Media Meditation #8: Blogger

Before the first day of my Mass Media and Society class, I had no experience or thoughts of ever using a blog regularly. In fact, I did not even know Blogger existed online. But now that I have several posts on my new own personal blog, and even more comments and responses on the Champlain Blog because I post weekly for homework. These blogs have replaced traditional homework for this class, which I really like because it helps keep us up to date with our technology and media, which is crucial for this class.
Although I do not blog for fun yet and only when required, the whole world still has the opportunity to read my blog, Ian's Shit for free using the internet.
The internet keep growing and advancing and converges all different types of media. In several other of my meditations, I mentioned how both TV and movies can be found online free of charge. Now, blogs are becoming more and more popular online and are challenging journalists and other news sources. Blogs are much more open to personal opinions and allows feedback from anyone and are updated more frequently. It seems as if the internet has the solution to every media problem and is a more effective medium.
But at the same time, new media's such as blogs, are replacing tradition and straying away from face to face and personal communications. Blogs, and the internet in general is a Technological and Epistemological shift because they both are taking the same messages and delivering them differently via blogs and the internet.
More importantly, blogs are a discursive shift because although these blogs are there to update and inform people about "news," it is also subjective what is posted on these blogs because they can be false. For example, I have the ability to make up news stories and post them on my blog for the whole world to see and it is the public's choice to either believe me or not. Just because one person claims something does not make it true.

Media Meditation #7: Hulu

Seing as my roomate and I somehow managed to break our TV, we now have no TV in our room; which really does not bother us because even when we had a TV we lost our remote control for three weeks straight. I actually hardly ever watch TV now that I am in college. However, when I do want to watch a TV show I use Hulu, an online website which allows people to watch older and the most recent TV show episodes for free and even advertises for other companies.
The main TV shows that i am interested are Entourage, Californication, and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. However, because Entourage and Californication both belong to premium cable channels, they are not available on Hulu, but just about every other show, new or old, can be found on Hulu. In fact, "Hulu now offers 3,000 full-length episodes of archived television shows, including ones as old as Alfred Hitchcock Presents from 1995" (170).
Hulu is only one of hundreds of TV and movie streaming websites. Another site i use to watch movies is Project Free TV. There are shows that originally aired for a limited time on TV first such as Arrested Development, and then was re aired online and became one of the most popular online viewed moves and had dedicated fans. (170).
TV in general is an epistemological shift, therefore Hulu is another medium which demonstrates an epistomological shift and delivers messages through shows instead of written texts. Also, because there is a new medium it is a technological shift as well. It is delivering the asme show and same message in a different computer mediated communication medium.
Hulu itself is also a Economic Shift because it allows companies to advertise through Hulu because Hulu has commercial breaks in the shows. All the different advertisements use different Persuasion tips as well depending on the company.

Media Meditation #6: Halloween

Thinking back on Halloween, it amazes me to see how much the media is relevant in our lives. A common costume theme is to dress up as a celebrity or another Hollywood icon. In burlington, I saw over a dozen Hunter S. Thompson look a likes. Celebrities lives are exploited daily to the public through the media, which is what defines our culture. The media is everywhere and these people live life with limited privacy. The public feels as if they know these celebrities because of how often they hear about them no TV, online, newspapers, books, etc. which is why it is so easily to imitate a celebrity.
As a young child, a popular costume idea is the scariest costume possible (for boys anyway). As you get older and more induced by the media, people actually attempt to recreate these celebrities. Although many have the same costume idea, there are thousands of celebrities who are exploited to often to the public. In fact, the job of these publicists and public relation companies is to advocate these celebrities as people who are better than you! This demonstrates uses of persuasion by using these celebrities as testimonials and using repetition.
This is also the perfect example of a cultural shift, these popular celebrities are shaping our culture. They are the people who are known world wide and people look up to them as they used to to false idols way back when.
I looked for articles relating to celebrities and the media influencing costumes and this is an article I found on
Digg

Media Meditation #5: Music

After purchasing my new Macbook last month, I was at a loss for music as well as my other files. Typically, I use torrents and other downloading programs such as, IsoHunt to get all my music; however, due to the fact that I just got a brand new PC I was not in a rush to start downloading junk. Usually, i would be able to get the music off of my Ipod and save it to my PC prior to uploading music files through iTunes, but I do not know how to do this with a mac. As an attempted solution, my friend Nick offered me his external hard drive to use to transfer my music, which worked perfect.
In addition to transferring my music, I was also able to take all of his music as well. Nick introduced me to several different genres and artists that I have never heard and gave me thousands of songs. So I decided, why stop here with Nick's music and had several other friends give me their iTunes libraries as well. In fact, when i first attempted putting all the music I obtained into my iTunes library, I got an error message because there was too many files and could not all fit.
Today's advanced technology offers endless opportunities and seems as if it can make anything possible. This is an example of a technological shift. We are dependent on technology and media and one day technology may be the dominant power that is the foundation for living.
Also, sharing music is a medium and a way to communicate with other individuals. I was opened up to massive amounts of new music, some I like some I don't, but I appreciate it all and find my own Individual meaning, which was inflicted on me from others.
Mgmt, the soundtrack to burlington, was introduced to me through sharing music with others. Here is one of there popular singles.

Media Meditation #4: GPS and Mapquest

A few weeks ago my friend ross and I took a short road trip to Plymouth, New Hampshire to visit my friend Zack at his school, Plymouth State. The overall drive to Plymouth was just under three hours and was navigated by a GPS. Prior to leaving, we also printed out directions to Plymouth from Mapquest, to account for the unknown in case something went wrong.
The directions from mapquest and the GPS were both completely different. The GPS led us through endless back roads to get to New Hampshire, as opposed to Mapquest which has several highways and connecters. The GPS is able to calculate the quickest route to the destination and take account for road and weather conditions, The GPS also displayed the speed limit, my speed, weather, time, and also has several different voices directing you.
Through the whole drive, we remained faithful to the GPS and did not doubt it once. A GPS is such a convenient tool to use when traveling, even if you get lost or miss a turn, the GPS can recalculate the route in seconds, GPS is a technological shift in today's culture. We now have satellites that are able to communicate through this little electronic device, it just shows how advanced we are becoming and how technology dependent we are.
The GPS takes no effort once you put in your destination, all you need to do is listen to the directions and act accordingly. The GPS effects the Neocortex of your brain when you are listening to the directions being given. Also, the GPS is programmed using a pacing principle. meaning that the GPS warns you when the next direction is coming up and repeats this directions three times to make sure that the driver is able to comprehend.

Media Meditation #3: Where The Wild Things Are

The highly anticipated film, "Where The Wild Things Are," was released by theaters nationwide in mid October. The real life movie was based upon the original, animated children's book; however, the movie transforms this fantasy children's book into a mild horror flick with a depressing ending. In fact, the film is not recommended for children due to the mature nature of the movies theme.
October 16 was the actual theatre release date, which is when I waited in an out the door line for my ticket. Once I finally made it into the theater, I was greeted by an announcement that the showing was sold out. Seeing as how pricey movie tickets are nowadays, I decided that an alternative movie was out of question and instead i was forced to watch the movie on a bootleg copy I stumbled upon on the internet. The only problem was the quality was unprofessional seeing as how it was a person who videotaped the movie at the theatre.
The internet has just about everything readily available and the opportunities are literally endless. It is possible to watch nearly any unreleased movie and TV shows. This is a Epistemological shift, Hollywood transformed this famous children's book into a box office hit that is not even suitable for children. In fact, many books have been the basis for hundreds of box office hits, which can be interpreted as a cultural and technological shift. Our country is so technologically advanced that we are always surpassing tradition, or redeveloping children's stories into movies.

Media Meditation #2: It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

I watched one of the newer episodes of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, "Mac and Dennis Break Up," on Hulu (www.hulu.com). During one of the scenes, around 7 minutes into the episode, the characters Charlie and Frank are conversing and what not in their living room. At the same time, Charlie is eating a bag of Cheetos Puff, which is pretty blatant. The room is full of earthy, dark colors and the bag just stands out, so clear that you can see the label Cheetos.
Charlie and the bag of Cheetos carries into the next scene, where another character asks to have some Cheetos. The bag of Cheetos appears in several scenes and is referred to by the characters. Is this intentional or not? What is actually happening is that companies actually purchase ad space in tv shows, movies, and video games and place their brand's products as a form of advertisement. This shows how surrounded we are by advertisers who view us simply as consumers and want to persuade us to buying their product every chance they get.
The scene with the Cheetos bag effects the Limbic part of the brain because the bag stands out in a dark, earthy room and makes you actually think about that bag.
This also demonstrates an economical shift in our culture because advertisers and companies now use the media as a medium for their product. They are so money hungry they place ads wherever they can purchase space.
Lastly, by having the Cheetos bag in the scenes is an attempt to persuade viewers to buy Cheetos. They specifically use the plain folk and bandwagon technique. Even though it is a television show, the characters are not necessarily famous which is why it is the plain folk technique rather than a testimonial.