Top 10 Media Revelations

1) Production Techniques - I cannot stress enough the importance of this. When developing a message to reach the public, it is vitally important to implement proper production techniques in order to effectively portray the message to persuade or gain favor from the target audience. Some important production techniques include camera angles, lighting, editing, sound effects, color scheme, symbols, etc. One example of a political message which uses very powerful production techniques is the “We are the ones (who can change the world)” video promoting Barrack Obama. This video is very powerful because it uses people of all races and a catchy song to touch emotions. It is also black and white, showing simplicity, yet also can be very close up, to show more humanization.“The influence is more subtle and operates on several levels” (Media & Society 71).


2) Web 2.0 – Positive and Negative. Looking at the newest developments in web 2.0, such as myspace, facebook, youtube, etc., there are many pros and cons of these types of sites. We must often ask ourselves do the benefits outweigh the pitfalls. For some, the answer has clearly been ‘no’ which has resulted in a few individuals to remove themselves entirely from facebook. For others however, these sites have been extraordinarily helpful and beneficial for many different tools, especially for marketing and advertising. “The differences between ‘old’ and ‘new’ forms of media are substantial in themselves. As with the introduction of previous technologies, however, the new forms of communication have produced often wild speculation about their social impact” (Media & Society 321).

3) Cognitive Dissonance - according to Dictionary.com is described as “A condition of conflict or anxiety resulting from inconsistency between one's beliefs and one's actions…” This term is related to the media in the sense that often individuals are influenced by what they see or hear on through media and are encouraged to act upon what they hear, even if the actions do not coincide with their personal beliefs. This also relates to M.T. Anderson’s Feed because when the feed tells people about sales they often partake in impulse purchasing, even if they may not normally like the product. “The Swarp XE-11: You can take it with you” (Feed 157).

4)
CNN USA vs. CNN INT’L. This revelation taught me how certain media conglomerates actually operate and report the news. For example, a large media company such as CNN reports news on a national scale, however the news we see in America is not the same news seen in Europe or the Middle East. CNN reports different stories depending on their audience, and sugarcoats much of the news reports in the US, often to make it appear less violent or harmful. This relates to Feed in that each personal Feed caters to the common purchases and likes of a given individual. It almost works like cookies and cache for personal web browsing. “Concentration has affected the relationship between various media organizations within a single conglomerate” (Media & Society 40).

5) “Militainment” was the term used in Danny Schechter’s film “Weapons of Mass Deception.” This term is used to describe entertainment or media that glorifies or features military related actions. This is often used in the American news when trying to portray wars to everyday citizens. One example of this would be a drawing or map showing attack plans or tactics, almost appearing as a football game.“The masculine/military films of the time both reflected the fears and desires of American men and helped reproduce a new brand of toughness that became prevalent in the 1990s” (Media & Society 176).

6) VNR’s or News? Something that provided me with insight was the prominence of video news releases. I knew they existed but had no idea how common they were used around the country, especially for stories that do no even seem as though they would be paid for by a corporation. It is often hard to identify a video news release, but after knowing what to look for, they are omniscient. “One Saturday, a few days after we saw the riot from the news in our dreams, there was this promotion, where if you talked about the great taste of Coca-Cola to your friends like a thousand times, you got a free six-pack of it…”(Feed 158).


7) Feed Withdrawal – When reading Anderson’s Feed, I found it very interesting how reliant the children became on the feed. When their feeds temporarily stopped working, they began having withdrawals and did not know what to do with their spare time. This reminds me of today when our internet is down we often find ourselves with a lot more free time. When they get their feed back it is described as “And the feed was pouring in on us now, all of the feednet, and we could feel all of our favorites, and there were our files, and our m-chatlines” (Feed 70).

8) Masculinity in Music – this is something that is portrayed often through hip hop and rap music. Many artists portray a message of partaking in masculine actions while demeaning women. This often influences young listeners to act a certain way in order to try to fit into this male stereotype of acting tough. “Producers are likely to portray men as more dominant than women and as more prone to engage in violence” (Media & Society 213).


9) PSA’s or Public Service Announcements are a great way to get a message across to a particular audience. They can be used in many different forms and are often somewhat educational. The message should be short and to the point, so as to not bore or lose the attention of the viewer. “People exist only as receptacles for media messages, passive groups whose behaviors and attitudes are the result of a powerful external force: the media” (Media & Society 265).


10) Hegemony is everywhere. This is something I have learned through reading both Feed and Media and Society. Hegemony is the dominance of one social group over another, instilling opinions or beliefs on the subjugated group. This is often related to how the media ‘controls’ the country by telling citizens what to believe, how to act, and what to purchase “Hegemony operates at the level of common sense in the assumptions we make about social life and on the terrain of things that we accept as ‘natural’ or ‘the way things are” (Media & Society 166).

Fabeook in Real Life... PSA

Comparative “Hegemony” and “Representation"

Many forms of media contain many different principles that can be applied to the production. Often these different media channels overlap the several principles and production techniques. Looking more closely at specific media channels, "Beyond Beats and Rhymes – representations of men/masculinity and hip hop music" shows reality construction through the use of how many "street rappers" write songs about what they feel is a reality to them. These issues often include issues such as drugs, violence, and abuse of women. In reality, these young artists may live in middle-income suburbia and may have never even been exposed to those types of situations. However, they get this image from many mainstream rappers they see in the media. There are many similarities found in another film "Independent Media In A Time of War – mainstream media representations of the Iraq War." Both films also use emotional transfer by showing explicit, or specific footage to touch the emotions of viewers.

Throughout both of these films, many persuasive techniques are used to persuade viewers to feel a certain way.
Nostalgia is used in both films by showing old news clips and music videos.
Rhetorical questions are used in the films to ask people and their beliefs about war and hip hop in the media.
Group Dynamics are apparent in both films bu saying "we" need to do something for change.
Strength is used by the narrators of both films, showing clear, concise and strong speaking.
Cognitive Dissonance is used in the films to show how the media consciously leaves out certain things and includes other material in order to persuade viewers.
Denial is apparent in both films in that many people in these films chose to turn their cheek and ignore certain things.

Ideology is the organized collection of common ideas by a certain group of people. Both films challenge mainstream ideologies of war in the news, and mainstream hip hop. The ideology of war is challenged by saying that the US is sheltered from real images of war that are seen in media around the rest of the world. Media specifically sugarcoats the news on war for the US because we as a culture are afraid of the reality of it. The ideology of mainstream hip hop is challenged by saying not all hip hop is about drugs, violence, and wealth. Also, that the roots of hip hop was more cultural expression rather than mainstream ideologies.

Hegemony is the dominance of a social group, along with their ideas, and beliefs that influence lesser dominant groups. This can be applied to the topics of both films in that a group of elites in the media or hip hop artists tell the everyday person how to think. These elites instill ideas in us that may not necessarily be true about society, but after hearing them on a national media, we chose to believe these types of ideas, making them true. In hip hop, many things become "normalized" for young listeners, which causes them to think certain violent actions are acceptable. Also, news and media often fail to show us real images of the devastation of war, so many viewers often have come to the conclusion that the war devastation is not as bad as some may think.

Both films discussed present good cases of persuasion. "Independent Media In A Time of War – mainstream media representations of the Iraq War" provided me with the insight on how mainstream media uses cognitive dissonance to leave certain things out of news reports. This film also informed me more about independent media and how often overlooked it is, just because it lacks the popularity of mainstream news such as CNN. It is very interesting that news corporations such as CNN often report the same story with different images to different parts of the world.
The other film observed, "Beyond Beats and Rhymes – representations of men/masculinity and hip hop music" hit home more to me however. This is not because I grew up in hip hop culture, but because I enjoy this type of music. I take every word in the song with a grain of salt, and make sure to not take the lyrics as reality. Hip hop is to me is more about beats than words. This film was influential and persuasive because many people never stop to think about how men and masculinity are represented in hip hop.

Beyond Beats and Rhymes


Independent Media in a Time of War

Focus the Nation PSA

Bud Light Cavemen and Wheel

Media Concepts and Feed

When reading multiple books at one time, things can often get a bit overwhelming. However, often one may find connections between several books if reading them during overlapping time periods. In the Media/Society book by David Croteau and William Hoynes many media related concepts are presented. One particular concept I found to be notable was that of A model of media in the social world. This concept entails different parts consisting of the social world in the center, surrounded by the readers or audience, medial message or product, the media industry, and technology.
The four parts of the model described are "simultaneously a part of the social world and surrounded by the social world" (Croteau 25). Each part of the media model are all related to one another. One component would not be the same without the others because they all work together. For example, we use technology in order to send and receive information on the medial message or product. This media model in the social world is not just a concept that exists in the Media/Society book. One may find that this concept reappears indirectly in other forms.
One such novel that presents its own version of the concept described in Media/Society regarding the model of media in society is the novel Feed. This book by M.T. Anderson tells the story of Titus, who had a Feed transmitter implanted into his brain and has to learn how to function without it. The concept of the model of media and the social world relates to this story because the "Feed" transmitters send news updates, ads, commercials, reminders and many other things directly to the brains of humans. This directly relates to Media/Society in that each aspect of the model of media in the social world work together because the industry is able to send the medial message or product information to consumers through Feed technology.

"You go try to have fun like a normal person, a person with a real life - just for one night you want to live, and suddenly you're screwed" (Anderson 53). This quote shows the display of reliance on the Feed, and how the kids in the novel realize that their everyday life depends on Feed updates constantly.

Media Memoir

Over the years media has evolved in many ways. My personal experience with media has also changed drastically as media has evolved over the years. As a young child, my media experience consisted primarily of television. I used to watch cartoons on Saturday mornings just as every other child did. As a child, I knew everything I saw on television was not real; however many of the shows I watched had an influence on me.

As I progressed into my teenage years, I began to use the internet more and more. The internet has grown extremely fast over the years, and is now one of the most prominent types of media for my age group. Growing up, my dad taught me a lot about computers and how the internet works. This was very beneficial because as I got older I was able to learn more about online media myself. My family tends to use internet very often for work, news, and leisure.

Radio was also a prominent form of media for me growing up. I used to listen to the radio before CD’s and mp3 files become the new age. I also remember riding in the car with my dad when I was younger and he would listen to National Public Radio. At the time, I also nagged him to change the station because I considered talk radio to be boring. Listening to talk radio more recently, I realized that it is very informative for news and many of the topics are actually very interesting. Recently, this past Fall I was interviewed about online social networking on Vermont Public Radio. This changed my opinion of talk radio, because I realized they include topics I am interested in. The interview allowed me to explain the prominence of social networking sites such as facebook.com or myspace.com to an older demographic that may have little to no knowledge of these sites.

Newspapers were not as prominent in my childhood, besides the typical comic strips. I always saw my parents reading newspapers but never really understood why they enjoyed that so much. As I got older, in my later years of high school, teachers began to encourage students to read the newspaper and assigned summarizing articles. This made me begin to get involved in reading the news.

Personally, I do not enjoy reading something that I am not necessarily interested in; whether it may be book, magazine, or newspaper, if it is not on a topic of my liking, than I will dread reading it. Instead of reading a book or newspaper, I would much rather watch television, browse the web, or listen to radio or music. The web is the most prominent form of media for me today, and will more than likely become traditionally accepted form of media in our society.