Class Highlights

What JOUR 2 has taught me probably extends way beyond what I write in this blog entry. Most importantly JOUR 2 has taught me the value of media literacy. I have earned how relevant it is to any occupation we decide to pursue. Media literacy is the language of today. I no longer view television and movies with a civilian mindset. I feel as though my media skills have been sharpened. I never thought I would have a blog and here I am writing to you, I may decide to continue so watch out! It is a media war out there; a war for our attention. There is so much money and research invested into what we watch, how we feel, and who we like. The level of sophistication and intent that goes into media messages being put out is staggering. We as a society are so predictable and so studied that they can make us and shape us however they want. I guess I've become just a tad more cynical. The first amendment makes me think of people in prison; given enough time and focused thought, prisoners are capable of a lot things the guards didn't see coming ( weapons, ways of escape). The same thing with the First amendment; the freedom of speech and press has allowed us to become the great society we are, but at the same time, people have figured out ways to use our freedoms against us, bombarding us with messages that can almost manipulate us into giving up our freedoms. Maybe some of the uses of our First Amendment our founding fathers didn't see coming, and how could they? Anyway Im very pleased with what i have learned. 

 :)

 

Media Ethics

According to imediaethics.org, over Memorial weekend five teens were killed in a collision in Newport Beach, CA. Of the five teens, the AP decided to report that two of the five teens were "Arabic",  and used words like "obsessed" when describing the boys interests. Why was nationality an issue when reporting a fatal collision? Why was the nationality of the other teens not reported. In a time with heightened sensitivity toward middle eastern, it seemed questionable as to the reason for making an issue out of the teen's race.  According to the AP, one of the boys, Alyahyan was "obsessed with his Infinite sedan, and Hamawendi was "obsessed with weightlifting". Words like "obsessed" contain negative connotations. On the other hand the two girls were described as "accomplished dancers". This just seemed a little insensitive. Other news sources chose not to report on the boys race or ethnicity, and it doesn't appear to be the normal practice for the AP to do this when it is not pertinent to the story.

VALS Survey

Experiencer/Innovator

Your primary VALS™ type is Experiencer, and your secondary type is Innovator. The primary VALS type represents your dominant approach to life. The secondary classification represents a particular emphasis you give to your dominant approach.

So I took the VALS survey, and according to the results I am an experiencer/innovator. I somewhat agree with the results. I get a little of the trickle down benefits from the friends I know, and I learn a lot from blogs I read or people I follow on social media. Now that I'm in my thirties I feel time accelerating. So I feel as though I'm in a race against my mortality. I crave knowledge and experience, I want to do as much as possible with the time i have.

As for me being an Innovator....Im on the fence about that. I don't consider myself a Type A personality as the definition for this result may suggest. But if its between an Innovator and a Survivor, then in that case, YES I am an innovator. Whenever i make a big purchase I always do a little bit of research and convince myself that only the best will suffice. I sometimes feel that if I don't have the best camera, I wont be able to take the best photograph, as though I may regret not making the decision to get the upgraded model of anything I buy. I chose graphic design as my major because I think I see things not only differently than the average Joe, but i think I see it "better". I value the aesthetic qualities about a particular product or brand and pay more attention to the little details.

I think a marketing team could reach my "type" by making ads a little more aesthetically pleasing, with am emphasis on good design quality, be it industrial or graphic. Apple got to me with their design and style.

The Internet

My days of Internet shopping have only just begun! Ive finally thrown in the towel on going to the mall and looking for clothes. Don't get me wrong I still love mall culture: Food courts, the smell of perfume wafting over from the Macy's, gypsies cramming useless gadgets in my face. But I love how easy the Internet makes it for me to drain my bank account! I just click on an item, pay via my pay pal account, forget that I paid thirty bucks for a t-shirt, and 6 to 7 business days later i get a package at my door, it's great!.... Right? You see, like most of us, ok some of us, paying with a credit card over the internet does not feel like a real transaction. There is no physical exchange of money, no signature of any kind. Its easy to forget exactly how much stuff you purchased with out the "Big Brown Bag". 

It is the convenience of Internet spending that makes it a slippery slope. I think there is a certain amount of satisfaction that arises every time you press the "make purchase'' button, it can be exciting sometimes. It's east to see how some poor soul could develop a problem. Curbing the appetite for spending must require a bit of diligence, and responsibility on our part.

Television

Length: 1:50

Description: Max is a gay character on the TV sitcom, Happy Endings. This is a scene where Max is considering retiring from being gay because he has lost his gay identity. Max does not fit the stereotype of what many people perceive as gay.

Chapter 9: Television

Quiz Question: In your opinion how do counter-stereotypes help improve the portrayal of minorities, or gays in the media?

Answer: By breaking down any pre-conceived notions of what gay is, or how a minority is supposed to act.

Movies

One of the movies from 2012 that stands out for me has to be Django Unchained. I thought the movie was violent and offensive at a level that was pretty over the top. Cristoph Waltz delivered an excellent performance once again. Tarantino's skillful dialogue had me laughing the whole movie. I saw Django Unchained on Digital XD format in the movie theater.

The title of,  "Favorite Movie of All Time"  has to go to The Big Lebowski. It is a comedy that the Cohen Bros take to a level of greatness with off beat humor and great cinematography. The first time i saw this movie was on DVD.

Magazine

• Name: Hidden Magazine
• Concept: Hidden Magazine is not a healthy living magazine, rather, a magazine for those who already live a healthy active lifestyle and don't want to read about new diets or specific workouts.  We don't preach diet and exercise, we preach going out and enjoying nature via a bicycle or your two feet. We offer insight into the bay areas best biking and hiking, and where to go to get away for a day or two or longer. We feature adventure journals of our writers experiences and lots of photography.The magazine is $5.99 because we use high quality paper, a better binding, and lots of high quality photography.
• Readers: Our target demographic is the twenty something and thirty something bracket, mid to lower income level, any ethnicity, any gender, readers will typically be more locally conscious, and less conservative.
• Other magazines: Hidden Magazine is different from other magazines because it deals with active lifestyles but does not feel like a health magazine, nor does it feel like a bay area tourist magazine. We offer great ideas for where to take your bike for the weekend, where to get a pre-ride cup of coffee, a post-ride beer, or the best breakfast spot to fuel up before a hike. We offer recipes from local chefs, articles about awesome people in the bay area, and local business owners, Bike repair advice from on staff experts. Q&A with experts from the field of cycling and hiking. Its a high quality magazine dealing with local subject matter. 
• Advertisers: PolerStuff, Supacaz, Specialized, REI, Chromatic Coffee, IminusD, Merrell 

Articles

• Bike Camping? : a list of supplies and things you will need for a bike camping trip, routes to take and spots to stop and eat along the way.
• Best fresh food: A story about local independently owned eateries and what they're cooking up for you.
• Barefoot running: an article about the recent barefoot running craze and if it is right for you.
• Sunday Am ride: every sunday the magazine staff invite the public out on a morning ride anyone is welcome. We drink coffee in the parking lot and head out. 
• Trail shoes review: Our staff experts give a review of the latest trail running shoes and let you know what they think.

Books

Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein had me laughing pretty hard as a kid. The humor and creative thinking that went into Shel Silverstein's poetry was inspiring. I was 8 or 10 years of age and already beginning to think outside the box.

The Secret History of the World by Mark Booth opened my eyes to our mystical past. The book taught me a lot about the occult and mysticism. Its an alternative view of history and gives insight into the esoteric teachings of mystery schools. It peaked my curiosity about ancient religions and mythology.

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer is a true story about  a young man Chris McCandless, who gives up all of his material possessions and wanders into the Alaskan wild and never returns. He wanted to be one with nature and live as nature intended, off the land and never taking more than you need. Even though I don't plan on leaving society, its fun to fantasize about getting away from everything and live like an animal.

Media Impact

Marshall McLuhan was a Canadian philosopher and was praised for his work and research in media theory. McLuhan used his tetrad of media effects as a means of examining the effects a media device would have on a society. His tetrad of media effects would would divide the medium into four effects and display them simultaneously. McLuhan claimed that each medium simultaneously enhanced something, made something else obsolete, reversed when pushed to extreme, and retrieved something from the past that was once lost. For example:

Photography:
Enhances: memories, sharing of memories and news.
Obsoletes: painting and drawing
Retrieves: Hieroglyphs
Reverse: a society too dependent on visual stimuli. Loss of interest in the written word.

A photograph captures a moment in time, freezing a real world experience in a two-dimensional static image for people to see at a later time. A photograph enhances your memory of a moment by being able to actually look back at that time. Makes painting and drawing obsolete because it is much more accurate and life-like not to mention much easier and functional. Retrieves Hieroglyphs. Pictures are images used to tell a story or report news and document moments much like the hieroglyphs of ancient time. A society using pictures to report news may become too dependent on visual stimuli and lose interest in written words, much like reverting back to picture books with less words.

Media Autobiography

So here it is Sunday afternoon, a beautiful 72 degree day, and I am indoors writing to you about my experiences and relationships with the eight different types of mass media we are currently studying in my Journalism class: Books, newspapers, magazines, movies, recordings, radio, television, and the internet. I am a Graphic Design major so my career depends heavily on visual media and communication.

• Books: Since childhood I have always had a respect for books. To me they symbolized intelligence and knowledge. I have also had a great fear of books because they usually were accompanied by copious amount of thinking and writing. Fear and respect for books did not equate to an enjoyment of books. The first book I truly enjoyed reading was probably JD Salinger's, Catcher in the Rye. I was listening to a lot of punk rock and the character Holden Caulfield spoke to the frustrated teenage version of me. 

• Newspapers: As a kid I would always see my parents reading the newspaper. I would read the funny pages while eating breakfast. I didn't really care about the paper so much. I remember being really bored by the small text about political things I had no idea about. Now that I understand a little more about the world around me I try to pick up the paper at least once a week on days like today while eating breakfast. 

•  Magazines: As a graphic design major I really paid close attention to the quality of the paper, the layout, and the advertisements within magazines. Sure the subject matter and the articles are great, but it was the immediate sense of artistry that spoke to me. Magazines are loaded with great photography, typography and articles. It really is a multi pronged attack on the senses that should never go away.

• Movies: Movies have to be my most prized medium of mass media. I have been inspired, angered, and entertained by movies throughout my life. I visit the movie theater about 3 times a month and I watch movies at home about 6 days a week. Some movies put me in such a comfort zone that its almost therapeutic.

• Recordings: Music rules my life. I am the person I am today because of recordings. I can't be in a car or on a bike ride without some form of music to occupy my mind. 

• Radio: I still listen to the radio every now and then. The great thing about the radio is that when you tune into a station you tap into the same wavelength as thousands of other people in their cars driving to and from work. Radio is a uniter. I listen to talk radio sometimes when I can't sleep.

• Television: We all gather around our glowing TV sets to watch programs that make us feel something. At work people discuss the latest episodes of shows like Breaking Bad and Walking Dead. Even over dinner you catch people discussing they're favorite television program. We all watch the same news, and we all recieve similar messages and it's extremely powerful.

• Internet: The great game changer! We are still adjusting to how this invention is changing our lives. We have the world at our fingertips, we can reach out to thousands if not millions of people from a single laptop computer. Now we just have to figure out what we want to do with all this power.