Female Roles in Music Videos Comm. 406

A lot of women portrayed in music videos these days are highly sexuallized for the young male's, or possibly female's, fantasy. I'm not just talking about one particular genre of music. Pop, rock, country, and rap display women as helpless, horney, sexual objects, often dressed in almost nothing, catering to the male artist's every desire. An excellent example of this is R&B artist, Sisqo. Almost everyone, I'm sure, has heard the song and seen the music video for Sisqo's "Thong Song."In the video there are women in thong bikinis sunning themselves and dancing provocativly for the men featured in the video who are portrayed as powerful and wealthly. I think it is disapointing that some musicians have to use not so creative ways to sell a record. Also, women shouldn't always be looked at in such a inhumane way. Many young impressionable minds may be influenced by these women in these videos.

Today's Comm. 406 discussion made me think of the music video "Stupid Girls" by the pop artist Pink.

This really eye-opening music video completely captures the oversexualized role of women in music videos.  It also parodies the ridiculousness of the behavior of certain celebrities, and shows regular women who are damaged by the influence of these celebrities.  This video begins with a young, impressionable girl sitting in front of the television viewing a music video; an act that many young, impressionable girls are doing all around the world. In the video Pink portrays herself as a strong, well-dressed, woman who is meant to look like a female president.  She also dresses as the various "stupid girls" in the video.  She makes fun of Paris Hilton with her sex tape incident, she calls out the overly sexual Jessica Simpson in her "These Boots Were Made For Walking" music video.  She shows how women's body image issues force them into getting plastic surgery, overexercising, and purging to be thin. While she acts out these negative behaviors she asks where all of the girls with ambition and goals have gone.  The narrative encourages girls to have respect for themselves and accept their natural beauty. At the end of the video, the little girl turns off the televison and chooses to go outside to play football, rejecting her "princessy," girly toys and choosing not to be a stupid girl.  While there is definitely some show of skin and sexuality in this video, it is in the form of parody and is necessary to the main premise of the narrative.

Entertaining, Interactive, Advertisements; Thoughts on Forbe's "The Best-Ever Social Media Campaigns" Comm. 406

      Many people are using new online technologies like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other social networking sites, to connect and socialize on the web. People who are employed in advertising are taking advantage of these popular resources to make advertising a part of our cyberculture. Many advertising campaign's ads aren't just appearing on the side of your computer screen as passive persuasive images; they are becoming more involved in these social avenues. The recent article on Forbes.com entitled, "The Best-Ever Social Media Campaigns," explains that advertising corporations are becoming increasingly interactive to get the potential consumer involed via the internet. According to the article, it is the advertising company's goal to include interactive videos, gimmicks, games, etc. to social mediums on the internet, like Twitter, to make people interested in their product or idea and to further make those people share the ad(s) with thier network of friends. A panel of expert judges from social marketing agencies ranked twenty of the best-ever social media campaigns that included this interactivness.   


  Going viral has been a pretty brilliant strategy for various ad campaigns. For example, the article discusses the ever so popular commercials for Proctor and Gamble's Old Spice products that came in as number three on the best-ever social media campaigns list. Not only did the company have hilarious TV advertisements, but the actor in them,  Issiah Mustafa, answered questions of viewers on Web Videos, giving people who paid attention to the campaign recognition, as well as, giving loads of attention to Old Spice. I am a fan of Old Spice commercials because they are so entertaining and humorous. I am not a man, and would never in my life use Old Spice body wash or deodorent, but I do love a good laugh. The people behind this campaign are creative comedic geniuses. The actor gained enough popularity to appear on heavily watched talk shows like Ellen. Here Issiah Mustafa chats with Ellen Degeneres giving the inside scoop about the famous, hilarious commericial that made him shine!

      
Some other advertising campaigns that made it on the top charts, and that I'm a personal subscriber and viewer of, is Blendtec's "Will It Blend?" Blentec is a powerful professional blender that can supposedly blend everything from glow sticks to iPads.Tom Dickson is the founder of Blendtec and "destroyer" of objects.I can see why this campaign is so popular. He downloads his videos on YouTube, which anyone can join or not join to view his cutting edge videos!


What this article stressed the most was why these viral ad campaigns became so well recognized by the masses. They all have convincing and intriguing elements that appeal to many people, like humor, creativity, and shock value.  People, like me, view these ads and can't help but share their intrigue and humor with friends and family, thus making them go viral. 
       

“I’ll Have A Coke, Please!”

      The Coca-Cola Company makes and sells one of the most popular products in the world, Coca-Cola, more popularly known as Coke. It is a refreshing, cold, fizzy beverage that is well known in over two hundred countries! Its massive appeal has been gulped up since 1886. John Pemberton created it for the use of medicine to aid ailments such as headaches and morphine addiction, but today Coca-Cola serves as a sugary beverage consumed for its delicious taste. Since Coke is so universal, so are many of its campaign advertisements, which I am very fond of. I am particularly fond of Coca-Cola’s advertising campaign because they use a wide variety of mediums.  The messages and visual images that they bring about are universal. All people can relate to them or understand the ad’s concepts. There are many different advertisements for Coca-Cola, but all of them remain consistent with creativity and universality. 

        Here’s a recent commercial from Coca-Cola entitled, “Hard Times” which includes the cast of the well-known, animated show, The Simpsons.  The executives at Coca-Cola cleverly use The Simpsons as part of their advertisement.  This long-running show is a part of Americana, and its characters are widely recognized by even those who aren’t avid viewers of the show.  The advertisement’s humor sends a positive message with its current slogan, “Open Happiness.” In this commercial, character Montgomery Burns, looses his entire fortune and belongings. Dismayed, he walks through Springfield’s Park where everyone is enjoying themselves, and enjoying bottles of Coca-Cola. Once Apu, a resident of Springfield, offers him a Coke, he forgets his troubles and joins in on the fun. In one view, the commercial’s message is memorable.

  According to Coca-Cola’s website, its mission is to “strive to refresh the world, inspire moments of optimism and happiness, create value and make a difference.”   This well-known Coke advertisement from 1971 clearly captures their statement.  As the ad below illustrates, people from all nations stand together singing and holding a Coke. Using the song, “I’d Like To Teach The World To Sing” shows the interconnectedness that people have. It illustrates togetherness in that as humans, we are one family.  It rings the message that people of all nationalities should embrace life and each other’s differences. It is emotional and touches the heart. 

      

        This particular, recent, advertisement shows how clever and entertaining Coca-Cola campaigns can be. This commercial uses crisp, clear computer graphics making the viewer appreciate the art put into it. The concept of togetherness arises once again, but this time insects are working together to share an invigorating bottle of coke that they swipe from a nearby picnicker!

Coca-Cola is my favorite advertisement campaign because their ads use a wide variety of mediums.  They are entertaining, send a positive message, and everyone can understand them or relate to them in some way. I think all of these elements make Coca-Cola sell so well, besides the fact that it tastes so wonderful!

Personal Thoughts On Advertising and Imagery 406

      I am very intrigued and interested in learning new and fascinating information in Advertising and Imagery 406. This class will teach me to think critically by analyzing ads in media, and a lot more according to my instructor’s zealous explanation of the course! I think that this class is especially significant as a part of the mass communications curriculum because learning about the influence of advertisements in the world around us has a great impact on the future ideas and cultural values of today’s society in terms of political and social issues. I am looking forward to learning more about how our culture has shaped advertising, as well as how advertising has impacted our culture.            

I was enrolled in Communications and New Media 203 last fall semester.  There I learned a great deal about Herbert Zettl’s model for media aesthetics, in terms of analyzing advertising using his model.  I’m hoping we will continue to analyze advertising, as well as, experiment with creating advertising of our own in this course. I am also eager to learn more about computer software, such as Photoshop and film editing programs, like Final Cut. I hope to gain a useful understanding of these valuable tools and apply them to not only the projects that my classmates and I will utilize in this course, but also use for my future career.

Working in groups should be particularly helpful in that it will give me the practice to create and collaborate ideas with other people as in a real business setting.  

 As a photography minor, taking this class is especially interesting to me.  Most advertising contains photographic imagery.  I look forward to exploring ways to mingle my major and minor.  I’m still not sure of the exact career path that I want to pursue in life, but snapping shots for advertising campaigns sounds amazingly fun and exciting to me, and could be a potential career option!

Overall, I think this will be an extremely interesting area of communications to study, and I’m certain that I will expand my knowledge base and my creativity while in this course.

Thoughts on My Academic Major at Shepherd University

              

       “ Professional communicators work in all sizes and types of media organizations including publishing firms, radio and TV broadcasting companies, advertising, and PR agencies, and even large theme park conglomerates” (4). I chose mass communications with a concentration in media studies as my major because I want to learn about the art of film making and other cyberculture programs that deal with new media. I have always been interested in learning new things about the computer and ways to help modify the process of producing film. I do not have a clear-cut idea of exactly what I want to do at this point of my college career, but I know I want to be involved someway in video production.

 I know I have a lot to learn, but I am very ambitious about attending the mass communications courses that Shepherd University offers! My major has exciting classes, such as the history of film or television, music video, advertising and imagery, motion graphics, radio or news practicum, narrative scriptwriting, single camera production, and more. So far, as a mass communications student here at Shepherd I have only completed voice and diction, which is a more advanced speech course, and the introduction to communications and new media, in which I have gained knowledge about the many aspects of communications and new media, as well as their philosophies.   Next semester I have signed up for advertising and imagery and the radio practicum. I am very much looking forward to both of these classes.

I think that the communications program and the communications courses offered at Shepherd are equally important to my future career. Being a future graduate of the communications department at Shepherd University will be a great credential for me. I know that Dr. Williams and the other instructors have worked hard to design a program to prepare me for the world of work in media one day.  The courses are also a very important aspect of the communications program.  Because the class sizes are small, I know I will get the individualized attention and information that I need from the instructors.  Shepherd University seems to be unique among other universities when it comes to class size. 

I hope to gain the knowledge and experience that I need to earn a satisfying career in mass communications. This is a growing field, and I know jobs will be available. More specifically I wish to learn and utilize computer programs, such as Final Cut Pro for editing.  Although this is a program that I can teach myself through using it, it would be nice to have someone with more in depth knowledge teach me the full ins and outs of it.  Also, the editing of a film work is equally as important as the shooting of it, so more emphasis being given to editing would further enhance the skills of all students in the department.

Although I have only had two professors in the communications department, Dr. Webb and Dr. Williams, I have checked out all of the communications staff on the communications page on the Shepherd University website and have learned their many credentials.  All are very qualified to teach and I look forward to having a pleasant working relationship with all of them.

As a Shepherd University student I am ready to receive a wonderful education in the field of mass communications through the teachings of well-trained instructors. I know I am getting the proper instruction and knowledge to move ahead and  to obtain a great career that I will love in the future!

Works Cited

Noronha, Shonan.  Careers in Communications. McGraw Hill, 2005.  Print.  P. 4.

           

           

Thoughts on “Why Cyberculture?” By David Bell

         The growing inventions of technology have swept the world up in the latter years of the 20^th century and have become “out of this world” so far in the 21^st century. David Bell reflects his ideas and the ideas of other theorists to explain why the earth’s growing technological advances came to be called cyberculture.

            David Bell uses the terms cybernetics, cyberspace, and cyberpunk, all words that stemmed and are all linked from cyberculture. The term cybernetics is  “the science of communication and control in living beings or machines” (60). Bell explains that a scientist, Norbert Wiener, who published many best selling books that dealt with the idea of “teleological mechanisms”, developed the term as early as the 1940s. Wiener brought about ideas and relationships between humans and machines.   To Bell, the term cyberspace is vastly imaginative and very “sci-fi” like, and believes that is how the future is meant to be. He thinks that cyberspace involves many different types of technologies such as digital animation, cell phones, medical equipment, iPods, and much more. Bell gives recognition to William Gibson, writer of Neuromancer a novel that came out of the cyberpunk genre, in coining the term cyberspace in to describe the setting of computer operation stations that characters would get linked into.  According to this reading, cyberspace involves technologies, and or humans that experience the use of these technologies.  It also involves people affected by technological advances who can tell of their experiences through stories and the use of imagery. The phrase cyberpunk goes back to the 1980s and is a word that is used in the genres of science fiction texts, and film. Its main focus is on the uses and effects of new technologies like, computers, and promotes images of cyberspace and other artificial intelligence. A prime example of cyberpunk in film is the movie Blade Runner, made in 1982.

             While terms, like cyberspace and cybernetics, are claimed by specific people, cyberculture is not. The origins are uncertain.  Bell gives us his definition as this: “cyberculture is a way of thinking about how people and digital technologies interact, how we live together… ways of life in cyberspace, or ways of life shaped by cyberspace, where cyberspace is a matrix of embedded practices and representations” (62).  I can totally understand Bell’s point of view. Cyberculture involves the evolving relationships with new technologies and humans and making it part of their culture. Bell brings up an interesting point stated by Paul Taylor. Taylor describes everyday interactions with cyberculture as “living in the gap” (63). He means that everyone utilizing technology is living in the gap, and people who do not, are living in a more archaic pre-cyberculture reality. This assertion goes along with the term, technological determinism, which is how technology and society shape each other.           

            Many people use technologies, like the computer, and are connected to the world of cyberculture. They can be active or passive. Bell seems to be urging individuals to be active members of cyberculture. He gives a lengthy list of cyberculture studies, or ways to contribute to the world of cyberculture. Part of his list includes: media studies, work on new media, multimedia, digital media, film studies, work on sci-fi cinema, digital film making, and new modes of film production (66). These are some of the cyber-based subject materials that I am learning about, or will be learning about, in future classes of my major. I am contributing to cyberculture studies right now by writing this blog. David Bell lastly, in so many words, states that the world of cyberculture is ever changing, and that even the act of theorizing it and writing about it is never set in stone or concrete, it is complex and truly amazing.  With this I fully agree!

             

               Works Cited

Bell, David. “Why Cyberculture?” A Media Studies Reader. Editor: Williams, Kevin. 2010, University Readers Inc. and Taylor & Francis Group. P. 59-69

Comm 203 The Graphic Novel as a Mode of Communication

So far in my communications and new media class, the most interesting and enjoyable project that I had the pleasure to work on was creating my own graphic novel.  At first, I was apprehensive about this assignment because I have never been a reader of comics or graphic novels.  I was worried that I might not be able to recreate the style of a classic graphic novel.  Fortunately, using the program Comic Life made this task easier for me, as did my professor’s instructions. Comic life is a really fabulous program that allows you use pictures that you either take yourself, or retrieve from the Internet.  The Comic Life program transforms these pictures to look like a drawn, or cartoon-like print. There are many page templates to choose from to fit these filtered images by stretching, and bending them to your liking.  These layouts look like the pages of a comic book.  You can put in thought and speech bubbles, and caption boxes to show the characters thoughts and dialogue. There are also many text fonts and colors to choose from.  The program has many more features, but since this was my first attempt at using it, I tried to keep the features simple so I could better focus on my story. 

While incredibly fun, my graphic novel project presented some special challenges because I choose to do my own photography using my not so well trained cats as characters. I created a fictional story called, “The Unwanted.” It is about my two cats, Pixie and Sophie.  The premise of the story is that the main human characters, Hannah and Owen (played by my boyfriend and me), want to adopt a new cat to give their existing cat, Pixie, a new playmate.  Not wanting to loose her position as her owners’ center of attention, Pixie devises several wicked plots in an “Evil Plot Book,” to force her owners to take the new cat, Sophie, to the animal shelter. “Evil will not prevail over good” is the main message or moral that I wanted to communicate in the narrative. Pixie is the evil antagonistic force that tries to prevail over Sophie, the protagonist.  Like most stories featuring a malicious plot, the bad guy, or in this case, the bad cat comes out the loser.

The amazing thing about comics is that they express themselves though pictures more than words.  While the use of words was necessary in conveying the plot of my graphic novel, not all comics are reliant on a plethora of dialogue to communicate their message.  While my graphic novel was meant to entertain, the comic-like style of a graphic novel could be used in other forms of communication. I have seen printed advertisements that utilize this style.  I’ve also been exposed to educational materials written in the style of a graphic novel.  Even Liechtenstein uses comic style images as art pieces. Using visual images, with or without, dialogue is an excellent, eye-catching way to communicate a thought or idea.  The graphic novel concept could be used to make more complex ideas simple.  For example, instructions for assembling something would be much easier for a visual learner if the directions were presented in the form a short graphic novel.  After all, a picture is worth a thousand words!