questions shown in the clip to be clarified, and he made it clear that he could easily lie on the background check . Finally, we determined the audience was the general public, specifically those who feel strongly about guns and gun control. We were also asked to start thinking about a documentary to base our research papers on. The papers have not been formally introduced to us yet.

In a real life setting it is very important to be able to understand and comprehend information given through a documentary. It is important we know why certain things or actions are shown in these documentaries so we can best form our own opinions and make contributions to our society. Especially today when social media and documentaries are on the rise in popularity.