Bet I Can Tell Who She Knows

On this campus it is pretty obvious to tell who is affiliated with what.  This campus is rampant with clubs, organizations, and sports teams and subsequently all the forms of apparel that go with it.  If someone is on the basketball team they have tank tops, shorts, sweat suits, hats, bags, etc.  This may be common for a collegiate sports team but at Babson College we have so many clubs and activities that distribute apparel.  It is to the point that throughout the course of a week you can tell some of the affiliations that a Babson student has merely by observing what apparel they wear.  Once it is determined what affiliations a student has it is then easy to conclude who they know and to what extent.  For example, if I see someone with a "Babson Men's Basketball" sweatshirt I can conclude that they know everyone on the basketball team.  These are just simple assumptions that don't require much detective work, but can easily be concluded.  This is a form of non verbal communication  that is prevalent on campus and is pretty much unspoken, but understood by all.

Now This is Just Ridiculous!

My Thanksgiving turkey had an imprinted advertisement  on it that read "Shop Marty's for Black Friday"(Marty's is a local, independently owned kids clothing shop)!  I apologize for the lack of build-up and anticipation that normally goes on for a paragraph or so before we get to the actual point, but this just couldn't wait.  The title of this piece is an understatement, but even with my expansive, Babson-taught vocabulary I don't think I posses articulate enough speech to fully convey the gravity of this situation.  I know what you're all immediately thinking...."LIESSS!".  I can assure you however that this could not be a more genuine account.  My  mother is the head of my household and absolutely demands that no forms of media are even allowed on once we start eating until after midnight.  It is for that reason that my cell phone was shut off and locked away in her room along with everyone else's cellphones, laptops, iPods, iPads, etc and I was not able to get a picture.  Also, the house phone, WiFi, television, and radio were also shut off for the duration of the night in order to maximize the time spent with family.  My mother is a very family-oriented person and was genuinely appalled by the advertisement carved into our turkey and immediately cut it off and threw it away before even letting the rest of the family know.  Usually my mother is a prude and it is the case that she is simply too old-fashioned, but in this case I had to side with her as she exclaimed with a disgusted expression, "Is NOTHING sacred!?".

Like My Status!

I know the effects of Facebook as a form of media have been beaten to death already, but we haven't even begun to scratch the surface of this phenomenon.  So, let's focus on one essential part of Facebook for right now: Status Updates.  OMG!  How annoying are those friends that feel the need to update their Facebook status twenty times a day?  What is wrong with these people?  Are they socially deprived and use Facebook to supplement real friends, or do they just honestly believe that everyone cares what they have to say?  Hold on.  Here's a better question: Why do you care???  People are often very critical about attention-seekers and then don't realize that they are actually apart of someone's fan base.  On campus it's hard to go a single day without hearing something like "Did you see [name]'s status today?  She needs to realize that no one cares".  My response to these naive people is, "Obviously you must care if you feel the need to talk about it!"  One dramatic impact that Facebook has definitely had on society is that it has made uninteresting, unpopular, and under-appreciated people more visible.  Whether you search for the person or not, once they are a Facebook friend, their status updates will pop up on your news feed without regard for how much "no one cares".

eBook Readers Beware

When Amazon.com launched it's Kindle ebook reader it opened the doors to a whole new market and a whole new medium.  This is a digital age and everyday more and more books are being purchased and read electronically.  It wasn't long after the initial success of the Kindle that other companies started making their own ebook readers.  Barnes and Noble quickly came out with it's Nook ebook reader and Apple 1 up'd the Kindle with the iPad that has several practical functions as well as an ebook reader.  As is customary with any form of media, ebook reader are now another way for advertisers to push their message on consumers.  Some ebooks have advertisements built into every couple pages, so in a 500 page novel there could be an extra 80-100 pages of advertisements!  This is a bit ridiculous in my opinion.  If I were reading a book, the last thing I would want is to be interrupted every couple pages by an advertisement and have my train of thought broken.  With advertisements popping up in between pages of popular novels it could prove to be very misleading.  Readers of a popular author might feel that ads coming up during the book must be supported by the author and the ideas of the book or else it wouldn't be there.  I definitely do not put it past the media to try and trick ebook readers in this way.

The Big Bad Media Monster

With all of the different channels, cable packages, and independent broadcasters around the world, you would think that you would get just as many different views, right? Wrong! All the forms of media in the world don't mean a thing when they are all owned by the same handful of conglomerates.  The fact that these few companies own virtually ALL of the media is a scary thought.  What happens when they decide that they can truly control all media if they begin to merge with or buy their few remaining competitors?  I know that the federal government has strict laws against product and service companies forming monopolies, but what regulations do they have on media companies doing this?  What happens when the general media is literally controlled by one person or group of people with all the same motives, goals, and beliefs?  Say goodbye to the last ounce of objectivity that we had left in this world.  Say goodbye to actual truth and or open opinions.  The only reason this hasn't become a reality yet is due to the fact that the few media moguls in existence are all on opposite sides of the spectrum, whether it be republican, democrat, conservative, liberal, or radical.  Thank God for these differences or I doubt we would ever here an objective word again.

How Ineffective are Fliers?

Everywhere we go on this campus we see fliers, posters, and banners promoting events, products, and services. Often we ask ourselves and even friends the very same question, "Who is actually looking at these things?".  We like to think that advertisements, even the lesser forms such as fliers, don't actually effect us in any way or stimulate interest in anything but this just simply is not the case.  If you honestly believe that billions of dollars are spent every year by marketing executives on ads and promotions that don't actually get your attention and influence your decision-making, then you are sorely mistaken.  Even the most common of advertisements, such as fliers, leave a significant impression in our minds.  The more times we see a flier the more it saves in our memory and eventually when the subject of the flier comes up we realize that we already know about it and can't figure out how this is.  Marketing works! Even the insignificant flier proves this.

Paper 1: Media Is...

Bradley Chukwuma

Professor Li

Media Studies

9/13/2010

Paper #1

Media Is…

Throughout the ages, the opinion of the general public has been able to be swayed, manipulated, dictated, altered, subjected, and refuted by strategic use of media.  Dictionary.com defines media as "(usually used with a plural verb) the means of communication, as radio and television, newspapers, and magazines, that reach or influence people widely (Dictionary.com).  I define media as the forms of communication that can be used to connect people regardless of geographical location.  Although media can be defined by the physical means and methods used to convey a message, it can also be defined by its message and by those responsible for conveying it due to the fact that it is often altered based on the beliefs and motives of those using it.  For example, when President Obama was giving a speech at a rally while he was running for office, he and his wife bumped fists.  Many news shows interpreted this as a “celebratory fist bump”, or a “pound” but Fox News interpreted this as a “terrorist fist jab”.  Fox News is known to be a Republican run news channel and it is more than just coincidence that they would report this from an angle that makes a democratic Presidential nominee look bad. 

            Mark Twain once said that “There are only two forces that can carry light to all the corners of the globe... the sun in the heavens and the Associated Press down here.” (Twain, 2010, p. 1).” This quotation means that it is only the sun and media that truly enlighten the world.  The sun do so in the literal sense of the word by shining light to cast away physical darkness and the media does so by educating and connecting people around the world.  In this quote, Twain has an idealistic belief of media because he speaks of media as if it just conveys news and doesn’t give its own bias interpretation of it, which is not the case.  Although media hold the responsibility of enlightening the masses, those who are in charge of media will always have their own beliefs and agendas that they will want their audience to agree and side with them on.  George Orwell held the same view on media when he said “Early in life I had noticed that no event is ever correctly reported…”.  As ridiculous as this allegation sounds I am convinced that it must be true due to the fact that an individual can hear about the same event in three places and get three different versions of the same story.  This is true when we look back at the situation where Obama and his wife bump fists and Fox News interprets it as a “terrorist fist jab”, MSNBC calls it “fist-bumping”, and the NY Times refers to it as a “closed fist high five”

            Many times in popular culture we hear expressions like “once the media found out”, or “the media is going to have a field day with this” or even “the media has managed to completely misinterpret the situation” which show how commonly it is personified.  Media is not only the message and means of expressing it, but in modern culture the media is a tool used to convey the beliefs of individuals and groups in order to further their own agendas.

Media connects the masses.  Media is a source of information for people to use to develop their own opinions.  Media comes in many different forms and vehicles that all have the purpose of making the world even more interdependent and united. 

 

Works Cited

Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com. 1 January 2010. 9 September 2010 <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/media>.

Twain, Mark. www.proverbia.com. 1 January 2009. 9 September 2010 <http://en.proverbia.net/citastema.asp?tematica=747>.

"Love The Way You Lie" - Eminem featuring Rihanna

In our modern society there are several provacative topics in media that get a lot of attention and popularity for talking about things that are taboo.  One such taboo topic is domestic abuse.  In one of his latest songs called "Love The Way You Lie", rapper Eminem goes in depth into his story of domestic abuse with his significant other  This song is vivid and fully depicts the anger, frustration, and emotion that Eminem has for the topic.  Eventhough we all know that domestic abuse happens it is not something that is usually discussed in public or intentionally brought to the light.  In this case, Eminem not only brings it to the light, but he spends three whole verses reiterating the same story with more passion and anger than he did the verse before and ends with the bone-chilling line "And if she ever tries to leave again I'll tie her to the bed and set this house on fire!"  This is a song that makes light of domestic abuse, and arson, but is one of the most popular songs due to the fact that it has a good flow and Rihanna's beautiful voice on the chorus.  It probably was not in my generation, but I'm pretty sure there was once a time where something like this was not tolerated.  Oh how times have changed.

The Displacement of AIM

Throughout our generation it seems that many forms of social media have come and gone.  Sconex was kicked to the curb after the introduction of MySpace, and MySpace met its demise at the hands of Facebook, and even Facebook is currently battling Twitter, the current fastest growing social media, for the position of "#1 Internet Social Media". Before all of these, however, was AOL Instant Messenger, or AIM.  This was an istant messaging program by AOL that provided users with immediate communication when online.  AIM was the most popular social networking media for my peers and I from elementary to highschool.  It even survived well into the Facebook age, until Facebook developed FB Chat that is.  Facebook chat is basically instant messaging on the facebook profile that can get in contact with any of your Facebook Friends when they are online.  Since Facebook adopted this upgrade, the user rate of AIM has dwindled closer and closer to "non-existant".  I am probably one of the very few that still have the AIM application on my phone, a T-Mobile Sidekick LX, and that is only because I am very nostalgic and try to cling to the remnants of my childhood.  If only a lot more people felt the way I did AIM would be doing a lot better.