David after the dentist..

I find it awesome that this little kid, who kinda freaked out after going to the dentist, became 'famous' in a matter of weeks because of youtube. The original video posted 3 weeks ago, and within a week there were knock offs, remixes, and my personal favorite, the David meets Charlie video mash. This video has become extremely popular, and could be a new meme in our culture. you never know whose gonna refer to it next..south park maybe?

The merchants of Cool

The Merchants of Cool was a pretty interesting film about how advertisers today find out what is ‘cool’ to their intended audience. I thought the film kind of pointed out obvious things, like that much of advertising is directed towards teenagers. No shit, most people that spend 3 hours in front of the TV and 5 hours on the computer every day are teenagers. We by far consume more media on average than a middle aged person, so the advertisers focus mainly on advertising to teens. It makes perfect sense.
It is very interesting to me the cycle of products and how new products are created. These researchers literally go out and see what the ‘cool kids’ of the group are wearing, develop and change the product, and sell the style right back to them. It is easy money for many companies, and for them, advertising to teens is custom. Many stores and services focus on teenagers as a target audience.
As a child I never really followed the norm; I was always wearing bright colors and stand out clothes, pushing me away from many fads and trends. I was happy when the film mentioned that many teens do break away from the norm, but a little disappointed to think about how that is only making a new audience for the ‘merchants of cool’ to develop a style and advertise to. The first example that comes to mind is gothic style. When it first came out 5 to 10 years ago, it was the weird anti-conformists cutting holes and attaching chains to their jeans, and wearing their hair in ridiculous styles. The idea of goth wasn’t all style, it was a mentality. After the media discovered this style it developed and advertised goth til it became a popular style. This also affected the whole gothic mentality, people were becoming goth cause they thought it was cool, not cause they had that mentality. (again that’s just the easiest example that came to mind, I have nothing for or against gothic kids.)
The film definitely was an interesting watch, it really got me thinking about my own style, and if I am being watched or studied by the media to find out what’s ‘cool’

The Corporation

I know the film The Corporation is heavily biased, but it does an excellent job of showing the evil side of the corporations in America. The film is pretty well made, but it would definitely help to get the other side of the story. I found it very interesting that after the 14th amendment corporations had the rights of a person. While the movie does an effective job of showing corporations in their worst light, it fails to address any positives corporations have done.
It is interesting to me that a focus of the movie was the mental health departments’ checklist deeming corporations as a psychopathic person. It is even more interesting to me to see how that is all true. IBM provided Nazi concentration camp punch systems. Coca-Cola released Fanta Orange in Germany to keep business coming in.
Now I know that businesses of all sizes need to sell their products in order to stay in business, but I see no reason for any sized business, let alone a large corporation, to trade with a communist country in the time we are at war with them.
The film also listed plenty of corporations that were charged billions of dollars for environmental issues. I would really like to see the corporations side of the story, but given the facts present in The Corporation, they really are like a psychopathic person.

Do I care about copyrights?

I'm not 100 percent sure when it came to my mind, but I realized that you can find virtually ANYTHING on youtube, from animals on drugs (really messed up), to music videos from the 1980's (also really messed up). I got a notice a few weeks ago that a video I had previously uploaded had been removed because the song in it was copyrighted. I thought about it for a while and realized that almost every movie on youtube violates a copyright. I feel the fact they are removing videos now because a song used in it is copyrighted is somewhat rediculous. I agree that copyrights are strong legal bindings that artists and producers can take very seriously, but when a website that is primarily made up of videos and music that are copyrighted, starts to remove videos because they have copyrighted material...I don't know, it seems, oxymoronic.

This video is Yan Dofin's part to Rome's snowboard movie 'Any Means'. Both the video and the song used in the video are copyrighted..but search 'Rome Any Means' and atleast 3 versions of each section of the movie come up in Youtube.

Consumption Log

Time
Media Consumption


10:00 AM
Cell phone alarm clock Thugz Mansion by Tupac. It Went of 6 times thanks to the good old snooze button.

Lay and noticed the Swedish flag over my bed, I miss Sweden.

Put on my South Pole sweats and Sixwonsix hoodie. Mmm comfy.

Went to the bathroom and noticed the Chris Brown poster hung above the toilet by my suite mates.

Got on my Dell computer to check my Hotmail account and Facebook.

Put on my Juggernaut brand smoking slippers and went outside to smoke a Camel Turkish Royal.


11:00 AM
Took a shower with my Suave shampoo, and Axe body wash. Put on my Old Spice deodorant and smelt good enough for the day.

Put on my Azzure t-shirt, Ecko Unltd. jeans and British Knight shoes.

Went out to my roommates Dodge Neon to drive my friend to work at the Rapid Car Wash, the best car wash in town.


12:00 PM
Ate a delicious breakfast burrito from Dough Works. Cholula topped it off making it absolutely amazing.

Noticed a dude sitting next to me wearing a very cool Sessions hoodie, complimented him on it.

Back to the Dodge Neon

Smoked my last Turkish Royal, what a bummer.

Stopped by City Market to buy a Monster energy drink and some Camel Lights. Used my City Market shopper card and saved 27 cents. Cooool.


1:00 PM
Got to my friends house to play Fifa 09 on Playstation 3. Got to love Spain.

Talked to my cousin for a while on the phone.


2:00 PM
Continued to play Fifa 09

Back to the Dodge Neon to head back to campus. Smoked a Camel Light.

Stopped by the Exxon for gas.


3:00 PM
Took a power nap on the Love Sac. Dreamt about a full platter of delicious Buffalo Wild Wings. Made me crave wings.


4:00 PM
After a short nap recovery period I got back on my Dell computer and used programs Internet explorer and Microsoft word to start homework. Read my notes in my Mead notebook. Wrote in it with a Papermate Pencil.

Drank some Tropicana orange pineapple juice.


5:00 PM
Continued to do assignments for class. Didn’t realize I had a test the next day, tried to do some power studying.

Ate a Tic Tac, which turned to 2 Tic Tacs, and soon there were none left in the small plastic box.


6:00 PM
Still craving wings, ventured in the Dodge Neon down to J Bo’s. Delicious

Smoked a camel Light.

Got a call from my parents wanting to talk. Told them I’d call back later.


7:00 PM
Back to campus in the Dodge Neon.

Finished my homework on my Dell and in the Mead notebooks.

Turned on Atmosphere and cruised Facebook for a while.


8:00 PM
Played Skate 2 on my Playstation 3. Decked out my character in Plan B gear and Path shoes.

Smoked a Camel Light

Got back into my stinky room and sprayed Glade Rainshower Spray

Played more Skate 2.


9:00 PM
Decided to throw on the movie Happy Gillmore with my girlfriend.

Made Orville Redenbacher popcorn.


10:00 PM
Smoked a Camel Light

Continued the movie.


11:00 PM
Brushed my teeth with my Colgate toothbrush and Aquafresh toothpaste.

Used Listerine.

Went to sleep. Good Night!

I never realized how many sources of media I was exposed to daily until I tried to pay attention to every piece of it through out a day, which I now realize is impossible. Branding in particular is EVERYWHERE: clothes, cars, stores, even everyday used things like pencils and silverware. All sources of media, branding especially, influences almost everyone. Whether it is a choice between Coke and Pepsi, McDonalds or Burger King, Hollister or Abercrombie, Ford or Dodge, brands try to make the best look for their product using advertisements and logo branding. Media can create an impression on someone in seconds for a whole group of people, chain of restaurants, or a brand. If the most amazing 5 star restaurant creates a homemade sign to hang out by the rood and video tapes their own commercials that air on channel 587 at 1:28 in the morning, they probably won’t get the publicity they want. It is very interesting to pay close attention to how much media is in the word, and to think about how much it affects every one of us.

Response

It is easy to see how the media affects people, but I find it fascinating to think about how much people affect the media. With all these new websites: Youtube, Facebook, Myspace, Blogger, etc. people have thousands of ways to make their own media known. I saw Mira Van Zandt’s blog post about an insane ski jumping video. This is just one example of how people can put their media into the public. Although this example are clips taken out of professional ski videos, without media like Youtube and other video uploading and viewing sources videos like this would be kept a secret from public eyes unless the producers want to pay extra money to get it published and distributed.
With Youtube, anything, from sports, to family news, to just friends being stupid, everything can instantly be put on the internet for free. Youtube even allows people to create their own ‘channel’ in which all of their shows or videos can be accessed from one point, this makes it easy for people to continue a series of videos or whatever other media they create. One example of this is Obama Girl; a young woman who made a series of videos of her singing and talking about why Obama was such a good candidate. She started the videos more than a year before the election took place, and was actually a very influencing factor in it. Blogger, Facebook, Myspace, and other sites like this allow people to literally create their own web page for free, with almost no restrictions. People can upload photos and videos in seconds, and post text of any kind on their web page.
Blogger allows people to create their own ‘blog space’ which the user can customize with decorations, organization, and other changeable features. Blogger also features archives so access to specific posts is easier for the viewer. Blogger and other blog posting sites allow users to make their posts visible to anyone or to no one if they choose. Blogger also has the option to include blog posts in Google searches if the user wants it to do so.
Public access TV also makes it easy for people to get their media out into the community. DCAT, the Durango Public Access Station, offers classes to help people learn to create and edit their own media, and even put it on the public access television channels.
With all of these extra services it is very easy for the average American to become famous, or in some cases infamous. These services have allowed millions of people to post their videos, pictures, news, and whatever else they want, and have it viewed by whoever chooses to view it.

Jean Baudrillard’s Simulacra and Simulation was a pretty interesting piece. I had to read it twice to gather a solid meaning, and that took quite a while so I really began to lose patience. The concepts of the piece were also kind of hard to understand, and even after thinking about it for quite some time I still don’t understand most of the examples, for example the parking lot at Disney Land. After discussing the piece in class I gained a further understanding of the concepts of hyperrealism and reality vs. imaginary. I skimmed the piece for a third time and actually found it to be an almost comical reading. It is full of sarcasm and enthusiasm and little side tracking jokes. Although the concepts induce good rhetoric reading, it is not the most effective piece because of the style of writing. I feel a conversation with the author would help me further understand his perspective and why he writes the way he does in a scholarly magazine.

Fist Bump

Budweiser always seems to make the funniest commercials and this is no exception; it's hilarious. It uses comedic, and common people advertising techniques. It does an excellent job showing the mistakes everyone has done, of bringing friendly actions to a formal relationship. Classic.

Aggressivemall

This is an advertisement for a rollerblading website and their new line of clothing. Vinny Minton (one of the teams star skaters) is looking very cool with the new hoody on. The stylish sunglasses and cool pose just top it off. The all white background does an efficient job of emphasizing the product. It is a pretty effective advertisement.

How My Use of the Media has Affected Me

Jordan Panasewicz
Media Literacy
Stacey Sotosky
Media Use/Effect Paper

The everlasting question among psychologists is that of nature or nurture. Whether a person acts how they do because of nature (genetics), or because of nurture (their surroundings). Although genetics can affect the behaviors of people, it is mostly ones surroundings such as their parents, peers, and the media, that affects the ways they act. The media has had very large effects on everyone, including myself. The effects the media has on people is different for everyone, even throughout their own life the ways people use and see the media is always changing.
Ever since I can remember my use of the media has constantly been changing, which is in return constantly changing me as a person. In Pre-school my use of the media was much different than it is now. Still not computer-literate, I relied mostly on watching TV after school. My brain turned to mush as I sat in front of the TV for hours watching “educational” children shows such as Thomas the Engine, Barney and Friends, Sesame Street, and my personal favorite: The Magic School Bus. My favorite time of the show was when the commercials came on. The flashiest new toys emphasized with loud crashing noises and bright colors caught my attention more than Big Bird singing the alphabet ever could. Every commercial was for an awesome toy car or a new game that looked awesome to me at the time. Every once in a while I would convince my mom for a trip to Toys-R-Us to pick up a couple of the newest toys. Of all the toys in the commercials and in the store I would pick my favorites, and a couple hours to a couple weeks later I would realize that the toy was a complete waste. This was a real lesson in life: you’re not always getting what you think you’re getting.
Through elementary school I started to become a smarter shopper, or so I thought. When Christmas would come around I would watch TV with a pencil and paper and write down a list of all the toys that looked good. I would then get on my parents computer, new with Windows ’98, and try to look up the toys and see how they really looked. I would spend hours of research and thought creating the perfect Christmas list for myself. Unfortunately, some of even the best looking toys came as a disappointment. I remember one toy car track I got for Christmas: my parents help me set it up (which took all to long for the ‘easy set up’ it had advertised for). I then cranked up the little plastic car, put it on the track consisting of 2 turns, a loop-de-loop, and a jump, and let the car rip. It cruised around the first turn, started up the loop-de-loop, and then shot off the track. “Aww too much speed,” I thought to myself, so I tried again cranking it a little less this time. It went around the first turn, barely made it around the loop-de-loop, and slowly came to a stop at the top of the jump. After about an hour of trying over and over I had only gotten the car to successfully complete the jump once. Frustrated and bored I never used the track again.
It was one of the first days of middle school that my current choice of music started to take shape. I was walking home from school about a block away from my house, and my neighbor (who was just entering high school) was walking home from the bus stop. I don’t exactly remember what happened but he stumbled across a cassette tape with the words ‘Nas Illmatic’ on it. At first he threw it at me because he thought it was junk. But after my curiousity led the tape to my boom box and listening through the whole cassette I showed my neighbor what he was missing out on. We were both instantly hooked. I had never heard of the artist or even much of the genre, but even as a 12 year old boy, this one tape I liked influenced the music I listen to through today, hip hop.
It wasn’t until high school that my use of media really started to change. Instead of paying close attention to the commercials, I would just Tivo through them. Instead of using the computer to research toys, I was using it to research history. In my junior year I created a myspace, which is actually how I first talked to the girlfriend I had throughout most of my senior year. I still continued to watch quite a few TV shows, but I also started to play a lot more video games. The video game that influenced me most was SSX Tricky. Although it was extremely unrealistic and didn’t have the best graphics, I loved the concept of snowboarding, and hated skiing at the time, so I wanted to switch to snowboarding. After starting to snowboard I loved it, and have improved my skills a lot. Last year my friend showed me a skiing movie, which made me want to switch back to skiing. I now do both, because of the media and the ways it influenced me.
In college, I have to provide for myself, and don’t have a TV, so I don’t watch many TV shows or movies, or see many commercials. When I am on my computer it is strictly to do homework or check up on my facebook. The media source that influences me the most is posters and pictures I see at the ski resorts. New technology or styles portrayed in attractive photographic ways make me want to buy new gear. The picture of the hamburger and French fries influences me to pay 16 dollars for lunch. Pictures of the sickest pro in waste deep powder make me want to go ski Whistler in Canada. All of these sources of the media have affected me in such different ways, and have helped to make me who I am today.





http://www.sesamestreet.org/home
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/s/ssxtricky/default.htm
http://www.defjam.com/site/artist_home.php?artist_id=608