The Wannabe Writer

It’s been over a year since I’ve touched this blog but I had to recent write a book report for grad school and couldn’t find any summaries so I figured I’d post the one I made.

Section 1 Positioning Organizational Culture

This section establishes various concepts based on organization, culture, and communication. Organizations are central to our society unless someone goes throw life as a constant solo; everyone will, at some point, be a member of organizational cultures. One common factor to all contemporary views on organizational culture is the role of communication in its creation.

A person’s communicative role as an organizational member is central to both the emergent nature of the organization and its culture. This can contribute to the creation, maintenance, or development of these organizational cultures by communicating with other organizational members, even all three at once. Due to the complexity of organizational culture, scholars use multiple methodological and theoretical lenses to clarify that complexity. Often revealing organizational cultures for what they are rather than for what managers and bosses desire them to be. Organizational cultures scholars range form several fields education, anthropology, communication, management sociology, and psychology. Scholars focus on the methods in which cultures are developed, maintained, or changed in order to identify their unique frames or scripts. Then managers can somewhat credibly use them to bridge the different assumptions had by all the team members.

An organization is an active system of administrative members, influenced by outside participants, who communicate inside and around organizational structures in a decisive and arranged manner to complete a superior project.The organization literally cannot exist without communication, as the people in any organization need to convey information to each other in some way at some point.When organizational members create, maintain, and change themselves through talk, it is called organizational communication. This definition is based around the assumption that all organizational members participate in this process and create their unique messages through, but not all meanings will be shared, and not everyone participates.

Culture is defined as the complex set of messages and meanings by which people choose what subsequent messages and behaviors will and will not be interpreted. Culture is both a product and process distinguishing individuals in one collective or team from people in another group or unit. The three classifications of cultural elements that comprise the organizational culture symbol patterns are Artifacts, Values, and Assumptions.  Artifacts are the norms, standards, and customs; anything someone can hear, feel, or see in the organizational experience. Artifacts are usually the first things people observe in an organization when they enter it. Values are broad inclinations to prefer a specific state of affairs and have both direction and intensity. Values are not always easy to identify, sometimes ranging from established and written rules to word of mouth secrets to everyone. Assumptions are behaviors and opinions based on how people think, feel, perceive, and act. They are not always correct, but unless proved different via conversation and action, assumptions will be challenging to alter. Together, these three reflect organizational culture, influence actions by generating internalized norms and values, enable group members to discuss their unique experiences, and integrate symbols and meanings specific to their organization and work.

Section 2 Unpacking Organizational Culture

There are five core characteristics of organizational culture. Organizational culture is:

1. eternally connected to organizational members
2. dynamic and ever-changing.
3. Comprised of vying values and assumptions.
4. often emotionally charged
5. effect all aspects of an organization exclude both foreground and background.

The process of all these characteristics interacting and product of those interactions is how organizational members can simultaneously create and respond to the symbolic and social reality of the organization’s culture. Thus, organizational culture is communicatively constructed by all organizational members. The interacting process and the product of the interactions can morph and change a group culture. When this happens, new practices emerge, become patterned, and are accepted as part of the culture. Specifically, when employees leave and join the organizational system and when the organization acknowledge and adapts to new threats and opportunities from the environment, the group exists in. Organizational Environments often have their social context use to make sense of the group’s communication by the group.

Organizational cultures can be structured as a consensus or divided into subcultures thru a process called sensemaking. Subcultures are the length that different sets of artifacts, values, and assumptions develop and exist within an organization’s whole culture.  They appear briefly but with boundaries that are penetrable and inconsistent. Sensemaking while often shows that organizational members have numerous identities that overlap, thus making it challenging to create an organization-wide consensus.

When exploring subculture, three perspectives are used:

All three perspectives—integration, differentiation, and fragmentation— are needed in the research of organizational culture. As using all three perspectives allows obscurity, harmony, and regularity to be shown. This helps avoid the potential blind spots of each perspective when used alone because some cultural elements are neither understood by all or unique to one. No perspective is more correct than another; each perspective offers an incomplete view of an organization’s culture; thus, to gain a multifocal revelation of organizational culture, all three perspectives are required.

Section 3 Lenses for Understanding Organizational Culture

Communication in an organization is partisan, ubiquitous, and complicated because creating organizational culture is unorderly with a complex communication system. Scholars have used a variety of ways to identify and investigate organizational cultures.The symbolic performance perspective acknowledges that a system of symbols—including every day and the unique—is responsible for creating complexity, and sometimes contradictions, in the totality of organizational communication and the organization’s resulting culture.

Organizational culture, as narrative reproduction, explores stories as artifacts to comprehend an organization’s norms, beliefs, and values. This view of organizational culture obtains to research the way that communication creates culture. From the storyteller’s perspective, certain parts of the story are cultural elements relevant only to the individual.

Organizational culture, as textual reproductions, researches the written words of an organization. Formal documentation most frequently represents the managerial and espoused view & the informal texts will show representations of the enacted culture.

Organizational culture is developed and directed thought the perspective of managers is seen as inflexible and regarded as a tool or resource:

1. Improving operating efficiencies
2. Enhancing the bottom line
3. Creating satisfied customers

A managerial perspective views organizational culture as both a screening device and a control device in selecting and maintaining employees for organizational success or a competitive marketplace advantage.

The critical perspective views the communication of a group as an index of its culture or ideology. Critical studies examine how organizational members resist domination and other forms of corporate control in the organization’s culture. In organizations, Politics and Power come about in multiple different ways. A managerial perspective highlights those conflicts in the team culture from a Critical perspective as well as a functional and structural viewpoint. When employees adopt management’s understanding of objectives and values to support the organization’s mission, it is known as Concretive Control. Organizational cultures, while often replicate societal structures and concepts as organizations are often constructed on the values of the masculine gender and Caucasian race. So, this form of organizational culture research from gendered and racial viewpoints can demonstrate if organizational power can result in harassment and discrimination.

Along with societal views, external forces such as Globalization and Technology will influence organizational cultures. Technology structures the group members’ work activities, relationships, and roles. This comes at the expense that technology is almost always seen as a universal group improvement regardless of how different employees might use or view it, such as Electronic Monitoring.

Globalization influenced organizations when they grow beyond their national borders:

1. Enter global markets
2. Working with foreign subsidiaries
3. Creating international alliances
4. Engaging in international joint ventures.

These new organizational environments will lead to an intersection of Diverse cultural, social, and communicative practices, which raises new concerns for the suitability of what might have been a conflict clash and traditional junction.

Section 4 Developing, Managing and Changing Organizational Culture

In this book, the view of organizational culture is created, maintained, and changed via the communication of all organizational members in the workplace. Unfortunately, leaders, managers, and executives have a superior influence on organizations and their cultures. Everyone at some point in their lives will find themselves either given the opportunity to develop the culture for or charged with the responsibility over their organization. Managers are interested in creating a culture that promotes their views of organizational effectiveness and maintaining such a culture when it is established. Taking a logical approach to one’s organizational culture will show several factors and strategies that will affect how you can influence cultural formation and change.

Cultural Change: a structural aspect of the organization is processed into three corresponding forms, Evolutionary, Revolutionary and Everyday reframing.

A vision creates a realistic long-term path for any organization. Founders often begin with a statement or idea that describes the importance of their goal. The organization’s mission— a strategic plan that details in the short term of an organization’s future and are central to how an organization operates. Visions are not permanent; Organizations will regularly revisit these cultural manifestations to fine-tune their organizational mission to their ever-changing environment.

The process by which new employees are integrated into an organization’s culture is known as Assimilating or Socializing. These processes are time-consuming, and it can take a year of learning about the organization before it is complete. However, once it is complete, employees are likely to be more satisfied and identify with their jobs and less likely to leave an organization.

A common myth of the primary job of organizational leaders is that they must create and manage work culture; however, leading an organization through the view of organizational culture is a reframing of leadership itself. Under a cultural lens, leadership is a complex social process that should be emergent, reflective, and organic. Asking questions such as, “What social impact am I having on my organization?” and, “What can I do to have a different or more positive impact?” Appose to the binary portrayal of leaders acting and subordinates reacting.

Leaders can invoke and influence cultural changes by:

1. Communicating what is essential in employee interacting with employees
2. Promote framing conditions to augment the likelihood that certian ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving develop
3. Embracing new values and assumptions
4. Listening and watching for their resistance to cultural change
5. Listening to employee comments about the new cultural elements
6. Be aware of their organization’s cultures
7. By communicating what is critical, Leaders can influence the organization’s culture.

Personal and Professional ethics can conflict with Organizational culture by facilitating and undermining ethical decision making and behaviors. In the most fortunate situations, the values of our organizations will find our ethics to be socially responsible, similar, and supportable. Cultural elements can lead to unethical behavior, but the strategy for preventing this is based around the ultimate question: Can organizational culture be managed, and is this the way to do it? The answer is often a resounding, maybe, which is not what organizational leaders, managers, and executives wish to hear. Managers, executives, and leaders often aspire to forge an agreeable organizational culture to makes their organizations easier to manageable, but such a unitary culture is unlikely to develop.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ju3SPsmjQg

I was supposed to do a weekly blog post about my time in the dorm but with zero activities on campus and 0 roommates or friends, it’s been flat still. So, I started thinking about my next semester when I will definitely have some roommates. I was hoping they’d be good ones and then I realized it’s my last semester of college Before I start Driving after the world of the working and I don’t even have a tire.
So, lately I’ve been actually thinking about becoming a, well I’m not even sure what to call it anymore. Way back in 10th grade when I realized it I didn’t wanna be an astronaut and wanted to create entertainment. Then I started jumping from title to title; it started with video game animation, then regular animation, then story writing, screen-writing then I learned what a screenwriter actually does and wanted to become a director, auteur director. Now I’ve been getting really into comic books lately specifically DC and thinking the current stories I was invested in weren’t very good (Bat-family, Super sons, Justice League). As a writer, I started coming up with my own, now I’ve got at least 9 different fan fiction premises in my DC comic ideas folder.
However, despite what I call it the real issue, I’ve been having is just be breaking into the industry at all. I mean I’m well aware, or at least tell myself am aware of the unrelenting struggle that it is to become a content creator.
I often describe it like everyone else’s career paths as complicated obstacle courses, a difficult path to maneuver through but if you complete it, you’ll have your career. However, content creators are very different. It’s more akin to paying thousands of dollars, to be randomly fired out of a cannon at a target, ricocheted off said target onto another target and then maintaining that forever. A lot of work, money and time to maybe get close to something resembling your career.
I always figured I could get a job in the industry if I learned enough about the world of film and Production and could play multiple roles. (Filming, Writing, Editing) that’s going to be pretty difficult if I can’t even get a job in the industry. One thing everyone tells me is you need to get an internship ant the type of studious you’d want to work at. Seems pretty straight forward except getting a job in the industry is hard enough, looking for internships isn’t much easier. Few actually fit the beneficial role oppose (the wrong department, too far away, lack of skills) and the ones that do work for me, I don’t ever hear back from.
Another more modern option I could try is posting independent content online and while I do have the Wattpad page I’ve only recently started regularly using it after letting it sit for a few years. Same goes with my Celtx page which I only started using again because I needed to write a script for a script-pipeline contest. Why don’t I use them more often, writing is a very time-consuming job, chose to a school project/paper minus the results.
For the independent content, some suggest building a team or finding a partner which is easier said than done. One possible plus is that this semester upcoming I am going to be living on campus and final taking more classes in that are associated in my field. Maybe, I’ll be able to find some people who I can work with a partner-style? I might have already found one in one of my classes.
I think I might also need an artist; a lot of my primary original content ideas were live action and sitcom based. Although in the Past 2 years my ideas have been a lot more focused on animation-based shows, both cartoons, and anime. It’s why I took an interest in Comics in the first place. Now that I think about it, I’ve created concepts and stories for easily every type of genre. Months creators are lucky if they can Bring any of their ideas to life, let alone more than 1. Making small independent videos to post online is also difficult since based on the fact that I that most of my ideas are far too big for an independent college student to do.
I don’t know what to do, but this is what job at finders and career counselors are for right. I guess I know where I’ll be spending most of my time next semester. Or hey, maybe I’ll be that lucky 1 in a billion person who sells one of their 1st scripts or gets struck by lightning, around the same odds.

Well, the past week of dorm life has been uneventful to say the least. And by week I mean two day since actually stayed home the Monday and Tuesday of this week because my cousins wanted to meet up. I hadn’t done anything in a while with them so I gladly stuck around. I also missed one day of both of my classes this week.

On Tuesday I stupidly forgot my Laptop at home, while my first class is interactive (and I was already there) I stayed, however my second summer course is all note typing and reading. So Laptop was rather mandatory for that one, plus he said we get 3 free absents. I went home and then went to my cousins, good time.

The next day I moved back in with my back-pack primed to blow and a bag in hand. Wednesday really remind my how much I wished I could control time or at best start and stop it. First I would have stopped time when I woke up so I could get my self together and wouldn’t have to take a train that would get me to campus 20 min after class started. I had too much stuff to take to class so I went to my dorm first, a 10 minute walk run across campus. Fortunately I got luck and one of the campus trolleys was empty and was willing to take me half way there. Once I got to my dorm, took everything out of my back pack. I was going to leave for what was left of my 1st class but then my stomach started.

See, I take a medicine almost each morning and without getting to graphic or specific there are days when you could replace it with a laxative and I honestly wouldn’t know the difference. So yeah and considering the fact that my 1st class usually lets out a half-hour prior to my second I decided to just skip this one as well. Despite having a hour and 30 minute head start I still was 15 minutes late to the second class. How? Well, I figured I had time and started fapping about, I set a timer to tell me when to leave but when it went off I was not done but to far in to stop. I ask the professor what I missed yesterday, I was right and wrong he went over the notes but then also did an activity. Guess I didn’t have to leave.

Oh well, the rest of the day went fine, I worked out, showered, got and ate my food, posted something on Wattpad and downloaded this (new to me) PS4 game Kingdom Come Deliverance. It was worth the 42$ bucks, I played it from 8:00 to midnight, well 8:15 to midnight, I like to watch a few “before you start and beginner tips” videos before starting a video game.

I normally (as in last week) go home on Thursday but today I decided to stick around. My therapist told me that if I’m lonely on campus to stay until Thursday and Friday nights becuase that when people are usually doing stuff. Worth a shot, but it’s summer session, I really doubt anything’s going to happened worth writing home about.

For the next month or so I will be dorming at my college for the summer session.

As of now, it’s only been two days, but today really counts as the first full day because Monday was move in and Tuesday was going home to get stuff. Although I will admit going home after a night/morning on my own did remind me of the positives of living alone.

However, there has been one gigantic letdown, I don’t have a roommate. Now while that may seem like a plus to some, the main reason I wanted to dorm at all was that it would lead to forced social interaction. I don’t have a lot of friends, correction, I don’t have a lot of friends that I can talk to and see in person.

Context: If I want to talk to my best friend, I have to go to the gym and hope he’s there because he doesn’t respond to the message. I’ve like de-friended him twice only to forgive him into him 2 weeks later when I find out why he pissed me off and him not even of read the message or know I was upset.

Anyway, dorming was supposed to change that, I’d be living with someone my own age that wasn’t related to me. I dreamed up to perfect scenario where I had 3 perfect roommates; a creative roommate who shared my major so I could talk with them about film and screenwriting, a big jock roommate so I wouldn’t have to go to the gym and workout by myself and a social extroverted roommate who knew how to find parties and things to do in the outside world.

I know that my dream dorming scenario was never going to happen be still I was hoping for something or someone. I’ve spent past two days on campus, locking up my stuff, waiting for someone to knock and hoping that when I came back from class or out there’d be someone here to meet, but there wasn’t. I didn’t want to live by myself until I knew how to meet people outside of the home. Also, in this economy, I wasn’t going to be living on my own for a good couple of years after graduation so why get used to it. Had I’d known I’d be living alone, I honestly could have just tasking these summer course and gone home where all my stuff is.

You know what I’m being ungrateful, tons of people my age would probably trade places in a heartbeat. I don’t have to wait for the bathroom and can watch whatever I want on the TV a brought. The thing could be worse like I said the dream dorming scenario was a 1 in a million three-time shot. A jerk who thinks my ideas are dumb and career goals a silly, a sloth stoner who stinks up the dorm or a super introvert who goes into his room and hates me for no reason. It’s only the third day, maybe things will lighten up.

I really want to be able to post a weekly summary of my dorm days and hope I will.

Is this Nosedive or a picture of Real Life?

The Netflix’s series Black Mirror has done it again, with its season 3 premiere episode Nosedive, the 40 min. drama paints a wicked, superficial and downright unpleasant picture of the future of social media. A world we’re ever accepting of life of people’s life is social media, while one could argue that that’s life right now Nosedive presents our obsession with social media taken to little logical conclusion. I’m talking eye implants that let you see the world via stats, accounts to help manage your popularity and 5-star ratings used to judge … well … everything. Your ability to go in and out of places, your ability to take certain forms of transportation, yourself self-worth and how much you pay for things.

In fact, Our protagonist in this episode, Lacie many goals in the episode is to raise her rating above 4.4 so that she can get a discount on an apartment complex that from what I can tell is far too big for one person but according to the dealer agent it looks nice and photograph’s well. Unfortunately, Thru no fault of her own poor Lacie’s personal rating drops and then straight-up to Nosedive. However, without spoiling too much Lacie does eventually realize the pointlessness of it all and actually cries tears of joy at the freedom and beauty of the world once removed from the rating system. Albeit from a prison cell but the point still matters.

While I doubt anyone would be locked up from having to low a social media profile, many of the thing seen in Nosedive have already to some degree happened. How many times have we seen people lives turned upside down because of something they posted or did and got posted about. A Jobs, well how many times a week do you hear about some Facebook fool or twitter troll getting fired for put their foot in their mouth. As a student which dreams of a job in the film industry, I’ve already been told that the first thing people check is social media account rather than anything I’ve written.

Social Media is necessary to have a job in TV/Film, you’re not always judged by your ideas or work ethic but by what other people who you have 0 control over think of you. I have a twitter account but I never use it and whenever I go to delete my account that voice in my head whispers “what if you need it someday”.

Nosedive truly paints a picture of how a world of social media is unauthentic, unpredictable (Literally the whole nosedive thing started when she bumped into a woman jogging as she walked out of her house) and the extremely confining world.

5 Things I love about Halloween

I find just wandering around Costume shops and Halloween stores although I never buy them, I mean why spend 60$+ on a costume if your not going to be around no one is ever going to see but they’re really fun to look at, especially the props

Haunted Houses and Pumpkin Patches: All though it is rather depressing to do alone, If you can stomach the Jump-scare shocks and the October winds these thing are plenty of fun. A bring home a Free pumpkin for Decoration and mabye some candy.

Slice of Life Supernatural Television: What is it about “Monsters”, doing mundane things like going to school or going on dates that’s so entertaining.

• Monster High (Yeah, I’m 21 so? They Look awesome)
• Sabrina the teenage Witch (A little dated being from the late 90s, but whose done it better since?)
• Two gems from the Twilight era
  • Teen Wolf (Drama, Hot Guys and Monster)
  • My Babysitter’s a Vampire (Dumb Premise, Awesome Show and Execution)

The “Come as you aren’t” -ness of it all: Not everyone’s life is awesome so getting to be something your not. “Give a man a mask and hell become his true self”. People get to change their personality and not worry about person consequences. If you’re quiet and buttoned up you can put on a costume and be free and wild

Supernatural in general: I just love supernatural content. Casting spells, summoning darkness, sprout wing and fly, All Awesome. True most Super-naturals lately has become Superpowers but still it’s so fun to think about. My favorite super-naturals are Sirens and Magic Casters (Witches, Wizards, Hoodoo). Am I the only one whose ever just searched online for Tv Shows where character use verbal spells or sing songs with.

Establishment comedy vs. Progressive comedy

In modern politics, there are two groups of people the majority of Establishment and the minority of Progressives. They’re in the candidates, the news reporters, and the media. My topic of choice today is late-night talk shows. The comedians and writers have a difficult job of watching and binging on news cycles, taking the information and converting them into punchlines, jokes, and skits.

The six comedians I’m referring to (mainly because they are the only ones I watch) are Stephen Colbert, Samantha Bee, Bill Maher, John Oliver, Trevor Noah and Seth Meyers.
The Establishment or Progressive status is hard to decipher on face value as I don’t know any of the comics personally and only have their content to go by. It’s also somewhat difficult to determine since they’re all owned in some way or another by an extensive network corporation. However, you can tell from the subjects that they cover, the topics that they talk about and the way they go about it.

Now before I get started, I just want to be clarified I like all these comics especially Samantha Bee and being considered establishment does not make them by any means wrong, but I think I’ve learned the difference between establishment and progressive presentations.

Establishment: the establishment comics focus on the more story of the day hot topic news cycle, the Russia stories, the Stormy Daniels stories and the racist tweets of the week. The subject of their stories while important are often done to death.

Stephen Colbert: I enjoy Stephen’s wit and music humor, but while he has praised progressives on his show his questions tend to be on the more establishment side. For example, with Cynthia Nixon, he basically was asking her “Why are you complaining and getting into Andrew Cuomo’s way?” Also, Colbert more than any other comics, seem to revel in the Stormy Daniels and Russia stories. He’s given Ms. Daniels (whose real name is Stephanie A. Gregory Clifford, has he even mentioned it?) their own fancy intro. While with Mrs. Daniels story it is worth mentioning that the affair took place years ago and was consensual, compared to the (I think) 24 women who didn’t have a consensual sexual encounter with the president Stephen has also done entire 10-minute monologues on the Russia investigation and even did a full week in Russia as a special. While Russia is a significant topic, his corruption stem to other nations such as Saudi Ariba and Jerusalem. Although in one of his more recent monologues (7/27/18) Stephen said how life on other planets was discovered and that wasn’t even remotely close to the top story of the day.

Samantha Bee: I enjoy her personality and really think that she’d make a kickass progressive as she’s not above “crude” humor and there’s something so satisfying about watching Samantha bee tear apart the Republican party. However, there’s definitely a heavy Hilary establishment bias in her shows context. One example is how as of this recording she still at least to my knowledge hasn’t even mentioned Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a woman of color who meets all of her political standards. Another issue is that Samantha strikes me as one of those people who truly believe Bernie Sanders is the reason Hillary lost. Her coverage of him has not been kind, there was a segment on how the Bernie bros were pissed about the DNC rigging and that they didn’t have a real case for rage. However, when the DNC rigging against Bernie was discovered to be true, there was 0 apology, not even a quick (Guess, we got it wrong). Sam has also compared Bernie to Ted Cruz in her segment “CNN had it in them the whole time” considering him “a mansplaining tit,” an insult many commenters on YouTube have corrected her on. Although, it’s worth mentioning that in that same segment Samantha pointed out CNN’s weakness and called Joe Manchin a wimp. Also, she referred to Hillary Clinton as a progressive which isn’t at all accurate (unfortunately).

Bill Maher: Much like Samantha Bee I like his personality (except for his opinions on millennials) Bill’s understandably very anti-trump, but that just means he’s a decent thinking human being. He’s called the Democrats pushovers before which is true. However, Bill Maher has genuinely embraced the DNC message of Donald Trump is the sole reason for everything that’s wrong with the country and getting rid of him would make the world make sense again. It’s not corporate Democrats such as Nancy Pelosi (whom Bill seems to like a lot) or the actual struggles that lead to middle Americans voting for Trump. Bill Maher has stated (I believe) that he’d actually would rather Mike pence to Trump which means Bill’s unaware of the fact that Mike and Donald have a lot of the same policies it’s just that Donald is a loud mouth moron and Pence actually knows how to be president. The negative policies don’t seem to bother him.

Progressive: They call out and jokes at the problems with Democrats and Republicans including news outlets, politicians, and policies.

Trevor Noah: He seems to be a Bernie supporter as he regularly mentions it when something Bernie said comes up and did a pretty positive video when Berne first started burning. He also mentioned Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez the day after she won, although his recent interview with her left could have been better.

Seth Meyers: In recent months his videos and dialogue have had a much more progressive of direction pointing out the establishment and angles of specific topics such as corruption and hypocrisy. Seth has also been known to call out stories created solely for distractions from issues. Just YouTube search “Seth Meyers moderate democrat” There will be a video about why democratic moderates are ineffective. There was a video supporting Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on the day she won as well.
Amber Wolf, Jim Jefferey, and Jordan Klepper have also who I either found Trevor or Seth are also pretty progressive in there shows.

John Oliver: While I don’t have much to go on and with his personal opinions on anything, one of the reasons I like John Oliver is because he does what a lot of mainstream news outlets should do. John Oliver might be the only comic to ever do lengthy (talking 15 to 20 minutes) segments on non-Hot Topics of the week. John Oliver’s segments not only go into further detail than most major news networks but cover topic such as 3rd party candidates, events, and elections outside the country, infrastructure, rehab, school systems, etc. Most mainstream news outlets discuss stories that are exciting to make their context watchable, John Oliver, on the other hand, does research and segments on stories that are not popular and makes them watchable. An I know not a lot shows both comedic and News can do that but maybe they should strive to.

In conclusion, while many of these guys are just comics, they’re not news personalities or reporters, so their job is to entertain. So, it’s somewhat understandable that some of them usually go with the more entertaining story. Plus, some of them live in a political bubble (upper/blue class), and people like that can lose perspective on the desires of the country. The only reason I even bring this up is that since I started watching all of them, I’ve often daydream and fantasize about having my own show like them. And in those daydreams, I tend to use my platform to be progressive, such as a segment of the so-called “far-left which isn’t that far and not so crazy. Plus, many voters and citizens watch comedians like them for their information. Unfortunately, the traditional media outlets of today have become somewhat stale, and when overwhelmed it’s easier to take bad news with a punchline.

In one of my classes at college I had to write a research paper and choose the drug war, I don’t use drugs I have asthma and ADD, which is enough. However I found the fact that own current system allows a persons entire life to entire be completely turn upside-down or ruined by our current system bothered me.

Abstract
This research paper explains and presents the positive benefits of ending the current war of drugs in the United states via medical, social and judicial data. The medical material consists of information on the physical and psychological effects of the medical marijuana on patients and mentions the current opioid crisis. The societal material consists of information on the public drug war opinion among American citizens, the job creating plus economic benefits and ways parents and schools can properly educate minors on the difficult subject. The judicial material consists of information on the current punishments for drug possession, the police activity known as civil asset forfeiture, and the effects of the arrests on the lives of citizens once paroled. There is a paragraph explaining the war on drugs origin back in the 1970’s. The informative and quotes sources consist of articles from large news outlets such as CNN and PBS articles as well as information from science and drug-use blogs.

Benefits of ending the war on drugs

Who’s ever been stressed? Who’s ever had persistent pain? Who has ever been bored and just needed to kill a few hours? Well, the solution to all of those problems is the legalization of certain drugs, via ending the drug war. Drugs, it is not just a prop used by musicians to look edgy or television/movies to imply risky or wild behavior. Drugs, especially marijuana, are plant-based substances with multiple properties for recovery and recreation that should be made legal in this country by ending the war on drugs. From medical research, societal opinions, to the justice systems actions, the war on drugs is something that needs to be stopped and left in the pages of history

Literature Review
One drug outlawed in many places due to the drug war is marijuana, despite the multiple medical uses. Medications made from cannabis extract have demonstrated the ability to relieve and suppress pain. Medical marijuana alone has been proven effective against neuropathic pain, appetite loss in HIV/Aids patients and nausea/vomiting caused by chemotherapy. Medical marijuana can be used when conventional treatment does not affect the patient symptoms. (Deutsches Aerzteblatt International, 2012) “Over 100 controlled trials of the effects of cannabinoids in various indications have been carried out since 1975. The positive results have led to official licensing of cannabis-based medications in many countries. In Germany, a cannabis extract was approved in 2011 for treatment of spasticity in multiple sclerosis” (1). Despite rumors that medical marijuana is a gateway to harder drugs, it has been proven better at solving muscle spasms than the physically and psychologically addictive pharmaceuticals and opioids which have been proven to lead to more dangerous drug use.

Cannabis is a depressant, usually, and can be used by soldiers and people with mental disabilities to treat insomnia, anxiety, migraines, depression and bipolar disorder (Jay Smoker, 2011) “When paired with a good psychiatrist, with an accredited psychology degree, medical marijuana is a very effective and natural remedy” (2). Insomnia; a pot brownie with a glass of warm milk can be a desirable alternative to habit-forming drugs such as Xanax. Many users report sleeping through the night with pleasant dreams and feeling clear-minded and relaxed when they woke. Migraines; these horrible headaches are caused by an overload of neural stimulation. Medical marijuana has also relieved other migraine symptoms such as nausea and light-sensitivity. Anxiety, Depression and Bipolar Disorder; While weed has been known to cause mild anxiety, most people experience a slowing down of thought processes which helps break up some of the troubling cyclical thought patterns. These feelings along with the mood-elevating effects are the return to sanity that sufferers of these metal disorders desire.

People say that all drugs are dangerous, people will get hooked just from being in the same room as them and overdose on the first use. Now with some drugs, this is true, Second-Hand cigarette smoke is toxic, and bath salts wreck people. Although, not all drugs are created equally. Researchers with knowledge on the subject have stated (DEA brief Judge Francis Young, 1988) “It is estimated that marijuana’s [median lethal dose] is around 1:20,000 or 1:40,000. In layman terms, this means that in order to induce death a marijuana smoker would have to consume 20,000 to 40,000 times as much marijuana as is contained in one marijuana cigarette” (3). For a better visual aid, someone would have to smoke around two mattresses of cannabis in 15 minutes to overdose from Marijuana. So, unless a bunch of YouTubers try to make that the next stupid challenge everything should be fine. Cocaine has been said by users to increase concentration, confidence, and creativity. These are just some of the effects of some currently illegal drugs. Fortunately, this information has become pretty well known to the public.

The American People over the years have been becoming more and more aware of the effects and realities of drugs and want them legalized. (Tony Newman, 2014) “Two Out of Three (around 67%) Americans Think People Shouldn’t Be Prosecuted for Possession of Drugs Such as Cocaine and Heroin; 63% Support Moving Away from Mandatory Minimums; 54% Support Marijuana Legalization” (4). The economic benefits of legalizing, taxing and regulating drugs have been shown in the economy of states where drugs are legal. Most drugs originate from plants, if drugs laws were altered so they could be sold in stores, it would create multiple jobs. Farmers have to grow and maintain it, truckers and delivery services will have to transport it, stores both big and small will have to sell it, which in turn would create a lot of decent jobs.

In the 20’s and 30’s, prohibition was enforced throughout the country, though it did not work as many individuals naturally found alternative ways of obtaining alcohol and drugs. (Norm Stamper, 2011) “Prohibition did little to curb liquor consumption, particularly among young people. Moreover, as otherwise law-abiding citizens were suddenly deemed criminals, the resulting hypocrisy significantly undermined respect for authority” (5). These laws allowed the mobs and gangs of Al Capone and Charles (“Lucky”) Luciano to gain power since they were mainly the monopoly, and people would be arrested if they reported they are crimes to the authorities. Compared to the modern drug-gangs that ravage inner cities and various borders, it seems like history is repeating itself. The damage the cartels have done to Mexico alone speaks for itself ending the drug war would be a lot more useful than increasing ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and the stupid Border Wall.

Parents, teachers and people, in general, have always said how dangerous drugs are. And to a degree, they are right as drugs are not for children and can be addictive. However, if children are a primary source of concern then why don’t we teach them about moderation the same way we teach about alcohol, cigarettes or sex. Teachings such as “you should not have or use it until you are of a mature age and are a safe stable enviorment.” apply to drugs. Even our former president Barack Obama has said: (Christoper Ingraham, 2016) “…marijuana use should be treated as a public-health issue similar to tobacco or alcohol and called the current patchwork of state and federal laws regarding the drug untenable” (6). While drugs such as marijuana can alter, and slow brain development alcohol and cigarettes are literally made of poison, they have merely been given age restrictions. It is true most drugs such as crack and opioids are addictive especially for people with addictive personalities, but nicotine patches and alcoholism exist so why are not the substances related to them illegal? People say that drugs can make people go crazy or lose control, but the internet is filled with videos of drunk people doing crazy things. There is not much that can be said about most illegal drugs that can’t be said about legal alcohol and cigarettes.

Methodology
Even people who do not use drugs, would rather it be legal than see people they know and admire be arrested, locked up and labeled as drug offenders. The justice system’s current approach towards drugs is causing more harm than good. As previously mentioned, the parents who do not want their kids to do drugs, would rather instead discipline them at home then let the courts and police do it. According norml.org page on federal laws and Penalties “Possession of marijuana is punishable by up to one year in jail and a minimum fine of one thousand dollars for a first conviction” (7). Any good parent would agree that having their child spend six to twelve days grounded is better than six to twelve months in prison with an one thousand dollar fine. This is especially true for addicts who for some need to be helped as victims not locked away like convicts.

Many citizens, especially minors have their lives ruined when they are caught with drugs because they are often charged as low-level drug offenders, the same as actually drug dealers. A man who merely brings pot-brownies to a small get together with his friends can be charged the same as a dangerous gang leader. The former President Barack Obama was aware of the injustice and while in office did, what he could. (Jacob Sullum, 2017) “The list of Obama’s 1,715 commutations includes many other examples of nonviolent offenders who received lengthy sentences but could not reasonably be described as major dealers, let alone kingpins. National Association of Assistant United States Attorneys (NAAUSA) wants us to pretend those people do not exist.” (8) Once released from prison many people have a terrible time finding work because despite doing their time in prison people do not wish to hire ex-criminals.

Police officers, often with minorities, use the suspicion of them being under the influence of drugs such as marijuana or cocaine to arrest people, a charge that can be made with little to no physical evidence. Moreover, if they are not arrested then they might get robbed, thanks to a particular power given to Police officers, called civil asset forfeiture. Most dictionaries define forfeiture as “loss of some right or property as a penalty for some illegal act,” and its suppose just to be used to take money from drug dealers, but it does not stop there. Current forfeiture laws allow individual officers to seize property from people suspected to be involved in drug-related activity. Once collected, that revenue is supposed to be used to strengthen law enforcement. In other words, vehicles used to transport drugs or cash can be confiscated.

However, there are two types of Forfeitures, civil and criminal, and civil asset forfeiture is often used for high-profile abuses by authorities. Criminal law, the government seizes an accused person’s property as punishment if its owner has been convicted of a crime, so that person is considered innocent until proven guilty according to the justice system. Civil law changes things up as it is not the owner being charged but the property itself which is considered “guilty” until proven innocent. The owner can only do this in a courtroom which takes time and money that not everyone has. So, if a police officer thinks a random person’s car or paycheck is somehow drug-related, they can take it, and said random person would have to go to court to get it back. Many officers are aware of this, as the PBS special report on civil asset forfeiture stated (Kyla Dunn, 2018) “Last year, almost a billion dollars’ worth of cash, cars, boats, real estate, and other property was forfeited to the federal government–most of it labeled as drug-related. Moreover, while much of this property was taken from bona fide criminals, critics of the nation’s forfeiture laws say that too many innocent people have fallen through the cracks in a system that, until recently, has been far too heavily slanted in the government’s favor.” (9) If drugs were made legal, this power would be removed or at least be weakened.

The final reason for ending the war on drugs is that the original politicians the Nixon administration that started the whole thing did not do it for health or safety reasons. The original ban on drugs was implemented by the Regan administration to target voters of the opposing political party. According to former workers in a CNN report (LoBianco, T. 2016) “ You understand what I am saying? We knew we could not make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin. Moreover, then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities,” Ehrlichman said. “We could arrest their leaders. Raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course, we did.” (10) This entire war which has cost numerous lives, tax dollars, reputations and time was all because a few politicians in the 1980s wanted to assure their election victory again democrats better. This action is the political equivalent of banning guns and alcohol to reduce voter turn out of the Republican party and unfortunately it worked.

Conclusions and Future Study
Health and Societal Scientific evidence strongly suggests the benefits of drug legalization outweigh the cons or side effects. While there are many reports about drugs that warrant legal action, many are either false or exaggerated. As more and more data is coming out on the benefits as well as the change in public opinion which while lead to political figure acting in accordance to what the people want. People must keep voting for pro-weed and anti-drug war candidates until there are enough to achieve the final goal of Drug Legalization at the Federal level. Medically, socially and political the drug war is a significant inhibitor of the American people and change in some way, or another is what the citizens of this great nation wants.

References:
APA format
1. Cannabis As Painkiller — ScienceDaily. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/08/120807101232.htm
2. Smoker, J. (2011, August 12). Top 5 Mental Conditions Treated With Marijuana. Retrieved March 20, 2018, from https://www.theweedblog.com/theweedblog/culture/top-5-mental-conditions-treated-with-marijuana-lBm0srAXq0SdofZzMUskcw
3. Lamar, C. (2012, March 08). How many joints would you have to smoke to die of a marijuana overdose? Retrieved March 20, 2018, from https://io9.gizmodo.com/5891425/how-many-joints-would-you-have-to-smoke-to-die-of-a-marijuana-overdose
4. Drug Policy Alliance. (2018). New Pew Poll Confirms Americans Ready to End War on Drugs. [online] Available at: http://www.drugpolicy.org/press-release/2014/04/new-pew-poll-confirms-americans-ready-end-war-drugshttp://www.drugpolicy.org/press-release/2014/04/new-pew-poll-confirms-americans-ready-end-war-drugs [Accessed 20 Mar. 2018].
5. Stamper, N. (2011, 09). Prohibition: A parallel to modern war on drugs. Seattle Times. Retrieved 03, 2018, from https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/prohibition-a-parallel-to-modern-war-on-drugs/
6. Ingraham, C. (2016, November 30). Obama says marijuana should be treated like ‘cigarettes or alcohol.’ Retrieved March 20, 2018, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/11/30/obama-says-marijuana-should-be-treated-like-cigarettes-or-alcohol/?utm_term=.726205df4259
7. FEDERAL Laws & Penalties – NORML.org – Working to Reform Marijuana Laws, Norml.org, http://norml.org/laws/item/federal-penalties-2
8. Sullum, J. (2017). Federal Prosecutors Say They Never See Low-Level Drug Offenders. [online] Reason.com. Available at: https://reason.com/blog/2017/05/30/federal-prosecutors-say-they-never-see-l [Accessed 20 Mar. 2018].
9. Pbs.org. (n.d.). Special Reports – Reining In Forfeiture | Drug Wars | FRONTLINE | PBS. [online] Available at: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/drugs/special/forfeiture.html [Accessed 20 Mar. 2018].
10. LoBianco, T. (2016). Report: Nixon’s war on drugs targeted black people. [online] CNN. Available at: https://www.cnn.com/2016/03/23/politics/john-ehrlichman-richard-nixon-drug-war-blacks-hippie/index.html [Accessed 20 Mar. 2018].

Before I start this, the entire post is link heavy, I know I’d hate if someone was talking about a character and referencing moments but didn’t leave some kind of link for people to see them.
Let me make it clear, I don’t dislike Harley Quinn, I dig every version of her. I even base a clown princess’ abilities and style of Harley Quinn. (Although to be fair Joker and Harley Quinn have become the tropes of super-clown anything). However, I don’t think it’s right to just lump her in with the actual anti-heroes of DC because of a few things.
Her origin, even those it’s been ret-conned like 4 times is that of a Fallen Hero similar to Two-Face a person who was trying to do good, Harvey Dent was a district attorney, and she was a psychologist but due to circumstances became a villain. Harley Quinn’s story is a tragedy, but it’s not like she was a superhero prior or was forced. Even when she “leaves Joker, she’s doesn’t exactly quit crime” (https://youtu.be/mK7u9bqvknc)
Her behavior, She still does whatever she wasn’t legal or not; such as breaking into Arkham asylum when she needs to get someone (Poison Ivy or Mason) out or breaking into someone’s house to get a dog although the story’s ending is really sweet. (https://youtu.be/BkwXei0_XKk).
A good comparison is Red Hood: Jason Todd kills as much as Harley Quinn (or at least wants to). However, there is a difference. Jason’s doing it because he wants to reduce crime, and he only hurts other criminals. An even when Harley Quinn does do that, she does sh*t like this (https://comicnewbies.com/2017/11/25/harley-quinns-revenge-on-mayor-deperto/)
Her time on the Suicide Squad doesn’t count because they’re being forced; watch what happens the second the squad all realize that the neck bombs aren’t active: (https://youtu.be/vbzxhrcqQpM?t=4m30s)
In my opinion, her comics are more slice of life, we see her going on vacation, running for mayor and defending Brooklyn. (In injustice she’s a hero.) Her crossovers aren’t “side by side butt kicking” as they are ” you’re not a real threat so you can tag along.” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZS-wbZ7Vjo)
The Arkham game isn’t canon, but this is a pretty good live action version of the character. In the Asylum and City, she’s a complete sidekick while knight shows her as the villainous gang leader. There isn’t much to say about the origins version of her. However, she seems a little hostile towards Batman even after he saves her. In her Knight DLC level, She isn’t as much killing the police officers as much as she is running around knocking them aside with a metal-bat, knocking them out with non-lethal laughing gas and usually explosives.
(this is a long one with game spoilers, it just shows what she does throughout the series: https://youtu.be/diQ9m6pdSGg)
In my opinion, if they wanted to include the possible anti-hero angle, the developer could have put a part in the games main story (this shouldn’t spoil too much) where Harley help Batman. One example; when she’s in the bat-bases holding cell, and Batman needs to go save Robin (Tim Drake) they could have kept Poison Ivy around and had her call in Batman needing help. Desperate and unable to save both Batman tells Harley that despite her rage towards him Poison Ivy is her friend and she is in trouble (Maybe she hears Ivy scream offer the communicator), and Harley Quinn decides to help by taking out the soldiers attacking Ivy and her plant. However, this wouldn’t even be Anti-hero activity it would just be Harley Quinn doing something heroic for personal reasons.

So, while I don’t consider her a true anti-hero, Harley Quinn is also not a real villain. She’s in the gray area between the two categories (at least at the moment of the post) which is kind of where I like her.