6/5/13: A Little Love and Reflection

Most teenagers, never genuinely love a homework assignment they're given. Projects can be fun, until they're actually graded. I confess that I was actually looking forward to this assignment. Although, like most great things, the novelty eventually wore off.

The word blog has a positive connotation. Every successful fashion writer that I've ever come across in Teen Vogue, has started out with a blog. Today, people often read political blogs, like the Daily Howler, more than they do columns in the New York Times. Blogs allow people to express themselves. It gives us a chance to share our life story, our opinions and have people actually care. I think making this assignment a blog was a good strategy. It is also reflective of the influence technology has gained in today's society. Ironically, it also reflects the influence of media.

The statement, "technology is all around us", no longer surprises us the way it might have ten or twenty years ago. Technology, and its impact on media, is an inherent part of our generation. I didn't need to write this blog to realize that. This blog did, however, help me realize that I can no longer keep track of how much time I spend with technology or how much time I spend consuming media. Maybe it's just me. I might be making a generalization by saying that this probably applies to most people.

We spend all this time consuming media, but how aware are we of what we're consuming? Most people have a general awareness. By that I mean that they are aware that media is a kind of a game. They know that advertisers, news producers, and other media-related professionals use certain angles in the media to get what they want.  I think most people realize that media is developed specifically to influence you. I knew that they had strategies, but I didn't know what they were. I think, or I hope, that most people are in the same boat that I was in before I took this class and wrote this blog.

The critical thinking class gave me the skills I needed to improve my media literacy, but the blog allowed me to apply those skills. In some ways, it was like learning to read. It's not enough to learn the sounds and meanings of the words. You have to be able to piece of text and read it. I think I've become more media literate. I notice fallacies, advertising appeals, and advertising techniques in media now. As corny as it sounds, I feel like I solved a mystery. Writing this blog gave me that Sherlock Holmes-"aha" moment. In context of my teenage social life, it was like figuring out a secret that people and been keeping in front of my face.

I firmly believe that media literacy should be a required class. Media has a negative influence on a lot of issues. Unfortunately, we can't regulate media for the same reason that Congress can't stricter gun laws. Big corporate names, with power akin to that of the NRA, can and will convince people that the government is trying to take away their freedom. People love their freedom too much. Most wouldn't vote for this law even if it was for the good of society. That's why a media literacy class is so important. If media is unregulated, then people need to become media literate, so they can process it all.

Is becoming media literate a good thing? Does it really defend us against big corporate interests? Are we really being brainwashed by the media? Yes, yes, and yes. Becoming media literacy does defend us against big corporate interests. Media is really brainwashing us into believing some things that aren't true. I think a lot of people buy things that are being advertised online, on the TV, in magazines, or anywhere else. We buy things or believe in ideas that have a lot of media "hype", so to speak. Take Kony 2012 for example. High school students alone donated thousands of dollars to an organization that kept getting sketchier and sketchier as the money poured in. After the "hype" died down, and was killed by the organization after the founder's nervous break down, nothing great happened for those invisible children.

Becoming literate in the media, for me, debunked an current American myth: there is no glass ceiling in America. Women have made a lot of progress in the United States, but my media literacy skills and the documentary Missrepresentation helped me realize that there is still a glass ceiling. Its been hiding in the bushes that are the media. Women are still over sexualized in the media. The same misogynistic or sexist stereotypes and assumptions still exist, especially in the media.

I thought this media blog was very beneficial. It helped me take a closer look at the media I was consuming. As high school students, we are reaching a point where we're going to start making our own decisions. We won't have our parents with us to hold our hands. Even our parents our influenced by the media. As teens, we've realized, or will come to realize, that our parents aren't always right. We need to respond by learning to make our own educated decisions, instead of with a "screw you". All Americans need to become educated because our voice, not the voice of big corporate (or whatever big wig suits your fancy) interests, needs to be the loudest. As a world population, we need to become media literate. Sure, people say that the media "markets" to us. In actuality, media often shapes us so we are marketable. That's why we need to become media literate. We need to get educated and get literate, media literate.

6/2/13 #13: Taylor Swift Diet Coke Advertisement

I couldn't finish up this media literacy unit without doing a Taylor Swift rant, I mean analysis. In this Diet Coke commercial, we get to watch Taylor Swift drink coke. We also get to listen to her "write" the lyrics to her song "22" and hear people interpret the song in a way that's more entertaining than Swift's.

What needs are addressed in this commercial? If there was a need to turn off the TV, this commercial would satisfy it perfectly. I know I'm mean, but if I could make millions of dollars about how old I am, I'd drop out of school to start writing. Unfortunately, I'm not Taylor. She has that lovemark quality and a legion of loyal fans that will buy her album, though it sounds like a repeat of her several other songs about break-ups and "love". In all seriousness, though, this commercial does address some important needs. I thought that it addressed the need to escape. The  people who are singing the song are alone. They're driving to work, working at work, and playing the guitar, while Swift gets ready to perform. We all want to escape to the wonderful of Taylor Swift, so we don't have to be those people. It's a coke commercial, so it also appeals to our physiological needs. Is all that song writing making you thirsty? Drink some diet Coke. It'll quench your thirst after all your "hard-work".

This ad used the techniques plain folks, testimonial, and repetition. The people singing "22" are just ordinary people like you and me. The plain folks technique is used so that the commercial relates to the general public. Although, I think we can all relate to Taylor Swift's constant relationship drama and revenge, right? The commercial also uses the technique testimonial by showing several shots of Taylor Swift drinking diet Coke. Taylor Swift drinks diet Coke, so that means it must be good, like her relationship advice. The commercial also uses repetition by showing several different shots of Taylor Swift, in her natural habitat, drinking diet Coke.

I thought the lighting and camera angle were interesting. The lighting initially started off soft, but then ended bright when she went to perform. Why did it get bright at the end? Maybe it was meant to show how your life could be brightened by diet Coke. Maybe it symbolizes the light at the end of the tunnel for Taylor Swift. The camera angle was eye level. This puts viewers on the same level as Taylor Swift, despite the fact that she's a millionaire. Still, it makes the commercial more relatable.

This commercial actually had a nice simple feel to it. However, I'm not going to buy diet Coke. This is not just because I don't like Taylor Swift. I don't like diet Coke, or diet soda for that matter. Artificial, artificial sugar and syrup (if that makes sense) doesn't appeal to me. Combine that with Taylor Swift, someone who I've had trouble respecting lately (I did at one point), and I won't buy diet Coke. Now if it were Emma Watson, I might consider it. I guess she was too busy hanging out with her boyfriend of a YEAR to film the commercial. Come on Emma, get your priorities straight.

6/2/13 #12: Dove Real Beauty Sketches

Many commercials don't use real people like they claim. This Dove campaign makes a similar claim, and I hope it's true. I love the message of Dove's Real Beauty Sketches. An artists first has people describe themselves. The language they use is harsh. Then, a person they met that day describes them. The language they use is a lot nicer and complimentary. That person (almost, if not all were women) then got to see both sketches side by side. They discovered that they were beautiful. One women said she would learn to embrace her natural beauty.

While this isn't a traditional commercial, it's a campaign that gives Dove ethos and appeals to the needs of women, mainly. When it came to the main need this commercial addressed, I wrestled between two: the need for attention and the need for prominence. In the end, I decided that this commercial satisfied the need for prominence in women. The need for the attention is about the need to stand out, whereas the need for prominence is more about a need for importance. That's what the women in this commercial wanted. They wanted to be admired and respected. Looks have a lot to do with. This commercial gives women a sense of importance. I felt more confident about my looks, which, unfortunately, is important in today's society. One women said that our feelings about our own looks also dictate who we choose to associate with. 

I thought this commercial used the ad techniques Transfer/Association and Glittering Generalities. The message of the Dove campaign is a good one. It makes women feel good about themselves. It gives them confidence. Those good confident feelings are transferred to or associated with Dove. I also thought that the commercial used Glittering Generalities. It used the word beauty and the words natural beauty frequently. This enhances those positive feelings transferred to Dove.  

The artist's description of his job as a forensic artist reminded me of the rhetorical triangle. The Dove commercial uses ethos by employing a FBI trained forensic artist who worked for the San Jose Police Department for sixteen years. They are trained to draw detailed pictures based on a person's description. The Dove commercial also used pathos well. The piano music was soft and very emotional. The scene when the women see both sketches and realize that they are naturally beautiful is emotionally appealing.

I love this commercial/campaign. It kills me to think about the problems with it. The forensic artist could be drawing ugly first sketches on purpose. The people describing the women are obviously going to be nice, either because they were told to want to be nice people in the commercial. Still, I'd take a fake commercial with a good message over a fake commercial with a bad message any day.

6/2/13 #11: Where Misrepresentation is Concerned, GoDaddy is King

First off, I'm sorry for the enlarged video. I attempted to make it smaller and have it display the ClevverNews "journalist" to no avail. 

Most people are familiar with this infamous Super Bowl commercial. Go Daddy is known for their racy, attention-getting advertisements. All are incredibly sexist and stereotypical. This commercial is the icing on the cake. When I watched the ClevverNews presentation of this commercial, I was intrigued, but not the way I am when I watch Bill Moyers with my parents. (Yes, I'm that cool.) The female journalist's take on the commercial embodied all the issues for women in today's media. She said, "(Bar Refaili) obviously represents the sexy side, while Heiman personifies the smart side." For those of you who aren't familiar with Bar Refaili, SHE is a model. He, Heiman, has been an extra and a character actor in films here and there. The woman's statement shows the skewed image we have of women today. Women are obviously meant to be the sexy side. They can't be the smart side. 

I admit, when I first saw this ad, I thought, "Why are they being mean to nerds?" I had been so used to Go Daddy objectifying women, that, for a second, I dismissed the sexist misrepresentation of women. Honestly, I was too disgusted to even think about what was going on in this commercial. 

Who is Go Daddy targeting in this commercial, the sexy or the smart? Go Daddy, believe or not, is actually a company that sells website domains. The commercial appeals to be targeting smart, nerdy website builders, forgetting that even cool people know a thing or two about computer science. Will.i.am is fascinated by quantum physics, and is going back to school to study computer science. I guess the Go Daddy market team skimmed over that will.i.am article in favor of another photo montage of Kim K's baby bump. 

Go Daddy shook things up a bit by ditching the old need to satisfy curiosity. They provided you with a very racy clip of a make-out session. What needs were they trying to satisfy this time? Need for affiliation is a prominent part of the commercial. The tag line of the commercial is the idea of sexy and smart coming together. In some ways, there is this sense of need to achieve. That sense is what makes this commercial sexist and stereotypical. Women are sex objects. A woman's goal in life is to be sexy enough make-out with a smart man, because she couldn't get him any other way. A nerd's goal in life is to make-out with a sexy woman because it's such an anomaly.  

I'm not really sure what advertising techniques are being used here. To find the answers I tried asking myself what goes through the heads of a marketing team, before they come up with racy ads like this. Testimonial is one technique. Danica Patrick is actually still in this commercial endorsing Go Daddy. In previous commercials, sex appeal has been used to encourage viewers to go to GoDaddy.com for more footage of Danica Patrick in the shower. I'm not sure if this specific commercial uses sex appeal as a technique. 

I've always resented the way Go Daddy objectifies women in their ads and commercials. While I dislike the nerd stereotype as well, this commercial is no exception. Bar Refaili is merely an object of desire for football fans and nerdy website builders. She is sexy, nothing less and nothing more. I also resent Go Daddy for transforming Danica Patrick, the only women winner of an IndyCar series, into a sex object in their commercials. Find a new angle, please.

5/29/13 #10: I Have to Smell It

When I'm shopping, I like to use all applicable senses. Clothing stores hated me when I was little because I had to touch everything. My favorite grocery stores were the ones that always had a free sample of something. Groceries stores that would give free cookies to kids were on the top of my list. As a teenager, my shopping habits are less compulsive. Now. my latest quirk is smelling magazines. We've all done it. You sit down with your new Teen Vogue and flip through all the pages in one swift flick of the thumb. Why? It fills your nose with all the wonderful, or not so wonderful, scents of perfumes. It seems that it would be very hard to advertise a perfume that no one could sell. Does this Calvin Klein ad do the job?

The Calvin Klein perfume ad uses the ad techniques Snob Appeal and Testimonial. The black and white photo gives it a formal air. Scarlett Johannson and the model look like the stereotypical-wealthy couple. Furthermore, Scarlett Johansson is an A-list celebrity. If you wear the perfume in the ad, you can be an A-list celebrity like Scarlett Johansson. This is Snob Appeal, although Scarlett Johansson is by no means a snob. The name of the technique would be more fitting, had the model been Paris Hilton. Having her in the ad also employs another technique. It uses the Testimonial technique by putting a picture of Scarlett Johansson on the cover.

This ad satisfies and addresses several needs. The black and white photo with bright lighting is classic. We are attracted to the classic beauty of the photo. The perfume will, therefore, satisfy the need for aesthetic sensations. The ad also addresses the need for affiliation by putting a couple in it. However, the main focus of the ad is still Scarlett Johannson, who embodies the next appeal: need for prominence. If you wear this perfume, you will be admired, respected, and have a high social status like Scarlett Johannson. Finally, this ad addresses the need to satisfy curiosity  You can't actually smell the perfume. The ad entices you to go to the score and smell it yourself. I, for one, want to know what perfume Scarlett Johannson wears. 

One of the reasoning fallacies used in this ad is slippery slope. It's hard to tell in the picture, but the ad slogan is: "One moment can change everything." One spray of  Eternity Moment Calvin Klein perfume and you become as pretty and successful as Scarlett Johansson. If only it were that easy. Then I'd be starring in a movie with Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Don John, Joseph Gordon-Levitt acted and directed) after a trip to Macy's.

I love the ad itself. I'm a sucker for black and white photos. Does that mean I'm going to buy Eternity Moment Calvin Klein perfume? Maybe I'll give it a sniff the next time I'm in Macy's. 

5/25/13 #9: The Song of the Century?

No one was really sure what Mr. Lambert was thinking when Rebecca Black's song "Friday" was used for the warning bell music. The only logical explanation was that it was Friday that day, so he decided to play that song. The song that almost all high school students hate. Not only is it annoying, but it also brings back memories of our awkward middle school days, when the song was first released.

The music video, and the song itself, was produced by Ark Music Factory. Nothing Ark has produced has been particularly good. In fact, Ark is now infamous for it's corny music videos produced for kids with parents who have fat checkbooks. There music videos are essentially advertisements for their company. They use, like every music video, techniques used in advertisements/commercials. Their music videos also attempt to satisfy the needs of their teenage audience.

The music video uses repetition  They're almost always sitting in cars. I'm assuming that this is an appeal to the teenage novelty of driving a car. Though, these kids don't look old enough to be going to parties or driving cars. More importantly, no one is old enough to be sitting on top of the seats while the car is driving on the freeway. The lyrics are also use repetition. Rebecca Black is considerate enough to sing one word multiple times, in case we didn't get the idea the first time. Her favorite word to repeat is the word fun. I'm not sure why she chooses to repeat that word. It's only one syllable, so easy to hear. Is she describing the how fun the song is, how fun Friday is, or how fun to be in a ridiculous music video? I'm not sure.

In the music video, Rebecca and her friends are driving and going to parties. This music video is therefore targeted towards and about high school teenagers. Unless, that is, middle school students lead an exciting life that I haven't heard about. The music video appeals to those teenagers. It satisfies their needs, or it tries too. 

The music video centers around this idea that teens have an obsession with cars and driving. The music video shows several scenes of teens driving together in cars. If there was such thing as a need to drive, this would be the ad for it. Another need that the music video attempts to satisfy is the need for affiliation. Rebecca is driving around with her friends and partying with her friends. They're having fun on a Friday, which is the number one favorite day for most teenagers.   

So, does all of that give this music video the wow factor? Unfortunately, it doesn't. Most people who viewed the video, or heard the song disliked it. Why did so many people dislike a music video that uses so many of the same techniques that their favorite commercials use? I found hope for humanity in the answer to this question. People disliked the song because of the corny lyrics and auto tune  "She can't sing," they said. "We learned the days of the week when we were in pre-school." At least society has shown that we don't just value and praise anything. We have some measure of what is true talent and passion, not just an attempt to be famous. Rebecca, did get famous. She had about as many death threats as Justin Bieber. Yet, parents still pay thousands of dollars for their children to be in music videos produced by Ark. Why? I don't know, but I do know that the answer would make a great reality TV show.

5/19/13 #8: Glee Takes on Gun Violence

Glee has taken on a number of social issues throughout its four seasons. Some of those issues have included homosexuality, cat fishing, cyber-bullying, teen suicide, and eating disorders. On April 11, barely four months after the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary, a school shooting took place on an episode of Glee called "Shooting Stars." Glee is a comedy TV show, they told us.

I admit that I doubted the ability of the writers, producers, actors, and actresses of Glee. Although Glee is set at a high school, the show's atmosphere seemed incapable of creating the dynamic achieved by Degrassi several years prior to this Glee episode. In some ways, Ryan Murphy surprised me. The scene was in no ways fun to watch. Ryan Murphy deserves some praise because of the creativity and imagination required to depict a school shooting in a TV show such as Glee. What surprised me was that the shooting was depicted with a somewhat non-partisan, almost liberal way. This show airs on Fox, mind you. In fact, many social issues are shown more through the liberal perspective on Glee.

As was expected, there was much controversy following the episode. Some believed that the shooter should not have been the character with Down syndrome, while others believed it simply fit her character. Some believed that someone should actually have been shot, while other thought that it accurately depicted the terror and post traumatic stress of a school shooting, even without casualties. Opinions varied just like opinions on gun legislation vary. One of my main concerns was whether TV shows like Glee, Degrassi, One Tree Hill, or any other entertainment television show should tackle the issue of school shootings.

School shootings have always been a very sensitive issues in the media. News programs try their best to deliver the facts and then both sides of the argument after the grieving period. Still, even news programs show bias when reporting these kinds of issues. I can't see how an entertainment show, with its own plot/agenda could convey the issue any better. Should these shootings even exist at all in our entertainment? Are these portrayals a good way to reach the general public, or are they an insult to school shootings that have now been branded by entertainment?

I don't think it was necessary to include a school shooting episode in Glee. I don't think it was necessary for past TV shows to do so, and I hope that others refrain from doing it in the future. Think about it. Are we really that oblivious? We know that school shootings, or shootings in general happen. We know they exist. We just don't know what to do about it. We can't come to a consensus. That's the problem. That's the debate, and it's a debate that should be framed by journalist-oriented media, not entertainment television.