My Favourite Personalities

One of my favorite personalities in any form of entertainment is Conan O'Brien. Conan worked on several different comedy/late-night shows after his graduation from Harvard University including The Simpsons, The Tonight Show, and most recently his self-titled show Conan. His quick witted style of humour and his distinctive appearance have made him one of the most recognizable figures on television, and his show has been rated as one of the most popular talk shows. His show Conan opens with a monologue, frequently studded with his reaction to the audience's reaction to his jokes and short discussions with co-host Andy Richter. The show then hosts two special guests, with whom Conan trades anecdotes, experiences and witty banter. The show then closes with a live performance by either a band/artist or a guest stand-up comic. All things considered, the way his show is structured is very much like any other talk show, but it is Conan's unique treatment of this formula that has boosted his show into the limelight.



You can catch the most recent episodes of Conan on the CTV website, updating daily.

As for female personalities, I really enjoy Jodie Foster, who I've only seen in two movies, but enjoyed very much in both. In Taxi Driver she played a 12-year child prostitute who the protagonist was obsessed with saving. In Silence of the Lambs she put out an amazing performance as Clarice Starling, a junior agent with the FBI who is assigned to catch a serial killer and must collaborate with another captured serial killer (Dr. Hannibal Lecter) in order to catch the killer. Her performance in Silence of the Lambs impressed me greatly because she played a very complex character, and had to feign an accent that resulted from her character's desire to hide her country-style West Virginian accent. Her psychological interactions with Hannibal Lecter were intense and disturbing, and without her, the movie would have suffered very much. I respect Foster's talents as an actor very much.

A trailer from Silence of the Lambs

Hugh Dillon: decent Canadian, fine actor, extremely bald

Hugh Dillon, born in Kingston, Ontario has proved something of a jack of all trades throughout his entertainment career. Starting off in 1987 with his hard rock band Headstone, he and the band successfully toured and produced albums until their break up in 2003. After the band broke up, he formed another band in 2004 called Hugh Dillon Redemption Choir, which has released one album, and Dillon released another solo album called Works Well With Others.

Although Dillon may be fairly well known to Canadians over 25, with teens he's recognized by his acting career, especially from two shows in the last 5 years, Durham County and Flashpoint. In both shows, Dillon plays the role of a Canadian police officer. In Durham County, a serial thriller that lasted for three seasons, he plays a Toronto detective who returns back to his home town of Durham after his partner is killed and his wife is diagnosed with breast cancer, eventually discovering that the town may be harboring secrets he never would have suspected in his youth. In Flashpoint Dillon portrays a sniper for the SRU (Strategic Response Unit, a fictional Canadian branch of SWAT) who faces deadly situations day to day while dealing with the guilt of being forced to shoot a crazed man in front of his son to save a hostage. He also had a role in the first Trailer Park Boys movie. While Dillon has played many non-Canadian characters in his film career, his last two major roles have indicated a return to his Canadian roots.

Flashpoint

Yes, of course it does.

The first example of violence being used (and sensationalized) in media I'd like to look at is the 2006 release "300", which was unrelentingly violent for violence's sake. This clip shows what I'm saying pretty well: (embedding disabled, watch here) I'd actually like to tie into three points instead of two because I feel that the movie connects with all three quite strongly. First, and most primal, is that we love movement, and one of our favorite types of movement is combat. It's exhilarating, and we're biologically built to think so. The frenetic and vicious pace of combat appeals to us on a very basic level right down to our Sympathetic Nervous System, which creates our fight-or-flight responses (note: both of these options contain copious amounts of movement). So, when we see 300 Spartans absolutely shredding this giant Persian army, flowing around in their crimson cloaks, slowing down then speeding up and cutting into a foe with pinpoint precision all while preparing to slay another, it excites us because movement is exciting.

The second point that this ties into is that movies can portray violence to an amazing degree with special effects. We see this in incredible detail in various parts of 300, especially in scenes of combat, where a favorite technique of the director's is to slow down the action about a 3rd of a second before the kill and then just as the blade strikes, it actually speeds up past normal speed for a brief second as we see the enemy being viciously torn apart by the strike, then returns to normal until the next kill. Also, the movie contains decapitations, an unusual amount of maiming, and many especially brutal kills where you can see a spear plunging into one side of an enemy and then coming out the other, which are all done with that same movie magic we all know and love.

Third and final is the point that says in so many words, heroes and villains don't just talk, they fight. This is absolutely true in 300, with the Spartan side being painted as the heroes that defend their homeland against impossible odds against a foreign invader come to destroy everything they've ever known (and I'm not saying that the portrayal is unfair, look at history) whereas the Persians are portrayed as heartless animals that go into another country and plunder and murder and destroy. In one scene, we see an in-depth view of what goes on in the Persian king's tent, and it is portrayed as rife with hedonism and corruption. At a different point in the film, the Spartans come across a village that the Persian "Immortals" have completely destroyed, and have even gone so far as to spike the villagers to a tree. With this, we have a pretty clear setup of hero and villain, and then they fight. By God, do they ever fight.

There's another point that I feel is pretty important in our culture that 300 really couldn't address, and that's the concept that certain types of violence are engineered purely for comedy, and in the cases of animated movies, mostly for children. To show this, we'll look at the most classic of all classics, Looney Tunes. Ever since it's debut in the early 1930's, Looney Tunes has been the icon of animated violence. Most of the episodes seem solely based around the violence that occurs between two characters, (in this case Elmer Fudd and Bugs Bunny):

As we can see, Elmer takes most of the beating here and in the eyes of children, that's great because they want to see the bad guy lose (this is also a type of hero versus villain). This particular episode is violent, but we don't get into the trademark Viet Cong-like killing devices that many episodes feature (like grabbing a dummy filled with straw that looks like Bugs Bunny, which then pulls a rope that drops a giant anvil), and for some reason, that's insanely funny, usually with the greater attempted murder getting the bigger laugh. In Looney Tunes, hero always trumps villain and villain always takes a darn good thrashing before the end. Children love it, and always have. I know I still do.

Reporting on Nielsen

There were many things that surprised me in the 2009 Nielsen Report, but chief among them were the two interconnecting facts that adults watch more online videos than per day than teens, and the fact that teens watch "less than half as much as the typical user". Culturally, we assume that teens spend their time on youtube, phones and facebook and nothing else. Obviously, this is wrong, and while teens do favor all three of these things, it seems that youtube (and other video sharing sites) are dominated by the adult world. Now, converse to our cultural assumption about teens, we tend to view adults as hardworking and absolutely devoted to their job, and assume that they never get the desire to stare out the window for 20 minutes or neglect their work for something with a little less tedium and a little more lolcats. But, now more than ever, that's wrong too. The study states that while the average day for a teen is tightly scheduled and organized (at least until 3 PM) and with less access to computers in general, whereas adults who work with computers are left alone from 9 to 5 with their PC, tasked with finishing a task by a deadline instead of going from task to task at an appointed time. This opens up a window of opportunity for adults to watch a good deal more videos, and to browse more in general than their teen children.

One thing that I definitely connected with from the comment sheet was "I don't recall life without the internet". That's not to say I was born with a high-speed wireless card clutched in my hand, I do remember running a cord directly from the back of the phone to the computer and hearing the dial-up signal, but I don't have many memories from before my family was enduring that particular screech (It's probably one of my clearest memories because of the sound).
Another comment from the sheet that I thought was pretty descriptive of how my life has changed since the internet is "Because of the internet I never buy or rent movies", although never is a bit exaggerated. With the advent of torrenting (file-sharing) I haven't paid more than 15 dollars for a movie for quite a while. On the whole, although it may take 5 hours to download a movie, it takes a lot less fuss than going to the store. This, combined with the potential of theoretically infinite digital replication (if a friend wants this movie, I can copy it to a thumb drive, give it to him and still be able to watch it on my computer) makes it a much more preferable alternative to buying/renting. It's a simple matter of convenience and long-term effeciency.
If we were to create a boiled-down version of the Nielsen Report for Blackville School, two subjects I would like to compare Blackville's results to the report are their TV v.s. online video habits, and how much they text, to see if they approach, match, or exceed the North American average.

Critiquing Blogs

1st Critique: Aspect Studios

The Photographic Aspect is the mainly photographic blog of Mark Alan Meader, a nature/landscape photographer from Idyllwild, California. I go into such specificity about his location because it's very important to the content of the blog itself. Basically, the blog consists of photographs (and a brief description of each) taken my Meader that were shot near/a reasonable distance from Meader's home in Idyllwild. Each shot is of a purely natural setting, yet untouched by human hands. The photographs are all of pieces of beauty found in harsh surroundings, such as an oasis found in Palm Canyon, which is located in a desert (see his February 7th post).

2nd Critique: Et tu, Mr. Destructo?

"The official blog of notorious former African dictator Mobuto Sese Seko" is a blog which has very little to do with Africa, or Mobuto Sese Seko. This is probably for one huge reason: it's not actually his blog. The notorious former African dictator died in 1998 from prostate cancer. While the reason for this obviously false impersonation isn't stated outright, it may be because coming up with an interesting blog name is one difficult trick (I've been wracking my brains since Thursday, no luck). Whatever the case may be, the blog is consistently a good read. It covers many different topics, from books to sports to world events in a light hearted and jesting tone that conveys a sense that he's not talking at you like a lot of bloggers do, but rather to you. It also doesn't shy away from possibly offensive topics, whether that's for better or for worse. All in all, as stated before, a consistently good read.

The Key Roles of Mass Media

1. Supplying information

Egypt has been huge in the news lately. People love hearing about a good cause, and they love few things more than hearing a good revolution, especially when said revolution is morally justifiable and ethically supportable. Thus, information coming from Cairo is very important to the average news aficionado. CBC is going about their reporting on this on a very strategic, almost tactical level, providing coverage in all formats on all fronts. They have a live feed, articles in text format, photo galleries updating daily, as well as videos, and even an article showing many twitter postings from Egypt in the midst of the chaos. This kind of coverage is a shining example of supplying information on an international level.

2. Influencing what we talk and think about

One thing that is baffling to me is the success of one particular TV show, and that show is called Jersey Shore. Despite its purely asinine and shallow premise, the bizarre nature of the show's characters and the incredibly irresponsible lifestyles depicted may allow some people to live vicarious wild lives, and for others, may simply be something to laugh at. In any case, the show is nothing less than a phenomenon in terms of popularity, and for a long, long time had a huge influence on places like Twitter, and on days of scandal, it dominated those places. Constantly, someone was tweeting a quote from DJ Pauly D and his ilk. There have been few times in the past when a reality show has taken such precedence in the hearts and minds of the public.

3. Allowing us to expand our personal experience

Tying back into the first point, we love something that takes us outside of our comfort zone. Many TV shows are entirely oriented around this concept, such as Survivorman, Man v.s Wild, etcetera. One notable example is the series "SAS Jungle: Are You Tough Enough?" which before filming even begins, takes 1000 of Britain's most physically fit civilians and boils them down to the double digits, and then puts them into the jungle where many integral parts of SAS training take place. Throughout the six part series, they are put through the many grueling physical and mental tests that members of the UK's Special Air Service are subjected to, trying to see if they can hack it and weeding out the people who can't one at a time. Although anyone can drop out any time, it's definitely a show that even to watch would take one out of their comfort zone.

4. Showing us accepted normality

This particular part of the media is pretty cut and dry, not in a direct way, but in a thoroughly indirect way. The media seldom comes right out and says (for example) "graffiti is just awful" themselves, but instead in the way that they portray graffiti, getting quotes from disgruntled members of the "vandalized" community. The way that media tells us something is bad (or good) is not necessarily in what they say, but how they say it. A good example in the news recently is President Obama's decision to quit smoking. While some people would fight to the death to defend smoking, the article is clearly against smoking as a concept, even though it never comes straight out and says "smoking is bad, we hate smoking". The article refers to Obama's former habit as an "issue", refers to quitting as "doing the right thing" and so on and so forth. As with all writing, everything hinges on the tone.

5. Advertising and public relations

This one is even more obvious from the last. Basically every moment of every day, we are bombarded with advertising, whether it's the product on a billboard or the logo on a sweater. Advertising has become a huge industry, and soon after the invention of the printing press, people were using movable print and type to sell their "fine gelding, hooves intackt, bones stronge, see Gwennyd Dagfaddyn of Hertfordshire i' the dell". In more recent centuries however, advertising has become less of a personal thing for and more of an industry. There have been some shining examples of advertising in the past, such as the iconic "1984" commercial that Ridley Scott directed for Apple. In fact, Ridley Scott, who has directed many movies that people are familiar with and become a large figure in the film industry said that he has worked on approximately 2,700 commercials. Advertising has become an unstoppable and ubiquitous entity.

6. Entertains us

The list of examples for this point is virtually endless. The list could include anything from genre-defining films like The Godfather series to a light-hearted newspaper article about cats. However, one of the things that entertains us most is a continuous series like Grey's Anatomy, where one episode follows another in a continuous, branching storyline. With shows like this, people tend to connect with one or more characters that are central to the plot and follow them and pay attention to them more than the other characters, often drawing parallels to their own personalities and experiences. Other times, we're looking for a one-shot film that gives us a single, definite, deep and complex experience, like the movie The Shawshank Redemption, one that makes us ask questions about ourselves and how we live our lives. Sometimes, we're looking for a book like Cormac McCarthy's The Road, that makes search our souls and consider topics like desperation and living in constant fear. But most of the time, we're just looking for someone to fall on their face and make us feel better about being ordinary.

Materialism and the media: an introduction to media studies

First of all, it's important to understand what "Media Literacy" means. Robin Reiske explains the term as meaning how we learn to critically look at whatever media we happen to be dealing with, and as well as accessing and creating the media. What the video addresses next is how our society is completely immersed and even submerged in the media, whether that's for the good or for the bad. Rob Williams says that media is progressing in two trends, one towards "corporatism, consolidation, centralization" and the other towards "diversity, localism, independence, and embracing new media technologies to create new stories that challenge the dominant status quo." Williams then says that it is the public's job to challenge the first trend while encouraging the second, and asks the question "...how do we maximize the good in our media culture... and how do we minimize, mitigate the impact of this corporate commercial onslaught.



The second video deals with 5 main questions of media literacy.

1. Who sent this message?

2. What techniques are used to attract my attention?

3. How might other people understand this message differently?

4. What values are represented or omitted from this message?

5. Why was this message sent?

Each of these questions are paramount to successfully understanding and analyzing the media.

The video then deals with how teachers can help upset the current cluelessness that pop culture media today has about it's lack of values and abundance of offensive qualities (racism, sexism, etcetera). Teachers must instill in students "respect of differences" if the students, who are the media manufacturers of the future are going to change these negative qualities one day. The video then discusses how pop culture media is instilling different, negative values such as materialism and poor habits that lend themselves to profit for companies, but less positive effects for the people consuming the products and services, and how this begins very, very early on in life, as young as elementary school age.

Specifically, what I would like to look at in Media Studies this semester is the materialism that was discussed in the second video and just how pervasive it is in our society nowadays. Also, I would like to explore is how the internet is becoming a massive part of the media, and furthermore the massive difference in culture between the real world and the internet, specifically humor, common courtesy and human interaction.