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. 

8. My Hatred of the Term "YOLO"

The term "Y.O.L.O" has been poisoning minds of our youth, lately. Made popular by the song "The Motto" by Drake in which he says "You only live once: that's the motto n***a YOLO, the term has become widely popular with teenagers and people of a younger generation. YOLO is now something people say when they do something outrageous or, quite frankly, dumb.

I've seen graffiti around town showing a marijuana plant with the term YOLO beside the picture. I've seen pictures of teenagers underage drinking and smoking marijuana saying "YOLO". I've seen people "tweeting" about how they're doing something crazy with, "#YOLO" beside the tweet. Now I'm a very negative realistic person that takes things very literally, so allow me to show how the aforementioned actions are quite stupid. This could get long.

To the people tagging places with the term "YOLO": Sure, you're expressing yourself. Sure, you might be creative and all. You know what else you're doing VANDALIZING. You and several others might find your little display of art cool, but you know who doesn't? The people that own the buildings and walls that you choose to spray paint the term "YOLO" on. Many times, the vandalism is on buildings and structures owned by the city and state and tax payer dollars are put to removing this vandalism.

To the people getting drunk and high out of their minds while dropping the term "YOLO" here and there and to the people tweeting "#YOLO" while telling of how you're doing something stupid: You only live once? How would you like to spend your one lifetime in hospitalized from alcohol poisoning or after you do something dangerous while being high? Onward to the people tweeting about how they're doing crazy stuff. "Just *insert illegal action*, #YOLO !" Oh, you only live once? How would you like to spend that one lifetime in jail? Not so free anymore, are you?

What I'm trying to say is that, we shouldn't do illegal and dumb things just because "you only live once." Yes, we only live once, but why not spend that one lifetime making smarter decisions that have no repercussions? I'm all for living life to the fullest and without regret because we only get one lifetime, but some people just blow this term out of proportion.Take the meme of the girl above. She's partying at first, having the time of her life "#YOLO." She then comes to find that she is pregnant. 

Our media has allowed this infectious term spread and seep into the minds of our youth and I see no problem with that as long as they aren't using YOLO as an excuse to do bad, crazy, stupid things. Many need to realize that we can't all be completely carefree in life. With actions, come consequences. We all get one lifetime. Think about our futures. People saying this are roughly teenagers all the way to people in their twenties. This age group still has years to go in their lifetime. The crazy and fun things they are doing now may have negative consequences in the future that they will come to deeply regret. Enjoy your one lifetime, but be responsible about it and think of the consequences. 

7. "When Did This... Become Hotter Than This?" Photos

The past few months, I've been seeing photos like these circulating on Facebook. one of them is the one shown above and another is a picture of Marilyn Monroe compared to a very skinny woman in a swim suit with the caption "When did this become hotter than this? **ck society."

When I look at this picture, I see and think what the people that created this picture want me to. My first impression was thinking how classy, beautiful, and healthy the women int he bottom row looked and how artificial and scarily skinny the women in the top row looked. I grew up in a generation that is used to looking at women with the physique of the women in the top row (Heidi Montag, Nicole Richie, Keira Knightley, and Kirsten Dunst) so I'm pretty used to classifying them as "hot." The makers of this picture, however, seem to have chosen pictures that portray the women of present day in a bad way.

Looking back at what many many considered to be "beautiful" ten to twenty years ago, quite a bit has changed. Women are wearing more revealing swimsuits and have slimmed down a lot more. Upon seeing this picture, many (including myself), reflect on society, thinking how we have changed for the worse, idolizing women that are very skinny. We could continue to dwell on how the women in the bottom row are full figured, natural beautifies, and how one or two of the women in the top row have gotten plastic surgery, but let's look at it from a different point view-let us be more sympathetic to the women in the top row. Just because these women are skinny, doesn't necessarily mean they are unhealthy. Women nowadays tend to work out a lot. Most celebrities have personal trainers and have work out routines to keep them in shape. Instead of being quick to judge these women as unhealthily skinny when compared to women twenty years ago, we could consider the fact that they are just perhaps very fit. 

6. "Madison & Vine": The Toys of "Toy Story"

Growing up, I watched a lot of Disney movies which included "Toy Story" and its sequels. Throughout the movie, viewers can see all kinds of toys-from simple plastic toys to toys that exist in real life (Mr.Potato Head, Slinky, Etch-a-Sketch). For the longest time, I didn't pay much attention to the real life toys because I thought that they were just in the movie because they were just another toy that little kids should have. However, after learning a little more about product placement and how most brand names featured in movies and TV shows usually pay for the advertising, it's come to my attention that "Toy Story" must've been an extremely effective ads for Mr.Potato Head, Slinky, and Etch-a-Sketch. 

I'm not too sure how sales were doing for the classic stories in the 90's since I was very young, but after doing a little research about how the sales of Mr.Potato Head, Slinky, and Etch-a-Sketch fared after the movie, it's quite clear that their sales went through the roof after the movie.

 The use of "Madison and Vine," product placement, by the makers of these toys has proven to be very effective. The three toys whose sales went up after the movie played pretty significant roles in the movie and didn't just blend in with the other masses of toys. By seeing how important and cool the toys are in the movie, kids were/are prompted to want the toys seen in movies. According to this article on mentalfloss.com, "After being featured as characters in the Pixar/Disney film, sales soared immediately. Etc-a-Sketch saw a 4500% boost. Slinkys were no longer being produced because they weren't profitable. Post-Toy Story Linky received 20,000 orders, which revitalized the company. Mr.Potato Head sales jumped 800%."

Even to this day, many years after I watched "Toy Story" for the first time, I still associate Mr.Potato Head and Etch-a-Sketch with "Toy Story." Though product placement can sometimes be distracting, the product placement of these toys have been very effective without disturbing the plot line of the story.

5. "Madison & Vine": " 'Draw Something' No Longer A Big Draw"

Fads and trends come and go all the time. Even among smartphones, there are apps that rise to popularity quickly that then quickly lose popularity. This seems to be the case with the app "Draw Something" that was all the rage several months ago. The object of the game, "Draw Something" is to get the person to guess a word that you given by drawing a picture or clues for them, sort of like a form of "Pictionary."

I, myself, downloaded the app during February. During that time, the app was extremely popular between me and all my friends. Many of us would have lots of different games going with many different people. The game was fun and new and lots of us enjoyed all the "new" words that we could relate to such as "Katniss" from the "Hunger Games" and "Usher." 

However, around 2-3 months later, I find myself hardly playing the game at all. Compared to the constant games I had going several months ago, I only go onto the app about once a week to see if anyone has made a turn on a game. I thought it was just me and my friends that had gotten a pretty bored with the app, but according to this article I saw on Yahoo, the number of people that use this app every day has dropped significantly from 14.3 million to 9.2 million. 

Despite the dramatic drop in users, Zynga, the makers of the popular "Words with Friends" and "Scramble with Friends," have purchased the company that makes "Draw Something," "OMGPOP." Since their purchase, Zynga stocks have steadily dropped. However, Zynga has been "reportedly been selling words to advertisers...to generate some extra revenue. Advertisers such as the NHL have bought several words such as "puck" to celebrate the Stanley Cup playoffs. Other brands are expected to purchase words that will be featured in the near future, such as "Pringles." 

By selling words to advertisers, Zynga is using the idea and technique of "Madison and Vine", the mixing of entertainment and advertising. Advertisers and the makers of the game both get something out of the cooperation. The makers of the game can make some extra money while advertisers can advertise whatever it is they are advertising by means of a gaming app. Though this technique of mixing entertainment and advertising can be very obvious at times, I think it fits right in with this game. This app had already featured more current words probably aimed to a younger audience, and these new words will probably fit right in with them. Thinking back, the "Hunger Games" probably bought the word "Katniss" to promote their movie that came out when the app was very popular. Though the idea of "Madison and Vine" is not new, product placement has gotten more and more clever throughout the years. As long as the advertising doesn't take away the quality of entertainment, I think the cooperation is beneficial to both the entertainment industry and advertisers, while also satisfying viewers and consumers. 

4. Narrow Casting/Odd Advertisement Placing-Sparknotes

Advertisements are everywhere nowadays-billboards, television, newspapers, buses, bench ads, schools, smartphone apps, social networking sites, and even yearbooks. None of this was really new to me until I started noticing how the advertisements on websites such as Facebook and Sparknotes started getting a little more specific and tailored. 

I, myself, enjoy browsing websites such as Nordstrom for clothes, shoes, and other things in my free time. Most recently, I was told I would be going to a relative's wedding, so I started looking online for a dress and shoes for the event. A little before this, my best friend and I had also browsed Nordstrom's website, looking at Longchamp bags when we were putting off doing a project. 

Several days after I looked the dresses, shoes, and  bags online, I went onto Sparknotes to refresh my memory of some chapters I had read several nights ago for a reading quiz. While I was doing this, I couldn't help but notice the large Nordstrom advertisement at the top of the page, right under the search bar. All the items looked extremely familiar to the items I had looked at several days ago. About an hour later, I logged onto Facebook and noticed another Nordstrom advertisement just like the one on Sparknotes. Upon noticing this, I started clicking on the little thumbnails of items to see if they were the very items I had browsed a few days ago. After looking at every item, it turned out that they were some of the very items I had looked at. 

I didn't know this until watching a Frontline movie called "The Persuaders" in my zero period, several days ago, but there are actually companies, such as Axiom (shown in the movie), that there are companies that gather all sorts of information about you based on what you do online. From online shopping, internet searches, to other things one can do on the internet, these companies can gather all sorts of very specific and detailed information about you and sell it to companies such as Facebook and other large companies to specify what kinds of advertisements you are shown. After learning of these companies, it was pretty clear that Sparknotes also does this with the people that visit their website. 

Because these companies have knowledge about what websites you visit more often, it is also easy to know which ad to but on which website. I go on Facebook and Sparknotes quite often, so it makes sense for me to see a good amount of personalized ads on these websites. I think it's a logical approach to advertising because consumers won't have to be bothered with ads that are completely irrelevant to them and companies can continue tempting consumers with pictures of products the consumer had looked at. However, I can't help but think how much of an invasion of privacy this approach to advertising can be. There are complete strangers out there that probably know us better than we know ourselves. The fact that these companies can see almost every single thing we do online and extract information from it and sell it to more people can be quite intimidating. 

3. "Dirty Mouth" Orbit Gum Commercial

This "Dirty Mouth" Orbit commercial is one I saw about a year ago that has stuck with me since because I found it witty and funny. In the commercial, a woman finds a man with another woman and she quickly gets angry calling him a "son of a biscuit-eating bulldog" and the woman a "doo-doo head cootie queen." The other woman then fires back calling the original woman a "lint-licker." As the commercial comes to an end, the Orbit Gum lady pops up and says, "Dirty mouth? Clean it up with Orbit Gum."  

Here, the commercial is using ambiguity. In the context of chewing gum, a "dirty mouth" is usually a mouth that is not clean physically because of bad breath or bad hygiene. In the commercial, however, a "dirty mouth" is a mouth that is saying foul language. Commercials with foul language can't, of course, be aired on television so the witty creators of this commercial instead use creative, childish name calling instead. By using ambiguity, the commercial then uses the wit and humor technique. The supposed "dirty words"that are said in the commercial reminded me a lot of the names my friend and I used to call each other when we were younger such as "cootie queen." With the grown adults saying these childish words in a serious manner, the commercial is made quite humorous.

Using the two uses of the word "dirty mouth," humor, and wittiness, this commercial is made impressionable to its audience. The humor and and wittiness stick with the audience so that they remember Orbit gum. It has already been a year since I first saw this commercial on television and I still think back to all the witty name-calling whenever I see a pack of Orbit gum at the grocery store. 

2. Miss Turkey and Carl's Jr.

I've seen many Carl's Jr. commercials on TV and close to all of them use sex appeal techniques. One of the commercials that I remember from probably a year ago is the one above where Miss Turkey, Gizem Memic, walks around in a bikini with little burger designs, eating a Carl's Jr.'s turkey burger.

Before I point out the obvious sex appeal technique, one tool that is used is ambiguity. The product being sold is a charbroiled turkey burger. In this instance, "turkey" is the poultry that is processed into a patty that goes on the burger. Afterwards, "turkey" is used to refer to the country of Turkey where Gizem Memic is from. Carl's Jr. uses the tool of ambiguity to relate the two completely different things in their commercial. There's "turkey" the poultry and "Turkey" the country.

Now back to the most obvious technique that is being used-sex appeal. By having a very attractive female walk around in a very revealing swim suit eating their burger, Carl's Jr. is hoping that the audience will remember the commercial and buy their burger. In the commercial, Carl's Jr. even states, "To help you remember our delicious charbroiled turkey burger, we hired Ms.Turkey. To help you remember Ms.Turkey, we put her in a bikini. And to help you remember Ms.Turkey's bikini, we had it designed with little tiny pictures of our charbroiled turkey burger." The targeted audience for this commercial is probably males that are teenagers or older. In seeing this very appealing female dressed in skimpy clothing, the audience (more so males) will have this image in their head and also remember the product that is being advertised. 

1. Katy Perry and Proactive

Many of us suffer from acne-teenagers especially. According to this advertisement, Katy Perry is no different. This advertisement incorporates several different technique; the first and most prominent being the testimonial technique. In this commercial that I saw on TV a few weeks ago while watching SNL, Katy Perry gives a testimony of how she felt self conscious while on stage performing songs because of her acne problems. Perry then goes on to testify how Proactiv changed all that, preventing her acne and giving her more confidence on stage. Seeing a popular singer like Katy Perry use this product, resulting in good results, makes consumers like myself who enjoy her music interested in buying the product. 

Another advertising technique that this advertisement uses is that of weasel words. It may not be visible in the picture, but in the picture and in the commercial, Proactiv claims that their product "Helps clear and prevent acne blemishes." Here, Proactive is suggesting something positive without really making any promises that their product will absolutely yield results. Upon hearing that positive results are possible, I myself wanted to try the product out, having acne myself. I almost completely ignored the fact that results are not guaranteed.

In addition to those techniques, another technique that came to my attention was the technique of bribery. In the picture above and in the commercial, Proactiv offers a "60-Day RISK FREE" trial. This causes the consumer to be drawn in by the possibility of getting something for "FREE." Consumers are always looking to save money and the idea of getting to try the product for two months is definitely appealing. What the consumer may not know is that there may be catch to trying the product out for two month such as a requirement to buy the product after the two months. 

Through the use of bribery, weasel words, and testimonials, Proactiv's product is made quite appealing to the general public. Many of us seek to be like celebrities and celebrity testimonials convince us that we can be just like them if we use the product that they are testifying for. The prospect of possible results and free things further draw in consumers to this product.