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.