Week 10: Class Highligts

After I took this class, I learnt to read the messages that the media tried to convey differently; in a more careful way. For example, I used to see an ad as a tool for products’ sale; but now I will try to understand the skills they might have used and the messages beyond selling the products. And also I understand more about the Freedom of Speech we have in the America; are we really free to say whatever we want to? It becomes a difficult problem for me to answer now. It seems like the freedom we have becomes a problem, and the society still tries to say we should have the freedom; however, should we embrace it with no limit? It becomes a question that I think it will only come to an answer when I get older and have more life experiences. 

Week 9: Media Ethics/Laws

A Chicago apartment leasing and management company has filed a lawsuit against its former resident for her Twitter comment which the company believes that the comment was libelous.

I think that this is an act against the First Amendment; for the woman was only expressing how the bad her apartment and the bad service quality from the company were. Moreover, she only has 20 followers on her Twitter account that her comment could hardly defame the company. Therefore, I think that the lawsuit will not be successful. 

Week8: Propaganda in Advertising/PR

In this commercial, Audi used two obvious propaganda techniques. The first one is Ad hominem; which they attacked their rivals carmaker companies like BMW, Lexus, and Mercedes Benz, by stating that the “owners” of those cars were not satisfied for they were told that would have been a privilege to have one of those BMW, Lexus, or  Merc. The other technique they applied in the commercial was “Join the Crowd”; in the middle of the commercial, after the non-Audi owners complained about their cars; they were putting on their smiling faces when they saw an Audi passed by; which applied to consumers that driving Audi vehicles is a right thing to do; and more importantly, a easy and happy way to be better-off.   

Week 7: Internet

I got 197 as the total amount of social networking websites are listed on Wikipedia. I only know about 27 of them, and 24 of those 27 are known because I saw an ad about one of them while surfing the net.

Gaia Online is a social networking and forum-based website that was founded as Go-Gaia.com in 2003. It is a virtual world that has its own economy.

The way I use social networking websites is only "talk" to friends that I know. I do not add strangers as a friend ( many friends of mine will add random hot chicks for no reason.), I do not allow anyone I don not know to be on my friends' list. I use Facebook, Twitter, and Xanga.

I came to the States in 2002. After couple years, I only kept contact with couple friends in middle school that are really close to me. After I start using Facebook in 2006, I gradually found all my middle school friends that I know. Last time I had a trip back to Hong Kong, I used Facebook to let my friends in HK know that I was coming back home. And more importantly, setting up gatherings by using Facebook.

Week 6: Television

The Coon
Tags: SOUTH
PARKmore...

Length: 1:53
Description: Eric Cartman copycatted Batman's behaviour and tried to save South Park.
Chapter 6: Movies
Question: Which movie inspired a teenager in Los Angeles to kill his mother?
Answer: Scream (1996)

Week 5: Movies

My favourite movie in 2009-2010 is the movie Inception which I watched it in the theatre. The reason behind the story is so simple; yet the twists and turns in the movie are fascinating. Before watching the film, I thought it could be a flop with a lot of special effects and CGs; but it turns out a stunning spectacular which I decided to buy the blu-ray version as a collection.

My all-time favourite film is a British film titled Cashback. I first watched it through a DVD from my friend. The story of the movie might seem to be a little bit silly, but it is something that everyone has been through. And also the way the director Sean Ellis shot the movie is another reason that attracts me.

Week 4: Magazines

·         Magazine’s Title: Glorious Eleven

·         Concept: Rather than being a tradition soccer magazine, Glorious Eleven will be focusing on the best matches played every week all over the world; in order to present soccer from the major stage like Europe to the smaller stage like Asia and Oceania.

·         Readers: This magazine is for soccer fans in any age groups and from both genders.

·         Other magazines serving this demographic: Four Four Two, World Soccer, Soccer 360, 90:00, and etc…

·         Advertisers: Gatorade, Addidas, Nike, Soccer Pro, and Nissan (or other car companies).

·         Articles in the premier issue: 1) Main story: Are AC Milan back on track? 2) Match of the Week: Merseyside Derby: Everton v Liverpool 3) Interviewing Roy Hodgson: The Man in Charge or The Man in Trouble? 4) Side Story: Who is actually ruling Asia after the Aussies joined? 5) Poll of the week: Who will be the next signing for Manchester City? 6) World Score-lines of the Week

·         Cover of the first issue: It will be a picture of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, the Milan strike,r with the fonts of the magazine’s title in gold colour.

Week 3: Books

The first of the three most influential books to me is The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio. It was absolutely a long read; however, it was interesting and it helped me to understand the medieval European culture. The second one is Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer. Most of the time books about the 911 attack are written as non-fiction book; but the author used the incident and created a story of a child’s adventure that I found very moving and also very realistic. The final one is Overthrow: America’s Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq by Stephen Kinzer. The reason that the book is influential to me is that it shows how the American created turmoil, from time to time, in the name of spreading democracy; while the real reasons behind were resources and wealth. 

Week 2: Media Impact

 A lot of purchases we make nowadays are based on ads that we have read from a magazine, have watched on the television, or have skimmed from a website. However, how influential are these advertisements? Have we really bought products because of ads that we have seen? To answer these two questions, I propose a thorough research studying the relationship between the consumers’ behavior and the advertisements in order to have a better understanding of the influence of mass media. Since advertisements can be seen everywhere and they are full of different kinds of products; I suggest that the research should concentrate on a specific type of media. For this study, I think that television will be a good object to observe because television these days contains a lot of advertisement and people are spending a lot of time watching TV. First, I will do a content analysis on some of the biggest channels like Fox; and conduct a list of types of ads are shown on TV. Then I will have a random sampling group consists of 25 male and 25 female. In this experiment, I will be looking for the type of advertisement that each individual is interested in. A survey will also be done with the same group; the purpose of this survey is to find out the actual amount that each person has spent on something that are totally based on advertisement that they have seen. If my hypothesis is correct, the result will show most of these 50 individuals’ buying behavior is influenced by the TV ads; and I believe that consumers nowadays are heavily influenced by advertisement as the mass media nowadays are very influential.  

Week 1: Media Autobiography

In the Information Age, we receive information from many types of media. I am no exception; in my past 24 years of life, I have spent a lot of time using different methods to learn about the world around me.

The very first kind of media I used was books. My grandfather used to read the stories from the book Romance of the Three Kingdoms when I was small; and that is the reason why I have a great interest in history. Before I moved to America in 2002, most of the books that I read were written in Chinese. After I came to the States, I still read a lot of Chinese books; however, I spent more time to read English books: for academic reason but also leisure reason. I still read a lot today, mostly history books and detective fictions.

Television also plays a big role in my media life. I used to spend a lot of time watching TV when I was a child; and according to my mother, that is the reason I need to wear glasses, since I watched too much and got too close to the television. I do not spend that much time on television that I used to; because internet has become a bigger part in my life.

My parents encouraged me to read newspaper in a daily aspect since I started to attend elementary school. By doing so, it helped my Chinese a lot; I was better than other children in my school in Chinese, especially my writing skill and reading comprehension. I do not particularly like reading newspaper; for it is more like a practice than a habit. But I enjoy reading it because sometimes it is fun to find misspells or other mistakes while I am reading it.

I am not a big fan of magazines, for there are too many ads in them. And also, I am not really interested in reading the gossips between celebrities. Although I do not really read magazines, I still read soccer magazines and video game magazines. Soccer magazines are more a leisure reading; and video game magazines provide me the news and information from the games that I am interested in.

I love watching movies, for they show me things that books cannot provide like visual thrill. However, it seems like movies in these couple years are like all the same. And also, people who are making movies cannot create their own original idea like they used to in the 90s. They always have to make films from popular comics or novels. I am not against reproduction of a good old film, but it seems everyone just doing it because they do not have to deal with a basic background story; which skips a big part of film making and saves a whole lot of time in order to be able to make more films in a year.

Recordings, or music, help me to stay focus while I am working. In fact, I am listening to music while I am writing this post. I do not follow a specific genre; as long as it sounds beautiful to me, I will listen to it. I used to buy CDs until I can buy them online. Somehow people in the music industry are making the same kind of music blindly; it makes the music in recent years sound very much alike.

The most important type of mass media to me is internet. I usually spend more than half a day in front of my laptop browsing on the web. It helps me doing the research for my papers when I attended UC Davis; I use it to chat with my friends through webcam in Hong Kong instead of making long distance calls. I used not to listen to radio; but online radio helps me to know what is going on in Hong Kong. Like online radio, newspaper on the internet also is another method that helps me to know the big things happened in Hong Kong. Internet is the biggest part in my daily life; and therefore, it is also the most important sort of media that I use everyday.