Media and Me: A Day in the Life

As I take my first eye opening breath of the day and lift my head from my green pillow, the first thing I see is a television, an Xbox 360 and a Super Nintendo, a Macbook and a plastic orange shelf holding various movies, games, magazines and real books. If this were to be not too long ago, the fact these objects surround my bedroom would be a thought very few could even fathom. Media outlets have molded their way into my life whether I like it or not, it's the generation I am growing up in. According to my textbook, Media and Culture, "The introduction of the World Wide Web and the first web browsers, Mosaic and Netscape, in the 1990's helped to prompt the mass medium stage of the Internet. The first decade of the Web is now often referred to as Web 1.0"(MC 49). I was born in 1990 and whether I like it or not, I grew up in Web 1.0 and the Internet has grew up along side me and as we both grow it has become part of my everyday life more than any other media outlet.


(My Own Photo)


After I climb out of bed, I put CNN on the television and get ready for the day. I like to stay on top of current events and CNN is the only news channel that I somewhat trust. It's hard for me to trust most news that I hear, due to the fact that public relations firms cannot be trusted. According to my textbook,"The relationship between journalism and PR is important and complex" (Media and Society 399. Usually anything complex shouldn't be trusted in my opinion. PR is too powerful in my opinion, and the fact they can make a whole society believe anything, scares me a bit.
My Choice in News
(Image from CNN.com)

I listen to the news and believe most of the story's to a certain extent, but I never take anything being said too literally, I just like to stay informed about the world around me.

As CNN mutters out the news in the background before I leave my apartment for the day, I can usually be found sitting in front of my laptop surfing the internet. Checking my different social networking profiles, my email, my blogs, Wikipedia and visiting different websites has become part of my everyday ritual. I can live without using the internet, but it has become part of my normal routine. I enjoy writing blogs and learning new information in Wikipedia, but like my textbook says, "The do-it-yourself content of the Internet doesn't end with blogs and wikis" (Media and Society 53). I find myself checking both my school email and my personal email everyday along with my Facebook and Tumblr before I start the day, and periodically throughout whenever I have time or if I'm bored. Social networking is normal everyday life to a kid born in the 1990's.

What I use to browse the Web.
(Image from Inquisitor.com)

After learning the news of the day and checking up on the internet based portion of my social life. I leave the house and head to school. This of course has become a task that will always include the use of my iPod.

iPod Touch
(Image from engadget.com)

My 32g iPod Touch has become part of me whenever I am walking, riding on the bus, sitting alone, snowboarding or pretty much whenever I am not with a group of friends. I bring this thing everywhere, and I know I am not alone because according to my textbook, "Apples Ipod...the leading portable music and video player, began a revolution in digital music" (Media and Society 79). Being able to hold thousands of songs, videos, handy applications and games in the palm of my hand gives me so many options to cure boredom and make life a little more enjoyable. My iPod has brought me an extreme amount of happiness, to say the least, and I wouldn't want to imagine my everyday life without one.

Before class I tend to get coffee and usually a bagel in the cafeteria. This is almost always accompanied with the newspaper. It may be because I am a writing major, or the fact I hold a high respect for the old fashioned way of doing things, but I always read the paper whenever I can get my hand on it. It's a certain nostalgia; holding the paper and learning more about the world around me. I understand that newspapers are losing their place in the world. According to my textbook, "The decline in newspaper readership began during the Depression, with the rise of radio" (Media and Society 270). With that being said, newspapers have been losing their touch for quite sometime, yet I still will eat breakfast with one until they all vanish.

The newspaper at Champlain College
(Image from The New York Times.com)

I have many breaks in-between my classes and I like to spend my time wisely. I usually end up doing homework or some personal writing of some sort, but I find myself reading and flipping through magazines to pass time for a bit. I always try and have a copy of Transworld Snowboarding present in my backpack, but if that isn't there for some reason, I like to go to the campus mail room and see if there are any free magazines to read.

Transworld Snowboarding
(Image from Transworld Snowboarding.com)

I like looking at the advertisements and pictures in Transworld, as well as keep up to date with the snowboard world. Magazines are perfect to pass time, especially when I am reading a magazine focused on a certain subject, like snowboarding. According to my textbook, " The general trend away from mass market publications and toward specialty magazines coincided with radio's move to specialized formats in the 1950's" (Media and Society 296). This change has made me a happy person, because, well, I get to hold a magazine all about snowboarding in between classes, not much is better than that.

When I am not slaving away on my education, a typical day in my life would normally include driving my car and listening to the radio in the process. Many people tend to use an iPod in the car, but I tend to enjoy the radio, I like to keep it old school. Leaving the radio on is a good way to find out about new songs, as well as learning interesting facts and sometimes even a laugh from the DJ's. I like alternative rock stations and there are always a plentiful amount of those to be found. I also like to listen to the radio on the internet, which according to my textbook, "...Emerged in the 1990's with the popularity of the web" (Media and Society 133). Internet radio allows me to use Pandora, which is always a good thing to play when you don't know what you want to listen too.

The radio I would walk around with on my shoulder if it was still acceptable in society.
(Image from crrc.org.my)

After a long day at school or attempting to solve boredom on the weekends, I tend to spend a bit of time watching movies. I enjoy well made movies by directors that are known for more than special effects (cough, Michael Bay) and better known for storyline, that make the viewer question everything they have ever learned. I enjoy films like Reservoir Dogs, Taxi Driver, Donnie Darko, Fight Club and movies with plots like Inception. Movies help me unwind and train my brain to learn new things and different ways to view the world. I would rather go out to the movies than watch a DVD, and I would rather watch a DVD then watch the movie on the Internet. According to Media and Society, "The biggest challenge the movie industry faces today is the Internet" (Media and Society 241). I would rather support directors I like then rip them off. Movies tend to find their place into a typical day for me, whether it be watching them or making a reference to one as the day goes on.

A scene from my favorite movie, Reservoir Dogs

After I do my homework and hang out with my friends for the evening a book can always be found in my hands, usually as i lay in bed. Reading before bed has always been part of my everyday routine since I was little. Being a writing major, reading is important to my well being, it helps expand my word choice and how I go about approaching story telling. Reading before bed has helped me learn that I want to be a writer, as well as help my mind escape reality for a little bit after a long day. When talking about books, my textbook says "Our oldest mass medium is also still our most influential and diverse one" (Media and Society 315). This is also my oldest form of mass medium and I hold reading close to my heart.

Ernest Hemingway, my favorite writer.
(Image from kinkanon.blogspot.com)

As I lay in bed i tend to ponder the events of my day and plan the events for the next day. I don't usually plan the media being part of my life, it just is and that's normal for me. According to my textbook, "A key aspect of our postmodern time is the willingness to accept paradox". (Media and Society 27). I also have the willingness to accept paradox, and while being an artist I must use the media, despite the fact i don't trust of acknowledge most of it. It has become part of my life and there's no escaping it. The media is my everyday life, it's part of growing up with the Internet.

The Media
(Image from telemed.no)

Media and Society: Final Reflection Champlain Commercial

A. What specific contributions did YOU make to your team's production of your video?

I edited most of the video along with Domenica. I also controlled the speed of the clips during my editing process.

B. What grade do you feel YOU earned for your work and participation in your team's video?

I believe that I deserve a B+ because I didn't do any of the filming, just the editing.

C. What was the hardest aspect of making your video?

I believe the hardest aspect of making our video would have to have been the fact we had to cut everythign down to sixty seconds and choose what footage would work better with the time frame.

D. Other than finishing the VIDEO, what was the most rewarding aspect of making your video?

I believe the most rewarding aspect of the video, besides finishing it, would have to be the fact that our group worked very well together, it was a rewarding group work experience for myself, it went very smoothly.

Media Meditation #4: Why I hate 3D Movies

(Source:Televisionbroadcast.com)

If the phrase 3D is placed after the title of a movie, chances are there is just no way I even have the slightest desire to see the film. More and more films are being released that give the viewer the option to watch the film in 3D, instead of 2D. This means you pay extra to see a movie you hope will be awesome, wear glasses that give most people headaches and more then likely in the end be disappointed that the special effects didn't even remotely match the expectations you had going into the theatre. I admit that 3D special effects are in fact, "rad" and you can quote me on that, but it seems to me that Hollywood is just doing it to release films that would get barely any ticket sales if the phrase "3D" didn't follow the cliche title. Some examples would be "Piranha 3D," "Saw 3D" and 'Step Up 3D." Now this is my opinion, but those movies look horrible and "Piranha 3D" was just awful. The Saw films started out awesome, now it is just so overdone that if they don't advertise the movie in 3D, it will just not sell, the same goes for "Step up 3D," minus the fact I thought its predecessor was horrendous.

The point I am attempting to make is that Hollywood puts the publics hopes up that it will be so good in 3D and it never really is. There are in fact a few exceptions in my opinion, yet they are rare. If a film falls into my exceptions it means that they would be perfectly enjoyable to watch without the "3D" aspect.


(Source:Celluloide Junkie)


So basically the 3D in the movie theatre is just the entire film being played so that it all pops out at you, not literally like things flying at you the whole time, but more like everything going on in the scene is being projected off of the screen a bit. To me, a "3D Experience" should include me wanting to take my hands and attempt to touch images that feel like they are being projected directly in front of me. I feel like my idea of "real 3D" happens in the opening of a film where the title and names of companies behind the film are stated. Sometimes in these scenes abjects will feel like they are flying at you, and that is rad, but besides that, there isn't too much of awesome 3D during the film itself.

The best "3D Experience" I have been part of would have to have been at the IMAX when I saw "Space Station 3D." I felt like I was actually in space and it amazing. Besides that I enjoyed "Avatar" in 3D and I also that that "Coraline" in 3D was rad as well. Besides that, I haven;t really been too impressed. I saw "Jackass 3D" when it came out a few weeks ago and I enjoyed it too it's full extent, but I actually wasn't impressed with the 3D at all, but that wasn't the reason I went to go see it, I just think Jackass is funny as is, they didn't need the 3D to sell me.

I think that nobody on this earth should ever place high hopes in a movie with the phrase "3D" at the end of it. It will always be a bad idea and you will most likely regret it unless your like the majority of people in our society lately that just want to go watch things blow up and look cool instead of getting something out of the film. I hate movies like that so much and I also hate Hollywood for coming out with them constantly.


(Source:3D.movies.au)


Despite the fact that movies in 3D have been blowing up, movies in 2D or as I like to put it, "Correct Movies" are still by far favorites. I saw "The Social Network" this past weekend and it was phenomenal, many others can say the same thing. I believe that this 3D thing is just a fad and a way to manipulate the public into spending money by making cheap and awful movies (with a plot a fifteen year old who has watched an action movie could of come up with) by making them look action packed and mindless. We have developed such a sophisticated culture.

-Mike

Media Meditation #3- The Amazon Kindle: Spawn of Lucifer

(Souce:Wired.com)

Revolting and shameful, those are the two words I would have to use if someone asked me to describe the reading device known as "The Kindle". For those of you that live under a rock (or hopefully, in a real book), the Kindle is a wireless reading device created by the online shopping universe known as Amazon.com. This device allows the owner to access over 725,000 e-books, along with access to magazines, newspapers and blogs, and most of the titles are $9.99 or less. The owner can download these e books in less then 60 seconds and depending which Kindle you have, you can either download off of wifi or 3g. The kindle itself is less than 1/3 inch thick and weighs less then a paperback. The reader reads directly off of the device and the battery life lasts a month on one charge. All of what I just said can be found here on the Amazon page for the item that will destroy the world as we know it. This is what the end of the world looks like:



(Source:Amazon.com)

Okay, so now that the facts are thrown out there, here comes my opinion. As a writer and a reader (and a person with some morals), I think the Kindle is the worst thing that has ever happened to the written word. It just plain out isn't right. Sure, I can agree that it's pretty rad if you think about it, but it just is not the same as reading an actual book. You can call me crazy, but I think words should be held in their entirety and placed in a respective spot in your home, instead of being stored in a tiny chip on a piece of fake portable paper along with thousands of other works. You don't actually even physically own it if you think about it. You can't spill coffee on it or attack it with a highlighter or even hide stuff in the pages. It;s just another piece of technology that is unnecessary. The kindle is a status symbol, something a person can use to appear modern and sophisticated instead of normal and wholesome. When I pick up a book, I hold a certain adventure or story or idea or knowledge in the palm of my hand. When I pick up a kindle, I hold multiple outlets of story telling and I lose the certain feeling of respect for the words written because I am overwhelmed by so much. Books are written to be appreciated for the individual message that hides in the pages, books aren't made to just be collected and stored on a chip. They aren't tangible and their existence is futile.

Being a writing major, I have come to the initial conclusion that when I do end up publishing a novel or a piece of literature someday, I will refuse to allow my work to be downloadable in sixty seconds and stored on a piece of technology, especially one with a name like the "Kindle." I want to be a writer because I want to get my thoughts and ideas out to the world. I want to be remembered, even if that means someone comes across a book I wrote in a random attic fifty years after I die. With writing, my name can live forever and so can the stories and perspectives on life that I document in my work. If I am on a bloody Kindle, where do I go when the thing breaks? Wait, don't answer me I remember now, THE TRASH. I shouldn't speak so soon, I most likely will be recycled because the majority of people who own this disastrous device are probably the trendy green people who hang out at Starbucks to look intelligent and hip. Nevertheless, my name will be erased from your memory and so will my thoughts. That upsets me highly.


(Source:ChicagoNow.com

A certain feeling overcomes a person when they physically hold a book, they create memories. The Kindle is just a way to ruin that feeling. So do what the name of the device actually means, use it to start a fire, I mean, it's full of books so it should burn easily, right?

-Mike

Magazine Presentation- The Ultimate Snowboard Mag

(Source: Google)

Thesis

Transworld Snowboarding is a worldwide multimedia outlet that brings it's readers the best information on the planet about what is going on in the world of snowboarding, along with publishing some of the most amazing pictures of snowboarders shredding pow from around the world.

Five Facts

-Amazing photography

-Information and reviews on the best snowboard gear available.

-News and reports about the progressing snowboard world as a whole.

-Articles about the lives and experiences from snowboarding's best professionals.

-Information on world snowboarding events.


Tirune Brain

Transworld Snow is heavy on the use of the limbic brain because of the visual advertisements and the photos of snowboarders doing what they do best, shred.

Transworld also uses the neocortex because of the reading involved as well as thinking deeply about the issues represented in the magazine as a whole.



(Source:Transworldsnowboading.com)



8 Trends

Epistemological shift- Word to image, there are alot of ads and photos, very very eye catching.
.

7 Principles

Emotional transfer- Makes the reader want to get up and snowboard and buy the same gear that is advertised throughout the magazine.

Value messages- The intention is to make the reader want to go out and ride and get the raddest of gear that the pro's are wearing and using.

Individual meaning- It makes the reader ask themselves, "What does snowboarding mean to me?"

Persuasive Techniques

Symbols- Lots of company logos all over the magazine.

Bandwagon- Persuades the reader and brings to the readers attention that a lot of people snowboard and take the sport seriously.

Simple solutions- the advertisements and pictures promote that rocking the same gear as the pros will make you shred and ride better then ever.

Humor- Funny quotes and images from professional riders line the pages of Transworld Snowboarding.




(Source: Get Real, Transworld Snow 2009)

Mid-Semester Reflection-What it means to be in Rob Williams pupil

1. After studying 21st century media for the last eight weeks, I have learned how to properly blog and I have also learned about how quickly the internet is taking the place of almost every other media outlet.

2. The most important thing i have learned about myself as a critical reader, writer and a thinker in this class so far is that I can now see behind forms of media in my everyday life and understand and contemplate there existences. I find myself often thinking about the future of the media and where it will all go from here.

3. One thing I would do differently if I were able to take this class again would be to study the power tools more and get a better grip on them;.

4. One thing i would want you to do differently if I were to take this class again would be nothing course related, I just wouldn't mind seeing Diki again. It has been a great class and I wouldn't want anything to change. Since I am a transfer, I have dealt with some horrible professors and you do not fall anywhere into that category, you are a great teacher.

5.

A. Power tools-The power tools help me to better understand aspects of the media and I truly think they are very useful. I find myself applying them to media I encounter outside of the classroom.

B.The course blog is a great way to bring the class together, unlike angel, it is more social and media oriented, fantastic idea.

C.The fact that we have to have a personal blog is such a great idea, it lets me be creative and talk about things that interest me. Being a writer, this is a wonderful skill to gain.

D.The in-class quizzes are a great way to make my mind work right at the beginning of the class, They help me stay focused on the topic at hand, the media.

E. The films we view in class are educational and insightful as they are interesting to watch. They teach important concepts about the world and the media. I really enjoyed Reel Bad Arabs because it made me think deeply about the American culture as a whole and what we are doing with ourselves.

F. The text book is actually one of the better text books I have ever owned. After the reading each week, I learn a lot about the medias past and the potential future for different aspects of the media. The book has interesting pictures and is very well written. I enjoy it very much.

Camp Champ Radio Spot-The Empire has Fallen

• Are you trying to decide what school you want to go to?
• Come to Champlain College in Burlington, VT!
• Are you asking yourself why?
• Well because at Champlain College we let ourselves dare!
• Not to mention that Champlain is the best and everyone else is doing it!
• Only beautiful people like you are invited to come to school here!
• Champlain is the best!
• Burlington is voted the number one college town in the USA!
• Champlain is the best!
• It is proven that people who go to school here do well after college!
• Champlain is the best!
• Do you want to be stuck paying off dumb student loans for the rest of your life?
• (Pause)
• I didn’t think so, that’s why Champlain offers financial aid to everyone!
• Champlain is the best!
• Instead of working hard like they do at big schools we just have tons of fun!
• Champlain is the best!
• You have lots of choices here too…
• You can live on campus, or off campus!
• And there are even vegan options available in our dinning hall!
• Champlain is the best!
• The dining hall has amazing food!
• That will help you lose weight when you get here!
• Champlain is the best!
• Why not UVM you say?
• (Pause)
• UVM may be cheaper, have more options, and people, but do there teachers know your name, your youtube, your blogger, your twitter?
• NOOOOO!
• Champlain is the best!
• Diamonds are forever andddd so is Champlain College!!!

Audeamous…let us dare to be….

THE EMPIRE!!!

Oh and you will get a free beanie if you come here, get to play with puppies, and you could win the lottery…. no guarantees are made, all products are subject to change, price and participation may vary.