Media and Society - SLU Madrid

  This article is lacking one of the most important perspectives: that of those who will be impacted by the selective lockdown. Neighborhoods impacted by these policies are working class neighborhoods, most with high numbers of immigrant residents. Ironically, the protests against wearing masks or social distancing have come from richer neighborhoods like barrio Salamanca. Shouldn’t they be the ones in quarantine? Isabel Díaz Ayuso has failed to act preventatively, and instead chooses to blame immigrants and the working class. The majority of people living in the districts affected commute for work, exposing them to public transport along with whoever they may come into contact with at work. These workers are essential to Madrid and its economy and many take the lowest paying jobs that others refuse to do.  Throughout the article, there is a comprehensible explanation of the policies imposed by Madrid and the political history regarding the handling of the pandemic response. ...

  Description: Right now, Israel is instituting its second national lockdown since the beginning of the pandemic due to the rising number of Covid-19 cases. In the beginning of the pandemic, Israel maintained some of the lowest numbers of covid-19 cases in the world, but cases have been on the rise again after they began to open the country again in May. Now, Israel is imposing strict regulations to stop the virus, but citizens are protesting because the restrictions will not allow the Jewish population of Israel to conduct their religious celebrations as usual. These restrictions will also result in the loss of nearly 6.5 billion shekels (1.9 billion USD) in their economy. Analysis: Throughout the article, the author continues to emphasize the effect of the lockdown on Jewish citizens and their New Year celebration. Before discussing the measures being taken by Israel to combat the virus, the writer first briefs the reader on the importance of Rosh Hasanah, the Jewish New Year, ...

The following 5 steps critical analysis will be based on David's chosen The New York Times article about the new vaccine for the Coronavirus released by the Russians. I have found this article informative and outrageous since President Vladimir Puttin has already approved the vaccine when it is not even in phase three yet, something that a lot of people do not consider is that it needs to be tested in a large group of contestants including with placebo control.  Description: President Vladimir Puttin approved the “Sputnik V” vaccine against the Coronavirus last month, which received lots of criticism. Puttin launched the word that the vaccine was a complete success since The Sputnik V vaccine “stimulates the immune system by coaxing a person’s cells to make a protein normally found on the coronavirus that causes Covid-19. The researchers loaded the gene for this viral protein into a second virus, called an adenovirus”. The criticism received was due that there were only forty volun...

The following 5 steps critical analysis will be based on Lapo's chosen BBC News article about the risks of catching coronavirus from food packaging. I have found this article interesting and informative because not everyone considers reasonable the idea of contracting a virus from food packaging. If what it's consumed is "protected" inside by an outside cover.   Description: Coronavirus can be transmitted through food packaging. Some studies have proved the virus can survive on different material surfaces for some time that goes from hours to days. The Covid-19 virus becomes stable at lower temperatures because some foods have to be transported frozen. It facilitates the way the virus reaches different locations. Nonetheless, the idea of transmission is still being questioned. Dr. Tang does not share this theory. In his words, "the outside world, environmental conditions change rapidly, meaning that the virus can't survive". Whereas, the professor of mic...

 'No Masks, No Distancing: Schools in Denmark Defy COVID-19 with Success so Far' is an article from the CBC News page, by Renée Filippone. Here I will look at through the 5 Steps Critical Process.  Description: Denmark decided the best way to handle the schooling situation created by COVID-19 is to try and return to normalcy as soon as possible. This means that by April schools began to reopen with the priority being getting children back to school before opening up bars and restaurants. The government also gave each school the space to come up with their own safety plan. For the  Ålholm public school, they chose to do away with masks and social distancing while putting precautions in other areas, hiring more teachers to have smaller class groups, structuring in different break times and assigning groups with specific toilets to use. The article provides accounts from students going through the reopening process but does not have any accounts from the parents. The article...

-5 steps critical analysis on Mariana's BBC News Article on "Coronavirus: why Spain is seeing second wave". DESCRIPTION:  Spain has the fastest-rising caseload in Europe. When the state of emergency ended in June 21 st , Spain was registering more or less a hundred cases per day. Nowadays, the number of cases increased to 3000. The government is aware of these numbers and by the fact that a second wave is about to start. One specific region has been more attacked by the virus: Aragon. ANALYSIS:  In the article an interesting pattern is given by the words which are addressed to Spanish politics: poisonous. Pedro Sanchez and the national government are being accused because of lies related to death rates in the nation. Furthermore, the regional government of Madrid has been accused and criticized as well. As the author stated: “ Spanish politics has lacked any consensus or spirit of collaboration in managing the coronavirus crisis” (Badcock, 2020). INTERPRETATION: The arti...

I will be applying the 5 step critical analysis to the BBC news article "Coronavirus cure: What progress are we making on treatments?". Description: The article from BBC news talks about the many drugs which are being tested all around the world to treat the patients with Covid 19. According to the article, only steroids have been proven to make a difference and even save lives. However, although these are cheap, as the article mentions, the drug only works on people with severe symptoms. Moreover, another drug that has been tested and shown effective is Remdesvivir, which was originally developed to treat Ebola. Also, the Blood Plasma from patients that created antibodies and recovered the disease can also help when tranfusing it to ill patients. In addition to that, the article also clarifies how HIV or Malaria drugs have been showed innefective by the laboratories. Finally, article ends up by giving a reason on giving an explanation of why do we need a treatment. Analysis:...

  Lauren Mitchell: This is a critical analysis of Sophie’s post of the USA Today article about Trump’s polarizing statement surrounding the inaction and ineffectiveness of “blue states” in response to COVID-19. I agree with Sophie’s argument that although the language is eye-catching, the article uses direct quotes and contextualizes these statements to inform the reader, regardless of their political standing.  Description: COVID-19 has highlighted the political intricacies of countries around the world, in a federalist system in the U.S. it highlights the different emergency management systems and healthcare access that vary from state to state. The USA Today article explores the validity of Trump’s recent statements that insinuate states that are run by a democrat, or are historically more democratic, are the reason for the high death rates from the virus.  Analysis: A prominent trend in the article is the use of more theatrical quotes by politicians, and a focus on th...

 This is Neyl Benkirane 5 step critical analysis that I defend on Mark Zastrow article on National Geographic called "how South Korea prevented a coronavirus disaster and why the battle isn't over".  Description: this article shows how the pandemic affected South Korea. it shows how the country has dealt with the coronavirus throughout new technologies and new governmental doings. South Korea used innovative testing facilities and process but also they used contact tracing that was very useful to control the spread of the virus. This article shows also how South Korea learned from the past by coming up with some solutions from past experiences such as previous virus outbreak. this article ends by showing how their innovative ways of controlling the spread of the virus is being adapted in other parts of the world. this article is from May, since then most of the countries put in place the same innovative ways to stop the virus outbreak.  Analysis: this article really focus...

Sophie Hargrave Lauren’s article: “The U.S. vs. the world: How major nations are recovering from coronavirus” Description: This article focuses primarily on the economic losses due to the Coronavirus, and the author, Ryan Heath, cites studies by universities and also a recent report from investment group Goldman Sachs to support his claims.  He focuses on those countries that have successfully combated the virus and their economic gains, in contrast to the US.  Heath takes a critical stance regarding Trump’s economic policies throughout the pandemic.  He holds that the Trump administration’s refusal to implement lockdown measures and mask mandates along with opening up the country rapidly may have helped the economy in the short term, but that it could cause long-term damage and what economists call a “double-dip” recession. Analysis: One pattern I’ve noticed in the article is that the author seems to be highlighting the areas in which the American economy has suffered th...

 Araí Yegros:  I. Description: The article is a scientific report on the development for an effective COVID19 vaccine worldwide. The artcile describes five main stages of standard vaccine production and commercialization:preclinical testing on animals, safety trials on human beings, expanded trials, efficacy trials, early approval by certain governments, approval by the international community and/or combined phases in which testing on human beings is accelarated. The article describes Moderna Labs strategy as well as Pfizer and Bio n Tech approach to finding a derivative of the SARS vaccine applicable to the new coronavirus, and other companies from America, China, Japan, the UK, Australia, etc. trying to establish an effective and marketable vaccine this year. II. Analysis: This report clearly oversimplifies medical and scientific concepts that are not easily understandable for non sophisticates. It could easily fall into the pop science realm where difficult concepts are ex...

I will be applying the 5 step critical analysis to the El Pais article on recent Covid-19 upticks in Spain.  I will explain how I find it effective in informing the public about the severity of the Covid-19 pandemic in Spain today.  Description: The title itself outlines the article's main point- Spain reached record-high levels of daily infections, hitting 12,183 this past Friday,. The article continues to explain the severity of the recent spike in cases, referring to recent numbers as a “cause for concern.” This sentiment is expressed through the amount of testing being carried out, which is currently six times that of testing in the spring.   The article goes on to say that this trend is also visible through the number of hospitalizations in the country. Though it varies in separate regions, 7.5% of total hospital beds in Spain are occupied by Covid-19 patients. Analysis: This article seems to focus almost exclusively on facts and statistics about Covid-19 and its cur...

  This is David Harris 5 step critical analysis on Lapo’s BBC News article on contracting COVID 19 from food packages that I chose to defend due to the lack of information that people have regarding this issue.  Lapo’s article and response caught my attention due to the fact that it deals with contracting COVID 19 from food packaging, and that is something that not many people take into consideration. Packaging for some people is looked as clean and safe, at least when I eat a bag of chips, I am not worried that it is going to end up making me sick because of touching the package. The key elements of the story are showing how a package like chicken wings can cause as much harm as getting infected with COVID 19. Although in the article, it talks about how the chances are small, but how there are still chances of contracting COVID 19. The views of the victims are missing because in the article there are no interviews concluded, and we cannot hear the voices of the people that go...

This 5 step critical analysis is on Bruna's BBC News article on India's mental health crisis due to Covid-19, which I defend due to the neutral reporting, descriptive and effective language, and the subject that article calls attention to. Description: Covid-19 has not only been affecting people’s physical health, but it has equally affected their mental state. The number of people contracting this virus have been increasing all over the world, and different countries have been dealing with this critical situation in different ways. As stated in the article from BBC News, India doesn't have enough medical resources and hospitals for their citizens, and as they recover from the virus some people’s mental health has been affected because it’s a very “lonely” situation to experience. Without the presence of enough local hospitals and physicians that could help these people to promptly recover, India is currently confronting a situation that seems at ease to have no considerab...

Welcome to our Media and Society Blog! This blog will be a shared space dedicated to media literacy. Here, we will do our best to take an attitude of genuine critics (and abandon the cynical perspective 🙈🙉🙊) in order to reflect on our consumption of media content during this epidemic (news articles, viral videos, series, reality TV, etc.)  😷😷 . Blog posts are more reflective and elaborated that posts from discussion boards, and they require for a more planned writing. Blog posts must be around 300 words. Let's get this Blog up and running!