Convergence

Convergence in mass media is really interesting to me. I notice it as a cooperation among media industries a lot lately. Any time an actor or actress has a new movie coming out, you will usually see them throughout other forms of media during that time as well. Movie stars appear on shows with Leno or Letterman all the time. I have also noticed convergence as a flow of context across multiple media platforms. Many movies end up becoming TV shows, and vice-versa. Several video games have evolved from shows and movies too. The "black box" theory has only come to my attention recently. The iPhone has gained a lot of popularity lately. It really is an amazing idea to have so many types of technology combined into one mobile device. Finally, convergence as migratory behavior of audiences has never really come to my attention. But after thinking about it, I see how true it is that people will do whatever it takes to get the media they want.

Conglomerates - Good or Bad?

During our class debate on media conglomerates, I thought a lot about whether they are more helpful or harmful to our society. My initial thought was that they are harmful in many ways, and I have not changed my opinions much. The biggest issue for me is the fact that conglomerates have the ability to basically control what the mass population takes in as far as media. This would be a useful power if their main goal was to better the society. But instead their goal is obviously profit. Now I have no problem with companies trying to influence people to purchase something, that is their job and it is necessary for them to survive. But when conglomerates, who only want to gain popularity and money, knowingly use their power to influence people to dress, talk, act, and be a certain way, I find that wrong. Adults do have the ability to think for themselves and make their own personal decisions, despite the massive influence and pressure put upon them. But conglomerates target children too. Disney and Nickelodeon are now influencing children more than ever, and they are even more easily persuaded than adults. I think if a conglomerate wants to influence the population like they do, they need a better reason than monetary gain.

Signs

One sign I chose to analyze is the PlayStation controller. Its denotative meaning is simply a device used to play PlayStation games. But I have recently noticed some other deeper meanings. To many, the controller itself is a symbol of video games as a whole. Every time I see a PlayStation controller, I think of video games, not necessarily just the PlayStation console. It is not only that way for me though. I have noticed that others use the controller to symbolize video games as well. A lot of cell phones use the PlayStation controller, or something that resembles it, to stand for their games application. Once I really started to think, it was easy for me to notice this connotative meaning of the controller. But others who do not belong to the video game affinity group may not be able to put it all together. Overall, I thought it was interesting how a simple controller for one specific gaming system has been chosen to represent all video games.

Media Log #2

After keeping a log of my media diet about a week ago, I did not like what I noticed about my habits. I was wasting a lot of time watching T.V. and sitting on the computer simply because I was bored. I decided to try to be more conscience of those tendencies and make some slight changes. After another three days, I looked back on how they differed from the first three. Overall, I cut my television time almost in half. My time spent on the internet and video games was about the same, but did not bother me because television was my main concern. I am still not satisfied though since I did not substitute that time for a better use of the media, I just cut it out altogether. Either way, it was good for me to use my time for a better reason than sitting on the couch. In time, I would like to focus on using more constructive media.

Un/True Myth

I think all of the six myths in contemporary media can be both true and untrue. For the "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" myth, one person must overcome a personal challenge, which leads to all of the people around them overcoming as well. A lot of times this is the case. There are many stories of single parents overcoming the problem of raising a family along, thus the entire family succeeds. There are tons of other examples of this too. But in most stories, everyone usually does not overcome. There is often one or more people who still fail in their struggles, despite the influence of the first person. Since I first started observing this myth, I have noticed that the stories usually do not match the qualifications of the myth exactly, but they do have the same overall principles of the myth.

Media Log

After keeping track of all the media I took in for three days, I noticed some things about my media diet. The main sorce of media that I consumed was television by far. In only those three days, I found that I watched almost fifteen hours of TV! I guess television is just how I pass the time when I am bored or stressed, which was a lot this week. I only played about an hour on my PlayStation, which I am happy with. I spent about five hours on the internet, including school work and leisure. As far as any actual reading material goes, I pretty much stayed away from it. I did not read any newspapers or magazines, and the only book I read was for homework and only lasted a few minutes. Overall, I was pretty unhappy with my media diet. The many hours I spent in front of the TV and the very little time I took to read showed how lazy I am when it comes to media, or anything else. I think my diet is somewhat similar to other people my age, but I deffinitely need to keep track of how I spend my time, and take steps to change it.

5 Levels of Production/Distribution

Last class period was the first time I have ever heard of these 5 levels. I always saw a producer as someone who actually held the title of producer, but really a producer is anyone involved in creating the media text. The rights owners are easy to understand, they are simply the people who "own" the intellectual property. Content aggregators pull different kinds of content for specific groups of people. Distributors send the information to consumers. And hardware producers create the actual devices used to gather the media text. In class, my group put this concept to use by breaking down the process of producing a song. We chose the country song called Chicken Fried. Some of the producers we found were the Zac Brown Band, the song writer Zac Brown, the band manager, sound engineers, studio operators, and more. We were not sure, but we believed the rights owners were Atlantic Records. Some content aggregators would be country TV and radio stations like GAC, CMT, WQMX, and WGAR. A few distributors are Time Warner, iTunes, local cable stations, and any store that sells music. Finally, the hardware producers are anyone who makes TVs, radios, computers, CDs, CD players, iPods, ect. I never realized everything and everyone involved in producing a single media text.