Sunday, December 10, 2006

I can analyze media content!!!!!

My new role as a media consumer:

During this class I have begun my journey to become a critical mass media consumer. The best part is.....it working. I feel that I can now look at media in a different sense than just entertainment. I enjoy looking at ads, commericals, magazines, newspapers to see the underlying meaning of the print, pictures and phrases.

I have found myself to change interest in the media forms I used to indulge in. I used to watch a lot of reality trash...well I still watch some, however I find myself flipping through channels stopping to watch commericals. I read the newspaper headlines and articles to see what is happening else where in the world, which was rarely done before. I watch them to see the forms of advertisements used on television and in magazines, to see how the products are glorified. I used watch tv, or look at magazine articels to find things to think about for my blogs, now I watch and read it more to see the differences between commericals, between the full page ads in the newspapers and magazines. However I mostly found myself actively searching the internet, and not for celebrity gossip, but for other peoples blogs and for media related articels on the web.

I look back at my first day in our class and compared myself to today, I realized that this class really has helped my confront my fear of reading newspapers and analyzing the content for fearing of misunderstanding. Now I have the ability to read articles and analyze advertisements in a critical manner. I now look for the underlying meaning for media. I also realized how I took media for granted. I never used to sit and think how everything was put together. I never thought how hard it must truly be to create a radio program or to put out a news release or to publish a newspaper daily. This is something that this class made me open my eyes to. That not all aspects of media is entertaining.

I really enjoyed being challenged in the sense of analyzing all forms of media. I have enjoyed what was taught in class as well as learning how to blog and maintain my blog, and find things of importance to write about. I loved working with my group to explore Rolling Stone Magazine. I would have never really thought of why certain ads are placed in the magazine as well as the format, its importance in the huge evolution of music. Before this class I would have looked at the pictures and interviews. Now I look for the writers, how well an article is written, its relevance to todays topics, how it might impact society, and why it is important enough to be put in that issue.

This class has propelled me into a world of media in which I can now understand. I am grateful for the opportunity to advance my skills in analyzing media content, as well as relating meida importance to our culture and society.

I feel like a new mass media consumer. New in the essense; that I can relate to the forms of media and my surrounding society with understanding.

Yeah!!!!

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

What has TV come to?


A new reality show is created. Celebrities are now given guns and videotaped, how special.
Celebs like Eric Estrada (known from CHIPS), Jack Osborne, La Toya Jackson, Wee Man and Trish Stratus are partaking in the show.

The show "Armed and Famous" is being produced in a small Indiana town with the populace of only 66,000.
The celebs had a ceremony to become sworn in. They have been sworn in as reserve officers of the city police daparment, which will allow them to carry gunsa and badges as part of the series.

The former CHIPS star (Estrada), the son of Ozzy Osborne (Jack), the sister of Michael and Janet Jackson (La Toya), a skateboarding midget who reached fame from the movie Jackass (Wee Man) and a former WWE wrestler will all now be active reserve officers for Munice police department. The show will continued to be filmed through January and has not yet been determined when it will air to the public. Sgt. Jason Webber, president of Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 78, said the union is "cautiously optimistic" about the show.

Why has television become reliant on the appeal of reality television? And why has it come so far from shows like Paradise Island, where people are tempted to cheat on their mates with beautiful and sexy decoys to celebrities are now allowed to carry guns for entertainment? Who would think this special plot up? And how are they letting this truly be aired? What has our society come to that we are in need to watch C-list celebs carry guns around? And lastly, who is going to watch this? Maybe I will, and write about what I see. Because who knows maybe Eric Estrada has a new toupee and looking good like his days back in the 70's.......

Monday, December 04, 2006

One blog....about One song.....


I was sent to YouTube.com as per recommendation on our MCOM 72 website to watch the Bank of America guy sing. Well I will be honest, I had never been there before.

As I watched this guy sing, actually fairly well, a remake of the U2's song "ONE," I wondered how did they come up with this genius act, and why were they posting it on YouTube.com?

So, I pondered. First of all, I thought this remake of the favorable song was great. It was possibly a clever marketing tool that catches people attentions and gave a few chuckles. Is this copyright infringement though I wondered. Is it poor marketing for not being able to utilize a new and creative idea for Bank of America, or pure genius for captivating their audience by doing something quite unusual for a bank? And why such harsh reviews?

Well, like many advertisement creative juices sometimes runs high...or run out. Some commericals are highly entertainable, like most beer commercials. On the other hand, like fellow student Jessica Loebig mentions, that damn Geicko Lizzard is annoying as heck. Well, most bank commericals are well.....on the boring side.

Now as I see it, the Bank of America may have copied the tune, the lyric settings, even the half the words, but created an appealing message that was clearly about the bank itself and not the band. While some may be highly offened, I thought it was a unique way for the Bank of America to get its message across to its public or audience. As many of you may have seen, the audience in the video loved the song giving him a standing ovation. If this was SO embarassing, then why the ovation? Well, it may be his large sex appeal that got the audience standing....but I think it was his message as well as his large amount of guts for getting up in front of a live audience and try to sing anything like our beloved Bono . I may not have Bank of America, and this song may not make me inclined to go sign up anytime soon, I enjoyed it on a recreational level. Now I can understand the overpicky opinions of AdAge.com writers, and I do appreciate their views even when I do not agree, like in this case. I still have to wonder what did I learn from reading their post??

As I see it. It obviously this song did its job if its getting this type of coverage. Rock on guy in the yellow tie.