15. My Overall Reflection on Media

With every end comes a beginning, no? Though this media blog has come to an end, I think that my time as a more aware consumer of media has just begun.
I, myself, think that I consume a fairly large amount of media. I don't watch a lot of TV anymore, but I do spend a good four or more hours on my laptop during school days. I think this impacts the amount of media i consume because when you're online, you're exposed to so much more media-copious amounts of advertisements are confined to a smaller space and the headlines (whether they are about Kim Kardashian or international affairs) are shown in a smaller place as well. I think the fact that I consume a lot of media impacts me, but not in the way that analyzers of the media's affects think it might.
 Many have said that teenagers, such as myself, are brainwashed to believe that they should be a certain way and look a certain way. I will admit that I'm quite permanently convinced that the ideal woman should beautiful and slender, but I most certainly don't think that the media has convinced me to be promiscuous with my body. In addition, in the documentary "Miss Representation," it was stated that females have been less enticed to want powerful positions because of the media's portrayal of women, but I don't think that I've ever felt that way. My closest friends and I have always wanted to do well in school, go to good colleges, and become wealthy and powerful. Even though the media has portrayed woman to be a certain way, I think it is safe to say that many females see right through it and choose to be who they want to be regardless of what the media tells them.
Throughout this quarter, as a result of keeping this journal, I think I have become more aware of the media I consume. Most of the times, now, when I see a commercial, I'll think about the techniques the advertisers are using and the needs the advertisers might be appealing to. I've also started paying much more attention to the product placement in TV shows and in movies.
 In keeping this journal, I also think that it has helped me to increase my media literacy. In my opinion, it's important to have this because it's just more important to be aware in general. Why go through life unaware of what advertisers are showing to us consumers? Why go through life without knowing what brands are doing in television programs and movies? By becoming more aware, we are less likely to just go along with the ideas and perceptions the media wants us to simply accept.
I've come to enjoy this online journal of mine and I owe it to this assignment for making me more aware of the media. This is the Tsoi Bean signing off. This may be the end of this blog, but it's only the beginning of a lifetime of being aware.

14. My Dislike of Dubstep

First thing's first, WHERE ARE THE WORDS. Oxford dictionary defines a song as "a short poem or other set of words set to music or meant to be sung." Therefore, using this reasoning, dubstep "songs" are not songs! The rapid growing popularity of this type of music continues to annoy me as more and more pop songs integrate aspects of dubstep.

Songs such as "We Found Love" and "Sexy and I Know It" are half dubstep and more and more songs are continue to do the same. The main reason I find this genre of music so annoying goes back to my first point. Why aren't there any words? I just find it... unfair that some artists go through the process of actually writing a song and then putting it to music while other artists can take a big shortcut and just hire people to put music in the place of words. Many have said that the quality of the music industry is not what it used to be, and I agree. I'll admit that the type of music I like (pop) isn't of the highest quality either, but in my opinion, songs that lack words are far worse. 

My dad plays a lot of oldies music in the car when we drive around so I've gotten to know some older songs. These were songs that had lyrics that were full of meaning and songs that are still remembered several decades after they first came out. Compare this to the newer songs nowadays. We don't necessarily listen to songs from say five or so ago anymore and sometimes we forget them altogether. Songs these days are far less meaningful compared to songs from twenty or thirty years ago. I can deal with the quality of lyrics slowly worsening, but to get rid of lyrics altogether? Now that's just crossing the line. 

13. The Combining of Pop Music and Rap

These days, the type of songs that dominate the songs are those of the pop genre. While many enjoy this type of music, many others find this type of music to be annoying and seemingly meaningless and shallow. 

Over the past few years, though, I've noticed a growing trend in songs- "poppish" songs have now turned to rap for the bridge. This trend has made poppish songs increasingly more appealing to a larger group of people and has taken several songs that didn't have rap in the bridge and made them popular.

An excellent example of such a case is Katy Perry's song, "E.T." when Katy Perry's album, "Teenage Dream" first came out in the summer of 2010, I listened to the entire album and I really liked the song E.T. and I thought it would quickly become popular. The song eventually did go on to be very popular, but not until about a year later when the original bridge was swapped out for Kanye West's bridge that is all rap. 

By adding this aspect to the song, this song now appeals to people that may enjoy rap music over pop music. The songs that are now topping the charts are those that have combined both rap and pop, thus appealing to two different groups of music lovers. 

12. Thoughts on "Mirror Mirror"

After watching "Miss Representation" in class over the last week, female empowerment and the role of females has been on my mind quite a bit. In the documentary, it was mentioned that even women in animated movies such as "Snow White" were portrayed as damsels in distress, wearing suggestive clothing, who needed to be saved by men. 

This weekend, I watched one of the newer renditions of the classic story of "Snow White" called "Mirror Mirror." In this movie, you have the expected characters: Snow White, the evil queen, the seven dwarfs, and Prince Charming. The plot has characteristics similar to the classic movie, but one huge aspect that is different is that of Snow White's personality. In this movie, Snow White is no longer the damsel in distress. She is trained by seven dwarfs to fight for herself and in one scene, when she has to face the beast, she says to the prince and the dwarfs,"I can think of no greater group of warriors to lead into battle, but this is my fight."

In contrast with the 1937 Walt Disney classic, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," the female protagonist has gone from a needy, semi-clueless female to a clever, vivacious female perfectly capable of defending herself. However, in the other rendition of "Snow White" that has been released this year, "Snow White and the Huntsman," the character of Snow White is even more different from the classic protagonist of Snow White. Portrayed by Kristen Stewart, this Snow White is a full on warrior with armor and weapons. Through this great change, we can see how our view on females has changed over the years. Though women still have ways to go, females have come very far from the once completely male-dependent persona that was so commonly portrayed in the years past.  

11. Product Placement in "The Social Network"

This weekend, I re-watched one of my favorite movies of all time, "The Social Network," and I couldn't help but notice the product placements throughout the movie. 

GAP Sweatshirt: In the first half hour of the movie, the character of Mark Zuckerberg wears a sweater that has the large name of the brand, GAP, on it.

Adidas Sandals: Throughout the movie, Mark Zuckerberg's character wears mostly only one type of shoe which is most prominently, the Adidas Sandals that he dons even in the winter.

Sony Vaio Laptops & Apple Laptops: The only two brands of laptops that are shown throughout the movie are those of Sony Vaio and Apple's. These laptops play a large role in the launching of Facebook and the development of the social network throughout the movie..

FACEBOOK: Though the movie paints a somewhat bad picture of Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook is definitely receiving lots of advertising because the whole movie is about the making of the website. Several of my friends did not have a Facebook before seeing the movie, but later chose to make one upon seeing the movie. 

Even though there was a substantial amount of product placement throughout the movie, it all seemed to belong. This was probably my fifth or so time watching the movie and the products have never seemed to be ill-fitted with the story line. In fact, I think the products actually give the movie a more realistic feel because the characters use products that everyday people like us use. 

10. Christina Shipman: Sacramento County Board of Education

Election season is fast approaching and with that comes numerous advertisements for people running for different positions. One such advertisement I received was that of Christina Shipman's who is running for the Sacramento County Board of Education. 

There are several things I noticed about this advertisement:

Targeted Audience: The only people I know that received this ad were families that had children in school, so the target audience for this ad is parents with younger children in the education system.

Cover (first picture from left)- The cover features three children smiling-an African-America girl, an Asian girl, and A Hispanic boy. Underneath their smiling faces are the words, "A New Voice for ALL STUDENTS."  This advertisers is clearly displaying some diversity in their ad, but, usually, when I see an ad that is showing diversity, I see people that are African-American, Asian, Hispanic, and Caucasian. With the absence of a Caucasian child and the presence of the caption, I can't help but wonder if the ad is implying that Caucasian students are the ones that usually have a voice. 

Inside (middle picture)- The inside of the ad features three paragraphs that contain words with positive connotations such as passionate, achievement, succeed, readiness, distinguished, leader, and cherished. These words cause the targeted audience to see Shipman in the best light possible, thus rallying voters. Another thing I noticed on the inside of the ad is a little picture on bottom of the left-hand corner that says that The Sacramento Bee says that ,"Shipman is the best choice." By making a connection between the two, readers of the Sacramento Bee will be further influenced to vote for Shipman.

Back (first picture from right)- The back of the advertisement features a paragraph that more or less repeats what the inside of the ad says, thus reinforcing the information into the targeted audience's heads. Another thing on the back of the ad are the words, "Committed TO EDUCATION" in large letters with "TO EDUCATION" in a different color and font. This, again, highlights what Shipman is all about and gets her main message across to potential voters. 

9. Memorizing Music Lyrics Vs. Memorizing Information For School

Whenever a song that I like comes on the radio, I have no problem remembering the most specific of lyrics. However, when it comes to studying and memorizing information for school, I find that I have a much more difficult stuff getting it into my head and relaying it on tests, quizzes, and exams. I've asked my friends if they have the same problem and all of them agree. 

What may seem a little puzzling first quickly becomes obvious if we take a closer look. The media is constantly playing popular songs. Commercials, movies, television shows, radio stations are constantly drilling the popular songs of the moment in our heads. This repetition is key in remembering the lyrics of a song. With school and studying, we could be doing this for hours, but only see a particular piece of information come up once or twice. The repetition of songs are far more constant in our lives than the information we are expected to learn and memorize and this is all thanks to media. 

Another reason lyrics are so memorable as opposed to school subject related information, is because we can relate to them. Many songs are often about love: falling in love, being in love, falling out of love, being betrayed by a love one, etc. We can relate so much more to these songs on an emotional level than we can relate to a simple fact regarding history. 

These are just my thoughts about why lyrics stick with us more than facts that I have thought of and typed up right off the bat. There are most likely many more reasons, both obvious and science related, but these are just the ones that seem pretty obvious to me.