Well today was my last mass communications class ever. Wow.
In conclusion, this course is not what I expected it to be. Today I feel I learned more about what I should have learned all semester long than what I actually did learn.
I think I saw the real Mark today. Under no pressure, not intimidating, and the way he sees himself. As an intellectual being, a master of his study. It was inspiring, this course and all, but I think I may be done with blogging for a while.
I hope someday I will be urged to type in my blog address and relive what it was like to be a mere teenage media student once again.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Boys Vs. Grils
Today's discussion about the story we read in English class, 'Boys and Girls' by Alice Munro, really got me thinking. When my professor, Cinda, mentioned the idea of Sex Vs. Gender, I became intrigued.
The story illustrates the maturity one acquires during/after puberty, and the instance of her dreaming of a male heroin enforces the difference between genders.
From personal experience, this issue is one that has meaning. As a homosexual, I believe I can understand the difference more clearly than a heterosexual. I have the correct chromosomes for a male (my sex), but I feel I have many feminine characteristics combined with my sexuality that make-up and influence my gender.
In relation to media, it is amazing how much stereotypes enforce the blurred connection between sex and gender. They are totally different entities, and I believe that there is almost a third entity which is being ignored, that of sexuality. To determine whom a person is, it is important to study their sex, gender, and sexuality - rather than stereotype them as male, female, butch, and other terms.
Sunday, November 25, 2007
And Out The Colon We Go
My group struggled with the Pod Cast assignment. It was not a difficult assignment, but we all contributed our fair share of procrastination and bad time management skills. We set out a night about a week ago where we were determined to do this task, but we failed. We ended up gossiping and eating junk food.
Although we did not actually start our project, we did think of a topic. We did not want to do the boring, typical last minute tour of residence that I am sure will be written on other student’s blogs. We wanted something exciting and fun. To be honest, I forget how we came to this topic, but I am glad we did - a tour of the human body. We decided it would be a follow-along tour, kind of like the ‘Dora the Explorer’ episodes where she asks the children questions and goes silent for the kids to respond - like it could be listened to on headphones.
Soon we all got organized and sat down to write our script. We all contributed ideas and committed to doing research for the human body and the digestive path. We wrote the script collectively and I was in charge of proofreading the final copy… for some reason?
Since we were short on time, we decided not to record our Pod Cast. Instead, we decided to have a discussion and collectively decide what we all felt we learned through doing this project. Not recording the Pod Cast was not too much of a loss, since we all have experience editing from our past projects.
Through this project, I learned the power that audio has as a form of media. I cannot find the page, but in the book ‘Amusing Ourselves to Death’ by Neil postman, it is discussed that current culture and its development has shifted from auditory based media to visual based media, and this is mostly true. But this project showed me the power of simple text and audio. No we did not record this, but by just reading it aloud to each other and reading it on paper gave us a lasting impression and feeling that we were actually taking a tour of the human body. This medium indulged our other senses and created a feeling unusually felt by the 21st century’s visual based media.
Our Pod Cast Script: The Human Digest Tract
Robert: Hello everybody, my name is Robert Martin and I will be your lead tour guide for today. I have been told we are going to the land down under the skin. I hear it’s misunderstood with all the smell, anyone been there before?
(Silence)
Robert: No, well then lets get this party started. Please attach your safety harnesses and hold on, we do not want anyone to be lost in this journey. Ok, here we go!
I would like to introduce you to my assistant guides who will answer any questions or concerns you may have. We have Jeremiah Clark and he will be helping the people in the far back, Elisha Allensen who will be helping people on the left side, and Caitlin Gillan will be helping people on the right.
Jeremiah: Now, just to let everyone know we are currently gliding right over the tongue. It is wet and slimy and those large rock-like boulders smashing together are teeth. They are strong, but not stable enough to make a safe landing on because you never know when they will start to shake or move. This is the main reason nobody has ever landed on the teeth.
Caitlin: Just a reminder to keep all hands and feet inside the craft at all times. If you look directly above you, you will see a punching bag. These are the tonsils; they are believed to extract certain poisons from the food we eat, but we cannot be sure of which ones.
Elisha: Here comes the pharynx. We have to time our entry according to it’s movements in order to enter safely with the flap open. Otherwise – lets not think of the otherwise, now everyone be careful, this can be dangerous.
Robert: Well, thankfully everyone made it in ok. Now isn’t this tour fun? What’s a little danger anyway? Ok, now here comes the fun part. This is the oesophagus and we will be turning vertical soon. Does anyone know what the oesophagus does?
(Silence)
Jeremiah: Here, let me tell you. The oesophagus uses peristalsis to transport the food from our mouths to our stomachs. According to this human body dictionary, the oesophagus uses rhythmic contraction of smooth muscles to propel contents through the digestive tract.
Elisha: Be careful, the walls are muscles and they can constrict you. Try to stay in the centre, otherwise they will- again lets not think of that.
Caitlin- Look at the bright pink muscles at work trying to squish us. Oh, and look at the clear fluid, that’s called saliva. It is another part of healthy digestion and this fluid also helps to break down digested food.
Although we did not actually start our project, we did think of a topic. We did not want to do the boring, typical last minute tour of residence that I am sure will be written on other student’s blogs. We wanted something exciting and fun. To be honest, I forget how we came to this topic, but I am glad we did - a tour of the human body. We decided it would be a follow-along tour, kind of like the ‘Dora the Explorer’ episodes where she asks the children questions and goes silent for the kids to respond - like it could be listened to on headphones.
Soon we all got organized and sat down to write our script. We all contributed ideas and committed to doing research for the human body and the digestive path. We wrote the script collectively and I was in charge of proofreading the final copy… for some reason?
Since we were short on time, we decided not to record our Pod Cast. Instead, we decided to have a discussion and collectively decide what we all felt we learned through doing this project. Not recording the Pod Cast was not too much of a loss, since we all have experience editing from our past projects.
Through this project, I learned the power that audio has as a form of media. I cannot find the page, but in the book ‘Amusing Ourselves to Death’ by Neil postman, it is discussed that current culture and its development has shifted from auditory based media to visual based media, and this is mostly true. But this project showed me the power of simple text and audio. No we did not record this, but by just reading it aloud to each other and reading it on paper gave us a lasting impression and feeling that we were actually taking a tour of the human body. This medium indulged our other senses and created a feeling unusually felt by the 21st century’s visual based media.
Our Pod Cast Script: The Human Digest Tract
Robert: Hello everybody, my name is Robert Martin and I will be your lead tour guide for today. I have been told we are going to the land down under the skin. I hear it’s misunderstood with all the smell, anyone been there before?
(Silence)
Robert: No, well then lets get this party started. Please attach your safety harnesses and hold on, we do not want anyone to be lost in this journey. Ok, here we go!
I would like to introduce you to my assistant guides who will answer any questions or concerns you may have. We have Jeremiah Clark and he will be helping the people in the far back, Elisha Allensen who will be helping people on the left side, and Caitlin Gillan will be helping people on the right.
Jeremiah: Now, just to let everyone know we are currently gliding right over the tongue. It is wet and slimy and those large rock-like boulders smashing together are teeth. They are strong, but not stable enough to make a safe landing on because you never know when they will start to shake or move. This is the main reason nobody has ever landed on the teeth.
Caitlin: Just a reminder to keep all hands and feet inside the craft at all times. If you look directly above you, you will see a punching bag. These are the tonsils; they are believed to extract certain poisons from the food we eat, but we cannot be sure of which ones.
Elisha: Here comes the pharynx. We have to time our entry according to it’s movements in order to enter safely with the flap open. Otherwise – lets not think of the otherwise, now everyone be careful, this can be dangerous.
Robert: Well, thankfully everyone made it in ok. Now isn’t this tour fun? What’s a little danger anyway? Ok, now here comes the fun part. This is the oesophagus and we will be turning vertical soon. Does anyone know what the oesophagus does?
(Silence)
Jeremiah: Here, let me tell you. The oesophagus uses peristalsis to transport the food from our mouths to our stomachs. According to this human body dictionary, the oesophagus uses rhythmic contraction of smooth muscles to propel contents through the digestive tract.
Elisha: Be careful, the walls are muscles and they can constrict you. Try to stay in the centre, otherwise they will- again lets not think of that.
Caitlin- Look at the bright pink muscles at work trying to squish us. Oh, and look at the clear fluid, that’s called saliva. It is another part of healthy digestion and this fluid also helps to break down digested food.
Robert: Alright, we are nearly at the stomach. We will have a little break and you may go and explore if you wish, and for anyone listening at home here is a quick description of the stomach.
Caitlin: The stomach is a pinkish-grey colour about 30.5 cm long and 15.2 cm wide at it’s widest point. The stomach's capacity is about 1 quart on average. Now this is where the food gets broken down into smaller pieces.
Elisha: Now everyone be very careful. The clear colourless liquid in the stomach is not saliva. It is stomach acid that breaks down food. Make sure you stay away from this otherwise you will be brok-
Jeremiah: Moving on, can anyone guess what kinds of food are being digested in this stomach?
(Silence)
Elisha: Judging by the contents, this it appears to be meat. Meat takes the longest to digest and can sit in the stomach for as long as three days, depending on the serving size. This food over here that is wilting and looks old appears to be spinach. When the stomach acids begin to break down vegetables, especially dark green ones, the vegetables become fluids or partial fluids with the stomach acid.
Robert: Okay everyone, moving on. It is time for us to go through the duodenum, the first part of the small intestine.
Caitlin: Here in the duodenum is where most of the chemical digestion takes place and it is the shortest part of the small intestine.
Robert: We are about to ender the jejunum, the second part of the small intestine.
Jeremiah: Here the pH balance appears to be 8, slightly alkaline. This helps certain parts of foods to dissolve properly.
Elisha: Lucky we’re hovering otherwise-
Everyone: WE KNOW!
Robert: Okay everyone, we are nearing the ileum. The ileum is only about 2 to 4 meters long, so it is not too much farther in the tour.
Caitlin: Notice the colour of the ileum is paler than the colour of the jejunum, and that there are more fat cells surrounding it’s walls.
Robert: Everybody, we are approaching the large intestine. This is where the remaining water in the stomach will be absorbed. Then our tour will end when we reach the elimination of waste.
Jeremiah: The first part of the large intestine is the cecum. This part has been misunderstood for many years and is now known as the bridge into the large intestine from the small intestine.
Robert: You are right Jeremiah, and we are about to enter the colon.
Elisha: Oh, I won’t say anything other than Eww.
Caitlin: Do not worry, this is perfectly acceptable. Waste elimination happens often. In fact, it is supposed to happen 3 times per day. Get ready everyone, we are nearly finished our tour.
Robert: Here we go everyone! Please put your seatbelts back on. Our exit seems to be going well. Please keep calm; we will be out as soon as possible. We are about to experience a little turbulence, please be cautious.
(Minutes Later)
Robert: Okay everyone, this concludes our tour, and I hope everyone enjoyed it. We hope we will see you again and we thank-you for riding the digestion tract with us today.
Cited Work:
Cole, Joanna, and Bruce Degan. Inside the Human Body. New York: Scholastic, 1995.
Owen, Robert. "Pathophysiology." The Digestive System. 2006. Colorado State University. 25 Nov 2007.
Mayo Clinic Staff. Redundant Colon: A Health Concern? Ask a Digestive System Specialist. MayoClinic.com. Retrieved on 25 Nov. 2007.
I Wish I Could Quit You
So last light in residence, some friends and I had a movie night. We all brought our favourite movies and we picked from a bag to decide which one to watch. To my pleasure, Brokeback Mountain was chosen.
Now I love this movie. Yes, this sounds especially stereotypical for a gay boy to love a gay movie, but in regards to media, I believe that this movie started a cultural revolution. I also believe that our movie night was able to teach me a valuable lesson about media interpretation.
I watched this movie with 3 of my friends, 2 of which were straight girls, and the other being a gay male. Throughout the film, one of the girls made many comments regarding her take on the events in the film. Near the end of the movie, she had formed an opinion about what the movie was trying to portray.
In the film, a story is being told of two cowboys who worked together for a summer on Brokeback Mountain. They fell in love while they were on the mountain and soon had to depart back to their daily lives. After they were back home, they both married women and had children. The time came when the two cowboys met again and started a continual habit of meeting in the years to come.
My friend’s opinion seemed to be appalled by the actions the two cowboys were performing. She was immediately sympathetic towards to wives in the movie; even going as far as saying “Boys are stupid.” All she saw was that the two cowboys secretly committed adultery with each other.
I do agree with my friend that it was heartbreaking for the women in the movie and is a bad relationship lesson, but I saw the opposite. I saw people’s love being oppressed because of fear and discrimination.
Now I understand that people are allowed to have different opinions and that no one’s opinions are wrong, but it astounds me how different and complex a message can be when viewed/received by different audiences. This difference in opinions re-enforces my faith in the idea that everything in media is there for a reason. This makes me think of how much work is put into everything in the media and how much work is put into reaching the largest possible audience.
Out reactions to this movie were quite opposite, and I do not know if this was intentionally planned by the movie’s producers or not, but it has just made me think a little bit more about the media and how important interpretation can be.
Now I love this movie. Yes, this sounds especially stereotypical for a gay boy to love a gay movie, but in regards to media, I believe that this movie started a cultural revolution. I also believe that our movie night was able to teach me a valuable lesson about media interpretation.
I watched this movie with 3 of my friends, 2 of which were straight girls, and the other being a gay male. Throughout the film, one of the girls made many comments regarding her take on the events in the film. Near the end of the movie, she had formed an opinion about what the movie was trying to portray.
In the film, a story is being told of two cowboys who worked together for a summer on Brokeback Mountain. They fell in love while they were on the mountain and soon had to depart back to their daily lives. After they were back home, they both married women and had children. The time came when the two cowboys met again and started a continual habit of meeting in the years to come.
My friend’s opinion seemed to be appalled by the actions the two cowboys were performing. She was immediately sympathetic towards to wives in the movie; even going as far as saying “Boys are stupid.” All she saw was that the two cowboys secretly committed adultery with each other.
I do agree with my friend that it was heartbreaking for the women in the movie and is a bad relationship lesson, but I saw the opposite. I saw people’s love being oppressed because of fear and discrimination.
Now I understand that people are allowed to have different opinions and that no one’s opinions are wrong, but it astounds me how different and complex a message can be when viewed/received by different audiences. This difference in opinions re-enforces my faith in the idea that everything in media is there for a reason. This makes me think of how much work is put into everything in the media and how much work is put into reaching the largest possible audience.
Out reactions to this movie were quite opposite, and I do not know if this was intentionally planned by the movie’s producers or not, but it has just made me think a little bit more about the media and how important interpretation can be.
Friday, November 23, 2007
Lifestyles Of The Rich And Famous
It is almost the end of the semester, and I am pooped. University is not what I expected at all. Yes, I knew there would be lots of work, but I never expected this to have to write so much. Writing is not my particular cup of coffee, and my being in Image Arts illustrates this clearly. I am a visual person, not so much a theoretical person. I feel I have a done well adapting to the workload, but I could still do better. Everyone can.
At this point in my university career, I am stuck. I am confused about what I want to do and if this is the right program for me. Since grade 10, I have been fascinated with everything that I thought was media. I took every course in high school with media in its title and I thought I knew what I wanted. I also realised that in all of these courses, I achieved my highest marks, and I thought a media studies program would be perfect.
Do not get me wrong; I love this program. It has taught me so much relevant information for everyday life in this culture and I love studying different forms of media. I think my biggest current issue is the declaration of specialization. I decided that Guelph-Humber was the school for me because I want to get all I can. To quote Britney, this school can “Gimme More.”
At first I knew image arts was for me. I love photography and I have been told I am good at it. I won the photography award in high school and I received my highest marks ever in photography, but in actuality I do not want to be the one after graduation who sets up a studio and works independently and never accomplishes anything. I also feel that I do not have what it takes to be a successful photographer (my ideas of a successful photographer are the ones who are on America’s Next Top Model or who are working for Vogue).
Sometimes I wish I could just be famous. I love shopping, I love partying, and I love having my picture taken. Being famous is for me, but for practicality’s sake, I should have a career goal in mind in case my get rich schemes fail me.
I wish I had taken a year off school before I came to university, to clear my mind and just live the life of a teenager for a bit. I still love media, but I do not know if I have passion for it. I feel I am only here because I do not enjoy other studies such as math and science.
At this point in my university career, I am stuck. I am confused about what I want to do and if this is the right program for me. Since grade 10, I have been fascinated with everything that I thought was media. I took every course in high school with media in its title and I thought I knew what I wanted. I also realised that in all of these courses, I achieved my highest marks, and I thought a media studies program would be perfect.
Do not get me wrong; I love this program. It has taught me so much relevant information for everyday life in this culture and I love studying different forms of media. I think my biggest current issue is the declaration of specialization. I decided that Guelph-Humber was the school for me because I want to get all I can. To quote Britney, this school can “Gimme More.”
At first I knew image arts was for me. I love photography and I have been told I am good at it. I won the photography award in high school and I received my highest marks ever in photography, but in actuality I do not want to be the one after graduation who sets up a studio and works independently and never accomplishes anything. I also feel that I do not have what it takes to be a successful photographer (my ideas of a successful photographer are the ones who are on America’s Next Top Model or who are working for Vogue).
Sometimes I wish I could just be famous. I love shopping, I love partying, and I love having my picture taken. Being famous is for me, but for practicality’s sake, I should have a career goal in mind in case my get rich schemes fail me.
I wish I had taken a year off school before I came to university, to clear my mind and just live the life of a teenager for a bit. I still love media, but I do not know if I have passion for it. I feel I am only here because I do not enjoy other studies such as math and science.
Seriously, why can't I be famous?
Thursday, November 22, 2007
I Know I Can Do Better
My mark on my semiotic essay was alright – 68%. I keep telling myself that it is a great mark under the circumstances that I put myself in and for being in Lipton’s class, but I know I could have done better.
Everyone tells me, all you need to do is pass, and I am confident that I will pass this course. But I want to do well in this course, in all my courses. I do not understand how some people willingly settle for a passing grade, rather than an outstanding grade. I feel that I learned at a young age that you do not have to settle for anything and I am a strong believer in getting what you want. Yes, this sounds greedy and self-centred, but why not? Is that not the reason why anybody in the world does anything? We are all in it for ourselves.
I just do not understand why someone would pay thousands of dollars to be here (in school) and settle for an average grade. I understand that some people cannot help getting average grades, they just do not have the ability to do outstanding, but I am talking about the ones who do have the ability but just do not use it, like myself. I feel I am an intelligent individual but I do not apply myself, and I know this, but I do not know why I do not apply myself. I always think, “Oh, whatever, I have another week to do this assignment,” “Another day.”
Procrastination is the devil.
Next semester, I will force myself to do my work - ahead of time. I am tired of staying up all night to finish an assignment and only earn average grades. I know I can do better.
Everyone tells me, all you need to do is pass, and I am confident that I will pass this course. But I want to do well in this course, in all my courses. I do not understand how some people willingly settle for a passing grade, rather than an outstanding grade. I feel that I learned at a young age that you do not have to settle for anything and I am a strong believer in getting what you want. Yes, this sounds greedy and self-centred, but why not? Is that not the reason why anybody in the world does anything? We are all in it for ourselves.
I just do not understand why someone would pay thousands of dollars to be here (in school) and settle for an average grade. I understand that some people cannot help getting average grades, they just do not have the ability to do outstanding, but I am talking about the ones who do have the ability but just do not use it, like myself. I feel I am an intelligent individual but I do not apply myself, and I know this, but I do not know why I do not apply myself. I always think, “Oh, whatever, I have another week to do this assignment,” “Another day.”
Procrastination is the devil.
Next semester, I will force myself to do my work - ahead of time. I am tired of staying up all night to finish an assignment and only earn average grades. I know I can do better.
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Black-Box
The idea of a “black-box translator” is the main point that stuck with me after I read “Revolution in the Revolution” by Andrew Joscelyne. I find the concept of what actually happens when people react to media very interesting.
It is interesting to study why and how different forms of media are able to start cultural revolutions nad ideologies. I would love to know exactly why the Bible has had such an influence on past societies, as well as the present. It is just a book with words, why do people develop faith in it? Could it be only because people need a general sense of faith in ther lives? That they need something to believe in and a reason for why things happen? Or could it be because the power of the book is so overwhelming that no one knows it’s true potential?
I am a religious person. I believe I am because I was raised in a religios home, but that does not truly explain why I keep my faith. When I read the bible, I am usually lost and confused with it’s content and maybe that is why I continue to believe. It might just be because I am driven and I want to understand the Bible’s meaning. I have never thought that it could be the actual technology of it being a simple book that keeps me reading, but it is a valid point of view that is worth analyzing.
I have never understood why my father and brother get so excited over watching a football game on television. They are not actually playing the game and they are not feeling the sensation of getting knocked to the ground. Maybe in this case it is because of the medium that they are using to experience the game. Maybe there is a power behind the television that somehow makes my father tell everyone to shut up when the ball is thrown. It is almost as if the TV is controlling them without even physically affeting them. Maybe it is just because the "images rule [their] dreams," (Debray, 2) but I will never understand what is going on when their eyes absorb the light projected from the television screen, and I will never graspe the full ‘black-box’ concept, but from now on I will not stop thinking about what is really happening in my mind when I see media.
Cited Work:
Regis Debray, "Media Manifestos:" Wired Interview with Debray
<http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/3.01/debray.html>.
It is interesting to study why and how different forms of media are able to start cultural revolutions nad ideologies. I would love to know exactly why the Bible has had such an influence on past societies, as well as the present. It is just a book with words, why do people develop faith in it? Could it be only because people need a general sense of faith in ther lives? That they need something to believe in and a reason for why things happen? Or could it be because the power of the book is so overwhelming that no one knows it’s true potential?
I am a religious person. I believe I am because I was raised in a religios home, but that does not truly explain why I keep my faith. When I read the bible, I am usually lost and confused with it’s content and maybe that is why I continue to believe. It might just be because I am driven and I want to understand the Bible’s meaning. I have never thought that it could be the actual technology of it being a simple book that keeps me reading, but it is a valid point of view that is worth analyzing.
I have never understood why my father and brother get so excited over watching a football game on television. They are not actually playing the game and they are not feeling the sensation of getting knocked to the ground. Maybe in this case it is because of the medium that they are using to experience the game. Maybe there is a power behind the television that somehow makes my father tell everyone to shut up when the ball is thrown. It is almost as if the TV is controlling them without even physically affeting them. Maybe it is just because the "images rule [their] dreams," (Debray, 2) but I will never understand what is going on when their eyes absorb the light projected from the television screen, and I will never graspe the full ‘black-box’ concept, but from now on I will not stop thinking about what is really happening in my mind when I see media.
Sender
Message
Encoder
Transmitter
Channel of Communication
Receiver
Decode
Cited Work:
Regis Debray, "Media Manifestos:" Wired Interview with Debray
<http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/3.01/debray.html>.
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Faith In News Media
My group’s film/video production turned out much better than I thought it would have. We decided to make a short clip with a series of interviews, telling people that there were many new laws passed and asking them their opinions. We decided to do this because we wanted to test how strong people’s faith in news media was. We figured, if the people we interviewed took us seriously as reporters or journalists, than they would believe our so-called new legislation and would react accordingly. In other words, we wanted to see if most people believe what they are told by news media.
After my last group project, Project: BURMA, I learned the importance of a stable group. Robert, Elisha, Caitlin, and I discussed this project thoroughly and I stressed my frustrations with what had happened with Burma. We all were fed-up that in our past groups the workload was uneven, so we were determined to make this project work fairly. We decided to give everyone certain tasks that they were responsible for and must complete for the group’s sake. We decided that Robert would come up with the idea for the video. He had a great idea about judging people’s faith in media – I was very impressed. Elisha would write up some questions and false legislations, and conduct some of the on-screen interviewing. Caitlin would do the filming of the interviews and help me do the editing of the final clip. This worked out fabulously! We all did our jobs and we got the project done! :)
When I was editing this video, I did not want it to become my project. With Project:BURMA, it felt like I was running the show and that had I to call the shots. This time I wanted everyone’s input on how the video should be laid out and what type of theme it would have. Having Caitlin work with me made this task easier because I had another opinion and I was not left to make all the decisions myself.
Through this project, I learned how good Elisha, Robert, and Caitlin are to work with. I have worked with them before and they consistently come up with good ideas and complete their share of the work. I prefer a closer group such as this one compared to Burma, where there were too many people in the group to count on two hands. I also learned a lot about news media. Based on the responses from the people we interviewed, it was hard to judge how much youth know about Canadian legislation. I was not present for the actual interviewing and I am not sure if the people that were interviewed knew Elisha and Robert were lying to them, but I do not want to know. The responses were varied from complete faith in what they were told to knowing instantly that it was a lie. I find this interesting because it shows how uninformed some may be about what is going on in their country.
I really enjoyed this project because it was fun and the extra footage is hilarious!
After my last group project, Project: BURMA, I learned the importance of a stable group. Robert, Elisha, Caitlin, and I discussed this project thoroughly and I stressed my frustrations with what had happened with Burma. We all were fed-up that in our past groups the workload was uneven, so we were determined to make this project work fairly. We decided to give everyone certain tasks that they were responsible for and must complete for the group’s sake. We decided that Robert would come up with the idea for the video. He had a great idea about judging people’s faith in media – I was very impressed. Elisha would write up some questions and false legislations, and conduct some of the on-screen interviewing. Caitlin would do the filming of the interviews and help me do the editing of the final clip. This worked out fabulously! We all did our jobs and we got the project done! :)
When I was editing this video, I did not want it to become my project. With Project:BURMA, it felt like I was running the show and that had I to call the shots. This time I wanted everyone’s input on how the video should be laid out and what type of theme it would have. Having Caitlin work with me made this task easier because I had another opinion and I was not left to make all the decisions myself.
Through this project, I learned how good Elisha, Robert, and Caitlin are to work with. I have worked with them before and they consistently come up with good ideas and complete their share of the work. I prefer a closer group such as this one compared to Burma, where there were too many people in the group to count on two hands. I also learned a lot about news media. Based on the responses from the people we interviewed, it was hard to judge how much youth know about Canadian legislation. I was not present for the actual interviewing and I am not sure if the people that were interviewed knew Elisha and Robert were lying to them, but I do not want to know. The responses were varied from complete faith in what they were told to knowing instantly that it was a lie. I find this interesting because it shows how uninformed some may be about what is going on in their country.
I really enjoyed this project because it was fun and the extra footage is hilarious!
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Project: BURMA
For our activist project, our group decided to hold a benefit concert to raise awareness of the problems occurring in Burma, past and present.Our concert idea was sprung from our documentary that we watched, Human Rights In Burma. The issues faced by the Burmese people are immensely brutal, yet overlooked. Before I saw this documentary, I had never even heard of Burma. We thought that what the documentary taught us about Burma was terrible and we wanted to make people aware and conscious of what is going on. We wanted more people to know that the Burmese government is corrupt, only allowing a chosen handful of its citizens to work. We wanted more people to know that thousands of people have fled their homes, that monks have gone missing, and that the level of poverty is one that needs direct attention from more powerful countries.
I can admit that at first I was not very involved with this project. Katrina and Erin seemed to be the strongholds by arranging bands to play and finding a hall for them to play in. I was very impressed when I found out that they had come up with deposit money for a $700 bar room to hold our concert in, it was superb. So now we have bands and a place for them, we just needed to get people to come. I feel this is where I came in handy.
We set up a Facebook group/event to help advertise Project: BURMA. It came in handy to help estimate our attendance and it also helped spread the word of the event. It was previously arranged that one of our member's boyfriends would do print advertising stuff, like ticket design, posters, ads, and selling of tickets. He kind of dropped out, and we were kind of screwed. This was my time to shine! I made many versions of possible tickets and asked the group their opinions, than after approval I took it upon myself to get the tickets printed. We wanted fancy tickets, so I took them to Staples and got them printed professionally on thick glossy cardstock.
Now we needed to sell the tickets. Elisha, Robert, Caitlin and I took this part seriously. We made flyers and handed them out in the residence and we went door-to-door in res. selling tickets. We also set up a table in the Atrium of GH between classes and made announcements during our classes about the event. It was very important for us to sell as many tickets as possible because the rent money for the bar hall was dependant on ticket sales and we really wanted people to come and be aware of Burma.
Concert time came, and we were all worried that no one would show up. Not only that, but no one in the group had made up a plan for the night. I took this upon myself to do because the task of making videos and showing clips of the DVD was thrown upon me; therefore it made sense that I make a plan for the night according to where the videos I made were designed to play. I felt like the event co-ordinator. At first I was not involved at all, and all of a sudden I was telling people what to do and when to do it. I didn't know if this was a good thing or not. It was nice that I was able to get things my way concert night, but I also felt taken advantage of because no one else seemed to have done as much work as I did. It felt as if they all knew I would handle it, and just handed me more work to do last minute. I was asked to make videos to play at the concert the night before, as if I was their last resort. Having a lot of responsibility felt nice and at least I work well under pressure, but I did not appreciate how many important tasks were thrown on me when it seemed that some members of the group only participated by attending the event.
I designed the tickets for the event, got them printed, designed and printed flyers to hand out, helped selling the tickets, ripped the documentary DVD and chose clips to show at the event, made introduction and exit videos for the event, and gave a big contribution of effort event night by getting things organized and making sure there were no down times in the show.
I learned from all of this that group work is harder that expected. It may have just been because we had a large group with a lack of communication or that we were not all compatible with each other. I will now in the future deeply consider whom I work with based on what I have witnessed thus far.
All in all, the night was a success; we pulled in about $1000 in attendance and had an overall profit of about $200 that we will be sending to a charitable organization in support of Burma. Awareness was raised and we were able to get most people in attendance to sign petitions and a banner to remember the evening.
Cited Work:
Human Rights in Burma. Dir. Burma Issues, Witness. DVD. Witness, 2007.
In The Arms Of An Angel. Sarah McLachlan.
Saturday, November 10, 2007
My Own Prison
Wow, I definitely have created my own prison this time. I completely screwed myself over for my semiotic analysis. I do not know why I do this to myself... But I did.
It took me forever to decided on a topic. I was considering doing something on why I wear the clothing that I wear, but I never got around to it. Then I was going to do Creed music videos. I have their greatest hits CD and it came with a DVD with all of their music videos. After watching them all numerous times and not finding anything, I realised that in their last 3 videos (the videos released from their 'Weathered' album (their album released after switching record labels)) had many signs of Americanization. In all the 3 videos there were numerous American flags and I found it suspicious that there were no American flags in their videos prior to this album. BLAH! Not a good topic. I soon discovered that in one of their videos there is a strong sense of the female objectification. BLAH! That was cliché. At this point, a week before the essay is due, I haven't decided on a topic and am thoroughly frustrated with the assignment. I tried again by trying to make sense of the opening credits for the movie 'Se7en' with Brad Pitt (What a babe!). Once again, I'm lost in a world of semiotics. I gave up, I wrote about how a music video by Creed illustrates that technology holds humans captive. I had no idea what to say and it took hours just to write one paragraph. I was very disappointed in myself and confused about what I was doing and whether I was doing this whole thing right or not.
I was just about ready to print it off Wednesday morning and hand it in. I did not care that my paper did not make any sense and strayed away from the topic. I did not care that my essay was crap. I just wanted to be done with it. In my ranting about my paper, I commented to myself that the character in the Creed music video was stupid and evil and reminded me of Hitler.
EPIPHANY! - A sudden moment of realisation. It hit me! This video is about war. Here I am, the morning before the paper is due and I'm re-writing it all. WOW! I was very surprised with myself. I had motivation and determination to prove my points about war in this video and I still cannot believe that I re-wrote my entire paper that evil Wednesday morning.
After re-reading my essay today, I am satisfied. I feel I have good points and that I completed a quality semiotic analysis. My biggest problem with this essay was elaboration... I think. My paper was short and I believe this was because I simply stated my arguments. I really am not sure about what grade I will receive and I truly am worried about it.
I do not know how I feel about this essay anymore; it frustrated and continues to frustrate me to this day.
It took me forever to decided on a topic. I was considering doing something on why I wear the clothing that I wear, but I never got around to it. Then I was going to do Creed music videos. I have their greatest hits CD and it came with a DVD with all of their music videos. After watching them all numerous times and not finding anything, I realised that in their last 3 videos (the videos released from their 'Weathered' album (their album released after switching record labels)) had many signs of Americanization. In all the 3 videos there were numerous American flags and I found it suspicious that there were no American flags in their videos prior to this album. BLAH! Not a good topic. I soon discovered that in one of their videos there is a strong sense of the female objectification. BLAH! That was cliché. At this point, a week before the essay is due, I haven't decided on a topic and am thoroughly frustrated with the assignment. I tried again by trying to make sense of the opening credits for the movie 'Se7en' with Brad Pitt (What a babe!). Once again, I'm lost in a world of semiotics. I gave up, I wrote about how a music video by Creed illustrates that technology holds humans captive. I had no idea what to say and it took hours just to write one paragraph. I was very disappointed in myself and confused about what I was doing and whether I was doing this whole thing right or not.
I was just about ready to print it off Wednesday morning and hand it in. I did not care that my paper did not make any sense and strayed away from the topic. I did not care that my essay was crap. I just wanted to be done with it. In my ranting about my paper, I commented to myself that the character in the Creed music video was stupid and evil and reminded me of Hitler.
EPIPHANY! - A sudden moment of realisation. It hit me! This video is about war. Here I am, the morning before the paper is due and I'm re-writing it all. WOW! I was very surprised with myself. I had motivation and determination to prove my points about war in this video and I still cannot believe that I re-wrote my entire paper that evil Wednesday morning.
After re-reading my essay today, I am satisfied. I feel I have good points and that I completed a quality semiotic analysis. My biggest problem with this essay was elaboration... I think. My paper was short and I believe this was because I simply stated my arguments. I really am not sure about what grade I will receive and I truly am worried about it.
I do not know how I feel about this essay anymore; it frustrated and continues to frustrate me to this day.
Creed - My Own Prison
Cited Work:
My Own Prison. Dir. Stephen Scott. Perf. Scott Stapp, Mark Tremonti, Brian Marshall, Scott Phillips. DVD. Warner Music Canada, 2004.
Friday, November 9, 2007
Technology Kills
A couple of classes ago, we received a hand out with 10 beliefs about technology. Below is the 1st belief and my response.
1) For every advantage a new technology offers, there is always a corresponding disadvantage.
Agreed. The invention of machines to produce clothing for us is amazing, but it also brings great despair to the ones in sweatshops working hours and hours for little pay. The invention of money itself is also amazing yet terrifying. Where would this world be without money? No one can say, but for people to realise this concept of a negative reaction to every invention is a step towards a better world – if people keep this in mind while inventing.
1) For every advantage a new technology offers, there is always a corresponding disadvantage.
Agreed. The invention of machines to produce clothing for us is amazing, but it also brings great despair to the ones in sweatshops working hours and hours for little pay. The invention of money itself is also amazing yet terrifying. Where would this world be without money? No one can say, but for people to realise this concept of a negative reaction to every invention is a step towards a better world – if people keep this in mind while inventing.
Friday, November 2, 2007
Blogging
At first I did not believe that by keeping a blog I would be contributing to media, but now that I have been blogging for a bit, I understand how I am contributing to media. By blogging, I am offering a different point of view, and from what I have learned, different points of view are always important in regards to media. And for you, Mark Lipton, I am providing you with my point of view on the readings, class discussions, and how you are helping me learn. Knowing that you will be reading these (Ian as well) makes me want to be a better writer.
Thursday, November 1, 2007
It's Britney Bitch
In my other class, Media Writing, we discussed and read a chapter from our book about what is news. In the section ‘What Makes News’ on page 13, there is a list of qualities that can define what news is. There has to be Timeliness, Proximity, Prominence, Consequence, Conflict, Suspense, Human Interest, Novelty, and Progress. The next class, we had a pop quiz concerning news events in the media that occurred in that week. Besides my low grade of zero on this quiz, I am shocked that the quiz did not include the release of Britney Spears’ new CD entitled ‘Blackout.’
Maybe I am just not understanding the concept of what news is, or that I am just so in love with Britney that I consider anything she does news, but correct me if I am wrong, the release of her first studio album in over 4 years must qualify as headlining media news.
In response to the chapter in the Media Writing book, I believe this qualifies as news. The release of ‘Blackout’ has timeliness because it is not every week that Britney releases a new CD. This also has timeliness because of all the hype surrounding Britney lately with her going bald, and loosing her kids, etc. It has Prominence because it is about a well-known name and celebrity. Consequence because Britney Spears is a pop icon all around the world and her CD can potentially affect everyone in the world. Human interest because people like to read about other people, and Britney has “been American Dreams since she was just 17” and people still talk about her. There is Suspense because everyone wanted to know if her CD would be a flop or not. This story has most of the requirements to be considered news by the book, and I do not understand why it was not in the pop quiz, when stories that no one had ever heard of were in the quiz. I can confidentially say that the class average on that test was 20%, and the pieces of media news chosen were weak.
Maybe I am just rambling, but I was shocked that my other teacher did not consider this news.
Cited Work:
Whitaker, Richard, and Janet E. Ramsey, and Ronald D. Smith. Media Writing - Print, Broadcast and Public Relations. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2004.
Blackout. Dir. Various Directors. Perf. Britney Spears. CD. Jive Records, Zomba, 2007.
Maybe I am just not understanding the concept of what news is, or that I am just so in love with Britney that I consider anything she does news, but correct me if I am wrong, the release of her first studio album in over 4 years must qualify as headlining media news.
In response to the chapter in the Media Writing book, I believe this qualifies as news. The release of ‘Blackout’ has timeliness because it is not every week that Britney releases a new CD. This also has timeliness because of all the hype surrounding Britney lately with her going bald, and loosing her kids, etc. It has Prominence because it is about a well-known name and celebrity. Consequence because Britney Spears is a pop icon all around the world and her CD can potentially affect everyone in the world. Human interest because people like to read about other people, and Britney has “been American Dreams since she was just 17” and people still talk about her. There is Suspense because everyone wanted to know if her CD would be a flop or not. This story has most of the requirements to be considered news by the book, and I do not understand why it was not in the pop quiz, when stories that no one had ever heard of were in the quiz. I can confidentially say that the class average on that test was 20%, and the pieces of media news chosen were weak.
Maybe I am just rambling, but I was shocked that my other teacher did not consider this news.
Cited Work:
Whitaker, Richard, and Janet E. Ramsey, and Ronald D. Smith. Media Writing - Print, Broadcast and Public Relations. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2004.
Blackout. Dir. Various Directors. Perf. Britney Spears. CD. Jive Records, Zomba, 2007.
Monday, October 29, 2007
A World Without Technology
For my group's documentary, we stumbled upon a DVD outlining the ongoing issues in Burma. This DVD illustrated the corrupt government in Burma and how this government is treating Burma’s citizens. Thousands of people have fled their homes becuase of the military enforcement from the government. It was shocking to learn that only people who were picked by the government were allowed to have jobs and earn income. All forms of communication were cut off by the Burmese government, including phone lines and Internet. There is little known about the situation in Burma because of the lack of communication, and the little information that we have is coming from activist groups in Burma that somehow manage to get the word out. This sparked a thought in our minds that we would use this idea for our activist project.
After finishing this documentary, Robert, Elisha, Caitlin, and I discussed the issues portrayed in the DVD. We talked about how appalled we were at what was going on and why we had never heard of this situation before. We discussed how media has influenced the situation in Burma and how it continues to shape the events unfolding. We realised that there is not much media exposure on this issue mainly because there is no communication in Burma. Reporters and journalists are not allowed to report about the government in Burma, and if they do they are usually raped and killed. There is not enough awareness in more powerful countries such as the United States and Canada because no one knows about the issues, not that no one cares about the issues. We talked about how the DVD said that major companies have set up factories in Burma because it would be cheaper to pay Burmese people to work for them and we were unsure of why this was being allowed to happen. When well known companies in North America, such as Nike, set up shop in third world countries, it is all over the news and it was disturbing to know that Burma was being ignored.
We decided that for our activist project we would try to raise as much awareness as possible about the corrupt government in Burma. We thought of many ideas and after everyone in the group had seen the documentary we all decided to hold a benefit concert.
Through watching this documentary I learned how large the impact of global communication and media has had on the world. I learned that without communication and media, the problems occurring in the world have much less opportunity to be fixed. It is amazing how much we all rely on technology and communications and how we would not be able to imagine our lives without it. No phones, no e-mail, no Internet, no TV; this concept is foreign, especially to my generation that was born in the late 1980's. This reminds of what Mark Litpon said in class about how my generation has never seen a world without AIDS. My generation has also never seen a world without technology and mass communications - a world that is faced by the Burmese people daily.
Below is a clip from the DVD that I thought was most shocking and would illustrate why we decided to use this DVD for our documentary and our activist project.
Cited Work:
Human Rights in Burma. Dir. Burma Issues, Witness. DVD. Witness, 2007.
After finishing this documentary, Robert, Elisha, Caitlin, and I discussed the issues portrayed in the DVD. We talked about how appalled we were at what was going on and why we had never heard of this situation before. We discussed how media has influenced the situation in Burma and how it continues to shape the events unfolding. We realised that there is not much media exposure on this issue mainly because there is no communication in Burma. Reporters and journalists are not allowed to report about the government in Burma, and if they do they are usually raped and killed. There is not enough awareness in more powerful countries such as the United States and Canada because no one knows about the issues, not that no one cares about the issues. We talked about how the DVD said that major companies have set up factories in Burma because it would be cheaper to pay Burmese people to work for them and we were unsure of why this was being allowed to happen. When well known companies in North America, such as Nike, set up shop in third world countries, it is all over the news and it was disturbing to know that Burma was being ignored.
We decided that for our activist project we would try to raise as much awareness as possible about the corrupt government in Burma. We thought of many ideas and after everyone in the group had seen the documentary we all decided to hold a benefit concert.
Through watching this documentary I learned how large the impact of global communication and media has had on the world. I learned that without communication and media, the problems occurring in the world have much less opportunity to be fixed. It is amazing how much we all rely on technology and communications and how we would not be able to imagine our lives without it. No phones, no e-mail, no Internet, no TV; this concept is foreign, especially to my generation that was born in the late 1980's. This reminds of what Mark Litpon said in class about how my generation has never seen a world without AIDS. My generation has also never seen a world without technology and mass communications - a world that is faced by the Burmese people daily.
Below is a clip from the DVD that I thought was most shocking and would illustrate why we decided to use this DVD for our documentary and our activist project.
Cited Work:
Human Rights in Burma. Dir. Burma Issues, Witness. DVD. Witness, 2007.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Teen-Queens
For the Media Hegemonies project, some complications arose. I do not know if we just did not understand the project, or if it was the group itself, but the project just did not work out.
I worked with Robert, Elisha, and Caitlin for this project and we all contributed our fare share of hostility. I think it may just be because we are all sick of this class and all the work we have to do in general, but we knew we still needed to do this project.
At first my group had decided to study the ownership that Viacom has. It seemed like an alright idea, but when I read the syllabus, our plan did not make sense to me. I was trying to follow the syllabus correctly and choose a theme and map the ownership that relates/influences our chosen theme. My group however, just basically wanted to complete the project – ok. We then decided not to map Viacom because we wanted to do something original other than the big six media owners.
We decided to map the media ownership of celebrities. We chose Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen because they have been in the media business their whole lives and are apparently the most well known stars alive. It fit perfectly because these twins have built an empire from the ground up. They have accomplished so much and have undoubtedly influenced today’s media.
We decided to turn to media for information on the girls. We browsed You Tube, and after finding many tribute videos to the girls, found what we were looking for. “The Fabulous Life of Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen” was our number one source of their media ownership – along with their official website.
We discovered that the Olsen’s were co-presidents of a billion-dollar-a-year business that markets the twins themselves. This business produces and sells millions of Mary-Kate and Ashley dolls, books, school supplies, videos, make-up and accessories, CD/players, games, electronics, beddings, fragrances, and clothing. They girls have stared in the most television shows and movies than any other child stars. They have sold over 40 million dollars worth of direct-to-video movies and have an agreement with Wal-Mart to dedicate 1400 sq. feet of store space to Mark-Kate and Ashley products. The girls are also co-presidents of their own production company, Dual Star Entertainment Group.
We believe that the Olsen twins are an excellent example of media hegemony because of their influence on ‘tweens’ and teenagers of all generations. Everyone has heard of them, and because of this their empire is growing stronger everyday.
I read the assignment another time, and realised that we were supposed to make a poster – but we did not. I got a bed feeling because I knew we were not actually completing the project, so I took it upon myself to make a quick poster in Photoshop to go along with our theme.
I worked with Robert, Elisha, and Caitlin for this project and we all contributed our fare share of hostility. I think it may just be because we are all sick of this class and all the work we have to do in general, but we knew we still needed to do this project.
At first my group had decided to study the ownership that Viacom has. It seemed like an alright idea, but when I read the syllabus, our plan did not make sense to me. I was trying to follow the syllabus correctly and choose a theme and map the ownership that relates/influences our chosen theme. My group however, just basically wanted to complete the project – ok. We then decided not to map Viacom because we wanted to do something original other than the big six media owners.
We decided to map the media ownership of celebrities. We chose Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen because they have been in the media business their whole lives and are apparently the most well known stars alive. It fit perfectly because these twins have built an empire from the ground up. They have accomplished so much and have undoubtedly influenced today’s media.
We decided to turn to media for information on the girls. We browsed You Tube, and after finding many tribute videos to the girls, found what we were looking for. “The Fabulous Life of Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen” was our number one source of their media ownership – along with their official website.
We discovered that the Olsen’s were co-presidents of a billion-dollar-a-year business that markets the twins themselves. This business produces and sells millions of Mary-Kate and Ashley dolls, books, school supplies, videos, make-up and accessories, CD/players, games, electronics, beddings, fragrances, and clothing. They girls have stared in the most television shows and movies than any other child stars. They have sold over 40 million dollars worth of direct-to-video movies and have an agreement with Wal-Mart to dedicate 1400 sq. feet of store space to Mark-Kate and Ashley products. The girls are also co-presidents of their own production company, Dual Star Entertainment Group.
We believe that the Olsen twins are an excellent example of media hegemony because of their influence on ‘tweens’ and teenagers of all generations. Everyone has heard of them, and because of this their empire is growing stronger everyday.
I read the assignment another time, and realised that we were supposed to make a poster – but we did not. I got a bed feeling because I knew we were not actually completing the project, so I took it upon myself to make a quick poster in Photoshop to go along with our theme.
Although we did do a lot of work researching for this theme and spent a lot of time discovering the Olsen’s media ownership, there was a lack of information and our points were blurred and had no strength. My group decided to ditch the Mary-Kate and Ashley theme and settle for a simple completion of this project. We now re-started this project and focused on the media ownership possessed by Time Warner.
We found that Time Warner owns the Atlanta Braves, the Atlanta Hawks, 82.4% of CNN, Live from the Situation Room, Larry King live, Anderson Cooper, TBS, TNT, The Cartoon Network, Warner Brothers, Court TV, animation 25% of A&E, the licensing for Loonie Toons, digital boxes owned by, local news channels, new line cinema corp. time, Turner Home Entertainment, Braves Clubhouse, People, Sports Illustrated, Essence, Southern Living, Cooking Light, Parenting Magazine, Mad Magazine, Popular Science, AOL, an alliance with Google, Movie Phone, Map Quest, the NASCAR, the PGA, 50% of DC Comics, 50% of America’s Talking, Oxmoor House publishing, Sunset Books, Little, Brown and Company, Time-Life Books, Warner Books, 50% of Central Comedy, Warner Brothers Television, Asia Week, The Warner Brothers Stores, 50% of Bravo, Baby talk Magazine, Warner Brothers motion pictures, and all of the Six Flags Amusement parks.
When looking at all of this information, it is shocking and astounding to see that one company owns so much, without having the majority of the public know. Upon completion of this project and many days of reflection, I feel I have learned a lot about media ownership. It is scary. One company, one entity is in charge of a large portion of media that not only I, but also the world consumes, and only a few more major companies own the other portions of media not owned by Time Warner. Does this vast media hegemony take away diversity from our media? In some sense it does. These huge media corporations manufacture all the media we see, and because of this the possibility of different points of view in media is put at risk. But at the same time, there is still freedom of speech and the right to creativity in Canada, enabling all points of view to be spoken. I suppose in the long run, all media will be coming from one source because the world is all about money. One company will buy another company and will begin to own everything.
I feel that if there were more people who will not be bought out in the media business, the future of Canadian media will be brighter. What media needs are a dose of integrity and a sense of pride.
Cited Work:
Hazen, Dan, and Julie Winokur. We the Media. New York: The New York Press, 1997.
Life Decisions International- Press Room. Life Decisions International. Retrieved October 19, 2007. http://fightpp.org/show.cfm?page=press&action=display&ID=129
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Blog
Well so far… I have enjoyed keeping a blog. It can be very stressful sometimes because I cannot think of what to write about, but when I find a topic I find myself typing away. I believe that this blog has created a sense of commitment in me. I feel that now I do not only do this blog because I have to, but because I want to. I sometimes get excited about what I write, knowing that at some point, eventually, it will get read.
Friday, October 19, 2007
The Invisible Art
Understanding Comics – My favorite required reading. I loved it – and by love I mean to represent the enjoyment and insight this book has brought me.
I find it amazingly interesting how the icons ^^^ are understood, even though they are truly nothing. They only have meaning because we give them meaning.
This book re-enforced the belief that everything is there for a reason. The panels are
arranged in a particular way so that the reader has a path to follow, the balance between text and image, which is a skill that must be perfected for it to be beneficial, contributes greatly to the reader’s understanding, and the use of EXAGGERATED or dull color and font add deep emotion to the reading. Applying this to my life, I believe that I am now able to analyze media more thoroughly and understand what is really happening when I do not actually see the stabbing in the HoRrOr films (McCloud, 66).
I have never thought about comics this way before. Reading this book has definitely expanded my knowledge of printed media and the history behind comic books and their influences. It was astounding how much knowledge and theory is in comics and I am at a loss of words on how to explain my feelings toward this wonderful sequence of inked panels on paper.
I suppose it is normal to feel a loss of words. After all these words do not mean anything unless my use of visible lines (or placement of light projected on your monitor by me) can be understood as words, and related to meanings that I wish to describe. My writing is only a mere form of media, one that “converts [my] thoughts into forms that can transverse the physical world and be re-converted by one or more senses back into thoughts” (McCloud, 195).
I suppose it is normal to feel a loss of words. After all these words do not mean anything unless my use of visible lines (or placement of light projected on your monitor by me) can be understood as words, and related to meanings that I wish to describe. My writing is only a mere form of media, one that “converts [my] thoughts into forms that can transverse the physical world and be re-converted by one or more senses back into thoughts” (McCloud, 195).
I find it amazingly interesting how the icons ^^^ are understood, even though they are truly nothing. They only have meaning because we give them meaning.This book re-enforced the belief that everything is there for a reason. The panels are
arranged in a particular way so that the reader has a path to follow, the balance between text and image, which is a skill that must be perfected for it to be beneficial, contributes greatly to the reader’s understanding, and the use of EXAGGERATED or dull color and font add deep emotion to the reading. Applying this to my life, I believe that I am now able to analyze media more thoroughly and understand what is really happening when I do not actually see the stabbing in the HoRrOr films (McCloud, 66).I REALLY HOPE MY JOY OF THIS BOOK IS EXPRESSED CLEARLY
THROUGH MY USE OF FONT, ICONS, AND COLOR!!!!
I would also like to note, Mark Lipton is correct when he said that all forms of technology and media are corrupted by pornography and other substances.
(McCloud, 190)
Cited Work:
McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. New York: Kitchen Sink Press, 1993.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
"Dumbledore is Gay"
When it comes to other readings, there is not that many books that I would like to read. Personally reading is not my favourite thing in the world, but I guess it has got to be done.
I have never been interested in the Harry Potter series before, and I think that is because when it first came out my parents forbid it because magic is evil. In recent headlines, at a press conference to promote the seventh Harry Potter book, J.K. Rowling admitted that the character Dumbledore is actually gay. This got my attention. I had never paid any attention to Harry Potter but now that I could possibly relate to it, I became intrigued.
I have never been interested in the Harry Potter series before, and I think that is because when it first came out my parents forbid it because magic is evil. In recent headlines, at a press conference to promote the seventh Harry Potter book, J.K. Rowling admitted that the character Dumbledore is actually gay. This got my attention. I had never paid any attention to Harry Potter but now that I could possibly relate to it, I became intrigued.
No, I haven’t started frantically reading the books yet, but in the future I probably will. Not only are they revolutionary pieces of literature (not for their simple language that I have been told of, but because the books have started a generation of thousands of Harry Potter fans,), but also now I have a character to relate to in the books. I am also sure that by having a gay character, these books will set a tolerance with today’s youth. By exposing children to different types of people through such a popular piece of media, acceptance is a possible outcome in youth and adulthood.
The Harry Potter books have had a vast impact on today’s children and youth and quite possibly can affect the future of literature in media. There are also movies now, adding to Harry Potter’s media base. It is truly amazing how a fictional character can have such an impact on the world.
Cited Work:
Weingarten, Tara, and Peg Tyre. "Rowling Says Dumbledore Is Gay." Newsweek 16 Oct 2007 18 Oct 2007 .
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
A Privilege or A Right?
Today in class, there was a heavy debate between Mark and Caitlin. I am unsure of my feelings towards this situation because in some sense, I agree with both points made.
I agree that being able to attend an education institution is a privilege when compared to people in other countries who do not have education, but in Canada where we all live, I believe it is not a privilege because it is normal to have an education in Canada. Attending a post-secondary institution in Canada is something to work for, something that is 'better' than a normal, expected high school education and I believe that is what Cailtin was trying to hint at.
In terms of the actual debate, some may call it an argument; I feel I learned a lot about my two peers. I feel that I learned that Caitlin is somewhat headstrong, but with reason. She has valid points, but sometimes is unable to voice them. As for Mark, I believe that he is also headstrong because he is passionately thinking about the bigger picture, and for the sake of this class, I choose to agree with Mark because it is important to look at the bigger picture when concerned with media.
I agree that being able to attend an education institution is a privilege when compared to people in other countries who do not have education, but in Canada where we all live, I believe it is not a privilege because it is normal to have an education in Canada. Attending a post-secondary institution in Canada is something to work for, something that is 'better' than a normal, expected high school education and I believe that is what Cailtin was trying to hint at.
In terms of the actual debate, some may call it an argument; I feel I learned a lot about my two peers. I feel that I learned that Caitlin is somewhat headstrong, but with reason. She has valid points, but sometimes is unable to voice them. As for Mark, I believe that he is also headstrong because he is passionately thinking about the bigger picture, and for the sake of this class, I choose to agree with Mark because it is important to look at the bigger picture when concerned with media.
Monday, October 15, 2007
Social/Media/History
For the Timeline of Social/Media/History, our group decided to do a PowerPoint presentation. We were not too sure if we were doing this project right as it was confusing, but we feel our outcome was successful.
We interpreted the project as if we were supposed to choose a topic that is relevant to current culture and media, and choose 4-5 key technological inventions that have made that topic relevant. After brainstorming for a couple of hours, I thought of multiculturalism. So now we asked ourselves, which inventions from the beginning of time until the 19th century has made current multiculturalism possible. We thought of many ideas, and after starting our slideshow, we realised that our ideas were simply ideas, rather than technological inventions. We had to re-think our strategy, and finally we came up with the four inventions that have made current multiculturalism possible. We decided on Weaponry, The Alphabet, Farm Equipment, and Electricity.
We decided that on a timeline, Weaponry would come first. We decided this based on what I learned from ‘Understanding Comics’ by Scott McCloud. There is a chapter on human’s two basic instincts, one of which being survival. After I mentioned this to Robert and Elisha, we concluded that humans were defending themselves and killing animals for food before humans were having civilized conversations. In terms of more technological weaponry, we believe that guns are partly responsible for current multiculturalism. When the Europeans took over what is now known as Canada, they used weapons and rifles to take the land from the Native peoples. Guns were used heavily in the world wars, and this lead to more land being taken over.
Next came the alphabet. We believed that this invention helped multiculturalism because the ability to understand one another is necessary to live together. We realise that there were forms of alphabets in pre-historic times such as hieroglyphics and cave paintings, but we believe that the phonetic alphabet is what has enabled worldwide communication. People were able to write to each other, write books, and read after the alphabet was invented hundreds of years ago. Through the various readings created through use of the alphabet, people were able to learn about different cultures and places and enhanced the desire for people to travel and move to foreign civilizations, creating multiculturalism.
Farm equipment also relates to humans’ basic instinct of survival. We decided that the ability to produce crops and to harvest them is important for multiculturalism because in human’s history, many peoples have re-located because of food situations and the invention of the hoe for example, has enabled people to sustain a living standard where they are.
And finally, we have Electricity. We believe that electricity is an important invention that enables multiculturalism because it is what has enabled the world’s most common forms of communication and transportation. Without electricity, the people in North America would never have known anything about what is going on in China or Iraq, thus people may still believe that where they are living is the only land out there and would not have moved to different places.
When making the slideshow in PowerPoint, I was the technical one using the computer to do the actual slideshow. I found the images and got proper citations for the images that needed it and contributed valuable ideas for our topic. We all are responsible for the brainstorming and initial ideas of this project, but Elisha impressed me a lot with her ways of thinking. She just shot out multiple superb ideas, one after another. It came in handy when we kept getting stuck or found ourselves starting over. Robert was also very handy in this project because he was able to elaborate on Elisha’s thoughts when I did not fully understand. We believe that clear communication is attributed to this project’s success.
Through doing this project I learned the importance of invention. Mark Lipton’s saying, that when something is invented it doesn’t create a world with an invention, it creates a whole new world, is one that I now have a strong belief for.
In regards to the ‘Ecology of Media,’ I believe that all of these inventions have contributed to our media because in the 21st century, all forms of media are trying to be multicultural. I would assume the real reason behind the need for multiculturalism is money, but it is still nice to think that the media and multinational companies really care about everyone. Seriously though, I believe all the attempts at multiculturalism are to make more money. Companies advertise in a way to appeal to more people, more cultures, in order to sell more products and produce more revenue. Is that not what the media is all about these days? Targeted advertising? Creating Revenue?
All in all, I feel this project was a success.
We interpreted the project as if we were supposed to choose a topic that is relevant to current culture and media, and choose 4-5 key technological inventions that have made that topic relevant. After brainstorming for a couple of hours, I thought of multiculturalism. So now we asked ourselves, which inventions from the beginning of time until the 19th century has made current multiculturalism possible. We thought of many ideas, and after starting our slideshow, we realised that our ideas were simply ideas, rather than technological inventions. We had to re-think our strategy, and finally we came up with the four inventions that have made current multiculturalism possible. We decided on Weaponry, The Alphabet, Farm Equipment, and Electricity.
We decided that on a timeline, Weaponry would come first. We decided this based on what I learned from ‘Understanding Comics’ by Scott McCloud. There is a chapter on human’s two basic instincts, one of which being survival. After I mentioned this to Robert and Elisha, we concluded that humans were defending themselves and killing animals for food before humans were having civilized conversations. In terms of more technological weaponry, we believe that guns are partly responsible for current multiculturalism. When the Europeans took over what is now known as Canada, they used weapons and rifles to take the land from the Native peoples. Guns were used heavily in the world wars, and this lead to more land being taken over.
Next came the alphabet. We believed that this invention helped multiculturalism because the ability to understand one another is necessary to live together. We realise that there were forms of alphabets in pre-historic times such as hieroglyphics and cave paintings, but we believe that the phonetic alphabet is what has enabled worldwide communication. People were able to write to each other, write books, and read after the alphabet was invented hundreds of years ago. Through the various readings created through use of the alphabet, people were able to learn about different cultures and places and enhanced the desire for people to travel and move to foreign civilizations, creating multiculturalism.
Farm equipment also relates to humans’ basic instinct of survival. We decided that the ability to produce crops and to harvest them is important for multiculturalism because in human’s history, many peoples have re-located because of food situations and the invention of the hoe for example, has enabled people to sustain a living standard where they are.
And finally, we have Electricity. We believe that electricity is an important invention that enables multiculturalism because it is what has enabled the world’s most common forms of communication and transportation. Without electricity, the people in North America would never have known anything about what is going on in China or Iraq, thus people may still believe that where they are living is the only land out there and would not have moved to different places.
When making the slideshow in PowerPoint, I was the technical one using the computer to do the actual slideshow. I found the images and got proper citations for the images that needed it and contributed valuable ideas for our topic. We all are responsible for the brainstorming and initial ideas of this project, but Elisha impressed me a lot with her ways of thinking. She just shot out multiple superb ideas, one after another. It came in handy when we kept getting stuck or found ourselves starting over. Robert was also very handy in this project because he was able to elaborate on Elisha’s thoughts when I did not fully understand. We believe that clear communication is attributed to this project’s success.
Through doing this project I learned the importance of invention. Mark Lipton’s saying, that when something is invented it doesn’t create a world with an invention, it creates a whole new world, is one that I now have a strong belief for.
In regards to the ‘Ecology of Media,’ I believe that all of these inventions have contributed to our media because in the 21st century, all forms of media are trying to be multicultural. I would assume the real reason behind the need for multiculturalism is money, but it is still nice to think that the media and multinational companies really care about everyone. Seriously though, I believe all the attempts at multiculturalism are to make more money. Companies advertise in a way to appeal to more people, more cultures, in order to sell more products and produce more revenue. Is that not what the media is all about these days? Targeted advertising? Creating Revenue?
All in all, I feel this project was a success.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
A Different Point Of View
When I read the article “10 Things Wrong with the ‘Media Effects’ Model” by David Gauntlett, I became very intrigued. The first couple of paragraphs had me wanting more because this article presents common ideas from a different viewpoint. I find it immensely interesting to think about how media has influenced people, but this article broadened my perspective and introduced me to the idea that in fact, it is human qualities that influence the media.
Through reading this article, I have learned to think differently about how I judge media. It is very easy to judge the media and to say that it is trying to ‘brainwash’ us into thinking a certain way, but now I can take a step back and begin to understand why something is trying to ‘brainwash’ us. Everything is there for a reason, but it may not all be intentional. Yes, violence on TV may make children want to be violent, but as humans, children are already instinctually violent – just trained not to be.
In this article, it is stated that most child offenders do not have as much access to media as ‘normal’ children do, and that their violent tendencies are influenced first-hand experience, such as violent parents and broken homes, rather than being influenced by television and other forms of media (Gauntlett, 1). It also states that if adults were observed the way children were observed, the results would not be reliable because of an adult’s developed ‘common sense’ (Gaunteltt, 2).
Another aspect of this article that I believe taught me to see from different points of view is when it is talking about TV. It said that most people watch TV just to watch TV, that people usually do not have a specific program in mind and end up 'channel-surfing." I found this point of view very interseting because it is true. I notice this with myself, even though I do not watch television that often.
I really enjoyed this article because it exposed me to new and valuable ‘ways of seeing.’ Views that enable me to look outside the box of media and understand what something is all about, from a different point of view. In relation to one of my earlier posts, this article has helped me decide which media to analyze and which not to analyze.
Cited Work:
Gauntlett, David. "Ten Things Wrong with the 'Media Effects' Model." Approaches to Audiences - A Reader 1998 14 Oct 2007.
Through reading this article, I have learned to think differently about how I judge media. It is very easy to judge the media and to say that it is trying to ‘brainwash’ us into thinking a certain way, but now I can take a step back and begin to understand why something is trying to ‘brainwash’ us. Everything is there for a reason, but it may not all be intentional. Yes, violence on TV may make children want to be violent, but as humans, children are already instinctually violent – just trained not to be.
In this article, it is stated that most child offenders do not have as much access to media as ‘normal’ children do, and that their violent tendencies are influenced first-hand experience, such as violent parents and broken homes, rather than being influenced by television and other forms of media (Gauntlett, 1). It also states that if adults were observed the way children were observed, the results would not be reliable because of an adult’s developed ‘common sense’ (Gaunteltt, 2).
Another aspect of this article that I believe taught me to see from different points of view is when it is talking about TV. It said that most people watch TV just to watch TV, that people usually do not have a specific program in mind and end up 'channel-surfing." I found this point of view very interseting because it is true. I notice this with myself, even though I do not watch television that often.
I really enjoyed this article because it exposed me to new and valuable ‘ways of seeing.’ Views that enable me to look outside the box of media and understand what something is all about, from a different point of view. In relation to one of my earlier posts, this article has helped me decide which media to analyze and which not to analyze.
Cited Work:
Gauntlett, David. "Ten Things Wrong with the 'Media Effects' Model." Approaches to Audiences - A Reader 1998 14 Oct 2007
Thursday, October 11, 2007
What to do...
Now, in my last few posts, I have concluded that I now understand the reasoning behind 'Everything in media is there for a reason.' But what am I supposed to do with this new knowledge?
Mark, if you are reading this, please give me some feedback. I understand that your job is to make us students aware of the practices of what goes on in the media. And through various examples and moments of realisation, I believe that everything is there for a reason.
As media students, it is our job to understand that concept, as well as many others. Therefore, Mark you are doing a good job in that. But being aware is different from application.
As media students, are we now supposed to look at everything we see and hear and analyze their meanings? Are we supposed to take every advertisement and think about its deep meanings, besides buying Gap jeans?
What is our goal in understanding this concept?
Mark, if you are reading this, please give me some feedback. I understand that your job is to make us students aware of the practices of what goes on in the media. And through various examples and moments of realisation, I believe that everything is there for a reason.
As media students, it is our job to understand that concept, as well as many others. Therefore, Mark you are doing a good job in that. But being aware is different from application.
As media students, are we now supposed to look at everything we see and hear and analyze their meanings? Are we supposed to take every advertisement and think about its deep meanings, besides buying Gap jeans?
What is our goal in understanding this concept?
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Who/What is the Media?
A couple classes ago, on October 3rd, I was very confused. I did not understand what Mark was talking about and was frustrated with the way the argument between Mark and Caitlin turned out. I decided to raise my hand, and ask a question for clarification. The details of the question and the response seem to have left my memory, but the way the question was answered made me think.
Mark put a situation into context for me, because I did not understand what we were talking about. The situation made the idea clear to me and I understood the subject. In the explanation, Mark referred to homosexuals and put them into context with this issue. At first, I thought that he just thought up homosexuals from the top of his brain, and used the idea innocently. Soon, I became sceptical of the innocence. I began to think that Mark only used homosexuals because I asked the question. I felt stupid because I thought that Mark only thought I would understand if he used something that relates to me specifically. Aside from the negative feelings I had towards Mark from the argument with Caitlin, I was offended.
Last night, I could not get to sleep. I laved in my bed thinking about how far behind I am in everything and I remembered my negative feelings from the explanation. Than it sprung a memory from the past and sparked discussion in my mind. I remembered one of my friends showing me their My Space page. I noticed that there was an ad on the top for a gay spa. I said to my friend that I had never seen a gay oriented advertisement on My Space before. He silenced my remark saying that they were only there for people who had their orientation in their profile set to gay.
A connection became clear. It was targeted advertising. My status was not set to gay, so therefore I had never seen a gay ad before. The situation was put into a context that was clear that I would react to because I am open about my orientation. The question is, did mark target his response at me? Or was it just a coincidence?
I was also confused by how loosely my classmates, professors, and I had used the term ‘Media’ in conversation. Do I really know what I mean when I say ‘The media created targeted advertising?’ Who is this media I speak of?
I now believe, that everyone and everything is a part of the media. How people interact and interpret is what makes up the media. When Mark mentioned homosexuals, it was a form of media to me. Was it targeted, or a coincidence? I choose to believe it was targeted, only for the reason that I hope Mark hoped I would make a connection like this from his targeted response. That he was hoping I would realise that everything is there for a reason. It is one thing to tell us that everything is there for a reason, but seeing it in your own context and life is a different form of understanding.
Mark put a situation into context for me, because I did not understand what we were talking about. The situation made the idea clear to me and I understood the subject. In the explanation, Mark referred to homosexuals and put them into context with this issue. At first, I thought that he just thought up homosexuals from the top of his brain, and used the idea innocently. Soon, I became sceptical of the innocence. I began to think that Mark only used homosexuals because I asked the question. I felt stupid because I thought that Mark only thought I would understand if he used something that relates to me specifically. Aside from the negative feelings I had towards Mark from the argument with Caitlin, I was offended.
Last night, I could not get to sleep. I laved in my bed thinking about how far behind I am in everything and I remembered my negative feelings from the explanation. Than it sprung a memory from the past and sparked discussion in my mind. I remembered one of my friends showing me their My Space page. I noticed that there was an ad on the top for a gay spa. I said to my friend that I had never seen a gay oriented advertisement on My Space before. He silenced my remark saying that they were only there for people who had their orientation in their profile set to gay.
A connection became clear. It was targeted advertising. My status was not set to gay, so therefore I had never seen a gay ad before. The situation was put into a context that was clear that I would react to because I am open about my orientation. The question is, did mark target his response at me? Or was it just a coincidence?
I was also confused by how loosely my classmates, professors, and I had used the term ‘Media’ in conversation. Do I really know what I mean when I say ‘The media created targeted advertising?’ Who is this media I speak of?
I now believe, that everyone and everything is a part of the media. How people interact and interpret is what makes up the media. When Mark mentioned homosexuals, it was a form of media to me. Was it targeted, or a coincidence? I choose to believe it was targeted, only for the reason that I hope Mark hoped I would make a connection like this from his targeted response. That he was hoping I would realise that everything is there for a reason. It is one thing to tell us that everything is there for a reason, but seeing it in your own context and life is a different form of understanding.
Friday, October 5, 2007
Everybody Comes to Hollywood
In class today we discussed a commercial for Gap jeans featuring Madonna and Missy Elliot. I have seen this commercial before, and I loved it. I loved how upbeat the music was and I already enjoy both Madonna and Missy Elliot. My first impression of this commercial was “AMAZING!” But I also felt as if I did not even remember what the commercial was for. The actual product, Gap jeans, did not leave as much of a lasting impression as the mastered pop sounds of Madonna and Missy did.
When Mark Lipton told us that this video was racist, my jaw hit the floor. I thought the complete opposite. Madonna is white, Missy is black, and they were performing together in perfect harmony. I have also witnessed other occasions when ‘Misdemeanour’ and the ‘Material Girl’ have worked together, illustrating no strong signs of racial tension.
At the MTV Video awards, the AMAZING “Like A Virgin” compilation consisting of Madonna, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, and Missy Elliot (AKA the infamous Britney Spears and Madonna lesbian kiss), has factors that can be interpreted as racism.
For the life of me, I will never understand why no one remembers that Missy Elliot was in this performance too. She was amazing, but completely out of her element. Some could say that it was racist because only the white girls kissed each other, and that Madonna not kissing Missy was making a racial statement. I disagree. Like I said, Missy was out of her element. I believe that she would not have wanted to commit to a same-sex kiss; it is just not a part of her personality.
I would just like to acknowledge a point about this performance and it’s surrounding media (completely un-related to this topic) that has frustrated me for quite some time. Why did the media forget about X-tina kissing Madonna? It was way hotter than Brit's kiss.
But back to the Gap commercial, I agree that there are many instances in this video that could be screaming racism, but I do not believe that was the message in this video.
A thesis – “Madonna is on Top” (Lipton).
Of course she is! She has done amazing work for decades; she deserves all of my respect in regards to her profession because of her talents as a musician and because she is responsible for a musical revolution. I do not dispute this thesis. Madonna is on top, and will hopefully be on top forever. I believe that this may have been the real intention of this video and I would not be upset if it was proven as a fact.
As far as all of the effort put into this video by Madonna’s or the Gap’s production people come, at first I was sceptical. In all cases where there is a celebrity or musician in the media, they are always made out to be superior. If they were not thought of as superior there would be no reason why they were celebrities. Madonna is controversial, Paris Hilton is stupid, Brad Pitt is hot – that is why they are famous. Yes, the ‘top’ in the background is convincing, but I am still sceptical of its intentional placement. On the other hand, in other Madonna music videos it is clear that there are words written on the ground to help express the mood of her songs/videos – maybe her PR people have figured out a way to advertise/convince people both subtly and obviously.
When Mark Lipton told us that this video was racist, my jaw hit the floor. I thought the complete opposite. Madonna is white, Missy is black, and they were performing together in perfect harmony. I have also witnessed other occasions when ‘Misdemeanour’ and the ‘Material Girl’ have worked together, illustrating no strong signs of racial tension.
At the MTV Video awards, the AMAZING “Like A Virgin” compilation consisting of Madonna, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, and Missy Elliot (AKA the infamous Britney Spears and Madonna lesbian kiss), has factors that can be interpreted as racism.
For the life of me, I will never understand why no one remembers that Missy Elliot was in this performance too. She was amazing, but completely out of her element. Some could say that it was racist because only the white girls kissed each other, and that Madonna not kissing Missy was making a racial statement. I disagree. Like I said, Missy was out of her element. I believe that she would not have wanted to commit to a same-sex kiss; it is just not a part of her personality.
I would just like to acknowledge a point about this performance and it’s surrounding media (completely un-related to this topic) that has frustrated me for quite some time. Why did the media forget about X-tina kissing Madonna? It was way hotter than Brit's kiss.
But back to the Gap commercial, I agree that there are many instances in this video that could be screaming racism, but I do not believe that was the message in this video.
A thesis – “Madonna is on Top” (Lipton).
Of course she is! She has done amazing work for decades; she deserves all of my respect in regards to her profession because of her talents as a musician and because she is responsible for a musical revolution. I do not dispute this thesis. Madonna is on top, and will hopefully be on top forever. I believe that this may have been the real intention of this video and I would not be upset if it was proven as a fact.
As far as all of the effort put into this video by Madonna’s or the Gap’s production people come, at first I was sceptical. In all cases where there is a celebrity or musician in the media, they are always made out to be superior. If they were not thought of as superior there would be no reason why they were celebrities. Madonna is controversial, Paris Hilton is stupid, Brad Pitt is hot – that is why they are famous. Yes, the ‘top’ in the background is convincing, but I am still sceptical of its intentional placement. On the other hand, in other Madonna music videos it is clear that there are words written on the ground to help express the mood of her songs/videos – maybe her PR people have figured out a way to advertise/convince people both subtly and obviously.
But than again, it may just be a conincidence.
Cited Work:
Get Into The Groove. Dir. Gap Jeans. Perf. Madonna, Missy Elliot. Gap Jeans. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQpN3ToVtmQ>.
What If. Dir. Stephen Scott. Perf. Scott Stapp, Mark Tremonti, Brian Marshall, Scott Phillips. DVD. Warner Music Canada, 2004. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEijnCAg2-8>.
Hung Up. Perf. Madonna. Maverick, 2005. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CosUSYHGQeM>.
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Plagarism Shocker
I found this article in the newspaper a bit ago, and I was intrigued by the page space it was given. I did not think that an issue such as plagiarism would be given as much page space as it was. It made me think about how much this issue affects our daily lives and the materials we produce.The article talks about how many ideas are not original, because they are sparked form past observations and other people’s ideas. The article states that people plagiarize without knowing that they are stealing someone else’s idea, known as unconscious plagiarism (McCallum Living, L1).
Reading this article made me think about the ‘Fairy Use Tail’ video that we watched in class. If people plagiarize everyday without knowing it, are we all at risk of prosecution? Do all of our ideas root from someone else’s ideas? This makes it hard to be creative and to think of projects knowing that your ideas may not be your own.
The article also describes ‘memory glitches.’ This is when you subconsciously remember certain details of something, like a board meeting, and forget the rest (McCallum Living, L3). This made me think of the Gap commercial we watched with Madonna and Missy Eliot. If we only remember certain parts of things, than it makes sense that the Gap, or Madonna’s public relations people would spend so much time and money making sure that all we remember is Madonna’s presence in the commercial.
Cited Work
McCallum, Conrad. Plagarism shocker: Blame your brain." Toronto Star 18 September 2007: L1, L3.
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Negativity Within
Today's class was one that has left me undecided. I for one am not a follower of politics, and I hope I never will be. I do not know exactly why, but I have never been interested in politics. Like I wrote in a persuasive essay for my English class, I believe I may not be interested because I have never been encouraged to participate in politics. I had thought up various reasons why the government, schools, and daily living sitatuations/occurances such as media and advertisements, did not encourage youth to participate. I must have had some good points because I achieved an 80% on the assignment.
I remember in high school, I had to do a project for my civics class. My partner and I collected over 500 signatures from the Hamilton area on a petition in support of Bill C32 (at the time this bill would have enforced stricter legislation against animal cruelty and negligence), as well as over 600-signed letters from people who agreed with our beliefs. We sent a copy of the petition and the letters to each of Ontario's senate members and the Prime Minister at the time, but did not receive much response. Months later, we received a letter from one of the senate members stating that the legislation we were fighting for had left parliament and that our concerns would be attended to when it comes back to parliament. I think that this may have been what solidified my negativity towards politics.
But after today's class, my opinion on politics is a bit more tolerant. The whole idea of being heard is what really got to me. I do not know if what Mark said was true about politicians/government people ignoring a letter if the sender is not on the voter's list, but it is a plausible explanation. I now wanted to vote, and re-submit my materials to see if I would receive a different outcome, but a part of me in the back of my mind stopped me from exploring my new interest. This negative part of my mind exists because all I ever hear about politics is the negativity that exists within.
I believe that media is responsible for this negative image I have of politics. On television, the only thing that is ‘news-worthy’ is when a politician does something wrong or goes against their word. The positive side of things in politics is rarely discussed and I for one am unimpressed because of that.
I remember in high school, I had to do a project for my civics class. My partner and I collected over 500 signatures from the Hamilton area on a petition in support of Bill C32 (at the time this bill would have enforced stricter legislation against animal cruelty and negligence), as well as over 600-signed letters from people who agreed with our beliefs. We sent a copy of the petition and the letters to each of Ontario's senate members and the Prime Minister at the time, but did not receive much response. Months later, we received a letter from one of the senate members stating that the legislation we were fighting for had left parliament and that our concerns would be attended to when it comes back to parliament. I think that this may have been what solidified my negativity towards politics.
But after today's class, my opinion on politics is a bit more tolerant. The whole idea of being heard is what really got to me. I do not know if what Mark said was true about politicians/government people ignoring a letter if the sender is not on the voter's list, but it is a plausible explanation. I now wanted to vote, and re-submit my materials to see if I would receive a different outcome, but a part of me in the back of my mind stopped me from exploring my new interest. This negative part of my mind exists because all I ever hear about politics is the negativity that exists within.
I believe that media is responsible for this negative image I have of politics. On television, the only thing that is ‘news-worthy’ is when a politician does something wrong or goes against their word. The positive side of things in politics is rarely discussed and I for one am unimpressed because of that.
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Seeing Differently
One of the assigned readings for mass communications was ‘Ways of Seeing’ by John Berger. Before reading this book, I judged it as boring to my 21st century mind.
As I read, I was not interested about how oil paintings have revolutionized how the world is seen. I understand that it is defiantly a critical part of history that has helped shape the way modern day art and photographs are thought up. It may just be that I am one of the many who are used to seeing reproductions of classic artworks and therefore cannot appreciate the real talent and meaning behind it (in the original). I may have developed my “…own act of looking at it…” (31). Although this is a topic that seemed uninteresting to me at first, the language and concepts in the chapter was compelling.
When I reached chapter 2, the photo essay of women, I thought it was about how women are portrayed in society. The evolution of housewife to superstar is interesting. “…A woman’s presence expresses her own attitude towards herself and defines what can and can not be done to her” (46). When I first read this, I definitely disagreed. I feel that a woman in the media, such as the women in the essay photos, only represent what they are selling. They do not look independent and in control of themselves in comparison to women in the media today, Madonna for example, but the way this concept was told in the book made it enjoyable. It showed the photo essay first, to let me gather my own thoughts and draw my own conclusions, and than it shot out the text in a sophisticated manner making me think about different interpretations of the essay.
I found it very interesting to see how many modern day images have roots from old paintings and stories. The different versions of Adam and Eve were very interesting to read about because it illustrated the many interpretations of media and the classic bible story, and it also shows how images and models have changed through time.
The part about publicity in the book, the final chapters, was definitely my favourite part and is most relevant to this time because “no other kind of image confronts us so frequently” (129). No other image attacks us so frequently. Publicity and advertisements force their way into everything we do. They are on the subway, the radio, and magazines. These images do not confront us but overtake us. Berger is right in saying that these images create a new person, one that we envy and are jealous of (134). I have never thought of advertisements like that before nor have I thought that glamour is the outcome of being envied.
If you attain all that is advertised, are you happy? If you have passed the level of self-envy and jealousy because you have bought or received all that are advertised, is it worth it? In the first thirty seconds of the following interview from Entertainment Tonight, 'the material girl' speaks of materialistic happiness.
This makes me wonder, if none of these advertised products truly bring happiness, why is everything advertised so thoroughly? I would suppose the answer is to make money, but for the people who create ads that make the money, they are only going to spend their money investing in products that are advertised, and it will just follow a pattern. Advertise, buy into, make money, and buy into.
In conclusion, a half-picture book has taught me more about the medium of images and advertisements than I would have expected. I learned that all of the advertisements out there have a different impact on us as humans. We absorb so many ads on a daily basis and we hardly recognize the cultural and historical backgrounds of them. I love art. I love analyzing painters’ techniques, discussing colour, shape, and texture: but now I have a deeper understanding and appreciation of arts history and impact on current culture. I now witness the impact of publicity in my life, and how the simple act of purchasing something that I see on TV contributes to the ongoing circle of advertisement. Now when I buy something, I will ask myself, is this worth it? Will it make me happy?
As I read, I was not interested about how oil paintings have revolutionized how the world is seen. I understand that it is defiantly a critical part of history that has helped shape the way modern day art and photographs are thought up. It may just be that I am one of the many who are used to seeing reproductions of classic artworks and therefore cannot appreciate the real talent and meaning behind it (in the original). I may have developed my “…own act of looking at it…” (31). Although this is a topic that seemed uninteresting to me at first, the language and concepts in the chapter was compelling.
When I reached chapter 2, the photo essay of women, I thought it was about how women are portrayed in society. The evolution of housewife to superstar is interesting. “…A woman’s presence expresses her own attitude towards herself and defines what can and can not be done to her” (46). When I first read this, I definitely disagreed. I feel that a woman in the media, such as the women in the essay photos, only represent what they are selling. They do not look independent and in control of themselves in comparison to women in the media today, Madonna for example, but the way this concept was told in the book made it enjoyable. It showed the photo essay first, to let me gather my own thoughts and draw my own conclusions, and than it shot out the text in a sophisticated manner making me think about different interpretations of the essay.
I found it very interesting to see how many modern day images have roots from old paintings and stories. The different versions of Adam and Eve were very interesting to read about because it illustrated the many interpretations of media and the classic bible story, and it also shows how images and models have changed through time.
The part about publicity in the book, the final chapters, was definitely my favourite part and is most relevant to this time because “no other kind of image confronts us so frequently” (129). No other image attacks us so frequently. Publicity and advertisements force their way into everything we do. They are on the subway, the radio, and magazines. These images do not confront us but overtake us. Berger is right in saying that these images create a new person, one that we envy and are jealous of (134). I have never thought of advertisements like that before nor have I thought that glamour is the outcome of being envied.
If you attain all that is advertised, are you happy? If you have passed the level of self-envy and jealousy because you have bought or received all that are advertised, is it worth it? In the first thirty seconds of the following interview from Entertainment Tonight, 'the material girl' speaks of materialistic happiness.
This makes me wonder, if none of these advertised products truly bring happiness, why is everything advertised so thoroughly? I would suppose the answer is to make money, but for the people who create ads that make the money, they are only going to spend their money investing in products that are advertised, and it will just follow a pattern. Advertise, buy into, make money, and buy into.
In conclusion, a half-picture book has taught me more about the medium of images and advertisements than I would have expected. I learned that all of the advertisements out there have a different impact on us as humans. We absorb so many ads on a daily basis and we hardly recognize the cultural and historical backgrounds of them. I love art. I love analyzing painters’ techniques, discussing colour, shape, and texture: but now I have a deeper understanding and appreciation of arts history and impact on current culture. I now witness the impact of publicity in my life, and how the simple act of purchasing something that I see on TV contributes to the ongoing circle of advertisement. Now when I buy something, I will ask myself, is this worth it? Will it make me happy?
Cited Work:
Berger, John. Ways of Seeing. London: British Broadcasting Corporation and Penguin Books, 1972.
Tonight, Enteratinment. Personal interview. 2003. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIfO_3MU5Xo
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Visual Culture Through Visual Means
Group Assignment 1 - Image Curation
To start off, group work is a completely different category than the assignment itself. At first, I was in a stable group who had thought up ideas and had started to research and brainstorm how our slide show would come to life. The time came to do the actual slide show, and some members of the group had decided for themselves that we were changing out topic. News to me! At first I was open to the idea, but than I did not understand their new topic, nor did I see why they wanted to change topics. Robert felt the same way, so our group for this project split. The girls did a photo essay on the culture of Canada, while Robert and I focused on the original fashion topic.
Robert and I spent hours looking up photos of fashion through the ages. Our plan was to convey the message of how fashion in different cultures has changed throughout the years and how media has influenced the changes. We made a short video displaying the photos in order of culture, past to present. Through this I saw the many differences that had occurred, as well as the similarities that kept each fashion unique to its culture. We both thought up different cultures and key words that would find what we were looking for. I was the technical one in the group and I used computer software to make the video. At the end of it all, we both forgot to cite our pictures. I had to go to work, so Robert looked up all our photos again and completed correct citation for each. In the end, I was not too satisfied with our video. As it stands, it is hard to see what the topic is and what we were trying to portray.
Through looking at our slide show, I notice a racial tension. Our minds had thought up, what we though were the most common fashion cultures, and as it turned out, only 1 of the image sets are of black people. Another thing I noticed was the emotions portrayed from the photos. All of the photos of white people have a certain ‘Power’ to them, as if they are in control. The photos of the African people look like they are saddened, unattractive, and being used. This may be because of the photos we chose, but I think the photos chose us because of the limited availability of African culture fashion photos. The black people may think that they have a power to their photos as well, but as a white male that was raised in this multimedia world, I see differently.
Another detail I notice is the ending. When we were making our slide show, we decided to end with a photo that represents modern western fashion at its best. We wanted to show the ultimate fashion in 2007. Without thinking about this, the photo ended up being a male. I learned a lot about how society and the past has influenced how we think. By watching the slide show, it shows the white male in power because he is the last shown and illustrates the successful fashion, reinforcing the gender roles of the past.
Cited Work
Fashioneista Image
"Fashion Gallery." Leicestershire County Council. 7 September 2007. Leicestershire County Council. 25 Sept 2007
African Old Fashion
"African Fashion Apparel." African Fashion. 2006. 20 Sep 2007
African New Fashion
Christine, Yemma. "African Austrailian Online Resourse." Hair & Fashion . 2006. 25 Sep 2007
Asian Old Fashion
Huynh, Nancy. "Fashion and Accessories." Beauty and Style. 2005. 25 Sep 2007
Asian New Fashion
Hung, Jeff. "Style Watch." People. 2007. 25 Sep 2007
Victorian Fashion
Ruscelli, Al. "Victorian Fashion Photographs." Weddings Portraits and Event Photography. 2006. 20 Sep 2007
Modern English Fashion
Munro, Gordon. "Gordon Monro: Welcome." Godon Monro. 2006. Live Books 4.0. 20 Sep 2007
French Old Fashion
Adelyn, Lee. "A Room with a View." Caffe Cambrone, Rose Bakery, and Marie Antoinette, and More Macarons. 2007. 21 Sep 2007
French New Fashion
"People's Daily Online." French Fashion Show in Tokyo Japan. 2005. 20 Sep 2007
Greek New Fashion
Flores, Robert. "Robert Flores." At Home Portraits. 2006. 25 Sep 2007
Old Greek Fashion
Alexander. Dir. Oliver Stone. Perf. Colin Ferrell. DVD. Warner Brothers, 2004.
Italian Fashion
Madeira, Marcio. "Haute Concept- The Mens Wear Fashion." Archive for the 'J.Lindeberg' Category. 2007. 21 Sep 2007
Thursday, September 20, 2007
A Thousand Pictures
“A picture is worth a thousand words, but a word is worth a thousand pictures,” (Lipton).
This statement sprung a revolution in my mind. It is amazing. I have never, ever thought of this before, and when I heard it in class I was amazed. I do not know why the simplicity of reversing an age-old statement boggles my mind so much, but it does.
I agree with the statement 100% and I have a new outlook on the power of language, not only language, but also interpretation. Look below at my table;
This statement sprung a revolution in my mind. It is amazing. I have never, ever thought of this before, and when I heard it in class I was amazed. I do not know why the simplicity of reversing an age-old statement boggles my mind so much, but it does.
I agree with the statement 100% and I have a new outlook on the power of language, not only language, but also interpretation. Look below at my table;
I interpreted the word “table” a certain way in order to produce that result. My interpretation is made up of my life experiences, exposure to media and tables, and my sense of language and communication. It truly amazes me thinking about how many different kinds of tables were drawn in class and what elements enabled the different interpretations.
It also amazes me how similar everyone’s tables must have been, how much the word table can influence our thoughts, even though it just a word. The meaning of the word table is actually nothing, but our minds give the word so much meaning and this meaning is common among many different cultures and peoples.
Creative Project
Making and Marketing the Media Autobiography
For my Media Autobiography, I chose to combat the stereotypes portrayed in the Media. I chose five stereotypes that have affected my life in some way. I illustrated the stereotypes in the form of finger puppets. I put them all on a glove to represent the relationship between them as well as the carious forms of media that portray the stereotypes. I decided to make a short film that would re-enforce the stereotype puppets I made.
I was very impressed with the work of my classmates. The projects were truly creative and some of their explanations blew my mind. For example, my new friend Katrina's media bar was outstanding. The way she related the media and images portrayed to that of a bar and a beer bottle was pure gold. I was also very impressed at the work put into some of the projects. I do not remember her name, but she sang and played guitar. Her skill alone was outstanding, but the words she was singing had depth and meant something. I also really liked all the collages. It was interesting to see how different they were; knowing they all had the same assignment.
Through this project, I learned the importance of creativity in the media. Having new material is one thing, but having new material that means something makes it worthwhile. This project also illustrated the importance of interpretation. If this project was able to produce so many different outcomes, than how many different interpretations of the media are there. I now believe that I respond differently to media than my classmates, and the world.
Friday, September 7, 2007
Truth
"We know about the world if we accept it as the camera records it" (Susan Sontag, Postman 73).
As I was reading Postman's book, this line stood out to me. As an Image Arts student, the discussion of photography really left an impression in my mind. Do we only know the world as the camera records it? As Postman says, a photograph does not require a context, so there are no means to argue its content or truth. There is no beginning, middle, or end of photographs (73, 74), there is just the one moment in time captured on film. It depends on how the moment in time is interpreted.
A photo of a dog sitting on a couch can illustrate many stories about how the dog became a couch sitter, if the dog always sits on the couch, and other assumptions we can make about the dog. Are any of them are true? We do not know what was really happening when that dog was on the couch. Only the photographer does, and it was their choice to make what we know about the dog available to us. The photographer chose to crop out the man yelling at the dog, to cover up the dogs’ footprints with a floral blanket. The photographer chose to make this moment in time as visually appealing as possible, to tell his story, through his eyes.
This makes me wonder about life. In every photo, TV show, song, advertisement, game, etc, are we really seeing the big picture? Are the professionals leaving out important details? Is what we know really true? Or is it true because we have accepted what the creator chose to include?
As I was reading Postman's book, this line stood out to me. As an Image Arts student, the discussion of photography really left an impression in my mind. Do we only know the world as the camera records it? As Postman says, a photograph does not require a context, so there are no means to argue its content or truth. There is no beginning, middle, or end of photographs (73, 74), there is just the one moment in time captured on film. It depends on how the moment in time is interpreted.
A photo of a dog sitting on a couch can illustrate many stories about how the dog became a couch sitter, if the dog always sits on the couch, and other assumptions we can make about the dog. Are any of them are true? We do not know what was really happening when that dog was on the couch. Only the photographer does, and it was their choice to make what we know about the dog available to us. The photographer chose to crop out the man yelling at the dog, to cover up the dogs’ footprints with a floral blanket. The photographer chose to make this moment in time as visually appealing as possible, to tell his story, through his eyes.
This makes me wonder about life. In every photo, TV show, song, advertisement, game, etc, are we really seeing the big picture? Are the professionals leaving out important details? Is what we know really true? Or is it true because we have accepted what the creator chose to include?
Thursday, September 6, 2007
Mark Lipton is his name...
Well, my first Mass Communications class was yesterday. It was not what I had expected. There were about 150 students in that room. Intimidating for sure. Than the professor came and walked in. His smooth strut and clam tone encouraged participation and excitement. After all, this was my first media course. My first class was an elective, so this is my first exposure to the program that I had worked so hard to get into.
Mark Lipton is his name, and Mass Communications is his game. He seems to be very well educated and is definitely different from all my high school teachers. His laid back personality and teaching style (from what he has told us so far) is one of a kind. He cares that we learn, not that we do the work. When he mentioned his partner, my mind went wild. Do I really have a gay teacher? Wow! This is pretty amazing. Coming from a religious background, and being exposed to discrimination throughout my high school years, this is comforting. It is empowering knowing that our society has come so far with the issue of homosexuality, even to the extent of having a gay professor. I like it!
Mark Lipton is his name, and Mass Communications is his game. He seems to be very well educated and is definitely different from all my high school teachers. His laid back personality and teaching style (from what he has told us so far) is one of a kind. He cares that we learn, not that we do the work. When he mentioned his partner, my mind went wild. Do I really have a gay teacher? Wow! This is pretty amazing. Coming from a religious background, and being exposed to discrimination throughout my high school years, this is comforting. It is empowering knowing that our society has come so far with the issue of homosexuality, even to the extent of having a gay professor. I like it!
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