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Social Media
In the year 2011, information is widely available through a multitude of mediums such as newspaper, internet, radio, and television. Since I am technologically savvy, I choose the internet, but to me, using the internet to get my news is the most efficient way to me. I say this because I can receive radio broadcasts, as well as television coverage. Even around election season, I stil utilize the internet more than the other mediums because that is what the candidates are also doing. Barack Obama utilized Facebook, Twitter, as well as other social networks to get his message out more efficiently and to a crowd who was potentially new to elections. Since we have so many outlets for media, there is more of a chance that more people get news. After reading Eesha William’s perspective on nuclear energy and the way the media handled it, I forgot that the internet was not even thought of back when President Carter was in office. The media back then pretty much stood by the fact that there were no other alternative forms of energy such as wind and solar power. The media made it out to be that nuclear energy was the future of energy. Honestly, I blame the government for the way the media portrayed nuclear energy because they had just found out that Russia also had nuclear technology. Since America never wants to be second place in anything, they made sure that was the message being sent to the public. I feel that if the internet were around back then like it is now, people would be much quicker in calling out the government because the word of the people would get out quicker with our social networks and search engines. I’m very grateful to live in the time I do now, where information is quickly accessible, as well as enjoyable to use. I am also grateful because I can have a voice, with many other people and have a chance to have an impact on something that affects my future.
Globalization
Ever since we visited South High School, I was very happy to know that media does not have boundaries. There’s no where media cannot go. But what also surprised me was that people that are accustomed to other cultures pick up and can learn media just as easy as we can in the United States. It is very difficult to assess how our culture’s media is distributed and consumed in other countries. I can only imagine kids my age in Japan listening to the same type of music I listen to and consume the same media as I do. According to the reading, I am aware that the big media conglomerates in the states control a very nice portion of the international media. News Corporation has a very big impact in Latin America, Asia, Africa, Europe and Eurasia. Regarding imperialism, I am aware that America does try and force our culture on other cultures, which maximizes profits, but it also gives me an uneasy feeling about America. Even with media, we are trying to spread our values all around the world, kind of like our “democracy.” Even with our motion pictures, the budgets are very large, but the majority of the proceeds for the blockbusters are coming from around the world. For example, Transformers Dark of the Moon made $352,390,543 in North America, but made $769,632,410 in other territories in the world. It was also the second highest grossing film worldwide, behind Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2. But yet, I understand that the media is also trying to incorporate a very wide array of cultures into its international shows to make them more tasteful and respectful. But after showing our video to a new audience, we didn’t feel as if we needed to change anything. We were very confident that a very extensive range of people would enjoy our video.
Good News
In the year 2011, information is widely available through a multitude of mediums such as newspaper, internet, radio, and television. Since I am technologically savvy, I choose the internet, but to me, using the internet to get my news is the most efficient way to me. I say this because I can receive radio broadcasts, as well as television coverage. Even around election season, I stil utilize the internet more than the other mediums because that is what the candidates are also doing. Barack Obama utilized Facebook, Twitter, as well as other social networks to get his message out more efficiently and to a crowd who was potentially new to elections. Since we have so many outlets for media, there is more of a chance that more people get news. After reading Eesha William’s perspective on nuclear energy and the way the media handled it, I forgot that the internet was not even thought of back when President Carter was in office. The media back then pretty much stood by the fact that there were no other alternative forms of energy such as wind and solar power. The media made it out to be that nuclear energy was the future of energy. Honestly, I blame the government for the way the media portrayed nuclear energy because they had just found out that Russia also had nuclear technology. Since America never wants to be second place in anything, they made sure that was the message being sent to the public. I feel that if the internet were around back then like it is now, people would be much quicker in calling out the government because the word of the people would get out quicker with our social networks and search engines. I’m very grateful to live in the time I do now, where information is quickly accessible, as well as enjoyable to use. I am also grateful because I can have a voice, with many other people and have a chance to have an impact on something that affects my future.
Media Theories
Personally, the media theory that appeals the most to me would definitely have to be media effects. It has to be media effects because media affects everyone in this country at some level or another. Whether it is through affecting people politically or affecting and influencing people into what trends they are in. The reason I chose media effects over media ecology is because you are first effected by the media before you are surrounded by the environment, which is the main premise behind media ecology. Another theory that is dependent on media effects is the active audience theory. In order for people to react one way or another to the media that they are exposed to has to deal with the way they are affected by the media, hence media effects. Looking back on the first half of our class, I think I have been most compelled by media effects because media affects my life every day. Every day, I make sure I go to the same websites, and watch the same media that clearly has had a positive effect on me. The way the media has affected me translates into the active audience that I am a part of, which then leads to the media ecology that I am exposed to which then leads me to lend a helping hand to the media economy. What I am trying to say is, media effects has the biggest impact because it is the first and foremost theory that should be applied in this situation. Media effects has made another impact on my life based on the fact that when I played basketball, I was affected by Michael Jordan and his relationship with the media, and how they always featured highlights of him. Whenever I saw him play, I would immediately go outside in my driveway and try to make plays just like him. He had a major effect on my basketball career. Only after that was I consumed with the ecology of being a basketball player, and the economics that went into it. According to the text, there was a rise in mass media, specifically television, and the messages that were portrayed were very free to interpret which meant that any citizen could be affected by the media anyway they wanted to be. Even though this was a problem in Nazi Germany with propaganda laced media, it has turned to everyone having their own opinions on any topic even if we are a media saturated populous.
Free Press
Free Press is a nonprofit organization that is based in Washington D.C. The purpose of Free Press is essentially working to shift media from the conglomerates such as Time Warner and Universal, and trying to make the media they control and trying to get it back into the hands of independent outlets. In the chapter, the problem of net neutrality was brought up. Net neutrality is indeed a topic that free press is very big on, especially with their “Save The Internet” campaign. Net neutrality is the phenomena of corporations such as Comcast, Cox and Verizon giving some web pages and internet content special treatment as well as blocking some internet content entirely. Free Press is advocating that there should be no restrictions on a consumer’s access to the internet and the content that is able to be viewed by them. Without this neutrality, corporations such as Comcast, Cox, and Verizon could impose a tiered system where websites that use a lot of data such as YouTube and Hulu be subjected to a fee for using them. So my question to the director of Free Press (Josh Silver) is if the goal of Free Press is accomplished, then what happens next? If media is given to independent entities then will the quality decline or increase? I understand that only six conglomerates control everything for the most part, but they are the ones that also have all of the money to have TV networks, newspaper and book publications, as well as radio stations. Would all of these sectors be covered by different independent entities or will there be 7 different entities will all of them entailed? I am all for competition, but all I know for pretty much my whole life is the fact that Time Warner, Universal, Disney, and News Corporation have been running every form of entertainment that I consume on a daily basis. With the influx of independent entities controlling media I honestly do not know how the world would react. But the last thing I’ll say is that it would be exciting to see the big media conglomerates fall.
Ideology
Being the huge Transformers fan that I am, I went to go see the newest movie in theaters twice over the summer. After watching it the first time, I went home to go read some reviews and I saw something interesting. One review compared the movie to America’s hunt and take down of Osama Bin Laden. So I thought to myself, could there really be a correlation? About three days after reading that I went with my family to go see the movie for a second time, except this time I kept an eye out for the Bin Laden theme. So as I’m watching the movie, I start to notice shocking coincidences. First, Patrick Dempsey’s character is hiding in downtown Chicago, in which the military has to do reconnaissance for. Second, they send in a Navy Seal team. Just like they did in Pakistan earlier this year. The point that I’m trying to make here is that ideologically, American made movies and reality are the same. They entail the same situations, such as going to war, which is the whole premise in the Transformers series. (Good guys aka the Autobots against the bad guys aka the Decepticons) The only difference between reality and Transformers is that Michael Bay made Transformers.
http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/6515746 (Transformers: Dark of The Moon)
Another ideological case that was brought up in the reading was rap music, and how it is a critique of mainstream America. Honestly, I could not agree more with this point. Take the new albums Watch The Throne and The Carter IV by Jay-Z, Kanye West and Lil Wayne for example. In the song “Murder to Excellence,” by Jay-Z and Kanye West, they critique the problems of black on black crime, while also opening the eyes of the listeners to how prevalent the problem is in America. In the song “President Carter” by Lil Wayne, explains how wars are being fought over “mythical truths” that have not been proven to be a substantial thing to fight over. He in turn says that the problem bigger than people dying from drugs is people dying in wars. Ideologically, Jay-Z, Kanye West and Lil Wayne all are conscience of things going on in our world today, except they deliver the same message as the news does, only they do it in a 4 minute span.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EYxpSFmSSI (Murder to Excellence)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0LpQ5XJzhQ (President Carter)
Since the Forbes list of highest earning Americans came out today, I want to delve into the fact that economic coverage is ideologically geared towards the stock market, instead of the average working American’s perspective. Whenever I turn on the news, I always see how the stock market ended on that given day. I never see how my mother’s company was faring. I understand that the stock market is important, but I do not see why the ideological norm has to only be about the stock market. Why can it not be about the struggle from the ever shrinking middle class?
Media&Culture 