My Top 10 Sexy Media Revelations

#1 Blogging, a way to get to know people or a cause better.

This is the first blog I have ever made. I was skeptical at first, a little weary on whether I would be able to figure this whole thing out, or if I would even like it. Since I have started blogging I have learned a lot about it. This creates a forum where people can really showcase their ability to use the Shifts of our 21st Century Media Culture, the Basic Principals of Media Education, and Persuasive Techniques to Analytical Tools. Since I have had my blog I have seen personal pages, pages that promote a start up business such as MyDietPower a blog that promotes the use of science baased software to help you manage your weight. The owner, a man who walks around my neighborhood at home to lose weight blogs about his interesting encounters while losing weight. I have also seen informative and support pages like Beth Fitzgerald's African Empowerment Project Blog and more recently a friend from high school sent me to his blog to read about a cause promoting becoming a Bone Marrow Donor and why he got evolved with it and then sent me to another blog to read more.

This is a video that is promoting a cause that was distributed online through a blog.

Seun PSA from Noah Hutton on Vimeo.

#2 Creating a Personal Life in a Digital World

"Do you think I should just Facebook him/her instead?" A saying I have heard many a times when friends have found someone they are attracted to or want to get to know them better. It has become more and more apparent to me how the internet and social networking sites have changed the way we interact with each other. Calling someone on the phone has become a daunting task that we have become afraid to do with people we don't know very well. In the article Brave New World of Digital Intimacy Clive Thompson talks about the difference between normal friends and say friends you have on Facebook; are they a different type of friend? We use social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn to post information about ourselves which is them blasted all over the internet for anyone to use. As we learned in the Movie The Persuaders there are companies such as Acxiom who gather all your information up and then sell it to a company so they can market to you.

Clip on Acxiom


#3 Media, A mind altering experience.
Creating new forms of media has turned into creating new ways of learning. In Postman's Amusing Ourselves To Death (Pg. 142) he talks about how education, the way we learn, and how television has changed that. He often references Sesame Street as a major player in making television a media for education. I have found this to be very true in many aspects. Once a new media technology comes out we adapt our minds to include it in our lives. So when the internet came we adjusted to using it because it was so much easier then reaching book and newspapers in the library. Now the computer has changed the format for which we learn. Our minds no longer want to learn without the internet we learn better using short bursts of information given to us on the internet, not looking through many pages in a book to find a certain fact. In the text Feed you can really tell how technology can change the way we learn. On page 26 and 27 in Feed you can see that they aren't even given the option to search for information it is just sent to them automatically, there is no effort whatsoever on the minds part. Now, is this good or bad, I think it can be both, but it sure does affect how we learn and gather our knowledge.
Mrs. Obama teaching kids how to grow their own vegetables on Sesame Street.


#4 Politics in Media

I have found it to be mind blowing the amount of control politics have on media. In the book Media and Society it has a portion of the 1996 Telecommunications Act. Politicians passed this act and many of them reaped the benefits from it. This act did many things such as (Media and Society pg 91):
*Giving any single entity no limit on number of stations they can own.
*Putting no limit on national radio station ownership.
*And increase the amount of local radio stations that can be owned a single entity.

In Censored 2010 they talk about declaring a truth emergency (pg 197), asking if corporate media has failed to give us important information about issues facing the nation. They control what we hear about issues such as the War in Iraq, they place experts onto stations to talk about issues like war. If they choose to not tell us something or to spin it a certain way, we have no say. Putting Media outlets under a few as possible corporations has allowed the government to more easily control the message they want sent out.

Affects of the 1996 Telecommunications Act on Radio




#5 Corporate Power
First 1/2 of this video wouldn't let me embed it, but here is the link to the video

This is the second 1/2 of the movie


In Censored 2010 (pg 251) the book talks about "The Hyperreality of a Failing Corporate Media System". It talks about how a major media corporation has the power to report "news" in a hyperreality format where you are unable to distinguish between what is real and what isn't. And in Media and Society (pg 47) they argue that some critics think corporate takeovers of media in print have geared themselves more toward entertaining and attracting consumers instead of informing citizens of important local and world issues.



#6 How to attract to different parts of the Triune Brain (Reptilian, Limbic, and Neocortex)

Before this class I didn't truly understand how appeal to different parts of the brain. The brain is the most complex living thing in the universe. The three major parts of the Brain consist of:

Reptilian - Oldest part of brain, Intelectual, regular body functions such as heartbeat
- Eating, Mating, Fighting, Running Away


Limbic - Emotional or Feeling Brian,
- Processes pictures/images & Music

Neocortex - Newest par of the brain, Thinking or Rational Brain
- Higher level of thinking, Reading and Writing

In Amusing Ourselves to Death (pg 27) Postman talks about the emergence of new major mediums and how it creates new forms of truth-telling. New mediums affect our triune brains differently whether it is text as in a book appealing to your neocortex or photography appealing to your limbic brain. Once you know what parts of the brain react to certain stimuli then it is easier to understand what types of media appeal to you.


#7 Hegemony Theory


Gramsci argued that groups in power can maintain their rule with force, consent, or by combining the two. (Media and Society pg. 165) To rule by force you must use institutions such as the police, military, or other agencies to threaten or physically coerce people so that they remain obedient. He did realize that power could be gained at the level of culture or ideology. In the U.S. we seem to be controlled more by our culture where we just take current social arrangements as is. For the Hegemony Theory to work we have to consent to our society, and we in the U.S. have learned to consent our society through, media, schools, and religion. All of those intitutions have convinced us successfully to consent to society through the use of our four tool sets (the Eight Shifts, the Seven Basic Principles of Media Education, and Persuasive Techniques). In Feed you can really see how media can implement hegemony. They repeat things, they even finish Link's sentences to further make him think the way they want him to (pg 14).


#8 Web 2.0 pros and cons


Pros
Web 2.0 allows us to easily communicate with one another. For example web 2.0 made it really easy for me to share photos that I took while studying abroad with family and friends back home. Web 2.0 applications include Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn and Blogger. Some social networking sites allow you to connect with people from your past or get to know current friends better. LinkedIn has become a online hub for networking in the business world. These sites have also let a non profit groups get their name out without using paid marketing. Web 2.0 has allowed many people to be more competitive in the job market like with Feed and when Violets father didn't get a job because he didn't have the feed (pg 288) .

Cons

As stated in the article Brave New World of Digital Intimacy, Thompson suggests that web 2.0 social networking sites have made it uncomfortable to talk on a cell phone for hours. The article With friends like these... suggests that web 2.0 disconnects us rather than connects us. The article also implies that sites may sell your personal information to advertisers. Has allowed employers to be able to search through your past and personal life. Making things easier and more accessible which could as Postman says turn us into not knowing what we are laughing about and why we stopped thinking about it (pg 163).

#9 Media Censoring News


In Censored 2010 the whole book talks about stories that they consider to be censored in the U.S. media outlets. They suggest that if corporate media spent more time reporting these censored stories that they deemed unimportant, they wouldn't be in such difficult situations (pg xiv). Media and Society mentions how politicians use media to affects certain messages and worldviews. We are persuaded to be censored by stories because the people reporting our news to us have become masters at using persuasive techniques and other aspects of our four tool sets to convince us in thinking the way that they want us to. For example entertainment news has become more important to many of us over world news, those media reporters are the ones who convinced us that entertainment news like knowing where Robert Pattinson had lunch was vital news.

#10 The Effect of Images as a Medium


Amusing Ourselves to Death states that photography and writing do not share the same universe of discourse. Pictures as a language is totally different. Effecting us differently. (pg 71) Like I talked about before writing appeals to the Neocortex where pictures and images appeal to the Limbic, we even use different parts of the brain to process it. Being visual appeals to us as more truth then writing. In Feed when Link goes to visit Violet before she dies her father is angry with him for not caring. Link doesn't seem to react much until he starts sending him shots of memory in image form. When he saw what happened to Violet the reality set in for him and he begged her father to stop sending the image memories (pg 289) Images being processed by the Limbic brain tend to effect us on an emotional level that no other medium can.

The Magic with Magic Hat (Media Meditation #8)

When you come to VT you learn about the major companies that started here. The first ones we are told about include Ben and Jerry's, Vermont Teddy Bear, and Magic Hat. Magic Hat is a steadily growing brewery that is based out of South Burlington.

Since I came to Burlington three and a half years ago I have witnessed them growing. There are multiple things that have contributed to Magic Hat's success.

1. Creative Designs

2. Funky Lingo

3. Connection with Music

4. Events and promos

5. Social Networking






Magic Hat has very successfully created themselves a personality that everyone wants to be friends with. They know their market and how to reach them. I applied for an internship at Magic Hat my sophomore year at Champlain and lost the spot to a senior. Now that I and a senior and have grown and know more about what I want to do with my marketing major I have applied again (Interview on Wednesday -keeping my fingers crossed). The reason why I would love to intern with Magic Hat is because of their marketing department. They have figured out how to promote and run events that Market their brand to their consumers.

In Media Society on page 25 there is a simplified model of media and the social world. This model shows "that all components of the media, as well as the audience, exist within the broader framework of the social world". Magic Hat has found a way to market without their consumers feeling like they are being marketed to. They host social events most of the time based around music where their consumers go to socialize and have a good time. They see the Magic Hat logo or receive a Tweet from Magic Hat on Twitter and they don't feel annoyed or bothered it is more of an invitation from a friend, inviting you along to have a good time.

When you go onto the New Magic Hat web page they have section titled Get Social. From there you can connect to their Myspace, Facebook, and Twitter. They are keeping up with the times as does their target market and they seen the success in doing so. Through their Twitter page fans can get remind about events, told about contests, or just get information that Magic Hat thought was interesting. I won tickets to see a band play a Metronome through a link that Magic Hat posted on Twitter. On the same day as the show I won tickets to I found out about a live video stream they were having via Twitter. During this live stream you watched them talk with the band that was going to be at Metronome that night. You could also Tweet to them with questions you wanted answered. My roommate had a question about home brewing that she got answered during the live video stream. All of this marketing is through mediums where the consumer is choosing to be marketed to. Myspace, Facebook, and Twitter are all social networking sites where you choose to follow an organization or person to know more about them.

All of these things have given Magic Hat's its magic to appeal to their market as a friend rather than a money hungry beer company. This is the type of organization I want to work with, they know how to do their jobs and still have fun with it.

All In One - Media Convergence (Media Meditation #7)

Media Concergence is the "phenomenon involving the interlocking of computing and information technology companies, telecommunications networks, and content providers from the publishing worlds for newpapers, magazines, music, radio, television, films, and entertainment software".
So everything is coming together in one place. The three Cs - computing, communications, and content are brought together with media convergence. I want to talk about a few of the applications of media convergence that I have found interesting.



Cell Phones (Android Phones)


I just ordered a new cell phone recently. The one I have currently is a smart phone but I'm not paying for internet. I am on a family plan and with renewing our contract with Sprint we all receive free data plans. When looking through my phone options I came across the HTC Hero, a phone that has the new Android operating system technology in it. Like all smart phones it is bringing together many different technologies. Phones such as the HTC Hero want to be an all in one phone. If you have this you don't need a computer, ipod, or gps because they are all in your phone. I am very excited to try this new phone out and how I adapt to it, if I fall in love with how convenient it is, or if it will be too complicated for me. I am also interested to see if I use all or most of the applications it offers.


These phones are also opening a whole new landscape for marketers. Consumers now have 24/7 contact with the internet. Consumer behavior is going change with this new technology and marketers are going to have to adapt and figure out how to use this to their advantage. In the book Media Society it talks about technological determinism and how technology or technological advances are the "central casual element in processes of social change" (Pg 305). This means that with this new advance in technology there comes social change which without a doubt changes the way marketers are going to have to reach their target markets. So, keeping up to date with new technology is a good thing for me since I am a marketing major. Picking the Hero Android phone was probably a good choice.

Just like with the iphone, Android phones have applications. One that I found very cool was it's scanner application.



Google Wave



Another new media convergence that recently come into my life is Google Wave. I recently received an invite to join the testing stages of Google Wave. Shared space to discuss and communicate with other members of Google Wave using text, videos, photos, maps, and more. It is equal parts conversation and document. It seems to me to hopefully one day be an ideal work space for groups. If you needed to have a business meeting to discuss a project but members of this meeting were located all over the country you would be able to pick a time to meet on Google Wave. Here you would be able to have a live video chat, while working live on a common document. It also will be able to keep a record of your typed conversations or edits that you have made.



In the book Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman talks about teaching as an amusing activity (pg 142). In this he talks about learning through the television. He notes that television is "creating new conceptions of knowledge and hot it is acquired" (pg 145). Google Wave may also be a tool that changes the way we learn or are educated. I know that I personally have been told that taking a school course online is a bad idea, you don't learn as much and don't get as much out of it. What if online courses used a medium such as Google Wave to conduct their class? They could have a live video chat, where they could tech and have a discussion about it at the same time. They could possibly help clarify or add to their lessons with pictures, videos, or maps.


Oh and look at this Here is a picture of a Android phone and an iphone with the Google Wave on it! - ALL IN ONE!

How do girls and women see themselves in the media mirror? (Media Meditation #6)

The media has this weird way of controlling us. Changing the way we perceive things, especially when it comes to body image. You can go back in history and see the trends in female body images in fashion. From Marilyn Monroe who would now be considered a plus size model, to Twiggy - the first super skinny fashion icon. Currently, French politicians are campaigning for a new law that will result in government health warnings on pictures that have been enhanced by photoshop. They are doing this in hope to regulate the images being seen by female youth and distorting views on what they should look like.




Here is a video on why the French feel like there should be a law regulating these photoshopped images.

Ralph Lauren had some controversy back in September of 2009 when the blog site Boing Boing were the first ones to recognize the photoshop work on one of their advertisements. The title of this Article was "Ralph Lauren opens new outlet store in the Uncanny Valley". The only text in the article other than the picture of the ad was "Dude, her head's bigger then her pelvis". This picture really shows how the media can portray unrealistic ideals to women and girls who see their ads. You can even see in the picture where the plaid colors don't match up. It is very disturbing that someone actually put this together and went...yes this looks good.



I know I have been referencing the Book Feed a lot, but this makes me think of the situation where all the popular girls decide lesions are cool because they saw people in the shows they watch getting them. In the Limbo and Prayer chapter Calista get an artificial lesion on the back of her neck to be cool and attract this guy Link who is likes. He even thinks this new lesion is attractive and tickles it. In the chapter Flat Hope (pg 190) Quendy, who is jealous of the attention Calista is getting, arrives to the party and everyone goes silent, her whole skin was cut up with artificial lesions that she got done to herself the day before. This whole epidemic of lesions started because the their feeds were doing it to them. But since their feeds made the lesions seem like they were cool, everyone to who had one just thought the same way, even going so far as to create lesions artificially to look cooler. Calista even says at one point "because seeing what's inside of you, all your guts, is just so sexy". This situation in the book makes me think about ads such as the Ralph Lauren ad I talked about above, and how eating disorders can start. Girls want to look skinny, like celebrities or like the girl in the ad so they don't eat, or they throw up. The more girls that think that kind of behavior is okay the more girls develop eating disorders and think that they HAVE to be skinny to be beautiful.

How Old Are You? And what social media do you use? (Media Meditation #5)

While being in college and learning more and more about social media I have noticed the wide range of differences in use by different age groups. I have seen this mostly through comparing teachers vs my parents, which are the same age group but use social media differently. I also have noticed how my sister that is 24, my brother who is 18 and myself who is 21 and how we use social media differently.

Here is a brief list of age groups and how they use social media differently. For more information go here.

Ages 12-25: Mobile oriented social media tools, uses text messaging often. Goes on social media sites such as Facebook, YouTube and MySpace. This age group loves videos and and anything with text she be as short as possible.

Ages 25-45: Most popular social media tool is e-mail. Facebook Twitter - Uses Blackberry or iPhone apps. Likes less text in blogs and on websites and enjoys video.

Ages 46-55: Uses Web about 90%of the time. Rarely uses text messaging. They will read and use blogs but rarely a microblog. They will probably print out articles online, they are textual and aren't visual through images and video.

Ages 55 and over: Media consumption habits - Radio, TV, Print News. When they use social media they like to work inside a framework such as Facebook.

This reminds me of the Book Feed. One Example would be when Violets father tells Titus about when he decide Violet needed a Feed. He went on an interview and they tried to chat with him on his feed but he didn't have one. He was older, behind the times, and that caused him not to get the job (pg 288). The feed was a necessary tool to have if you wanted to get a job and interact socially. Imagine if you met someone who didn't have a computer. No Facebook. No E-mail. Nothing. Wouldn't you think it was a little odd?

Only my teachers that are in the field that requires it seem to be really up to date with social media. My mother, whose job is running a restaurant only got a Facebook when I went abroad because it was easier to see my pictures and see what I was up to. She had to adapt to my use of social media to interact with me. Once I got home she barely used Facebook anymore. It was only until she decided to run for Council at Large that she got someone to make her a political page on Facebook and she started using it again.

My Sister, who is only 24, three years older than I am, feels like she is behind the times when it comes to social media. I came home for Thanksgiving and she asked me about Twitter. She works at a PR firm and they mentioned it. I had to explain to her what it did and how you could use it from a business point of view. She took notes. But even I feel like if I blink my eyes I could be behind the times. First I felt it with Twitter, and not that I have Twitter, Google Wave came out. I just got my invite but I have no idea how to use it yet.

And my little brother uses Social Media a lot differently then both me and my sister. He uses social media through video games, it allows them to have live chats with different people around the world. He also uses his cell phone very often to use the internet.



So, moral of the story if I want to be able to get a job when I graduate, especially in the marketing field, I better not blink.

Reel Bad Arabs - (Media Meditation #4)

Even if Hollywood movie creators don't mean to, they are persuading us into demonizing Arabs. Through their films they are creating one-dimensional stereotypical Arab characters. They use these characters as villains and comic relief, they are seen as dangerous and incompetent characters. From everything we have learned throughout class we know that media and government go hand in hand with each other. The same goes for movies. The American government has continuously made it clear what side they are on, and for the most part is wasn't in favor of Arabs. Hollywood movies depict that relationship, and the idea that Arabs are the villeins in every situation. This is shown very clearly in the movie "Rules of Engagement" where you are lead to believe a shooting on a Arabic crowd was started by America Marines, it makes you start to humanize the Arabs but the more the movie goes on the more you realize that you were wrong for humanizing them. In the end it comes out that the crowd shot at the marines first, thus justifying the killing of "innocent" people.



To give you a little understanding on how I viewed this movie I would like to give you a little background about me. I am 1/2 Arabic. My mother is 100% Lebanese, so while it was only my great grandparents who where born in Lebanon, this movie still really interested me. My Situ (Grandmother) was fluent in Arabic but only very often spoke it. Both my grandparents grew up in a time where it was better to blend in as Americans. They never taught their children to speak Arabic. She did make the most amazing Arabic food I have ever tasted, and I grew up going to a primarily Lebanese Maronite Catholic Church. Maybe due to the fact that I am only 50% Lebonese or that I never lived in Lebanon,but I don't look very "Arabic", so I didn't get many of the stereotypes that many other children of middle eastern decent did. But I have family and friends that look more Arabic then I do, and have experienced people believing the stereotypes that Hollywood feeds them. One of my more vivid memories when I thought being Arabic was a bad thing was when I was applying to college. I thought that since when everyone else put down that they were "ethnic" in some way, Spanish, Native American, African American, that being Arabic may help me stand out more too. When I brought this up to my mom she kind of laughed it off and said that it may work against you more then for me. And even though she was laughing I could tell that she was being serious.


The first part of Reel Bad Arabs that really opened my eyes was when it talked about the Disney movie Aladdin. I loved this movie when I was younger, I didn't think twice about the Arab stereotypes that I now see are so negative and abundant. My first question was why did my Mother let me watch this movie? Because while I may have been to young at the time to realize what was being shown to me she wasn't. The opening song to this movie has very clear lyrics that say, "Where they cut off your ear if they don't like your face, its barbaric, but hey it's home". I asked her about this and she said that she didn't even think twice about it. Aladdin is a child's movie, that was made for enjoyment and laughter. This made me think about when Dr. Williams said that the Reel Bad Arabs video was shown to a group of students, some of which were Arabs and one of The Arab students said that many of those videos where shown in her country and that even there they didn't realize the effects of showing Arabs in a false negative light could do. They were see an an entertainment source, not a medium to breed a stereotypical hate against the Arab people.



When Jack Shaheen, the featured scholar in the video talked about the War in Iraq and perhaps how it made it easier to go into war because we had more than a century of seeing Arabs vilified in our media. On September 11th we saw 19 Arab terrorists cause the deaths of nearly 3000 people, our media and trained mind made us think that action reflected all Arabs and their beliefs. We don't do this to all terrorist groups. We never thought that members of the KKK reflect all white Christians. It is only with Arabs that in this day and age that after September 11th we saw high increase in hate crimes and even our own government condoned racial profiling. This in itself demonstrated the power of film that even with all the facts staring us in the face that not all Arabs are bad, that we still embrace the mythology and stereotypes given to us by the media. Many of us are more comfortable with those prejudices then admitting there is more to it, then all Arabs are Really Bad. We dehumanize them, so is it any wonder or surprise that when innocent Arabs are killed or tortured that we don't feel an compassion, or that we even light of it?



We don't even notice that any of this is going on. We are being persuaded into thinking a certain way and we don't even realize it. I have middle eastern, Arabic blood in me and I don't even realize it. The Arab student that watched this film that Dr. Williams from what he told to us didn't even really seem to realize it. And that is scary, that we are so easily persuaded into vilifying a people without even knowing it.

I Image Googled Arabs and these are some pictures that came up:

Awareness Through Music (Media Meditation #3)

Michael Franti and Spearhead are very socially and politically conscious musicians, as well as advocates for peace in the middle east. After September 11th Franti wrote the song "Bomb the World". This song featured lyrics such as "You can bomb the world to pieces, but you can't bomb it into peace". These lyrics have shown up on protest signs and t-shirts all over the world, at demonstrations, large and small, for peace. He has become known as an artist that sings what he believes in. Michael Franti & Spearhead released the Yell Fire! album, inspired by Franti's trip to Israel, Baghdad, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip. The song Yell Fire!, with the same name as the album title is a good example of one of his songs with a strong meaning behind it.


He has even wrote a song showing his support for President Obama.




You know that music awareness affects listeners when in March of 2003 MTV banned music videos with war-related titles, lyrics or images. According to an article "MTV drops war-themed pop videos" written by The Guardian "MTV, like many other broadcasters, feels content should reflect audience sensitivities at this time of war," an MTV spokeswoman said. "There will be heightened public sensitivity to representations of war, soldiers, bombing, destruction of buildings and public unrest at home," stated the memo from Mark Sunderland, the broadcast standards manager of MTV Networks Europe. Yea right, MTV was probably told that they should refrain from showing these videos by the man upstairs. Not because they were being sensitive to their viewers but they didn't want these videos to evoke change or upset the public to a level where they choose to act on it...maybe even decide to protest against the war.


Another musician with a strong voice in preaching awareness is Ani DiFranco, singer, guitarist, songwriter, feminist, and gay rights activist among other things. "On July 21, 2006, DiFranco received the 'Woman of Courage Award' at the National Organization for Women (NOW) Conference and Young Feminist Summit in Albany, New York. Past winners have included singer and actress Barbra Streisand and Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. DiFranco is one of the first musicians to receive the award, given each year to a woman who has set herself apart by her contributions to the feminist movement." (Wikipedia). Her songs talk about social issues such as: racism, sexism, sexual abuse, homophobia, reproductive rights, poverty, and war.

Here are two songs that show her ability to share awareness through music.





Another Group to note would be Liyana, a musical group from Zimbabwe who spreads special needs awareness through music.



It is key to note that all of the musicians I talked about above have gained an enormous increase in the amount of listeners they have from social media sites such as youtube. The technological shift from analog to digital has definitely helped them spread their message of awareness, which goes along with the cultural shift of how we choose to find music. They are persuading us to take action or be aware through value messaging, and for these artist depending on which side you take are mostly positive. But as we have seen music can promote bad value messages such as the Lil John song "Can't Stop Pimping" which was talked about in Censored 2010 in reference to Human Trafficking and Domestic Prostitution Reconsidered (pg. 346). His lyrics state "They don't keep nothin dough, They bring it straight to daddy, You catch them stealin dawg, You beat that ass badly". This obviously is music being used to send negative value messaging. I guess just like everything in life, you have to take the good with the bad. It just sucks to see the bad being viewed more by the public then the good.