Chapter 13: 'Cause it's the law!

While watching the group presentations last week, I saw that one movie that depicted the protesters here at BYU and was kind of in schock at the free speech they had hindered. They were merely expressing their dislike for the speaker coming for graduation, and yet, they were told to be in a "free speech" zone. If I were the admin, which I'm sadly not, I would tell them they can protest where they feel, as long as they are non-violent.

One time at high school, my friend Adam wore a shirt that said, "I'm a gangsta of love." And it had a heart on it. The admin told him to cover up the "gangsta" part. So he duct taped over that part, even though everyone who knows the old cliche phrase knows exactly what was under it. Free speech was ridiculously hindered here. I honestly wouldn't care if he wore the shirt, it makes no difference to how the school day goes. However, our admin was very adiment about there being no "gang-affiliated" clothing worn throughout the day.

Chapter 12: PR

Public relations practices are somewhat ethical. Keeping a public image is a good thing and basically the reason PR exists. However, the extent to which they do this can be a little shady. If a PR consultant tells a celebrity like Jessica Simpson that she needs to be seen kissing a baby wearing a Cowboys jersey to show her love for her boyfriend's job, that's a little extreme. But for a PR consultant to tell her she needs to stop going to games so people stop hating her for ruining games, that's not so extreme. Because every time she's at a game, you see the camera clip to her at some point. People lose faith in the Cowboys at that point.

There aren't as many or as extreme cases of press agentry as was in the time of P.T. Barnum, but cases still exists. Especially in diet pills. There are so many little schemes saying if you take these pills, you'll lose 20 pounds. But here's the kicker, they include a little diet plan with the pills. They say for one day, for breakfast, you should have a piece of toast, lunch should be a ham sandwich, a snack in between, and dinner should be a salad. OF COURSE YOU'LL LOSE WEIGHT DOING THAT! Ridiculous!

Another example is the Bowflex. When guys see other guys RIPPED, they think this isn't hard. However, what they don't say is these other men diet and work ridiculously hard at the same time.

Chapter 11: Advertising (Part 2)

Advertising's effectiveness is debatable, but I still think that they are effective. Case in point, Quizno's. Restaurant's generally excell in advertisements because they emphasize the melting cheese, toasted bread, and hot and scrumptious meat. Quizno's is exceptionally good at this because they show the food as it rolls out of the oven.

Another great example is Nike. Sure, most of the time their ads are pretty unrelated, but the way they approach what they're advertising is phenomenal. Recently, the advertisement with LeBron James is quite impressive and entertaining as he and others throw dust everywhere in monochrome.


However, sometimes, I have noticed very ineffective ads. Old Spice's ads where all the girls are turned on by this old guy is just disgusting. Who would like that ad? Are they trying to say Old Spice can turn girls on no matter what? Gross....

Chapter 11: Advertising (Part 1)

So as for my ads I found, I want to start with the ones I think were ineffective. First, here's this one from Levi. All they really do to advertise their new line of jeans is state what it takes to make an average pair. I mean yes, it is kind of interesting to know, but would that actually prompt me to buy these jeans? No.

Now, just to approach something I saw that was pretty funny, this next one is from Burger King, and I think it's pretty effective. It shows a woman's mouth with bandages on both corners implying that she cut her mouth wider just to eat the burger. I like this cause it approaches women, who are stereotyped to only eating salads, as people who can also have monstrous hamburgers.

This next one is from a group who I think have always either tried too hard to get an ad across or completely failed altogether. This is a great example. This Axe ad says that because Obama wears Axe, Hillary Clinton now supports Obama. WOW. How bad of an ad! They aren't really hitting a target audience, they aren't really getting a valid message across that could make someone buy their product, it's just not a good ad overall.

Finally, this ad by HP is pretty good. They address the personalization offered by HP by relating it to clothes that you wear every day. Plus, it shows a really cool design on the laptop itself. It hits the target audience and its concerns, they relate it to the audience, and prompt me personally to buy an HP laptop.

Chapter 9: TV

So, over the past week of television viewing, I've noticed quite a few things. The first being that I'm a sports fanatic. Every day after lunch, I come home and watch OTL on ESPN. EVERY DAY. Why? Because they keep me up to date on sports news like how Plaxico Burress is probably never going to play football again or what the NFL playoffs are going to look like. So after a good nap that I'm usually in desperate need of, I check what's on TBS and normally, Everybody Loves Raymond or The King of Queens is on. I love these two sitcoms. I normally have work after this so the only night I actually watch ANYTHING on primetime is Thursday night. And I love my Thursday nights! The Office and 30 Rock are always on Thursday nights in our apartment. We even have a few friends over most Thursday nights and order pizza. Sunday nights usually have good movies on TBS or TNT or even CBS so sometimes I'll catch a movie Sunday night.

From this account, I've learned that the larger scale of television is for entertainment. Television is normally an escape for people. That's why news on the big stations like ABC and CBS comprise maybe 3 hours of each day. Of course there is CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News, but they're viewing audience is more specialized than with most stations that try to hit a larger scope. So this is the fulfillment of need, to entertain and make us laugh. Without humorous programming, TV would be pretty bleak and unentertaining.

I think that as of late, television stations have started to imply less stress on appealing to the LCD. Television stations are more interested in getting ratings so they will intentionally push to envelope. Take a look at South Park, one of the most offensive shows on TV. However, it still gets high ratings each week. They know that if they try hard enough to get a laugh out of each and every member of their audience, they will offend someone, but they'll get numbers for it. Take a look The Office too. Most people don't think of the office as an offensive program. But there are some jokes and quips that COULD offend some people. Racial jokes, stereotypes, etc., could offend someone. And The Office is one of the highest rated shows on TV right now. Again, they try to make everyone laugh and get great ratings for it.

I agree that television impacts society the most. When a child does something outlandish that makes it onto the news, the first thing that's blamed by the parents or news is television. They say that the kid observed this behavior on television so they absorbed this behavior. I'm not agreeing or disagreeing with the notion that every bit of offensive behavior kids do is from TV, but I will say that the acknowledgment that this is a possibility shows that television is incredibly influential on our society. People pick up catch phrases from tv, they want to look like someone on tv, they want to use a product that a character on tv does just because that character does. For example, Coke is used in practically every American Idol episode because Simon, Randy, and Paula always have a cup of it right next to them. So yes, television has had the largest impact on our society as far as the media goes.

Chapter 8: Lights, Camera, Action

Ah the beauty of the art we call movies. Many of us go to movies on a regular basis but are often ignorant of some of the content we see. As said in many instances, and this is true especially of movies. Take a look at most of the recent blockbuster hits. The most notable that is overloaded with sexual content is "Zach and Miri Make a Porno." 10 years ago, this kind of a movie wouldn't have even been heard of allowed in theaters. However, our society has become overly accepting of sexual content in theaters. Over time, we allowed more and more to be in theaters and so we become practically ignorant of the plethora of content displayed before our eyes at the theaters.

Violence is pretty similar. In fact, there's more violent content in theaters than sexual content. The huge hit over the summer, "The Dark Knight," was laced with violence in every scene. Granted, it was a superhero movie and practically should have violence, but the infamous "Magic Pencil Trick" and the Joker's sadistic nature further epitomizes the violence that we've grown to accept. Even in "childrens" movies, violence is a little heavier than what it was just 5-10 years ago.

Why is this? Why have these two possibly psychologically harmful actions been displayed in theaters so much more? Producers can get away with it now. They've gradually started to increase the level of each content over time so that we as a society eventually accept more. If they were to blatantly throw a ton more sexual content at us, we wouldn't accept it or allow it. But sense they gradually build to it, we're somewhat ok with it.

That being said, as a movie producer, I would make a drama. One of my favorite kinds of movies are the ones that make you feel like a loathsome piece of garbage and then make you feel better at the end of the movie like "Hotel Rwanda" and "The Pursuit of Happyness." So, I'd try to get some amazing actors and actresses, like George Clooney, Denzel Washington, maybe Merryl Streep, and create a story of inspiration and a desire in the future audience to improve upon themselves.

My idea would be that someone would be well off, they wouldn't have everything, but they'd have enough, and something big happens to them. Perhaps George Clooney gets in a car accident and can never walk again. Unfortunately for him, his spouse, Merryl Streep doesn't know how to cope with this new lifestyle so she divorces him, Clooney's job requires him to be more active, and he starts to lose money and a will to live because of these changes. He becomes an alcoholic, extremely poor, and starts to lose all hope of anything turning around. While at a bar, he meets Denzel Washington who's climbing out of a hole similar to George's. Denzel helps him turn his life around because he's been through a similar experience. George soon finds a job more suited to his new lifestyle, he gets money to keep his house, and he does it all while handicapped. And the title? "In An Instant"

Chapter 6: Newspapers

Many metropolitan newspapers have lost circulation and some have shut down. My guess is that this is a resul of the rise of the internet. When people wake up in the morning, do they go buy a newspaper to get the breaking stories? No, they read their tickers on their home pages and even get text alerts about news. NY Times is almost completely online now! Online is simply easier. Plus, metro papers, as big as they think they are, are still localized papers. The New York Times will still cover the Jets. The L.A. Times will still cover the Chargers and some people want to see more than that.

I got a copy of the Salt Lake Tribune. The balance between hard news and soft news is pretty far off. Apparently, they enjoy the optimistic and fluffy side of journalism as opposed to what I like to call reality! Admittedly, section A of the paper is mostly devoted to hard news stories. The rest is just fluff.

This tells me that people care more for entertainment than real life. Granted, we are in a pretty crappy time right now, but the newspaper shouldn't be the outlet for emotional release. The newspaper should be where the facts are.

Chapter 7: The Spirit of the Radio

As stated by the great band Rush, The Spirit of the Radio is basically the life force to our everyday. "Off on your way/ hit the open road/ There is magic at your fingers/ For the spirit ever lingers/ Undemanding contact/In your happy solitude." So music fills our day. And Utah's radio stations prove this.

I've discovered that Utahn's are HUGE Rush fans. 94.9 ZRock is pretty broad in it's coverage of rock. From Disturbed to Simple Plan to Rush, everything's there. That being said, the target audience is probably 18-35 white males. I base this off of my personal knowledge that the station is pretty broad, so I may even venture to say 45 year olds too depending on their preference of classic rock. The format is basically straight music and then a big chunk of commercials. Pretty smart actually because they,being the audience, get their fill and then they get a spot of ads. The ads were also pretty broad; concert ads, restaurant ads, I even heard a few ads about Thanksgiving Point and their Halloween festivities. One great example is of the new 20 acre corn maze. Don't remember where unfortunately, but it sounded like a lot of fun.

97.5 is also a rock station called the Blaze. Theirs is less broad though. It's more alternative and heavy rock centered more around bands like Tool, Puddle of Mudd, and Breaking Benjamin. Target audience is most likely 14-25 male. This one has a lot less advertising. A little more preferred in my opinion because then I get more of the loved music. The ads were also more specific. Like smoking shops, tattoo shops, the underbelly of SLC essentially. Successful at targeting the audience? Yes.

93.3 is KBUL, the local favorite country station. So basically, all the new country is covered like Taylor Swift, Rascal Flatts, Carrie Underwood, Kenny Chesney, etc. The target on this is VERY broad. 14-60 male and female. This one has a little bit too much advertising. REALLY odd format. Like, it's a surprise when they play 5 songs in a row. They advertise a lot! Yoasis, albums, and this Green Tea store in the mall just for examples.

The local sports radio, 1280 The Zone, is basically amazing. Formatted in the style of all great sports radio stations, big games are always covered. Especially the BYU games. Little advertising goes on during these games, but they make up for it when the games aren't on. They pack their station with ads when the games aren't on. Ultramax (a dietary supplement), Thermarest, Sleep Number beds, and other things all get their two cents in on The Zone. Pretty successful idea in that most people listen to sports radio on big game days. Like the World Series, big football games, etc.

KSL 1160 AM is like half news, half mormon tabernacle choir. NO JOKE. Kind of annoying to be honest because it's very intermittent and unspecified times. Somewhat interruptive, but it's okay because they make up for it with talk. Sean Hannity, Allen Colmes, Dr. Laura, all of them very professional, very opinionated people who are broadcasted on this station. And they also endorse products like virus protection software, herbal remedies are big with Dr. Laura, and get thin quick schemes. They also press their books a lot, Dr. Laura being a great example. The target audience on this is huge, I'd have to say 18+. It's targeted most of the time, but again, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir is a bit deterring from the main theme.

***Radio is probably the most personal because there are actual personalities on the radio. The morning crew of any station is fun, comedic, and incredibly entertaining. And it's so personal because you can call in and talk to them. Music is key because it's basically our escape. EVERYONE LOVES MUSIC. Music is so broad in its offering that it can encite and subdue any emotion.

Talk radio was something I didn't understand until I was 13 when I listened with my dad in the mornings when he drove me to school 20 minutes away. I realized that opinions can be excessively one-sided. And I enjoyed that! I loved hearing opinions (may be why I'm going into print) and talk radio gave me that. So I think it's that since of actually hearing about others is what drives us to talk radio.

Chapter 5: Magazines

So... for this blog, I went to a Barne's and Noble and looked at magazines I wouldn't read in a million years. Sports Illustrated? Nah, I have to renew my subscription for that one anyways. Time? Nope, read it occasionally. Car and Driver? Anyone who would say yes to this for me doesn't know me well at all. Eventually, my eyes fell upon an Us Weekly; the glorification of celebs and every minute of their lives. The complete opposite of what I care about! Great to use!

How to describe the basic reader? Well, age 16-30, female, not a busy person, involved more in lives of celebrities and how to imitate them, and, it may be a stretch, insecure. Note, that probably is a stretch, but there were a lot of ads about self help and beauty help. I drew this conclusion based on a few things. The language used: cute, romantic, sizzling, diva-licious, is suggestive of a feminine connotation. Plus, the over use bright colors is suggestive of an attempt to draw a younger audience. This magazine, and maybe it's just me, was quite a read to complete. So to do this, the reader must have a true dedication to the lives of celebs. So much was about unbelievably ridiculous things. A whole 3 pages were dedicated to an ad for Nuvaring. Again, an example of the audience is mostly female. As far as the imitation piece goes, they bash style so much, that if a woman were to be caught wearing something deemed as "not hot," they would be mocked for a while and vice versa.

Electronic media has impacted magazines in one HUGE way. Subscriptions. Magazines have become more reliant on advertising because with online sites, they can get their information there instead of waiting for it to arrive in the mail. This is huge. But aside from that, I see little more impact.

Chapter 4: Books

Most people I'd interviewed had read more than one book in the last 6 months. Only a few, like three, had read one or fewer books over the past 6 months. 6 of them had read some part of the Twilight Series and other Fantasy and fiction novels that are well known. Such as Harry Potter. I think this says that the sample I took reads what other people read. So the New York Times Bestseller list plays a huge factor in my selection. I think this also shows people tend to read what other people say is good. Rarely will people pull out a random book from the shelf because they think it looks good. They buy what everyone else buys.

No matter what, I prefer the actual books as opposed to e-books. I've never bought an e-book, but my mom once bought an audiobook version of the first Harry Potter book. I HATED IT SO MUCH. Plus, there's a sort of sentimental value in actual books. You can actually hold a real book. It's tangible. You can give it to friends, family members, and anyone you want. You can mark it up, highlight, do whatever you want with it. But e-books, you can't give them to people, you can't hold them, and reading them actually hurts your eyes badly. So I think books are easily better than e-books.

Stereotypes exist? People over-immersing themselves in media? Never!

So, you think stereotypes exist in the media? OF COURSE THEY DO! Take for example the popular show Scrubs. One of the characters, Turk, is a black doctor. He's often reminded of this both by friends and even strangers. For example, one of his coworkers, Dr. Cox, thinks that he doesn't have "the heart of a black man" because he listens to Michael Bolton, has a nerdy white best friend, and has a mexican wife. So, to prove him wrong, Turk attempts to show Dr. Cox his skills in basketball, but fails. He also argues that the minivan his wife is making him buy will be pimped out with 22s, spinners and hydraulics.

Another brilliant example is the amazing movie Coach Carter. Though it's not necessarily (probably) intended as a stereotype, the tall black guy is the best player on the team. Then, the one white guy on the team is a back-up. A benchwarmer. Plus, they throw a bunch of stereotypes about teenagers in that I think were intended to relate to people. Which is basically the point of stereotypes.

Stereotypes are present everywhere. Often, they're there for humor or entertainment. However, they can be accidental as well. When they're accidental, they're often offensive. And even though apologies can be made, the stereotype still exists.

Facebook. The epitome of the idea that people immerse themselves in mass media. People base a lot on how people react to facebook. Say I were to leave a sarcastic remark on someone's wall, which I often. I'm a sarcastic person. But, maybe someone took my remark the wrong way. It may not have even been the person I was addressing. The other party could spread ugly rumors about me and not even ask me what really happened because they're so IMMERSED in facebook.

Chapter 1: The communication model

In the communications model, there is a sender who encodes his/her/its message to the receiver through a channel. The message is then decoded and the receiver gives feedback. Noise is anything that disrupts the flow of the message or feedback to and/or from the sender and receiver. Every medium in communications utilizes each component well.

Newspapers: To begin, the reporter is the sender in that he/she writes the article that is published in the newspaper. The process of writing the article is also the encoding process of te model. The newspaper is the channel through which the message, aka the article, is sent. The newspaper is then sent out to houses and vending machines everywhere where receivers, also known as avid readers of the newspaper, then decode the message by reading the article. They may or may not give feedback by writing to the editor or emailing the reporter. The noise in this process could be a variety of things, such as a bad mood which prevents reading without a suspicion of bias AGAINST anything you think, literal noise which makes reading difficult, or even a friend who has an opposing viewpoint on what you're reading.

Here's an example: A reporter for the Daily Herald writes an opinionated article on the most recent BYU win saying BYU is the best, period. The article is then published in the Herald and sent out to readers everywhere. BYU fans welcome this article with open arms and U of U fans feel differently. BYU fans email the reporter, heralding his story, while U of U fans detest the article. Some BYU fans have friends at U of U and create noise between each other and make the article less receptive because it causes tension.

Magazines: virtually identical to newspapers. A Sports Illustrated reporter puts out an article in the issue every week. Lets say one article claims that the Broncos are Super Bowl-bound. (doubt it) He submits the article, the article is first criticized by his editor who is a Raiders fan. However, the article is distributed to loyal readers. Soon, Broncos fans everywhere email this writer calling him a hero. Raiders fans are moderately offended by the article, even though their team is bad too. However, this causes controversy, goes to SportsCenter, and the reporter goes on, causing him to take a long time before checking most of his emails.

Radio: Lets use Rush Limbaugh, one of the most liked and hated radio personalities. He (the sender) goes on the radio (channel) everyday to profess (encode) his ideas and views on politics (message). However, he only comes on AM channels (noise) and some people never hear him. However, those who do (receivers) often have different takes on what he says (decoding). The liberals encode a message as hateful while, usually, conservatives are welcoming the message. Both parties want to call the radio station. However, friends and family advise against it because they think he or she will make a fool of themself (noise). Some eventually call (feedback) and Rush interprets messages as he chooses (decoding). And the process begins all over again.

TV: NBC airs the Office (sender) every thursday night. Channel 5 for us in the Heritage Halls dorms is NBC (channel). Not that it will, but let's just say the Office is changing to Tuesday nights (encoding). They send out the message through commercials. Some don't receive the message because they have fuzzy signals, they change the channel during ads, or they simply ignore commercials (noise) Office fans (receivers) decode it differently. Some think it's for one reason, some think it's for another. They send feedback to the network through emails, forums, etc. Not every email is read (noise) and not every message is received. They decode the feedback negatively and keep the time slot on thursday.

I think it works more efficiently for radio programs because of how direct the feedback can be and is. Radio personalities will change the course of their program based solely on an angry phone call. That alone makes the model work better because the message can be encoded and decoded more efficiently.

Informing: Newspapers. Look on the front page of any newspaper, and what do you see? NEWS. ALWAYS NEWS. Yes, there are other sections. But newspapers always start with the news.

Entertaining: TV. With hundreds of channels to suit any taste, It's fairly obvious that entertainment in any form is the goal of tv. ESPN, OLN, Oxygen, Spike, USA Network, all of these networks are pretty specialized. So TV is the most specialized in entertainment.

Persuading: Radio and TV. When listening to radio or watching TV, the power of someone's voice is a definite factor in how well they're persuaded. For example, Obama is a powerful orator and has persuaded many people to his side. However, so is Rush Limbaugh and he's hazed many of these "sheep" as he calls them with his powerful language.