Evaluation

     I have never used a blog before this class and I must say that it is a nice alternative for writing assignments. I felt freer to express what I've learned from the class through a blog post for some reason or another. Aside form wondering the format of a blog at the very beginning of the semester; I have had no problems from the blog aside from having the occasional picture not show up after I post them. My favorite assignments would have to be the ones where we were able to choose any piece of film or media to coincide with the week's lectures. By doing so, I was able to connect our lessons with a world that pertains to me personally. I also enjoyed seeing blogs from peers in class and get their point of view on topics. This helped me even more in fully understanding the material. I loved that we would get educational challenging questions and proceeded to come to terms with the subject on a more modern and personal level. Although it took a little while getting used to, I thought that it was a really fun and unique way to learn and even have some fun in the process. And yes, you may use my blog as an example in a paper or report of some sort.

Globalization

Globalization is the concept of the world becoming ‘smaller,’ or more closely connected because of the media. The term can be shown through cultural imperialism when dealing with languages. Because America dominates the film industry and other media sources, English has become one of the globally dominant languages. The Films of Hollywood are viewed worldwide and income from box offices overseas overshadows the US totals and continues to grow. Due to the influence films have on their audience, the western culture has spread and influences many countries all over the globe.

One specific country that has been heavily influenced by Hollywood cinema is Japan. The anime show titled “Samurai Champloo” shows evidence of cultural imperialism throughout the series, more specifically the opening credits. The intro includes American rap music while the main characters are costumed in gangster-influenced outfits. Although it has recently had seldom airings on American networks, this show is Japan made and geared towards a Japanese audience. 

Yoplait Commercial

The repetitive Yoplait light commercials skillfully employ attention grabbing tactics. The wife lists multiple mouth-watering deserts that most Americans desire even with the knowledge of their unhealthiness. She is overenthusiastic as she describes the foods with care, making them desirable to the audience and sparks curiosity. Overhearing his wife, the husband scours for the food only to find the brand yogurt. Most Americans are looking towards losing rate, especially with such a high obesity rate in the country. The commercial even portrays social learning when the husband overhears his wife's conversation about the delicious treats and decides to go hunting in the fridge for them. By the time she mentions that she is eating all of those treats and actually losing weight, the husband looks dumbfounded, emphasizing the purpose. The ad then goes on to explain that it is flavored yogurt, but by then the audience has been captured. Everyone wants an easy way out when it comes to shedding a few pounds and their ears are always open. It is one sore subject that most people are on the lookout for, so when an add mentions delicious deserts connected with losing weight it is sure to get a lot of attention.

Sydney White in 3 acts

Act I Sydney leaves home to join her mother's sorority at college. The peaking conflict in this act is when she is kicked out of the sorority at the big dance in front of everyone. she is left homeless and finds refuge in the vortex, the house of seven dorks. Everything Sydney had went through in the beginning of the film shifted when she was kicked out. she temporarily solves the issue by finding a place to stay. (38 minutes)

Act II While living with the seven dwarfs, Sydney becomes friends with them while going on dates with Prince Charming. Everything seems to be going well, the dorks had been successful at blending in with a greek party and Sydney and Tyler Prince are becoming closer. the peak of this act is when Rachel Witchburn, head of the sorority, breaks up the happy couple and publicly humiliates the seven dorks. (49 minutes)

Act III the final act is where the legend comes into play. the "rotten apple" is a strong computer virus that shut down Sydney's apple computer just hours before a big essay is due. this brings a major setback the night before election between White and Wichburn. The suspenseful moments lead up to Prince kissing and awakening Sydney from sleep, brought on because of her late night essay writing, followed by Sydney's appearance at election in the literal last minute of debate. following the climax is a happily ever after ending. (22 minutes)

"The Big Bang Theory" Sitcom

One peculiar aspect of the TV sitcom is the inability to remember life lessons. Each twenty-minute episode is filled with the same quirky characters, as always, who never seem to grow as individuals. There is always some sort of conflict for the characters, but at the end of the episode they have had a life experiment of their own and have learned their lesson. Oddly enough, the characters are unchanged in the beginning of the next episode. It is as if there is a big red reset button that is continually pushed. Sure, the characters are engaging with appealing personalities, but they never grow from their mistakes.

            The hilarious Chuck Lorre sitcom, “The Big Bang Theory,” is a hit show about four nerdy scientists and the struggling actress across the hall. Although storylines such as Penny and Leonard dating on and off again change, everything else remains the same. The characters do some outlandish things and learn their lessons from their mistakes. Sheldon remains obnoxious throughout the entire series, not changing after his character learns something new. The same big personalities appear fresh at every new episode. In a recent episode one of the main characters, Sheldon, obtains a dozen cats. At the end of the episode he gives the cats away and then the cats are never mentioned again. Unlike a drama, this show repeats similar actions for optimal comedy. 

Enchanted Shots

LS

The scene from Kevin Lima’s Enchanted (2007), where Prince Edward (James Marsden) enters the three-dimensional world from a sewer employs various types of shots to set the scene.  First, there is the long shot that, in this circumstance, is the wide view of Ney York Times Square. This gives the tone of the city and directs the audience to where the scene is taking place. It basically orients the audience, making them aware of the surroundings and background of the scene. 

MS

Next there is the medium shot, a closer picture that shows all of the characters involved with the event happening around them. When Prince Edward shoots up out of the street sewer the still shows the reactions of the construction men while showing Edward’s emotions as well. While this shot shows the New York City background, it is minimal to the audience after viewing the long shot of the city square. 

MCU

Then there is the medium close-up, different then the standard close-up because it is somewhere between a medium shot and a close-up. This image shows the prince confronting one of the construction men, holding a knife to the guy’s throat. 

CU, OTS

Closer to the characters than a medium shot, this still shows both men from chest up before there is a close-up of the prince speaking from an over the shoulder shot. This final shot shows the emotion in the prince’s facial expressions as he asks where the princess is.

Studio System

            The fact that the studio system survived so long when it was full of vertical integration companies is somewhat puzzling. With the majority of business coming from the ‘Big Five’ (MGM, Paramount, 20^th Century Fox, Warner Bros., and RKO), an oligopoly was formed that made a large amount of income. With that, each made a name for themselves in respect of the type of a movie.

            Because the major studios owned everything, from celebrities to directors to movie theaters, the companies were able to do whatever they wanted. Due to there being five of these corporations, they would come together and lend certain aspects of filmmaking from one to another. This included big stars, writers, and directors for specific movies. There were also the ‘little three’ studios, including Columbia, Universal, and United Artists, who did not own their own theaters. These companies had to collaborate with the ‘big five’ in order to screen their movies. Having the ability to trade with another company, each corporation took on a specific genre. Just as John Wayne became affiliated with the genre of western, these studios became affiliated with stars and genres. Most major companies had a ‘house style’ that helped promote their films, meaning that each studio had a specific genre they tended to stick to with the same big actors to insure their success at the box office.

            In the 1940s the huge genre was film noir. A huge name of that era in movies is Humphrey Bogart. His most famous films are Casablanca (1942), The Big Sleep (1946), and The Maltese Falcon (1941). Along with Humphrey Bogart’s name tied to the noir genre, Warner Bros. is linked with them as well. As Bogart rose to fame he took Warner Bros. with him. Most famous noir films have Humphrey Bogart as the leading male, often costarring with Lauren Bacall. Although the story lines would change, the two had chemistry that was hard to match. After the positive reviews of their first film together, To Have and Have Not” (1944), the couple became a figure of Warner Bros. as well.

A close equivalent to this is modern Disney. Although they don’t own stars, the actors on Disney Channel tend to appear in only Disney titles. Disney also owns all sorts of steps in the production process. And furthermore, Disney has horizontal integration when it bought big networks like ABC and ESPN.

"All in the Family" vs. "Modern Family"

            “All in the Family” isn’t far off from a modern show when it comes to incorporating material that is acceptable. In its time, “All in the Family” was viewed as risqué to air on television. Television series of the 21^st century have explored just how far a show can go. From showing the first belly button decades ago, TV has now seen less than men and women in their underwear. Modern family shows, like “All in the Family,” challenge what it means to be an American family. Often the parents are portrayed as quite childish while the kids struggle through adolescence and rebel from their parents.

            The new hit TV series “Modern Family” has drawn much attention with its quirks. The show depicts family situations that have become an accepted part of society. The elderly grandfather has a new young wife with a young child. His character is similar to Archie because he is the head of the family and is set in his beliefs. His son is gay and married to a rotund character who is clearly homosexual. The situation is similar to the episode of “All in the Family” where gays are not widely accepted with the elderly. “Modern Family” proves that society has progressed and is now much more accepting of gay couples to the point of acknowledging them as a bonded couple and allowing them to adopt a child.

            While both shows contained integration and freedom issues in society, “Modern Family” spikes popularity due to the strong hold on reality nowadays. “All in the Family” showed characters from the 70s who were not as planted in the ground for their time. Each character was created to form a comedic satire and make situations more amusing. The situations were shaped to over exaggerate racist circumstances while “Modern Family” The 1970s were a time of integration of races, genders, and liberal ideas. This was the basis for creating a satire that unfortunately didn’t achieve its original goal. The audience ended up laughing and relating to Archie instead of laughing at his ignorance. “Modern Family” does the opposite by showing how society has assimilated to understand such situations.

            “Modern family” deals with issues due to the changes of societies’ view of what is now acceptable. “All in the Family” just dealt with the process of making those views, such as interracial marriage, acceptable. “Modern Family” instead dealt with the cultural clashes when it came to holidays or just daily rituals, issues that all interracial couples must face. The difference is the time in which the shows were created and the differences in comedy through the ages.

Radio Development

            As time goes by more and more progress is made. Within the last century and a half the technological evolution has greatly shifted the way that society runs, a major invention and catalyst of that is the radio.

            The way in which our society was running led to the creation of mass communication and the radio industry. As technological advances furthered the radio became a standard item in the common household. While new inventions trickle into the American society they become a standard item. An example of this process is the computer or cell phones, and more recently smartphones. Technology has evolved into a necessity for our community. In order to stay up with modern developments and be considered a regular part of society one must possess the most recent trend.  The radio became a part of our community rapidly as the general public strived to fit in.

            Gugielmo Marconi is the master of the radiotelegraph. In 1912 when the Titanic had its epic demise the radiotelegraph saved lives. The device allowed the news of the tragic iceberg hit to reach forces on land who then saved the lucky passengers who escaped in the lifeboats. This technology then became more common and seen as a necessity. David Sarnoff then developed the “radio music box,” which was then mass distributed and a common piece to households, thus starting the radio industry. Because of the way radio became a household item, stations became geared towards the “common” American family.

Social Learning

The fact that the media heavily influences our society today can be a scary thought. Television characters and strong movie protagonists are often a teenager’s role model. As less and less censoring constricts the media, people are raised to see more and develop faster while their rate of emotional maturity continues to slow down.

            Social learning is the concept of trends following what the media exposes. Such as the movie Juno exposes how lenient society has become towards teen pregnancies. By expressing a certain ideal in any form of media the onlookers view the topic as a typical part of life, unless it is too outlandish. If a new principle is consistently applied in various media venues it unknowingly appears to be a regular part of society. If one action is showed enough the public will unknowingly partake as well.

            Facebook’s concept as a whole contributes to social learning. When a user ‘likes’ a certain product or company they give permission for that company to post advertisements to see along with friends’ statuses. The typical posts a person reads from their friends’ statuses influence others. If your friend likes a certain activity and discusses it on facebook a person is more likely to try the activity because of that short conversation Sue posted. Sue says that she had a great time rafting the river and her friends chime in about how exciting it is. After seeing the conversation you decide to try it yourself. The same concept is applied to corporation pages. Simple questions such as “how do you eat your frosty?” evokes thousands of interesting responses, all of which make you want to have a frosty. The fact that hundreds of thousands of people are commenting in different ways makes a frosty that much more appealing with the concept of ‘fitting in’ when consuming one. Having a frosty becomes more of a way to fit in society and be like others.  If the concept were reversed and almost nobody likes a frosty then a person is less likely to continue consuming the product due to the strong want to be an average person.

Prompt #1

The Coca-Cola advertisement helps me interpret hegemony by making a broad statement. While the scene is what Americans consider normal, the main focus is outlandish and draws attention due to that fact.

Hegemony is the dominant force in society. It is what the populace accepts without a second thought because it occurs persistently through society. The dominant ideology of our culture has become common sense to the typical person in everyday life. Most hegemonic ideals have been created from a struggle in our history, the winning concept becomes expected, such as the struggle for the freedom of slavery.

This specific Coca-Cola ad gives the scenic view of a standard beach during the summer. The people in the picture are laying out at the beach while couples walk along the tide and families play and splash in the water. The audience’s focus is automatically drawn to what is bizarre and definitely not a social norm, in this case it is a penguin who stole a man’s Coca-Cola. The bottle appears to be frozen, making it all the more appealing to the penguin. This ad attempts to create another hegemonic idea, that Coca-Cola is cold and refreshing in the summer heat. In order for the circumstance to come off as hegemonic the rest of the picture is natural to the American eye. The white sand also contributes to the effect because it appears as ordinary to the penguin who would typically be on ice that looks a lot like the color of the sand. The company is pushing the soda to the general public through the ideology that Coca-Cola is positive and refreshing in the summer.

Also, to be completely honest, I do not follow blogs. The only one that I know of and occasionally go to is http://spoilerfix.blogspot.com/