Chapters 14-16

Chapter 14: The Culture of Journalism

Modern journalism is a mix of many mediums as the text book points out. We are now flooded with internet news and T.V news as well as print news publications. This chapter brought up how many unimportant issues are blown way out of proportion and given way to mush attention the news, just look at the Tiger woods media fiasco. Sadly this is what more and more people want to see and learn more about why? are the real issues just too hard to digest?

Chapter 15: Media Effects

This chapter of the text was about how the media affects our culture. It is scary that violence in the media has made effect on our society's aggressive behaviors. There are so many problems with our media portraying drug use, sex, violence, and alcoholism, that it is safe to assume that is why these things are becoming more socaily accepted

Chapter 16: Legal Controls

Ahh yes we do have our freedom of speech don't we? It's most likely the most important right we have. and if we didn't have it i dont think we would be in this class would we? We can make fun of our presidents we can question our government and we should its important to want to know why they are doing things and why they aren't. sadly too many americans just don't care. They don't bother to figure out why we are at war with iraq they just know Bush said it was a good idea and so their with him on it. 

The News About the News part one and two

I really liked this book a lot. I liked the fact that it pointed out that a democracy needs news as a way to keep the government in check because it informs the people. Also this book discuses the problems with the newspapers economical problems and how news rooms and papers are shrinking. This I think is very important because although newspapers are becoming less used due to T.V and internet news and a complete lack of interest on some peoples part, Newspapers are very important because we simply can not get the full substance of a story by just seeing a few video clips and scanning over a shortened article. Sadly some people don't recognize the advantages of getting their news from a newspaper instead getting it from the T.V.

This leads us to why the quality of news has gone down so much. As we stop having to "read" our news it has become more and more flashy, short, sensational, and over all non informative of "real news".  This easy to digest news just makes us stupider as a society. sadly I think News will continue to decline in intellectualism if we don't start to respect it for what is meant to be; a important part of democracy that informs the people of what their elected officials are doing for our country so we as the people can make sure we are being governed fairly.

Chapters 3-7

 Chapters 3-7 Where about how radio, T.V and movies and how they affect and are affected by our society. the authors focused on how these mediums are controlled by certain corporations and how this effects the medium as well as the viewers

While reading these chapters I found it alarming that all our news is coming from only a few sources. when radio started out it was not the way it is now, originally it had many different types of stations with strong restrictions to prevent monopolies and promoted contrast and freedom. Now with staions like Fox News telling us they are giving both sides of the story when in reality they are giving the news a conservative republican slant on everything they report on. one disturbing statistic about television and cable the authors brought up was the one involving the 70% control of broadcasting between 12 different major players in the late 90's to where it is now down to 5 due to loss of regulation laws etc. in the industry.This basically leads to there being less difference of opinions and more bias in T.V and radio. which could lead to less varieties of opinions within society as well.

The other mediums, Film and the recording industries, although largely owned by the same corporate companies as T.V and radio, do at least have more freedom, because of the success of independent films become more popular. as well as in the recording industry it has become easier to put out their music, case in point, radiohead who didn't want to sign with their old label or new one when their contract came up they decided to let their fans pay for their newest album how ever much they wanted. this might not have worked for them if they had not already been super stars but it is a good thing to see in our overly controlled media world we live in.

media & culture chapters 11,12,13

Advertising is literally everywhere you look now a days. When you are walking, watching t.v, reading a magazine or news paper, or just surfing the web we are being overwhelmed by ads. As a graphic designer i tend to notice a lot of things because i am always looking for them. Other people who are not in this business most likely don't care to much about how they look or why they are in this certain area or on this certain network, like I do. I've always found it interesting the way ads are usually directed towards women. This chapter in the book was well done I never really thought about how ads where before the industrial revolution, before the need of them. It was interesting to find out that people have always advertised them selves or their products.

Public Relations attempts to secure favorable media publicity to promote the company.

while ads are controlled by the publicity that the company buys, so with out PR their are no ads. Press released news stories like the bush administrations VNR's, bias news stories about Iraq, are a way of changing public opinions. products sometimes do this as well by releasing a new product as "news."

Oligopoly- just a few firms dominate a industry. The media is basically a oligopoly because most T.V networks, newspapers, magazines and Internet sites are all owned by a small number of media companies.

Fox News again accused of airing misleading video - Yahoo! News

news.yahoo.com

For the second time in just over a week, Fox News is coming under fire for misusing old news footage. The latest flap is leading some people to charge that the cable news network is intentionally misleading its audience, while Fox claims a

Maxim and Cosmo

While reading these magazines with a critical eye I found them to be similar as well as very different. Similar in the way they objectify women and different because of their reasons. In Maxim women are seen as just another toy in the world of everything men, along with cars, gadgets and alcohol. While in Cosmo the articles and advertisements are basically telling you to be a object for a man. I felt like Cosmo was telling women that we have to act and look a certain way to be wanted by men and Maxim was telling guys to only want women that look and act in that way. What I find so disturbing by this is I feel more teenage girls rather then women read Cosmo and therefore are being corrupted by the way they think a women should act. I found some of the articles in Maxim to be entertaining and funny like the sex tape article. As for Cosmo I felt like the articles were less entertaining and more preachy. The writing in both I found to be dumbed down. I really don't know if anyone actually takes these two publications seriously but hopefully people can just laugh at the ridiculousness of them, as I did at articles like “Sentences He’d Be Psyched to Hear.” in Cosmo which included, “Boy, nothing helps me wind down after a long day at work like giving you a blow job.” Really what women in her right mind would say that? hopefully no one. 

'Balloon boy' drama was staged, sheriff says Millions suspected it. And on Sunday, authorities confirmed it. That free-floating homemade balloon that a tearful Colorado family said might contain their 6-year-old son was not a strange accident. It was a hoax. The "aha!" moment that led authorities to realize what had happened was an interview with the family Thursday night on CNN's "Larry King Live," Sheriff Jim Alderden of Larimer County said- I knew it! as soon as i heard that this faimly was on wife swap I knew they were just looking for another 15 mins of fame. fullstory-http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/10/18/colorado.balloon.investigation/index.html

Media & culture chapters 1,8,9,10

"An Inability to Appreciate Fine Art"

I found this part of the 1st chapter to be particularly interesting because of what we were talking about in class. I agree with Cambell on this because I think popular media such as reality TV has dumbed down young people. I also found the part of the chapter that was discussing cross platform media and how this leads to less reporters and stories and therefore less perspectives on the news which I think is a scary thing because thats what's so great about being a American right? Our freedom of speech and ultimately our freedom to obtain knowledge and choose were it comes from. But if all these platforms are converged such as all news reports what real choice do we have but to be fed everything they want us to hear? how do we escape the mass media? I'm not sure its possible. Everyday I see a worse reality show then the last and I cant escape it there on every channel and as much as I want to turn it off I still want to know what will happen its quite sad that we have let reality TV take over seeing as it is just another way for these media corporations to save money. When your hiring "regular people" your payroll probably isn't as high as when you have a sitcom full of real actors. 

"newspapers"

I found chapter 8 to be a little less interesting then the other chapters, but I understood it more after we talked about the differences of the NY times and the Post in class. Also as a graphic designer I was thinking about the visual differences as well as the over all tone of each paper. while the times is very subtle with how they lay out there articles the Post looks louder with all caps headlines and giant full color pictures. This makes the Post look more sensational to me and the Times more trustworthy but when you actually read the articles most of them are saying the same thing just one is written for a more intellectual group of people.

Magazines

I love magazines in fact I want to work for one one day. preferably a  "elite magazine" such as Time, The New Yorker or National Geographic. I find these magazines to be entertaining while still informative and current. I found the section about the difference between men and women's magazines interesting especially the fact there seems to be more female gender specific magazines. such as all the fashion magazines, "home and gardens" type magazines tabloid magazines, and other more feminine magazines I think that is because most woman are easier to advertise to; we are the best consumers even if we aren't the ones actually paying the bill.

Books 

I love books to in fact unlike most people my age I read (for entertainment not just for school) every day I find using my imagination is more stimulating the simply watching a thousand images flashed and force fed into my brain. I also think it makes me a more critical thinker as well as a ability to appreciate fine art.

Media Unlimited

Media Unlimited by Todd Gitlin

How aware are we that the media is bombarding us with constant messages and advertisements? That seemed to be the most important point in this book, just how unaware we are. I agree with Giltin on this because from a young age we have been exposed to all sorts of media, T.V, radio, magazines, news papers and now more then ever the internet. I am not sure if I understand what the author wants for society to change this, but I do see why he has a problem with it. He also makes a good point about how many years ago people were not subjected to a constant flow of drama. He quotes Raymond Williams who said "What we have now is drama as habitual experiences; more in a week in many cases than most would previously have seen in a lifetime." this is a great example of how much times have changed when it pertains to the media.

I also found the statistics he mentions very interesting. Showing that children in less income families watch the most T.V, maybe this is because the parents in these families are working more and do not have time or money to provide them with other entertainment. But then why cant they read books? 

I think a lot of the reason why we are so unaware of the media overflow is because it is so second nature to us now. how many of us check our facebook accounts more than once a day, how many advertisements are we subjected to just walking down the street or riding the subway, the point is we need to be aware of all the media around us and filter it through our brains and make logical decisions to turn of the T.V and open a book instead or go for a hike in the park where we wont have to deal with a quarter of our entertainment being advertisements.