Extra Credit Blog Post

            I’m a huge fan of blogs whether it’s a sports blog or music blog and I’ve always wanted to have my own blog, but this is the first time I’ve written my own blog. I thought the blogs were highly beneficial in regards to this course because they were a deviation from the boring and conventional papers from other classes. Also I thought using blogs introduced everybody to another media outlet if they had never used blogs before.

            When we were originally asked to embed pictures and links into the blogs themselves, I had no idea what that meant. Luckily, we could just paste the pictures and links into the blogs themselves.

            My favorite blog post was the “All in the Family” blog post because I thought it was different than most of the other blog posts.  I thought most of the blog posts were very similar in that most of them were to create your own definition of a concept, describe your new definition, the definition given in lecture, and than relate your definition to an example. The blog post on the studio system, the blog post on the radio industry in the 1920s, the blog post on the TV sitcom, and multiple other blog posts match up to that same structure. I would make the blog prompts more diverse in the coming years.

            I would recommend the blogs in the future because the course name was Introduction to Media Studies and through using the blogs; I was introduced into using an alternate media outlet. I think using the blogs makes students more interested in the class because they are more interactive than writing papers. Also, having to write a blog every week makes students be aware of what’s going on during the lectures rather than writing a paper where a student didn’t need to show up to class.

            Yes, you can use my blog in a paper or report. 

Globalization

Globalization is the advancement of technology that causes the world to seem smaller by allowing the flow of ideas, cultures, ideologies, etc.  to spread throughout the world.

In regards to cultural imperialism, this flow of cultural ideas is heavily unbalanced which causes certain ideologies to become more common around the world. Western culture is usually the dominant flow of ideas, with Hollywood having the majority control of the movie industry and most of the global media conglomerates being based in Western nations.

One of the biggest culture flows comes from the Disney conglomerate. Disney is stationed in California and through its dominance has spread throughout the entire world. Disney has produced huge animation blockbusters that have had popularity overseas. Also, through its amusement parks in the United States, other Disney amusement parks have popped up around the world. Disney’s ownership of networks, has had more influence overseas.

                                 photo taken from http://www.ststours.ca/cms_images/Disney%20Castle.jpg

Call of Duty

This ad is an advertisement for the new video game Call of Duty: Black Ops. The commercial starts with regular everyday people in their regular everyday clothes fighting in a war-zone. Then Kobe Bryant and Jimmie Kimmel make cameos as their everyday persona fighting as soldiers. It shows everybody enjoying being a soldier and participating in the fighting. The commercial then ends with the caption, “There’s a soldier in all of us.”

http://www.youtube.com/user/CALLOFDUTY?v=Pblj3JHF-Jo&feature=pyv&ad=7219472852&kw=call%20of%20duty%20commercial

video taken from youtube.com

To me, this commercial was very effective because I got to see one of my favorite athletes in the commercial to promote an awesome looking video game. Also, I thought the fact that the advertisement showed everyday people fighting made it relatable to the normal person.

One of the main advertisement appeals in the ad was a human tendency toward aggression and dominance. Human beings have pent up aggression or a desire to get out their violent, primal urges which goes hand-in-hand with a physiological need to be dominant. In this ad, we see normal everyday people getting out their violent side by pretending to be a soldier. People can see themselves in this role and therefore would want to buy the game.

Also, I thought this commercial played on a really entertaining aesthetic presentation. The commercial showed people shooting, grenades exploding, etc. so it was very pleasing to watch. Consumers will be more willing to buy a video game that is visually pleasing. I also thought that the celebrity cameos would make this product more successful because people always like to see their favorite celebrities in advertisements.