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Media Influences

Im not quite sure if I understand postmodernism but here's my take on it. Postmodernism is the different life and culture that emerged in technologically advanced societies. The media influences us in all aspects of our life. Commercials on T.V influence us to dress a certain way, the foods we eat, and e.t.c. We are consumers. Everything we buy is influenced by the media. Novels and movies shape our relationships and ideas in our life. Technology is a huge part of our society and it continues to grow. A good example of postmodernism is the movie Wall-E. Wall-E shows us what happens to the world in the future. In the movie, technology takes over the world. Everyone is over-weight and happy, everything produced by a corporation called BigNLarge. Technology created a culture that was artificial in the movie. Here's an example that I read about Wall-E and postmodernism.



 http://www.popmatters.com/pm/article/wall-e-pixars-surprisingly-political-postmodern-masterpiece/





No, I Didn't Buy You a Falcon

Modern day media, more specifically television commercials, uses logical fallacies constantly to make an attempt at attracting customers.One example of a commercial using a logical fallacy is in a state Farm commercial were a man claims his insurance agent purchased a falcon for him, while it is obvious that the argument is completely untrue.

The basis of the character's argument is the fact that he saved tons of money switching insurance companies and he used the money he saved to buy a falcon ergo the insurance agent bought him a falcon. The fallacy the commercial incorporates is a Post Hoc ( the assumption that, because two things occur at the same time or in a sequence one is caused by the other). The flaw in the mans argument is the fact that it was his choice to buy the falcon. Just because he used money he saved to buy said falcon does not mean the insurance companyis responsible.

Though it is important to note that the insurance used the humor in how rediculous the argument was to attract customers, they were not trying to make a logical argument. Logical fallacies can be used to actually try to win an argument or to poke fun at how ridiculous arguments can be. Either way logical fallacies are used in modern day media to convey ideas and arguments.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7ZpWFTUz34

Consumer Review: Mad Men

 

Mad Men is a period drama featuring the American business world in the 1960's. The show is immensly popular across many generations and shows a different way of American life that many young people have never experienced. While the show is entertaining and well written, it in many ways romanticizes an era in which sexism and drug/alcohol use were widely accepted. The show, which ironically centers around advertising, is giving consumers an idealized view of the 1960s. 

Sexism is a prevalent theme in Mad Men but is never really brought to the surface by writers or seen as a major issue by consumers. Most of the women in the show are either housewives, secretaires, or struggling to break into a male-dominated field. Joan, who is the main secretary, doesn't seem to have any problem with her role in the office. She realizes, in fact, that she is there not to enjoy her job, but to satisfy the men working above her. She even tells Peggy (another secretary) to stop "dressing like a little girl" if she wants to be taken seriously. She also tells Peggy that technology in the office was made to be so simple that "even a women can use it".

Betty, the main housewife on the show, is also stuck in a sexist rut. She works at home raising children, is cleary unhappy because of her husband's conspicuous cheating, and doesn't speak up for herself until she finds another man to take care of her. She is always financially dependent on some man, and it is clear that she makes no plans to change that.

Even Peggy, the most self-sufficient woman on the show, is hindered because of her sex. She has to work 10 times harder than any man in the offies to advance professionally. She realizes that she is not living up to society's standards, admitting sarcastically that "it's not as important as getting married". 

In addition to sexism, Mad Men normalizes heavy cigarette use and alcohol consumption. Nearly every character on the show smokes and drinks both in their professional and personal lives. Smoking multiple packs of cigarettes a day and drinking whiskey at 10 in the morning is encouraged. Even Don (the main character), who clearly struggles with alcoholism, is always creatively on top of his game and with some new, attractive woman. Why not drink more than what is healthy when you can make tons of money and get so many women?

Mad Men should be seen as less of a nostalgic look to the past and more of a portrayal of major issures that America is still dealing with today. Most modern Americans believe that we have come very far from the days of Mad Men, and in many ways we have. However, sexism and drug/alcohol use are still very much issues today and Mad Mens should not be glamourizing them.

 

Just curious: Do any Mad Men watchers think the opposite of what I just said? Does the show portray the 1960s through a modern lense and emphasize its demerits as a way to make fun of/ warn against the era's ideologies?

Insuring Teenage Girl Stereotypes

 

 In this Allstate Ad the mayhem guy is pretending to be a teenage girl while driving a car.  There are many stereotypes for teenagers and girl drivers portrayed in this ad.

At the beginning, the viewer sees a pink SUV in a parking lot.  THe pink SUV is the first example of a stereotype by implying all girls like pink.  

Next, the commericial supports the notion that all teenagers and especially girls are distracted drivers.  The first time the Mayhem men is shown he has a cellphone in his hand.  He then says "My BFF Becky just texts and says she's kissed johnny. Well that's a problem 'cause i like Johnny".  All of this dialogue portrays teenage girls as distracted by stupid things.  

Then, once the Mayhem man is upset he says "Now I'm emotionally compromised and whoopsies" and hits a parked car.  This interaction supports the stereotype that girls become emotional over miniscule events. 

The final stereotype the commericial supports is that teenage girls don't care about anyone else's problems.  After crashing into the front of a parked car the Mayhem man just continue driving out of the parking lot saying "I'm all OMG Becky's not even hot."  The idea that the teenage girl seems not to even realize she's destroyed someone's car supports the notion that teenagers are oblivious to other's problems.  

Even though, many may say this commericial is just trying to say "We'll protect you from accidents that are not your fault" it has many undertones that support several different stereotypes about teenage girls.  

Lost: A Televised Representation of Modern American Ideologies

    There are many American ideologies portrayed in modern day television. And in the television show Lost it almost seems as if they cover all of them throughout the six seasons. Lost is a modern day drama television show about a group of strangers put into one place to work together as one.

    The first ideology Lost put emphasis on is Diversity. In America, diversity is very present, in race, economic status and more. Lost sheds light on this idea even more with their passengers. Racial diversity is obviously present in the first episode. All of the passengers are heading to America for a "new beginning", and they are all from different nationalities. But once the plane crashes on the island race is only but a small factor due to language barriers.

    Lost is presented to its viewers almost as an example of the American ideology that diversity is beneficial. Throughout the TV show there are flashbacks on each character showing where they are from. Through the flashbacks people's diversity in lifestyles, their different paths in life almost always benefits their knowledge of surviving. For example, a character named Jack is the leader of the survivors due to his medical background.

    This then flows into the ideology of "Community Over the Individual". Repeatedly in the show, whenever the community of the survivors is split into individuals, someone pays the price. Through these events in the show, the viewers are reminded of the importance of a sense of community.

    Through the bond made throughout the characters the second chance ideology os America also shines through. A character names Kate Austen is the perfect symbol for this ideology. She is a convicted felan on the run for murder, but once she becomes an important figure in a community that needs her she is given another chance. No matter how many mistakes you made in your life, the "American dream" is always in reach and that ideology was presented through Kate's character.

    Overall, Lost's characters each symbolize an American ideology and therefore convince people they are true or even possible. This television show reflects many positives of American culture through the relationships between the survivors.

Create Jobs, Save the Children, Save Small Businesses, Save America

When President Obama starts his speech to promote the new American Jobs Act bill, he gets right to the point of his speech. The exigence is that theres an economic crisis that has left people jobless and a political crisis that is keeping it from being fixed. The President claims the bill will save the education of american children and put people back in the workplace. He talks about keeping America ahead of other countries and appeals to the Congressmen to keep our country from falling into ruin.

The President goes out of his way to connect with the citizens watching. He went out of his way to tell the congressmen straight up, that the American people, don't care about the politics of it, they just want jobs. 

He then spoke about how people used to view america as a place where anyone could succeed. Obama uses pathos to make the congressmen feel guilty that they would be depriving people of the things that could make them successful and taking away the things that made this country great.

He tries to win support from both sides of the argument by looking at it from everyone's perspective. Obama repeatedly reminds the assembled group of people, of the benefits this bill would bring to this country.

The President uses logos to provide statistics about the savings in taxes fro small business owners and the amounts of money that America will save by cutting down on government spending.

He also compares the United States to China and the Koreas, giving off a kind of competitive spirit. This is pathos to appeal to the congressmen to strive to be better than other countries. 

He also uses pathos to make congressmen feel guilty about the state of American schools. Obama spoke about how some buildings are literally falling apart, and that Americans deserve to grow up in good schools. Schools that the government has the ability to provide. 

Finally toward the end of the speech, Obama adresses the idea that some people have regarding another way to cut spending. Others want to cut out a large portion of governement regulations. Obama agrees and then uses pathos to make them feel guilty about the idea of cutting some of the regulations. He does not want to "make americans choose between safety and money." The President points out that while some regulations are unnecessary, others keep the American people safe.

Finally, Obama pulls in the Pledge of Allegiance to really give it an American feeling.

This speech was aimed at crossing party lines to make a difference in America. Obama repeatedly shows how both republicans and democrats have supported similar bills and ideas, and that they need to give up some of theyre political ideas for the benefit of the American people.

Let's Not Blame the Media

Yesterday, I was discussing our feminism unit with my mom. Our conversation went something like this:

I of course believe in equal rights. But I was reading the blog Mr. Heidkamp showed us, and they had an article about how sexist a Swiffer commerical was - in part because it depicted a woman mopping."

My mom replied, "I think that you're fine with feminism and just hate that they blame the media."

It was like the "lightbulb" moment of a psychotherapy session. I like TV, and news, journalism - media as a whole. It annoys me when people blame the media for things. Sure, it over exaggerates news all the time. They lie, and are biased. However, I feel that people should try to be aware of this themselves and look at the information they are being sold. I always ask myseld, "Do I buy this?"

To be fair, the article was also talking about the sexism behind a woman being in love with a mop. And here's me answer to that: Advertisers know their consumers.

In 2006 (old, but the most recent statistic I could find without hacking into Proctor and Gamble's computer system... which I lack the knowledge to do, and not because I'm female) Swiffer's parent company spent $3.5 Billion on adversiting. You could feed 29,166,666 hungry children in Africa for a year with that much money. They don't throw that money away. Big companies hire the best advertisers they can get and a lot os research goes into what they put out there.

The ads reflect what pleases Americans. I'm sure that they had many, many test groups watched and responded to the commerical before it was put out. They liked it.

Media refelects our society's values and preferances. We should think about what we take in, and not blame the media for putting out seeminly (or overtly) sexist things. We should be more worried about society's acceptance and favortisism towards the things that the media refelects.

EDIT: If you care about women, show your support by coming to V-Day on March 18!

Criticism... will it ever end?

All of the books weve read this semester have been criticisms of America at some point in history: The Scarlet Letter brought light upon fallacies in Puritan society, The Crucible showed us the flaws in Puritan society and during the Red Scare,  Frederick Douglass exposed us to the reality of slavery and racism before the Civil War, Huckleberry Finn poked fun at the ignorance of uneducated racists, The Catcher in the Rye emphasized the "cheesy-ness" of the 1900s, and MacNolia slapped us in the face with a real look at racism in America through the eyes of a black girl growing older. That's quite a list there, and I'd say weve been taken through a pretty good chunk of American cultural history just through reading all of these novels.

Reading all of this cultural criticism and satire got me thinking about the flaws of today's society. I know we're not perfect - America is full of capitalists, elitists, and racists, just to name a few. We might not be as religiously oppressive as the Puritans, but there are still religious battles fought today, sometimes violent ones. We abolished slavery and experienced the Civil Rights movement, but that doesn't mean that race isn't an issue, and it certainly doesn't mean that other types of oppression don't exist today. While we've been reading about imperfections in American culture of the past, we should also stop to realize all of the imperfections in today's world.

This is why I truly hope that future writers will write about us, that in a hundred years English classes will be reading about the flaws in our culture, just as we are doing right now. Our world is not perfect, and it most likely never will be. Criticism in the form of literature should last as long as this world does to open humanity's eyes to the mistakes of their ancestors and make future generations analyze the flaws in their own lives.

Maybe our minds deteriorate as we age.

I was talking to a friend about movies the other day. She told me that she cried during every single Pixar movie she's seen. Most people would think, "Really? Pixar movies? Aren't those for little kids?" And the answer is yes, they are made for kids. But most Disney or Pixar movies today get to the heart of real issues and present much deeper meanings than the movies teens and adults enjoy.

Most of the movies that come out today are romantic comedies like "When in Rome," or action movies like "Transformers." I watched "When in Rome" a few months ago and thought that it was actually one of the wirst movies I've ever seen. Sure, the overall idea was kind of cute: a girl picks up coins from Trevi Fountain in Rome, and all of the guys who threw in those coins immediately fall in love with her. But the "comedy" that the movie used was just corny, and the ending was completely predictable. Of course, it ends with a happily-ever-after wedding, and everyone ends up happy. And "Transformers"... well, while it is entertaining to watch cars that turn into machines smashing a bunch of buildings, Shia LaBeouf driving really fast, and things getting set on fire, what do you take from a movie like this? Absolutely nothing. I'm no movie critic, but I can safely say that a good majority of what teens and adults watch today is completely shallow, unrealistic, and unmoving.

What I've realized over the past few years is that the some of the best movies I've seen have been "kids'" movies. Not only are these movies adorable, entertaining, and funny, they also leave me thinking when I walk out of the theater. "Wall-E", for example, addressed a real problem in the world - people are ruining the environment, and someday it will lead to the downfall of mankind. "Up" deals with the difficult process of coping with the loss of a family member, and conveys the message that you can only mourn for so long before you must accept the loss and move on. And perhaps my favorite, "Toy Story 3," challenges kids' and teens' ideas of growing up. While most media that kids and teens see and hear glamorizes growing up and makes them look forward it, "Toy Story 3" illuminates the downside, the hard part about growing up. While Andy is conflicted about leaving his toys behind when he goes off to college, the toys represent his childhood, his home, and his family. College is always depicted as fun and exciting in movies and television, but this was the first time I had ever seen a movie show a teenager's hesitation to leave his childhood behind. The movie truly made me reshape my ideas of college and adulthood.

So why is it that children's movies are so much more meaningful than "adult" movies? Is it because our society is trying to teach kids morals and life lessons while they are still young? Or is it because our minds deteriorate as we age? Is it possible that we start life ready to take in new ideas and progress into mindless beings that simply consume and wish to be crudely entertained? I think - thanks to today's movies, music, television shows, and magazines - the answer may be yes.

But MOM, everyone else is doing it!!

It is true that when we are denied of something we want to do we feel we are the only ones not doing it. It is true that sometimes as Americans we are not always individualistic and sometimes it feels right to hop on the bandwagon and go for a ride.

People in the advertisement business use this bandwagon to play on the emotions of the people. It is a great advertisement tactic that is being used today because it is the most effective. We see this everyday in the media and it is used all the time. A classic example of a bandwagon appeal is what happened with the Chicago Blackhawks this season. The fans became more of a cult then just normal people and one after another joined. I admit I was one of them. There are many other examples such as the commercial stating that 4 out of 5 dentists prefer Crest toothpaste to Colgate. In this example they play on the fact that dentists are obviously experts about handling teeth.

It is easy to fall on the bandwagon because at the time it feels exciting. Sometimes it has a positive effect on people but most of the time it makes it hard for us to be individuals.