Last Blog of The Quarter
By Hoa Ha. This quarter ended so fast, in these three months I have learned more about what I wanted to do as my major than the previous two years. This Mass Communications class started out with a bang. One of the aha moments happened within the first two weeks. We saw a video “Smartphones and Dumb people.” This video showed me how attached we are to technology and the idea of face-to-face communication is disappearing. There was also the chapter on advertisement, that I liked and learned a lot from. I learned, how much it cost to put your ads in a Super Bowl and why it cost so much. I also learned about product placement and started to notice it in movies that I had watched prior to taking this class. A while back, I was skimming through channels on my TV and stopped at Men In Black 3. There was a scene where the alien dropped a pack of Rolaids, the scene last no more than 10 seconds but, it did not fit in with the plot of the movie what so ever. Finally the chapter on Radio. This was the chapter that I did my presentation on. One of the aha moments was the 1938 broadcast “The War of The Worlds”. This broadcast occurred on Halloween in 1938. Orson Welles was narrating H.G. Welles novel “The War of The Worlds” and people in New Jersey thought that aliens had arrived on Earth for real. This was because the audience had missed the first 45 minutes, this led to panicking, which led to havoc. Overall, I really enjoyed this Mass Communications class. My views on media have changed. When I use the radio now, I know that the radio use to used as a family event, where family members would gather around and listens to the same thing. After that, they would then share the information with others. I feel that this is something that we don’t do anymore. We are all separated by the individual devices that we own. Even at the dinner table we are on our devices. Face-to-face communications, just isn’t as prevalent as it was; prior to the wave of new technology. I have learned a lot about technology and communication theories this quarter. I thoroughly enjoyed this class, I will take in the material that I learned in this class and use it in the future. Thank you, professor for the great quarter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IovjAZVtVs0
Media Ethics
By Hoa Ha. Why does someone plagiarize or fabricate in today’s media? The answer is simple, to make it big or just the fact that it takes less time to paraphrase a story and they could make up a story that sounds so good it’ll obtain more views. This Media Ethics blog topic came at a time when new cases of plagiarizing and fabrication started to break the news. One of the most recent cases happened on the 12th of March. On the 12th of March, a famous music producer, Pharrell Williams was sued for copying the beat of a song. His hit song Blurred Lines in 2013 was sued for having a similar beat to Marvin Gayes Got to Give it Up made in 1977. There was also the incident that led to the suspension of NBC’s nightly news anchor, Brian Williams. Honestly it all comes down to money. The more viewers the station gets, the better their rating becomes. This leads to more money. Is this becoming a new thing make things up and copying to get more views? Television news has changed a lot since the last time I watched it. A couple of weeks ago I took my brother to go get a haircut and in the salon, they had on Fox news; this was on a Wednesday or Thursday around 5 a couple of weeks ago. On the news, there was a video that showed a man in Ireland attempting to break the passenger side window of a car with rocks.The passenger window wouldn’t break. So he then went to grab a brick off the floor and try to break the driver seat and as he tossed the brick with all his might, the brick bounced back and hit himself in the face. Back then, when I watched the news, there were no viral videos on the news, even if the news related to an attempted carjacking or crime. I feel the ethics in media today are so concentrated on the big stories, in order to obtain more viewers. This makes some stories less relative because of the continuous repeat of the headline on the news. For example on the day of the Ferguson Missouri killing of Micheal Brown. There was also a 19-year old boy that got killed, taking a hit of synthetic marijuana. This story was hard to find because when I typed in What happened on August, 9, 2014; the first six pages on Google were about the Micheal Brown shooting. I had to narrow it down by entering states at the end of August, 9, 2014. That was how I found the story about the 19-year old boy, that died from marijuana. That is how I feel about media now a days, all the news stations tend to compete with one another by showing the same news. Does that make any sense? If they want to compete with one another, why not show different news. This way viewers can skim through channels and stop, as they see something that interest them. I feel that we as journalist are the voice of people whose story doesn’t appear on the news because it apparently is less relevant. However, they are still important to learn about.
Some of The Oddest Propaganda Ads
By Hoa Ha. This weekend I went onto YouTube, to find an advertisement for this blog topic. I had an idea of which ad, I wanted to use. I started out wanting to use the Old Spice commercial, that aired in 2010. This Old Spice commercial had two propaganda techniques. However, as I continued to watch advertisements, I stumbled upon two of the oddest commercial, I have ever seen. I just had to write and share it. The commercial was about a product called Poopourri. Honestly with that brand name I had to click, they were two of the oddest ads I have seen and the fact that I had never seen the ad before, enticed me. Apparently this was an ad, that you could only see online. One of the techniques that this ad used was the bandwagon effect, because in the commercial it said that the product has been sold to 4 million people and has received a 4.8/5.0 rating on Amazon.com. The next technique that this commercial used was that it had a catchy slogan. Near the end of the video the lady in the commercial says that the product is “Stink free Guarantee.” There were two videos of this product they both used the same techniques; they just changed the setting. I hope that you guys have a laugh like I did, these videos are ridiculous. I also looked up the product on Amazon, it’s a real product. If you want to purchase the product, it’s on Amazon for $9.99.
Media Law: Copyright Court Case
By Hoa Ha. In 2009 movies had a new standard to meet, with the release of Avatar came beautiful images and a story that took the audience to a place where you can only dream to enter. This led to lots of success including awards such as the Golden Globe award for best director motion picture and made a whopping $749,766,139 according to boxofficemojo.com. This led to a copyright case between James Cameron, the director of Titanic and his most recent movie Avatar, versus Elijah Schkeiban. The case consisted of Elijah Schkeiban trying to sue James Cameron for apparently copying and getting the idea of Avatar from Elijah’s screenplay Bats and Butterflies. Of course this was a case about money, because the movie Avatar was so successful and made so much money; I feel that Eijah wanted some of the money by trying to explain to the court how similar the characters in the movie are to the characters in his book and how similar the plants in the movie are to his book. In court Elijah told the judge that the main character in Avatar resembles the main character in his book. The main character in Bats and Butterflies is a weak boy and that the main character in Avatar resembles that because there is a man that goes around in a wheelchair. However, Cameron’s lawyer argued that most stories are like this, they have a hero that is usually weaker than the enemy, and in most movies the “bad guys attack the good guys”. This philosophy of the bad guys attacking the good guys was in almost every action movie made. The judge decided in James Cameron’s favor saying that there was insufficient evidence that Avatar had the character ideas and setting as Elijah’s Bats and Butterflies. This was one of a few cases against James Cameron’s Avatar, apparently there have been more however, Cameron has been successful in those cases.
Comments: This case related to me because I saw the movie and to me it was a beautiful film. However, to my knowledge James Cameron had the idea and script for the movie Avatar years ago. The reason why it took him so long to make the movie was because he was waiting for technology to evolve in order for him to capture the exact idea and image that he wanted for the movie and by 2009 the technology was ready and so was he ready to move on with this project.
Sources:
http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=avatar.htm
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0499549/awards
http://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/sep/18/james-cameron-avatar-copright-case
Internet
By Hoa Ha. The Internet is one of the most powerful and unique tools man has created so far. People can now communicate long distance and buy things they need such as groceries and clothes without leaving their home. My uncle tends to buy many things online because it is more convenient for him, due to the fact that he gets home from work really late. He purchases most of his things off of Amazon. He purchases shoes, clothes, and tools for his job all online. I feel that the other reason why he likes buying things online compared to the store is because some stores might not have the item he wants in stock. I now understand why many stores don’t carry the items they have online, thanks to the textbook we used in class. The explanation is that stores tend to carry things that people usually ask for and things they know usually sell. The other reason why it is so convenient is because by typing in what you want in the search bar, you will get many results of that item and are then able compare the prices of the item and read the reviews of the product, so you know that you are getting the best product in your interest. The only flaw to this is if you want something right away, due to shipping it usually takes a couple of days to arrive at your house, if you want it to arrive within a day you would have to pay extra so they would use the express mail. However, if you aren’t in any rush just wait about three to four days and your product ends up right at your door step. My uncle has not stopped buying things online. To tell you the truth sometimes he buys an item and forgets that he bought it and buys it again on accident. Overall I feel that shopping online is very beneficial to people who do not have time to go out to the department store or the mall to buy the items they want.
Radio or Television
By Hoa Ha. The video that I chose is titled “5 Crazy ways Social Media is Changing Your Brain Right Now”.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HffWFd_6bJ0
Length: 3:17
Description: The video explains why we continue to get on social media websites and what it is doing to our brain. The video is by AsapSCIENCE.
Book chapters: Chapter 2: Media Impact, Chapter 10: The Internet
Question: What is the feel good drug that activates when you are posting something online about yourself?
Answer: Dopamine
Movies
By Hoa Ha. There were so many great movies that came out in 20011 and 2012, movies such as We Bought a Zoo,The Adjustment Bureau, Money Ball, The Dark Knight Rises, 21 Jump Street, and many more movies. However, my favorite of 2012 was Chasing Ice. Chasing Ice is a documentary about the glaciers in Iceland and how rapidly they are melting and to prove this the photographer James Balog the photographer goes out to Iceland to take photos of these glaciers. I usually tend to stay away from documentary’s because usually you hear one mono toned voice in the background for example March of The Penguins, and to me that gets boring. But this documentary was different, this movie gave me chills because the fact that glaciers are melting such at a fast pace, and you can also see the change in the movie from the first image to the last. James starts this thing called the Extreme Ice Survey, where he leave cameras in Iceland facing towards glaciers and every single hour until the daylight is gone , this survey is happening in a span of three years . I’ve seen Chasing Ice three times now and it continues to give me chills; the first time I saw it was at school, at DeAnza in my geography class. We were learning about global warming and what effects it has. This movie gives you some insight on what is happening because if you read a magazine and inside it they tell you that glaciers are decreasing by two percent every year, you would probably be like that doesn’t seem like a lot, that’s why in this movie when they show you the decrease in the size of glaciers using photos and comparing them you are just in aw at how much has changed in just three years.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1579361/?ref_=nv_sr_1
My favorite movie use to be Blackhawk Down however, that has changed because so many great movies have come out since then. My favorite movie right now is 42. The movie 42 is a movie based off of Jackie Robinson’s life. For those that don’t know who Jackie Robinson is, he was the first African American baseball player to play in the major leagues. Prior to this their were two separate leagues the Negro League and the Major Leagues. During the time that Jackie was playing, there was a lot of controversy because he was the only black baseball player in the league. I loved this movie because it showed how much courage and heart he had. In the movie there was this part when Jackie came up to bat and the pitcher hit him in the head with the ball and he did nothing because he knew that if he fought back he would just be giving the league what they wanted, a reason to kick him out. Jackie has changed the “American Game”, now when you watch the game it is very diverse, not just a “white man’s sport”. To this day Jackie Robinson’s jersey number is the only number that is retired throughout baseball. Once every year players are allowed to wear the number 42 dedicated to Jackie Robinson’s heroic acts as Jackie Robinson Day.
Magazines
By Hoa. I tend to be like many readers that read newspapers or magazines I usually just go to the section that I am most interested in and then purchase another magazine to read about another subject but, what if there was a paper that had a section for each age group or many subtopics. The title of my magazine would be called Variety. Inside this magazine there would be many different topics based on the consumers interest. I feel that this type of magazine is different from my competitors because most magazines have only one or two genres and that is what the whole magazine is based on. This type of magazine would also be able to reach out to many of the consumers because it doesn’t have one type of age audience that it is targeting it will have many. The material in the magazine will consist of electronics, current events and news, education and politics, movies, food, this will allow the readers to decide what section they want to read and only have to buy one magazine to get all the information. I recently Google searched magazines with a variety of topics and nothing popped up, the first thing that popped up was a library. So for now the only competitors would be the magazines that are based on these topics.
Now we talk about advertising because in order for all of us to be successful in this industry, we must help one another. I would like an electronics store of some sort ; ie Best Buy, Fry’s or a large department store such as Target or Walmart to advertise there merchandise in the magazines, hopefully with magazine exclusives so the consumer would have a reason to pick up this magazine. Also if movie theaters could advertise some sort of discount if people bring this magazine, this way there would be more customers entering there theaters. For school advertising I could only think of some how funding our schools and the advertisement that I came up with was box tops. So if you were to cut these out and return them to your school they would get money each time to add more needed school supplies for the students or even use it to improve their playground. Inside this magazine there would be local restaurants advertising their menus and lunch specials. Finally the last ad would be the Got Milk? Ad because if you have that ad in your magazine it means that you’ve made it.
My magazine cover would have the topics in the front cover with the pages inserted into the picture so that the viewer can go straight to the page that they like. The background would be red because red is a color that many people lean towards. I also have a rough draft of my cover because it wouldn’t allow me to send the pictures into the background but it would look something like the link below.
https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1Wgw771KRZLnvTZH0a0CXMdawqkGsvF9QfXQqi5I22h8/edit?usp=sharing
Media Impact
By Hoa. Media has a large impact on our society, we use media as a form of entertainment; whether it is to go see a movie, play games, watch our favorite show or just talking to your friends on the web. In our textbook Mass Media in a changing world Rodman gives examples of how media affects all people differently. He gives us an example with the game ” Grand Theft Auto” he says that their are critics who feel that this game could make people more aggressive, due to the fact that in this game things that are harmful in real life are being rewarding in this game if you attempt to do it. For example in this game you can drive a car and run people over,steal cars and pull over and pick up prostitutes for sex and then kick them to the curb. I feel that these games and movies create a world where anything is possible, which is great however, you have to understand what is right from wrong in real life. On July of 2014, there was the release of the new Batman movie “The Dark Night Rises”.However on the night of the premiere in Aurora, Colorado a mass crime scene had just happened. A gentleman by the name of James Holmes had come into the theater with tear gas and guns, his plan was to hurt people. He referred to himself as the “Joker” one of the villains in the previous Batman movie . He then fired away and by the end of that night there were a total of 12 fatalities. Was media to blame? In court by the judge he was pleaded not guilty because the judge ruled him as insane. The judge ruled him as insane because when the cops went to his house, the house was booby trap with explosives. Like I said earlier I feel that media can impact you but, the decision is yours to make these movies aren’t telling you to kill someone or do anything, they are just there to help you lose sight of reality because sometimes escaping from the real world can help your mind think more clearly.
http://fox13now.com/2012/07/20/is-violent-media-to-blame-for-colorado-shooting/
20 Years of Media
By Hoa Ha
My name is Hoa and I am taking the mass communications course at De Anza College. Through out my life technology has evolved rapidly, I continue you see the advancements we continue to make on old technology. Technology now at a push of a button can transport you to another place instantly. When I was growing up we had internet but it wasn’t as fast as how internet is today. Who remembers what dial-up is? If you don’t, I’ll give you some information about it; Dial-up was our modern day equivalent to the internet we have to but , slower. There was a price to using dial-up, the cost was that annoying noise that you would hear as you were connecting to the internet and the fact that you had to have a wire connected to your computer in order to use the internet was a big minus. Now with the new addition of WiFi, we could get internet almost anywhere without the wires.
I usually tend to stay away from books because it tends to take me a while to finish them. In elementary school when I borrowed books from my school library, they were usually about animals or some new series of books that friend friends read. From there I got interested in reading mystery novels because my friends were reading the A to Z Mysteries by Ron Roy. I loved this series not just because the books were thin, but the idea of trying to guess what happen next excited me and drew my curiosity. Now the television one of my favorite sources of media and the one that I feel like I use the most. I probably spend at least three to four hours a day watching TV. It is a source of entertainment without leaving my sofa. The television was also used in some of my classes in elementary school. I remember in second grade that my teacher would turn on Reading Rainbow, to introduce us to new books. I feel that the television and movies are some what similar. They both take me to a place that I have never been too.
The news paper was something that I used for my daily current events in my history class, most of the information I get now about the news is all online. I’m going to put the radio and music recordings into the same category. I use the radio in my car to listen to music and listen to sports broadcaster talk about the latest news. In the future I think that the newspaper and magazines will disappear in appearance and everything that you need will be online. I thank
JournalismDada 