The REAL Digital Natives

ENA students are clearly the real digital natives while CEM students are merely digital immigrants. The statistical result shows this. Among the students, 48.9 % of ENA students versus only 35.9 % of CEM students accept technology when asked how they feel about it. Also 2.6 % of CEM students versus 0 % of ENA students claim to be uncomfortable with electronic devices. Furthermore, we can observe that ENA students are more likely to use a computer for varied reasons with 75 % using one for both work and entertainment whereas only 59 % of CEM students use computers this way. In addition, ENA students have a bigger tendency to get their news from technological devices such as television, radio and internet. CEM students mostly get their news from friends and family which is far from being technological. Finally, ENA students show a better understanding of the dangers of technology. Indeed, 38.5 % of CEM students blindly assume a news report is true and will feel better informed. Only 25 % of ENA students react this way. For their part, ENA students show that they are more aware that many journalists give their own point of view and are trying to influence our opinion. In conclusion, ENA students are more at ease with technology and use it better than their CEM counterparts. They are the clear digital natives.
Bob and Hugo

Digital natives

A few weeks back, students from two institutions in Quebec – the Édouard-Montpetit College (CEM) and the National Institute of Aeronautics (ENA) – had to answer a survey named Who are the real digital natives? The first thing to know is that the questionnaire was available on internet so the participants needed to be already familiar with the computer technology. There were 48 students from ENA who answered and only 40 from CEM which could prove that ENA students are more comfortable with technology.

Despite of this, the data that was gathered shows that ENA students are more versatile with their computer since 75% use it to do both work and entertainment while only 59% are able to do so. The survey also showed that in 95.7% of the cases, ENA students love or at least accept technology while the percentage is of 92.3% for the CEM students. The survey showed that 2.6% of CEM students are not comfortable with electronic devices while this number drops to 0% of the ENA students.

With all the data captured we can say that the ENA students could be categorized as ‘’Digital Natives’’ and the CEM students as ‘’Digital Immigrants.’’ What these terms mean is that the CEM students had to adapt more and still have to adapt to technology when the ENA students are more familiar and comfortable with it.

Longueuil Students Are Obviously Digital Natives

For multiple reasons, CEM students are obviously Digital Natives. We concluded this based on the results obtained by a survey given to all the students of the class of English from both campuses, which are ENA (Saint-Hubert) and CEM (Longueuil). The students from the CEM chose that they loved at 56.4% the technology, but here in ENA, we accept it and love it equally at approximately 47%. In Longueuil city, the students share more stuff on the internet than people in Saint-Hubert campus. A lot more blogs are created there too, 30.8% of the learners at Longueuil do it instead of 2.1% here. More CEM scholars use the computer mainly for work, and more people use it for entertainment, here we use it for half and half. Every disciple at the CEM knew what a blog was and some Digital Natives were also some expert creators, 5.1%. Here, 6.3% didn’t even know what a blog was. Much more people at Longueuil upload stuff on the net than here in Saint-Hubert, that gives us the final reason why the apprentices of CEM are Digital Natives. Briefly, at the ENA, the people are more serious on the computer than at Edouard-Monpetit, because they use it more for entertainment and communication.
Jérémy and André

Longueuil Rules the Digital World

It`s clearly shown that Longueuil student love technology more than ÉNA students. Longueuil students overpower the others in creating websites and blogs with 28.7 per percent greater than those of ÉNA. Furthermore, 12.8 per cent of Longueuil students post themselves as experts and creators when it comes to using You Tube and Facebook. The students at Longueuil are from a younger generation and are brought up with computers, so they are the digital natives. Statistics will show that 71.8 per cent of Longueuil students will get their news from the Internet opposed to TV and radio. Students at ÉNA use computers for work 2.1 per cent of the time opposed to Longueuil students who use it more. According to statistics, there are 2.6 per cent of students in Longueuil that aren’t comfortable using electronic devices; however, there is still more than half of the students that like technology. The statistics show that Longueuil students have better interest in using computer or technology than ENA students in every category. The fact that at Longueuil there are more women and that explains why there is a higher percentage of chatters, bloggers and Facebook users. In conclusion, students in Longueuil uses technology more than students in ENA and by far.

Buydehydratewater.com

The website buydehydratedwater.com is a site that uses false information to sell a product, the website is a front organisation. The word dehydrate means ‘’no water’’ or to extract water from somewhere or from something that is one of the reason to confirm that this website is unreliable. Furthermore, there is no information on the creator or sponsor of the website to check a background. The website was created to sell dehydrated water, they use false information to make people buy their product. There is none reliable information inside. The website’s trying to change the readers opinion, for example they said ‘’ Stop drinking tap water. Stop drinking well water. Refuse to touch water from desalination plants’’. The creator used lots of visual contents to attract people to buy the product. There are many hoax websites which uses the falsehood to present information like true, but people should be aware to avoid being duped.

Buydehydratedwater.com

This site is obviously a hoax. There is no information about the author, the address of the company is not a real one, not having and actual street name or number and the phone number that is provided is actually a number to call telemarketing services (Google search). Though the text is generally error free, there are a couple spelling mistakes which reduces their credibility. As for the subject of the site, it is the main clue that the site is a hoax. This site promotes the sale of dehydrated water, which cannot exist by principal of dehydration. They basically sell you an empty package with the name dehydrated water on it. Also the site advertises career and franchise opportunities that are very sarcastic in nature such as ″Free transportation to work by mule″ or ″Ketchup packets from McDonalds″. Overall the site is pretty convincing and well made, but once you think about the concept itself and rummage through the site a bit to see the touches of humour, you soon realize that it is a scam.

Buydehydratedwater.com

The website is owned by a company which name is the same of their internet address. No names are given on the website. The formation of the people that sells the dehydrated water is unknown, so we don’t have any references about the product reliability. No links are present about the author/sponsor of this product, only phone numbers are given. No reputable sources and pertinent information are present. No spelling and grammatical errors are apparent. There is no information good for any research on this website because they only tell us that the water in the world is polluted and they give us testimonials about people that drink dehydrated water. There is no information on this website that can be found easily, because no valuable things are said on this website. The last update of the website is not given. The latest date given is in the year 2004. The links given are correct, but refers to things that have nothing in common to dehydrated water (example: http://www.universityofnigeria.com/ ). The headquarters of the company is located in Los Angeles, CA. But there is no address given. The website is designed to tell people that water is polluted. They are trying to sell us “dehydrated water”. The way that the website is constructed let us doubt about the legitimacy of it. In the background of the site there is publicity about the product itself. It’s obliviously a hoax site. The information given on this site is worthless.

Funding for the Arts.

The ad starts with a famous French Canadian singer trying to promote his culture to English Canadian jury to get some money to promote his culture in France. The ad is filled with funny dialogs. In fact, dialogs between French and English speaking Canadians are funny because it shows a couple of misunderstandings. While the French Canadian is singing his song, the jury understands few words that may sound vulgar in English. At the beginning and at the end of the ad, we can hear the narrator to put us in the concept of the ad. The ad does use music, but not as background music, but as a sign of French Canadian culture. The jury isn’t as clear as the singer is. It looks like it represents darkness. At the end, we can see a big printed statistic that clearly shows the idea of the ad. The target audience is all the French speaking Canadians, and not for the English speaking Canadians. The main goal of this ad is to persuade us that our culture is very important and we should fund it. The statistic they give us at the end greatly shows that it is important to promote our culture around the world, even in an economical view.

Molson Beer (Canada)

The commercial features a man named Joe, who is standing in the front of the screen of a movie theatre. He is trying to define what a Canadian is and is not in his monologue. The commercial is using a humorous method to describe it, and camera angles are not putting him in the center. In the beginning, he is shy and searching for his words, but as the commercial moves on, he gains confidence in himself. In the end, the camera angles are centering on him. At the end, he is really valorising Canada, and at that moment, we see our Canadian flag, followed by the words “I AM CANADIAN”. At the moment the word CANADIAN appears, it’s shown on a glass being filled with Molson Canadian beer. This creates a climax at the end with the product, letting us know that true Canadians drink Molson Canadian beer.

Berlitz

BERLITZ
The ad tells a story of a new German Coast Guard radio operator who receives a distress
call from a sinking ship. He misunderstands the distress call due to his poor English
language literacy. The main actors interact by radio communication. The radio operator is unsure of his tasks and is unconfident of his communication skills. The tone of the ad is serious with a humorous twist. It employs the music Carmina Burana which expresses the desire for directness of communication. The target audience is English non-speakers.
The message of the ad is that English language skills are vital for critical international tasks. The intention is to inform people to learn English. The commercial is very effective at delivering the message and is very inspiring to all who yearn for good communication in English.

Molson Canadian beer ad

In the Molson Canadian beer commercial the company use an original idea to advertise their product. It is a guy on a stage with a big screen behind him displaying images related to Canadians. The ad uses myths about Canadians to make it look funny and more attractive. The guy on the stage doesn’t really have a dialogue; it’s more a monologue that comes with a dramatic music to push the effect further. To make the commercial even more interesting, the company use various camera angles. The tone is humorous and serious at the same time. The target audience is essentially young Canadian because in the commercial the actor looks young and the speech is about Canadian. They want the people to watch that commercial and see themselves in that guy because they’re proud of being Canadian. He drinks Canadian beer so they want to drink it. Personally we think that the ad is effective because it delivers the message clearly and shortly. The only problem with the commercial is that the product only targets a small public: the Canadians.

"Use seatbelts" advetrisement

The advertisement which is about using seatbelts in cars begins with calm music and a beautiful landscape as a background. Then the sound of a crash can be hear and you see the “soul” of the dead people in car, going up to heaven expect one men which was wearing his seatbelt. In this advertisement, there is neither dialogue nor narrator and the tone of the ad is very serious. The music in the ad reinforces the idea that the seatbelt is a saviour, that it can save your life if a car accident happens. Special effects (the spirits) are use in the advertisement. Without them, it couldn’t have been made. Also, at the end of this advertisement, the words “Heaven can wait. Belt up” appears which one more time reinforces the seatbelt importance. This ad is targeting people around 20-30 years old that are driving because the three people in the car are around this age. This advertisement intention is about the security on the road and it perfectly delivers his message.

Funding of the Arts

As we all know Quebec is a little French province inside a big English country. Because of history people from Quebec grow up with a negative prejudice on Federal government. This video expresses it in a very particular and especially funny way. It is a parody of the representative from Quebec trying to get funds for culture and arts from the Canadian Government. In real life the Federal Government made a large cut on Quebec’s cultural and arts funds. As this video is made by Pro-Quebecois, they are trying to laugh at the Federal government to give a revolution feeling to the population. They want us to let the Federal government know we’re not happy about that cut. In fact, the main difference between English speaking and French speaking people is the language. As a result, people who speak a language they don’t need or care about will automatically have major oral and written weaknesses and this is what they are trying to exploit in this video. This video is really attracting because it has many things inside that are liked by Quebecois, such as “La complainte du phoque en Alaska”, a very popular song from Beau Dommage. We can see two really well known faces from Quebec in this video too: Michel Rivard and Stéphane Rousseau. Another thing that hits our curiosity is the last sentence brought at the complete end of the video; it mentions that every simple dollar put in the culture and arts will bring up to 10 or 11 times more direct or indirect earnings. All this put together makes a very successful advertising because it gets to Quebec people feelings and brings out the inferiority complex many Quebecois have against the Federal Government. We can be sure it brought many discussions around the dinner table.

The F-22 Raptor

This aircraft is produced by Lockheed Martin for the USAF (United States Air Force). It is the
first tactical stealth fighter of the USAF. The RAM (radar material absorbent) and the over-all triangular shape are stealth elements. Every part reduces the RCA (radar cross section) beams. Finally it is powered by two turbofans from Pratt & Whitney.

Which students are more digital?

There is no doubt about it: CEM (longueuil) students are the real digital natives. According to the Survey Results of Student Media Habits and Technology, 56.4 % of the students from CEM love technology compared to 46.8% from students from ENA(St-Hubert). If we look at what kind of things do students use their computer for, the results are very similar for both groups. However, 30.8% of the students from CEM create websites, blogs, etc, whereas only 2.1% use that technology in this way in the other group. This can also be demonstrated from the 4^th question in the survey. 5.1 % of CEM students claim having an expertise when it comes to post and create things on the internet, but no one from ENA is capable. This is noticeable through statistics: 30.8% compared to 18.8%. Furthermore, all students from CEM clearly understand the meaning of a blog while 6.2% on the ENA side have never heard of this term. In addition, creating websites and blogs require time and effort from the user; therefore this shows that CEM students are more comfortable with their computers.

The real digital natives

To start with, most of the ENA students love or accept technology; exactly 95.7%. ENA students don’t use the technology for silly things like looking at friends pictures or looking at their facebook account, 66.7% of our people check out the pictures against 74.4% at CEM and 54.2% of the ENA use it for facebook against 74.4%. That shows how digital immigrants the CEM students are; they don’t really know what to do with the Internet. They get hung up in little useless stuff. On the other hand we use it more for homework. 50% of our usage of the computer is for work and the other half is entertainment. The CEM have the third of their students using it only for entertainment, another proof of our “nativeness”. Their experience in technology is mostly oriented toward entertainment and the ENA is more oriented to research. Also in this survey we see that the ENA students are more critical about information than the CEM showing that we use the technology more wisely than them. Being digital native or immigrant is not a big deal but still, ENA students have proven something here.

ÉNA students are the real digital natives

The ÉNA students are a lot more comfortable with electronic devices. Statistics shows that 2.6% of the students from CEM are not familiar with technology compared to 0% for the average ÉNA student. To be an effective aircraft technician, you need to be skilled with different technologies that exist in our daily life. The main purposes for technology usage for the CEM students are mainly for entertainment rather than a work tool. Thirty-tree percent of the CEM students use technology for personal interest. It is proven by these stats that the ÉNA students use computers and electronics mainly for homework purposes and work related subjects.

When it comes to finding worldwide information such as the news, the ÉNA student has the advantage of using technology over the CEM students. Sources like TV, radio and internet are used widely by the average ÉNA student. Over 75% of the ÉNA student uses technology to provide them with effective information. CEM students still prefer the good old method of friend-to-friend sharing when it comes to spread the news.

In the end, the statistic shows that the ÉNA student is more open to technology weather it’s for information or even work.

CEM and ENA: Who’s the real Digital Native?

The ENA and CEM students both grew up in a digital world. They all use the technology daily for many things, such as homework, researches, blogs, entertainment and talking with friends. Although, statistics revealed by the survey proved that CEM students were more digital than the ENA students. In fact, 56.4% of Longueuil students answered that they loved technology, which is almost 10% more than the ENA student’s results. The CEM students are also more active in the creation of blogs and websites. The results show that only one person at the ENA claims to create websites and blogs and at Longueuil, there were 12 times more students who claimed it. Another interesting point is about social networking. The survey shows that there are 20.2% more students who are involved in networking sites, like Facebook and MySpace in Longueuil. Also, CEM students claim to have more experience in the creation of Blogs and Podcats on the Internet, which means that they have more knowledge of the World-Wide-Web than ENA students. For example, 15% more CEM students posted profiles on social networking websites and they also lead the uploading and posting of videos on YouTube by 12%. It is clear now that CEM students are the real Digital Natives. They don’t just use the technology; they contribute and they create a part of it.

Vincent and Samuel

Digital Natives

We think that the ENA students are the real digital natives. When consulting the results of a survey made in ENA and in CEM on technology, we found out that in Longueuil, 2.6% of the students are not comfortable with electronics devices compared to none in ENA. Also, three quarters of the students in ENA use computer for both entertainment and work while only three out of five students in CEM does. In CEM, when students watch or listen news report, near half of them assume the story is true without even wondering if maybe it was only the journalist’s point of view. People in ENA have developed a critical eye over the information presented to them. On the other hand, inexperienced users of technology, like most CEM students, can be unaware of the unreliability of the information found in the media. Even though we are in a school environment, one out of three CEM students uses the computer for entertainment. All of this proves that ENA student are real digital natives

CEM Students: The Real Digital Natives

A total of 88 students responded to an online questionnaire related to technology. Statistics show that it is in fact the students at the CEM (Longueuil) campus that are the real Digital Natives and not us ÉNA students. More than half the students in Longueuil said they love technology, compared to only 46.8 % of ÉNA students. The study also shows that in general, Longueuil students use computers more often that ÉNA students. For example, three quarters of CEM students use computers to share information on sites such as Facebook whereas only half of ENA students answered the same. Furthermore, the ratio of students using the computer for the creation of websites or blogs between CEM and ENA stands at a strong 12 to 1. These statistics clearly show that the CEM students are the uncontested Digital Natives.

English students from Longueuil are digital natives

By looking at the statistics results we can see that English students from Longueuil are digital natives. More than a half of the respondents feel very comfortable using technology on a daily basis. There is 10 per cent more respondents from Longueuil who like to chat with their friends. Also one statistic that is surprisingly demarking the Longueuil students from ENA is the fact that 30.8 per cent against 2.1 like to create some websites and blogs. This shows that the Longueuil students have much more abilities to work with technology. Statistics show that Longueuil students have more fun working on computer because they use it mainly for entertainment. We could then qualify ENA students of digital immigrants because they feel less comfortable using the technologies; they don’t qualify themselves as expert and creator of blogs, podcasts and social networking sites. Some of them don’t even know what these items are.

ENA

Frédéric Cardinal

Vincent Dubreuil-Hubert

Maverick Leblanc

Martin Kaesch

ENA students are the REAL digital natives

After analyzing the statistics we can affirm that ENA students are digital natives. Here are some examples that prove it. First of all, 2.5% of Longueuil students aren’t comfortable with electronic devices against 0% here in ENA. The way students stay up to date with news also differs from ENA and Longeuil. In ENA, three out of four answered that they we’re often getting news from the Internet as for Longueil; most of them (69.2%) are getting news by talking to friends and family. Finally, the survey proved that three out of four ENA students use a computer for work and for entertainment. In Longueuil, it’s only 59%. That means that computers and digital devices are an integral part of ENA students lives and that it is used on an everyday basis.

Summary of week discussion (Feb 13)

Last week, we talked in class about the growing phenomenon of Internet and its various ways of utilization. Globally, we came to conclusion that websites like Wikipedia were good if you wanted to inform yourself for fun, but for a serious research, you absolutely had to at least double check the information in a library or even on a blog (as long as it is a serious blog). It is a great way to get information because, unlike magazines and books, it is always being corrected and up to date. Also, Internet is a great way to express yourself and show that you exist, but you have to keep in mind that everybody can see what you are writing, even your boss! Even if websites like Facebook should first be a way to have fun, you absolutely have to be careful, because you never know the future consequences of your writings……

Maverick Léger

buydehydratedwater.com

We can easily see that this web site is not reliable. First of all, anybody knows that the definition of dehydrated means no water. So how can we obtain dehydrated water? This site may looks very professional. There is an online store with a working Paypal link, job offers, testimonials, questions and answers about the product and franchise opportunities.

There is also a phone number company where we can call and order the product. The head quarter is supposed to be in Los Angeles and there is a distribution warehouse in Chicago. We can see that there was not update because the copyrights finish in 2006. The purpose of those people is clearly to make money with a stupid product.

In conclusion, even if the site looks very professional and well arranged, just the name of the site tells us that this idiot site is a hoax site.

The Belgium Conspiracy

This website is a good example of an obvious hoax website. Its claim is that Belgium – an entire country! – doesn’t exist. It’s presented in the form of humorous anti-liberal propaganda saying Belgium has been made up to “propagate the Liberal agenda throughout the world”. The only information we have about the author is his email address and supposedly his name. He has no profile, no picture and he says he has no political position. There’s no way we can rely on his information. The website is designed as a blog without any table of contents but the layout remains clear and the grammar and spelling are perfect. We can say it’s quite up to date as it was updated in August 2008. The provided links work and redirect us to serious or official websites but they are put in a totally absurd context which doesn’t give us the feeling that the information is real. It’s designed as an informative website but you always keep in mind that it’s a sarcastic joke. A gift shop exists to support the website by selling goodies promoting the author’s ideas. In short, the website is designed to be funny and there is almost no way one could trust it as a reliable source of information.

Nicolas & Maverick

Debunking dehydrated water

The website called « Buydehydratedwater.com » is obviously a scam since dehydrated water includes words that are contradicting each other. Therefore, this company is just selling air. There are several reasons why this website is just plain wrong, for example: The cool job section. Here, the website states advantages that are ridiculous such as “Free paper clips”, “Complimentary Twinkies” and “Ketchup packets from McDonalds”. In the online store section, the website offers many absurd products such as dehydrated water capsules, which clearly contains nothing but air. Judging from the testimonial of this product, it is not a serious business for most of us; however it is for uneducated customers. The “PayPal verified” proves that this company excels in this scam business. Last but not least, there is no real address or postal code of the so called “World Headquarters” building in which they supposedly manufacture dehydrated water.

Martin Pion and Fabien Savoret

Clones-R-Us

We chose the « Clones-R-Us » website. First of all, very few legitimate websites have a purple and turquoise green background, this alone raises questions about the reliability of the site. After browsing the menu, we noticed some irony in the way the information was presented to us. They claim to have fully-equipped laboratories in Costa Rica, Liberia and Vanuatu. This is unlikely. These countries barely have electricity and drinking water. The name of the company; DreamTech, implies that this cloning technology is out of our reach, at least for the moment. Some of the names of the clones you can buy are not written properly or only in abbreviation. As an example, John F. Kennedy was reduced to JFK. The fees are unrealistic and outrageous. You can buy Dolly Parton for 1500 dollars or young Michael Jackson for 300. The ultimate clue that says this is a hoax is their ordering form. On the bottom there is a quote ; “Yes, I know that Dream Technologies International is not responsible if the clone turns into a grossly overweight, anti-social, undisciplined slob.” It speaks for itself.

Vincent Laporte

Jonathan Forget

Belgium Doesn't Exist!

Selecting appropriate websites is a key factor when doing a research. With the rise of internet as a source of information and the lack of control towards what is on it, we cannot be sure of what we read. The best way to know if a website is reliable is to look at some elements. An example of an unreliable website is “Belgium Doesn’t Exist!” . First of all, when you want to know if a website is reliable, you have to look for the author. In this case, the author is Lyle Zapato. It can, at first sight, look reliable, since the author is named, but if you take the time to look at his profile, it is easy to see that it is fulfilled with false information, and that the website is probably a hoax. The source is not reputable, not serious and not qualified. Second of all, if we take a look at the subject of the website, we can easily find the information we are looking for, but we can also easily determine that the information is absurd. For this reason, the information can be considered as inaccurate and unreliable for research. Although the information is biased, it’s good to see that the website is up to date. On this website, we can see that it was created in 1999, and last updated on 2008-08-31. Finally, the website doesn’t have ads and is created for humorous intent. If the information is not to be taken seriously, it is still important to notice that with serious statement, this website could’ve been considered as reliable, since we can find all the information about the author and his background.

The Truth About Belgium

A good example of a hoax site is the website The Truth About Belgium. The author, credited as Lyle Zapato, claims that Belgium sever existed. Every Belgians is supposed to be a citizen of another country, who has been kidnapped and «re-educated» so they believe they had always been Belgians. A secret facility is located under the Euro-Disneyland site, and it houses Citizen Pods, which are brainwashing people, making them believing they are Belgians. Strangers visiting Belgium are taken into another secret facility, and conspirators implement false memories into their brain. The site also claims that the maps were falsified. After all, all the satellites are owned by the CIA, which is part of the conspiracy... Actually, there is nothing at the supposed location of Belgium. All of this conspiracy is supposed to be orchestrated by the Left and the Liberals. At first, the story we are being told is completely absurd, and outlandish. The author never informed the reader about is sources, nor in which way he obtained those information. There are some pictures on the site, but they seem exaggerated and stereotyped. The author also urges Belgian citizens to escape their country and he offers them an amnesty in the Republic of Cascadia, which does not exist. This site is obviously a hoax site, would it be only by the absurdity of the content.

Hoax website

The website: buydehydratedwater.com is not reliable, first of all because of its ridiculous name

and concept. Indeed, dehydrated water is air.After looking carefully at the website of this

company, we found out some elements that proves that the business is not serious. In their

online store, they show many items, but not a single image of dehydrated water. In the

franchise opportunities page, one of the conditions to deal with them is to be`` brainless ``.When

you look at the employment benefits, there are funny stuffs like: ``unlimited stress``, ``

harassment of all sort``, ``Usage of our customers' credit cards``. That shows eventually that

the website is not serious.

Kevin L’Abbée Lemyre
Martin Kaesch

Friends Of Science

The name of the sponsor is clearly indicated at the top of the main page. (Friends of sciences) However, neither the author nor the sponsors have any proof of their qualifications. They refer to a Scientific Advisory Board but there is no link to any member of this group or to any document proving their expertise. It is not a reputable source for all the reason mentioned before. No grammar errors are to be seen, the website is well written. The content is not appropriated for a research because they only give information’s about one side of the subject, about their opinion. The website is design so that it is not easy to find the answer to our question. All the information’s come from only one author, only one source which is Dr. Tim Ball, who has been known to be affiliated with oil companies. The website has been created to change your opinion, to influence your point of view. It is very hard to notice false information’s, but in the other hand, it is very hard to find information at all.

Hoax site about Belgium

In this website the author presents the Belgium has a country that doesn’t exist. The author himself clearly posted his name but it is impossible to know other information about him. There is no way to know if he has any appropriate qualification about the subject in question. It is obvious that this man is not a journalist because there are too many errors that are made in the text. In any cases, this website wouldn’t be trustable for a research. The man who wrote it tries to convince us that the Belgium doesn’t exist but he doesn’t support what he says with facts. The site has not been updated for already six months now and the links that are suppose to support his facts are not appropriate to the subject. For example, there’s a link that says `` Belgian invention`` that brings us to a site on French fries. It is apparent that all the information is false. Specifically when he says that there is an error on maps that makes Belgium appear. The man gives the impression that he created a site to make people react about the subject. All this information makes it evident that it is a hoax site.

Belgium: Land of Nothingness

So now we know: Belgium is a hoax! Or in the very least it’s what we are led to believe by Lyle Zapato who came up with an entertaining (to say the least) site about how the modern world is leading us astray in our beliefs about Belgium. Having no apparent spelling or grammatical errors the text has somewhat of a “researched” feel to it despite the obvious fallacious information it portrays. The site greets us with a geographical representation of what can be recognised as Belgium with the words “Ceci n’est pas une nation” written onto it. The mere subject matter presented leads us to question the veracity of the information. The site hasn’t been set up to inform or to lead us to a certain point of view but rather to give a humorous look on a certain subject. The links posted also send us off to a variety of hoax sites each more wacky than the next about subjects such as the Moon not existing to England having been invented by Walt Disney himself. We’ve seen through the site that everything related to Belgium is part of a global conspiracy, from the great Hercule Poirot and the all-powerful Jean Claude Van Damme down to the much adored Brussels sprouts. Still in doubt? See for yourself.

Dehydrated Water

Dehydrated Water

First of all, neither the name of the author nor sponsors are cited. The author does not tell us about any qualifications he could have had in order to create dehydrated water. Actually we don’t know anything about the creator of this wonderful invention. Although there isn’t any noticeable spelling or grammatical errors, the author does not show us any signs of professionalism. There are also a few noticeable jokes, such as, “your success is our success. Your failure is our failure”. They claim to send one free sample each day but a few lines later, they claim they have given over one million free samples, otherwise they’ve been sending free samples for the past 2700 years. With a quick search on the internet, we can rapidly realize that this is a hoax. Just typing “dehydrated water” on Google gives you the “museum of hoaxes” as a third search result. It is obvious that the website was created to make money; lots of pages want us to invest into dehydrated water and buy products. It also invents us to give them our credit cards information, which can be used with a malicious purpose. Finally, all these things give us a good clue that this website is a hoax.

Dehydrated Water

It is pretty obvious that the website about dehydrated water is a hoax. We were at first pretty sceptic about the concept presented by the website. The more you read, the more you realise that the site is in fact what you would call a hoax. First of all, it is impossible to find the name of the author, nor any street address. We can’t really find any sponsor that is qualified to write about water quality, which makes the concept of dehydrating the water even more absurd. Since we don’t know who is actually responsible for that website, we cannot say that it is a reliable source of information. During our quick visit, we were unable to notice any obvious spelling mistakes or grammatical errors in English. The website is well designed, and someone conducting a real research about dehydrated water would be able to find the information he is looking for fairly easily, even if it is a scam. All the links are functional, and there is even a store section that is verified by PayPal, which is a recognised association in charge of providing secure on-line buying services. To conclude, this site is obviously a well done hoax site, because the concept of dehydrated water is by itself impossible. However, the information is well presented and the intent of the website seems to be a joke, but the store section might be the author’s way to make a small profit out of a good laugh.

Clones 'R Us

The website http://www.d-b.net/dti/ , even on a first look, does not seem very credible. First, the name of the company, “Clones ‘R Us”, strangely sound like the well known toy store “Toys ‘R Us”. Also, when you take a look at their “About Us” section, you can see all the ridiculous awards they won such as: “Cool Bananas Award” and the “Too Cool Award” which also adds to the incredibility of the website. In the same section of the site, you can also see a “nurse” doing chicken eggs transplantation: not very serious when you know that cloning is a very complicated process! These are only a few of all the incredible elements of the site. However, for someone who does not know anything about cloning and who does not double check the information of the website, there are a few elements that can seem credible, like the statistics on the side of the site, the logo of the company and the section “Testimonials”.

Funding for the Arts (Canada)

The story of the ad is about a guy that comes to see government officials to get some fund in order to invest in a music festival that he is planning. So this guy comes to an audition and speaks with the officials of government funds. There is no narrator in the whole ad as the guy tries to explain his project. The only problem is that the officials don’t speak good French. The ad has a very humorous and sarcastic tone,as the actors are francophone comedians. What happens is that the guy sings a song in which a seal is mentioned in French, but it’s pronounced “phoque” and the official thinks that the guy is saying a profane word that also happens with another word. So the officials reject his request. The techniques used to influence the auditors are that when the guy comes in it’s all very dark in order to make us feel in a minority and also at some point when the officials are angry cause of the word “phoque” the close ups between characters start flashing to make us feel attacked. This ad is meant to wake up francophones about their culture and to make them see how the rest Canada thinks. To us this ad made us laugh, but more importantly it makes us think about how we could promote our culture.

Nathan and Maxim

Funding for the Arts

Some ads are more successful than others; this is the case of Funding for the Arts (Canada) by Michel Rivard, Stéphane Rousseau, Benoit Brière. The ad tells a story about a French-Canadian artist seeking funding for a music festival which will take place in France. He is being interviewed by a federal comittee composed of English speakers. The dialogue between them is the most important part of the ad; they have difficulty to understanding each other. This will put the artist in a bad position. Everything is presented in a very humourous way. The artist presents his song to the judges; his song is the central element of the story because he is trying to convince them with that song. The camera angle of shot and close-up let viewers see the judges in a more impressive way and a close-up of the artist doing mimics increase the humour in the ad. Printed words are used at the end to tell the main message of the ad ''Every dollar invested in culture brings back 11 times more money directly or indirectly'' The target audience is all Quebeckers, the producer of the ad wants to inform the audience that the Conservative Government is blocking funding for artists. The commercial succeed in delivering the message, the ad has gained a lot of popularity on the web and has started a lot of discussions about the issue.

Samuel

Fabien V.

Berlitz Commercial

The ad we chose is the berlitz commercial. It’s the story of a German coast guard officer on is first day of work. At the beginning, his superior shows him quickly how everything works and then leaves him alone. Unfortunately for the German, the first radio call he receives is a mayday call. The sailor is trying to tell him that he is SINKING but the coast guard officer does not really understand what he means and ask him what he is thinking about. This is the funny part about this ad, because they play with the fact that he does not understand English properly to create an embarrassing situation. Personally we think that this ad is great because it makes you laugh and it’s selling an important product which is English. Overall, we think that this ad did a good job delivering its message because it shows you the importance of understanding a language correctly in a professional environment.

Proud Canadian beer-lovers

The Molson commercial shows us a young man standing alone on a stage speaking about the fact that he is proud to be Canadian. He’s talking with conviction about purely Canadian facts and history using stereotypes in a humorous fashion. He’s making a comparison between us and Americans, appealing to Canadian pride. Behind him, a giant screen is showing pictures related to what he says, making it more tangible. The music adds to intensity and gets louder while his speech gets more intense. The crowd goes wilder up to the climax when the brand name is then shown. The commercial wants us to buy Molson beer and to do so it appeals to young beer-loving Canadians’ pride. They want us to think that drinking Molson – which is a Canadian product – will make a proud Canadian culture defender of you. We think the commercial succeeds in delivering this message as it never gets boring and the actor is very convincing and his delivery is passionate and original.

Nicolas & Maverick.

Molson Canadian ad

The Molson Canadian ad is delivered in the form of a seminar type of stand-up which concerns the differences between Canadian and American cultures. The actor shows a gradual interest for his country by elevating his voice and standing tall in front of his beliefs. He is preaching his message that Canada is the best country in North America mostly for the unknown product. The tone of this ad is both humourous and informative. The graduation song and lighting in the background projects a sense of accomplishment for the greatest tasting beer in North America. At the beginning of the ad, the actor is filmed in long-shot. As he progresses in his proudly spoken speech about Canadians, the camera moves back and forth from different camera angles, but mostly focuses on the actor and the images shown in the back. The printed words in the background emphasize actual Canadian facts. This ad was made to convince Canadians to buy Molson Canadian beer in a clever and inspiring way.

Martin Pion

Fabien Savoret

Molson Canadian ad

The Molson Canadian ad is in a form of a seminar type of stand up which concerns the differences between Canadian and mostly American cultures. The actor shows a gradual interest for his country by elevating his voice and standing tall in front of his beliefs. He is preaching his message that Canada is the best country in North America mostly for the beer. The tone of this ad is both humourous and informative. The graduation song and lighting in the background projects a sense of accomplishment for the greatest tasting beer in North America. At the beginning of the ad, the actor is filmed in long-shot. As he progresses in his proudly spoken speech about Canadians, the camera focuses back and forth in different camera angles, but mostly on the actor and the images shown in the back. The printed words in the background has the purpose to emphasize on actual Canadian facts. This ad was made to convince any Canadians to buy Molson Canadian beer in a clever and inspirable way.

Martin Pion

Fabien Savoret

Funding for the Arts

Jonathan and Vincent

We chose the Funding for the Arts ad. The ad tells the story of a musician and his band that go to see the government or some promoters to get funds for the promotion of the Canadian French culture around the world. The promoter asks for a performance before they grant the fund. The thing is the promoters are conservative Anglophones with no interest in French Canadian culture. During the performance, the musician says a French word that closely resembles an English insult. The promoters are upset and refuse to understand because they don’t speak French and they aren’t interested in accepting French as part of Canadian culture. The promoters and the musician cannot find common ground so they don’t approve the funds. The scene made us laugh, yet it was a serious scene because it is a situation that could happen in real life. The exaggeration made it funny. The song used in this ad was a culturally important French song which made their resentment for French culture apparent. The ad was made in a bland, dark setting, clearly illustrating lack of creativity of the promoter's “government”. At the end of the ad they show statistics that show that investing in culture is beneficial for the whole community. It was destined for the conservative voters to give them an idea of what will happen if we stop funding culture. The commercial does succeed in delivering the message. We believe it is necessary to promote our culture so we are recognized as a people.


Jonathan and Vincent

comments about the ad ``BERLÌTZ``

The ad ``BERLITZ`` from Germany is a humorous one that tells the story of a sinking ship asking for help. The dialogue between the coast guard and captain is confusing because they do not understand each other due to the poor English knowledge of the coast guard. This ad is intended to people who have to use English in their work. It teaches us that a poor English knowledge, can in some circumstances, put people live in danger. This ad succeeds in delivering the message because it uses a live-saving situation that is a serious question, to make people improve their English. This ad inspire us to learn English accurately, especially because we will work in the field of aerospace and a situation similar to the one in the ad can happen to us.

Proud to be Canadian

Proud to be Canadian!!!



The advertisement is done on the way of a conference where a man represents his country.
He talks about all the qualities that a proud citizen has about his country. The man in the advertisement is a proud Canadian because he speaks both French and English and not American, he says also ``about`` instead of ``a boot``. A proud Canadian prefers peace to violence and doesn’t live in an igloo. All those things refer to a simple man that brings out the greatest things of the country by showing pictures in the background and talking with a lot of intonation. The advertisement in question promote the emotions in the context to make sure that all citizens can recognize themselves. They use simple things of the country to bring a product that maybe won’t touch everybody, which is beer. The problem in this case is that the beer is not a reason to be proud of his country.

Founding for the Arts

The commercial Founding for the Arts put in scene a French-speaking, Quebecker singer trying to persuade a government committee to allow him funds to organize a music festival in France. The committee is composed of Anglophones, and the song the musician is trying to sing cause confusion among the government representatives, some words in French looking similar to vulgar words in English. The commercial is putting a single artist in front of 4 government officials, making the artist looks like he is persecuted. The room is also dark, another negative reference toward the government. A picture of Stephen Harper with an American flag is also used, playing with a feeling among the Quebec population: a politician too close to the Americans is usually negatively seen. The humorous tone is obvious, playing on the funny differences between the two languages. The commercial is clearly aimed at French-speaking Quebeckers, and the written message informs us at the end of the true message of this commercial. The goal is to criticize the government’s decision to abandon a federal program founding artistic activities. The commercial is very funny and entertaining, but it failed at delivering his message clearly. The main story being about a confrontation between French and English people, the true message is only visible at the end, and it is not discussed much. However, the commercial succeeded at depicting the government as an authoritarian one, practicing censorship, and it can be seen that the creators of the ad put many efforts in trying to do depict the government that way.

Berlitz - Why English is so Important

The Berlitz commercial tells a story about a German coast guard operator who seems new to his position and who is confronted with a distress call on his first day. At the start of the commercial he’s shown the ropes of the job by what seems to be his supervisor. After a short while, a distress call arises and forces him to open a dialog with a sinking ship. It is here that we see how his lack of knowledge of the English language puts him in a critical situation. He mistakes the ship’s we’re sinking for we’re thinking which makes him ask what are you thinking about? It is then that the Berlitz logo pops up and that it’s clear that it's an ad for learning English. The humorous tone channelled throughout the ad and the Ode to Joy theme toward the end are marks that are generally used in commercials for viewers to remember them. The advertisement makes viewers think about what a tragedy it would be if one’s English was as poor as the coast guard communicator’s.

Seatbelt Ad

We chose to make our small analysis about the seatbelt ad, because we thought it was a smart way to deliver a message. Even though there is no narrator, the commercial is still very suggestive because of the way it’s built. You start to understand the meaning of the ad when you see the wrecked car with the three injured people inside. You then see their souls trying to escape their bodies, one by one, to reach heaven. The last person’s soul is not able to leave the body because it was wearing his seatbelt, keeping the soul prisoner of the body. The type of music used also suggests a dramatic event, which gives a serious tone to the commercial. There are a few unusual camera angles used to make us feel trapped inside the car, as if it could have happened to anyone. The ad shows the message progressively, and we don’t fully get the message until the end, when they use the printed words to finally send the message that wearing your seatbelt could save your life.

Blitz, Germany

In the commercial produced by Berlitz, in Germany, the story is about a young man who just started a new position as a coastguard radio operator. Unfortunately for him, this new position requires English skills, which he does not have. In the dialogue, the interlocutor on the other side of the radio speaks English. He is requesting help because his ship is sinking, but the coastguard misunderstood the emergency request. In this commercial, there is no narrator, but there is loud music at the end. The ad uses a humorous tone to communicate their message. The music played is well-known and it is commonly used in funny situations. At the end, the purpose of the ad is presented by a close-up of a small sentence and the brand name. The message is directed to Germans who need to imrove their English. The commercial succeeds in delivering the message by its funny tone and by the need to speak and understand a universal language.

molson canadian beer

The Molson Canadian beer advertisement used the fact that a proud Canadian guy is
presenting his country to promote the beer company. The concept of the advertisement is great even if we have to wait until the end to know what the goal of the commercial is. The guy in front brings a lot of emotion to his speech, because he wants the public to know that the best choice to make is to buy the Molson Canadian beer. The commercial producers did a awesome job by compare the beer to the country that people like. In fact it is a great advertising where people, can compare themselves to the guy who like the beer and his country.

Molson Canadian Ad

We chose the Molson Canadian Beer commercial.

This ad is about a guy that comes up on stage to talk about his country, and to share the pride he has to be Canadian. It’s a single person speech with an audience listening. The tone is definitely humorous as the actor reveals funny facts about his country, Canada.

The music has a patriotic taste with a crescendo that increases the intensity of the speech to prepare us for the final message: I am Canadian, – Molson Canadian-.

As for technical devices we can see that the clip is filmed from a lower angle of view which tends to represent the speaker as a tall and imposing person. We can also see a giant screen on the background illustrating what he says which gives the speech a credible effect. The last message is written word by word in big letters so everyone in the audience can clearly read it and remember it. And, they can say it proudly with the speaker, like a religious ritual. The target audience would be any beer drinking Canadian, within drinking age of course. The message tries to convince you that a real Canadian has to drink Canadian beer, because it’s the pride of the country. The commercial is well designed and we’re pretty sure it succeeded in English Canada.

for a good laugh

here's a link from a funny Family Guy show! =) enjoy

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=nF2o_G8jvLk

helllo

Hi folks.