Well today, we had the day off from Mass Comm, and frankly i was looking forward to have another heather debate for a couple hours. Ever since i was a kid i loved having arguments about things i truly believed in; just ask my parents. Every week in Mass Communications different topics arise and fall and some good debates and arguments are presented by different students. This is what makes it interesting to come to class every week; the student body participating in what really matters. I think the we are privileged to go to university as Lipton says, but i think we are even more privileged to be able to speak our own thoughts in a comforting but subtly conscientious environment. Everywhere around the world there are places that kids cannot go to school, but even in places where there are schools, speaking our minds is sometimes rough or hard to do.
Today, i was bored and started to begin writing some blogs, working on a photography essay, and catching up on some sleep. Everyone in residence is starting to get anxious because it is halloween tonight and there are apparently going to be some sweet parties happening, so I am looking forward to that after a long day of writing. This weekend is going to be critical for me because i need to stop procrastinating on work and start my semiotics paper which has been staring me in the face for the past week.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Readings, The Future, The Media, Bibliography.
In my future years at Guelph Humber it is going to be important that I have a list of texts and books i've read and want to read over the years. So, Heres the start to this list!
1)Whiskey Tango Foxtrot: A Photographer's Chronicle of the Iraq War by Ashley Gilbertson
2)Persuasive Games: The Expressive Power of Videogames by Ian Bogost
3)Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
4)Five Myths of Television Power or Why the Medium Is Not the Message by Douglas Davis
5)Getting the Message: A History of Communications by Laszlo Solymar
6)www.nationalgeographic.com
7)Ways of Seeing by John Berger (re-read)
8)www.engadget.com
9)Facebook.
10)100 Days in Photographs: Pivotal Events That Changed the World by Chris Johns
1)Whiskey Tango Foxtrot: A Photographer's Chronicle of the Iraq War by Ashley Gilbertson
2)Persuasive Games: The Expressive Power of Videogames by Ian Bogost
3)Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
4)Five Myths of Television Power or Why the Medium Is Not the Message by Douglas Davis
5)Getting the Message: A History of Communications by Laszlo Solymar
6)www.nationalgeographic.com
7)Ways of Seeing by John Berger (re-read)
8)www.engadget.com
9)Facebook.
10)100 Days in Photographs: Pivotal Events That Changed the World by Chris Johns
Monday, October 22, 2007
Understanding Comics: What's Important
I always do a first look at a book when I buy it at a bookstore, and I do the same thing with magazines. I do not know if this is a common thing, and I don't even think it helps, but I do it every time no matter what.
When I bought all of my books for Mass Communications I flipped through every one like I do with any other book. Obviously one stood out because it was purely black and white comics. Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud was this very book, and right away it took me by suprise...why is Mark asking us to read a really long comic book? This is what I had to figure out, and after I had read two other necessary books, Understanding Comics came along and I started to read it.
I guess you could say right away the comics explained what the book was going to be about. The third comic box in the introduction told me, "An examination of the art-form of comics what its capable of, how it works."
Two parts throughout the book interested me specifically, the first part beginning on page 24 and continuing on to page 27. These pages are all about the icon, and it starts off by talking about the painted Magnettes Pipe with a simple caption reading this is not a pipe. This is a very famous painting that deals directly with the media, because people simply think; uh yes this a pipe! When the semiotics of it are that it is a painting of a pipe which was originally a drawing of a pipe which was originally just a piece of blank canvas. In my opinion the idea of this is that their is iconic imagery in everything to do with the media today. This is what McCloud goes on to talk about on pages 26 and 27, and these two pages are simply just a bunch of icons saying that they are not what they really are. I found this effective especially because I am in image arts, icons and images are especially important to success and portrayal of images.
The next part I really liked I actually used as a reference in my semiotic paper, there is one part of the book that is all in color, and through flipping and eventually getting to this part, it just seemed more interesting and more effective. Chapter 8 talks about how colors are more effective, and using them in comics and such is more pleasing to the eye, and this is particularly true in my vision of what is a successful image. I love black and white photography and I love the classic sense to it, but color images are where photography is going, and where it always will continue to go.
Understanding Comics was a great book to read, and it really opened my eyes to the different portrayals of images in different medias and how they differ from writing...very effective!
When I bought all of my books for Mass Communications I flipped through every one like I do with any other book. Obviously one stood out because it was purely black and white comics. Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud was this very book, and right away it took me by suprise...why is Mark asking us to read a really long comic book? This is what I had to figure out, and after I had read two other necessary books, Understanding Comics came along and I started to read it.
I guess you could say right away the comics explained what the book was going to be about. The third comic box in the introduction told me, "An examination of the art-form of comics what its capable of, how it works."
Two parts throughout the book interested me specifically, the first part beginning on page 24 and continuing on to page 27. These pages are all about the icon, and it starts off by talking about the painted Magnettes Pipe with a simple caption reading this is not a pipe. This is a very famous painting that deals directly with the media, because people simply think; uh yes this a pipe! When the semiotics of it are that it is a painting of a pipe which was originally a drawing of a pipe which was originally just a piece of blank canvas. In my opinion the idea of this is that their is iconic imagery in everything to do with the media today. This is what McCloud goes on to talk about on pages 26 and 27, and these two pages are simply just a bunch of icons saying that they are not what they really are. I found this effective especially because I am in image arts, icons and images are especially important to success and portrayal of images.
The next part I really liked I actually used as a reference in my semiotic paper, there is one part of the book that is all in color, and through flipping and eventually getting to this part, it just seemed more interesting and more effective. Chapter 8 talks about how colors are more effective, and using them in comics and such is more pleasing to the eye, and this is particularly true in my vision of what is a successful image. I love black and white photography and I love the classic sense to it, but color images are where photography is going, and where it always will continue to go.
Understanding Comics was a great book to read, and it really opened my eyes to the different portrayals of images in different medias and how they differ from writing...very effective!
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Technology is MORE than you would expect!
Today, was one of my favorite Mass Communcations days, because there were a bunch of different ideas brought up that sparked interest specifically in some of my favorite things.
The first topic brought up was about how so many jobs are changing due to technology and its advancements. Mark mentioned how even some of media's jobs including journalism are being taken over by server's, and online news sources such as msn.com and google are completely computer controlled and can actually pin point each computer or users most common topics of interest by which web pages they have viewed. This seems outrageous! but, I knew this before we even started talking about it, because of course I am really interested in technology and how it has been changed so much throughout the past years. By writing these blogs, I am changing the way people view web pages and other blogs without even knowing it! By sitting right at this very computer and in this very webpage space, my ip address is being traced through servers which then send the information to other servers all over the web. This told me a bit more than I knew already, and frankly it told me what my mom has been telling me all these years; BE CAREFUL ON THAT INTERNET!
The next thing Mark began to discuss was the change in technology throughout the past few years and how each of the products has been such a huge factor in both the media and technology world we live in today. I thought the video shown in class was really cool, and it had some special way of locking me in to it and it did not let make take my eyes off of it once. It actually was one of the coolest videos I have seen in a while that actually meant something. My reactions from seeing this video are basically just my thoughts right off the bat and how each product changed the world and the media. For the most part, each technology changed the world for both good and bad. My example of this would be that ICQ is an awesome invention, and if i didnt have it I would not have as many friends or as much of a social life as I do, but on the bad side, a lot of bullying and other situations have come out from messenger programs such as ICQ and I have had first hand accounts with them. All in all, the video inspired me to think more about the effects of technology on the media, and myself as well. Considering my interest in technology, if feel as though this topic kind of effects me directly, and it inspired me to think even more about what insane future technologies will change the media even more drastically than they do today.
The first topic brought up was about how so many jobs are changing due to technology and its advancements. Mark mentioned how even some of media's jobs including journalism are being taken over by server's, and online news sources such as msn.com and google are completely computer controlled and can actually pin point each computer or users most common topics of interest by which web pages they have viewed. This seems outrageous! but, I knew this before we even started talking about it, because of course I am really interested in technology and how it has been changed so much throughout the past years. By writing these blogs, I am changing the way people view web pages and other blogs without even knowing it! By sitting right at this very computer and in this very webpage space, my ip address is being traced through servers which then send the information to other servers all over the web. This told me a bit more than I knew already, and frankly it told me what my mom has been telling me all these years; BE CAREFUL ON THAT INTERNET!
The next thing Mark began to discuss was the change in technology throughout the past few years and how each of the products has been such a huge factor in both the media and technology world we live in today. I thought the video shown in class was really cool, and it had some special way of locking me in to it and it did not let make take my eyes off of it once. It actually was one of the coolest videos I have seen in a while that actually meant something. My reactions from seeing this video are basically just my thoughts right off the bat and how each product changed the world and the media. For the most part, each technology changed the world for both good and bad. My example of this would be that ICQ is an awesome invention, and if i didnt have it I would not have as many friends or as much of a social life as I do, but on the bad side, a lot of bullying and other situations have come out from messenger programs such as ICQ and I have had first hand accounts with them. All in all, the video inspired me to think more about the effects of technology on the media, and myself as well. Considering my interest in technology, if feel as though this topic kind of effects me directly, and it inspired me to think even more about what insane future technologies will change the media even more drastically than they do today.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Documentary: March of the Penguins
For our group Documentary project we decided to watch a popular documentary that is completely to do with the lives and struggles penguins go through every year to reproduce. When we first got together and started talking about what documentary we should watch, we thought about doing documentaries by Michael Moore and some one the really popular criticisms on society which would be easy to relate to the media and so on. We chose not to watch one of these documentaries because we felt like we wanted more of a challenge of relating back to the media and its influences on everyone and everyones influences on each other.
We began by watching the film and discussing it a little bit afterwards about what is was about and such, then we took a break and went for dinner to sort of gather our thoughts and then return to the discussion after. So we came back from dinner heads held high to each give our opinions on how we each thought a group of penguins reproducing each year could possibly relate to the media. As everyone knows, the media is one of the biggest influences and factors in changing peoples opinions with or without them even knowing it. When I watched this documentary I began to think about how easy it is for peoples opinions to be changed, and i began to wonder whether mine had been changed. I began to think about how the media has changed our thoughts to think that the only really important things in life are celebrities lives, making money, and how much trouble Brittany Spears is getting in each week. This film made me really think back to what life used to be like when there was no forms of communication for the media. When everyone sat at the dinner table and had there dog sitting beside them (bingo-fallawfall) and they each told each other about their days at work, and everyone just had a good old conversation. Now from what I can see, and what i know most of my friends and my families do is just sit around the tv with their food in their hands, and watch an episode of family guy or some other family oriented tv show that of course has media's advertising all over it.
This film, as you can see inspires a lot of thought about how a group of penguins each year deals with the cold and meanwhile no one cares about them even though they are still God's creatures just like us and just as important as us. Yet, we being the supreme being (movie: the fifth element) are changing rapidly and beginning to simply forget about the rest of the world; which to me (being in image arts) is extremely important to keep thinking about as they do have effects on us we cannot even understand.
Saturday, October 13, 2007
We The Media! and....The Glorification of Violence
We The Media was a really interesting read, there were so many different ideas about the media, and thoughts from hundreds of different authors, journalists, hobby writers and more. I think having all these different people corralate their ideas in to a piece of writing is great because there are so many different aspects and possible solutions for different media realted issues that arise.
One part I thought was really interesting, was the part on Violence Glorification. An author named Jon Carroll wrote a part of this section with his part entitled The Fear Years. Jon talks about how the television is the number one source of news for people even over newspapers. Through television, it is easiest to understand violence and the true scariness that people CAN die. Carroll talks about how viewers strive for blood and guts on television but really it is not that they actually like this content but rather that they are scared all the time and therefore do not see the reality of things.
At the end of a few of the sections in this book, there are true or false or other versions of this, and in this section a scary but true section describes some facts.
One fact mentioned that even children shows contain close to 26 violent acts or things within each our of it. THIS IS SCARY! When I was a kid I know I believed pretty much everything that I watched, and from the Flinstones to Leave it to Beaver, I know now that there really are violent acts in pretty much everything we watch. The problem with the media however is that it has pursuaded us enough to not even think about it as we watch it but rather let it soak in to our brains invisibly effecting us later.
There were a lot of ideas in We The Media, and I truly will use this as one of the once in a lifetime books I have read that I know I will use in the future.
One part I thought was really interesting, was the part on Violence Glorification. An author named Jon Carroll wrote a part of this section with his part entitled The Fear Years. Jon talks about how the television is the number one source of news for people even over newspapers. Through television, it is easiest to understand violence and the true scariness that people CAN die. Carroll talks about how viewers strive for blood and guts on television but really it is not that they actually like this content but rather that they are scared all the time and therefore do not see the reality of things.
At the end of a few of the sections in this book, there are true or false or other versions of this, and in this section a scary but true section describes some facts.
One fact mentioned that even children shows contain close to 26 violent acts or things within each our of it. THIS IS SCARY! When I was a kid I know I believed pretty much everything that I watched, and from the Flinstones to Leave it to Beaver, I know now that there really are violent acts in pretty much everything we watch. The problem with the media however is that it has pursuaded us enough to not even think about it as we watch it but rather let it soak in to our brains invisibly effecting us later.
There were a lot of ideas in We The Media, and I truly will use this as one of the once in a lifetime books I have read that I know I will use in the future.
Friday, October 12, 2007
Week 6
Today was an interesting class because we talked about one thing that would be the basis of our big paper to come near the end of the semester.
Semiotic analysis seems like an interesting concept, and after taking part of the discussion in this class, it seems completely logic. We discussed how the universe is a closed system, and that everything derives from something else originally. I think this is true because everything evolved from either the big bang or from any of the other ideas containing information on how humans got to earth. Semiotics deals with signs and text in the media, and the main thing I got out of this discussion is that we need to be skeptical of things different commercials, advertisements, and figures are telling us because it may just be in order to pursuade us to buy a product or something else.
From watching just a few commercials on youtube or on the television I really saw different things in the commercials just by taking a second look at them, and it is important for me to be able to see these things in the future of my media studies career!
Semiotic analysis seems like an interesting concept, and after taking part of the discussion in this class, it seems completely logic. We discussed how the universe is a closed system, and that everything derives from something else originally. I think this is true because everything evolved from either the big bang or from any of the other ideas containing information on how humans got to earth. Semiotics deals with signs and text in the media, and the main thing I got out of this discussion is that we need to be skeptical of things different commercials, advertisements, and figures are telling us because it may just be in order to pursuade us to buy a product or something else.
From watching just a few commercials on youtube or on the television I really saw different things in the commercials just by taking a second look at them, and it is important for me to be able to see these things in the future of my media studies career!
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Communication in the Media and Concepts
Today, was a really interesting day in class, and it was defenetely one of my favorite so far. When we were all settled in class and ready to go, we started to watch a commercial for one of the big jeans and clothing companies; GAP. I had seen the commercial before, so i knew what company it was advertising for as soon as i saw it. After we watched it once we sort of discussed lightly how celebrities are used to promote products for companies and such which already was something i had not thought about every time i had seen the commercial. As we watched it again, Mark told us to look for symbols and other little things that were sort of behind the scenes or in places we wouldnt usually look when watching the commercial originally. As we took a second view, and responded to Mark's questions a few different things were brought up and some things were noticed in the commercial that no one had even noticed. This picture on the right signifies one main proposition we brought up about how the left is always more dominant than the right and everything to do with Madonna in this video deals with things on her left side or for example her turning to the left. On the other hand, Missy Elliot seems to do everything with the right side including turning and even to the little things of the way scenes behind her move from the the right to the left which isn't as effective for the viewer. To begin to think about things like this is I feel is really cool because i am beginning to see different signs and look directly in to the media rather than just coolly observing it.
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