An idea from the reading....

An idea that I found particularly interesting from the reading, was the idea that we should address things such as sex and violence and that they are not necessarily a "bad" thing. In the bible, it heavily discusses these issues and they are not taken lightly. Should we live in a world where we can pretend these things don't exist? As Christians is that what we are called to do? Close out the world..... I don't think so and I don't think the author did either. He talks about the idea that Christian writers and producers should exclude these very real things from their productions, however instead of glorifying them, actually representing them in a true light is important. Mass media as we know it, is HUGE. Our media diets are also extremely large. We live in a day that is consumed with messages. America loves violence and lets face it... Sex sells... So as Christians, what should we do. We should speak, engage in conversation about the pros and cons of these topics. The worst thing we could possibly do is not do anything at all. We should engage in media and understand and analyze it. Taking this a step further we should discuss films and their content instead of turning away from an R rated film. We could be missing out. As Christians we need to step out of our comfort zones and get comfortable being uncomfortable. Violence and Sex exist, we have to understand that.

Eyes Wide Open

I really feel like the concepts in the book that we discussed were things we really have been assessing all semester. It was good that we read the book in order to bring the ideas back together and almost lay them right in front of us. As Christian students it is so extremely important that we learn things like this. We are all struggling for our own identities and constantly taking in media every day. It's important that we don't shut our selves out from the rest of the world but engage in popular culture with our peers and neighbors. It is important to know and understand the things which others take part of. If we decide to live in a bubble we are not living as testimonies as we should be. Engaging in the culture which we as people have created is good, we should know and understand things that are in our every day world. We should look at things as Christians not pornographically, but in an analytical way. Taking something from the things we engage in. Hopefully by doing these things we will form relationships with friends and people around us so that they might understand what it is to be a Christian and at the same time we live our lives as we are meant to live them.

hmm.. But they are bad in the sense of DEMOCRACY!

Democracy is what are country was built on..... and in our reading it states that, "Political narrowness inevitably leads to a narrow range of genuwine choices at elections and since meaningful voter choice is vital to sustain any democracy, to that extent, the contemporary mass media's constricted politics weaken the foundation of the democratic process.". Because they are so few corporations running everything, choice is very limited. There is not a proper representation of the entire news spectrum... What does make it onto the news is then accepted as what is the news, however there is a whole other side to the story many times that never gets told. The idea that ALL news isn't "newsworthy" is bad for the democratic process. All of this concentrated private power is almost troubling to think about. Do we, as viewers, really know what's going on in the world, or do we just think we know. Is what makes the news really even what matters, or is it what makes the media giants the most money? It's interesting to think about our media diets and all of the things we are consuming, why and what we believe and are faithful to.

A question of the danger of conglomeration.. Is it really all that negative?

Would we as viewers truly want to take in all that the world has to offer? I think we couldn't possibly process all of the information that is available at any given second..... I believe that this could be a possible perk to there only being the big 6. The idea that we have a little variety, but not too much variety. When people are given too many choices, they usually can't make a decision. In this direction then, it is good we only have 6 big corporations in control because that's probably all we could handle..... Okay.. that was a silly approach, of course I think more of the human mind, I believe more information is better and less bias is very important. Let's face it though, when we go to sell our selves(watch tv) we don't want to sift through the channels for something we MIGHT like, We want to turn on the t.v. and turn it to our favorite show and know it will be on at our specific time.... We have this reassuance because these media giants are so extremely huge.. Because they exist, they market to what we like to consume. That's why are favorite shows are on at 8:00p.m. Thursday night weekly etc. They are the reason we have 2 minutes of commercials instead of 20 and they make this possible for us.... SO I guess they arn't SOOOOO bad after all.

The DANGER of Conglomerations....

In our reading it talks about the idea of the BIG 6, it states that, "Mergers of this size further dwarfs news as merely another industrial byproduct. As dramatized by the case of the las angeles Times, the new mergers deepen the dangers of more deterioration of news as a handmaiden of its owners' corporate ambitions, endangering the future of the independent and diverse public information on which democracy depends"... This is indeed a problem.... It seems as though news is very much reflection the owners ambitions. If we truely had 6 (the big 6) individual dominant companies we would be in better shape than we are in. The truth is that there are six but they are all intertwined and joined in earning profit together which means to me that they are not 6 individuals but much less than that.... We more than likely probably have about 2 media giants, or even scarier of a thought would be that one company controls it all. There are laws against monopolyzing, but if 6 diff. companies independently own stock in each other then it seems they can go around the law. The reason this is so bad is that this means that all of our information is extremely limited by the owners of these companies, they obviously wouldn't air something that could crunch their numbers even if that something were beneficial to us as viewers. If our news reporting is narrow than our choices are also, meaning that we don't recieve ALL of the information ALL of the time..

my faithful fandom

I have a strange amout of fandom for someone very important in our country. I have been a fan of President Bush for quite some time... I am still faithful to him for many reasons. It's strange because most people do what the mass's of other people do.... I however feel very differently on this subject. Most people are not in Bush's favor and think I am strange and maybe crazy for still liking him. I think he has this genuineness about him that I love. I definitely do not envy the position he is in and I think that's the best answer for anyone. He acted when something had to be done and I really feel he would have been critizied either way on any decision made as anyone in such a high position would. I feel like after all the negative media I have seen in the past years and all of the things that have been said I have a offly strange fandom for I still find faith in this man. I feel as though he has stuck to what he promised.... Fandom for someone who may not be extremely well spoken, but I feel has a good heart and a love for God.

My parasocial relationship with Dane Cook

There is something about Dane Cook that I love. Strangely enough we have never met. For some creepy reason I feel as though I know his personality, possibly I just easily relate to some of his less raunchy humor. I am not obsessed, but there was a period of time where I used his jokes on a daily basis. I think it is interesting how some of us can easily relate to people we like, just because we like them or simply envy their humor. I had a 76 on my parasocial relationship when we talked about this topic in class. It's very interesting to see how some people liked their person they chose, but they wouldn't be in any way in a friendship them. I am glad to say I've never had a conversation with Dane Cook through my t.v. but I would love to meet him in person because I think he's hilarious.

The Magic Silver Bullet Theory as I KNOW IT...

The magic silver bullet theory is at play all the time in my brothers apartment. My brothers are in their 20's and they are constantly playing the game halo with a network of many of thier friends. Unfortunately as a result of playing this game on the regular... my brother feels as though he can be invincable and lose have of his power and have more kills than any other person..... SO .. instead of going to work like normal people, my brothers dress up as Halo characters and shoot each other... Actually I just fibbed a bit.. a lot. My brothers are Halo fiends, however they are not out killing people or shooting each other they are doing quite the opposite. They are all 3 firefighters, so they are really out saving lives. I think the silver bullet theory is some what outrageous..... If we became everything we watched, we would all have very split personalities because we take in a lot of different things everyday.

Metamedia

I believe that media in our lives is so overwhelming that we almost block it out. I think we become somewhat desensitized by everything that is thrown at us on an everyday basis. However.... meta media is a common ground for this because we all have our certain opinion leaders that we look to for guidance and almost for shaping our lives. These people are sometimes very close to us, our parents, our teachers, our churches etc. but these people we look up to get a lot of their information for what to think and believe from people in the media such as politicians, newscasters, any higher-up really. These people in the meta media refer or direct us towards other media texts which help to shape us everyday whether we really realize it or not. Where some people might trust entirely in Oprah others might believe everything that happens on a Jerry Springer episode. They say one man's trash is another man's treasure.... I think I might be trailing off somewhat here but the idea is that although we may think we are mentally strong and blocking out different media texts, we actually take them in from people we trust not always knowing where they find their sources. It's almost like instead of doing the homework ourselves we let someone else do it and we automatically trust them for doing so. It is a very awesome thing to know that we are becoming opinion leaders though because we are choosing to further ourselves everyday as students. In class we talked about how we are like 20% of the nation. It is a challenge of our character whether we want to be followers or leaders and we have chosen in a way to be leaders now. We live in a time where it happens to be that a lot of our opinion leaders are in the media. This is okay, we just have to understand where to draw the line, what is black, white or grey.

Are merchants of cool, really cool?

As we talked about in class I've come to the conclusion that the video was good in that it gave us a certain sence of understanding where our popular t.v. shows come from. The industry tries to pump out shows to us by sampling us as teenagers because we are the biggest target audience for sales. We as teenagers have the largest disposable income. I feel this is true but I also feel that the way the movie made "us", as in teenagers, out to be was very demeaning. Teenagers were seeming to be very brainwashed by different Semiotic domains. Sponsors such as Sprite were able to "buy" us as a group of people as if we were more a blob of people rather than our own individual identities. I think it was amazing how we as a generation could relate to sprite, we all thought sprite was awesome. Or is this just what the industry thought? I think some of this rings true even today but at the same time I really feel like there was a lot of hope that they thought we connected with them. Every person is different as is every teenager.I don't think any one company can market to an entire generation because we are all interested in very different things.

Favorite Media Text

hmmm.. shall we say an elephant... representing the Republican party. A political text (the elephant) belonging to the Semiotic Domain of the Republican party. Pro Republicans feel it to be a good representation of their values and beliefs while Pro Democrats might find the symbol sickening and almost a huge turn-off. The convention of the " elephant" is a symbol representing a group of people with similar political views and ideals. The invention of the " elephant" as the symbol representing the republicans. The elephant that was was published in a democratic cartoon was the animal that was being scared away by a donkey. The republicans say the elephant is strong and dignified while the democrats say that the donkey is smart and brave.

Signs and what they "mean".

Speed limits? or speed suggestions?
Denotative meaning: Used to state or command the law to drivers.
Conotative meaning: Used as a guide for how fast you are permitted to go by law. The speed you can reach before paying a fine. The speed which is probably economical and more so safe for the location.

Meaning has probably shifted in this sign in the sence that power has increased in cars in the and influences to feel they can drive faster more safely due to the comfort level at higherspeeds with a better built car.

Different semiotic domains could be different age groups meaning that older people might drive slower according to the speed limit while younger more rebellious drivers might be prone to drive 5 over the speed limit comfortably. This would be a good representation of the slippage between different semiotic domains.

Quiz Show

How SCANDALOUS! It is interesting to me to watch a movie more than ten years after it came out that still rings true today. A movie my brother watched at a younger age than I and enjoyed. The whole idea of the corruption is always more intriguing to a viewer, ironically. We thrive off of bad news. Hmmm... It is funny to me that something so corny as a quizshow which your grandmother might watch on the daily can also become scandolous and corrupt just like any other occupation. This movie is neat because it is true, and following the quiz show scandals of the 1950's. It provokes many thoughts and questions in my mind about what we watch and what we should really actually believe as the truth. The idea that bad news sells, I realized muhc before this movie was brought to my attention and I have never fully trusted the media because I know not everything is released in news and some or a lot of which is released is very much bias. In this movie... the main character knows better yet he is optimistic about his winnings and tells his wife he wants to do the show forever. Although they already were plotting against him to defeat him with a new contestant. In the long run all 3 of the characters or shall i say contestants are having a hard time dealing with inner beliefs and what is right. It is almost scary that media can do this to us. A fun, loving, family, grandma-watched quiz show could actually be tearing families and the idea of character apart. All of this for what? For money and the simple goal of better t.v. ratings. This doesn't seem legit to me. This movie was very interesting and got me really thinking as it should about the things we consume. I think about my media diet daily. I didn't know I had a media diet before this class. or better worded I didn't pay attention to what I consume and why.

Genre's on T.V.

The amounts of genre on public television are limitless and limitless because of our vast amount of consumption. We the people, or rather viewers are what make these genres possible. Genres are created for and in many different ways but I really think that the way we conceived genres as a class in our class discussion were as the way we view them or as almost particular groups and specific channels. I noticed how many of the genres listed by the groups on the board ran very similar and parallel yet each group had a couple of outlying genres that the other groups did not. I find that very interesting because although the genres exist it seems they only exist to those people who are interested in them. We are what make production possible and I think that is so cool. Without us the industry doesn't exist, it has no purpose whatsoever. This then also more deeply thought of means that within our groups in class on Wednesday we also each brought our own semiotic domains and we saw where each member of each group connected and while each group had a lot of the same genres there were some different genres in different groups meaning that each person has something to bring to the table of genres. Have you ever wondered why we have 3billion channels and sometimes we still are unsatisfied and can't find anything to watch? It is because there are so many genres and so many different targeted audiences that it is very easy to channel surf. What is neat that I took from class on Wednesday was the idea that when we turn on the T.V. it is like saying,"Okay, I'm ready to be bought.". But that is exactly what t.v. is, We are consumers and so it exists. Wow, interesting stuff.

My very own new and extremely exciting GENRE.

My new genre is brilliant.. It is fresh and really intrestingly intriguing. My idea for a new genre is the genre of Cartoons and fitness. The show could be called, "Ejercite con Dora!" or " The Rug Rat's Run time." or even "Alice in Workout Land.". This exciting new hybrid would be definitely a different combination of two very unrelated genre's. The genre of fitness or wellness mixed with the genre of children's television or cartoons. The hybrid would be great for getting kids active. Kid's love watching t.v. more than anything. What do they watch? Cartoons. How do they watch them? Not a good answer comming, they watch them on their butts while eating all kinds of usually not so nutritiou s snacks such as candy, chips, pop, pizza and the list goes on. If we could get our children's favorite characters such as Dora, Spongebob and/or Blue working out on the regular, dancing etc, the kid's would too find working out fun and exciting to do. I know my nieces would be all about dancing with their t.v. pals because what child doesn't spend a very extreme amount of time with cartoons and videogames these days. Why not make these times well spent toward building a healthy future and good habits.

Rap and Politics

Some might find my title ODD. However, I do not. Well... I do, but I think it is funny. These are two entirely different yet somewhat similar domains. My final project is on Rap because I know next to nothing about it. I like listening to rap, but I do not necessarily understand why or how it became. I am a very conservative woman and some might think it strange that I am writing a paper on rap. My boyfriend is a rapper, currently cooking at Carraba's and he too has political views believe it or not. Yes, that's right, rappers have thoughts and brains too. Although we do not always agree, we stand on some common grounds and have some very interesting conversations. It is an awesome relationship because by God allowing us to meet each other it's almost as though he has allowed us to be more well rounded and whole. My boyfriend and I are sending out different texts to people we meet. While I as a politician knock on doors to spread my visions, thoughts, and ideas my boyfriend as a rapper knocks on ears to do the same. We are giving out these texts in hope to be accepted by our targeted audiences. We are both trying to sell a product and in order to be successful we both have to work hard every day and hope people don't just hear us, but they really hear us. While a rapper has to be lyrically clever a politician has to have a strong voice. These two very different professions have a lot in common when thinking of them in the media's eye. Our lives will no longer be private but showcased for people to see, for people to take in. We will share much of the same media, such as the radio eg. 107.9 FM rap and r&b, 1480 A.M. politics and news, the t.v. eg. MTV, VH1, BET(rap), CNN,Fox, NBC(politics), ETC ETC ETC. There are a lot of similarities about these two very different semiotic domains. Both are under an immense amount of political pressure. Whose songs get played? Who gets a record deal? Who gets backed by what lobbyists? Who gets financial support in the primary? These are all very important questions in relating the two ideas. Hopefully our media texts are powerful enough that I might be the youngest woman to hold a seat in the Ohio state house and make some really great laws. That my boyfriend may be the next star to make it and change the game of rap with his style forever. Different but the same.

texts in our lives..EVERYWHERE

Since this course has become a part of my routine, identifying and noticing different media texts has also become quite normal. I had to stop and laugh the other day when I realized how much I enjoy this class and applying it to everyday things that I do. I spend a lot of my spare time (which I actually don't have much of) with my boyfriend of on days where it isn't possible to see him, I spend time conversing with him on the phone. It may have been about week 3 of school when my boyfriend said to me, why do you keep saying semiotic domain, why do you use that for every conversation we have. I couldn't help but laugh. It is funny how when something so simple has never been noticed, that once it is noticed becomes extremely intriguing and infatuating to the human mind. As I live my day to day life, I find myself thinking deeper and looking at things more thoroughly than I did once before. EG. The other day.... I had stopped at a McDonald's and noticed its decor was a very much beautiful and conservative theme. The colors were very neutral, tans and dark greens rather than bright yellow and red. This McDonald's didn't have a "play place" but it did have 3 beautiful electric fireplaces.... I couldn't help but notice that the people dining in were all from the prehistoric ages and children were NOWHERE to be found? Was this by mistake...I think not. The designer of this McDonald's was marketing towards a much older crowd and drawing them in. A month ago... I would have went in, got my food, ate and left without ever considering why that McDonald's was different. If I got a little off topic here, I had meant well, I seem to over analyze things now and I think it's great. It's almost like doing homework that isn't required, the ideas and concepts we talk about in class take action every moment of our existence. I couldn't believe how many media texts I really absorb in a day now that I really pay attention to them. Everyone wants something and their texts are everywhere waiting for them at every moment. How extremely intriguing...

connecting to each of the myths

1.) Wisdom of the Rustic- a popular culture text would be the children's movie Shrek....You may be asking how or why? My answer is this; Shrek is an unhappy, mean, filthy, grumpy ogre. Princess Fiona was once your typical damsel in distress, she was beautiful, smart and more than anything unfortunately helpless and hopeful that her price charming would rescue her. Fiona and Shrek meet and fall in love after much disgust of one another. They come to realize the better parts of each other. Shrek becomes more loving and Fiona becomes more..well more shrek.. she also turns into an ogre and becomes even smarter and funnier. They bring out the good in one another but only because the two elements met and the wisdom of the rustic was gained.
2.) The possibility of success- A popular culture text here would be the movie, Good Will Hunting. This myth to media is a very popular genre because it is so satisfying as a viewer to watch the undo-able be done. In this Matt Damon a very poor, kid who can't stay out of trouble is expected to have no future when suddenly it is discovered that although he is bad he is also more than brilliant. He is a math genius and suddenly there is this great amount of respect for a kid that grew up in the hood. He way outshines professors that have studied math for all their years and he is just some punk kid. I think this example is better than any sports movie. It gives an example of how you can succeed in life from any position and that great minds are not just belonging to those who are complete squares.
3.)Coming of the Messiah: A more than perfect example of this media is the movie Passion of The Christ. Need I say more?
4.) Presence of Conspiracy: The movie V for Vendetta. This movie is all about the underlying idea that the government is evil. There is a huge presence of conspiracy that everything happening in the movie is because of what the government was doing. I found the movie very strange yet compelling. It did cause the stir of my mind though.
5.) Value of a Challenge: Remember the Titans. I certainly remember the titans because this popular media text left a very big imprint in my mind. The challenge of diversity was HUGE.... however, the team overcame the racism and stereotypes originally challenging them and became an amazing football team.Surprise! Almost all value of a challenge movies in in success.
6.) Eternal Return: The movie The family man. In this movie Nicholas Cage more than likely representing the working man... or family man becomes too work oriented and gives up the idea of love and family in order to become more successful, he later has dreams or rather he is in the life of an average man with a family... He wakes up with his wife and kids... He hates it at first but then becomes so happy and realizes how much he loves them and when he finally realizes what they mean to him he is back in his old life as a businessman with no wife or kids.

Value of a challenge/Value of a Movie

The value of this movie is a lot to me. Good Will Hunting is such and eye opening source of media. This media allowed me as a very protected daughter and younger sister to see a very different walk of life. This movie really demonstrated the "myth to media" idea of the value of a challenge. Matt Damon was a kid who had a rough up bringing and he was a "bad" kid but in reality he was bad because he needed more. He wanted a challenge. He was some what of a genius and loved math in fact he was an outstanding mathematician. He was extremely rebellious but intelligent. I also really feel that this movie has another "myth to media" idea of possibility of success. You have this poor, troubled, smart mouth kid with absolutely no intentions of having a bright future for himself, when they sort of stumble upon this underlying talent or genius he has because he was serving time in the school.I have loved this movie for several years but now I can look back on it and really tag those two myths with it of possibility of success and value of a challenge, it is amazing how the entire plot line plays off of these two ideas. A bad kid with no chance of success, succeeds. He loves the math, but would rather rebel and fight being successful through using it.

Media Texts of My Life.

Media that has been extremely life forming for me would be the mass media of the world of politics. I have grown up in and have been extremely active in a politcal family. My father is a current state rep. for Ohio and I hope to hold his position in the near future. Many media texts are involved with my life every day and are full of change, but the one text that remains constant for me is politics. Politics are something I am surrounded by. A way to describe the sensory feeling of using this media, I guess the only good way to explain this is to be sitting in for me on the campaign trail. Just this past week I sat locally at the Stark County fair in our political booth under the grandstands. People watching, I sat studying off and on while also holding conversations with people passing through the fairgrounds. The media texts were lined all up and down the expo buildings at the fair. When I entered under the grandstands towards our political booth, I passed atleast seven other candidates booths. I observed their yard signs, literature, people attending their booths and most importantly if there was a candidate present. These are the kinds of media texts I eat up. I am sure many people could care less about the nerd like text I love but it's what really intrigues me and what I think God wants me doing. Anyhow..... The political media texts are vivid under the grandstand at the stark county fair. These texts are great because they can be directly applied to our lives unlike how some texts such as hollywood are more out of reach. These political texts are sometimes annoying but ultimately created just for us, the voters. It is important to be informed and thats why I think political texts are great.