News Questions

For this blog I am to answer 8 questions as follows:

1. What are the advantages and disadvantages of television as a news source?
2. How much of television news is intended  as entertainment?
3. How much is the function of a news anchor person to entertain?
4. What role does voice and costuming play in a newscast?
5. Which of these were found in your review of the newscast you viewed?
6. What is the difference between fact and opinion?
7. What is the difference between "serious" and "light" news?
8. What role does objectivity play in the news?

1. Television being used as a news source is good because you do not have to go searching around for news.  Other advantages could include the fact that it is convenient.  However, commonly, television news isn't necessaily untrue but, the news company decides what you see so, they decide what you are supposed to view as important.
2. Television news isn't said to be viewed as entertainment but, it usually is.  If you want to know about something you research it.  News is commonly when you are bored or when you have nothing to research, so you watch a broadcast about events that you know nothing about and, thus, might not be true or might not suit your interests.
3. Although not directly, the news anchorman or woman is commonly a stereotypical "perfect" person.  They seem very knowledgable, yet, all they're doing is reading a script.  We rarely see what they look like off the air.  They may not be there to necesarily entertain, but, more to "advertise" the "perfect" person.
4. The voice and costumes are usually that of well-dressed, well-mannered people.  Wealthy people if you must.  They commonly have a very powerful voice.  They, like most everyone on Television, are groomed and perfected for hours before going on the air.  So, how much are we wanting to be that intelligent, well-dressed, well-mannered, "perfect" person when, in reality, they may be no where near that?
5. http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/Shows/1221254309/ID=2173688133 - I did not watch all of this newscast although it was quite interesting.
Although the newscast I found does not have anchormen/women shown directly, the narrator does have quite a "powerful" voice.  The newscast also, barely mentions where they got their information from.  They only provide vague and general sources.  Scientists in general rather than a specific research center.
6. The difference between fact and opinion news is whether they provide insight on the news they are reporting or if they just tell the story exactly as it is factually.  The problem is, how can you know if any of the newscasts are purely factual when they don't identify sources?
7. Serious news is commonly about an event that happened quite recently and is usually tragic. Ex Death of a high ranking government official.  Light news would be about a study that has been going on for a while and is usually not very tragic. Ex. A study on the amount deaths over a certain number of years.  This ties in with a quote I know and understand by Joseph Stalin - "One death is a tragedy; One million is a statistic".
8. Although it does not play a very important role, objectivity still is present.  Commonly anchorwomen are more "perfect" than their male counterparts.  Maybe, because they are readied more, makeup, etc, I'm not sure.  Men are portrayed, though, with a more powerful and deeper voice which makes them seem more important.  Objectivity definately plays a role just not as large of one as the content.

Green Day: American Idiot - Review of a Review

I am reviewing a review of the green day album American Idiot.  The assignment, to me, is not very clear cut, as it says "Find an online review for the album" but, does not clarify if it should be the rdio.com review tabs or anywhere else.  Since I based mine on the rdio reviews tab there was practically no information on the review.  No criticisims, Just a simple opinion, not to say I don't agree with it.  The album is quite good but, only a few songs I would listen too.  Which was the main point of the review I read... which was 34 words long. So, yes I agree with the review.  Which was 34 words long just to repeat.  I count that more as a comment.  I'm just going to add that I do not like rdio very much as a music website.  Grooveshark seems like the best we've signed up for that allows you to listen to music free and get references to new bands.

RIP: A Remix Manifesto - Creativity or Crime

In class we watched a musical documetary called RIP: A Remix Manifesto which described many different situations people had with copyright laws which forced them into debt because of an apparent illegal action such as, downloading a song or remixing a song or type of media.  For this blog I am to state my opinion about the documentary and answer one question based on my opinion - Do I think a remixed song is a creative work of art or an illegal action?  Firstly, based on the movie and my opinion, I liked the movie but, found it just kept asking a question instead of trying to answer.  I guess they expected the audience to answer the question - Should we leave all our work in the public domain where it will be allowed to be remixed and taken for free or should all of our work be OUR work and no one can edit, modify, or change anything at all or take any of it without paying the respective author.  I noticed they always stated all the flaws of the copyright side but, then stated flaws about the public domain / creative commons side.  Which leaves me believing that there should be a balance between the two.  A remix should only be created if the respective author allows it, not the company the author signed with.  But, people are greedy, what can you do? Only the band or media creator can tell the publishers or record company to back off.  So, all you can do is talk to the band or media creator somehow and complain.  On the topic of downloading music I believe it is fine if individuals are sued for downloading a type of media.  When someone is downloading something and they get sued and complained they should know that when you are downloading a type of media you may have consequences.  They don't catch everyone for downloading things but, those who are downloading media should know there is risk.  As for the question I believe in both sides.  A person, first of all, should get the band or creator's official consent to remix the song and then, go ahead.  If the creator does not agree and doesn't want their media remixed then, they won't let you and in that case it should be considered an illegal action.  There is no problem with that.

Television and Its Female Stereotypes

For an assignment I was to watch 1 to 2 hours worth of television and examine the female stereotypes.

For this assignment I only watched 1 hour of television because I can't deal with just sitting there watching, to me, mindless advertisements and usually mindless shows.  I say, usually mindless shows because it so I watched 2 episodes of family guy, because I enjoy that show, and all the commercials in between.  However, I did not count specifically how many women were thin and stereotyped.  But, I can tell you, there were quite a few.  Yet, Family Guy pokes fun at such jokes, so, some of them were obviously jokes or stereotyped to make jokes funnier.  I find it difficult to post a chart on a blog so, I could not put a chart on the blog.  I don't believe a chart is necessary.  Most of it is quite obvious.  One thing that I especially noticed about McDonalds commercial, which happened for both genders, is that, ironically, the people in it are slim which doesn't make any sense whatsoever because McDonalds makes many people obese.  Not to say it isn't their chocie, but, McDonalds encouarges.  Another thing I noticed is how females who didn't live up to the stereotype were always made fun of and pushed around.  Such as, Meg from family guy, which is who I was refering to specifically.  Tampons were also an ad that portrayed women with the sexy innocence role.  On that note, I remember finding an ad once that was about treatment for a STD / STI and it especially pointed out that aspect.  I forget what the diesease was however.  Otherwise, I saw a enough stereotypes not to list all of them.  I absolutely hate television anyway as it is not something I like, and I feel no one else should, like to do in their spare time.  Mostly because it is usually not an actual literary work.  Movies I am fine with, but, TV is just not something that commonly has a story.

Media Key Concepts

There are four key concepts in Media
In this blog I will break down four different media texts using each concept.

Guinness Beer - The Media Constructs Reality
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yv7uyjtEkY

This is the first Media I chose because of how much it reconstructs reality.  It is perfect for this concept as it deals with a much different construction than our real life.  In a way it is a truth, as it pertains to the theory of evolution.  But, people didn't just start as single-cell organisms and just evolve throughout their lifetime so they can drink beer.  It pretty much deconstructs every basic element of life.  In a way it's trying to say beer is why single-cell organisms evolved into man.

Confederate Family - Media Contains Value Messages
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypIbTpnuNgg&feature=related

This commercial is quite racist.  Not necessarily directly but, from different perspectives it is.  If a white male were to watch this commercial, he would probably feel quite important.  But, in the eyes of a black male, he would probably feel quite degraded.  Of course though they probably didn't directly try to make it like that.  This ad was, nevertheless, likely directed at white males.  It also does tie in with values quite a bit but, I discuss that on the fourth key concept.

Far Cry 2 Commercial - Media Messages contain commercial implications
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqWt6TmVCOg

This commercial, although not directly present in the ad unless you have played the game, is actually supporting the Jeep branch of the Chrysler Corporation.  So, either Chrysler payed Ubisoft to have their vehicle in the game, vice versa, or they worked out some kind of legal agreement, considering both get advertising value out of the trade.  Either way one or both of the companies made or saved money through this process.

Burger King Texas Bacon Double Whopper - Media contains Value Messages
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcTWwXyt_Rs&feature=related

This advertisement definitely contains Value Messages.  It is a stereotypical female with an attractive body.  Except there are three of them and they are all wearing bikinis or revealing clothing everywhere.  This may appeal to females to stay ridiculously skinny.  Yet, somehow they still eat a large unhealthy burger.  For males they see the stereotypical attractive female and, of course like the smart people they are, buy a burger because they saw three half-naked women on TV.  Some commercials just don't make sense to me.

I fixed the link. Thanks for catching that I had a bit of confusion when I was copying and pasting links and I switched a few around.  I must have copied a link and replaced it in the process.

Psychographic Profiles

I believe my psychographic profile is Balanced/Totally Intergrated.  Apparently this is a rare portion of the population like 1-2%.   I believe I am this because I care about my social life but, also try my best in school and "achieve".  I probably care more about my social life but, I find it hard to decide.  Deciding whether to finish homework/schoolwork or hanging out with friends is a tough decision.  I also do not care so much about the media categorizing me.  They will have a number of people to go through and look at me as a statistic.  It doesn't bother me.  Also, attached to this is a post of how I would like my online profile to look.

ManiancalMojo7
My school work comes before friends.
I enjoy playing videogames usually with friends because I enjoy competition.
High School is not very hard but, is a very good experience.
One of my favourite quotes, I'm not sure who said it, but,
Life is like an hourglass, eventually everything hits bottom.
I will try my best to never owe anyone money and I will never need to pay anyone back.
Each of these statements are in order from value, Interest, Experience, Attitude/belief, and behaviour statements.
I am also supposed to include a descriptive profile paragraph.
I am a hard worker who believes in myself but, I couldn't live without my friends.  That is why I am a Balanced person.  I can't think of much more to put in my paragraph other than I like videogames.

My Digital Footprint

In Miller Comprehensive high school there is this cool new class called media studies 20.  I am a grade eleven student who just happens to be in this class which makes it even cooler.  This blog post is an assignment for the class called "My Digital Footprint" as you can see on the heading.  There is also a website I may refer to often which is...  http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/koppel/interactive/interactive.html.  Anyway, I did understand what a digital footprint was before I even took this course.  But, I never did think about it and it's impact very much.  Having a digital footprint doesn't scare me however.  In fact, It is kind of neat that almost anyone in the world can know all about "Brody Lennox" just by typing it in google.  But, even now while I'm taking this class I still don't think too much about my digitial footprint.  Only the things I thought about already.  There is one thing I did want to talk about.  That website I mentioned in the beginning, It may be my opinion, But, It was complete BOGUS.  I like that word.  Anyway, some of the things were right but, most of it didn't seem that plausible.  Like,"I'm walking down the street" oh, there is a camera there. What?  Do you really think cameras are all over the place.  Or the $1 toll both, Well obviously everyone would just pay with a debit card.  That's not a extreme at all.  (Saracasm intended).  All I'm saying is we aren't really leaving that much of a digital footprint when we aren't on a computer or internet.  If anyone wants to discuss anything just leave a comment below.

Did you know? 4.0

•  What type of media do you use most often during the day?
• How much time do you spend on the different types of media mentioned?
• What fact shocked you the most? Why?
• How important is media to you in your life?
• Any other thoughts or reactions.

I use my game console much more often than my computer to chat with friends, discuss things, and connect.  When I do use my computer I use it for school purposes usually considering this is an assignment for MS20.

I only spend a couple hours a week on my computer and 20 - 30 hours on my game console... A DAY!!! How is that even possible.  Anyway that's a week depending on if time permits.  Otherwise I hate watching TV considering I like to be competetive so it is really hard to be competetive while watching TV unless you get into a remote war.

The fact that 95% of songs in the world were downloaded and only 5% was actually bought.  I mean it makes sense it's just suprising that that many songs in a year would be downloaded.  Not many musicians are getting credit for their work and I have a friend who is aspiring to be a musician... going to be pretty hard for him!

Media is quite important to my life.  I use it to connect with friends so, I can't see why it wouldn't be important to anyone.  I mean everyone uses it.  Even, like 3 year olds who watch cartoons.  That's media.

A few other facts were surprising but, I don't need to name them here. Media seems like it is important to anyone and everyone.