My Final Project

Because it was skipping in class.

Oil, or Gold how do you want to die?

Film directors have a unique way of presenting the signs and issues they want to portray to the public. Semiotics is just one of the ways of communication they use to get their message or signal to the audience. Semiotics used is used in all forms of film today both knowingly, and unknowingly. I see it in every film I watch. But most of these signs aren’t just sitting on the surface for everyone to see, sometimes they are hidden in a character or an important scene, and you don’t pick up on the sign until the third of fourth time you see the movie. I’ve chosen to analyze two film scenes I feel are iconic and fit in well with Semiotics. They come from The James Bond 007 film series the films are Goldfinger, and Quantum of Solace. The directors of the James Bond films got to deal with the biggest issues in the world going on at the time: Gas shortage, mostly the Cold War, Economy, and World War Three. All of these scenarios are important to the people of the world at any given time. The directors try to use what is happening or important in the world at the time to make a point or put an idea in the audiences head. Females in the James Bond movies are known for dying, anyone of the opposite sex Bond gets close to usually bites the dust in every movie. There is usually more than one Bond girl two is the preferred number one usually dies while the other survives and goes for a ride with James sexually that is. This is another semiotics use being

James Bond himself is an iconic figure in film, and literature he has been played by many different actors and has tackled some of the greatest threats facing western society since the early 1960’s. He was created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. The character has also been used in the longest running and most financially successful English language film franchise to date, starting in 1962 with Dr. No. He was created using a semiotics approach he was used as a symbol during the cold war to show that the Western world had their fictional hero who could battle any foe Soviet, mad scientist, or other corrupt organizations hell bent on destroying the Democratic world. Anyone who dare challenge the might of Democracy would fall victim to the suave secret agent from England with his high tech devices, and dazzling charm with the ladies. Bond was used as a symbol of what every man wants to be like Hip, smooth with the ladies, dresses nice and knows how to win at gambling I can say that’s what I like in a movie hero. Growing up as a kid I always knew him James Bond was we had the same name, I remember one time when I asked my dad if he just named me after him, or was their another reason. He said to me and for James Bond of course my dad is a huge James Bond fan having grown up in the 50’s and 60’s during the height of the cold war James Bond was a symbol he grew up with and he carried that with him and he still does.
Their have been 22 James Bond films and from those 22 films I have chosen 2 scenes not an easy thing to do but I picked the two scenes I thought were the most iconic for the times we are living in now. One of the scenes I have chosen comes from Goldfinger Bond is back and his next mission takes him to Fort Knox, where Auric Goldfinger and his henchman are planning to raid Fort Knox and obliterate the world economy. To save the world once again, Bond will need to become friends with Goldfinger, dodge killer hats and avoid Goldfinger's personal pilot, the sexy Pussy Galore. She might not have feelings for Bond, but will 007 help her change her mind? This is the third film in the Bond Series. The scene I focused on is a death scene of Jill Masterson played by Shirley Eaton. In this scene she is murdered by one of the main antagonist of the Film Oddjob A tiny Asian hitman. But they way he kills her is the most iconic part he covers her skin in gold and she dies of suffocation. This I think is a sign from the director saying back in 1964 gold was are most important resource and we were to dependant on it and if we weren’t careful it could bring down our entire way of life. The United States economy was backed by gold for a long time only recently has it changed from gold. It can also be read as if we don’t defend ourselves from developing countries like China or Japan they could sink our country with our most valued resource.
Gold is a calm color something soothing about in the scene where Jill is killed she looks so peaceful covered in gold. It really is something you need to see to have an effect on you as a person. Using a woman as a victim is always a signal because they are seen as the second sex but women are more innocent and seeing a woman killed might enrage the audience or gets them to have more or emotional connection to the movie and its villains and heroes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRqOelUrgbk&feature=related

The second scene is from the recently realized movie Quantum of Solace directed by Mark Foster in 2008. This is the 22nd James Bond film starring Daniel Craig in his second outing as the Younger James bond focusing on his start as 007. The Film is starts out with Bond and "M" sniffing a shadowy international network of power and corruption reaping billions. As Bond pursues the agents of an assassination attempt on "M," all roads lead to Dominic Greene, a world-renowned developer of green technology. Greene, a nasty piece of work, is intent on securing a barren area of Bolivia in exchange for assisting a strongman stage a coup there. The CIA looks the other way, and only Bond, with help from a retired spy and from a mysterious beauty, stands in Greene's way. "M" wonders if she can trust Bond, or if vengeance possesses him. James still wants revenge for the death of his lover Vesper in the previous film Casino Royale. The scene I’m focusing on in this film is the death of another one of Bond’s female friends who goes by the name of agent Fields. He has an intimate relationship with her, and after a chase in the dessert he comes back to find her covered and apparently drowned in oil. The main theme of this movie is that Dominick Green has found an oil supply in the Bolivian Dessert and The CIA and the MI-6 are willing to let a Coup happen just to get at the oil, because oil has become the most precious resource over the last 30 years. But you find out later the Dominick Green hasn’t found oil, but what he is doing is draining all the water out of the country and creating a drought to make every South American country turn to his ecological country.
Oil is a distraction in this movie it is supposed to be the most important resource and what keeps the world running not gold anymore. But the director Mark Foster throws a curveball at you and says wait hold on a second, oil isn’t the most important resource anymore it is just a smokescreen to distract everyone from water, which without water there would be no living thing on this planet. Water keeps us alive oil just keeps us moving in cars, boats, planes.

Directors are an interesting breed of people they know just the right buttons to push for their audience that is why they are so good at what they do. There good at misdirection distractions. I didn’t notice this scene in the film the first time I watched the movie, it took me till the third time to pick up on it, and then I read more into and became intrigued with the genius of this idea. Semiotics plays a big part in film making and being able to get the type of message you get across to the audience. The James Bond directors get to play with many ideas and world events that why they can send a variety of different messages. I think that the directors of these two particular films Goldfinger, and Quantum of Solace did an excellent job using a semiotics approach to these two films and the two scenes I have analyzed.

Remix Devon Farrell

Just in case a can't print it out.

Definition of Me

 

1. The purpose of my remix was to define who I am as an individual; my identity, what makes me, me. 

My audience include those who read this post and also those who want to learn about me.

In a short slideshow of images of those that define me, I made this remix intending to show who I am, which are the priorities of my life. 

2. I used a program called PhotoScape to edit my photos and made the slide show with slide.com

3. The photos used are photos taken by cameras except for the one of the church that I saved from the church website. With no purpose to sell any product, this remix is a fair use and adds value to it in terms of defining my identity. 

Recut, Reframe, Recycle - Devon Farrell

The Article Recut, Reframe, Recycle is about the kinds of uses of copyrighted works that are legal online. This article applies to me on many levels due to the fact I am a film major and have to deal with legal issues pertaining to copyrighted material all the time. The article describes many ways to quote copyrighted material in user generated videos. For example, satire and parody are spoofs of popular mass media in ways that demonstrate makers’ power over the material. I was taught that usually parodying popular figures or shows is one of the safest ways to remix the original material without copy write issues.
Another feature in the article describes incidental use of copyrighted materiel in videos. The example the article describes is Let’s Go Crazy #1, a video of an 18-month-old child dancing to Prince’s song “Let’s Go Crazy. It was later taken down from YouTube and other user-generated video websites for copyright infringement and because Prince is a douche bag. Incidental use applies to me because when I was a sophomore, I made a skim compilation video for a sponsored skimmer. Similar to the Prince example, I used music that I had permission to use but in one funny scene of guys telling jokes, I think, Jay-Z was playing on the stereo in the background. I later had to cut the scene due to copyright issues because they were planning to put the video online.
The clip below is a redub of the GI JOE cartoon PSAs. How is this legal? Does it fall under satire and parody?

Copyright Paordy and Satire

Fair use is a doctrine in United States copyright law that allows limited use of copyrighted material without requiring permission from the rights holders, such as use for scholarship or review. It provides for the legal, non-licensed citation or incorporation of copyrighted material in another author's work.
Technology has been evolving for thousands of years now, and it will never stop. We will continue to come up with break through, and new ways to do things better. With the creation of youtube.com, and websites like it people were able to make their own videos and post things that may be copyrighted by other companies on these websites. They can even post videos they made themselves that may also hold copyrighted material on them. The types of copy righted works include Parody and satire, Illustration or example, Personal reportage or diaries, Negative or critical commentary and, Archiving of vulnerable or revealing materials.
Satire and Parody I think are the most popular and my favorite by far. It’s just funny to see everyday day people put their own spin on pop culture, entertainment, and famous people. To get a wide range of what other people think. Parody is among the most common and uncontroversial examples of fair use. It shows people’s opinions turned into humors, and it allows its creators to express what they really think in a comedic way.
Fair use in parody is really homage to what America is really about. When someone who creates a parody video quotes existing text, image, or music to comment upon it, this practice is really nothing more than that particular person criticizing and expressing his views. The law allows people to be creative with copyrighted material, and it has been paying off for them I would say.
The video’s I posted are two of my favorite parodies on YouTube. One is a parody trailer for the Dark Knight created by the Evil Iguana production company. These guys are hilarious their kids are age that I knew when I was in Chicago. The second one is just a parody of Star Wars that uses a lot lines, and major plots from the first 3 films.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sYBqhOEdRQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKWVCv8uWDI

Feminist Communication/Genderlect

Feminist communication and Genderlect communication theories are based upon very different premises, however they overlap and are comparable in a number of ways. To begin, Genderlect. This is greatly based upon how men and women communicate differently and why they do so. It states that the differences in the different gender communications are a cultural result as opposed to biological or something along those lines. This concept in some ways plays into the well known stereotypes about both sexes.

Feminist communication theory is centered around different things, yet still focuses on communication styles as a result of gender. Needless to say it is based around gender, communication and social change. It is a very broad topic based upon how women communicate and why. It is for the most part a result of things like personal life experiences, women’s history, various philosophies and things of that nature.

Both theories play into how things are communicated and whey people communicate this way. One of the greatest similarities I’ve noticed is that botch suggest communication styles are a strong result of cultural happenings. The feminist communication theory goes a little more in depth but neither point as strongly to biological differences as I would have expected.

Feminist Communication Theory and Genderlect Theory

The Feminist Communication Theory talks about 3 Criterias and 4 Elements. 

The three criterias for a feminist communication theory are :

• The Feminist Communication Theory theorizes gender
• The Feminist Communication Theory theorizes communication
  
• The Feminist Communication Theory theorizes social damage

It talks about how the world is in need of help and structual change for women to speak out and have a voice.  The four elements of the Feminist are:

• Explanatory that speaks of and to experience of a group or individual. 
• Political that is also personal because speaking out and debating about feminism is political act. 
• Polyvocal that's generated by the different voices and experiences individuals have. 
• Transformative is the "intellectual and spiritual growth" that effects people to act upon the lack of difference, voice, and representation of women in communication.

The video link below shows how women are misrepresented as sex objects. I think it could be giving the public a view of women only useful for sex. You only need to watch a few minutes of the video to see how "Women prejected as bodies only, treating women as sex objects, ads portray women as less-than human beings" and it quotes "women in some ads have been portrayed as domestic providers who do not make significant decisions, are dependent on men, and are essentially sex objects"(Courtney and Lockeretz) and later into the video (6:30) shows how women are professionals just as much as men and they have the right to be respected. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgGiB-o84sk&feature=PlayList&p=FAE40AFDF2245468&index=0&playnext=1

Genderlect discusses about how the differences in men and women and their language. Because of the lack of the "communication," men and women fall into arguments quite often. Men and women say one thing and mean the other.  And in terms of language, women are more emotional and expressive, while men are more "right to the point." Women want all the details while men simplifies it into a short statement. for example the clip below of Ross and Rachel (from Friends) explaining thei kiss to their friends. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGoC8FTLKSI

Stuart Hall’s Cultural Studies - Devon Farrell

The part of Stuart Hall’s Cultural Studies chapter that I found the most interesting was the section, An Obstinate Audience. The section addresses “the fact that media present a preferred interpretation of human events is no reason to assume that the audience will correctly take in the offered ideology. He states “the powerless” can translate the message in accordance to their personal ideas and interest. Content can be interpreted differently by anybody.
Television encodes a dominant meaning to their productions. Societies mostly base decoding these messages by the social, cultural and political world they live in. This forms an accepted ideology to which most citizens conform. People can accept, reject or negotiate the message. Hall outlines three decoding options:

1.Operating inside the dominant code. The audience reading agrees with the preferred reading.

2.Applying a negotiable code. The audience takes in the message but does not agree.

3.Substituting an oppositional code. The audience sees through the establishment bias and mounts an organized effort against it.

While watching the clip below see if you recognize and agree with the dominant hegemonic meaning (operating inside the dominant code) or if you recognize and disagree with the dominant hegemonic meaning (Applying a negotiable code). I can’t see how you can apply the third decoding option.

Hall's encoding and decoding theory

Hall has become one of the main proponents of reception theory, and developed Hall's Theory of encoding and decoding. One of his major ideas is that people don't only read and accept text, rather they encode and decode the text to decide whether they agree or disagree with an idea or argument that the author has made.

I just recently watched the movie swing vote that starred Kevin Costner, Dennis Hopper, and Kelsey Grammer, it reminded me of wag the dog in many ways, and I think it incorporates many ideas of Hall’s encoding and decoding theory. It’s about two candidates both vying to become President of the United States, and they’re both trying to get the vote of one man. During their campaign for this one vote they change their ideas and what they believe and release these hilarious campaign ad’s all directed at one person. You sit there watching this movie trying to figure out if he can pick up and decode the encoded messages in the commercials even though some of them are right out in the open to see.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQ_U0QJ3dx0&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvLrRC567zQ&feature=related

The film plays mostly on the fact that Americans are uneducated to what happening around the world and even in their own country. You wonder that If a democrat stated he had republican views or the other way around how would that be perceived by that person’s base of voters would it affect them how would they react to it. Their cultural ideals would definitely come into play and someone they supported in the past they may not in the future based on one issue and how they perceive it how they decode it in their own mind.

Stuart Hall's Cultural Studies

First I would like to start off by saying that I personally found this theory to be among the more interesting of topics the class has yet covered. It clearly relates back to other theories, but most directly Framing. From what I understand a large part of this theory is about how people in power(politicians, corporations, etc) remain in power because they use the media to frame them in the way that the seem fit. This way they are in control in more ways then one, not only in direct control, like for example a politician would pass laws to have rather direct control, but they are also in indirect control because they frame things in the media in a favorable fashion for them. The other aspect that I enjoyed about this theory is how Hall says that it should be 'challenged' and essentially stopped, even if this is done so by just realizing that this is happening.

I decided to include an article about George Orwell's Novel, 1984. Although the reference is needless to say rather extreme, It shares many strong concepts nonetheless.
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1410023/use_of_symbolism_and_themes_in_george_pg2.html?cat=38

Barthes' Semiotics

Roland Barthes' theory of Semiotics is distinguished by two components; the signifier and the signified.  Semiotics is defined to be the study of signs. After the 2008 presidential election, the signs "Change" and "Hope" has influenced people to believe that now, President Obama is hope for change that we need desperately in America. Now when we see the signs "Hope" and "Change" we know it represents Obama. Then let us study Obama's signs according to Barthes' theory of Semiotics.

- A Sign is the combination of itss signifier and signified -

According to Barthes' theory, a sign is a part of a system. A connotative system including three elements: the signifier, the signified, and the sign. The words "Hope" and "Change" themselves are the signifier and the interpretation of Obama = 'Hope for change' is the signified. And according to Barthes, the "combination of the two is the sign." This concept of the signifier and signified are influenced from Saussure, who highly influenced Barthes to study semiotics. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcRA2AZsR2Q 

But many critiques have been made saying that individuals have their own ways of interpretations. Not everyone has the same ideas seeing one sign which gives the world the diversity of ideas. 

Media Ecology - Devon Farrell

My interpreted definition of media ecology is technological evolution and how it plays a leading role in human affairs. Currently, according to McLuhan’s chart, there are four historical eras. Each era relates technology and the dominant sense receptor used during that time; our society in presently in the electronic age. Lost during the transition between the tribal and the age of literacy was “a deeper feeling of community and greater awareness of the surrounding existence.” Now, “electronic media are retribalizing the human race.” (And according to Microsoft Word retribalizing is a made up word) “We are now a global village.” A global village is “a worldwide electronic community where everyone knows everyone’s business.” Apple has present has present us with a “Faustian bargain” in the form of an IPhone during this current age. I believe the IPhone is the leading the communication tool for the global village. It incorporates almost every sense of perception. You have the option of texting or calling someone, going on the internet, and probably of things too. (Sadly, I don’t have one.) Now, looking at such an advanced piece of technology I wonder, what are the future possibilities of an IPhone; maybe, ILife? Will this new technology create more than it destroys or the other way around? New technology is sometime overwhelming and scary in my eyes.


The video clip below is the predict future of cell phones and how more integrated they will me in our life and how we communicate with others. I can see this making our global village even closer.

Losing our sense of touch

“It's the sense of touch. In any real city, you walk, you know? You brush past people, people bump into you. In L.A., nobody touches you. We're always behind this metal and glass. I think we miss that touch so much, that we crash into each other, just so we can feel something”. That was a quote from the movie Crash that I thought would fit nicely into my discussion, Crash had to do with race and racism but I think it also fits in here Throughout time technology has gotten better and more advanced and without it our society would probably be lost, just imagine: no texting, no satellite TV, or internet. Those are 3 things that are in mostly everyone’s daily lives, I know there in mine and if they weren’t who know what I would be doing. McLuhan's places us in the digital age, which in a sense is getting us away from the stuff we used to do like talk on the phone, some people who are far away from each other can go on dates over the internet through little Avatar characters. There’s a whole website a found dedicated to that sort of thing. Back in the “old days” maybe 10 years ago when you had to ask a girl out on a date over the phone or in person, you can do through an instant message, email, or text message. Instead of playing video games like XBOX360 or PS3 over a friend’s house or in the same room we can do it from our houses, or thousands of miles away through online gaming. I think it makes us a little bit less human in a way. . The clip I chose to show was actually a movie trailer for the film Eagle Eye starring Shia Labeouf.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFrSFoHWKM8


I thought this movie was a great example of the mad side of Media Ecology, and technological advances in our society. It shows that the technology we use every day and trust can be a bad thing. It can be turned against you. Imagine you cell phones, computer, satellites, things we use in everyday life our used to track you down. It’s like a Big Brother type thing. I’m not saying this is a realistic thing that can actually happen in present day today. But the farther we get away from touch, the more real I think it can become. I’ve seen the movie I don’t want to ruin the ending for anyone who hasn’t seen it yet so I’ll just leave you guys with that.

Agenda Theory/Framing

Sorry for the inconvenience of late post. To make a long story short, due to some 'technical difficulties' I had to re-write the post after a late class.

Agenda setting theory is in some ways related to cultivation theory in that it is based around how media, for lack of a better term ‘Warps’ the viewers mind, except in Agenda theory, it is intentional. To start one has to understand that the theory is for the most part broken down into two aspects, where the media, through use of subconscious techniques, tells you what you should be thinking (Agenda Setting) and how you should be thinking about it (Framing).

First lets talk Agenda Setting. The best example for this is news stations, and what they choose to broadcast. A common trait is pushing lots of negative stories to spread fear in the minds of the people watching. By showing these stories people want to hear and know more about similar events, so that is what the media gives them. Agenda setting has a lot to do with not only what the broadcast wants to show but also the relationship of that and what the people want to see.

The second aspect is framing which is where the media, and above all the news tell people how to think about things. Fox news and MSNBC could receive the same exact information on a story but convey the information in entirely different ways, almost convincing the viewers of their politically influenced view on the topic.

In the following clip from The Daily Show, host Jon Stewart points out some rather in your face examples of news networks using framing.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

MSNBC Replaces Fox News

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Funny Political News
Joke of the Day

Agenda Setting Theory

In my first blog which was my introduction, I quoted that the information we are exposed to both informs and forms us. As we grow older, we form our lives and become stubborn to take information that we want to believe in.  Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw introduced the Agenda-Setting Theory in 1972. These men defined the theory with the function:

"The media may not only tell us what to think about, they also may tell us how and what to think about it, and perhaps even what to do about it." (Griffin p 403)

The Agenda-Setting Theory tells us how the media influences not only what the audience wants to hear and read about, but also how to deal with it as well. For example, the use of media to get people out to vote in the 2008 presidential election. Media was used in every way possible to get Americans out to vote, to show the significance of voting, how important it is. And it worked! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3aqajRVi3U

The Agenda-Setting Theory has 2 components of media agenda which is the "cause" and public agenda which is the "delayed effect." The media agenda is what the media communicates to the public. In the voting example, it would be the commercials, ads, all of media! And the public agenda is what the public is influenced to do, think, or act upon the media agenda. In the given example, it would be the influence upon viewers that voted.

Also we learn about Framing: The Salience of Attributes. James Tankard defines framing as "the central organizing idea for news content that supplies a context and suggests what the issue is through the use of selection, emphasis, exlusion, and elaboration." (Griffin p 401) Then that makes it possible that the media pick and choose what to communicate to the audience. In order to do so, they need to know what the audience wants to read and watch about. Whatever sells is aired on TV; sex, power, violence sells! And if this is so, how is it that framing is possible when the media agenda causes public agenda?  

In the post before me, Jim quotes Gerbner who says “most people who decry violence on television are worried that all too-receptive young viewers will imitate aggression on the screen.” In 1956, Alberta Siegel conducts an experiment on twenty four children in nursery school. Half of the children watch a violent episode of Woody Woodpecker and the other half watch a non-violent Little Red Hen cartoon. The outcome was the children who watched the violent cartoon were more aggressive and isolated. I believe all types of media have a huge effect on how we act and view others. Gerbner says the idea of the “chances of involvement with violence, fear of walking alone at night, perceived activity of police, and general mistrust of people increase in relationship to how much television one watches. I believe this to be completely true while others disagree. For example, when I watch a good ghost movie my mind is more open to the fact that a ghost may be in my room when I go to sleep because my mind has been flooded with realistic images of ghosts that evening. Any other day I absolutely do not believe in ghosts and the thought that my house may be haunted is ridiculous. So my question is, if I watch ghost documentaries all the time, read true ghost sighting stories all the time, constantly bombard myself with ghost images will that change how I think about ghosts. That is why I believe continually saturating oneself with media will cause you to change how you think about violence, sex, or just walking alone at night. I also think the idea of Cultivation Theory also applies to real life and what you are surrounded by, product of your environment. What’s the difference between seeing violence on television constantly or seeing it in real life? I wanted to show you the Alberta Siegel experiment as my media but I could not find it so I choose to do this. Watch the clips below. See if you aren’t a little scared. Just a fun experiment!! See if you can relate these videos to Cultivation theory and how the emotions of being scared and aggressiveness (violent) are provoked the same way through video.

Ghost Crying

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CW-oQ7HAB5U&feature=related

Girl In Car

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnH9OJP6FTk

Cultivation Theory of George Gerbner

Gerbner wrote that violence “is the simplest and cheapest dramatic means to demonstrate who wins in the game of life and the rules by which the game is played. Gerbner took a survey using two groups, the light and heavy viewers and asked them about each category Chances of involvement with violence, Fear of walking alone at night, Perceived activity of police, and the general mistrust of people. What he got was the heavy viewers believing that they are more likely to be a victim of violence; they fear that 1 in 10 of them will be of risk of violence on any given day. Light viewers believed that in was more like 1 in 100.

Cultivation Research has three steps to it: The first step in cultivation research is content analysis: The process of studying the subject matter on TV. For example, in 1969, Gerbner and his colleagues "began to chart the content of prime-time and weekend children's television programming

The second step in cultivation research is the cultural indicators analysis: the process of assessing individuals' beliefs about what the world is like. This analysis involves surveys of individuals using factual questions about the world.

The final step in cultivation research is cultivation analysis: "a comparison between light television viewers and heavy television viewers. If heavy television viewers tended to provide answers that were more in line with the television response, researchers would have support for the cultivation hypothesis"

Below is a link to a clip from the final season of the Sopranos. The clip shows the death of a rival gangster and oh man it is quite violent. That is what makes it such a good scene though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oDI0NDAjbI&feature=related

I watch a lot of TV every week shows like: 24, Prison Break, Heroes, and Law and Order just to name a few. I get my fill of violence for the week. Violence is a big reason I watch certain shows on TV it draws people to it, by the time the typical TV viewer graduates from High School, he or she has observed thirteen thousand violent deaths. That number sounds about right to me; since I’ve graduated High School I’d estimate I have seen about four thousand more deaths. Griffin says “most people who decry violence on television are worried that all too-receptive young viewers will imitate aggression on the screen. I believe this statement to be true. I remember when I was a young a teenager I watched wrestling a lot and I try to imitate what I saw on television, not knowing the dangers and the risk involved with doing so. Crime is 10 times as rampant in the "television world" as it is in the real world. Viewing these violent programs does have a great affect on people. I remember a murder when I lived in Pittsburgh, about two teenagers who killed one of their mothers, and cut off her hands and feet and her head, because they saw it on the Sopranos. The Sopranos is an ultra violent TV show, that aired on HBO for six seasons and it was one of the highest rated and most loved shows of all time, because of its ties to real life and the violence that accompanied the show.

Aristotle’s Rhetoric

Aristotle’s Rhetoric is essentially a number of persuasion techniques, and these techniques are broken up into different sets of categories. Now watch the below video which is an excerpt from a speech from the film Patton. General Geroge S. Patton gave this speech during World War II and this is the films reproduction of it. Pay close attention to not only what he is saying, but how he is saying it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40pWnzCHktw
(excuse the link but embedding for the video was disabled)

This is a well-known speech for a reason, because it beautifully exemplifies Aristotle’s 3 appeals:

-Logos- Appeal based upon logic
-Ethos- Appeal based upon the character of the speaker
-Pathos- Appeal based upon emotions

First Logos, what is being said is based upon logic, although this excerpt does not do justice to the speech, it does show his ‘do or die’ spirit. He also talks about advancing in battle and referencing the war strategy. Next Ethos, notice the metals decorating the speakers jacket, clearly he is a man that has gone through the military ranks, a man of honor, and needless to say credibility. And finally it exemplifies Pathos. Patton uses strong imagery in the speech such as when he talks about the graphic nature of experiencing the death of a comrade.

Another series of points given by Aristotle are the 5 cannons. The 5 cannons are ways to make speeches the most effective.

First, invention, speeches should include new and informative facts and figures in order to be more effective. The second cannon is, arrangement, which is rather self-explanatory. The information given should be in a clear and logical order to help the listeners understand and maintain the information. Third, style, which is saying that the speech should be given with strong language not spoken as if written by a child. The words have to be powerful enough to have a lasting effect. Next is memory, as in the speaker must practice and memorize the speech. This is important because no one will listen or learn from someone who does not know what they are saying themselves. And lastly is delivery, the person giving the speech needs to show confidence, and speak loudly and clearly not only so they are understood, but so that it is clear that they are passionate about what is being said.

The last issue of Aristotle’s rhetoric that I will discuss is the golden mean. Remembering back to high school math most will remember that the mean is the average, which is also what it is here. Aristotle’s golden mean is a way of suggesting not to go to any extreme and to try to keep things relatively balanced. If you go too far in one direction, then the other direction will start to hurt.

Knowing this much more about Aristotle’s theories on speech and persuasion, go back and look at the above video and see how Logos, Ethos and Pathos apply, also take note to how the 5 cannons and the golden mean are exemplified, not only in that speech but all speeches, both real and fictional. All of the great speeches from Martin Luther King, to more recently Barack Obama use Aristotle’s Rhetorical theories and are all the better for it.

Blog Number One

Good day everyone, my name is Cal Dietz and i suppose that i should tell you all a little about myself. I am a twenty year old communications major on my second semester at Temple Ambler after two absolutely wonderful years at Bucks County Community College. I have a love for both film and music alike, my tastes in both ranging from household names to the rather obscure. I have been working my dead end grocery store job for just shy of six years now and between school and my time spent there as an apple stacker it leaves me with little free time. What time I do have to myself I often spend seeing bands play, watching a movie, or doing something along the lines of going to a diner with my friends. If there is anything else you would like to know about me don't hesitate to come ask!

Blog 1

My name is Hanna Kim. This is my third year at Temple University but just transferred to SCT for the BTMM program from Fox School of Business. I was studying IBA and Marketing and realized it wasn't the correct way for my career and I ended up at SCT. During my high school years, I majored in vocal arts and my love for music never seemed to go away. Because I'm a first generation Korean American college student,  the expectations of my family were very high, which was the reason why I majored in IBA-Marketing. As time went on, my interest for performance, exposure, and most importantly music only increased. And my love for exposure, performing has led me to pick a career path in which fits with reality. I am currently studying BTMM and plan to minor in Journalism as well, having the interest of becoming a reporter and maybe one day, an anchor. But my ultimate goal is to keeping in touch with music with the background, BTMM.

Mass communication is information communicated to the public whether it is the news, magazines, radio, tv, or film.  I once heard that information both forms and informs our lives, especially in the information and digital world that we live in today. Mass communication and media is an extention of our abilities to learn something new and put more and more information in our brains. The information we get from mass communication helps shape my identity, beliefs, life and plants an ambition to build my career in getting information out to people and to be a part of mass communication.

I expect to grow in knowledge and interest of mass communication and its theories in depth through this class. Therefore absorbing more information on mass communication and its theories. And for the C-Team, I will be able to offer advice, participation, opinion, and maybe even research. Depending on what needs to be done, I will contribute in every way possible to get needs met. I must say I don't have much experience in this field yet so whatever I can find out to help out in anyway, we've gotta get it done!

Blog 1: January 26, 2008

My name is Devon Farrell, I am a senior at Temple. Hopefully, at the end of this semester I will be graduating with a Bachelor's degree in Film and Media Arts. I transferred to Temple with an Associates degree in Communications from Montgomery Count Community College. At North Penn High School, I graduated with honors from the Communications Academy they provided. Currently I am looking for internships/jobs in my field, but right now I am currently a slave/waiter at Giuseppe's Restaurant. Also, I am working on a few websites for Real Estate guys. I live in Lansdale and commute to the city right after class, which is loads of fun.
I have always been interested in mass communications. My first interest was being a news anchor but now I would like to become a video editor or something in graphic arts. Truthfully I do not watch a lot of TV and I only listen to the radio when I forget to bring my Ipod during car rides. I think the news and a lot of TV shows are garbage but are fun to watch on occasion. Some TV shows I watch are Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Entourage, and South Park. I love music. Some music that I like is Sublime, Pepper, G. Love, Roots, Biggie, and sadly Lil Wayne. I am a film major so obviously I must like movies. A lot of comedy movies, Kids, Momento, Fight Club are a few I like.
I would like to gain more knowledge on mass communication from this class and try to find out what other jobs are interesting in this field. To my group, I offer my point of view and whatever I can so we can get some kind of good grade on this blog thing.

Experimental Short I made...

Blog 1

Hey everyone, my names James Mussallem, but everyone calls me Jim or Jimmy. Credit wise I am a Junior at Temple University, and majoring in communications. I've played sports my entire life soccer, basketball, football, baseball, swimming. You name it i've pretty much played it some point in my life. I was an all American Mid-Fielder in the state of Illinois. I'm orignally from Chicago, but have lived back and forth in Pennslyvania my whole life.

All the jobs I have had were in dealing with communication with customers or the media stuff like that. I worked for Best Buy, Hollywood Video, Booters Soccer, and currently i've employed by BlockBuster Inc, and Beat Street DJ company. I consider myself to be an expert on all things entertainment related: sports, movies, TV shows. I've wanted to be a sports announcer my whole life I strive to do that. I need to become more familiar with the technology that goes behind the scenes with it and learn how to write better, but other then that I feel confident I have all the tools neccessary to get the job done.

To my group I bring differing opinions outside of the normal I feel, my views on alot things differ from the mainstream I think of myself as a leader and not a follower, I bring that whereever I go. I'm not afraid of a debate either.

Blog One

Hey everyone, my name is Melissa Hollerbach and this is my second semester here at Temple. I've done gymnastics for a good 13 years of my life and taught at Ricochets Gymnastics for 2 years. I just stopped doing the sport this past year for reasons I'm still not really sure of. I currently work as a hostess and server at an Italian restaurant which I've been at for about 4 years now. I really enjoy my job for the most part, I feel like I have been working alot more now than ever but I don't really mind. I live with 5 males, one of which is my dog Wubby who is a 5 year old boxer and a cat named Mr.Friskies. The other 3 consist of my dad, brother and family friend. I love Summer but definitely don't mind a good snowfall because i love sledding. However, being cold is not for me, i bundle up like its my job when it's cold which is why I'm not really a fan of Winter. I love eat, smile, go to new places and watch movies.

Mass communication is an important factor in my life because it surrounds me. While my house doesn't receive the news paper any more, news is always playing on a TV or radio somewhere. I think the most influential sources of mass communication are TV shows and music. Personally I feel that some people are so easily influenced that just watching the TV their minds believe whatever is said. However, with music you first have to find a style that is fitting to you and then lyrics play a role. Lyrics communicate feelings which is undoubtedly part of communication.

I hope to gain better understandings of how communication really works. I mean I know people talk and that's communicating but are there more effective ways to communicate than we currently do?
I hope to offer the group whatever I can. I'm a big communicator and i know a little a little about the media so I'll do what I can and hope it is enough!

Welcome C-Team

Welcome C-Team: Cal Dietz, Devon, Farrell, Melissa Hollerbach, Hanna Kim, and Jim Mussalem.

For your first post, respond briefly to the following:

• Introduce to yourself generally
• How is mass communication an important factor in your life? (answer in terms of your identity, relationships, philosophy, beliefs, habits, work and/or ambitions)
• What do you want to gain from this class?
  
• What perspectives will you offer the group from your experience with mass media and communication?

Since this is an academic blog, please write primarily in complete sentences and standard English.

To post, click on the orange and white "B" icon (for blogger) in the top left corner. That will bring you to your dashboard for your Google accounts. Then click on the button to add a post to this blog. You should be able to figure out the rest.

If you have trouble, use the help functions. You can also try contacting your group members (here or through Blackboard) for help.

Welcome aboard!