First Blog Entry

Ellie Soriano

HCOM 214

Blake Rodgers

4th March 2015

Annie Leonard's Story of Stuff

   The first video shown in class, the Story of Stuff, brought global conflict into perspective and created reason for mass communication to help make the world a better place. Her message was to show the destructive and doomed path of linear consumption from the first to beginning steps. She explained the negative effects of the way that a majority of people in the world is hurting our environment and how it will affect us as a whole in the long run. Her clear goal and message at the end of the video was to get people thinking about changing their ways and becoming proactive in bettering the system of communication.

   I believe that her audience were those of the younger more impressionable and active generations more specifically people of the ages of thirty to teens. I think her audience were those of younger generations due to the style the video is made in, in reference to the cartoons visually expressing her oral speech, as well as mentioning how the current main method of consumption will be affecting our future.

   The risks and constant statistics of toxins is a leading topic she uses to convince people through fear to listen to what she has to say as well as emotional anger in the audience having to do with saying how we as people will basically be screwed over and can’t change anything if no one is active to change the way they consume products.

   I do not think that Leonard is very bias in her speech and research even though she claims that the main cause of our society doing bad to the world due to linear consumption because I believe the leading cause of this ‘doomed consumption’ is indeed corporations.

   I think she has very general and good resolutions to making a cycle of consumption rather than a linear ‘cycle’. I agree with her resolutions and that people should change their ways for the better of this planet’s long term future, the resolution that I agree with the most that she suggested was making the economy and market more local rather than international as well as adjusting people’s mindsets on making renewable and clean energy more mainstream.

   I think what Leonard says affects everyone because we live on the same planet even though not everyone contributes to a more doomed planet. The main conflict in this video is actually after it is watched and what people will do in response. Getting people to become active to better our planet will be the most difficult part of conflict relating to this topic as well as getting people to believe that ‘Better’ is actually better than ‘More’. The most difficult part of communication will be getting large communities together to go against large corporations and changing policies within the government. However, despite all the difficulties it will take I think that people as a whole in the world will be able to change for the greater good.

Here is the link to the referenced video featuring Annie Leonard