Greetings all, Flipper here. Since I began blogging I have been using it for my Mass Media Class. I used it only for class assignments, exams and presentations. It’s not until my roommate began blogging that I realized I was missing a whole world that I wasn’t connecting to. So I decided that I will convert this utilitarian blog into one that is to be used for enjoyment. I pleased my professor with it; let’s see if I can do the same for you all…
If this is the first post you are reading, I invite you to take a peek at some of my earlier posts so you can get a feel for what I’m all about. If you already have, please disregard the previous sentence, and thanks for reading!
Hoping to roll with a common theme, I’ve decided to blog about what I’m most passionate about: photography. Having just recently picked it up, I have grown with leaps and bounds with my trusty X5 pro by my side. I’ve even gone as far as to win the Martin Van Buren Award for excellence in the arts. But enough talk about the past.
I’ve developed a very unique style of photography that has served me well these past years. Primarily, I am an urban explorer who takes pride in shots of decay and neglect. However, I also love pop art of the late 60’s and attempt to capture that aspect in certain areas of my work. Now usually the two styles are kept separate, but I’ve managed to combine the two in some very special shots, many of which you will see later.
I have also learned to excel in the field of film, putting together short productions that have grabbed the attention of such organizations such as NASA. Impressive, I know, but I mainly enjoy putting together stop motion animations and short quirky films for the thrill of it. Ill trying and include a video clip or too in my blogs to come, just to change it up a bit.
By now you’re probably thinking that this guy hasn’t shown me anything! This is true – I hoped to give you an introduction to myself and my artistic style. This is so if you are anything like my photo teacher, (a purest and a minimalist) you could save yourself some time and aggravation. However, if you are the creative and quirky type, I invite you to stick around. I can promise that each post from now in will be full of photos, videos and how-to guides for certain photo effects. And please, if you feel any photos displayed are too conformist, too similar or just plain bad, I’d love to hear your opinion.
That being said, I think I’d better get started on my next photo suite. Cameras loaded, lights perfect. Talk to you next week folks. Flipper out.
Wednesday morning, 9:05; I awake to the unpleasant buzz of my cell phone alarm telling me I only have a few minutes to get to class. I ignore it and with sleep filled eyes look around my dorm room; The 302, we call it. My eyes finally focus. I see my computer sitting idle on my desk, occasionally blinking a small blue light telling me all is well. A few feet behind my desk sits our TV; a slew of movies, game systems and pizza boxes clutter the front of it. As the minutes tick by I begin to get ready for the day. I grab all the books I need for the day and throw them into my cluttered back pack, and I’m out the door – prepared for my media filled day in the world of mass media. As I reflect on how media influences my day and my life, I ask you to do the same. After reading each paragraph, pause for a moment, consider my relationship with the media, think about the quote, and compare it to your own media filled world.
Newspapers
Every Wednesday I have my classes in the Ireland building. Whenever I open the doors, I see a stack of newspapers and a sign telling me to, “take one, they’re free!” So I do; it doesn’t cost me a cent and I can usually find an interesting story or two before class starts. That’s the only time where I read the paper; in the fifteen minutes between me getting to class and class actually starting.
(Courtesy of Getty Images)
Occasionally I’ll find a human interest story, “news accounts of that focus on the daily trials and triumphs of the human condition,” (Mass media, 252) but for the most part, I casually flick through the pages and toss it aside. Part of the reason I don’t read newspapers is because of the way the articles are written. The writers spend two paragraphs explaining what happened, and then five paragraphs droning on about how this relates to other events or how we are going to be affected by this in ten years. I don’t care for it, so I stop reading, throw it in my backpack and watch as it eventually ends up in the recycling bin.
The Internet
“The internet is a world of infinite distraction,” Professor Williams’ always reminds us. While I have wasted many hours Facebooking and Stumbling, I have also been able to use the internet to better myself and the people around me. To me, using the internet is like a double edge sword; I can use the internet to succeed in school and at the same time, distract myself from it. I use Twitter every day in my Exploring Marketing class and my Mass Media class to learn about convergence and exposure, and then use Twitter to tell my friends to join me down town. I have struck a balance with the internet that allows me to use it with maximum effectiveness. I use it for work during the day and for social and entertainment purposes at night. Doing research during the day when I’m awake allows me to stay focused. Facebook, Twitter, Stumble Upon, Pandora and hundreds of other websites are available for me to use when the sun goes down and I’m just looking to unwind. The internet is a world of infinite distraction, but that’s only if you don’t know how to use it properly.
Games
(frameworkmx.com)
I have always been a gamer. There is nothing like immersing yourself in a different world for a few hours as you help stop a world ending crisis. Although I have dabbled in computer and MMORPGs, I am first and foremost a FPS console gamer. My favorite games include Brute Force, Fallout 3, Left 4 Dead and Borderlands. I usually enjoy just an hour or two of single player a day, nothing too excessive. “Today it’s not that unusual… for college students and younger professionals to meet in dorm rooms and lunch rooms to play “in” their favorite bands. (Mass Media, 35) I enjoy the escape from the real world and the escape from other players. However, recently my roommates and I have been playing Age of Empire II together on the PC. It’s a real-time-strategy game that allows you to control units and advance though time, developing more powerful units. Not only is it loads of fun playing together, it’s a great team building game. Last night, we came together and completely destroyed the opposing team.
Television
When I lived at home, I used to watch TV for hours at a time. I would watch the same shows over and over again; there was one point where I could recite an entire Futurama episode. That all changed when I came to college. Now, I watch about three hours of TV a week. My roommates and I love dark and off-beat humor, so when we watch TV, we are usually tuned into Cartoon Network’s, Adult Swim. Family Guy, The Boondocks and Robot Chicken are some of our favorite programs.
(Courtesy of treehugger.com)
I’m glad that I’m watching less TV and getting more variety in shows. Perhaps this is a result of my father’s attitude towards television which coincides nicely with Kent Farnsworth, “There’s nothing on it worthwhile, and we’re not going to watch it in this household, and I don’t want it in your intellectual diet.” (Mass Media, 147)
Radio
Another thing I am doing less now that I’ve come to college is listening to the radio. Back home, I used to listen to the radio when I woke up, went to bed or drove. I used the radio to make mundane activates more exciting. It was nice adding some variety to my routine. When I came to college however, I didn’t bring any devices that received radio signals. I just forgot about radio. Instead of using the radio to discover new music, I used YouTube or Pandora. I realized I just listened to the radio out of convenience.
My bedside clock at home played radio and I didn’t have iPod speakers, so I listened to the radio. Same thing with the car, it played radio, not mp3s. Moving away made me realize how little I need the radio. “Radio affects most people intimately, person-to-person, offering a world of unspoken communication between writer, speaker and listener. That is the immediate aspect of radio, a private experience.” (Mass Media, 126)(Courtesy of jukon.net)
Movies
One thing that stayed the same when I moved to college is my love of movies. There is nothing like sitting down with your friends, in a theatre or on a couch, and watching a good movie. I love physiological thrillers like Inception and Se7en, and am beginning to dislike action films which I was so fond of growing up. “I think American movies are, to be honest, simple. You blow things up, you shoot people, you have sex and have a movie.” (Mass Media, 223) One thing I love about movies is how quickly my friends and I can enjoy one. It always starts with someone saying, “Hey, you know what we should watch? The Dark Knight, (or some other movie that would make the night).” Usually half the people who have seen it will want to see it again, and then shout at the people who haven’t seen it because it’s so good. When we watch movies, we watch them without distraction. That means phones and computers away and food and drinks are at the ready. We get totally immersed in the plot. We haven’t done this in a while, and I think it’s about time we all watched the Illusionist together.
Books
(Courtesy of goodreads.com)
I have a very strange relationship with books. I don’t read very often, but every couple of years, I will discover a series of books that I fall in love with. First was Harry Potter, closely followed by the Series of Unfortunate Events series. Now I am addicted to the Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, Series. When find a series I like, I will read and re-read for hours at a time. But it is so hard for me to find a book or a series I can really get into and enjoy. What I find interesting about books is the Authors are selling their writing and their writing alone. There are no advertisements or offers in books; it’s just the story. Perhaps that’s why I have a hard time reading; I am too used to being exposed to ads when I read or get involved in a story. Yet, “our oldest mass medium is our most influential and most diverse.” (Mass media, 315)
Magazines
(Courtesy of hiphopmusicdotcom.com)
Magazines are one of my favorite media forms. It gives you news, stories and facts in a very random fashion. For example, when you open up a magazine, the first few pages are cluttered with quick facts, photos ads, a look at that last issue and what this issue is going to discus. I like to think of it as a younger version of the newspaper that caters to my chaotic mind. A newspaper will cover a story and then beat it to death. A magazine gives me exactly what I need to know and then moves on, providing photos and color. I subscribe to Game Informer, Popular mechanic and have plans to subscribe to Rolling Stone. I also enjoy the trashy tabloids, “that push the limits of decency and credibility,” (Mass Media, 301) one finds waiting for the doctor or hair dresser.
Sound Recordings
I like music. To give you a definition of my like for music, I own an 8-gig iPod full of indie, alternative, ambient, electronic and chill music. “People seem to need their peers to validate their musical tastes…” (Mass Media, 103) I don’t care for popular music or rely on people to tell me if my music is good or not. I use the ear phones that came with the iPod and I own one vinyl record. I have only been to three concerts in my life. Basically I enjoy music but only to an extent. I listen to my iPod when I’m falling asleep, doing homework, on a long trip or just feel like jamming out for an hour. My favorite time to listen to music is when it’s raining. I shuffle up my Jack Johnson collection and just enjoy the scenery as the acoustic guitar and strong vocals wash over me. When I miss my girlfriend, I turn on Owl City and reminisce about our shenanigans around Connecticut. I like music.
Conclusion
(Courtesy of hongkiat.com)
As I meditate on my relationship with media, I realize that the media I like and use the most are the ones with more ads. I like watching TV, going on the internet and reading magazines. Each of those mediums has a large amount of ads in them. I don’t read books, the newspaper or listen to music that much and those have very few ads in them. I wonder if I have been so conditioned to accepts advertisements and be exposed to them, that I shun and medium that does not deliver ads. Have I been brain washed? I doubt it, but it’s scary to think about how the media impacts us every day. Flipper out.
Hey out there. Flipper here. Have you ever bought a product and used it for unconventional means? Like buying Coke and Mentos, putting them together, and watching them explode? Flipper has. That’s called accidental marketing: consumers buying a product, not for its intended purpose, but because one can do something cool with it. Now let me ask you this: have you ever done the opposite? Have you ever seen something comical and bought that product to use for a serious cause because of that comical reason? Flipper has.
Everyone with a computer has probably seen the “Bed Intruder” video on Youtube. Going viral with over sixteen million hits, this video is probably one of the funniest videos of 2010.
But it didn’t stop there. Soon, an auto tuned version of the report was released, doubling the number of hits at thirty-five million.
Obtaining over fifty-one million hits, one realized they could make this craze into a legitimate product.
The new bed intruder app, available for the iPhone and Android, shows the user where various sex offenders locations. However, the ad is not entirely accurate. “While the promotion video is hilarious, it's also misleading because in fact, the Sex Offender Tracker App only shows you the houses in your neighborhood where sex offenders live.” Still, it is a very useful app to have.
The entire concept of this new app is very entertaining: taking viral videos, and using the fan base of those videos to market a new product. The main techniques of this ad are humor, fear and testimonial. The creators are using a comical figure that millions of people recognize to market this product that can protect you and you’re family.
Anyway, I wonder if there is anyone living near my dorm I should worry about. Flipper is going bed intruder hunting. And you can tell that.
Popular Mechanics is an exciting and influential magazine dedicated to science and technology. First published in 1902, it was purchased by the Hearst Corporation in 1958. Popular mechanics is dedicated to providing informational articles regarding automotive, home, how-to, outdoors, science, and technology.
Triune Brain:
Neo-cortex: Popular Mechanics is a magazine in print, requiring the neo-cortex to comprehend.
Reptilian: Some of the articles in Popular Mechanics are about dangerous or deadly objects or events. These articles affects the readers reptilian brain, creating a fight or flight response.
8 Shifts:
Epistemological shift: There are many articles and many related pictures in popular mechanics. As a result, the reader is constantly shifting from word to image.
Technological shift: First printed in 1902, Popular Mechanics has shifted from analog and is available online.
Aesthetic shift: Once only available in print, Popular Mechanics online uses text, pictures, video, links and allows viewers to comment on articles.
Reality construction: Day to day, we as people don’t see a lot of advanced technology or scientific breakthroughs. However, Popular Mechanics creates the reality that we live in a very technologically advanced society.
Emotional transfer: Many of the articles and advertisements in Popular Mechanics involve a “do it yourself” attitude, along with a sense of rugged masculinity.
Persuasive techniques:
Simple solutions: Articles offer an “easy fix” to certain problems. Although those reasons may be very complex, the idea or tools used to fix the problem are easy to understand.
Plain Folks: Appeal to the do-it-yourself attitude through how-to articles and ads.
Repetition: November 2010 issue discusses pick-up trucks, and there are many pages with pictures of pick-up trucks.
Beautiful people: Ads feature stunning women or handsome and rugged men.
Strength: Articles allow one to gain strength by learning and performing tasks on one’s own.
Hey out there. Flipper here. I have just discovered a powerful new presentation tool that could give PowerPoint a run for its money. It’s called Prezi. Although it follows the same presentation concept as PowerPoint, the two could not be more different.
Let’s face it: PowerPoint is boring. It follows a very structured slide by slide format. Title, bullets, picture, rinse and repeat. With Prezi, your entire presentation is one giant slide with no limits on placement or size. There is no structure, there are no parameters: you can be as creative as your imagination lets you.
Check out this marketing presentation that I put together for Lake Champlain Chocolates. By the way, try their new, “Grace Potter Under Fire” bar. You have not had any chocolate like it. Ill let you find out why.
You’ll notice the presentation follows a freeform path zooming in and out to focus attention on the necessary information. Although every element is horizontal, if I had words or pictures slanted, the Prezi slideshow would rotate the screen to make the content viewable. It also makes for some interesting transitions.
With Prezi, you can control all elements of you presentation using the “zebra.” The zebra is an easy to use tool that allows you to change the size, placement and orientation of text, pictures, video, and boxes.
Prezi is also very easy to use. Instead of having to sort through hundreds of useless tools to find one tiny button that alters color, Prezi has one, easy to use menu. That is your command center. Prezi is entirely online, with no required downloads, which has a lot of benefits. For example, if your computer crashes, you forget your zip-drive, or you have to use a different computer, your presentation is intact and instantly useable from the website.
Check out this tutorial video, and give it a try! I can guarantee you will have your friends and co-workers in awe. Anyway, I’ll see you on Prezi, Flipper needs to present tomorrow.
After studying 21st century media, I have learned how to evaluate media with a purpose using universal terms and ideas that can relate to advertising and marketing. During the first part of this class, I have learned that I am an extremely creative thinker who questions the media we are constantly exposed to.
If I could do one thing differently, I would have studied my power tools more at the beginning of the semester. Another hour studying and I could have avoided a few low scores.
One thing that that I would like to have seen differently is the use of the power grid earlier in the semester. The grid is where the all the power tools all come together, and are seen and used as a whole.
Everything I have learned in this class is very useful.
Power Tools: These are very useful because I can use them in my marketing and business classes.
Course Blog: An interesting medium for class work. Very nice to have access to all the class information we have reviewed / posted.
Films: The films we have viewed are very interesting and thought provoking. Great for reviewing the information we have learned thus far.
In-class quizzes: A nice way to start the class and review key knowledge.
Book: I love the book. Each chapter is formatted the same way and contains tons of useful pictures, charts and descriptions. It also offers an insightful look at mass media then and now.
