A Critical Look at The "Learning" Channel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IfrzCrvs4o&feature=youtu.be

TLC

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IfrzCrvs4o&feature=youtu.be

Women in Popular Music

 Here is our project: Women in Popular Music.

Group Project

Group Members:
Andy Koval
Abby Rondot
Alex Donaldson
Danielle Roehr
Jackson Hamilton
Kara Bates

Counter Culture Prevails

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66dRW79DxXk

:)

What's Funny? A Look at Gender and Comedy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kn74tfabKws&feature=youtu.be

Exploring Girls' Role Models

Here is the link to our video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoosP0XiEms


Group Members: Nicholas Thee, Taylor Stock, Savannah Ball, Dakota Wappes, Molly Hampton

Project: Brittney Griner, Women's Basketball, Caster Semenya

https://vimeo.com/64151575

Analyzing The Hunger Games

Analyzing The Hunger Games HD

Homosexuality In Media

female athletes

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3oriziXyl8&feature=youtu.be

Project: Social Media and the Manti Te'o Story

Social Media spawning many theories about Manti Te'o, many of which were picked up and believed by traditional news outlets.

Misrepresentation of a home state on MTV

 video of Misrepresentation of a home state on MTV

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKwG0Clq-T4

Meagan Hook
Angie Green
Amanda Edwards
Sarah Ginter
Ellen Lee

Beer Advertisements

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnMYerc0M-U

Fathers and Princess Culture

Ryan Bonnell, Justin Hall, Stormie Kirby, Sarah Mitchem, and Michael Stark

Social Media

Bobby Aultman, Alec Lapierre, Robby Bearss, Travis Robinson, Austin Grogan.

Iraq War and the Media

Manti Te'o Video Project

Tim Tebow and the Media

Group Members: Corey Beliles, Heather Jacobs, John Massingale, Madelyn Webster

Paying College Athletes

Comm322 Video Project


Shannon Grosenbacher, Carly Poor, Terry Lee Miller, Vic Scotland, Corey Bell, & Aaron Strombeck

Living in a Hipster World

Living in a Hipster World

                  In our class discussion, we talked about Frank’s thoughts on hipster media, “There is not a simple dichotomy that pits mainstream media against counterculture”. Mainstream media and counterculture feed off of one another in a continuous cycle. It appears that counter culture can never really exist and “hipsters” are just cool-seeking, mainstream conformists. But what exactly is a hipster anyway? Many people would classify hipster as a style of new-age thinkers, who dress in seemingly effortless vintage style, wear thick rimmed glasses and listen to indie-folk music. Urban dictionary points out however, that being hipster is about more than just style, “‘hipsterism’ is really a state of mind”. This state of mind is typically characterized by liberal views and the notion of what I call “pioneer thinking”. Pioneer thinking is the mentality that you were “the first” to come up with an idea or thought. These pioneer thoughts are similar to the idea that “cool-kids” are the first to invent a new style or trend before it actually becomes popular.

                  Being hipster is more than just a style, it’s a state of mind. This pioneer lifestyle of thinking is not missed by media though. Many mainstream corporations play off of this rebel, non-conforming, higher thinking attitude by creating ads and marketing their products in ways that evoke your emotions rather than reason. One such example of this is the Walt Whitman Levi’s commercial appealing to the pioneer and rebel we all aspire to be. Hipsterism is truly escapable.

So you read this and think, “Sure hipster culture is escapable... I haven’t conformed!” Well even if you don’t consider yourself a stereotypical hipster because oh I don’t know… you’re above that or because you don’t want to be another band wagoner or conform to the new mainstream culture… that thought alone makes you a hipster. The thought process of wanting to be separate from, think differently and above the rest of “mainstream” culture which at the moment is the “hipster style” makes you just that- a hipster. The thought of wanting of pioneer and be the first and only one of your kind is what the hipster mindset is. So by not conforming, you are conforming. There is no escaping the hipster world.

Media is Religion

Media is Religion

                                    *Disclaimer- This blog is in no way meant to offend anyone, their beliefs, religion etc. I am not rejecting the existence of any religion, just pointing out observations and personal opinion.

Media plays a huge role in our society and culture. Obviously. I think it plays a larger role than many Americans really think though. Media influences just about every aspect of our daily lives and thinking. Media logic is the term applied to the state of thinking we embrace and ideals we come to believe without even realizing it through the influence of media. So in other words, we sometimes have a certain mindset about an issue or identify with a certain set of ideals without really realizing the true logic behind our reasoning.

                  Throughout the course of human history, we as a species have always pondered how the world and all of its incredible contents have come to exist. From the earliest recordings of ancient civilizations, we can see theories about the creation of the world, animals and man rooted in the existence of some higher power. Throughout time, these theories have eventually morphed into the countless religions existing today such as Catholicism, Christianity, Islam etc. just to name a few. I would like to reiterate again- I am not rejecting the existence of any religion, just pointing out observations. Over the course of human expansion, enlightenment, discovery and beyond extensive scientific research, evidence of a big bang of universal creation and evolution have come to be just short of completely proven theories of creation. Despite this logic, backed up by the most extensive, accurate evidence, many religions fail to accept it and continue to preach divine creation theories as truth. Through many conversations and debates with people who strongly believe in these divine notions, I have personally witnessed this false logic in which I consider comparable to that of media logic. So many people are repeatedly taught specific ideologies through several texts and mediums that they just automatically believe it as truth without questioning the logic behind the belief.

                  In the same way many deeply religious individuals may believe in divine creation, many members of our society subconsciously believe media logic that is preached through mainstream channels. Media framing of events or issues is a prime example of this. The means by which media sources such as television and newspaper portrays an issue like the Matthew Shepard case can severely impact our attitudes and views on what happened, why, by and to whom as well as the future of the issue. The impact of media is equitable with religion in the sense that as humans, we are eager to have a quick and pretty answer to things sometimes regardless of the truth and rationality behind it.

Pound the Pavement

I love Biz Stone, he has created one of the most revolutionary inventions in the history of mankind, Twitter.  This social media tool has helped me in numerous ways regarding my career, school, and interests.  While I give him the title of genius, I do not agree with him on one thing; Social Media Advocacy.

While Mr. Stone makes a captivating argument in his response to Malcolm Gladwell (a super genius), I still think there is much generalization 

I myself am a 20 year old college student majoring in Film and Media studies that did not enter the true digital age until this last fall when I purchased my first iPhone. I know have the capability to access my social media, email, and friends whenever I please.  And because of that fact, I am now privy to all breaking news and trending topics, but....

What about the underprivileged who cannot afford technological equipment that gives them 24/7 access to everything on the net.  For those actually being oppressed and going through hardships, how can they get their message out let alone do their part to fight for the cause if all of the discourse is being had online?

I challenge my fellow scholars to pound the pavement, there are many places in our Muncie community alone that need advocacy, yet they are not privy to fancy iPhone's and multiple social media accounts. I think we must advocate face to face, and if we do use social media, it should be to inspire personal advocacy.
  Pound the pavement!

Are Men Funny

A few weeks back when we had our "Are Women Funny" lecture it got me thinking. I started to wonder when about comedy as a whole. I thought if someone can say women aren't funny and list a bunch of outstanding reasons then why is anyone funny. I wanted to know how the harsh, sexist, comedian critic determined men were funny. Some male comedians are funny because of their shear stupidity on stage. Take the comedian Jim Gaffigan for example. In one of his stand up jokes is him saying the word bacon over and over in a funny voice. People at the show found it to be hilarious. Also, another comedian Will Ferrell does most of his comedy on the spot. He will say just ludicrous and outlandish statements that we perceive as funny. Yet I have seen well developed and witty skits by female comedians that others also find hilarious. So it was strange to hear such an extreme view on female comedy. Though I still keep thinking to myself why do we laugh at things that in other context would be funny? Also does the gender of the person change every joke? If you are reading this post let me know what your feelings are. If you care enough to share.

Male Responsibility

I know this is going back a few weeks ago but I want to talk a little bit about the whole "women are not funny thing."

I do not believe that women are not funny nor do I believe that they do not have to be. I simply believe that it is the responsibility of the male to keep the conversation going. It is not because women are not capable of continuing a conversation.

There is some truth to men feeling that they need to make themselves attractive with humor. But I think it is a little bit more about chivalry honestly. A woman should not have to worry about filling in awkward silences with witty humor, that is the responsibility of the man. However, if I ever find a woman who can fill in those awkward silences with witty humor, that woman is a keeper for sure and she will never leave my side.

I do agree with the idea that women are already attractive to men therefore they do not need to be funny. But a woman with a sense of humor is definitely a much more attractive woman. I also agree that men need to have a sense of humor in order to attract women. Without humor a man is just about unarmed.

So it is the responsibility of the male to come up with conversation ideas and to fill in awkward silence with witty humor, and in some cases embarrassing stories. This is not to say that women are not allowed to be funny, it just is not as necessary for them to be funny.

Hyper Masculinity and Disney

Thought this was a cool and interesting look at hyper masculinity in Disney movies. Really shows how Disney uses sexism, dominance, and strength to portray men. Also shows the weak men as weak or feminine.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CWMCt35oFY

Taylor Stock

The Facts of Cheating or not

While we were talking about the Olympic runner who is said to have trace amounts of extra testosterone in her has made it not fair to the other women.  In my belief this is a very true because she was basically given an advantage as being more masculine and manly then actual women.  If she would have been all woman then she could have done just as well as the other runners but it is not fair that she could get away with that.  I am not blaming her, but it is an advantage on other women like what Lance Armstrong was using while winning all the races would be a good comparison.  She may not have been taking anything but testosterone was one of the things that Lance was taking making it illegal for using this drug.   It is unfortunate for the woman to not be able to compete with either sex because she is considered partially both but there is nothing they can do but make a special type of Olympics, which is kind of far fetched.  It is sad that there is nothing she can do about her situation but at the same time if there was no problem at all she could compete.  All around it is just a touchy subject for any male or female to debate on like while we were in class.  Everyone had good points that there is no side you can really take.  Personally I just think she needs to move on to other dreams and use her skills in other ways now that she is a known Icon in America, which is a huge thing in the U.S., but there is nothing we can do because she does posses such an advantage.  

Why Over Analyze?

The idea has been brought up in this class that maybe we are over analyzing. That things are just the way they are and we are reading just a little bit too much into it. To this I say hell no!

We can not allow ourselves to think this way. We must continue to question why things are being reported to us in a certain way, or in some cases not reported to us. To not question is to be indifferent and those who are indifferent deserve the deepest layer of hell. Right? Isn't that in Dante's Inferno?

On a serious note, I really do believe that there is no such thing as over analyzing. We can not become mindless beings that just absorb rhetoric like a sponge without ever questioning it or thinking about it. I fear that if we let this happen we may end up like those awful creatures that portray human beings at the end of the Disney movie Wall-E.

I believe that if we halt our questioning and allow the media to do what they want, we will lose our critical thinking skills. We will be much easier to control than we already are. Ultimately we will become a race of mindless herds of people, almost like cows. 

So no, I do not believe that we over analyzed any subject covered in class this semester. I do not believe that over analyzing is possible. I have thoroughly enjoyed every minute of every lecture this year. 

In defense of the gamer

This is related to the possibility of gamers one day being able to change the world. I genuinely believe that this is possible.

The issue here is that these world problems are too complex for the average person to understand. So the first thing we need to do is simplify these world problems so that the gamer and the average person can understand them. Then we need to find a way to make the gamer want to work towards finding solutions to these world problems. In other words, we need to make it fun. Once we do these two things, there is no telling what might happen.

We have an army of freakishly productive and competitive people. If we can harness the energy of the gamer onto one task, you guys might be surprised what can happen.

More minds working together is always better than one or just a few. In high school we were forced to get out papers peer reviewed. More often then not, the peer tutor found a mistake or had an idea that the first person had never thought about. So imagine that the engineers and doctors who are in charge of solving the worlds problems had millions of gamers to peer review their work. There is a very good chance that at least one gamer will have an idea that could change the way those scientists and engineers approach the problem. I'm not saying that the gamer can change the world all by him or herself, but if you give them a chance I believe they can be a big help.

War in Media

It seems everywhere you look in media you come across messages that you may not even realize.  I was watching the awful move "Battleship" the other day and before I realized it, the Navy had taken control over this movie.  It showed that the Navy was so prestigious and so much fun, when in reality it is war that you have a potential of running into.  In the beginning of the movie there was a troubled man around my age and he needed to get his act together so he must join the Navy to do so and make a game change.  It sounded as if I was listening to a speaker trying to get me to sign up.  Not even two minutes later my roommate proceeds to say "I want to join the navy or some type of military".  When he said that I tried to explain to him the reality of war with my friends who went to the Marines and how media makes it out to be so fun.  When he said this there was a scene of the Navy playing soccer against the Japanese Navy.  First off this is so unrealistic, I wanted to say do realize how fake this movie is you sound dumb but I held my tongue.  It's amazing to me how much media and even social media will portray the military as such a prestigious thing and fun.  The fact is that they are recruiting you to send you to war for them and die potentially.  How is this fun in any way is what I am wondering, not to mention every one of my friends who is in the Marines or Military hates there life at this point.  This is a shame that people actually buy into this. 

Why Men must be Masculine

As many people may notice, every male in any movie will more then likely be muscular and can be the worst actor in the world such as Sylvester Stallone.  This makes for the actually good actors have to become more masculine, get muscle, and all the ladies he can.  This is what we consider as masculine in today's society.  This has made for every person in the world to want to look like these people and go to extents that are not necessary.  Maybe not every person but media portrays these actors as manly men and if you are not then you are considered a pussy.  I remember in high school when playing sports the skill was hardly taken into consideration because if you are not "manly" then more then likely you were not good enough and could have been called names like what was said before.  I was lucky enough to never have to worry about this to much but now that I am not playing sports and am not in the best shape I have ever been in I am a wussy for not working out hard.  I can't just stay in shape anymore because I would be a girl if I wasn't trying to become masculine like what media portrays.  The fact of the matter is that the people who are strong and think they are masculine are the biggest wussy's of them all.  More then likely they are afraid to get dirty and have never even gone fishing or hunting.  This to me what is masculine and is what I was taught growing up but media has destroyed this image.  It is sad that these so called men are using moisturizer so there skin will be soft, when in fact that is more of a womanly aspect in looking a certain way.  Just because you have muscle does not make you masculine and is what I am trying to get across. 

Madelyn Webster 6

Based on the movie we watched today, it is wrong that Michael Jordan refused to stand behind a Democrat because he did not want to offend Republicans who buy his line of shoes. It is also noble that Muhammad Ali evaded the draft. To me this is complete absurdity.  

First of all, Michael Jordan was an incredible athlete and regardless of his ties to corporations, that should not be forgotten. He is still the greatest basketball player of all time. The fact that he was sponsored by Nike and was in Nike commercials and had a line of shoes through Nike etc. means that he is not just an individual anymore. What he did affected an entire multi-billion dollar company. Being in that role means he SHOULD watch what he says and not side with any particular side on political issues because it jeopardizes not only people being his fans but also effects the business of Nike. It is my opinion that when you sign on to do what Jordan was doing for Nike, you are obligated to not piss off potentially half of their customers.

Second of all, evading a draft was illegal. It was a crime. I personally do not condone professional athletes who are the role models for many young children breaking federal laws. Muhammad Ali broke the law and was praised for it. This teaches all the children who watch that it is okay to break the law if you do not believe it. “The law says I can’t steal but I think this person deserves it so I’m going to just do it” I understand that this may be a slightly extreme example, but the principle is the same.

It is not that I disagreed with the whole video, I just think that so much of what we see in the video and more and more in the media these days is creating a warped perspective of reality and this needs to be stopped. 

Gender Double Standard with Billie Jean King

Hetero-normative Inequality

In class today we watched  Dave Zirin's film "Not Just a Game".  While I agree and applaud the overall message of the text and the research behind it; I could not help but to be bothered by one segment.  

Regarding the portion of femininity and sports Zirin used tennis phenom Billie Jean King.  King was an outstanding athlete and is still regarding as being a rock for feminism in regards to athletics during the 1960's and 70's.  King was challenged to a  co-ed singles match by male tennis legend, and defeated him in 3 straight sets to win the match. After the "Battle of the Sexes" King gained even more notoriety, respect and fame; however, that would soon change.  

In 1981 it was revealed the King (who at the time was married to famed media personality Larry King) had been having a lesbian affair with her secretary Marilyn Barnett.  Following the news of King's sexuality, she lost many supporters and sponsorship's.  In the film, the assertion is made that King was discriminated against due to her sexuality and that society was not progressive enough at that time to accept an openly gay athlete.    

I would beg to differ.

In my opinion the fact that King identifies as a Lesbian should not have been an issue, however the fact that she had an extramarital affair was.  Zirin completely skirts around that portion of the issue, and plays on the audience's emotion and a distorted list of facts to address the situation.  When athletes such as Tiger Woods and Kobe Bryant were exposed with extramarital affairs they also lost many supporters and most sponsorship's.  

I feel that there is a double standard being applied here.  The fact that King broke her vow of marriage may have been the primary reason why her sponsors pulled out.  I believe the violation of marriage in any capacity whether homosexual, heterosexual, should come with consequences.  

Where do you stand? 

Politics in Sports

Women in sports is a topic that seems to come up a lot and, personally, I do not understand the controversy. Women in sports relates directly to the idea that politics are taking a dominant role in athletics. Sports should not be made into a political spectacle.

            Playing sports is, or at least should be, something that people do simply because they enjoy the game. There should be no reason to question anyone’s intentions about being in athletics. So what if females who play sports are more masculine than others? That should not be an issue, it is just who they are. Going back to when we talked about Caster Semenya, people were constantly questioning if she was really a women or if she was actually a man. Hearing these things offended me because, if I were in her shoes, my self-esteem would be torn to pieces. People seemed to forget that she is a human being and they were saying hurtful things about her just because she was an outstanding athlete.

            Another way that sports are becoming political is that people will do whatever their favorite team or favorite athlete tells them to do. Many people would change their political views to match those of their favorite team. This is not something that we should be proud of.

            So why? What’s the point of bringing these things into the sports industry? Is it so bad for football to just be about football or tennis just to be about tennis? Sports have turned into a political influence rather than a form of entertainment, and we are letting it happen.

In my opinion, sports need to be turned back into a form of physical activity and entertainment rather than continuing to head in a political direction. We have enough politics constantly being thrown in our faces with movies, the news, and even our facebook newfeeds. It does not need another outlet.

The media and the news

Ever since there has been money to be made by telling and informing people of the news there has been a problem. I say this for the reason being that these companies and organizations that report the news can simply tell us whatever they want to; because they know that we will buy into it and listen to what they have to say next. Staying focused to a story regardless of how misguided and skewed it may be, if it keeps our attention we will listen, because the people that report the news know that dramatic stories sell and no one wants to hear something uncommon. As we have discussed in class with all of the stories from Mathew Sheperard to the media taking advantage of the war to sell stories. Unfortunately its not just the media that takes advantage of these stories of brave people that have been killed or murdered because of their beliefs or simply fighting for their country. When the war started up, almost anyone and everyone hopped on board the bandwagon trying to make some money by selling these toy figures and claiming they are “real American heroes”. Once again this is because these topics are very dramatic and once the media and these corporations have squeezed every dollar out of this subject for what it actually is, they will twist and turn these stories so that they are no longer the original story. But it does not matter because we believe the news for they will never mislead us, or at least that is what we believe to be true. Unfortunately this is not true, and at the end of the day the media and these corporations are simply out to make more money for themselves and they do not care if they have to skew the true stories.  

Women in Sports

Ever since women started to become more involved in sports people would make a deal about it by saying they have no place in the sport but not really a huge deal. I say this for the reason being that when women first started entering highly male competitive sports they did not make a huge impact. Until specific women started to rise up as champions of the sport by having continuous wins one right after another. Unfortunately, instead making these women known for their accomplishments several of these women would simply be pushed aside due to their looks. That is until the “famous” race car driver by the name of Danica Patrick made an impact one year at the Indy 500 by taking the lead and showing to the world that women can keep right up with the men of this sport. I am not trying to take anything away from Danica, but I do believe the only reason why Danica had such an impact was simply because she had a cute face and then BOOM an instant house hold name. Regardless of her overall skill, since she was good looking and she made a run for the lead at the 500 the whole world fell in love with her. Guys wanted to date her and women wanted to be her. When everyone was blinded by the looks of Danica, I saw right through this and knew that she was not that great of a driver. When it comes to racing, I do not care what you look like, what gender you are, but all that matters is can you win races. You do not win races by a popular contest, and I do believe some people may have forgotten that. Regardless of how many “die-hard fans” you may have, you will not win the race simply because of this. I think some people need to open their eyes and realize that Danica should not be idolized as this great women athlete and instead they should acknowledge all of the other great women in sports regardless of their looks. 

World Problems - Solution!

This class has mostly consisted of recognizing problems in our modern society through the lens of popular culture and media. As a class, when we recognize these problems, we naturally turn the discussion to how in the heck are we going to fix these huge problems!? Most of us have shared our opinions on what we as a society and even as generation must do to stop these atrocities. To most of these problems I have personally shared that I think that it comes down to the individual - and I still believe that. I have shared that for people to change, they must become educated on an individual level - I still believe this also. I don't think there are any governmental changes that will truly solve things, no non-profit organizations, or lobbyists. No amount of social networking collaborations will solve our worlds problems, people must must must change at the very bottoms of their hearts. This is not a very popular view, because although many may agree with me - it seems impractical. People can't just change. False. Here's the truth. There is a God. He is the God that describes himself in the Bible - and throughout the entire book, he is not bashful to honestly portray himself as he truly is - a just, and loving God. He deserves all worship from his creation, and although he didn't need to, he created us to find greatest joy in living for him and not ourselves. When we turned away from him to worship ourselves, and do what we though was best - we deserved separation from God forever. This is true justice. However, God was not willing to give us up, I'm telling you the truth, even though God loved us, if he simply forgot about our sin, he would be an unjust God. Instead God loved us so much that he took the punishment that we deserve upon himself! This is the whole point of Jesus dying on the cross. Jesus - God - did not deserve to die, but took death and suffering so that maybe we would accept this truth, and receive forgiveness and God's love. Romans 6:23 says "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Hear the tone of God's voice! It is a pleading tone, not a harsh tone - why would God come and die, if he did not truly want each one of you to accept this truth? This is amazing! I promise God wants each one of you so, so much to open your ears to accept this beautiful truth. Only when we accept the sacrifice that Christ made for us individually, can we start to change inwardly.  When we know that we are loved by God, we don't have to keep loving ourselves, but we can live 100% for others! What an incredible thing, a world of people who truly, truly do for others what we would have done unto us. I hope that you receive this truth, but also know that I'm not just using this blog as a cheap way to swindle people into a lie - this really is the solution to the world's problems and one day, we will all see God as he truly is, and know this truth fully. I also say these things because I care about you guys in this class - a lot. I'd love to talk more about this truth.

Gaming? No.

This is the third time trying to write this so bare with me.  Sometimes people amaze me with the ideas that they come up with. Gaming for millions of hours is not only dumb, but unhealthy. Don't get me worng, I'm sure it can help with strategic and problem solving issues, but I do think it depends on the games you play. Like it was said earlier in the semester; just because you play war games for hours doesn't mean that you are a trained solider ready for war. This just goes to show how people take some ideas and turn them into a huge problem ( which was also said in class).  Playing games for millions on hours will help you succeed in life!? Come on now. That would be like me sitting in front of theTV for hours playing video games not paying my bills, not finding a job, and my health turning for the worst. Does that sound like a successful life? No.
Personally, I think that the people who believe in this are the ones that use video games to hide from their real world problems instead of facing them. News flash, you can only hide for so long. Just because you may feel accomplished in your games doesn't mean that it will get you a job or pay your bills. That would be like making your résumé up of how many games you have beaten and how many levels you have won. Will that get you a job? No.

Personally, this scares me because it seems like our world is getting more and more lazier by the minute. We can do better America. Games will not solve your problems.

Why do people hate hipsters

I'm not a hipster by any means, and I really don't know too many people who live the hipster lifestyle. I live in a duplex, however, and I live right next door to people that meet the definition of being hipsters. After living right next to these people I can understand why some people love to hate hipsters. They have decorated the porch that we have to share with stickers of political right slogans, and I can always hear them having very judgmental conversations about people who don't have the same views as they do. I can tell that they think they are really cool and one of a kind, but they are really not. They wear the typical hipster skinny jeans, trucker hats, have lots of tattoos, and lots of piercings. One of the things that makes me really mad is the nonstop noise from all the parties they throw, which seems like it is almost every night. There have been times when I have told them to turn down the music, but it never ends up happening. What makes the parties that they throw so unbearable, is that every person that comes to the parties are exactly the same as they are. They think that they are starting some unique revolution, but don't realize that they aren't any better than the average person. They talk about certain rights that people should have, without realizing that I should have the right to have at least one night of peace and quiet to get some homework done. I'm sure that there are hipsters out there that I would like, but my first experience in dealing with them up close has left me with a bitter taste in my mouth 

Media Coverage of War

I have been surrounded by the media’s coverage of war since I can remember. It’s something that is normal for me. I can’t remember a time when there wasn’t news coverage of a bombing somewhere or numerous American soldiers dying overseas. The first media coverage of war that I can specifically remember was when I was in 8 years old and in 3^rd grade; when 9/11 happened. I remember that day like it was yesterday. My school teacher turned on the TV to the news coverage of the World Trade Center attacks. On the bus ride home kids were talking about it and when I got home my mom had the news on. Ever since then it has just been something that I’m used to seeing on the news.

This can be a negative thing for our culture. We are so used to seeing media coverage of war-related things we are not affected by it at all. War is sort of a big deal, and since we’re so used to it, it’s not really a big deal to us. I feel like when Lil Wayne’s had all those seizures made more headlines than the hundreds of soldiers overseas that die every day fighting for our country. It’s not a good thing, but it’s quite normal these days. Currently there is talk about North Korea having bombs and we are potentially in danger, and now we care because ‘America is indestructible…you mean to say another country has more power over us?’

Should Women Be Allowed To Compete With Men in Sports?

I do not believe women should try to compete with men in sports. The main reason is because women just are not as strong and tall as men. It is not fair for women to have to compete against men who are one hundred pounds heavier and much taller than they are. Some women are just as skilled as men but simply do not have the physical attributes that men do. Some sports such as bowling or billiards that do not require a lot of strength, should be able to be co-ed. Women have just as good as a chance to beat men in those sports. But when it comes to basketball, baseball, or football there should be no question that women should not be playing with men. Some people think that Brittney Griner, a women's basketball player at Baylor University, should play in the NBA. Even some NBA owners think that she could play in the NBA. She has a very special skill set and is very good and in the women's basketball.  Even though she is six foot eight, I still do not think she would be very successful playing men's professional basketball. I think she would benefit a lot if she stayed playing women's basketball.

Women should just compete against other women in contact sports so that they are on a level playing field. They should work to promote women’s sports as exciting, competitive events in themselves. For non-contact sports, I think it should be a level playing field and that women should be able to compete with men.

The video game stigma

It seemed to me from our class discussion that there is a lot of anti-video game sentiment in our class.  I think there are a few reasons for it.  For one thing, violence in video games or video game addiction is a popular bandwagon topic for politicians.  It's an uncontroversial issue they can rally around and gain the support of parents and adult voters who don't really understand games.  As a result, they've pumped a lot of rhetoric into the media and popular culture stigmatizing them as having a negative impact on society.  I also think that it is common for a relatively new medium (video games have been around since the late '70s - compare that to films which we've had for over a century or fictional literature which we've had for nearly a millenium) to be misunderstood and have growing pains when being accepted in the culture.  In the first few decades we had films, they were considered unsophisticated and a distraction for the lower classes.  Now they are accepted as works of artistic value.

Here's a link to a video discussing how just one interaction in one game can have the same impact and make us ask the same questions as revered works of art:

http://www.penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/enriching-lives

I would recommend that series to anyone who's interested in video games as a medium and the impact they can have.

The Greatest Freakout Ever

Jane McGonigal presented the idea of playing more video games to an audience at a Ted Talk conference. She suggested that we should plug into this market and try to elicit the skills of people who are gamers and utilize them to solve the world's problems. The video above is one reason we should not.

McGonigal claims that withing these games, gamers accumulate skills that would be beneficial in society. My thought is, these people are currently a part of society, so why are the skills that they already have, not helping society now? It's not like they are being put in a dungeon somewhere and being forced to play their games and not allowed out until they abandon those skills.

From my personal experience, video games can be harmful - an aspect that McGonigal does not acknowledge. My brother was addicted to his Play Station for many many years and was often playing violent video games. (The number of violent video games outweigh the number of non-violent or beneficial video games in the market.) Because of his addiction to these video games, he developed violent tendencies and became very confrontational. He saw these actions were acceptable in the video game, so why would they not be in society? These misconceptions of what were acceptable and what were not, were irreversible and caused a lot of problems with his ability to concentrate and be a valuable member of society. Because of these video games he has isolated himself and burned all of the bridges he's ever had.

Granted not all of this is not strictly due to video games, but according to counselors it "unleashed" poor behaviors.

In addition to this experience I had a friend who was addicted to WOW (World of Warcraft). It was to the point that he would ask me to hang out, but what that meant was sit and watch him play WOW. We would sit for hours and not say a word to each other.

I'm not saying that video games are evil, but I do believe that our generation and generations behind me have come to a point where video game consumption is somewhat borderline dangerous. There are skills that can be built with video games, but there are also bad habits that can be developed and it is important to acknowledge them both. We need to tap into the good that we can create with video games, but we also need to minimize the violence and addiction.

The behavior showcased in the video above is disturbing and caused all because his mom cancelled his WOW subscription. Isn't there another way to tap into that passion and develop a way to put it to good use?

Final Blog Post

Overall I really enjoyed the content in the class. I now feel that I can outsmart the media. Many of the topics we covered really opened my eyes to how much control the world of pop culture and media has on our lives. I hope when I get older and raise a family of my own I can guide them and teach them how to be good media rhetorics.

I don't feel that this class has "ruined" media for me by any means. It has only allowed me to be a better media consumer. I am really glad I took this class and I actually learned a lot!
 

Social Media and Friendship

Social Media is quickly making our society anti-social. I can’t even remember a time when I would walk around without an iPod, texting on my phone, or even just talking to someone. In all honesty, I probably refresh my twitter feed about 5 times every ten minutes, because what would I do if I didn’t know what that one random person from home had for breakfast? I think social media has made us the most social anti-social people. What I mean by this is we are interacting in a new way. In person, some people can’t even make words, but once on their social-media accounts they can’t shut up. And some of these people really should shut up.

One thing I find interesting is that social-media boosts people esteem by making them think they have friends. At one point in time, people called you and invited you places. In today’s society, someone will see a tweet about people hanging out at someone’s house and then just go show up there. There are even twitter pages dedicated to telling people where parties are at. People can just look at the page and show up at someone’s house they don’t even know. Am I the only person who thinks that’s creepy? Anyone who looks at this page can just come to your house. And then they have your address forever! That’s not normal. But then after they get to the party they don’t know what to do and stand around awkwardly. They can’t even talk to people until they start drinking. The whole process of social-media really stresses me out. 

Are woman funny?

Ok let me first start out by saying a disclaimer. I love women, I think women are great so I am the farthest thing from sexist. But when it comes to comedy and being able to make me laugh, do I think woman are funny? No. I'll give you my reasons explaining why now.

First of all, I need to explain my sense of humor. A lot of guys have a different sense of humor than me and think that woman are funny, thats great but it's not me. My sense of humor is very, very dark. So in order for a girl to be funny in my opinion they have to be kinda messed up in the head. I also need to say that there are a few woman comedians who I think are funny but it's mainly because they are such screwed up individuals in the head and make some absurd jokes. One of them being Amy Schumer. I think Amy is absolutely hysterical. The stuff she says is super messed up and her delivery of her jokes is flawless. Also, I think that Lisa Lampanelli is very funny as well. She makes fun of her self a lot which I always respect when comedians do that.

So I guess what I am saying is I've only really come across one girl in my life in person that I can honestly say had me laughing as hard as my funniest guy friends do. And mainly it's because she is literally out of her mind. Just absolutely crazy as hell.

I think the biggest difference between funny guys and girls who are considered funny is there sense of humor. Myself and all my guy friends are pretty comically screwed up guys. We never take anything serious and try and make a joke out of everything. Is that bad? Probably but it's how I am and I don't see it changing anytime soon. Girls are just to nice to be funny in my opinion. They don't like to offend people or hurt people's feelings and guys tend to be the opposite. So basically I don't think woman are funny mainly because stuff they think is funny doesn't really make me laugh. I am all about the shock factor in jokes. Kind of like oh my god did he really just say that? I love shit like that, its hilarious. So no, I do not think woman are funny but that is MY OPINION. So don't hate me for saying all this its just how I feel about woman and comedy together.

All Hail Video Games?

All hail the mighty video game. I found it quite interesting that in the article it was stated that kids who spend on average of more than 10,000 hours playing video games before they turn 21 could actually stop climate change. I also found it very interesting of how they said video games are, in a way, helping shape their minds with problem-solving features. On the quiz, I put the game Tomb Raider as an example of a game that does this. Although it wasn’t listed in the article, I felt that it should have. IN my childhood, playing Tomb Raider helped me greatly with problem and puzzle solving. Games like this help expand your mind for real-world situations. Granted, I don’t plan on being an archaeologist like she is, but it doesn’t mean I won’t have problems in my life that were related to her adventures. Apple designs apps that do this the most in my opinion. With popular games such as Montezuma Puzzle, Unblock Me, and Temple Run, it puts problems in the users’ mind that they must relinquish of. I wish this article came out when I was younger so I could show my mom this whenever she said I spend too much time playing video games. This way I could respond and save, “I have the ability to stop climate change with my game playing.” Granted, there is a negative to playing video games too much. Kids tend to only do that and they begin to gain weight. Due to this, Playstation and X-Box have taken a page from the Wii and have motion-censored games so the game player can be mobile. It may be a small step, but video games help solve real world problems. 

Almighty Food Industry

The video we watched in class was a bit gruesome I must admit. I came in a little late so I’m not sure exactly of the name, but the images are very vivid in my head. After watching that video, I’ve come to be a little furious with Tyson products and Wal-Mart as a whole. The problem I had with Tyson was that when the camera crew was going around looking to see what exactly happened in the chicken coops, Tyson shut it down. The farmer had no problem with it, but Tyson did. This made me feel somewhat bad for the chickens. They had no idea what they were being born into and it infuriated me. There’s no telling what is going on behind closed doors for Tyson. Another farmer showed what happens and it was terrible. Chickens too big to walk, rolling over and dying, it was just disgusting. What matters worse was the video of night surveillance where men came and snatched up the chickens. To the Wal-Mart side of things, their dealings with the farmers were a travesty. Here you have Wal-Mart, one of the biggest chains in the world, and they’re bullying farmers for their products. They make the farmers give them exactly what they want, or Wal-Mart won’t give them the money needed for them to live off of. It’s just another way of showing how little Wal-Mart cares about others and how much more they care about themselves. The video in class shown was a much needed reality check of what it is we actually consume when we buy from Wal-Mart.

Thug Life

                I hope this post doesn’t sound biased in any way but Tupac is the one of the greatest minds to every touch a microphone in my opinion so talking about him brought forth great joy for me. Tupac was one of the most diverse musical artists ever. What he always managed to be labeled as is showing a form of hyper-masculinity. The first connection was with the “cool pose” and “thug life.” The cool pose/thug life was kind of a contradiction and seemed fake because growing up he was heavily involved with theater. It wasn’t however because he had a relatively hard life. His mother was a drug user and a convict. His father was never in his life. He had the ingredients of that of a “tough guy” life. I want to focus more on the cool pose. In the video “Beyond Beats and Rhymes”, rapper Mos Def said that he had to hide his knowledge so he wouldn’t be harassed by his peers. He also talked about how as a man, if someone was to challenge you, you had to respond. I can relate to that completely because how I grew up, it didn’t matter if you knew you were gonna lose a fight; you had to fight so you didn’t look like a punk. The debates in class were heated and I felt that this is a topic that a lot of people either read or learned the most. The posts on twitter let me know that a lot of people truly learned about the “cool pose” and hyper-masculinity.