Final Thoughts

Once again while reading "Eyes Wide Open", I found myself very confused. During the group discussion today, I found myself rethinking what I had been thinking. I really think that I had been taking what Romanowski is saying in the wrong way. I read something and think that I understand it, but once the class begins to talk I reliaze that I was way off. Now I've come up a few thoughts to why this could be. We all have been brought up to believe different things and view things in a different way, so it could be that. But one of the big reason I feel is because of the types of media he is focusing on. He has spent a lot of time on movies, and because that is something that I one day want to be invloved in I take a lot of what he is saying to heart. But the more I even think about that, I shouldn't take what someone else is saying about what I care about to heart. As long as my thoughts aren't totally out there, I'm just fine thinking what I've have always been thinking.

Being a Severnt

Today in class we began to talk about the book "Eyes Wide Open". We foucused on section that talked about how we should all be servents to the one who created us. The comment was made that since everything was created by God everyone is serving him and everything is being done for him. I disagree with that on many levels. Yes we all were created by God, but that doesn't mean that everyone is doing for the glory of God. In music, not everyone is singing for God. Marylin Mason, is a great example of this. He tells everyone that he worships satan and lives to serve him. The music that he is making is not for the glory of God. And even though to have a good message it doesnt have to say Jesus Jesus Jesus, but just listen to one of Mason songs and see that in no way shape or from will you see God. So, I said all that to say this. Even though we are all made to serve God that doesn't mean we all do. We all serve something but even though everyone is called to serve and glorify God, it doesn't always happen.

Moives, How do you put them in geners?

Over the weekend I watched the movie "Born into Brothels". I found it to be a very interesting moive. The whole story line was about children growing up in the sex trade, but not really wanting to be involved. This women comes in and teaches them how to take pictures to find a way to get them. All through the movie it went from live flim to still pictures. By doing this the director gave me an emtion. He made you look at the lives that these children and not only feel bad for them but know that they have the chance to get out. Through all of this I found myself looking at what gener I would put it in. It was a documentary but I thought it as more of the story of the childrens lives. It was a drama that made you want to do something to help them and get them out of this horrible place.

Media within Us

I noticed today that we use some from of a media text every second of our lives. In class we are constaly taking notes, making our own personal media text. We read books and even highlight parts of the media text that are important to us. We get on the internet to take part in many froms of media text. We check email, facebook/myspace, and even write blogs. Then take the ever wonderful cell phone. How often can we do almost everything that ive said with just the opening of a phone. We text our friends and hold conversations even we don't need to be. Media is everywhere. Magaizens are in offices and books. Take the radio even. When you're in your car you listen to music or talk radio all of which is trying to get some type of message across to you. If you look at this even deeper, you see that people pick texts based on what they enjoy. So then you can classify eveything into on certian group. Meida is all around and effecting us in every part of our lives.

Media Effects Us

While finishing the moive on the fans of Star Trek, I found myself really seeing how media effects us. The people in this film had based their enitre identity on this show. There was the women who wanted to be called Commander. Star Trek was her life, it was who she was. She had based her whole life around this show. This is a huge example about how media effects us. Some people take something that they care about and go off with it. That was what these people did. They took a show that they really cared about and made it how they functioned in their lives. We say a dentist office that was all Star Trek theme. This was a show that had become a big thing all over the world. Media shows how we "should" live. This show is how some people live. The people in this world are happy with how they are.

Fandom

Today in class we were watching a moive on a Star Trek convention. While watching it I began to think about what we had just learned. Fadom can be both good and bad. Its great to be passionate about something and be really into it, but when you go way over board I find that people tend to cross a line. While I was watching the moive I found myself being very judgemental of the people who were talking. I thought that they were crazy and had nothing better to do then to find things wrong with the costume or pay head pieces for thousands of dollars. When I thought about what I was thinking after class, I saw how disrespectful I was being. I enjoy watching racing and some poeple might find me over the top when it comes to that, but it is something I really enjoy. So why should I look at these people and call them over the top when all that they are doing is showing the world how much they care about something.

Parasocial Interactions

During the class discusion today, I found myself very interested by the media figure that everyone chose. I picked Eastwood because I find the way he directs to be the way that I would like my projects to turn out one day. Other people would pick something that I never would have thought they would. I remembered back to they day that we broke off into our own versions of semotic domains. We had sports and cooking and video games. As we went around the room I found myself thinking "oh this person will pick this type of person". But many people picked outside of their groups. I found myself learing more about people. Which goes along with the onion theroy. To really know someone you have to go deeper then just the outer layer. By listening more to who people feel "close" to you learn more about who they are.

Limited Effects

In class we talked about the many effects that mass media has had on our society. One of the theroies that we talked about was the Limited Effects Traditions. I found this to be very interesting. We talked about the "Why We Fight" film series. From this they were able to tell that people became more knowledgeable about what was going on but did very little to change the opinion about what they saw. I disagree with that alot. I find that when I watch a movie or hear something on the news or read something on the paper or the internet, I find myself constanly changing my mind with how I feel about things. With the world always changeing and with everything that is going on it is hard to keep a constant mind set about something. I do feel that you still have the same basic opinion about a topic but as you gain more knowlegde, the way you feel about it and the opinon could become better or worse based on that face alone.

Black Box

The idea that of all media text being available in one place is something that I find to be nearly impossible. With all the different types of meida text and ways that information is able to be gotten, there isn't a way to put it into place. From computers, we have the best example of a modern day black box. You can watch movies, read books, talk to people, read the paper and do almost anything. The only problem is that you can't play many video games. There is no way that all media text from different semotic domains would be completly available to every type of possible black boxs that could be made in the future. If a we did have black boxs made then how would they be broken up. Would the major conglmeraters make them? If they did then they would only contain contant that they would own. So, that would mean that there would only be a few types of black boxes. Or would major companies make them? In that case we would have many different types. If that happen how would we keep them all stright? I said all this to say this, a black box society could be both good and bad.

Are media conglomerates good?

In class we had a debate on wether media conglomertaes were good or bad for our society? In my view they are both. A conglomerate is a large company that owns many froms of media text, like Viacom. Not only does it own many televison stations but it owns publishing companys, and a website. In a way Viacom is taking different semotic domains a putting them together in a way that makes them more aviable to people. They take information that is both similar and different and put it all in one place for people to find. Conglomerates own many compaines that produce things a well and a lot of those are small companys that without the help would not be able to stay afloat. If we didnt have conglomerates in our society we would be bombared with so much information coming form so many differenct sources that we would not be able to find just what we needed. We would have to look in many places instead of just one. But if you look at how conglomerates are controling the flow of media in our world that could be a very bad thing. We are only giving the information that they deme important. Then you have to think that what one conglomerate demes unimportant another conglomerate might say that it is very important.

The Effects of Mass Media

Media can either have a postive or negative effect on all of us. When we are looking at a media text, no matte what we do it is going to change us in someway. Media can tell us how to act, how we should dress, what we should and shouldnt do. It tells us who we are in a way. For example, we are all part of semotic domains. Within those domains we are told how people in them should be and act. So while we all are apart of many semotic domains that are all very different from each other, we all are being effected by those domains to act a certian. Teens are effected most by this in my opinion. They watch tv and read magaizes that tell them you should look a certian way and you should act like this. They change who they are so that they can fit into the standards that they think are right. If everyone was to look at media as something that is imforational and something that can be entertainment but not as a guideline for life, then we all might be able to break the feedback loop and stop it in a way.

Conglomerates

When we were talking about conglamerates, I began to think about the five levels of production. If a conglomerates owns many media texts, would they then fall into the catigore of being a producer of all the media text that they own? Think about it. If a proudcer is involved with any from of production on a text, then the conglomerate that owns it would be just that. But then would they also be a content aggregators? All the media text that they own have to do with one semiotic domain, and they have to be the final apporval of what goes into the meida text so they would be in the over all big picture. So really when you think about, the conglomerates are in almost all five levels of media production.

Who are the Producers?

In class today we talked about how media texts are made and then distributed to us. While learing about thing I began to wonder how this works in the "real world" of media text. Take for example who the producers of a televison show are. In class we said that the writers, set designers, actors, directors, make up artist, and the actually producers of the show. Now if you were to walk in one a production meeting and asked who was the producer of the show the only people to raise their hands would be the people with the title producer. The other people that we listed are people who are, in my opinion to people who help produce the show itself. Without them the show would not go on. Being a producer means that you are going to produce something that will be considered a mass media text. While you could consider the cast and crew to be making a product that is going to become a mass media text, but to say that they all sat down and came up with the idea is very wrong in my book.

Hollywood v. Hollywood

When we were doing the Hollywood activity in class, I was comparing my knowlegde of how Hollywood works to what was happening in the classroom. After class I looked up article on Variety about Samuel Jackson getting a role in the next Iron Man. The article stated that he has signed on to a long term deal to play this character in many other films. Now becasue he is such a well know actor in the industry, he was able to sign such a contract and the production company is able to pay what he needs, they are able to keep him busy for a certian period of time. When we were going around the class we had the "actors" themselfs coming up to us. This doesn't happen. The agents would have been making calls to find scripts that the actor would like and a company that he/she could work with. Within the company that I was working, we had to let the actresses pick the story that they wanted to do. This would not happen. Production companys pick the script that they want to shoot, the comes picking the producer and the director, who then pick the cast that they want. They would call the actor's agents to see if they would be interested in adutioning for the moive that they were going to shoot. Our Hollywood was more of a free for all. We were just trying to get things before other people got what we wanted. Even though this is how the real Hollywood is, it would be done over a much more longer period of time.

Reading vs. Watching the news

Last week in class we talked about wether it was better to read or to watch the news. This is something that I think is very important. When you sit down and read something, you are forced to pay attention to the words to get the full meaning. When you are sitting and having something told to then you are really not paying that much attention to what is being said but more to what is going on around the screen. I find that when you read something you get more out of it. You pay attention to the surface meaning, but the if you come back to the same story later then yuo can look for more to the story. When you read you can see all the signs infront of you instead of having to hear it cut down to a two minute segment of information that the producers deem important to all viewers. I find that when you sit down to read it is at a moment when you really want to pay attetion to the what is in front of you. Many times when people turn on the new to "watch" it, it turns into more of background noise that you don't really pay attention. When you read something you notice what the codes being used are and the signs that are being used by the writer. You see and retain more of what you read.

TV Genres

While I was going through my families dvr, I found myself think about what genres all the shows. I found it difficult to find a show that only fit one genre. We talked about how many shows are consider to be put into the "hybtidity" section. Meaning that the shows would fall into two genres. Take for example, Gilmore Girls. This is a show that should be considered a drama, but almost all the episodes have a comdy part to it. If someone where to ask me what genre I would put this show into the comdey section. Look at House. Something that should be mostly drama, but Dr. House it becomes a comdy most times. I think that it is very hard to say that a tv show only fits into one genre. You could say that Survivor is just a reality show. But if you were to look deeper you would see that this also has elements of a drama in it. The problem with that is this is a unscript show and you really dont know what is going to happen. That 70s show is something that you could put into three genres. Comedy, drama and reality. Drama and comdey are easy to see, but the reality is only in one part of every show. The part where they are in a circle can be seen as reality element. It is very much like doing a confession on another show. So to say that a show would only go into on genre is almost a wrong thing to say.

Media Shapes Us

Over the last few days I've been thinking about how media shapes the way we think about things. We watch a news broadcast and we form our opoinions on what is going on around the world. We see a moive about a group of people that we have never heard of and assume that what we saw is how it is. Think about it, we are constaly taking things in but we never stop to think about how it is effecting us. During the "Merchants of Cool", it talked about the feedback loop. But this doesn't only apply to teens. Look at the young adult age. We've been shaped by what we watched when we were younger and now as we beging to change in what types of media we take in we begin to change again. It might be reading a book or a news story, but everything we see tells us what to think about something. In one of my other classes we watched to movie "Whale Rider". This was a moive about the Maori people from New Zeland. I new nothing about this tribe before I watched the moive and then from the movie I took what I saw as really. We had to research the tribe and I found that a lot of what we saw was untrue. The didn't tell parts of the story right and even left parts out. When we had the class debate about if this was right or now it made me think. Did I have a wrong view of something else because I only know part of what is true? How many times have I judge a semotic domain based on what I've read about it? Too many times. If we all take a step back and think about what we are taking in, then see if it is true or not the world would be better off.

Feedback Cycle

In class today we talked more about the Merchants of Cool. We found that the big idea was that the decision of what is cool and what we will think is cool is made for us. But the media is really never feeding us anything new. Becasue of the feedback cycle, when the media trys to find out what teenagers are thinking is cool, all they are getting back is what they gave them in the first place. And then it gets caught in the loop. The media shows something, then teens imitate it and then when the media trys to find what is cool they just get back what they put out.
I don't think that anyone is compelety free from this. Everyone is, in someway, part of this culture.Everyone bends in someway to what media says is cool. It may not be in a big way but in some way.

Teens and Media

While watching the video today I found myself agree with what the one guy was saying. Teens are always trying to imitate what they see in they see on tv and in the movies. Big shots in the media world are still doing reasearch on teens and how they live, but nowadays all that they are getting back is what they put out. As I watch my brohter and his friends I see them doing just what they see on tv. No matter how much a teenager can try to be different they are affected the world and media around them. Those that go around to find what teenagers are into, are really not finding anything new.

Reading Words

When I was reading through the assignment, I found that one line really stuck out to me. "Did you hear what I said?" I can't count the times ive read a comic of watched a movie with subtitles and thought I was hearing it. I don't think that this is odd but something that I've never really thought about. When you watch a movie with subtitles you know what is happening in the beginning as far as reading them goes, but as the movie goes on you realize less and less what you are doing. When you see a cartoon on paper you can hear the voices in your head so you know what is going on. This isn't something that you find odd unless you were to sit down and think about it.

Bridgestone With the Taters

This commercial was one of the funnier ones that I saw. But now as I watch back through it, I'm noticing things that I didn't before. The whole squence of shots were what I would consider open framed. The car was always moving and you know that one of the taters was doing something when the other was talking. As far as signs go, the biggest on that I saw was the sheep. They are driving on a mountain road and then there is suddely sheep. Another symbol that I saw was when her lips fly off. The camera begins to following them down and then does a quick cut back up to her face where, at the very end, she puts on her angry eyes.

Real Media Text

One of the things that Ihave noticed over the last week is how the text we intake changes while we are in school. The types of books that we read totally change. We go from reading for pleasure to read only what is need and nothing else. I wish that I had time to read more, and not simple things like the paper (while that would be enjoyable), but I would love to be able to sit down and read a novel or a short story and not have to try and decode what it means. I guess you could still do this by reading outside of class, but there is no way that you could allow yourself to be wrapped up in the story. You either have to be totally focused on school and everything that you need to do there or you could be able to let yourself get caught up in story that you find enjoyable.

Semiotic Domains

It had never really accured to me the different types of semiotic domains that I was a part were so different, within themselves. Take sports for example. While I do enjoy basbeball and football, my favorite is NASCAR. Now most people wouldn't put that in the same domain as sports, it would be off on its own. I'm also a part of the movie domain. I love watching them and seeing the shots and think about the director. These two domains are very different, but both rank high on my list. Everyone, in my opinion, is a part of many domains, but if they were to take a closer look they would find how odd they all seem together.

A world without the Internet

I found myself wondering the other day what our world would be like without everyones favorite mass media, the internet. With everything we use it for, how would everyone be if we didn't have it. We use to do research, read the news, keep close with old friends. If it was suddnly gone, we would have to have more face to face interaction. We would need to head to the libary to do research for papers and other things. Instead of writing emails and instent messaging people our cell phones would be used as phones and we would have real conversations. I think our world would be better if people would try not to use the internet as much and try other ways of getting information. But this is also easir said then done and we all sturggle with it. Just try and think about what your life would be like with out some time. Its very intersting to imagine.

American Myths

While reading the assignment, I found myself in a way very confused by what the writer was saying. It seemed that in a way she was saying that hard work wont get you far in life, but the she would go on to say how important it was. If you look around at our country, it was bulit by people who had to take risks and work hard. But, to say that they only got there by working hard would be wrong, I guess. But why? That was the question I found myself asking. Why is it that even when we do work do we not get the outcome that we want or expect? The writer also talked on how a student can spend hours working on something or studying and still get a terrible grade.
So, I think that it is safe to say that by the time I was done reading I did agree. We have to work hard toward our goals, but it will take more then that to get to where we want to be in life.

The Weekend

Over this pass weekend I tired to watch what types of mass media I found myself taking in. I went about my weekend like I have in the pass, but I found myself watching a lot of movies. Now when I say a lot I think that I mean I watch four or five on Sunday and then again on Monday. I don't know if this is an accurte mix of how I spend all my weekends, but this weekend I just wanted to get away form everything. None of the movies were really serious either, mostly just something to make me laugh. In class we heard how this could be almost harmful to purly use media as a source of entertainment, but i think that it can also be good. Even if you are watching something as that you are still learning about how someone else feels about something and learning about how you react to that situation.

Possibilities within media

Mass media is something that our country is ver depent on. Its hard for a person not to come in contact with it at least once a day. Because of this people are are able to become educated on not only what is happen near them but also half way across the world. If we took what we learned form the media about what is going on in other places, then you could casue a change.

Problems With Mass Media

I think that one of the main problems with media in any form is that it is one sided. No matter what you are looking at from movies to books to tv, nothing shows both side. In flim most directors try to show both sides, but can never get it. The show people one side and some people take that to heart and that is what they take as the only way it is. People need to know that they need to look everything that is out there not just one thing.

Describing Media

All media can be consider formative. Movies take you to a place where you can see someone who is just like you see yourself. Take the movie Casablanca for example. This moive is all about two people who are in love, but can't be together. Everyone has had this happen, but the true underlying message is when you truly care about something/someone you let them/it go. The one thing that any person can take from this is how to truly care about some.

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