Blog Evaluation!!

Well i had never even READ a blog before this class and i usually never had time to check any out so this was my first time reading and writing blogs and i thought it was very educational. I actually am thinking of starting one soon because i feel that they help you express your opinions without being judged by anyone and it allows you to think before you speak and put your thoughts where everyone can see them. The only thing i had trouble with was the uploading of different links but once i got the hang of it i wanted to upload any and everything i thought was relevant to the blog topics for each week! One example of a blog topic i thought was very interesting was the hybridization and glocalization of cultures. I had the chance to read a lot of my peers blogs and i had no idea the magnitude and effect of cultures coming together and the effect our own culture has on the countries around us. None of the topics were difficult because reading other peoples blogs helped me better understand the concepts discussed in lectures. I definitely would recommend using a blog for future courses but i really do believe they make a difference in understanding key points and that comes in handy when reviewing for tests. The only thing to improve the blogging experience would be to elaborate on the different things you can do in blogs like linking pictures and videos and maybe have a crash course on how to do all of these. Other than that blogging was awesome!!!
"yes you can use my blog in a paper or report"

Globalization

   Looking back on our lectures globalization to me is the diffusion of cultural ideas and thoughts around the world. It is the "process of increasing interconnectedness between ideas, cultures, and people." Without it, we as well as other nations would only be able to rely on travel to experience other nations. Fortunately, we have globalization in the media to inform and educate us.

   Through Globalization, one of the results is hybridization. An example of hybridization is taking an idea that was successful and bringing it around the world to a place that you think will also result in success for the idea. One of the things that i think portrays this hybridization is the way American television shows have made an increasing impact on other cultures and countries such as Mexico. For example, there are shows in spanish that are the equivalent to shows such as deal or no deal or dancing with the stars. Also one of my favorite movies in spanish is called "Bajo La Misma Luna" and it is about the struggles people have leaving their family when trying to cross the border. It connects the lives of american people and the lives of mexican people and shows the similarities and differences they have and i think that it is an ideal example of hybridization. It also has been translated in english, "Under the same moon," so that the people on this side of the border understand the obstacles certain people face in pursuit of a better life. Below is the english trailer of Under the same moon.
Under the same moon

Advertising!

   One latest advertisement that i saw that really resonated with me was an antismoking ad that was online. It is very rare that a one page ad could convey so much without being a commerical. In the ad, you see a young man, with an emphasis on the young part, who is sitting on the couch but he is putting his cigarrette in the ashtray. However, what you see in the ad is in fact an image of him putting many cigarrettes shaped as a gun in the ashtray. It is a really important topic that still creates global controversy.

  There are many appeals in the advertisement: appeals that pertain to your pychological needs, appeals that relate to your safety, and appeals that relate to you need for guidance. These are all important in the topic of smoking. How a person feels or the personal reasons a person has for smoking are there pychological reasons. The way an ad focuses on safety typically focuses on anything that pertains to your health and your need for guidance is important but is very tricky to persuade people who will agree that they need this said guidance.
    I believe that the ad is leaning more towards safety because of the focus of the gun. This ad gives the audience the idea that when you are smoking each cigarrette you might as well put a gun to your head becuase you are slowly but surely killing yourself. This type of appeal is very effective at times for people to realize that their actions have a direct effect on their health. This ad was very effective for me because even if i dont smoke the ad draws me farther and farther away from the concept of smoking.

Three act structure-Mean Girls!

   There are many examples of three act structures and i chose to write about an old movie that really hits home with a lot of teenage girls. The first act of a movie usually introduces the characters and it is no different with the movie Mean Girls. In the first act they introduce Cady, a sixteen year old who grew up in Africa who moves to the suburbs and starts a normal high school life in the states. There she meets the plastics, the cool clique in school, and they ask her to sit with them. This incident leads to cady confesssing her crush on a "plastics" ex boyfriend and the number one plot point in the act is when that plastic steals the guy away from Cady which leads to conflict. This act last around 30-35 minutes.
   The next act structure usually includes an action that will ultimately lead to the climax in the third act. In the case of Mean Girls, Cady has a revelation when she overthrows the "plastic" as queen bee. She throws a party forgetting all of her old friends and they call her out on being one of the "mean girls" nobody likes.
This act is usually the longest and the most detailed lasting for 45--50 minutes.
   The third and final act structure includes the climax of the movies or the lesson that has to be learned. In Mean Girls, Cady is given the cold shoulder at school and she decides she does not care about popularity and joins a local math club. She goes to competition and she has an epiphany about the way teenagers let their ranking at school rule their lives and she win the competion. She goes back to school and there everyone forgives her as she gives a speech about all that she has learned and accomplished. This act lasts for 25-30 and is the final act of the movie. Below is a clip of the movie!
Mean Girls 

Tv sitcom! Friends!

   Many of the characteristics that Colin Tait included in the lecture had to do with sitcoms. One of the main characteristics is the fact that they had to create humor out of everyday situations, hence the title "situation comedy." This is also usually accomplished within the 30 minute time slot that differentiated them from dramas. Sitcoms are also very convenient because they are episodic meaning they have conflicts that they resolve in the same episode so no one will ever be lost watching any episode they may see. Another characteristic Tait talked about was the character growth we see in some sitcoms like King of Queens where we see them mature as time goes on and this helps us relate to the characters becasue we are growing with them.

     One of my favorite tv sitcoms is Friends and it is a perfect example of a episodic sitcom. Friends contains all the characteristics Tait talked about during his lecture. It is a 30 minute long show that focuses on humor as its main attribute. They also have six protagonists: Ross, Rachel, Joey, Phoebe, Monica, and Chandler. For example in one episode two of the main characters, Monica and Chandler, are about to get married and Chandler seems to get cold feet which is a common problem people face so the audience can relate. It is a conflict that at the end of the episode is resolved when he realizes he wants to spend his life with her. Below you will see the example...
Monica and Chandler cold feet

Shot progression and No Country for Old Men

     It is no surprise that directors use a variety of camera shots to tell their story. The way theses shots are arranged is the key element and the difference between a good movie and a great movie. The movie i chose to interpret is "No Country for Old Men." The film revolves around a man who has encountered a suitcase full of money and is effectively pursued by the owner of the suitcase, a psychopath killer with a weird view of justice.
     In the very beginning of the movie there is a wide variety of shots that include the scenery we will see all throughout the film. This is the Long Shot view where we see the overview of the place and the setting that will introduce the characters. To be more specific, the scene in the movie where the protagonist, Josh Brolin, finds the money is a perfect example of shot progression. Below is the long shot where we dont really know who the actor is but we see a connotative meaning of a dark and mysterious man who is about to encounter something dangerous. It also shows the setting as a very isolated even scary place.

   The next shot we see is the Middle Shot where we now know who the actor is and what he has in his hands. We see it is Josh Brolin and this shot gives us very important information about the suitcase full of money which is significant throughout the entire film. It also gives us a taste of the character Josh Brolin plays. He looks rugged and he looks as if he is not scared about the consequences that will come due to the suitcase.

         The very final shot we see is the close up of Brolin after he has effectively taken the money with him. The closeup shows emotional meaning in the movie and it conveys facial expressions clearly. Here we see Brolin and he has a look of seriousness to him. He does not look like he is scared but he does look like he has committed a heinous crime. It is as if he has guilt in his eyes even. The denotative meaning just tells his appearence its the audiences first impression of the character. The connotative meaning is the way we perceive him and the way we set his character up for the rest of the movie.

Classical hollywood and the star system

       One specific aspect of the studio system i deemed the most important was the star system and the effect it had in the production of movies. At the beginnning of the film industry surprisingly film was seen as  astep over the circus and it was merely for the "working class." Most actors were embarassed to be mentioned or seen on film so they would mask their identity in order to "keep their dignity." However, after a while audiences began to demand the names of their beloved actors and they wanted to know who was behind the film they watched. They began to nickname the actors since they all remained nameless. Then the Star System emerged and it changed everything. Studios began to give names to faces and it quickly affected the film industry.
      The Star system was comprised of up and coming actors who studios created personas for and gave them an identity that would be with them for the rest of their acting careers. This affected the way people saw movies because not only were they watching a scene in a film but they were relating and creating a bond with a character like Lucille Ball or Cary Grant. This also made film stars gain extreme power from their audiences demanding to see them in the next movie. This is the power studios were trying to avoid in the beginning. Stars such as Marilyn Monroe walked out on their contracts until studios met with their demands and as their popularity escalated so did the profits for the movies they were included in.

      One example of the star system was dated back to 1915, a woman names Theda Bara was the very first "vamp woman." She was repeatedly cast as vmapire and as other "femme fatale" roles and in everyones minds she was known as the "vamp woman." The repetition of similar roles creates a persona for the character that continues on through their career. Another perfect example is Marilyn getting cast for "ditsy blonde" or continuous "sexual" roles creating that character for her.
Marilyn monroe-Lets make love

All in the Family vs. Everybody loves raymond

       Before thursday, i had never seen an episode of All in the Family. However, even though it was an older show i could see why it caused so much buzz at the time it was airing. It was a show that introduced social realism and stirred up controversy. At the time one of the very first episodes of All in the Family contained a sexual theme way too advanced and it displayed things that were never displayed before on television. Now comedy sitcoms such as Everybody loves Raymond contain an excess amount of Sexual content and focuses on social issues including race, religion, and more as well but in a very less subtle manner. It has become part of what we watch today and what was controversy before is simply entertainment now.
      In the All in the Family episode we watched in the screening we saw a the protagonist, Archie, poke fun at his son in laws friend making comments that he was a "fairy" and a "queen" because of the way he acted. It is obvious that Archie is disturbed by this and it hit home to a lot of people at that time because a lot of people felt the same way but this tv show was actually portraying what some people at home were thinking. In an episode of Everybody Loves Raymondwe see a clip where they deal with race. The father who in similarities to Archie pokes fun at his sons new relationship with African Americans and makes it clear that he is also not comfortable with the situation.
      However, in the episode of Everybody Loves Raymond we get the feeling that it is not as big of a deal as it would be around the time of All in the Family. The father comes to realize that it is something he can deal with but the show is a lot more entertaining than offensive to anyone. That is where All in the Family differs. The show introduced big social issues like race and sexuality so many found it offensive at the time. Everybody loves Raymond has grown on people and the social issues are not as controversial now then they were back then.

Radio regulation in 1920's

      Although it was intentionally formed for advertising, it set the stage for one of the biggest innovations in communication. Beginning in the "roaring 20's," the invention of the radio was widely popular. With the popularity came the need for regulation for such a highly demanded product. in this blog i will analyze the effects regulation had on paving the way for radio history.
      Regulations in the radio industry help make radio easily accessible to every person that wants to enjoy it. When the radio was at its first stage of consumption, there was so much demand for it that frequencies needed to be regulated in order for the product to even work at all. Radio frequencies would interfere with other broadcasts and Herbert Hoover then was given authority in 1912 to allocate frequencies so the radio industry would be able to prosper. This helped the radio industry put a stop to stations interfering with each others broadcasts and to limit the number of stations to a small enough number to gain profit.
      The Radio Act of 1927 is an example of a government regulation that aided in solving the problem of broadcasting stations using the same frequency and the more powerful ones drowning out less powerful ones. Another example of government regulation that shaped radio was the Federal communications commission that stated anyone who wanted to broadcast on the radio would have to obtain a license from the FCC. This made a limited amount of broadcasts available instead of having everyone trying to broadcast all at the same time. Regulations helped shape the radio industry it is significant because without rules radio would not be as controlled as it is now.

Cultivation theory

        Many people still believe advertising does not affect them as much or in any way at all. We are so naive. The fact is advertising as subtle as it may be, changes the way society acts and thinks about certain subjects. This blog will examine the cultivation theory and how it helps me understand the concepts of stereotypes and gender differences in the media.
        Before watching Killing Me Softly i hadnt fully thought about or analyzed commercials or advertisements as closely as they did in the movie. It was eye opening to see how repetitive images of beauty can be for women. It instills an idea in all women that say certain measurements or sizes of body parts equal beauty. Cultivation theory is a step above social learning because were past the point of just imitation and reaached the point where ads have taken over and over time we have grown up thinking that a size zero is the only size of beauty.
        In Kiling me softly we saw images in the media that focus primarily on looks. There was one part that caught my attention the most. When the narrator talked about photoshopping she pointed out one instance that a company named Mirabella used photoshop to put different parts of a women together in order to make the "ideal" or perfect woman. How sad is it to see that for them there wasnt a woman out there "beautiful" enough to put on the front of their ad that they had to actually create her. It creates this image that is literally impossible unless surgery was involved. Throughout time these images have evolved and are now apart of our lives. More and more we see women who become even clinically depressed if they do not look a certain way and they are increasingly unhappy with their body. Plastic surgery has increased dramatically as women are asking for the nose of the breasts of their dream because they believe that will bring them true beauty when it will ultimately make them even more insecure with themselves. Our society through print ads or commercials or internet has lead us to believe that we can not look perfect and "we are not trying hard enough if we dont." The cultivation theory states that the reality is that we will never be what the ideal woman looks like. In order for us to be beautiful there is something in everyone that needs to be changed. That is what we are lead to believe but in fact we are all unique and that is what makes us truly beautiful.

Hegemony in Society

   This post is not intended to offend anyone but it is only observing the concept of hegemony in the dominant religion of christianity in society. Since as early on as the 1st century christianity has been a major influence on the world. It is an understanding of how we got here, who brought us here and why were on this earth. Not going back too far an example of its dominance is looking on the list of presidents we have had and their choice in religion. Some if not most have been christian and their views on religion sometimes impact their decisions for the country and in their speeches we see in the media we get a sense of their views and it pushed us towards their religion subliminally sometimes.
   I was looking at a commercial earlier on youtube that caught my attention. It was actually pretty funny but the message could not have been more serious. It is a parody of the apple vs. pc commercials that intend to make mac seem like the better computer. This one is called christian vs. atheist and it announces the ideals in which we grew up that were related to christianity. It shows us that a lot of things are related to the devil and it in fact makes us feel guilty about what we do in our everyday lives pushing us all ultimately into the christian religion. The framing you see in the commercial gives you the feeling that any other religion is inferior to christianity or the "mac" in this case. At first you get a taste of what is bad about being an atheist and what you shouldnt follow and the audience now looks at atheism in a different way almost making you feel bad if you are one. Then they joke around about the differences but strikingly similarities in the beliefs in atheism and christianity. Even though they are trying their hardest to make them look equal it is quite clear that religion of christianity is the dominant "winner" because thats how we have always seen it to be.
    The framing and agenda setting in the commercial makes you want to rethink the religion you follow and it controls your opinion and sometimes even makes it for you. People are so easily influenced by the media whether they believe it or not. even when you turn on radio there are more channels that express christian views than any other type of religion. 


By the way i am a christian and these commercials are really funny there are more than this one..

First RTF 305 blog!!!

When i went into advertising i was leaning towards the texas media part of it. I didnt think i would ever get into rtf because it didnt seem like something i was interested in until i realized how big of an importance media is on society. I hope to learn media techniques that will help in my degree for advertising. I am unsure as to what else i will learn in this course so for the most part i am excited to find out soon. I included a blog i read recently above that i believe will interest all iphone users!
http://technorati.com/blogs/gigaom.com