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.