Globalization

Globalization is a process that connects people, nations and their cultures from all over the world through communication networks and trade. People are able to communicate and connect more easily and efficiently in globalization. Facebook would be an example of how globalization works through communication because it can connect a person in the United States to someone in China. Disney could also be seen as an example because it has become a global media firm that attracts consumers from all over the world.

Cultural imperialism is dominance of a powerful culture over a weak culture. Through globalization, cultural imperialism connects cultures by dominance. A dominant culture can completely change another culture by altering their social system, economy, and way of life. Disney is a global media firm that makes money by going into different nations and influencing the cultures.

A letter was wrote to the editor of The New York Times called, "Smiling Through the Cultural Imperialism," makes some points when discussing cultural imperialism on how America has influenced different cultures through media sources.

Advertisements

I recently discovered an ad for the iPhone HD. The commercial itself does not say much, but the images say a lot to me. How the product is displayed in the advertisement was very persuasive to me. The music and the images convinced me that the iPhone HD was a very powerful and cool product that I would really like to have. The ad showed different angles of the phone and different uses it has, which made it even more convincing.

One of the advertising appeals from the lecture was attention, achievement, and prominence. An ad that uses this appeal would show that this product will bring a person a sense of achievement and greatness. The product will bring attention to the consumer from others, and help that person look even greater because the product is so prominent. The ad will convince consumers that if they buy the product being advertised, they will achieve prominence.

I think the iPhone HD can do this to consumers. The ad has the prominence and attention appeal by showing all the different, great things the phone can do, and how great the consumer will look if they purchase the phone. If the consumer by buys the iPhone HD, they will achieve a new height of communication and socialization.

Film Structure

The first act in Hollywood's 3 Act structure is the introduction. In the movie Sunshine Cleaning, for the first probably 30 minutes of the movie, Rose's (the main character) life is displayed. It introduces her life as this crumbling puzzle by showing her poor, lonely, and daydreaming about a life she wanted. She cleans other people's houses as a job, has an affair with a married man, and feels like she never lived up to other people around her. The first act introduces this and gives the audience an idea about the main character. The plot point one peaks when Rose is told by her "boyfriend" there is a job she can do to make money.

Rose begans a business and makes money, helping her with a great deal of her problems. The action rises as Rose's life becomes more successful and she begans to figure things out. These actions from the first act transitions into the second act. In the second act, Rose's dream job is diminished when her sister ruins the business by setting a house on fire and getting the business shut down. This act takes up the next third of the movie by setting the problem for the story. Rose is now back to where she began in the first act of the movie; now, she's just more depressed.

Transitioning into the last act of the movie for the last third of the movie, Rose makes up with her sister and her father ends up selling his house to start up a business for Rose. The story ends up with a happy ending completing the "happy ending structure" the 3 act structure has.

Sitcoms!

Sitcoms are usually known to be comedies. They consist of short episodes with mainly a humorous story line, and have the same recurring characters and environment.  Sitcoms also have seasons; they'll run for a certain amount of episodes, take a break, and then start back up when the next season comes around. Also, people can expect the same things to be in sitcoms. Sitcoms usually have the same characters and environment in each episode.

If a show falls into these characters, it will fall into the sitcom genre. However, when sitcoms are brought to people's minds, funny and short are the two characteristics that will most likely come to mind, like The Office.

The Office falls perfectly into the sitcom genre. It has a humorous story line, and runs in thirty minute episodes. People do not watch The Office without wanting to laugh. Also, viewers can expect the same characters (Michael, Jim, Pam, Dwight, etc.) and environment (Dunder Mifflin workplace) in each episode.

Shots...

Shots and angles have a lot to do with how a scene is portrayed to an audience. They can affect how audiences perceive a particular scene, and the emotions they receive from it. I am a Harry Potter fanatic; one of my favorites is Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

This is the final battle in the fifth Harry Potter movie. Here would be the "long shot." Voldemort has disappeared from this scene, and it seems to be only Dumbledore and Harry now. This shot reveals the setting of the upcoming scene for the audience. It shows a long view of the scene, and concentrates mainly on Harry by not showing Dumbeldore's face. This helps reveal the fact that something that concerns Harry is about to take place.

This would be the medium shot of the film; it confirms that this scene does in fact concentrate on Harry and his battle between letting Voldemort possess him completely or fighting against it and staying true to himself. Harry is also shown alone in this scene. That could be used to represent that he feels alone in this situation and can only fight Voldemort himself.

In this close-up shot, it reveals Harry's emotion in the situation. The shot reveals that he is in pain, yet shows a break through for the character. The audience discovers that while this may be a painful and hard moment for Harry, he is fighting the pain and will not back down. The close-up shot reveals this by getting closer to his face and letting the audience view the emotion. Also, this shot shows his eyes are back to normal, unlike the middle shot that showed Harry unlike himself; that reveals that Harry fought against Voldemort and is winning.

The Studio System

In a short summary, studios in the era of "Classical Hollywood" worked through vertical integration. Everything the studios produced was through their own company. They did the production, distribution, and exhibition. Something I think helped generate a lot of the studios' success, however, was their ideas of using stars to promote their company. Celebrities were the faces and representations of the studios.

Like we talked about in the lecture this past week, stars were the "best representations of what studios did." If a studio signed an actor that could sing, then most likely that studio would be making lots of musicals. The studios worked with their stars' talents; a studio who hired a dancing actor would be making films with dance numbers. This would attract audiences to certain film genres because of the actors who starred in the films, and the studios would use this to make money.

An example would be Judy Garland. Judy Garland was a representation for MGM studios, and was also used to promote other MGM stars. Judy was assocated with the innocent and "girl-next-door" look, and kept that association through must of her career. She was mostly known to sing, so when audiences previewed a movie starring Judy Garland, they knew it would most likely be a musical film, such as The Wizard of Oz. Judy Garland was associated with the musical genre, and helped promote MGM through that.

All in the Family vs. That 70's Show

While I was watching All in the Family, my mind couldn't help but wander to That 70's Show. There are major differences, but there are some similarities, obviously.

I believe that That 70's Show is somewhat of a milder version of All in the Family. All in the Family addressed sensitives topics for the 70's and even for today. Homosexuality was discussed, especially in the episode that we viewed in our screening. The episode we viewed would be considered politically incorrect and very offensive to certain social groups if a modern show portrayed it in that manner. Topics such as racism, women's libertion, and etc. were displayed in other episodes that could lead to many controversial issues. All in the Family was a show that discussed major issues in the 70's, while That 70's Show showed more of what progressed and happened in the 70's. That 70's Show focused on social issues such as feminism, sexual attitudes, and etc.

There are some ways, however, in which the two shows are similar. They are obviously both based in the 70's. They each focus on social issues of the 70's in one way or another. And, the two shows also consist of a family home (Bunker family vs. Forman family). They both also display the normality of families during the 70's. The dad was the working, "All American" father, while the mother stayed at home, cooked dinner, and took care of the family.

The main differences between All in the Family and That 70's Show are pretty much the social issues and how they were talked about in the episdoes. The time differences in which the shows were produced are very different; All in the Family running from 1971 to 1979, and That 70's Show from 1998 to 2006.  Also, That 70's Show displays ways in which the 70's progressed in the entertainment industry, and centers around teenagers' lives rather than adults' lives, whereas All in the Family does not. All in the Family could be considered a lot more "blunt" on the social issues of the 70's than That 70's Show, due to the fact that these issues at that time were more hidden from the public, and it was more acceptable to look down on people who participated in such lifestyles.

Technological Changes in Radio

Radio has come a long way from where it first started; anyone can agree to that. Radio first started out as sound coming from "a box." Technological change has recreated radio from this standpoint. Radio is no longer just sounds coming from a box, but sounds coming from many different devices. Everyone can find a way to listen to the radio.


Not only has technological change helped give radio a better sound, but it has helped radio become more widespread. Coming from just a box, it developed into more programs for a more wide-spead audience. More channels developed, and eventually when the Internet showed up, radio became more available. Satellite radio emerged, providing "commerical free" channels, and more channels for listeners. The Internet provides websites, such as Pandora, Myspace, etc, for users to listen to. More artists have been exposed because of technological change, letting radio become more free and available.


  Radio in the 20's was mainly shows, like Woody Allen's favorite shows in the film Radio Days. Radio in the 20's emerged as entertainment; technological change took place, however, and radio advanced into more broadcasting for a mass audience. Eventually, the FM radio developed. FM radio provided a more clear sound. Music on the radio became more popular in the 50's because of FM; FM made it more enjoyable to listen to music. Broadcasting radio faded away, while music took hold of the radio industry. Technological change was a huge part in this because it provided more uses of the radio.

Priming

There are many different theories relating to the media and the effect it has on society. Ranging from the hypodermic needle to the social learning theory, they all have different outlooks on what the media does. The theory of priming, however, really grabbed my attention for some odd reason; maybe because I recognize it in society the most.


Priming has to do with "media images activate or stimulate related thoughts and behaviors". So pretty much, the media thinks it has us all figured out. The advertisers sincerely believe they know what we want and how we react to certain objects. For an example, in the film Killing Us Softly, the issues discussed are the way women are used as objects in advertisement. The advertisers that put these images of women in provocative poses believe that this is what people want to see. Women will want to buy the products being advertised because they want to be sexy or alluring like the women in the ad; men will be attracted to the ads and want to invest in the product. 


The advertisers believe they know what we want to see and how to conceal us in their trap. You can't blame it all on the advertisers, though, because aren't we the ones buying into their products?

Mainting Hegemony

Hegemony is such a weird word. To be quite honest with you, I had never really thought about the word until I took RTF 305. While it's a really weird word, it has so much to do with today's media; in fact, it describes our media. The media is here to control and dominate.


The media controls what we watch, listen to, and even what we are attracted to. They decide what new television show will get an enormous amount of attention or what product will be used the most from users. The media does these things through hegemony, gate-keeping, agenda setting, and framing.


An example that really pops up in my mind is reality television. Reality television has become a HUGE part of today's society. Shows such as Jersey Shore, The Real World, and The City, have became dominate shows of television. The media has thrown these types of shows out there knowing that people want addictive drama, gossip, and action; hegemony has controlled society in a way where it pushes people to feel the urge to keep up with other people's lives and escape from their own. Reality television is exactly that.


I found this documentary on YouTube discussing reality television and hegemony:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppMfMOhf-ig

First RTF 305 blog!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EC2tmFVNNE
I'm a Harry Potter fanatic, so I pretty much went crazy when I saw this trailer. But I hope to be part of making something this awesome someday.




So do you ever just want to do something different than everyone else? It seems like almost everyone these days is either going into nursing, engineering, or education. The economy probably has a lot to do with this reasoning, but it still stumps me.
Well, I am, obviously, interested in Radio/Television/Film. It's spunky, interesting, and intriguing to me. At first, I was convinced I wanted to be a journalist. However, as I started to take a multimedia course in high school, I figured out film was where I was headed. Film editing is pretty entertaining to me. But in general, I'm interested in learning what goes on behind-the-scenes of films and how much work goes into making a successful movie. I hope to learn what not to do and what to do when creating a master piece (a great film). RTF can teach me the history of films, and how they have evolved within time. And I cannot wait until I know everything there is to know about movies.
-Faith Daniel


PerezHilton.com
I actually don't read a lot of blogs, but I have heard of this one and can definitely see how it's alluring.