B.

Politics and Technology

Reading Logs for Critical Reading Particle Part 2

Part 2 (Copy and complete these forms for each PAIR of articles you
read. Attach the complete forms to the articles)

1) Article Recommendations

Article 1
Title : The Political Power of Social Media
Author : Clay Shirky
Source (complete)
:http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/67038/cla
y-shirky/the-political-power-of-social-media
Release date (complete) : January/February 2011
Brief description : This article tells us about the use of media as
tools of political movements which form public
opinion and coordinate real-world action.

My Rating : (check off one.)
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Article 2
Title : Politics and the English Language
Author : George Orwell
Source (complete) :http://www.unz.org/Pub/Horizon-1946apr-00252
Release date (complete) :April 1946
Brief description : This article tells us about language (English) which
used as political instruments to conceal the real
meaning or intention of someone or a particular
group of people.

My Rating : (check off one.)
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2) Article Analyses

Process Text 1 (title): The Political Power of Social Media
Summary Media, especially Social Media today are not only used as
communication tool but also as coordinating tools for worlds political
movements.For example when a particular group of people wants to
attack their political rival, they use media to spread bad information
so public will give bad prejudice to their rival and start to against the
rival as well. Politicians or even the government also use social media
as an instrument to form public opinion of an issue since political and
apolitical speeches nowadays are not mutually exclusive. They use
brands or public figure in media to attract people so they (the people)
will listen to politicians or governments idea.

Analysis o Purpose: To inform people about the use of media as political
instruments

o Main idea: Media are not only used as communication tool but also
a coordinating tools for political movement

o Audience: Society

o Tone:


Evaluation: Are the writers opinions justified (supported with verifiable, relevant
facts)? Explain your answer and give evidence.

In this article, writer opinions are justified, supported by some facts
which mostly related to political news around the world. For example in
the first paragraph the writer explained about a president in Philippine
was judged as corruptor by his own people after they know the
corruption information from media. The next is many South Korean
girls protest US beef import since public figure in Korea, DBSK, who is
actually not politicians, brings the issue in the internet. Beef import is
actually governments business. Since the public figure came out with
the issue, lots of Korean girls are excited to talk and give their opinion
towards it.
Reflection: How did this text affect my thoughts on this subject?As I know to the
example when particular group of people wants to attack their political
rival. They use media to spread bad information, so public will give bad
prejudice to their rival and start to against the rival as well.

Process Text 2 (title): Politics and the English Language
Summary Nowadays, lots of people use English in a bad way to hide the real
meaning. They use metaphors or longer words to explain one word
which makes the word are hard to be understood. For example they
use some words like fishing in troubled water which other people are
hard to find out what is the real meaning of it. Politicians use this bad
English to express their intention. They will say elimination of unreliable
elements instead of shooting people in the back of the neck. In other
words, politics is a mass of lies and either language used. Political
language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder
respectable.

Analysis o Purpose: To inform people about political language which is used to
conceal the real meaning of a thought
o Main idea: English is used as an instrument to hide the real meaning
of an issue in politics.

o Audience: Society

o Tone:


Evaluation: Are the writers opinions justified (supported with verifiable, relevant
facts)? Explain your answer and give evidence.

In this article, writer opinions are justified. Although this article mostly
about his own opinion but related to the use of metaphors in English
which cause a word become hard to be understood is correct. In page 7
the first paragraph the writer give some example of political language
which commonly used by some politicians to conceal their brutal acts.

Reflection: How did this text affect my thoughts on this subject?
According to the text, they use petaphors or longer words to explain
one word which makes the word are hard to be understood.









3. Text Synthesis

1) Compare the ideas of the two articles. What do they have in common?
What makes them different? List the similar and different ideas in the
following table.

Similar Ideas
Different Ideas
Article 1 Article 2
Both of the articles tell
about political
instruments used by the
politician to coordinate
people.




























The main discussion in
article 1 is social media
as an instrument of
political movements
The main discussion in
article 2 is the use of
English in politics to
conceal the real meaning
of words or thought



1) Article Recommendations

Article 1
Title : Facial Recognition: Is the Technology Taking Away
Your Identity?
Author : Luke Dormehl
Source (complete)
:http://www.theguardian.com/technology/
2014/may/04/facial-recognition-technology-
identity-tesco-ethical-issues
Release date (complete) : May, 4
th
2014
Brief description :This article tell about the facial recognition
Technology which may takes our identity or privacy

My Rating : (check off one.)
Thumbs Up
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Article 2
Title :Modern technology is changing the way our brains
work, says neuroscientist
Author :Susan Greenfield
Source (complete) :http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-
565207/Modern-technology-changing-way-brains-
work-says-neuroscientist.html
Release date (complete) :May, 15
th
2014
Brief description :This article tells about the role of modern
technology to humans brain

My Rating : (check off one.)
Thumbs Up
Okay
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2) Article Analyses

Process Text 1 (title):Facial Recognition: Is the Technology Taking Away
Your Identity?
Summary Facial recognition is a brand-new technology which allows the users to
identify themselves or other by using images. Lots of companies such as
Google and Facebook use this technology identify people based on
images. Apple also uses this technology as a security measure for
unlocking its device. But since this technology is required to take a
photo of someone and then input some information related to the
person, there are some privacy problems. Not all people want to be
identified. Another problem is what if the facial recognition made
mistake in recognizing people? Some people were born almost look-
alike. Still, facial recognition as a computer technology continues to get
better and will be very helpful.
Analysis o Purpose: To inform people about facial recognition technology and
its plus-minus

o Main idea: Facial recognition is a technology which allows users to
identify someone by using images

o Audience: Society

o Tone:


Evaluation: Are the writers opinions justified (supported with verifiable, relevant
facts)? Explain your answer and give evidence.

In this article, writer opinions are justified, supported by some facts
about the facial recognition technology in our lives. The facial
recognition technology can be helpful for our lives but also it can be
bother others privacy. In page 2, US senator Al Franken has spoken out
against this apps. According to him, individuals cannot reasonably
prevent themselves from being identified by cameras that could be
anywhere.


Reflection: How did this text affect my thoughts on this subject?
In my opinion there are some privacy problems that disturbed us.



Process Text 2 (title):Modern Technology Changing Ways Brain Works
Summary Nowadays technology has changed how the brain works. It can be seen
by the numbers of people who use such drugs to get rid of depression,
shyness, or improve their concentration. There are benefits from this
technological progress (the use of drugs) but also there is a great
danger as well. Human brains have been changing, adapting, and
developing in response to outside stimuli. Electronic device such as
television or video games also can affect the way brain works, in this
case our personality, behavior, or characteristic.
Analysis o Purpose: To inform people about the advantage and danger of
technology to humans brain
o Main idea: Technology has changed how the brain works
o Audience: Society

o Tone:


Evaluation: Are the writers opinions justified (supported with verifiable, relevant
facts)? Explain your answer and give evidence.

In this article, writer opinions are justified. Some technology such as
drugs, TV, and video game are changing the way we behave and think.
The writer gives example in page 3; three groups of people were taken
into a room with a piano with different treatment for each group,
group one given intensive piano practice, group two had nothing to do,
and group three were asked to imagine they were practicing piano. In a
brain scan, the group which asked to imagine doing piano exercise has
changes in brain structure as the group which had piano practice.

Reflection: How did this text affect my thoughts on this subject?
Human brains have been changing, adapting, and developing in
response to outside stimuli.












3. Text Synthesis

1) Compare the ideas of the two articles. What do they have in common?
What makes them different? List the similar and different ideas in the
following table.

Similar Ideas
Different Ideas
Article 1 Article 2
Both of the articles tell
about both advantage
and disadvantage of
using modern technology
in our lives






























The main discussion in
article 1 is face
recognizing technology
which can be helpful but
also bother peoples
privacy
The main discussion in
article 2 is about modern
technology which change
the way brain works