I have used blogs before as a personal creative outlet both for sharing my own opinions about my own personal interests and to showcase my creative works. Although I have never had to maintain a blog for educational purposes, I have posted on threads and discussion forums for a few academic classes.
It was a good review for the week’s lectures, teachings, and ideas. It also allowed the opportunity to connect the general theories to real life examples. It also was a good alternative from homework and other unnecessary busy work.
I did not really encounter many technical problems in using the blogs. Sometimes it was difficult to come up with examples or relate the concepts in order to answer the given prompts. I was constantly worried about if I had answered the question properly or thoroughly enough.
For the most part, if I had a conceptual problem, I tried to find an example given in class or in the book and come up with a similar example and describe it with my own words.
I found the more interesting blog prompts to be ones that allowed for the opportunity to connect the theories to current events or real-life occurrences. I also enjoyed the blogs that asked for different aspects of actual production process of film and television. I remember specifically the blog prompts that I enjoyed the most were the ones about the theory of hegemony, selective process, Hollywood’s star structure, and describing the different shots and camera angle techniques. I recall having a hard time with more obscure theories such as globalization and honestly, found the radio prompt a bit boring because personally I see it as it an outdated form of media.
Although sometimes I believed the blogs were a bit redundant, it was a good way to keep up with each week’s intended readings and teachings. It was definitely a better alternative to many other classes’ assigned busy-work. I believe it gave students a good outlet to take theories and teachings and relate them in a creative way through a personal space. Everyone was given essentially the same concepts and the blogs acted as a beneficial way to present a specific viewpoint or ideas about them.
I sometimes wished that the blog prompts/blogs themselves were put in a more organized outline. It seemed as though the blog prompts were thought up a bit last minute and sometimes were even changed. The email system also seemed a bit jumbled and I think it could help if they were either solidified as part of the syllabus from the beginning of the year or placed in each section’s TA’s blog. I also think that if a short example was given along with the prompt, it might help the student realize exactly what the question was asking. I also think that maybe there should be a bit more interaction with people and their blogs within each section group. It would be interesting if people actually read the other students’ blogs and commented on one another’s posts.
Permission is granted to use my blog in a paper or report.
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Post Eleven: Americanize This!
Globalization is an ongoing and dynamic process in which different cultures, spheres, and parties share and influence one another through a pervasive and subtle manner. In other words, it is a way that different cultures of people connect with one another and where differences intermingle and are adapted to the other cultures respectively. It is a process that has great potential as it offers many opportunities for communication, goods, and people to intermingle and travel across boundaries.
Cultural imperialism, specifically associated to Westernization, is a prime example of globalization. It is essentially an imbalance of globalization in which instead of cultures equally dispersing their own respective ideas, thoughts, beliefs, one culture actually dominates the other one. One of the consequences of slanted imperialism is that all cultures eventually will homogenize themselves or become the same, losing its own uniqueness in the process. As media steadily and quickly flows between cultures, some critics fear that it will construct a “global village” in which the village will become Americanized in the negative sense (consumerism, materialistic, individualistic). Others believe that the global village will stay open to other cultures as different cultures share different messages. Cultural imperialism tends to have a negative connotation because it is essentially an imbalance between two groups. It does not consider the “diversity of transnational [or] national media” nor does it consider the “context of production or reception”. It sweeps over the different parties without much individual attention and without this necessary attention, it can overwhelm rather than help connecting the vast and varied groups of people.
An example from the media that illustrates this process is the exchange between American and Japanese media. There seems to be a recent fad or rise of Japanese-related culture that has permeated the American culture. Anime is definitely an example of it; there are many young teenagers who have embraced the Japanese cartoon craze by willingly consuming related products such as manga (comic books), toys, and even dressing up as their favorite characters in comic-cons. MTV had adapted its own version of a popular Japanese game-show Silent Library and so did ABC with I Survived a Japanese Game Show.
However, other aspects of the culture have not exactly been embraced but rather mocked or at least questioned. In this specific example of a Japanese commercial, there is a young girl dressed up as Little Red Riding Hood. She enters the scene and proceeds to dance and sing with a group of wildlife creatures. She then reacts when she sees a particularly well-endowed creature. Many comments on the video include how crazy the Japanese are and how their commercials do not make any sense. To some extent, their comments are reasonable. But they come from an egocentric perspective. We, Americans, are not used to these seemingly outrageous, nonsensical, and random commercials. No commercial resembling this Japanese one would ever be allowed to air on our televisions. When we see such an unfamiliar and perhaps absurd way of selling a product, we tend to take it out of context and find reasons to devalue it. In this, we consider our way the dominant way or the best way, disregarding the Japanese culture as a valid way of doing certain things.
Cultural imperialism, specifically associated to Westernization, is a prime example of globalization. It is essentially an imbalance of globalization in which instead of cultures equally dispersing their own respective ideas, thoughts, beliefs, one culture actually dominates the other one. One of the consequences of slanted imperialism is that all cultures eventually will homogenize themselves or become the same, losing its own uniqueness in the process. As media steadily and quickly flows between cultures, some critics fear that it will construct a “global village” in which the village will become Americanized in the negative sense (consumerism, materialistic, individualistic). Others believe that the global village will stay open to other cultures as different cultures share different messages. Cultural imperialism tends to have a negative connotation because it is essentially an imbalance between two groups. It does not consider the “diversity of transnational [or] national media” nor does it consider the “context of production or reception”. It sweeps over the different parties without much individual attention and without this necessary attention, it can overwhelm rather than help connecting the vast and varied groups of people.
An example from the media that illustrates this process is the exchange between American and Japanese media. There seems to be a recent fad or rise of Japanese-related culture that has permeated the American culture. Anime is definitely an example of it; there are many young teenagers who have embraced the Japanese cartoon craze by willingly consuming related products such as manga (comic books), toys, and even dressing up as their favorite characters in comic-cons. MTV had adapted its own version of a popular Japanese game-show Silent Library and so did ABC with I Survived a Japanese Game Show.
However, other aspects of the culture have not exactly been embraced but rather mocked or at least questioned. In this specific example of a Japanese commercial, there is a young girl dressed up as Little Red Riding Hood. She enters the scene and proceeds to dance and sing with a group of wildlife creatures. She then reacts when she sees a particularly well-endowed creature. Many comments on the video include how crazy the Japanese are and how their commercials do not make any sense. To some extent, their comments are reasonable. But they come from an egocentric perspective. We, Americans, are not used to these seemingly outrageous, nonsensical, and random commercials. No commercial resembling this Japanese one would ever be allowed to air on our televisions. When we see such an unfamiliar and perhaps absurd way of selling a product, we tend to take it out of context and find reasons to devalue it. In this, we consider our way the dominant way or the best way, disregarding the Japanese culture as a valid way of doing certain things.
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Post Ten: M(Ad) Man
As an avid television watcher, I am constantly bombarded with advertisements that sneakily splice themselves into the most inopportune moments during my chosen shows. For the most part, I do not pay much attention to them; they are just a fact of life (unless of course, you are fortunate to have TiVo). And for the most part, advertisements follow a certain formula in order to achieve their goal of selling a certain product to a targeted audience. They use a variety of audience appeals, one of which (sex and gender persuasion) can be seen in the viral phenomenon of the most recent slew of Old Spice ads.
Many advertisements employ sex appeal or portray heightened gender roles in order to simplify its relationship or relevance to their targeted audience. In other words, advertisers will assume or follow a stereotype of either women or men and use them in order to sell their products. When a female viewer watches a makeup commercial, the advertisers are targeting their insecurities that come with a female role—that they can only be attractive when they buy and use this particular brand of makeup. When a male viewer watches a beer commercial, the advertisers will also exploit insecurities and try to portray the beer as a choice of the most masculine men. They will target the heightened gender stereotypes because it encompasses the majority of their targeted audience. For the most part, advertisers are not gender-neutral and will not accommodate those who are considered “outside” of the normal gender sphere such as homosexual or transgendered people.
The highly popular and viralized Old Spice ad plays on such an advertising ploy. It depicts a very masculine man who states that “sadly [your man] is not [him]”. However, if, you the viewer, purchases Old Spice or if the male viewer starts using Old Spice body wash, he will reach a higher level of masculinity. With this, advertisers also employ the idea or sense of aspiration: males should aspire to be the best or most masculine as possible. The Old Spice man even states that “if he stopped using lady-scented body wash”, what a emasculating shame it would be to smell like a woman! “[…] and switched to Old Spice, [your man] could smell like he is [him]”; the male viewer will never be as masculine as the one depicted in the commercial but at least he could smell like him. He then further proves his masculinity by producing “two tickets to the thing you [the woman] love” which soon changes into “diamonds” implying that with Old Spice, he is able to be the perfect man who can woo any woman, specifically the female viewer. He then solidifies the message with, “anything is possible when your man smells like Old Spice and not a lady”. They use this so-called highly masculine character who is trying to sell this product geared towards men by gearing it towards women. It is more likely that women will buy this Old Spice product for their significant others rather than men buying it because of the commercial.
Perhaps the success of this ad campaign comes from its satire. It seems as though the advertisers at Old Spiceare aware of the whole gender ploy and are essentially mocking it by making it overtly gender-stereotypical. Whatever the implications there are within the commercials, the Old Spice advertisers should get a raise seeing how the ad’s YouTube video has garnered close to 23 million views, a variety of spoofs, and a whole lot of attention.
Many advertisements employ sex appeal or portray heightened gender roles in order to simplify its relationship or relevance to their targeted audience. In other words, advertisers will assume or follow a stereotype of either women or men and use them in order to sell their products. When a female viewer watches a makeup commercial, the advertisers are targeting their insecurities that come with a female role—that they can only be attractive when they buy and use this particular brand of makeup. When a male viewer watches a beer commercial, the advertisers will also exploit insecurities and try to portray the beer as a choice of the most masculine men. They will target the heightened gender stereotypes because it encompasses the majority of their targeted audience. For the most part, advertisers are not gender-neutral and will not accommodate those who are considered “outside” of the normal gender sphere such as homosexual or transgendered people.
The highly popular and viralized Old Spice ad plays on such an advertising ploy. It depicts a very masculine man who states that “sadly [your man] is not [him]”. However, if, you the viewer, purchases Old Spice or if the male viewer starts using Old Spice body wash, he will reach a higher level of masculinity. With this, advertisers also employ the idea or sense of aspiration: males should aspire to be the best or most masculine as possible. The Old Spice man even states that “if he stopped using lady-scented body wash”, what a emasculating shame it would be to smell like a woman! “[…] and switched to Old Spice, [your man] could smell like he is [him]”; the male viewer will never be as masculine as the one depicted in the commercial but at least he could smell like him. He then further proves his masculinity by producing “two tickets to the thing you [the woman] love” which soon changes into “diamonds” implying that with Old Spice, he is able to be the perfect man who can woo any woman, specifically the female viewer. He then solidifies the message with, “anything is possible when your man smells like Old Spice and not a lady”. They use this so-called highly masculine character who is trying to sell this product geared towards men by gearing it towards women. It is more likely that women will buy this Old Spice product for their significant others rather than men buying it because of the commercial.
Perhaps the success of this ad campaign comes from its satire. It seems as though the advertisers at Old Spiceare aware of the whole gender ploy and are essentially mocking it by making it overtly gender-stereotypical. Whatever the implications there are within the commercials, the Old Spice advertisers should get a raise seeing how the ad’s YouTube video has garnered close to 23 million views, a variety of spoofs, and a whole lot of attention.
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