TV rules?

In my English class we had to read a short story called “Thin Gruel”. One of the main points in this story is how to be able for books to be published they have to follow certain roles. These different rules included things like showing girls as peaceful, emotional and warm. It also said having women as stay home mothers, cooking, and cleaning was not aloud. These all were considered to be stereotypical of women. It also talked about boys being per traded as brave, strong, rough, competitive, and easy going. This is just a small part of the guild lines that have to be fallowed. This list continues with how racism is also shown in different ways like, having people of color as universally athletic, as gangsters, criminals, or being angry.
So, then during our mass media class on Wednesday I was wondering if this could be related to what we talked about. We learned about light viewers and heavy viewers. How heavy viewers took what they watched and portrayed it as the truth. One of the examples that Mr.Rudd gave us in class was that the heavy viewers that see (for example) Latinos on TV see them as- people with no jobs, and less populated. When in truth we know this is not always necessarily correct.
Putting my points together it comes down to a question. If for children books there are such streaked roles to fallow. How come TV doesn’t have to follow any such rules? Or does it? If there is what are the rules and how do they work?

Harry Potter

Since the beginning of our classes when we talk about media I always think of TV and movies. I forget that another form of media is books! So I thought I would write about my all time favorite book series Harry Potter. In class we always talk about how society influences media. I was thinking of how a type of media can also affect media. The book series of Harry Potter written by JK Rowling is a form of media. After the first couple of books were written they began to also make a series of Harry Potter movies. So in this case because of the books the more popular known form of media (movies) is made!

Media's veiw of college

What is college like? Study, study, study! Truly college is more than just studying and school work. At the same time that school work is a very important part of college. College also teaches teens to grow and learn to live on there own. You learn to make decisions for yourself. All these things are what make up college life. This is not how media perceives college life. Not all but most TV shows and movies falsely show you what college is really about. So many times when the college life is shown in media its all about “partying”. In movies what you see happening in college is drinking and having sex in dorm rooms. Media seems to always leave out the real college life.

This situation is also put into a media loop. High school students going to college see how media has portrayed how college life is. Seeing this they try mimicking what that see on TV. With the change of each college generation, media continues to watch and go on with the never ending loop.

lights, camera, action

Last year I go to be partly apart of a documentary. This documentary was called “American teen”. Some how my high school was picked for this film and about to of my peers were picked as the “main” followed people as we liked to call them. The documentary caused a lot of controversy through out the school year but what I want to write about is the different shots that’s I saw them taking. The most used shot was the shoulder shot. Where the camera man carried the camera on his shoulder and fallowed the people around. I saw this being used at all kinds of different places like, at football games in the stands, in the hallways at school, and in the cafeteria. The other type is mounted. This meaning the camera is on a stand. This was also used a great deal during basketball games, classes, and interviews. Because two of my very close friends were one of the “people that they fallowed” they asked me to do an interview. They did this with a mounted camera. Also the interview was a close up. I learned a lot about camera and video production from the camera crew (as we liked to call them). It was a very cool experience and I’m excited for it to come out so we can watch it.

medias mind

As I have talked about before is that Golfing is one of my semiotic domains. Over spring break I went with my schools golf team to play the Robert Trent Jones golf trail in Dothens, Alabama. We played 18 holes of golf everyday. Media portrays golf in many ways. Sometimes I disagree with the ways that media portrays golf. Medias biggest and most well known figure to golf is Tiger Woods. Although , I do like Tiger Woods and I do know he is a great golfer but sometimes I wish Media would talk about more than just Tiger. Also, another image that media gives golf is that it is an easy, laid back, not athletic sport to play. Yes, a great thing about golf is that you can play it until you are old. But, competition golf is a lot different than just playing 9 holes on a cart with some friends. Golf can be very hard and exhausting just like basketball and football and other sports. You have to practice just as hard and put in just as many or even more hours than other sports. Playing in the heat walking and carrying a golf bag is hard work. You need to be in good shape to play golf. I think that sometimes media does a disservice to the sport in showing how much hard work it can be.

the mooks

We learned about the Mooks and the midriffs. These are the names of how media describes a type of guys and girls. The best example I thought of for a mook is Johnny Knoxsville who is the face of jackass. Knoxsville is an obnoxious, loud, spur of the moment kind of guy. He is famous for filming himself and friends doing ridiculous and dangerous stunts. Although I am guilty of watching his show and movies, I realize that there really isn’t anything great about Knoxsville. He doesn’t have any special talents and some might say you are stupider for watching this type of shows. I am not really sure why teens and people find this kind of thing so entertaining. Its amazing to me what is defined as cool, when you really think about it.

merchants of cool

The movie we had to watch for class, “Merchants of cool” was very interesting to me. I thought I should write a blog telling my thoughts of the movie. I actually found the movie relatively interesting. What I found interesting was how kids “wants” change so often. How it’s a never ending task to find what is cool and what people want to get out of what they watch. This is what we called the feedback loop. What media does is they watch kids and see what they do and like. Then they take what they find and sell that back to them. Then kids imitate what they watch. This making it a never ending and never changing loop.

media's spring break 07

Media’s Spring Break 2007

Being on spring break this week and also trying to think about what I should write about for blogs I decided I could write a blog on how media affects what people should do on spring break. The best example that I believe media uses to tell us whats “cool” for spring break is in TV shows and movies. One of my favorite shows they have the main characters go to Florida and find themselves on an MTV show licking whip cream off girls belly’s. Media gives people the idea that you should spend your spring break at the ocean, drinking beer, and dancing to music. Also media gives this idea through billboards. I just say a billboard that said something about “how are you spending your spring break”. It then had a picture of cans of beer on the beach with the sun setting in the back ground. Media doesn’t give you a choice on what is cool to do on spring break. Media wants us to think what is supposed to be involved during spring break and so we go with that instead of making up our own minds.

Esablishing a shot!!

Establishing a shot is when you see the outside shot of the scene before going into the scene. This is to introduce the scene and so you can see the environment of the scene. You will notice this method in used in many TV shows and movies. It is also used very often in the news. One example of the news using establishing a shot would be when there is a news story about something happening in a school. They may first show the outside of the school where it may have the schools name. Then go into the school where the interview or the rest of the news story is carried out. Establishing a shot is also used very often in TV shows. A classic example is the TV show Full House. At the beginning of many scenes the big white house is often shown before going in to the house and then the action begins. Establishing a shot is very useful so that the people watching can know what the outside of scenes look like. If you ever only saw the inside of the house scene you would wonder what the outside was like. With this method you can show more and understand more about the scene.

Big time hollywood

I really enjoyed the activity we did in class on Wednesday. The class room was set into the Hollywood mood. It was the “real thing” with the class being divided into actors/actresses, writers, and studios. I was apart of Big Time Studios. We were the wealthiest studio and everyone wanted to work with us. We started out by figuring out what our budget was and figuring out how much we could afford to spend. My groups other job was hiring writers. Once we had the story we wanted we needed to find actors. That’s a lot easier said than done. Even though we had the most money in the industry we had some difficultly getting the actors we wanted. We had to be careful in how much we paid for our actors. This activity really showed the intensity and competition of Hollywood.