Blog Post 6; R&R

Whitney Huston is a name that happens to be all over the place the past couple of days. If you did not know who this American singer was before Saturday February 11, 2012 I think it’s safe to say you do now. A vast majority of media forms are currently covering her “tragic” death. I put tragic in quotation marks because it is a matter of opinion. While, some news forms may promote this event as tragic, others simply cover it as another news story.

I watched a news report on Whitney Huston on two completely different network news stations to compare and contrast how different or, alike they would turn out to be. The two news stations were CNN and Aljazeera English. While there is not a sense of political bias or even international bias in either one of these stations, Aljazeera was insurmountably more biased then CNN.

CNN did a rather impressive job of using agenda setting. Where they did in fact tell us what to think about, they did not tell us how to think about it. Where the counter news network Aljazeera clearly used emotion dimension a lot. This is when feelings are created by the media message(s). Aljazeera was extremely biased in their coverage of Huston. They even created bias within our nation implying that her death hit harder in New Jersey were she was born, and Los Angeles where she died. Therefore, implying further that elsewhere in the country was not hit as hard.

Finally, CNN reported her death. Plain and simple, that is what they did. They told the public what happened, to who, when, and where. They also gave a brief overview of her life and her accomplishments. They did not, make Huston out to be somebody she wasn’t, more important or “loved” then she really was. They told the truth. The only thing the two networks had in common they both said who, what, when, and where. Both omitted why due to lack of information and both gave an overview of her life and accomplishments. In complete contrast, Aljazeera completely glorified her life, in her death. They subliminally told you to feel sad, to feel the loss. They made her up to be way more important to the American public then she was.

To summarize, both versions for the coverage on Houston’s death start relatively the same way. The do this by simply outlining her death, details of the discovery on the body, information regarding her current status as an artist at the time of her death, and finally possible input from fellow musicians and individuals associated with her. In both versions you find many quotes of “She was a wonderful artist, and a friend”, “She will be greatly misses” and so on. However, after the facts are spilled, differences arise. CNN’s version goes into a retrospect of Houston’s life, explaining the many hit singles and her added success as an actress; while briefly mentioning her destructive, drug-filled relationship with the infamous Bobby Brown. On the other hand, Aljazeera’s version proceeds to go into a relatively large section explaining how Houston had been partying and drinking heavily the night before her body was discovered. TMZ, a gossip site notorious for exploiting the personal lives of popular celebrities, is cited numerous times as the main source of this information. In conclusion TMZ is nowhere to be found in CNN’s version.

My final assessment? CNN did a much better job covering the story, while Aljazeera  fed the story. They used the media to get more attention and lengthened out the story with bias views. They were untrue and too opinionated. I want to know the details, not what they think I felt of her. Yes, she was a great singer, many liked her but she was not as liked as they portrayed. To end with I’ll state how utterly shocked I was to see how different, and how bias or unbiased two stations could be when covering the same story. A true eye opener.

Downloading Music Illegally

 

In today’s society no one person gives much thought to the idea of downloading music illegally. However, the bigger picture says that we should. This is a matter of fun gone too far, when does it become too much? When does it become ethically wrong? Since, it is already legally wrong.

            Though it is illegal many people still download music instead of paying for it. Many downloaders’ don’t see the big issue; as long as someone is paying for it the artist is still getting paid. Many also believe that just one song isn’t a big deal, and it is “easy and free” for them, especially the largest amount of downloader’s like teenagers. However, they fail to think about Kant’s categorical perspective. If each individual who sought out music from the internet downloaded albums without paying, how would the artist stay in business? Kant believes practical reasoning is how to approach an issue, instead of empirical means.

             Today the arguments on illegally downloading music are not new. However, many points should be taken into account when forming your own argument or point of view on the matter. Therefore, another view is posed by Aristotle. He bore the idea of ethics as a subject. Furthermore, his philosophy concerning moral virtue and character while posed years ago still fit well in today’s society. This is because they revolve around what people do voluntarily, just like downloading music illegally.

            One more viewpoint that one should take into account when forming their own opinions is Sissela Box’s 3 step analysis for situations. The first step being: to consult your conscience; which is a great tie into our first two specialists, Kant and Aristotle. The second step instructs us to seek alternatives. By alternatives they mean other ways of getting the music. For example, listening on YouTube which is free, borrowing a friend’s music, or even just sucking it up and paying for it. The third and final step is to hold an imaginary dialogue with the parties involved. For further explanation this is to imagine having a conversation with the artist whose music you have but never paid for, explaining why you have it, and why they did not profit from it. Another way of doing this is imagining receiving a letter from the Recording Industry stating that you have broken the law and will be facing prosecution. You could even imagine getting a letter from the artist themselves requesting the amount of money you would have paid for all the music that you stole, as you owe them it. There are many ways to do this third step, all ways just as eye opening.

            Many people don’t really make the decision to download music illegally the right way. They just do it, without thinking of the consequences that could follow, or what that could mean for the artist. When downloading music without paying for it, a process of decision making should be taken. There are many people involved in the equation of illegally downloading music, and it can get messy fast. One should take into all factors, especially those posed above, before breaking the law. It could be life changing, for the law breaker, artist, everyone. Maybe you’ll think twice before you cheat your favorite artist out of the money you owe them every time you download illegally.       

Is There Truly No Escape From Media?

    

In today’s society we are completely surrounded by advertisement, in fact it often feels there is no way to escape it.  In fact, I took on the challenge of writing down the time every single time I saw an advertisement, and it was incredible. I have never been so sick of advertisements in my life, nor did I truly realize how often we actually are exposed to. Why? Because, it is our way of life, we are so used to it we don’t even realize it anymore.

The number was uncountable; it is almost not exaggerating to say every minute in a 24 hour day we are exposed to advertisements; whether it is a billboard on the way to school, that I see daily or the brand on a fellow classmates shoe as we pass on campus.

For me the biggest advertisement exposure came from my cell phone. As a teenager in the 21^st century I too am very connected to the internet. On my phone, I am not receiving alerts straight to my phone on advertisements, for example today it was a new cell phone came on basketball. Also, I receive hundreds of emails weekly that are advertising certain stores or brands. The main ones I get emails for are Hot Topic (Save 50% on summer wear today!), Victoria Secret (20% off blow out sale), Spencers (Clearance saint patties day wear!), Amazon (Top gift ideas for Easter!), and Bon Ton (65% off one day sale) which I receive daily.    

The next biggest advertisement was typical branding. Seeing the brands of everyone clothes, shoes, school supplies, est. as I walked through my college campus, and sat through class. Every single person had some sort of advertisement on them somewhere.

One final major area was on the television where you get bombarded with commercial after commercial. However, your expecting those, and nowadays most people fast-forward through them (I know I do!) What most people are not expecting is the subliminal and not so subliminal messaging within their television shows. For example on Deadliest Warrior, they strongly promote their technology produced by Slytherin Studios. In almost if not all shows you can pull out an obscene amount of advertisements. As well as the commercials clearly targeted for that particular demographic.

It is no argument that we are completely surrounded by advertisements; practically anywhere you look there is another advertisement. We are so accustomed to it that we don’t care, however when you actually take the time to watch for every single time you are exposed to advertising it gets rather frustrating and overwhelming. I know by the end of my 24 hour of advertisement watching I was annoyed, assaulted, and exhausted. I felt so exposed and felt my privacy was demolished. Advertisements are so invasive. There truly is no escape from advertisements in the world we live in.    

M

     

        M is a magazine is created by a company called The Bauer Teen Network.  M is a magazine intended for an increasingly influential audience of tweens and teenagers, ranging from 8-17 years old. It’s goal is to attract and entertain the young adults of America, by keeping them up to date with the newest information going on with their favorite celebrities. Young adults know that M is for them primarily due to the cover. Though we all say “don’t judge a book (magazine) by it’s cover” many of us still do. M’s cover is a collage of pictures of the hippest celebrities and captions or article titles to draw in the target audiences attention.

        M uses a wide arrange of colors, celebrities, and article titles to catch both male and female attention. However, it is geared more for the females then the males, probably due to the fact that on average females buy magazines more than males. This is proven by the fact that more “girly” colors and “idols” are shown. For example, there is way more pink, purple, yellow, est. colors then say green, blue, or black. Within the magazine the background of the pages are often the same colors, with a few baby blues thrown in. There is also a “pretty” design going on as well. Therefore these make the articles pop, and seem very fun and inviting. This helps advertisers for this magazine because it becomes increasingly hard to tell what an article verses what an advertisement is.

        Advertisements in M primarily focus fashion such as, clothes, shoes, accessories, jewelry, make-up, purses,  est. There are also a decent amount for pads and tampons from both Always, Tampax Pearl (in which they literally say they are better than Kotext) and some for movies such as The Twilight Saga – Breaking Dawn part 1 -  from Target that takes up the entire back page. This particular advertisement is about a party being help for the midnight release at Target and a sneak preview of part to being shown to get them into the store for an extended amount of time. There are also a very small amount geared to men for items such as video games, video game system, Nike Airs, head phones, and other music related items. These are found in the few male articles found within M that tell what certain boy-bands are wearing, using, or are into. They also have articles about what is the “cool guy” thing to do. One particular advertisement was on one of the Jonas Brother’s saying how much he loves Subway. Continently there was an advertisement for subway right next to it.

        Since many young females reading this magazine truly care what their favorite celebrities are doing and wearing many advertisements are for cheap knock offs that look like their favorite celebrities. These are often found next to or under pictures of celebrities in popular outfits. Under neither the “cheaper” look a like there is the company’s website, some companies found here are” Forever21, Gojane, Fredflare, Girlprops, ULTA, Claires, Bloom, and CVS. These are there in hopes that these young girls will buy or get their parents to buy them the cheaper look alike because it is so close to what, say Selena Gomez (A big celebrity found within M) is wearing. Finally the make-up, and accessories are also found here because advertisers know this is a crucial age for girls to want to look good and impress the boys, these are often found text to polls, quizzes, and “secrets” about relationship[s, crushes, est.

        As you can see certain articles are paired with certain advertisements. For example, there was a quiz to see what you lip print says about you, underneath was an advertisement for Wet and Wild lip gross. A couple other articles that paired with advertisements above, and clearly show that M is mostly for young women are mostly to do with what celebrities really want such as Selena’s Valentine’s Wish. Also, Bella: Single for V-Day? Her plans for a sweet girls night in. What we each look for in a girl, was another by an all boy band called One Direction, where they talked about qualities they like in a girl, and what qualities you may like in them. The whole magazine is celebrity based, and definitely catches the attention of the target market, which works well for the advertisers and the advertisement placement.

        The Bauer Teen Network reaches an increasingly influential audience of tweens and teenagers, ranging from 8-17 years old. By providing a unique combination of content (frequently-updated teen celebrity gossip, hilarious polls and quizzes, original webisodes, daily blog-style articles and posts, interactive contests and national sweepstakes), they maintain an extremely active and engaged audience. With a little digging one will find that in particular M has an audience of almost 50% of tweens and teens in America, only about 10% of which is males. Evidentially, M does a great job of reaching a mass audience and it is well worth it to advertise within their audience matches your. In addition M does a great job using signaling to appeal to its target audience and integrating advertisements and articles.  

A Comparison in Network News

               Whitney Huston, a name that happens to be all over the place the past couple of days.  If you did not know who this American singer was before Saturday February 11, 2012 I think it’s safe to say you do now. A vast majority of media forms are currently covering her “tragic” death. I put tragic in quotation marks because it is a matter of opinion. While, some news forms may promote this event as tragic, others simply cover it as another news story.

               I watched a news report on Whitney Huston on two completely different network news stations to compare and contrast how different or, alike they would turn out to be. The two news stations were CNN and Al Jazeera English. While there is not a sense of political bias or even international bias in either one of these stations, Al Jazeera was insurmountably more biased then CNN.

CNN did a rather impressive job of using agenda setting. Where they did in fact tell us what to think about, they did not tell us how to think about it. Where the counter news network Al Jazeera clearly used emotion dimension a lot. This is when feelings are created by the media message(s).  Al Jazeera was extremely biased in their coverage of Huston. They even created bias within our nation implying that her death hit harder in New Jersey were she was born, and  Los Angeles where she died. Therefore, implying further that elsewhere in the country was not hit as hard.

Finally, CNN reported her death. Plain and simple, that is what they did. They told the public what happened, to who, when, and where. They also gave a brief overview of her life and her accomplishments. They did not, make Huston out to be somebody she wasn’t, more important or “loved” then she really was. They told the truth. The only thing the two networks had in common they both said who, what, when, and where. Both omitted why due to lack of information and both gave an overview of her life and accomplishments. In complete contrast, Al Jazeera completely glorified her life, in her death. They subliminally told you to feel sad, to feel the loss. They made her up to be way more important to the American public then she was.

  My final assessment? CNN did a much better job covering the story, while Al Jazeera fed the story. They used the media to get more attention and lengthened out the story with bias views. They were untrue and too opiniated. I want to know the details, not what they think I felt of her. Yes, she was a great singer, many liked her but she was not as liked as they portrayed. To end with I’ll state how utterly shocked I was to see how different, and how bias or unbiased two stations could be when covering the same story. A true eye opener.

Reality vs. Unreality

        In today’s society shows on the television are completely unrealistic to how the real world conducts itself. For example actions of the characters, problems within, or events that unfold are often blown way out of proportion for dramatic effect.

          A guilty pleasure of mine is indulgence of a show that does this to a great measure. My show is American Dad often aired on Fox. This show appeals to me mostly for the fact of how subtly intelligent it is; and that most people don’t see the intelligence within it due to their own unintelligence. They believe it is just another dumb show with dumb stuff within that’s worthy of a few laughs here and there.
          Another big reason is that it greatly makes fun of the big downfalls within our society. In a way, making fun of America for certain things we do, say, or believe that is completely ridiculous. However, I do admit it is greatly over dramatized to get more viewers to watch and continue watching their show/channel. It also appeals to me in part because it is made to appeal to people of my age range, with their jokes and actions, people my age will find it more entertaining than older people who would find it immature, and younger people who are just too young to understand.

They also have ridiculous problems that occur within the show that would never happen in real life. Such as a talking fish who used to be a man that got trapped in a fishes body. Or, an alien living with a CSI agent who causes chaos. The lists of unrealistic problems that occur in the show are endless. For the most part it is completely unrealistic in terms with the reality of society.

Finally, the fact that the show is so unrealistic is really what drives people to keep watching. The only other thing that keeps them continuing to watch is the correct ratio of reality within so that viewers can completely relate to it. The show has unrealistic humor and realistic digs on what really goes on in society, to try and get the point across to the public. While many say it is uncalled for and goes too far, it does its job. It gets viewers, just like me.