Violence in the Media

Regulation of the Media BLOG 4 re-post

I believe the government should have more power to exercise restraint if it keeps us safe. I would say for the most part, our nation is kept very safe. Now this isn’t to say we are “gods” and can prevent any attack against us, but we are safe. If the government didn’t do what they did I believe we would be at more of a risk. People will always question the government no matter what they are doing. In the book it says “although the first amendment guarantees that congress shall make no law restricting freedom of speech, or of the press, it has been interpreted by the courts, elected officials, and legal scholars to permit some level of regulatory and legal restriction”. I believe nothing can be followed perfectly, and society shouldn’t dwell on “…but its our first amendment”. There will always be imperfections in every government and people will always want more.

The new TSA laws anger many people but it is for our safety. Sure it is a bit of a stretch, but if that is what they think is going to keep us safe then so be it. I don’t want another underwear bomber in the air. Terrorists will always try to find new ways to cause terror but with these new “extreme laws” it will be harder for them.

If the government does know about something dangerous they should have the right to keep it secret. Releasing certain information can cause chaos. I personally love conspiracy theories and always think it would be interesting to know all of our nations secrets, but realistically that could be a dangerous thing. There is secrecy to keep order and I think our government should just keep doing what they are doing.

It is difficult for the government to find a balance as to what is necessary and what is constitutional. Wire tapping invades privacy so not much is kept confidential in our lives. Freedom of speech and freedom of press, which are constitutional issues, are both limited. People are really worried about their rights being taken away and violated and that is reasonable.  But like I said before, people will always question and be mad at the government.

I would say our nation is kept relatively safe and I would rather have someone listening to my phone calls than have another terrorist attack like 9/11. I think it would be silly for the government to change how they are keeping us safe. And yeah, sometimes it would be nice to have some more privacy, but I don’t think its safe for the government to change what they are doing.

Tosh.O re-post

I think Tosh.O is a hilarious show and that Daniel Tosh is a complete jerk in all the right ways. The show airs on comedy central once a week but reruns are shown all the time and he is becoming a very popular person. There is not much music in the program, except for the video clips that feature music. The show borrows from the online community immensely, considering it is a show that pulls funny videos off the internet to display to the world how stupid some people are.

The show is crude and slapstick and I would say reaches out a younger/male audience. I remember showing it to my mom and she hated it and thought Daniel Tosh was a complete asshole…and he is. That is part of his act. He reminds you of that one friend that always pushes it too far. Most comedians don’t talk badly about others without bashing on themselves, but Daniel doesn’t do that. He talks badly of everyone else and remains pretentious and condescending. That is definitely a message that the show displays and is one reason it is becoming popular…because he is new and original. Another message might be to not take life so seriously and laugh things off. This involves not taking people too seriously, including Daniel himself. He makes fun of a lot of things, even if he doesn’t agree with what he saying. It is all for the laughs. I don’t think Daniel Tosh has a specific subtext he is trying to accomplish. He really is just making people laugh and his political views are really unclear; which is how he probably wants it to be.

This show probably has many effects on viewers. I know most all of my friends and I love him. I also know some, but few, that don’t. The viewer has to watch the show in a non serious mood. They also need to let go of some of the beliefs they have if they want to get a good laugh. The show is becoming very popular. He is in the third season now and even has a brand new, fancy set. His set for the past two seasons were just a big green screen behind him in a dark room. Now he has wood floors and big wall with Tosh.O on it. Obviously if comedy central is giving him a personalized, fancy set, the show is getting good business. This is my view, and I’m sure everyone will react differently and create different subtexts for what they think this show portrays.

Weekend media journal

This was a fairly interesting experience for me. Media is an important part of my life. I am a musician, therefore I listen to many artists to see “how they’re doing it. Starting on friday I noticed that I really dont use my phone as much as most people. And as people these days prefer to text, I still prefer to call people. I have friends that always say “shoot me a text” or something like that and I always end up calling them. In a way, with texting, I feel like we have backtracked to something similar to the telegraph. I spent lots of time over the weekend skiing with my girlfriend and my friends already knew I had plans. So I really didn’t use my phone much; mostly to see what time it was.

I noticed I checked my facebook at least twice a day, but not for more than 10 min at a time. I really look down upon folks who use facebook for more than an hour a day. I personally would rather spend my time with actual people, or calling them to plan something with them at a later date. I checked my email about twice a day as well as my checking account. On sunday afternoon I checked up on imdb.com to see the latest movie news. This is a site I visit fairly regularly. I watched new trailers to upcoming films and checked ratings of movies I had already seen to see what others thought.

I also check youtube and itunes for good music. I also record my music so I look for tips online so I can learn new tricks. Overall I think I use media less than most people my age in America, but I still enjoy it.

Black Swan

During my winter break I was really excited to see the movie Black Swan. This movie was everything I expected it to be due to researching it prior to release. It was suspenseful, filmed beautifully, the acting was great, and the story was great.  I am a big fan of Darren Aronofsky’s films so I looked up trailers and facts online before it came out. This in itself provides and example of technological convergence. The fact that I was able to look up trailers and facts about the movie shows how technology converged for this movie. Several pieces had to come together so it could be in a digital media form; the soundtrack, speech, sound effects, the video, etc. I even saw previews for this while I was in Paris. This movie was advertised through commercials on television not only in the United States, but Europe as well (I’m sure in other places too).

This film was an example of economic convergence because it was produced by Fox Searchlight Pictures but directed by Darren Aronofsky. And Darren didn’t even write the script; that was Mark Heyman, Andres Heinz, and John J. McLaughlin. Black Swan had a estimated budget of $17,000,000. Although the movie didn’t gross as high as Inception or Harry Potter it gross in the millions. But critics considered this more of an artsy film in comparison to Inception or other blockbusters this year. Due to this, Black Swan attracted a different crowd than Harry Potter or Tron. This movie received 8.7/10 stars with 28,000+ votes on imdb.com, which is a highly popular website for critiquing films.

This film is also a cultural convergence, because as I mentioned above, it was advertised in other countries besides the United States. When I was in Paris I saw posters for Black Swan in the subways, on the streets, and saw previews for it on television. This film reached out to cultures outside of the States. It didn’t particularly reach out to a wide range audiences like Harry Potter might have, but word got around. Plus the people in the movie came together from all different cultures to make this film possible; for example, Natalie Portman is originally from Israel and so is the rest of her dad’s side of the family.