Media Log

BOOKS 
Haters by Alisa Van Rodriguez 
Confessions of a video Vixen  by Karrine Steffans 

FILMS
The Lovely Bones
Bring it on
Four Brothers
Sixteen Candles
Just Friends
The Breakfast Club
Soaked in bleach


MUSIC
Rihanna- Kiss it better
Kanye West- My Life as Pablo
Asap Ferg- New Level
Beyonce-Lemonade
Big Sean- Paradise
Azealia Banks- The Big Big Beat

T.V series
The Walking Dead
Fear The Walking Dead
Empire 
The Real
Chasing Destiny

Student reflection paper.

Looking at a blank screen of my phone was kinda hard .  It made feel the need to turn on the home screen on my phone. However after a few minutes I didn't really care I looked at it and kept looking at it until I zoned out even though the instructions told me not to.  I wasn't thinking of anything I just all of a sudden stared at the black screen with my hand on my head. I also started to think about what I had to for homework, what  grade do I have in a class, am I going to do well on my finales? what am I going to about my classes for next semester. I just started to think about the stuff that I needed to do when I get home and how I will  write this same blog assignment.  This exercise made me think about media terminologies because my imagination ran wild with out me being on my phone and also the way I was thinking I was thinking about all the things that I need to accomplish. When I am in my phone I literally think about the next app that I need to move to or how  everybody else is.  I am more concerned with everybody else's life when I get on these apps and not really concerned with what I need to accomplish today and I what I need to do now. 


I spend majority of my time more and more concerned with other peoples life when I see new or old post by them. I find myself comparing my life to there's when I'm on my phone. However I have my life to think about and I need to be concerned about me and my problems. 

The look of the Web changed?

The look of the the Web most defiantly has changed in a dramatic way. I was thinking about the days me and my cousins would use Yahoo messenger or msn messenger I and talk to so many people around the world and we also use to communicate through e-mail like a text message. We use to change our Icon's ain to sponge bob or  random TV shows. Its funny because they use to provide us the icons or some Disney websites or Nickelodeon websites use to provide us cute icons I use to be so happy when I finally found the right ones. However, me and my friends would e-mail each other back and forth all the time  and very quickly and we use to exchange our e-mail address between each other "Like hey do you have a e-mail" and we would write it down on a piece of paper  so we could send each other messages in class and use smileys or right when we go home . I also remember not being able to go on the internet at certain times because a person was on the house phone and the internet would go extremely slow like half of the page would be still loading. Also when the screen froze and you could drag the internet window and the entire screen would be filled with that dragged window.  

However half of the time the internet was fun because it was a way to communicate with everyone around the world and we never had that much communication with one another before. I never use to go on Myspace because I never had one but I heard it was so much fun to have by changing your background, adding friends and seeing pictures of people in school that you didn't know how they acted outside of school, and also changing your music on your Myspace was pretty cool from what I heard. But from what I believe back then  it was easy to disguise yourself and be a different person when communicating with others and fun but now its a lot of person its easy to get found out that your not the person you say you are and there are more websites to find a specific person.  Everything got so enhanced that your privacy is not even yours...even your job wants to know what your up to. I'm not condoning not being yourself but now I would have never imagined that we reach this far in communicating with others.   Because now we get to see exclusive clips from backstage shows online and communicate face to face on our phones and even have our tweet read in front of a live studio audience. 




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRu-WDGZfm4 Here is a group of
guys talkng about the same thing they are pretty funny!!

Free Post

So for this free post I kinda wanted to talk abut social context in the media we consume and how we might interpret the day in the life of a character of a movie that we might see on t.v, movie or in any media.  For example, I am a huge fan of The Walking Dead and in this show it gives you a day in the life of a many characters in a zombie apocalypse world, like how characters make decisions to survive. However, if there was a lesson on zombies in class and how people will survive if they were in an apocalypse I wouldn't be as interested because  in class we will have to sit an learn what the teacher wants us to learn and maybe right down notes for a grade.  But, if I am at home I have time to kick up my feet and enjoy.


The same thing with music. I remember one time I thought this Kendrick Lamar song was so goo it had a message telling everyone to love yourself because nobody else will love you like you love you. (The song is called real https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66zZ_kgQ1Ng take a listen). So I'm thinking that the song is so good  and my dad never heard of Kendrick Lamar so I was like i'm just going to let my dad listen. Towards the end of the song my dad is like "There are a lot of curse words in it... Kendrick  says the N word a lot" (but this is coming from the same guy that listens to Wutang.)  Once  I  went back listen I noticed there were a lot of curse words and stuff  in the song. Another story was when I was in my dad's car and  my dad has a AUX cord, my dad suggested to me to play whatever I like... I didn't, I played some Bob Marley on Pandora  because I didn't want to sit in the car all awkward playing songs that I like because half the songs I like have curse words in it. However, later on once we were a little close to home he was like "Why are you playing reggae all this time" I was just like fine I play the songs I like and of course the song "IDFWU" came on by Big Sean and it had so many curse words in it I was like cringing because I was like this song had to play while I was on this trip back home with him.

It just goes to show one may seem more like entertainment and the other may ask you to do more thinking. Depending on where you see each one, you will experience each situation  differently. 

How, if at all, do you consider yourself as “active”?

I answered number 1.

Honestly I am not active when I watch television, reading a book, or playing video games. I am however really active when it comes to listening to music. Once I listen to any type of music I try to find more and more music that sounds somewhat like the music that I am listening to. Currently I starting to listening to old school R&B like Erka Badu Bag Lady and old hip hop like a  De La Soul ,Tribe Called Quest, Diddy, Biggie, Nas, Tupac, Eazy E,. I tend to find myself looking at old interviews of these artist because a lot of these artist were so wise and so ahead of there time its honestly heart breaking because some of these artist that I named are now gone and died way to soon. Not many artist like Tupac, Eazy E, Biggie or even Nas can be duplicated an now were stuck with  music that we can't barley understand and not many artist are confident about talking about issues like how the artist back in the day use to. Anyways i'm getting off subject, I also listen to a lot of 80's and even early 2000's R&B   music but I always listened to different types of music, since I was a sophomore in high school so I guess me listening to these type of genres is not all that surprising. But ever since I watched Straight Outta Compton movie I needed to do more research when it comes to hip hop and music in general because there was so much that I didn't know. For example, Nina Simone once I saw  the Netflix movie documentary about her  I felt that she was not just a singer she was a poet, she was outspoken, and a person that gave African Americans a voice of what was going on then in that time. I find myself always active when it comes to finding my type of music and finding artist that I gravitate towards because of their voice, their individuality and the way the beat is once they begin rapping or singing. 

Here is a song that I really like with Tribe called quest. (I also really like the video also)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6TLWqn82J4

Hypoermic Model

Honestly, I had a lot of trouble starting this post because I wasn't sure exactly sure how I would make an example from the hypodermic model and I was just kinda confused in general. However, the hypodermic model is a theory that the mass media direct, immediate and powerful effect on the audience. I don't know what exactly or if my example is right on wrong but there are a lot of examples that came to thought when I was thinking about the Hypodermic Model. I think that the example that comes to mind is Television and Radio such as advertisement or even magazines .  For example in  advertisement there might be a product that a person may be influenced in buying a product like a perfume or a fitness product by how a person looks or feels. Magazines are a big influences on everyone's life, especially on women.  Tabloid magazines, beauty tips, or even how women are "supposed took". The radio is also the same thing advertisement, pop culture, and even these things can influence a lot of people.  People want to know whats the new thing or the new products that could help with there daily lives and television helps with fashion, gossip, and this could influence a lot of people they would think this looks great on them or this worked for them so why not me the same thing with the radio.  That goes for any media outlet.  This could be a good thing and a bad thing to have media like television and the radio  to a have a influence on others because for some people they might think that from what people are saying they would be influenced on what people say and eventually can't think for themselves. 

Homosexuality in the Media.

I feel that that homosexuality in the media is actually improving in the movies, TV shows, music. Homosexuality can improve our understanding of advocacy for better representations of sexuality in media.  I feel that they are being really really open towards gays in any media light and I really love it! I love that in the Oscars Sam Smith which is a homosexual man won a award for his song for "Writings On The Wall"  and he addressed he was the first homosexual man to win. I also like how there are shows like the Fosters and many shows on MTV showing homosexuality that I really like.  I love how the media is open so many doors for these kinda things and I blame us as a new generation for it.  I feel that us as a new generation (well some of us) don't care about race or your sexuality because were not as harsh were very open about about a lot of things. I feel that if it wasn't for us as a new generation and social media and also some people that may have felt a certain way before, I feel that things would defiantly will still be the same and will be stuck in the same old same old, and for me personally I feel that its sooo boring. Like in my other blog I explained that in many romantic films its always a boy meets girl or a girl meets boy and they fall in love in the summer after awhile that same story gets soooo boring after awhile. Why not bring a little change into romantic movies why not bring a character that we could relate to why not bring some REALITY in the world we live in today and that's exactly what is going on in the media today in movies, TV shows, and in movies an us as a new generation and people that  think like us  from back then are the main people responsible for that. Movies an TV shows can improve our understanding in homosexuality because we can see that these certain groups of people are just like us and we can some what relate to them in many situations that the character has and we grow feelings towards these characters and we grow feelings towards how we even look at the actor and we love it!  But the same thing goes towards music no one likes the same old same old in music so people go to other genres in music and inspired and the fact that homosexual people are getting so much recognition is amazing and honestly for me I don't really don't care about there sexuality I care about their craft in their music. And I thank Elton John and I thank people like Sam Smith and also David friggen Bowie for embracing their sexual preference because those are the same musicians that people don't care about their sexuality but they just care about their craft in their music.  We as people need to be more open about these certain things because the world is changing and this generation and some of the last is standing up and taking notice of that. 


 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aw_sZvauCw I thought it will be cool if I show you a tribute that lady Gaga did for David Bowie. So you could see that it doesn't matter what your sexuality is it just matters in your craft in music and Mr.Bowie had many amazing music hits.

Racial and Ethnic Representation

Ever since I since I went to go see the movie Dead Pool I told myself I really wanna start reading more comic books or watch more comic based stories on marvel or any heroic fictional character. So, now I started to watch more comic cartoons I know that sounds silly but its the only thing that I get close to getting more insight on the characters. I'm actually glad that I did it because of as of right now I'm watching X-men: The Animated Series on Hulu and it gave me a lot! even about the new movie that will becoming out May 27, 2016. I'n a particular episode however that I was watching there was a character that was supposed to be Asian or Chinese and he had this stupid accent that made me laugh a little but then it mad me a little sad. It made me sad because in class we just finished talking about how they stereotype Indians and how they have to do a accent and here in this show that i'm watching there is a Asian or Chinese guy doing the same stereotypical accent. There was only one character that I've seen did that but what I love about the show so far is that Rouge is southern white women and they don't characterize her in a way that everyone might think southern people are like that stereotypical southern girl ,but they just HAD to stereotype the Asian guy. There was another episode however that I am recalling that I was just like "wow" was when they stereotyped Native Americans and how they lived in the Arctic part of the world and how they were spiritual people they slept in huts and they didn't have accent, however.  There are many races and ethnics in X-Men black, white, blue, brown, even green but other than those two episodes I do see a lot of underlying messages in the ideologies into the media. Everyone has a ways of judging other people in the media that can be hurtful but because this is like a PG show kids that age won't really look into it until now at my age. I find it strange that these sorta things are being pushed in the media light and I find it hurtful because these people are living just like us and they may speck different but that is how they communicate with us, I feel that the media needs to grow up! Stop picking fun at people that has different accents or may look different or has a style in how they dress or how they wear there hair its apart of their culture! Its funny how some people could make fun of other races and turn around and copy how they dress or how they use slang.  Anyways, I am getting beside myself..what I learned is that the media/the entire world is harsh but people will  get scared and make fun of things they don't know that is different..what we have to do is just stand up for our rights as people to have certain things like this gone. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IzSGvXc_PM Here is a theme song of the show. I really love it. 

Genre Conventions

Okay so I might not really exactly know the task that the blog post is supposed to be talking about. However, I will try to interpret the task at hand..last week I talked about how for most romantic movies always are the same..boy meets girl or girl meets boy in the summer and they both fall in love with one another. Throughout the story they are having a blast until there is conflict with the family and or conflict with the one of the characters moving; Like the movie The Notebook for example, that movie has a lot of heteronormativity. The boy Noah meets girl in the movie and they have a blast in the summer but the girl named Allie parents are rich and Noah is poor..that could be heteronomatvity them falling in love with one another. However, in the movie of course the movie is amazing there are are many messages like don't give up on love, if you love someone you shouldn't care what people say or think, and the BIG question..   what do you want in life, who do you want to fall in love with and spend forever? You have to do what makes you happy and your parents shouldn't have to decide that for you. What I find significant about this movie is however, Noah was willing for Allie to leave him again even though they both knew what they wanted...thats true love.. to bad guys don't act like this in real life..well SOME guys. 

Here is a clip of the movie that really sinks in with me to this day I hope you enjoy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhLQjQ7amsA

Genre

Genre conforms to many conventions like in  romantic comedies, romantic movies, comedy's, and even horrors. I know for most romantic movies theirs always a girl meets boy or a boy meets girl and they fall in love in the summer and there's conflict with the family or any other serious conflict in regrades to any of them. Or an action film were there at least two partners or more have to find a killer or assassin or any other mystery that has explosions and fire that is produced my Michael Bay. Or even horror films where a women is in a big house and she hears a loud thump upstairs and she simply says "Hello" OR she simply falls on the floor when a killer with a mask is chasing her with a knife. There are many conventions in a genre of a movie that I can't even name that don't even surprise me anymore, like for most romantic movies I don't even care about anymore cause they are sometimes so cheesy or so predictable. I know the only romantic movies that I like are real and special to me like Love Jones and The Notebook but nowadays its ALWAYS THE SAME THING. It doesn't really get to me anymore like it should. I don't know why genres are always the same, maybe its because they always sell tickets no matter what..what do you think?? 


Here's a link for you guys to enjoy so you know exactly what i' m talking about 
Make sure you click on it
Trailer to Mirror Coal:
SKIP TO 2:13 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mGeRC6k5Fc

Rated PG-13. The Boy

Over the past weekend I went to my friends house because we haven't seen each other in a long time. As I went to her house and walked inside her and her sister were planing to go to the movies to go see the movie "The Boy" that is a horror movie. I've heard about it but I wasn't really interested but I haven't seen my friend in a while so she invited me to come and go with them to a movie grill. A movie grill if you don't know is a movie theater that gives you food while you watch the movie. 

SO, I purchased my ticket online at their house and we got on the road. But, until I get to finally explaining me watching the movie I should explain what the movie is about if you as a reader never heard of it. Basically, a women named Greta comes to a mansion house filled with two people an old man and old women and the Greta's job is to babysit there young son, BUT the young boy is a potential doll. Of course this women is not taking any of the old men and women seriously and laughs at the fact she has to babysit a doll. Throughout the movie she has to obey rules to take care of the doll like..you have to wake him up around 10 am..make sure he gets something to eat don't leave him alone you know keep him entertained and make sure there is no guest in the house. OF COURSE she doesn't obey any of the rules at all, tossing the doll every where and not putting him where he needs to be. But, finally the doll finally starts moving by its self and threatening her but let me not spoil anything for you.



Anyways, lets get back to me getting to the theater and watching the movie. We got to the theater and took our seat and got our food and such. But as I was watching this movie I kinda didn't know why this movie was rated PG-13 but as it gradually moved forward in the story I could see why it was considered a PG-13.  Only two was three or three scenes that were bad for some people under age in one scenes she was in the shower taking a shower naked and the second scene she was about to have sex with a guy that works there that usually gives grocery's to the old men and women..and finally a last scene where a man was holding her inappropriately. 

I know that PG-13 means may be inappropriate for 13 year olds or under but the movie was defiantly not that bad but I could understand that it has to be PG-13 for young people to watch. It could shape the political process of PG- 13 for those scenes but only those three scenes but overall for me however I don't think the movie was all that bad and it was a little scary, many jumps scares and A HUUUUUGE plot twist towards the end. I only suggest watching this movie when it gets on Netflix because it wasn't really worth going to the theaters for. But I do suggest watching it if you like movies that have jump scares and plot twist. 




HERE is a trailer link for you to watch! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPxybc_aJWU

Advertisements SMH.

SO, I know I talked about advertisement  in my last post but I believe that it can be a serious problem. Especially when watching "The Film Generation" movie  that we watched Thursday. I didn't know especially now in this new generation that everything is consumed with advertisement, and that we contribute to it all just by liking a post or watching something on YouTube. It saddens me actually that in this new generation that media uses us as college kids or teenagers as puppets in order to gain self control on their products.  Don't get me wrong I understand that advertisement is needed for many company's and they have it to thrive..but in this documentary it showed us that we feed off of advertisement without anyone even knowing. 

The one thing that I didn't even know on YouTube is the people that are "YouTube Famous" are apart of advertisement as well.  They will sometimes advertise a products like, audible on amazon, hair products, food etc and for them they will get money for it and us we will give in because we believe that these people are just like us and if they like this product we might like it.  I believe that this is very strategic and it could get out of hand because little kids just like the little boy in the movie think they could do these ridiculous things and could get so much money off it. 

Anyways, one media that I sometimes watch is YouTube video's just like any other person on earth and YouTube is defiantly full of advertisement. It gets to the point were us as a viewers get sick of watching the very video, but we have to watch whats next in whatever we're watching. Most products that have been advertised on YouTube has to be the most random things  like hair products, car dealerships, and sometimes most advertisements are related to the actual video that the viewer is watching. 

However, I feel that this sort of thing CAN get out of hand in regarding the economy because I feel that everyone would think that everyone is looking for a hand out regarding their products or whatever there selling; it could sometimes be annoying  to some people. Like for some YouTubers I try not to watch anymore because every single time I try and watch their video there always are pushing or even trying to sell a product on something they don't even care about just to gain a sponsor or even gain money. But what do you guys think is this a good thing or bad thing?? leave a comment!

Media Reflection Entry 1: Internet Socialization Thorey .

This entry is a reflection on ads and the socialization of the media on this YouTube video: Story Time: Club Fight We Met With AaliyahJay. First of all, I love watching story time video's on YouTube I find them really interesting on how people tell their stories on a certain events that happened in their lives. These story time video's seem to be the norm that many youtubers  have and in a way it is socialization from each one. You get to learn from many of their stories and understand that you shouldn't be doing what they might have made a mistake on.  However, I clicked on this video and I was surprised because there were two people introducing themselves and only rarely two people tell their stories. Also, going through the video I started to notice that they have heavy New York Accents.

Once getting into their story in the video these two friends basically talk about the time when their ex-best friend got into a fight with both of them;only because the ex- best friend lost their phone. Of course I was drawn in but all of a sudden there was an ad I was so upset because on many YouTube video’s you can skip ads but of course because I  was actually liking it I had to have the ad that can't skip. So I literally sat through the entire ad that was talking about how great the Ford dealership was. Later on, however, once the ad was done and gotten back to the video another pops up on the screen on the bottom. So, the entire time i’m just exiting out ads. I hate the fact there is literally advertisement everywhere I turn especially on YouTube. Viewers are forced to watch it and it could be very distracting for everyone.  

It sucks that each time I get comfortable and watch a video any where on the internet I really like I get bombarded with silly little ads that I have no choice at all but to sit through it.  I could also understand that YouTube on and on any other website uses  advertisement to gain money from whatever sponsor that they could gain, but not every six minutes a ad has to be shown. I feel that advertisement defiantly gets pushed on a lot of viewers and we have know choice sometimes ,and I feel that it won’t stop anytime soon. I also feel as though ads could also socialization because it is in the norm of our culture to have so many ads in so many places on websites, billboards, and even in stores . Once everyone see's a ad on YouTube any other website its only normal to wait or even wait for a skip ad button. However, I do recommend watching story time videos because they could be really funny and engaging just like this video.