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Journal 10:

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Journal 10:

Journal #9:

Journal 9: Minority Portrayals in Mass Media

The mass media has a huge effect on audience’s views and the actions they take. All types of mass media affect how and what people think and believe. There are people who believe many people can block out the messages that the mass media is trying to get into our heads. This group of people argues that most people can block out the many different scenarios because they are not true and are not reality. Some people are able to understand that most television shows are fictional and none of the scenarios should be taken seriously, even though they may be depicted as real events during the show. Others may have a harder time telling what is “real” in a television show, so their opinion of what is happening may be skewed or distorted. What becomes an issue is that people are continuously exposed to these scenarios on television and sometimes they become more and more like reality. What has become increasingly clear in recent years is that fictional television can also play a significant role in shaping public images. Television is one of the primary mediums for entertainment in the United States; therefore, television has a massive impact on its audience’s opinions and actions.
Schema theory is one theory about mass media which shows the effects that the media has on individuals. The schema theory describes how the mass media changes the way we categorize or group information. This theory seeks to explain our interpretation of the world from a psychological perspective. Television is one aspect of the mass media that helps people to form schema. The schemas formed are both viewed as negative and positive. Messages from the media shape schema on several different issues. The schemas the viewers have may influence the context and interpretation of the message.
One of my favorite TV shows on Fox, 24, shows an example of schema theory at work. This hit Tv show is about a group of people working for the government who take down all kinds of terrorist groups and try to keep America safe. All of the terrorists are played by actors and actresses who tend to portray Middle Eastern people. Because these terrorists are portrayed as Middle Eastern people, this group of people gets a negative connotation by anyone who watches the show. After the events of September 11, 2001 many people developed the schema that Middle Eastern people, including Muslims, Arabs, and Islam, are terrorists. Anyone that resembled these groups of people was labeled as terrorists. In the television show on Fox, 24, the terrorists mostly fall into this category of race and ethnicity. None of the terrorists have ever been Caucasian or white. Throughout the show there are also many people inside the government who are working with the terrorists and giving them pointers and heads up as to what the government and the Counter Terrorist Unit are doing. A few of these people are white, but the majority of the people are of a different race. Because of the continuous examples used of terrorists being of Middle Eastern decent, people are developing a schema. The schema goes back to September 11th when people were first introduced to this idea that terrorists are Middle Eastern. When the characters are introduced in the beginning of each season, the viewers can somewhat get a sense of who will be good and who will be bad in the show. Based on the schemas that people have developed over time about different races of people, they are able to develop ideas as to who is a good character and who is a bad character.
The framework of people minds is altered by this constant exposure to a minority group having a negative effect on the world. This exposure to middle-eastern people constantly being terrorists and causing trouble leads the public to view all middle-eastern people as terrorists and bad people. The terrorists plan events that put the United States in grave danger. This idea that all the terrorists are of Middle Eastern decent is a bad image given to the people of this group. This television show is aired at prime-time on Fox and is a hit television series that many people have followed throughout the seven seasons. The show target market is both teens and adults: ages 13 and older. The show is broadcasted all over the world and can also be watched on the Fox website at anytime. There have been a total of 168 episodes and one 2-hour movie, airing from November 6, 2001 till present time. Because this show aired after September 11, 2001 the fear of terrorism in the United States was very high. Everyone who watches this show was alive during the events that happened on September 11th and were all influenced in some way, whether it be a great influence or not. With having terrorists in the show it feeds into people’s fear of terrorists. Because the terrorists of September 11th were of Middle Eastern decent, having the terrorists of Middle Eastern decent on the show increases the fear of Middle Eastern people. People have the schema that many Middle Eastern people are terrorists, and with the continuous exposure of the show 24 having terrorists of Middle Eastern decent, the schema is built up even more. This schema turns into a sort of negative stereotype against people of Middle Eastern decent. All of the Middle Eastern people in the show seem to all be antagonists. Rarely do you see a protagonist of Middle Eastern decent. This negative light of the characters reflects negatively on the entire population of the Middle East because people then associate all of these negative actions with the population.
The members of this group of people are impacted because many people in the American population view them as negative people. All Middle Eastern people are not terrorists and should not be looked at as being a terrorist. There are only a select few people who are actually terrorists. Other races and nationalities have terrorists also; it is not only Middle Eastern people. The negative connotation associated with being of Middle Eastern decent can hurt their chances of succeeding in life. After September 11th, many of these people who lived in American were treated badly and looked at differently only because someone of the same background did something wrong and hurt several people. The actions of a few individuals should not cause a generalization to be made about the group as a whole.

Journal Entry #8: Mikey Mouse Monopoly film

Media and Minority Portrayals:

The film Mickey Mouse Monopoly critically analyzes the Disney films, specifically looking at race and gender. The values that are brought up during these Disney movies are seen as being disguised by the fun and childish characters. The claims made about these films are quite disturbing and may be proven to influence both children and adults in a negative way. Throughout the film the producers interview young children on their thoughts with race. One of the major points that were brought up in the film is race. If you think about all Disney movies and their characters, there are no characters that are African-American or black. Many people came to the conclusion that the hyenas in the Lion King and the black crows in Dumbo are given a “black accent” and they speak language that is slower and they are seen as being dumb. Also, some of the children believed that the hyenas were bad and therefore came to the conclusion that all African-American people are bad or evil. The minority portrayals seen in these Disney films are non-recognition and ridicule. Non-recognition is seen because there are several minority groups that are not seen at all in the media. Ridicule is seen because some of the characters that are either voiced by an African-American person or given the stereotypical “black accent”. These characters use humorous stereotypes against the minority groups. Several of the evil Disney characters are constantly given stereotypical African-American characteristics, which leads to supporting the Schema Theory. The media is altering our knowledge structures and modes of thinking about how we categorize African-Americans. In the film Mickey Mouse Monopoly, we see this happen when a woman talks about how her young child heard a group of African-American children laughing on the jungle gym. The child immediately linked the group of children laughing to the hyenas in the Lion King, giving that group of children a negative and evil stereotype.
This is not only seen in Disney films; we can see examples of minority groups being given a negative stereotype in the show 24 on Fox. Throughout the 6 seasons of the show, there has never been a white terrorist. The majority of the terrorists are middle-eastern. This causes people to believe that all middle-eastern people are terrorists. The framework of people minds is altered by this constant exposure to a minority group having a negative effect on the world. This exposure to middle-eastern people constantly being terrorists and causing trouble leads the public to view all middle-eastern people as terrorists and bad people. In this show you can also see examples of stages of minority portrayals in regulation. Regulation is when there are minority identities are shown in positive ways by helping the authorities. In 24, you can see this through the different races and genders in the Presidents. In each season there is a new President. The majority of the seasons had white male presidents, but there have been two African-American male Presidents and currently in this season there is a white female President. These examples of Presidents as being African-American and female give these groups a more positive connotation. The public may change their minds on how they see the group as a whole, if the character in the show is successful and does their job successfully. In conclusion, the mass media as a whole portrays minority groups mostly in a negative way and therefore the public has linked these portrayals to the group as a whole.

Chapter 9 Synopsis

Chapter 9: Scientific Looking, Looking at Science

Interpretations of images are not based on one event; they are normally based on many different factors and conditions. Any form of images, such as art, TV, films, advertising, and visual data are all considered to be visual culture. All of these images are said to be separate from culture. Images that are scientific are normally seen to be true and objective because of the background behind the information. For example, when you see statistics about how popular a certain brand is, you may believe this statistics over just an advertisement that is broadcasted about the brand. This chapter focuses on how scientific images are in fact dependent on the culture just as art, TV, and film.
The first example used is the development of the x-ray. The first x-ray taken only looked like a silhouette of a hand. Because of developments in film and photography the x-ray is now what it is today. Photography has played a huge role in the development of scientific, medical, and legal advances. This shows that scientific information depends on the culture. Without the cultural developments that happen every year, we would not have the scientific and medical technology that we have available to us today. “Science and culture are mutually engaged” (350).
Many artists have studied the human body and developed beautiful artwork that explains every muscle of the human body. This also allowed scientific and medical advances to happen. DaVinci’s Vitruvian Man is a good example of this. This image is a human figure whose proportions are in reference to geometry. This body image of this man portrays a real ideal human body image. This image is now used in medicine and health practices because it shows the relationship between the human body and the laws of mathematics and the structure of nature (351).
In the late nineteenth century, many artists were very interested in the human body: both the outside and inside. Back in these days, surgery was not done in a sterile environment, but it was done in a theatre. Many people would stand around and watch a surgery take place. This was fascinating to many artists at the time, who wanted to better understand the human body. The Visible Human Project also helped to understand the human body to the full extent. This exhibit used two frozen dead bodies, one male and one female, and each body was sliced into thin slices. The slices were then each photographed, which in turn allowed them to create a virtual body. The images were then released to the public. This exhibit is also an example of the relationship between art and science. These acts of scientific advancements were later able to be used as art all around the world, while still allowing for research of the human body. The development of the x-ray, CT scan, and MRI were all big advances in the practice of medicine. The x-ray allowed for researchers to look inside a person’s body to either diagnose a problem or to better understand the body. Ultrasounds are another example of how technological advances in culture allow for a better understanding of both medicine and science.
Photographs and art also help greatly with the law and medical evidence. The advancements in mechanical and electronic image producing systems, including photography, motion picture, film, television, computer graphics, and digital photography, help in the process of evidence. Positivism is a “philosophical belief that the true and valid knowledge about the world is knowledge derived from objective scientific method” (355). Positivism helps in the fields of law, medicine, journalism, and social sciences in cases in which these scholars need to measure the reality without having any kind of bias in the situation. By using this philosophy they are able to mechanically observe, measure, and study the real world in a way in which they could redo and recheck their work to make sure the evidence is precisely accurate. A camera is considered to be and “objective device for capturing reality” (355). Because of this, photography became a powerful medium for the practices of science and medicine. The use of the camera could be used by managers, in mental hospitals, in crime scenes, and in identification of people.
It has been said for many centuries that the “truth lies beneath the surface” (369). It is also said by other critics that when looking inside someone you are able to see their “true identity” (370). By introducing the new photography machines that allow you to look inside someone has allowed these statements to be true. These images taken of the human body by these new machines have been seen as the “primary avenue to truth” (370). We now can understand the way the body works and who each part of the body, both inside and out, react and work with each other. These images taken help medical professionals and scientists understand and experience how their bodies work and how other people’s bodies work. The brain scans are said to have the most power culturally. This is because the brain is the most complex part of the human body, and with these brain scans we are able to see how this structure works.
Science and medicine has also advanced so far as to be able to make a blue print of the human body by figuring out the DNA that each person is consisted of. These blue prints show all the human genomes. With this knowledge, in the 1980s an instrument was invented that used computer software to make an image of what a person would age to in a few years. This helped with finding people who were on the most wanted list and criminals. They were able to age the photos of these people in order to make them look as if they were the age that they were at that point in time.
In conclusion, in order for there to be scientific and medical advances, there also needs to be cultural advances and vice versa. Because of this relationship we can see that science is not only based upon facts, but is based upon a variety of other things based on the culture around it.

Journal #7:

Journal Entry #7: Advertisers and being socially responsible with advertisements

There have been many debates on whether or not advertisers should have to ensure that cultural norms illustrated in advertising are socially responsible.
An advertisement is by definition is any kind of announcement or praise of a product or service in a public medium of communication in order to make people aware of the product, want to use the product, or want to buy the product. The obvious forms of advertisements are print advertisements (newspapers, magazines, billboards), broadcasts (radio, TV), and internet advertisements. With this definition of an advertisement, clothing that people wear to advertise a brand or something they believe in or anything posted on the internet (such as Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, and other social networking cites) falls under the category of an advertisement. How would it be possible to ensure that all materials posted on these types of sites would be socially responsible, while still allowing for freedom of speech? No one, even advertisers, should be limited as to what they want to say in an advertisement.
Cultural Norms and what is considered to be socially responsible is always changing. Cultural norms are formed by family, friends, and peers – not just media and advertising. Social responsibility is a set of values that is also made up by your family and peers. So who is to say what cultural norms are considered to be socially responsible or not?
The critics who argue that advertisers do not have to ensure that they are represent cultural norms as socially responsible use the Uses and Gratifications Theory to back up their argument. The Uses and gratifications theory was developed in order to address the different uses an audience has for particular types of media. Consumers have control over and can mutually engage with the media they are consuming. For example, individuals pay closer attention to media which they can relate to or display their values.
The second argument that people make is the media’s effect on women’s body images. There have been many studies done to oppose this argument. One is a meta-analysis of studies concerning body image and media was performed by Holmstrom from the years 1990 till 2002. The study analyzed whether or not the media had a significant impact on women’s body image. When reviewing all published articles, it was found that depictions of thin women may have little to no effect on viewers. And images of overweight women seemed to have a positive effect on women’s body images. This study found that a large percentage of past studies did not adequately define abstract terms such as “body image” or “self esteem” leading to inconsistencies. During the experiment the researchers showed women advertisements with thin women, average size women, and non-human subjects. Because there was little difference between the control and experimental groups, the findings suggested that viewing images of average women or non-human images was equivalent to viewing images of thin women. With the time of exposure to the images, the length of time had a positive correlation with how the women felt about their bodies: the longer exposure time, the better the women felt about their own bodies. This negates the concept of cultivation theory, which states that the longer an individual absorbs media, the more they believe media to be a reflection of the “real world.” The opposing side can argue that advertisers need to be socially responsible when showing cultural norms in advertising. The statistics they can use is the increase of eating disorders among both men and women. Media always portrays models and beautiful people as being skinny. In reality most people cannot be as skinny as models. This depiction of skinny women makes other women want to be like them and emulate what the models look like. This leads to the increase of eating disorders throughout the US population.
Another issue if sex in the media and advertisements also raises an issue to some people. When dealing with advertisements an important distinction to be made is the difference between obscene and indecent sexual content. Some people see the use of attractive and sexy models in advertising to be a problem, but the majority of the people believe that these ads are socially acceptable, while others may not. The use of sexual appeals is a good marketing tool because of its arousing, energizing, and attentional qualities. These characteristics produce a favorable response for the advertisers and the target audiences more frequently will buy the product because of the association. This process is also known as Sexual Conditioning or Classical Conditioning. Classical conditioning is when you pair an uncontrolled stimulus with a controlled stimulus together to produce a response. In this case the advertisers pair a product with an uncontrolled stimulus, for example a sexy model. The goal response would be that whenever someone sees that product they associate it with being sexy. This leads advertisers to argue that sex appeals are a good marketing tool. The opposed argument argues that sex in the media should not be used because it is not socially responsible, especially with children. Depending on the audience being targeted, it may or may not be appropriate.
In this argument I am in the middle with my decision. I think that advertisers need to be socially responsible to a point. I think that sex in the media should be allowed to be used as long as it is not very heavy on sexual content. Also, depending on the target audience there should wither be more or less of a filter on what is shown. When dealing with children, it should not be the advertiser’s responsibility to make sure that the children do not see the material. The parents should be the ones who decide what their children can and cannot watch. In order to decide what should be allowed to be shown, there should be a panel or group of people who are from different backgrounds and have different beliefs to decide what should and should not be shown.

Journal #6: Text Styles

Chapter 8 Synopsis: Postmodernism, Indie Media, and Popular Culture

Chapter 8: Postmodernism, Indie Media, and Popular Culture

This chapter discusses postmodernism, indie media, and popular culture. It explains what each concept means and how it can be related to the world around us. It is said that postmodernism was developed around 1968. One definition of postmodernism emphasizes the formative role of economic and political conditions, including post war globalization, the emergence of new information technologies, new flexible forms of production, and the breakdown of the traditional nation-state, in the emergence of postmodern modes of cultural production (311). Another definition of postmodernism is a set of styles which create a creative explosion of style and surface image in reaction to the rigid attention to form and underlying structure in modernism. This definition has been criticized because it is argued that the definition implies that postmodernism is only a style that an artist or producer can choose to embrace or reject rather than a cultural trend that is integral to changes in culture, the economy, and politics (311). Postmodernism is a response to conditions implied by late modernity. This is also linked to the later stages of capitalism. Postmodern and modern are hard to tell when they start and end. It has been said that postmodernism intersects the period of late modernism. This period of intersection is known as the Enlightenment period. During this time, liberalism, modernization, and progress continued to improve on many developments of the poorer and less developed nations through science and technological advances. There is however a way to distinguish between post-modernity and modernity. Modern is described as the knowledge of forward looking and positive belief that one could know what was objectively true and real by discerning the structural relations that underpin social formations and natural phenomena (312). Postmodern, on the other hand, is defined as the questioning of the supposed universality of structural knowledge, as well as skepticism about the modern belief in the universality of progress. The questions asked are “Do we really know that progress is always a good thing? Can we really know the human subject? How can any experience be pure or unmediated? How do we know what truth is?” (313). Postmodern is a style. It can be used to describe fashions and politicians who define themselves and generate their identities through media images and text.
An example of the postmodern media would be the point at which animated studios changed the appearance of many cartoons. Snow White and Sesame Street are perfect examples to show this change in animation. Also, Astro Boy, The Transformers, and Mobile Suit Gundam all show examples of this new style of production. Each of these shows showed robotic characters with superhuman powers. Children who used to associate themselves with the old style of cartoon began to associate themselves with these non-human cartoons. These characters were “artificial computerized life” (317). In the 1990s, Pixar began to release movies that were only CGI “computer graphics imagery” (320). These movies included Toy Story, Shrek, and A Bugs Life.
“The world of images today consists of a huge variety of remakes, copies, parodies, replicas, reproductions, and remixes” (328). Pastiche describes the culture and how everything is an imitation, remake, or parody. Pastiche can also fall into the category of parody. Right now, many forms of media are considered to be in the category of genre parodies. The Simpsons for example uses parodies to play off the codes of film and cultural history.
Critiques say that postmodernism ignored history. Hutcheon says that postmodernism “suggests no search for transcendent, timeless meaning but rather a re-evaluation of, and a dialogue with the past in light of the present” (332). Photographs play a key part in this. A photograph symbolizes memory and history. The ideas of photos show that “the past remains within the present” (333).
Postmodernism is not only from changes in the popular culture and the art world. Postmodern culture is also created through the changes that take place in production, dissemination, and marketing of media forms (334). The internet and indie films play a huge part in postmodernism. Modernity changes concepts of space and time because of the rise of urbanization and communication technologies that create a separation of time and space and a distinction between space and plane. Postmodernism space creates a new kind of experience. Programs that include simulations dominate the themes of postmodernism. SecondLife is an example of this. In this program there is a virtual world of people and identities, virtual societies, economies, cities, building, and legal systems (337). This is a replication of the real world.
The world as we know it does not live in a time of postmodernism but there is many tensions because of modernity and post-modernity. These two ideas are both active and present in our time.

Journal #5: Money As Debt

Money as Debt Synopsis:

The main issue being discussed in this film is money: what is money and where does it come from? The question of what is money cannot be answered to this day, but the question of where does money come from can be answered: the mint and banks. The money produced by the mint is what is produced by the government. This money only makes up about 5% of the total money available. The other 95% of the money is made by banks.
The story of the goldsmith tells about how banks came to be and how the first bank began. The goldsmith made a vault for all the gold that he had so it would be safe from everyone. People began to want to rent out space in his vault for their gold also. The goldsmith allowed this to happen, by charging for the space used and for interest. He then began to make an income from the depositors. After people would leave their gold in the vault the goldsmith would give them a paper receipt known as a claim check. These claim checks were then being used around the marketplace because they were much easier to carry around than the larger, heavy sacks of gold. The goldsmith began to lend out gold as loans, but then realized it would be better to lend out the claim checks instead of gold. More and more people began to ask for loans. All of the major depositors did not ever come back to pick up their gold. When the loans were paid off, the goldsmith would make tons of money. He became very rich. Suspicions around the village grew. People thought that he was using their gold to become rich. All of the depositors threatened to take back all their gold, but he was able to prove them wrong by taking them to the vault. He still had everyone’s gold in the vault, but he was just making claim checks with money that he did not have. This was the beginning of banking, although this is not how banks still work today. The demand for loans became greater, and the goldsmith kept lending out checks for gold that did not exist. The interest that was being paid on the gold that did not exist made him very rich. Suspicions grew again. All of the wealthy depositors wanted their gold back, but he did not have enough gold to pay them back. It became a “run on the bank.” This is what every banker dreads. This in turn ruined the individual banks and the trust in all other banks.
Money represents debt. Now a dollar is equal to a dollar. You cannot pay in two different kinds of currency. There is one currency for the whole country and that is what you can use to pay with. The policy used to be gold is equal to the same value in a claim check. This is no longer the case. The government and banks create money. The amount of money available used to be limited to the quantity of what the money was, for example, gold, silver, or fish. Now, money is created as debt. Whenever a loan is taken out more money and more debt are created. In 1957 the total American debt was $5 trillion. In 2006 the total American debt was $45 trillion. Money is created when debt is created. Every time a banker loans out money to a person, more money is made. In order to take out a loan, you do not need to have any money in the bank and there is no limit as to how much money you can take out. The banks need to make user that they have 10% more in deposits than in loans; otherwise they will be shut down.
Banks can make as much money as we can borrow. The government mints only make 5% of the total money available. The rest of the money is made by loans and created by the banks. When a new loan is made, the old ones should be repaid. The government plays a big role in the money system: 1. the government makes everyone use the US currency (1 US dollar), 2. Private Banks can pay out in government currency, and 3. Government passes regulations to protect money systems functionally and credibility with the public without telling the public where the money comes from.
There is never enough actually money to lend out. Loans just make more debt. The more debt, then the more money there is. If there is no debt, then there is no money. If everyone were out of debt, there would be no money to spend. This would be very bad for the economy and for everyone. If there were no more loans, then there would be no more money. This is what happened during the Great Depression. If we do not want to have this happen to our economy again, then bankers need to keep giving out loans.
Banks create a principle not an interest. Only the principle is paid off. Interest money is money that does not exist. The bankers get the money from the overall principle money, and borrowers are in the same position. More new debt money is needed to increase the pay interest. The time lag between the money owed and the money created is good because if there was no time lag then everyone would be bankrupt. What can be done to help the system? Four questions have been formulated to come up with a response to this question: 1. Why do governments CHOOSE to borrow money from private banks at interest when governments could create all the interest free money it needs itself?, 2. Why create money as debt at all? Why not create money that circulates permanently?, 3. How can a money system dependent on perpetually accelerating growth be used to build a sustainable economy?, and 4. What needs to be changed to allow the creation of a sustainable economy?
Monetary reform advocates have debated whether changing the system is good or bad. They argue that the system needs to be replaces and that the old systems worked better. They argue that we should return to the gold based money system. The rebuttal to this argument is that no one will want to carry around huge, heavy sacks of gold when shopping. These monetary reforms will not come easy; it will take a long time if they ever do get passed.
Marshall McLuhan, media ‘guru’ says, “Only the small secrets need to be protected. The big ones are kept secret by public incredulity.”

Journal #4: The Day the Music Died

Frontline: The Day the Music Died Synopsis

The music industry is a very hard business to get involved in as a singer or song writer. Many people who have experienced the hardships of the music business will suggest that you do not try to get involved in the business. About 30,000 records are released annually and only about 100 turn out to be hits and make the top 100 on the Billboard Charts. This is about an 85% fail rate and about 9 out of 10 people fail. People who do get involved with the music business love what they do. Most singers and songwriters love to write and sing music so that their voice can be heard. It is their dream to get to sing on stage and get to the top. This is only a dream for most people. The business is a nasty one. You never know how much money you will make, or when your top songs will drop. For example, when rock first came out all the kids loved it, but parents hated it because they could not understand this new type of music. The same happened when hip-hop and rap was introduced. These genres of music became popular for a few years and then were dropped. The record companies used these artists. As said in the film, the record companies “used them and abused them and then threw them away.”
When the baby boomer generation grew up cassettes and CDs became available. These people began to buy less and less records, but they began to replace the records that they already had with these new inventions. This caused a problem because no new artists were being sold, but most companies were prospering from this excess buying of CDs. Because the record companies began to make so much money in such little time, the international conglomerates became interested in buying the companies. These international conglomerates ended up buying out some of the record companies.
Business in the 90s was good for record companies, but the increased use of the internet downloads and files transfers. The free music downloads available dented the amount of record sales. Also, one person could buy a CD and then transfer files to friends, whether it be to one friend or 100. The sales went from 40 billion down to 28 billion. The main argument that people who downloaded music off the internet is that they would go out and buy a CD from an artist they liked for one song and then the rest of the songs would be bad. Therefore they wasted their money on buying just one good song. When they download over the internet they could pick exactly what song they wanted to download and would not have to deal with all the other music that they did not enjoy listening to. The lead singer in Outkast explained that he feels that the free music downloads are not the problem. He thinks that the music industry is not producing “good” music anymore. He goes on to say that when people hear good music they will go out and spend the money to buy the songs. This is backed up by the amount of record sales of popular artists: Outkast sold 8 million, Eminem sold 8 million, 50 Cent sold 6 million, and Nora Jones sold 6 million.
The radio also makes the music industry tough. It is very hard for new artists to get their music on the radio. Radio stations rarely play new music because they stick to the music that they know is popular. The radio station may listen to 20-30 new CDs each week, but makes the decision on what to play by what’s hot and what will be hot. Getting onto the radio is like getting into the “eye of the needle.” There are 32,000 records put out each year and only about 4-5 records are able to be played in a week. In order to get on the radio as a new artist you need the “right song” that the radio station believes has the potential of being a hit single. The radio business suffered in the early 90s. This was because Congress passed a law that raised the amount of stations a conglomerate could own. This in turn became a monopoly. Clear Channel is an example of this. If this company did not want something to be aired on the radio, then it would not be aired.
MTV is also plays a big factor in getting artists songs out to the public. If an artist was aired on MTV then they were famous. MTV used the idea of marketing over substance. When you were on MTV you had 3 minutes and an image that you had to make and make people like it. If you did not have a good image, such as a music video, then you were not worthy to be on MTV. Therefore, in addition to the music, you needed to have a good music video to go along with it. MTV also has the same problem as radio, they cannot show every artist. They had a limit on the amount of time they could contribute to music per week. All artists were not able to be shown. As long as you made a “boom” with a new song then you would make it. All others who were just average would be pushed aside.

Journal entry #3: Flowers Tutorial Website

http://www.ndesign-studio.com/resources/tutorials/illustrator-cs2-splash/

Journal Entry #3

Journal Entry #2

http://darrell-4szik.posterous.com/

Chapter 6 Synopsis

Chapter 6 Synopsis

This chapter focuses on different types of media and how they shape our lives and experiences. The media helps us to understand information, news events, national and global media events, and the public. “Masses” is referred to as the changes that happen in the structure of different societies that undergo industrialization and the working class (224). The term “masses” is normally used in a negative context. The term “mass media” came about during World War II. This was because television began to be popular all over the world and this was one of the major ways of communication and information spread. Everyone who listens or views mass media productions develops opinions and finds out information through the one main source, even if it is a bias source. Electronic and digital media expanded the way that we used to think of mass media. The internet, cell phones, and other wireless devices became very popular in the 1980s-2000. The term “mass” was rethought and given a new context. The term used to be described as “mass media is produced and distributed under the auspices of major source of corporate and/or state power in any society with a strong mass media system” (226). This was because the audience size was much smaller. Now, as an audience, we believe that we are “potential producers, as well as consumers who exercise choice, with regards to the media through which they interact in their everyday lives” (226). These new forms of mass media have changed the whole production. Now print and voice media is being taken over by media that combines images, colors, movement, text, and sound. In the past radio, books, and newspapers were the main source to get information. Today these types of mass media seem to be dying out and being taken over by other forms of mass media.
The term “medium” is defined as the means of mediation or communication in which the message passes through (229). The medium is only the way that the message is given. Some examples given of a medium are the radio, the television, a megaphone, the internet, and your voice. Marshall McLuhan was a media theorist in the 1960s. He believed that the medium was any extension of ourselves in any technological form. With this definition, we can define media in a different way. All kinds of media are also considered a medium. McLuhan wrote the book Understanding Media: Extensions of Man. This book is about different types of medias and mediums. He explains that there is no way that one can separate messages, information, or meanings from the media that gives out the information. McLuhan also feels that media technologies “give potential for power to our individual bodies by extending our senses and thereby extending our individual power in the world” (244). He used the term the message is the medium.
The news is a big media output. This type of mass media is judged by its viewers. This is because people will make a decision as to whether or not the source of the news is credible and how important the material being covered is. Some may consider the newspaper to be more credible than the television because it may be more neutral and less bias. People end up ranking different media and mediums. This happens mostly because of cultural differences. The newer types of media are considered to be less reliable and credible to some people. We perceive the news through the characteristics of the newscaster. We base some of our credibility on the newscaster’s gender, culture, background, clothing, appearance, accent, tone of voice, and where he or she is sitting on the set.
Newspapers and print media seem to be getting taken over by other types of technology and media. Now most newspapers are available online and are able to attract people’s attention better and people are more interested in the stories. Looking at a newspaper online as opposed to print gives the reader a much different experience. Online the website can combine images, video clips, images, fonts, and type sizes. This is a more interactive experience for the viewer and therefore can be more enjoyable. This in turn makes people “active viewers rather than passive viewers” (234).
Media forms can be characterized into two separate categories: broadcast and narrowcast. Broadcast has one central source which broadcasts too many different venues. Narrowcast has a target market or audience that they are trying to get their message across to.
There have been several criticisms of the media. One is that the mass media is propaganda. An example to back this up is the rise of Nazism in Germany during World War II. Other scholars research the way in which the mass media works. They try to understand the ways that the mass media can influence the world. The way they tried to understand the media better was through the terms “hypodermic needle” or “magic bullet” effect (239). The hypodermic effect says that “the media has a direct and immediate effect on audiences, forcing passive follower behavior among viewers who are drugged by media texts that inject ideas into their viewers” (239).
One main reason for having mass media is so that the audience viewing the media feels a sort of closeness with each other. They air a destructive event that happened in a community to others who surround the area. This brings up awareness throughout the area and brings people closer together. These media events can be viewed locally, nationally, and globally. This in turn involved a large range of producers, sources, and media. The example used in the coverage of 9/11.
All of these media productions are owned by large media conglomerates that have an agenda and political views in mind. This makes the media somewhat incomplete. The conglomerates do not allow some things to be aired on their stations because it is against their point of view. This in turn leaves the news with a bias and in some cases changes around the entire story. The media institutions censor themselves so that they do not get fired or kicked off the larger conglomerate’s side.

FLASH

http://darrell-4szik.posterous.com/

Chapter 5: Media Ideology Synopsis

Chapter 5: Media Ideology

This chapter discusses ideology, dominant ideology, hegemony, and discourse. The chapter goes on to explain how each of these concepts is applied in understanding mass media. Ideology is defined as “in the service of power” (150). Ideology is the ideas and opinions that make the power of a dominant social group or class legitimate. Ideology is a very imperative, constructive, and essential component within both the social theory and in media analysis. Ideological power is used in five ways: legitimation, dissimulation, unification, fragmentation, and reification. Legitimation is when relationships are made and maintained with unequal power roles, and is being represented as being in everyone’s best interest. Dissimulation occurs when relations of domination are denied, hidden, or obscured. Unification is used when you were to further deflect attention from the unequal power of relationships between the leaders and the followers. Fragmentation is when hegemony is achieved and maintained by splitting up the potential opposition, which in turn reduces or removes the threat. Reification is an unequal social structure that is represented as being likely and expected (152-154).
The next topic discussed is the analysis of media. Content analysis is used to find out what the “intentions and other characteristics of communicators, detect the existence of latent propaganda or ideology, reflect cultural patterns of groups, reveal the foci of organizations, and describe trends in communication content” (158). This is only one example of how to examine media in our society. Ideological and discursive analysis is when one “concentrates on the relationship between media language and audience beliefs about the social world” (159). Communication would never be able to happen between the media and audiences of ideology and discourse did not exist. Ideology is ever-present in the mass media. These examples of ideology are not appreciated by the media professionals, but when the ideology is about race or gender the ideology becomes noticed.
Many people have studied ideology; including Karl Marx and Frankfurt School, Louis Althusser, Antonio Gramsci, and John B. Thompson. Karl Marx and the Frankfurt school describe ideology as being restricted or closed and in turn developed a negative understanding of the concept. They “emphasize the relationship between the economic base and dominant ideas of capitalistic society” (163). Louis Althusser and Antonio Gramsci characterize ideology as open or realized. Althusser was troubled with explaining the relationships between the media and ideology. He developed the idea of the “ideological state apparatus” (163). This meant that the media and educational systems described ideology as “representing capitalism as being natural, inevitable, and indeed desirable” (163). Antonio Gramsci developed hegemony. He studied how capitalism made and maintained the role of dominance in society. He found that hegemony/domination is created by force. He explains that the mass media gives the world a “commonsense” viewpoint (165). He also found that people who have no power give in and become dominated by the powerful people. This viewpoint goes against the views of feminists and Marxist views. John B. Thompson helped us to better understand ideology and the mass media’s role in the concept of ideology. Thompson explains that ideology is “establishes and sustains relations of power whish are systematically asymmetrical – what [he] shall call ‘relations of domination’” (168). Thompson took a tripartite model. This examines the ideological role in the media. The tripartite model helps to understand orientations that use different research methods to accomplish the preferred end. The second part of the model uses references to “discursive analysis” of media (171).
The concepts of ideology and discourse are necessary in understanding the media and the relationships of power within society. The discourse analysis helps us to further understand the ideology in the media. It helps us to understand how media texts are made and how they are used. Understanding discursive discourse is imperative in understanding ideological analysis.

Merchants of Cool

Frontline: Merchants of Cool

The main target market that marketers are trying to sell to right now is teenagers. This is the largest population of teenagers that America has ever had, totaling 32 billion. These teenagers want to spend the money that they have. They have more money now than ever and therefore have more say over how they are spending it. Last year teenagers bought 100 billion dollars worth of products with their own money and spent another 50 billion dollars of their parent’s money. Parents spend money for their children as a way to compensate: some parents give their children their credit card and say go buy some things because I cannot spend time with you today. These teenagers go out and buy the products that are “cool” and therefore they become cool and part of the “in” crowd. In order for marketers to get teens to buy their products they need to understand and know how teenagers think and act. Corporate America needs to figure out what these “cool teens” like, who they are, and what they want. In order to best get across to the teens they need to speak the language of the teenagers. Therefore the teenage population is one of the most studied. When trying to get across to the teens the marketers need to figure out what works the fastest, not necessarily the best. Because they are focused on what will work the best, they are not so worried about standards and sometimes the standards are brought down. One marketing firm did a study on a group of teenage boys. They asked questions such as what do you like to wear, what do you like to eat, what do you like to listen to, and what do you like to watch. Each teen was given $125 compensation for participating in the study. The teens were also given a worksheet that had many popular brand names on it. The teen were asked to circle what brands they like and use and X off any that they do not like. This research can then tell the marketers what is “cool” and what is not. Another way marketers figure out what is “cool” is by doing an ethnography study. This is when the researchers go to teens homes and study them in a natural habitat. All of the visits were filmed by a camera crew. They ask the teen to talk about clothes, dating, parents, problems with friends, and music. With these clips of the visit the marketers then put the clips together into a short movie and add music. This is then shown to other marketers to allow them to see what the new and “cool” things are.
Everyday people are exposed to marketing messages whether you are aware of them or not. A total of 3,000 marketing messages are seen by one person per day. By the time you are 18 years old, you will have seen no less than 10 million marketing messages. This increase of marketing messages over the years is mainly because of the new technology available to everyone. In America, 75% of teenagers have a TV in their bedroom and about 1/3 have their own computer in which they spend an average of 2 hours per day. Sometimes teens feel an overload of these advertisements and messages and therefore may block them out. This is why marketers need to figure out what teens will listen to and what will attract their attention.
The major question that marketers have is what is “cool”? The “cool” keeps changing because the “cool” belongs to the kids and the kids keep changing. In marketing firms there is a job position called the Cool Hunter. These people are sort of a culture spy. These people go out and look for trend setters, which make up only about 20% of the population. They then take picture of these kids and post them up to the LookLook website. Many other marketing firms have a subscription to this website and they have access to these new looks that are considered “cool”. This process becomes a giant feedback loop in which the media watches what the “cool” kids are doing. Then the kids watch what the media has found, which is basically a duplicate of themselves, and then the kids try to emulate that image that the media is giving. This makes the difference between reality and TV blur together and it is hard to figure out what is reality.
Sprite is an example that they give about trying to get the message across to teens. Sprite hosted a party to kick off for Sprite.com. Kids were paid to come and attend. Several popular hip hop and rap artists played live at the event. The whole event was aired live on MTV. This was a bonus for everyone: the teens were happy and wanted to drink coke, the artists were happy because they were being aired on national TV, and MTV was happy because their ratings were going up. MTV brought in a large revenue for Viacom: $1 billion profits. MTV is almost completely advertisements and infomercials. MTV broke one of the major rules of marketing: do not let your marketing show. This obviously was working in a positive way for them. One of the major examples of this is TRL (Total Request Live). This was a show in which MTV aired music videos that were on popular demand. Several kids would be a part of the show and many would gather outside the building staring up at the 2nd floor windows where the show was taking place.
In trying to get teen’s attention the fastest, the standards of society may be dragged down. There are two characters that have been made up by the media, the Mook and the Midriff, that exemplify this effect. The Mook is a representation of a male who is arrested in adolescence, does not care what people think, and is crude. The Mook is driven by “testosterone driven madness.” One example of this is the people in the movie Jackass. The Midriff is prematurely adult, consumed by appearance, and is sex obsessed. An example of this is Brittney Spears in her first album: Hit Me Baby One More Time. She was a cute, innocent teenage girl who flaunted her body in front of millions. The boys loved her because they thought she was hot and the girls loved her because she showed them that girls should flaunt their sexuality.
There are many other examples of sex portrayed in the media. This seems to be the most common way in getting teens attention. Dawson’s Creek is a show about sex obsessed high school teens. If they were not having sex, they were talking about it. The first episode showed a 14 year old boy having an affair with his teacher. MTV’s Undressed was a show with very little plot, and was mostly based around sex. The movie Cruel Intentions was about step sister and step brothers who were very promiscuous. This movie “pushed the envelope.” This needed to be done so that the movie stood out from everything else. Also, MTV’s Spring Break programs and events show sex. One example of a show that does not take this route is 7th Heaven. This was a show on the WB and was made so that families could watch it together. It was a very clean and appropriate show for all ages.

Chapter 3 Synopsis

Chapter 3 Synopsis:
Media Ownership: Concentration and Conglomeration

In this chapter the topic being discussed is media ownership. Media ownership structures have a direct effect on media content. The structures if the ownership can be non-profit, public, or private. This relationship in the changing structure of media ownership and media content is something that is being focused on. Radio, e-zines, blogs, and newsletters are considered to be non-profit groups. These groups target only a small audience and are able to function on a small budget. Media can either be owned by the state or by a private company. Examples of state ownership are the control of newspapers, television, and radio. Private organizations may own smaller newspaper companies and local radio stations.
The next topic discussed is conglomeration, concentration, and content. Mainstream media ownership has become dependent on fewer people and organizations because of mergers, takeovers, deregulation, privatization, globalization, and technological change. Many companies have been merging into larger companies become conglomerates. A conglomerate is a large scale corporation that operates at both a national and transnational level. These corporations are made up of several corporations that tend to have monopolistic qualities and tendencies. Media corporations are a larger part of media conglomerates. This has been increasingly becoming a problem for media scholars. The media output may be effected by this because of the distribution of power among the individual media entrepreneurs. Media ownership is being shaped by both concentration and conglomeration. These conglomerations run on a local, regional, national, or transnational level. The concentration of the conglomerate can either be vertical or horizontal. Vertical conglomerates own and control a bunch of companies, who are involved in the construction and circulation of media. Horizontal conglomerates control a large number of media companies. These companies that the conglomerates own create and sell products that are associated with the media. Some examples of this type of conglomerate are Bertelsmann, Vivendi Universal, and Time Warner.
Synergy has become a slogan for the media conglomerates and their ability to keep the position of power. Synergy is defined as “the co-ordination of parts of a company so that the whole actually turns out to be worth more than the sum of its parts acting alone, without helping one another” (p. 95).
The political economy perspective is a way to comprehend and evaluate the proposition of media concentration and conglomeration. This theory is concerned with studies how the capitalist class encourages and holds their power and position in society. The main concern is unequal power relations. In regards to concentration and conglomeration, this perspective says that there will be several repercussions that follow for media content and media audiences. The audiences are believed to only be consumers of media, instead of being seen as normal citizens. The theory also states that in order to understand the media to the full extent you need to observe and study media ownership and where the power is held in the media industries.
The Internet is seen as “having a major potential as a media-based public sphere” (p. 108). On the Internet there is very little that cannot be done. After examining the Internet one can find some flaws, and people may not be using the internet for the media. The internet has been taken over by mass-media conglomerates and oligopolies. On every internet page you can find somewhere that there is an advertisement or something about what is happening in the world at that time. In conclusion, this chapter sums up and stresses the significance of understanding how media ownership has been changing over the years.

Midterm assignment Chapter 3 synopsis

Chapter 3:
Modernity: Spectatorship, Power, and Knowledge

The main goal of this chapter is to get people to realize the ways in which messages are given to you through several different mediums and images. You need to be able to observe and comprehend the messages that are given out by everything around us. Images are seen all around us at all times, they are ever-present. In the chapter spectatorship is defined as the quality of the viewer or spectator. The spectator is the individual who is viewing something, while spectatorship is the practice of viewing. Also, the chapter focuses on the fundamentals of the psychoanalytic theory and the concept of gaze. The terms spectator and spectatorship go hand and hand when talking about the psychoanalytical theory. Gaze is referred to when a viewer looks at something for a long period of time, and therefore may understand it better. Both gaze and spectatorship are important building blocks in the understanding of these concepts. The main concepts that need to be focused on are “the roles of the unconscious and desire in viewing practices, the role of looking in the formation of the human subject, and the ways that looking is always a relational activity and not simply a mental activity engaged by someone who forms internal mental representations that stand for a passive image object ‘out there’” (p. 102). These two theories, gaze and spectatorship, are theories of address, not theories to explain and understand how viewers respond to text and images. The gaze helps to establish power. “The act of looking is commonly regarded as awarding more power to the person who is looking than to the person who is the object of the look” (p. 111).
Modernity is also discussed throughout the chapter. Modernity is a “term that refers to the historical, cultural, political, and economic conditions related to the Enlightenment (an eighteenth-century philosophical movement),; the rise of industrial society and scientific rationalism; and the idea of controlling nature through technology, science, and rationalism” (p. 95). It is also “associated with the belief that industrialization, human technological intervention in nature, mass democracy, and the introduction of market economy are the hallmarks of social progress” (p. 95). With modernity, more technology is developed, changing the world around us. We are in the age of a new revolution. With all the new technology we have, more and more media is able to be released and therefore we are exposed to more film and images. Images are seen over all types of mediums, including; movies, televisions, cell phones, computers, billboards, newspapers, and magazines.
Photography and art is seen as an important aspect of gaze. In the early years, paintings were made more for male viewers. This was because of the sexual stereotypes of males and females. In the recent years, more females have been buying art, but years ago males were the main target audience. A normal pose in a photo for a female would be in the nude in such a position so that the male viewer would appreciate it right away. The women in these pictures were the “male gaze” (p. 124). The women in these pictures also were never looking straight at the camera or painter, suggesting that they were passive. In conclusion, this chapter focuses on the role of the viewer in forming a meaning of images that are viewed through the concepts of spectatorship and gaze.

Pictures used

Media Usage

Brand Usage

My Band

Magazine Covers

Midterm Assignment

A) Pantene Pro-V: The girl in this ad seems to be ready for the picture to be taken of her. She is all done up and her hair is perfect. The only problem is she is not looking at the camera. She seems to be distracted by someone off to the side. The girl is done up using the product line of Pantene Pro-V being advertised. Having the girl as the center of the advertisement really ads to the advertisement because people may want to look just like her. Her hair is flawless and is very shiny.

B) Dolce & Gabbana: The image that has the most power in this advertisement is the man holding down the women in the front. This advertisement is for clothes and does not seem to be advertising for clothes in anyway. Most of the people in this advertisement are not wearing clothing. All of the men surrounding the women seem to just be watching over her being almost abused. This is a very controversial advertisement and is no longer allowed to be used in America as an advertisement. Because the main focus is on these two people, and there is no copy explaining what the advertisement is for, makes me believe that it was not a very successful advertisement in trying to get a point across.