I can't say with complete certainty that my perspective on media has changed. I was already well acquainted with most of the aforementioned mediums, but I was able to gain insight on the production and labeling of some things- namely about the differences between advertising and public relations. I was also able to take an opportunity to learn about the hostile media effect, which I found surprising. I also didn't realize that flag-burning was protected. The more you know...
Perhaps the most incredible thing I learned in this class was the realization of each media's history. Your standard high school history course depicts every medium as a technological innovation that changed the human perspective on culture. While this may be true, this class brought to light the (admittedly angst-ridden) conflicts that are rooted in the development of each form of media. I learned about how film ratings were swung back and forth with perhaps the most haphazard and arbitrary restrictions. I learned about how every decade had their own .mp3 vs. .flac audio war, from betamax tapes to audio cds. I learned about comic books and how conservative parents led to the various ages and eras. While I was slightly familiar with many of these strange circumstances, highlighting the conflicts grounded these mediums in reality. History has a tendency to depict the slightest change as the greatest glory- but as it stands, all that glitters in not gold.
Even the Golden Era of Film and Comic Books.
Thank you for the wonderful course.
Thursday, June 27, 2013
Media Ethics/Media Law
Case #11-210 U.S. v. Alvarez
A case that went under the review of the Supreme Court of the United States from February 22nd, 2012 to June 28th, 2012. In 2007, a man named Xavier Alvarez established himself as a military veteran with a Medal of Honor, when in-fact, he did not receive any such award. This action led to a $5,000 fine and 400 hours of community service under the Stolen Valor Act of 2005. The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in favor of Alvarez, establishing that his statements were protected under the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights.
Alvarez, however, remained in legal trouble for other issues, including the misappropriation of public funds, grand theft, and insurance fraud.
The slip opinions and summary can be found here.
A case that went under the review of the Supreme Court of the United States from February 22nd, 2012 to June 28th, 2012. In 2007, a man named Xavier Alvarez established himself as a military veteran with a Medal of Honor, when in-fact, he did not receive any such award. This action led to a $5,000 fine and 400 hours of community service under the Stolen Valor Act of 2005. The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in favor of Alvarez, establishing that his statements were protected under the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights.
Alvarez, however, remained in legal trouble for other issues, including the misappropriation of public funds, grand theft, and insurance fraud.
The slip opinions and summary can be found here.
Propaganda in Advertising/PR
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All aboard the bandwagon! |
I chose to run the product page for the iPhone on the Apple homepage. Right off the bat, the website hits the browser with a strong tagline.
TAGLINE
"Loving it is easy. That's why so many people do."
TRANSLATION
"Oh god please love me. Everybody else does. Please love me."This particular phrasing seeks to appeal to the bandwagon effect, in that it appeals to our innate desire for conformity. While it is commonly said that everybody seeks to be unique, the truth remains that most people don't like standing out either. Everybody prefers to jump on the new fad than to create their own. The latter simply has too much risk involved.
For the record, the above fallacy is argumentum ad populum.
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Love comes in many forms. Like HD resolution. |
A few slides to the right, the website presents another lovely tagline.
TAGLINE
"The camera you love now shoots in panorama."
TRANSLATION
"Don't you care about the things you love (eg. family, friends, the iSight camera, etc)?"This is an example of loaded language, where the writer makes assumptions about the reader. Most of the people visiting the page probably don't know anything about the specifications of the camera, so how can they already love it? The writer appeals to the human nature to the things we love improve, like a parent watching their child accomplish something. Always fun stuff.
There's quite a few other examples, but I'll leave it with these two. The page can be visited here.
Internet
The Google Chromebook, despite its fairly abysmal reviews and sales, sought to create a laptop centered entirely around the web. The laptop runs an operating system that works under a different modus operandi compared to your run-of-the-mill computer, in that most of the laptop functions are ran from within the Chrome web browser.
Instead of your conventional Microsoft Word, you use Google Documents. Image editing is done via Picasa. Movies are watched on Netflix and various other streaming sites. Music is accessed through services like Pandora or Google Play Music. Files are stored on Google Drive. The list goes on.
The fact that Google produced this particular laptop stands as a testament for technological shift from regular conventional applications to web-based applications. Many of the tasks that are normally ran through an operating system can now be micro-managed into a web browser, indicating that web technology now encompasses many of our modern computational needs.
This and many other examples come to reveal that internet technology is slowly replacing many of our daily tasks. As a result, I personally feel that labeling too much time on the "internet" is something that quite simply doesn't mean anything. It could mean shopping, gaming, watching movies, reading books, researching data, conducting experiments, socializing with others, writing a diary, visiting foreign locations, learning a new language, composing new music, and millions of other tasks.
For example, if I said I spent five hours on the internet yesterday that could mean that I watched a two hour film, spent an hour writing an essay, listened to jazz while reading the news for half an hour, chat with friends on Facebook for half an hour, watch a half-hour lecture on differential calculus, and spent another half-hour reading a classic novel off of Project Gutenberg.
Does that sound like an obscene waste of time? Sure, it was time-consuming. But is it fair to label it as a "time-consuming habit" or an addiction? I'd like to challenge the nature of the question by establishing the whole internet as simply too big of a medium to make that type of generalization.
Or maybe I'm just rationalizing the amount of time I spend browsing entirely irrelevant articles on Wikipedia.
Who knows.
Instead of your conventional Microsoft Word, you use Google Documents. Image editing is done via Picasa. Movies are watched on Netflix and various other streaming sites. Music is accessed through services like Pandora or Google Play Music. Files are stored on Google Drive. The list goes on.
The fact that Google produced this particular laptop stands as a testament for technological shift from regular conventional applications to web-based applications. Many of the tasks that are normally ran through an operating system can now be micro-managed into a web browser, indicating that web technology now encompasses many of our modern computational needs.
This and many other examples come to reveal that internet technology is slowly replacing many of our daily tasks. As a result, I personally feel that labeling too much time on the "internet" is something that quite simply doesn't mean anything. It could mean shopping, gaming, watching movies, reading books, researching data, conducting experiments, socializing with others, writing a diary, visiting foreign locations, learning a new language, composing new music, and millions of other tasks.
For example, if I said I spent five hours on the internet yesterday that could mean that I watched a two hour film, spent an hour writing an essay, listened to jazz while reading the news for half an hour, chat with friends on Facebook for half an hour, watch a half-hour lecture on differential calculus, and spent another half-hour reading a classic novel off of Project Gutenberg.
Does that sound like an obscene waste of time? Sure, it was time-consuming. But is it fair to label it as a "time-consuming habit" or an addiction? I'd like to challenge the nature of the question by establishing the whole internet as simply too big of a medium to make that type of generalization.
Or maybe I'm just rationalizing the amount of time I spend browsing entirely irrelevant articles on Wikipedia.
Who knows.
Television
Video Length 6:40
Description
News anchor Charlie LeDuff uses a mixture of comedy, language, and journalism to report a perspective on the actions of local politicians and executives to change local social service programs for profiteering purposes. He brings attention to the issue and highlights the unheard words of its victims.
Chapter 2 [Media Impact]
Chapter 11 [Electronic News]
Quiz Question
What was the changed program that was brought to light by LeDuff's reporting?
Quiz Answer
The Meals on Wheels program.
Open-Ended Question
Was LeDuff's style of reporting an objective measure of the conflict? Was his style of reporting effective at making a point? Was his liberal use of language and exaggeration appropriate? Where does the work coincide and conflict with the media's responsibility as the watchdog of the government?
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
Movies
No particular films stood out from 2012 to 2013. From Zero Dark Thirty to Cloud Atlas to Les Mis, it's almost impossible for me to pick any as individually notable. All the films had large enough flaws to be irritating enough to not mention.
My favorite all-time film would be Twelve Angry Men. I like how the central themes are reinforced by relatable, but unique characters. The film applies incredible cinematography (consider how the shots are tightened and relaxed to represent the tension and claustrophobia built by the relatively small cast and their interaction) and the actors do a terrific job representing their respective roles.
The Trailer
The Full Film
My favorite all-time film would be Twelve Angry Men. I like how the central themes are reinforced by relatable, but unique characters. The film applies incredible cinematography (consider how the shots are tightened and relaxed to represent the tension and claustrophobia built by the relatively small cast and their interaction) and the actors do a terrific job representing their respective roles.
Here is the Rotten Tomatoes link.
The Trailer
The Full Film
Magazines
The PUBLISHER is a monthly magazine whose content is primarily written by the readers. Stories, articles, and papers are received by the magazine over the span of a month, filtered and edited over the span of another month, and published following month. The magazine is similar to science fiction, horror, and fantasy magazines, except aimed toward a more generalized audience with shorter, less eccentric/niche content. The writers will retain the rights to the work, with the PUBLISHER merely gaining publishing rights.
The target audience will be adults of all ages, genders, and ethnic backgrounds with some level of open-mindedness who enjoy reading (which, perhaps, may not exist in the modern world). For the record, works that are more likely to be read will be chosen in priority over works that are more intellectual or higher quality.
There aren't any major competitors. The closest competitors would be the aforementioned writing magazines that cater to specific writing styles.
Advertisers will target the newspaper based on categorization of work. The science-fiction section will have more technology advertisements. The romance section will have probably have beauty products. The comedy section will have alcohol, etc.
For the first few issues, the PUBLISHER will search out short works written by prominent authors to gain attention to the magazine itself. The magazine will slowly transition from requested work to user-submitted as popularity increases.