extra credit post

Before this class, I had never published a blog, nor had ever been a blog reader. On the first blog assignment when we were supposed to tell which blog we enjoyed the most, not even one came to mind.

 I think there were two main positive aspects about using blogs in this course. First, I got to experience and play around with the blog format, something extremely new to me.  Blogs are a growing trend in out society that I knew very little about. Second, writing blogs about concepts we had learned in the previous week made me look back at my notes and kept me caught up on all of the readings and course materials in the class.

At first when I started blogging, I was confused on how to upload and double check that my blog had been posted. After playing around with the blogger website, I was able to overcome the difficulties.

The blogs that I enjoyed most were the blogs that we were required to find our own examples and explain their impacts on us as receivers of the media. For example, the second blog on the influence of media in my life made me realize how advertisements truly do have an impact on my life whether it be the guilt felt when shown underprivileged children, or the happiness associated with slender and beautiful women.  I felt that the more general prompts were less enjoyable and more difficult to write about. An example would be the prompt over the association of connotative and denotative meanings and different shot progressions.

I recommend using blogs in future RTF courses as well as other courses in general at UT, because the weekly blog assignments keep you caught up with the course and prevent you from falling behind. Not only did it keep me updated with RTF, but it also prompted me to get my books out on Sunday and start studying for other classes as well. Moreover, using it in the RTF course provides a link to using real life media and connections with the course to examples in the real world.

The only thing I can think of to make things easier to blogging experience in the future, would be to provide a more detailed explanation of how to use the blog website at the beginning of the course, along with a more detailed grading system explanation.

Yes, you can use my blog in a paper or report 

Globalization

Globalization is a process that is rapidly increasing and expanding around the world with the creation of effective and high powered digital media and devices. Globalization is the process of connecting everyone with each other no matter where on the earth you are located. The idea of globalization provides a rapid exchange of communication, which fosters the growth of many organizations and social connectedness in general.

Cultural imperialism is a term that describes one effect of globalization. Countries with more power and more technology will have more influence on other smaller and less powerful countries. This means that bigger and more technologically advanced countries will exert their countries influence on the other less advantaged countries, possibly causing infringement on local and even national culture.                        

(Rupert Murdoch- founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of News Corporation)

News Corporation is an excellent example of large conglomerates that exert their power and resources on other countries. While their influence may not be intentional, they are a main source for cable network programming, television, filmed entertainment, direct broadcast satellite TV, and publishing around the world.  Because News Corporation has so many outlets, it is almost impossible to escape them. Being a United States conglomerate, News Corporate exerts an American and Western influence on many other nations of the world. 

Advertisements

A recent advertisement that I saw on TV was for Pedigree dog food. This commercial was extremely persuasive with its use of precious dogs of different ages, sizes, and breeds.  The commercial tells viewers that dogs are loyal, trustworthy, honest, friendly, and loveable, and for these reasons, that the viewer should provide their dogs with good dog food, and pedigree is good dog food. This ad persuades the viewer to buy Pedigree dog food, in order to repay dogs for their positive qualities.

         This Pedigree ad uses the appeal of nurture and guidance. These appeals make the consumer feel obligated to purchase a product for the betterment of others.  These appeals are used to impose a sense of guilt in the audience to make them more pressured and apt to buy a product. With these appeals, it makes the audience feel as if purchasing the product not only fulfils the purpose of the product, but also helps for the betterment of some other organization or society.

Throughout the Pedigree commercial, several dogs are displayed, making them look desirable and adorable. These characteristics make the viewer feel obligated to nurture and care for these dogs, and insist that the dogs will be nurtured if they are fed Pedigree dog food.  The dogs look helpless and loveable. With these characteristics, the viewer may feel that purchasing Pedigree dog food not only nurtures their own dog, but also nurtures other adorable dogs.

Pedigree Dog Food Commercial

Blog #8

The famous Broadway musical Mama Mia is a classic that was reproduced as a movie in 2008 and is a good example of a three-act film structure.  The film starts with Sophie, the main character who is preparing to get married. Sophie has never met her father and has no one to walk her down the aisle and for this reason looks through her mother Donna’s journal. She discovers that she has three potential fathers, and thus invites them all to the wedding behind her mothers back in order to find out who her true father is.  When they arrive, Donna abruptly runs into all three of them and immediately tells them all to leave. This ends the first act and is the first plot point or “mini climax” that implies a conflict needing resolution that will arrive in the second act. 

Donna is consoled by her two best friends, and Sophie convinces all three men to stay. Sky, Sophie’s fiancé talks with Sophie about how he is so deeply in love with her, but is then taken by his friends for his bachelor party and Sophie’s bachelorette party begins.  The three men attend the party and while there, Sophie convinces one of the men that he is her father and he thus agrees to walk her down the aisle. Later, the two other men realize that they could potentially be her fathers as well, further complicating the situation. With all of the hype, commotion, and confusion, Sophie who is circled by her mother and all three of her potential fathers faints. This concludes the second act. Sophie’s faint is the second plot point and mini climax. The resolution to Sophie’s dilemma provides a cliffhanger for the third act. 

All three men decide to share Sophie as a daughter and Sophie decides to have Donna walk her down the aisle to less complicate things. With this resolution comes the greatest dilemma. Sky learns that Sophie is responsible for inviting all three men to the wedding and becomes unsure about the wedding. This is the climax of the film in the third act. The entire movie has been centered on the wedding and the wedding is now postponed. Bill, one of Sophie’s potential fathers, proclaims his love for Donna and they decide to get married on the spot. The wedding plans for Sophie and Sky’s wedding are changed into the plans for Donna and Bill’s wedding, which is the resolution. Sky and Sophie decide to travel the world together and sail off into the sunset, beginning their life together.

Mama Mia follows the traditional three-act structure with the climax near the end of the film. The first act introduces the characters and the dilemma, the second act presents the complication, and the third act resolves the problem.

TV Sitcoms

It’s always a relief to know that if you flip through the channels on your T.V. and can’t find anything to watch, you can almost always fall back on a T.V. sitcom. Sitcoms, or situation comedies, do not require you to know the history of the characters to be able to understand the episodes plot. Most sitcoms are based around a three-act plot (centered around two commercial breaks), and have rather hyperbolic and absurd conflicts that are resolved within the episode.  These characteristics provide short parable-like stories that are perfect for viewers looking for short increments of entertainment.

            As a young girl I used to be enamored with the Disney hit series Lizzie McGuire.  Lizzie McGuire was a sitcom based on a young girl, Lizzie McGuire, and her struggles she dealt with in her middle school life with her parents, brother, best friends, and school cliques in general.  The conflicts of each episode varied anywhere from Lizzie buying her first bra, to going on a date with the school nerd, and even to dealing with a best friends eating disorder. All of these episodes begin with a problem (act one), a plan is conceived to fix the problem (act two), and finally the fulfillment of the plan (act three).  In the end of every episode, a lesson is taught and everything retreats to a problem free life for Lizzie McGuire.  Lizzie McGuire was a popular TV sitcom that resonated with many elementary and junior school children.

Shots and Angles

The scene that I have chosen to describe the long shot, medium shot, and close up shot is Leonardo DeCaprio’s famous “I’m the king of the world” scene from the movie Titanic.

The scene begins with a long shot that begins with a low angle of the front of the ship, which emphasizes the magnitude and enormity of the titanic. Raising the angle and zooming out, Leonardo and his friend are shot at from a high angle, emphasizing their miniscule size compared to the ship. Leonardo’s character is also a lower class, poor man, and the high angle denotes his power.

            The scene continues with a long shot that establishes the location and gives an orientation to the location, and presents the characters in the scene.  The camera then zooms in on Leonardo’s face for a close up. This shot of him on the bow of the Titanic portrays his strong emotion of happiness and confidence. The low angle shows his emotion of victory and power and is only enforced with his exclamation of “I’m the king of the world!”

            Many different types of angles and shots are used in this scene. The variation give certain effects that assign power and give information to the actions that are taking place by the actors in the scene.

"I'm the king of the world" scene 

Stars and their Genres

In the times of Classical Hollywood, there was a strong association between stars and genres.  Studios at the time produced films at a fast rate, which gave actors the possibility of a quick rise to stardom.   The defining of genres through actors in studio systems paved the way to the establishment of several popular genres that exist to this day.

            The five major Classical Hollywood studios had several actors on contract that continuously appeared in several films. Because of their strong association with certain genres, studios were identifiable through the genre of the film. Warner Brothers produced crime films, MGM produced musicals, and Universal produced horror films. The actors that studios had on contract influenced the genre of the films produced by that studio. 

            An excellent example of this is Humphrey Bogart and his gangster roles with Warner Brothers.  Bogart, who was featured in over 70 films in his lifetime, was ranked by the AFI as the greatest male star in the history of cinema. Bogart, often dressed in a raincoat and fedora, played the role of a gangster in most of the films in which he appeared, giving Warner Brothers the defining characteristic as the crime genre.  Although gangster films were banned for a time, Warner Brothers merged Bogart’s role from a gangster to a detective, thus tweaking the standard genre of crime with gangsters as the tragic hero to detectives as the real hero. 

All in the Family Comparison

The 1970’s hit television series All in the Family sparked controversy for its time in its third episode entitled “Judging Books by Covers”.  For this particular episode, this title is describing Archie’s discrimination of Roger, a friend of Mike’s who exemplifies a homosexual but is actually straight, and Archie’s close comrade and drinking buddy Steve, who is a burly, buff, retired baseball player who unknowingly to Archie, has been a homosexual throughout their entire friendship.

            In comparison to today’s typical family-based TV situation comedies, the extreme emphasis put solely on the issue of homosexuality displayed in the All in the Family episode is not as controversial as it would be in the present.  Archie demonstrates publicly to both Roger and Steve his disapproving stance on the issue of homosexuality. In the 1970’s, the issue of homosexuality was more foreign and abrasive than in the present. Homosexuals were more brutally scrutinized then than they are now due to several homosexuality movements.

            While there are several aspects in All in the Family that are dramatically different than present day family-based TV situation comedies, there are some similarities as well.  The typical gender roles are still somewhat enforced, having the women be the homemakers and the males being portrayed as the main source of income for the family who go out for drinks for “guy time”.  There is more family dispute in family-based sitcoms these days; however, All in the Family portrayed a functional yet not utopian family like family-based sitcoms in previous decades.

The current issues that are dealt with in our day-to-day lives are more directly addressed than they were in the 1970’s. This episode All in the Family dealt with the issues of homosexuality and sexism. The concept of publically and directly discussing such issues was unheard of at the time, thus All in the Family took a major risk addressing such issues.  While these issues prevail today, they are not as epic and controversial as they were in the 1970’s.  The lines between gay and straight and the stereotypical gender roles are more blurred.  Today’s family-based sitcoms constantly address issues such as teen pregnancy, poverty, crime, the financial crisis, as well as other present day issues.

            

The Radio Industry

Without belief and public support in a product, it is difficult to promote, publicize, and create demand for any product.  While several factors influenced the creation and rise of popularity of the radio in the 1920’s, I believe the most influential factor to be industrial interest.

The radio in 1920’s America became the central medium in households for many reasons.  The Effectiveness of Marconi’s wireless telegraph during the tragic titanic calamity sparked interest of the use of radio waves and their possibilities. The great potential available with the radio raised industries interest in the plethora of opportunities it had to offer.   The patent pool in 1920, which allowed several companies to make functioning radio transmitters and receivers, gave several companies the opportunity to establish successful broadcast stations.

With the increasing interest from industries came the popularity of the radio. The radio could provide entertainment with soap operas, suspense, sports, or detective dramas, leisure with a variety of music, and current events with local, national and international news. As Americans became better informed on issues involving not only their small communities but also nation wide issues, their sense of belonging to a nation grew stronger.  AT&T, who had the first station with advertisements, boosted the popularity of companies to buy airtime, making for the rise to a more lucrative radio industry.

 1920's radio equipment

Stereotyping

Isn’t it interesting how many people would confidently say that the media had no influence on their life? The only way this would ever be possible is if you were contained in a room for your entire life.  Regardless of your belief of the direct hypodermic needle theory or the multistep flow theory, the media constantly integrates into everyone’s personal lives and influences its consumers thoughts and actions. I believe that the media instigated and reinforces stereotyping so much that it has encroached on its consumers lives and to an extent the media dictates everyone’s day-to-day lives.

            Throughout the past few decades, the images and behaviors in the media have become more and more extreme. Some examples of this are the increasingly larger sizes of men’s bodies and muscles and the decreasing size of women’s waistlines. The media reiterates these images enough to have an influence to persuade consumers to live and act as the flawless “idealistic” stereotypical roles.  Not only do these images contort peoples minds to think that this is the perfect way of life, the actions portrayed through films and television shows are thought out to be normal. As the films Tough Guise and Killing us Softly show, the influences caused by the media can be so extreme as to convincing that killing people is okay (from possible influences of violent videogames or films) or instilling that pre marital sex and teenage pregnancy are not issues worth concern. The media has created many stereotypes that infringe on society and eventually shape the roles of different genders, age groups, races, and other groups.

            Even as varied race representation in the media is very persistent and even exceeds their representation in society, the roles are still stereotyped. Examples of this can be seen in Maid in Manhattan, Gossip Girl, Spanglish, and The Secret Life of Bees, all of which have maids from a variety of races except for white. Marisa Ventura (Jennifer Lopez) portrays a Puerto Rican from the Bronx, Dorota Kishlovsky (Zuzanna Szadkowski) is Polish, Flor Moreno (Paz Vega) is Mexican, and Rosaleen (Jennifer Hudson) is black.  In each of these examples have their own stereotype as well. The Puerto Rican is a poor single mother in need of money to raise her child.  The polish maid is extremely loyal and has partially raised the child of the family she works for. The Mexican solely speaks Spanish, is a single mother, and has a close network of family and friends that she highly values. Lastly, the black maid is the rock and caretaker of the child of the family she works for and shows a lot of attitude. The media create many stereotypes that are reflected into our society and shape our culture and our perspective of the way things “should” be.

Post #2

Applying the idea of hegemony to previous media I have “received” has made me more aware of the discriminatory views of women and men in our everyday lives.  As reflected in the movie “Grease” with Olivia John Newton and John Travolta, women are commonly classified as inferior to men.

            In the film industry, it is most common to find women as vulnerable and oblivious housewives that cater to their husbands or lovers. Because this stereotype of women as the inferior gender is reiterated to the public through all forms of media, it is reflected and perceived as “natural”.  The public is naïve to the influences of the media that contort and somewhat control the roles of gender in our society.

            The portrayal of the subordination of women to men is exemplified in the movie Grease. In the clip provided below, is one of the closing scenes to the film. Sandy has traded her conservative good girl attire of saddle oxfords and poodle skirts for a rebellious revealing outfit of red high heels, tight black leather pants and a cigarette hanging from her lips.  While Danny has also traded out his t-bird leather jacket for a light blue more conventional sweater, he quickly throws it off with excitement to see Sandy’s new look.  The shots now focus more on Sandy’s butt and curves more than they have the entire film.  Sandy is accommodating to Danny’s needs to satisfy him and to prove to him and his friends that she’s good enough for them. This example provides evidence that women are regarded as vulnerable and inferior to men, suggesting that they should alter themselves to serve and pleasure men for happiness. 

Grease "You're the One that I Want" 

RTF post #1

Hi, my name is Macon Blount and I'm from San Antonio, Texas.  I had never really been interested in radio, television or film until a few years ago when my brother told me about his experience with film classes at Southern Methodist University. When I saw that I could take this course for my VAPA and was a good basis for communication, I thought what could be better than signing up! I really didn't know what to expect from this course, but the first few days have really intrigued me to learning more about radio, television and film this semester! I am not much of a blogger, but as embarrassing as it is, I'd say the blog I hear most about is http://perezhilton.com/.