Television and Hitler

danielle.m4a

The Uniformed

A low information voter is someone who is uninformed about the issues but yet still votes anyway based on ideals that they are either unsure or have no idea about. I am not sure if I would identify myself as a low information voter or not. I will admit that I am not exactly up on all the issues in our society but I have always said that I will not vote in an election that I am unsure on the issues at hand. I am a registered independent because I feel that I don’t exactly relate to all the issues with either party.  I may be a low information voter but I know that I should be better informed, and I would never vote, just to vote. Lately I have been trying to become more informed about what is going on and have been watching the news and questioning my parents on the debates that are going on. I even watched some of the Democratic and Republican debates to educate myself.  So, yes by definition I am a low information voter, but I fully plan on trying to educate myself because as I get older I realize that these are very real issues that need to be addressed so that our country can improve. Without informed voters we get presidents and other political figures that rule our country in a way that is not successful and that is how we get into wars that are unnecessary.

PODCASTS – The Analysis!

 

SEVENTEEN RUNWAY INSIDER was a podcast on an insider beauty tip, so being a woman of twenty I was interested to see what kind of tips we were talking about! The podcast started off with loud music but throughout the entire two minutes of it the music continued and I have to say it made it distracting to try to hear what she was even saying because you were essentially listening to two things at once. She was demonstrating how to apply makeup but the girl she was applying the makeup to already had it on, so the demonstration was virtually useless because you saw no before and after. Another thing that bothered me was that I liked the eye shadow that she applied (kind of) but she never told us a brand! Or where we could get it! So what’s the point of showing us a product if your not even going to sell it to the consumer! 

WHO, WHAT, WEAR was a podcast that was focused on how to make your hair wavy. At the beginning they introduced themselves and what they were going to be focusing on in the minutes ahead. I found this podcast to be very interesting and useful. They gave you a step by step of how to make your hair wavy and as she is doing it she tells you what product she is using and how to use it effectively. Her instructions were impeccable, but to supplement it they also had captions along the bottom outlining what she was telling us just in case we missed something. I loved this podcast I even wrote down some of the tips for my own hair!

 NUTRITION DIVA – QUICK DIRTY TIPS this podcast was a lot more amateur opposed to the previous two. The women had a good speaking voice but for the entire five minutes you were no engaged since it just showed the same picture the entire time, and not even with music to supplement it. The tips that she gave were ok, but nothing that I couldn’t read in a magazine or didn’t already know. I think that the idea was great but it just wasn’t executed in a way that made the observer want to watch it again. 

GuruMascots:http://www.gurumascots.com/images/businessgirl.jpg

I Would Rather Have a Beer With...

In Mark Edmundson’s article entitled McLuhan: It’s all Going According to Marshall’s plan he talks about how he felt that our world was going to be impacted by technology in the future.

       “Technology is the knack for organizing the world so we don’t have to experience it.” (Edmundson)This is very true basically the media are the “monarchs of technology.” An example is the political advertisements; the candidates virtually compete via advertisement on television. No longer is it about what they have to say, it’s about how many and how good their advertiser is. He speaks to the Kennedy-Nixon debate of 1960 where we were moving toward the idea that the candidate who “best manipulates his “image” will win. I feel that this is so true in present day. Currently we are going through the Obama vs. McCain debate. Edmunson is so right that the candidates are almost having an advertisement fight, which can make them look more appealing to the audience.

And everyone remembers when voters were basing their votes in the 2004 election on ‘who they would rather have a beer with’ now we just know our political system has gone to shambles when that is a deciding factor on the fate of our country.

            “McLuhan saw that what we call “the media explosion” is not an isolated blast, but one in a series of detonations that will probably last through and beyond our lifetimes.” (Edmundson) The first explosion that he referred to was radio, television, and film.  He was right to call this an explosion because it almost “perfectly anticipated” the negative effects of our now media generation including video games and discs, cable etc. McLuhan describes television as “the ultimate depth experience because the viewer had to participate fully in creating the image.” (Edmundson)

            The second generation of the ‘media explosion’ includes video games. The pace of it is swift and there are levels to beat, you can and will get ultra involved in what is going on. “He and the game become, temporarily, one self-contained unit.” (Edmundson) These days you can do everything with a video game, Nintendo’s Wii has also made it possible to work out with the video game, hence giving you no reason to virtually ever interact with the outside world. It’s kind of scary when you are taking fitness advice from a computer…right?

Edmundson, Mark. McLuhan: It's All Going According to Marshall's Plan. Channels. (May-June, 1984) pp. 49 - 54.

Business Week. Reaching The Simultaneous Media Multitasking Consumers http://images.businessweek.com/ss/05/12/bestideas/image/mmedia.jpg             

 

Through the Ages...The EPS Cycle

Elitist-popular-specialized (EPS cycle) refers to the media progression cycle that was first developed by mass-communication scholars named John Merrill and Ralph Lowenstein. In the year 1971 they pointed out to the rest of us that all media develop in three stages.

         

 technology that has undergone the EPS stage is the IPOD. The IPOD is a small device that can hold hundreds to thousands of songs at a time. I recall when the first IPOD came out, it was publicized but not many people owned one because it was new and very expensive. It went though the first step of the cycle the ELITIST

 STAGE. “Elite were people whose lives revolved around fine art, literature, and classical music.” (Wilson) The Elite have to have everything new and can afford it, so of course the better version of the ‘walkman’ …yeah remember those...would be extremely appealing! So the IPOD had its glitches but overwhelmingly the public responded to this new form of listening to music. This is when the IPOD entered the POPULAR STAGE. Now everyone had to have one of these hand held little guys so of course Apple developed many new and different versions of it that ranged in price so that everyone could have one. You have the IPOD shuffle, which holds only up to 100 songs for $50.00… but how many do you really need? And then you can get the higher gig IPODS, which can set you, back more than $400.00. “Pop culture is our mai

nstream culture; it encompasses all the objects, customs, fads, and activities we take for granted.” (Wilson) It is a true statement to say that in pop-culture that we take things for granted, and that we are almost expected to own a certain item such as an IPOD…think. Who do you know that doesn’t own one of these brightly colored music holders? And last but not least is the SPECIALIZED STAGE. The specialization of the item is the last thing to happen, and if you ask me it continues on for a while. Items such as IPODS are always getting bigger and better! (In the case of the IPOD smaller…but you get my analogy J ) but the truth is that items like IPODS become staple items to own and you start to feel almost ‘

naked’ without it. So companies like apple realize that they need to make them a household item so they keep making them better and better. Ask yourself this ultimate question. How many people walk around the gym WITHOUT an IPOD? 

Wilson, Le Roy Stan. Culture and Communication: Basic Concepts.  New York: McGraw Hill, 1994. pp 3 - 21.

Electronic Mega Store: http://sarah18.learnerblogs.org/files/2008/04/100million-ipods1.gif

Sarahs learners Blog: http://www.electronic-megastore.com/images/brands/ipods.jpg