Blog #8

I think that things will have to change in the future because people are becoming more and more aware of advertising and how it works. With the greater media literacy, people are ignoring the commercials and advertisers are losing out. When the advertisers find that ads on TV no longer have as large of an impact they will take their money elsewhere to find the next way to advertise. This leaves the networks will less money because the time slots will have to be sold for less. This means the networks have to find some way to compel the viewers to watch the commercials or rely more heavily on product placement in the shows or they won't be able to continue there reign on TV.

Blog #7

Since we are doing tv now, that's what I'm going to write about. I was watching prime time tv and realized that most of the shows were targeted at males. All the cop shows and some of the doctors shows that seem to be the bulk of the shows are all targeted to men. I watched House, The Mentalist, and Castle and all the shows have a strong male character as the lead and women are only ever in supporting roles. I don't know where I was going with that, I don't like this no direction thing. To keep this going, I am going to switch directions and say that I think people need to be more media literate. I think that the class we are taking now should be put into junior high because that is when you are the most vulerable from the media, by the time you get to high school you should know what is going on around you and what is real and what isn't.

Blog #6

I think that product placement in TV shows and movies is very effective. People can turn off commercials and ignore a lot of other forms of advertising, but when it is put into the show it becomes unavoidable. Most of the time you don't notice it's there, kind of a subliminal message thing. Making it less noticable makes people accept it more because they aren't being bombarded with the product and told to buy it. With teenagers they have their shows they watch that they think are cool and anything that is shown on that particular show has to be the coolest new thing so the teens buy what they see the people on the shows using. It is also more effective because it shows the products in closer to real life situations so people can relate better to the show and the product than to a tv commercial.

Blog #5

Billboards and text ads make up a large amount of the media. We see them everywhere. Out of personal experience I know that I look at billoards all the time when I am riding in a car. The bilboards use many different advertising devices. There is a lot of repitition because you only see them for a short period of time so in order to get the point across they have to make it clear and short and use it many times. They also use direct orders to get people thinking about their products. Billboards also use weasel words because they enable the producer to use very few words and still get a point across. Weasel words tie in with the unfinished claim, short phrases that grab your attention. These different techniques are effective because they grab your attention and make you remember. You see hte advertisements so many times that you subconciously remeber the logos or sayings and when you go to the store you will be drawn to the product that was on the billboard.

Radio advertising is a little different. Radio ads use hidden fears. Since they can talk and it isn't just a picture, the ads can sound like they are directed right at the person listening so the producers can play up fears because they can put more emotion into the ads. They also use either-or, asking people questions at the end of hte ad. They also use repetition. The repetition could be with a song or a saying that gets stuck in your head. Radio ads also use vague claims because they are short and easy and capture your attention. Radio ads are effective because they get stuck in your head and you remember them. This helps the companies because if you are looking for a certain product you might remember a radio ad and buy that kind. They can also play on emotions more than bilboards and this helps suck people in.

Blog #3

I watched the show Scrubs. The American core values were very appherant in the show because it is about people trying to become doctors. First, achievement and success are shown through the interns work. They are hard working and work at work and study outside of work in order to become the best doctor they can be. This goes along with the value activity and work, the interns and doctors are always working even when they aren't at work they are thinking about it. Also along with success there is a heirarchy in the hospital. There is the janitor, the nurses, interns, and then doctors. Depending how much schooling and success you have had allows you to be higher up in the standings. The show also portrays youthfulness. All the successful doctors are young and goodlooking and it makes you want to be like them. Even the older doctors on the show look and act younger than they really are. Humanitarianism is another big core value with the doctors. Whenever they get a patient that they like or can relate to they take care of them more fervently.

The video brought up many valid points about what the media is doing to the younger generations. I think that it is getting out of control but the advertisers aren't going to stop. I think the child's parents have to regulate what their child sees. They can shield their children somewhat from the media. Kids don't have to watch so much tv or go on the internet at such a young age. The parents can teach their children to develop their own ideas before they give them a full blast of the media. The parents can teach their kids to realize what the media is really saying and the kids can become responsible consumers. Once they are taught they can be exposed to more media but I think that until they are out of elementary school they shouldn't be overexposed like they are now. This is because the schools could teach about the media along with the parents and then it could dreate responsible consumers.

Notecard Interview

I interviewed:
Sameena, female, 19
Matt, male, 18
Laura, female, 44
Jeff, male, 43

When I asked what media was, everyone had a similar answer. They siad it was a way to give and recieve information through different mediums. The only difference was the younger interviewees thought of internet and tv first and the older interviewees said newspaper and books before internet. This shows the shift in media. The younger generations leans toward electronics and ways to get information and entertainment more quickly and the older generation stays with more printed material.

The next question was about how the media impacted your life. Here if divided by age again the older interviewees said that the first thing media did was keep them informed. The younger generations saw media mostly just for entertainment value. In the next question I asked what their favorite form of media was and the younger people said video games and movies. The older people said tv because it was easily accessable and can get information fast.

Lastly, I asked if anything in the media should change. The older interviewees said nothing needed to change. Jeff said that there were a ton of choices for entertainment value and news. He also siad that if he didn't like something he could watch something else and not make a big deal about it. Laura said it was easy to get information so nothing needed to change. The younger interviewees were the opposite. They said that things should change. Sameena said that there are too many biased sources and that the majority of people don't know that they are biased. So to help this problem she said that there should be more unbiased media and to label the bias on the certain stations/shows. Matt said that the media needed to show more information about what was going on in the world, hard news, and less pop culture. The differences in these options are from different schooling. The younger generation has grown up in a world with more media and are taught about it. The older generations weren't exposed to the same amount of media and weren't taught about the modern media.