Brette's Blog

Final Question - what do I like most about my newfound media lit

          Coming into this class, I had no idea what it was about. I didn’t know what I’d be learning, or what I’d be doing. Now, I am here at 8 am for the final, and I can’t help but wonder how I have been using a computer without the knowledge I have now learned from this class. The three things I like most about my newfound media literacy are the programs I was introduced to, the tools I learned, and my better understanding of media in society.

          The first thing that I liked the most about my newfound media literacy was the programs/technologies I was introduced to. I had never heard of Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Design, or Adobe Flash before this class. I had never heard of tumblr or virtual worlds, I never knew how useful reuters.com could be, and I had never seen marist ilearn before. All of this not only helped me in this class, but has set me up for my future classes. Ilearn is supposed to be better than elearn, and will probably be the new way teachers do online teaching. I already have a handle on that before anyone else. Also, learning a little bit about virtual worlds here actually helped me to write a huge research paper on it for another class. Finally, the Adobe programs have helped most of all, being that I am an Advertising, art, and design major, I need use those programs anyway, and it’s good that i learned them now.

          The second thing I liked the most about my newfound media literacy was the tools I learned how to use. Besides being introduced to the programs, this was the most beneficial. All the Adobes, including photoshop, were extremely beneficial because I use them in other classes. I had never done anything with these programs so all the tutorials we did was really great, especially the ones on the Adobe flash. I also learned how to use my flash drive believe it or not, in class class. That was pretty beneficial, seeing how I live off it now. I was also introduced to different tools on the web, and Ilearn as well. One of the most important things I learned was turning my Adobe artwork/classwork/animations, into pdfs, gifs, etc., and putting them on the web. That was extremely useful for me, and I have since been able to help other people with their own problems about how to do that.

         The last thing I liked most about my newfound media literacy is a new understanding for media in society. Out of all my communication classes, this explains it the best. I knew technologies affected our society before going into this class, but I didn’t understand to what extent. With this class, my newfound media literacy really grew. With all the videos we watched, the artwork we looked at, and the clips, commercials, and games we played, all helped to stretch my outlook on how society really is. The terms we learned, like scopophilia, repression, reification, etc., help me not only in this class but in my actual major. I will never forget the first class we had, and we looked at pictures of models, discussed their age, and how it is beneficial to advertising. This is extremely helpful to me because again, I’m an advertising major and this class really opened my eyes to things going on in the media world that I have never seen before. Even all the videos, like the Freud one and the Hitler one, are so interesting because they impacted society at that time, and still do today. Every movie, art piece, commercial, ad, game, etc., affects society differently, but they are all relavent. We have completely transformed the way we live, and what I have gotten from this class is that in the next few years, we will become totally dependent (if we aren’t already) on electronics and technology, and perhaps turned our society into a Big Brother sort of thing (if it isn’t already). I used to try to keep my head the dirt about what goes on in the world, but this class really showed me how it’s changing, and really helps me to understand society better.

               The three things I like most about my newfound media literacy are the programs/technologies I was introduced to, the tools I learned, and my better understanding of society. Whether it helps me directly, such as learning tools, or just broadens my view of the world, all of these things really impacted my life, and helped me to become more media literate. Understanding media is an incredible thing, and something I can now say I’m better at, if not good at. I’m very appreciative for this class, because it has been extremely benificial to me. Thanks for a great class, and hopefully I will see you in another class in the future!

glamour

When I think of glamour, I think of high fashion, couture, bright lights big city. I think of the makeup store Sephora, and I think of the show Sex and the City. East coast glamour is high end clothes that are preppy looking, and west coast is expensive dresses and tans.

However, after watching this movie, I’ve realized more and more that there is a dark side to glamour. This involves back stabbing, and making bad things look chic, like cigarettes and drugs, much like the look in fashion coined “heroine chic.” All glamour boils down to is money, the more the better. At least, contemporary glamour is this way. There used to be such thing as old glamour, with stars that just portrayed an air of classiness and sophistication. That is what old glamour used to be. It was about being classy.

Glamour today, much like in the movie we saw, is about quick, dirty money. It’s about living a rich lifestyle, but  not necessarily a classy one. For instance, the well known Paris Hilton. In today’s day and age, she is considered glamourous. However, she is probably the most trashy, disgusting individual I have seen in a long time. She is completely classless, and a far stretch from the days of Jackie O’Nasis or Princess Diana. The main character in the movie completely (for lack of a better term) whored himself for more money and fame. That is what glamour is today. It’s about being sexy, powerful and rich, minus being sophisticated. A decent example of this is in the Great Gatsby. Even though the Old riches came from money, they were much classier than Gatsby, who was a “nuevo rich,” and just spent his money on things like big parties and stuff to make him look better. He in actuality was a bootlegger. This is how I feel glamour is portrayed today: a disgusting, classless game where people will step on anyone to get more fame and power.

APlayer - brick

You can use this brick:

paperweight

doorstopper

to grow plants in (out of the holes)

to surround a firepit

to build a well

something to sit on

an anchor for a tarp

pathways

fence

a weight in general

 decoration

adobe flash player, a

Collective desires

  At first I didn’t really understand this assignment, but the more I thought about it, the more I think I understand. I know probably the more common fears that are written about are terrorist attacks, 9/11, war, bush as president, etc. Honestly though? I think the biggest fear that plagues many, many Americans is the fear of being different and being alienated. Our collective desires as Americans it to just fit in and be normal. Perhaps you are thinking this is completely untrue, because America is all about diversity, and people are free to be who they are. But from what I have seen and experienced in my life, people hate to be looked at as weird, different, or strange. This can go from personalities, looks, habits, education, etc. Not only that, but you can get this fear from just thinking about doing something that people might react strangely to. For example, my brother stopped playing the flute when he was younger because he got teased for it and made fun of. He could have been really good, but it was that fear of being different that drove him to quit.

People can always find a flaw in someone else, and when these flaws are brought to the attention of others, it can be an excruciatingly painful experience. Think back to your memories in elementary school, middle school, high school, maybe even college. Wasn’t there always that stinky kid, the weird kid, the smart kid, the not-so-smart kid, the fat kid, etc? Maybe you were one of those kids. I’m trying to be as honest as I can hear, and I know that I excluded and alienated kids in the past based on these kinds of qualities, and I’m sure you have too. I also have been the kid who has been alienated and felt that no one liked me. It’s probably the worst feeling in the world.

         If you are reading this and are saying you have never experienced this kind of fear, you are either lying to yourself, or have had an extremely blessed life. Do you know what the main reason is for people committing suicide? Loneliness, and feeling out of place in society. That’s also the leading cause in depression. America has put this image into our brains of what we are all supposed to emobody: the perfect brain, the perfect body, the perfect clothes, etc. If you can’t fit that mold, then it’s hard to fit in, which can have devestating effects. I know that if you looked in the halls of my high school right now, probably 90% of the kids will look like they fell out of an American Eagle Ad. Why? Because that’s what the “in” look is. We have placed celebrities and this idealistic image so high on a pedestal it’s hard for many people out there to ever be able to reach it. You know, and I know, that feeling like an oddball isn’t always a good feeling. You too have probably felt fear of this at some point in your life, even if you don’t want to admit it. This above anything else, I think is one of the biggest fears of our nation: the fear of being different and alienated. Our collective desire is to just be viewed as normal.

             If I had to briefly write about a hero in our culture right now, believe it or not, i would pick Britney Spears. I know this probably seems like a crazy choice, but I have my reasons. Firstly, this girl is living her crazy right out on her sleeve. She is showing the world that the “perfect” life isn’t always so perfect, and that even these stars can have breakdowns too. People who are having issues in their lives can look at her right now, and not to sound cruel, but almost feel better about themselves, not because she is a wreck, but because they can maybe see that they aren’t so different. That maybe, life isn’t perfect for everyone else, and that other people struggle. Maybe, through this one girl’s very public breakdown, others can see that there is no normal, and that everyone is different. She’s definitely a tragic hero, but a hero nonetheless. Ironically, Britney Spears can be shown as being heroic for being so crazy. Who would have thought?

The Freud Video

This video overall was very interesting, but what struck me the most was in the beginning about Edward Bernays. First of all, I think it’s amazing that this famous opera singer happened to be Freud’s nephew. It’s strange to think that a famous psychoanalyst and an incredibly famous opera singer are related. Anyway, what was most fascinating about this is how Bernays used Freud to almost control what people thought. Bernays manipulated the human psyche to make money. The “torches of freedom” idea astounds me. I think its amazing how he took one taboo (women not being able to smoke), and turned it into a phenomenon. Although it’s creepy to think that this idea is about women challenging men’s power by gaining their own penis (the cigarette), it’s still amazing because it worked. Even in today’s media, cigarettes are still mostly targeted towards women. They have a new brand out, entitled Camel number 9’s, that come in a pink and black box, and the cigarette itself has pretty blue lining on the paper. When you see shows like America’s next top model, or other fashion shows, cigarettes still play a dominant part. It’s just completely fascinating to see how the human psyche can be manipulated into wanting things it might not necessarily want. Bernays definitely proved this.