My Media Consumption.

Over the course of my Media Living course I’ve been keeping a daily log of how much time per day I spend consuming media; I decided since the course is wrapping up I would present my findings. Originally I went into this believing I wasn’t a media whore who never stopped being connected however I realized I was the exact opposite; it was scary to discover I was constantly connected to some form of media. Be it texting, watching television, watching movies on television, being on Facebook either on a computer or on my phone, listening to music or the radio; I am enjoying some form of media throughout the entire day (when I’m awake that is).

I calculated the rounded averages per day that I spent on each form of media; television 6 hours per day, texting 13 hours per day, movies 2 hours per day, Facebook, 3 hours per day, and music 2 hours per day. You may be asking; Josh how is it possible to do all those things in the limited 24 hours of every day? And my answer would be my impressive multi tasking skills. I’m constantly texting while watching tv or on the computer and often at the same time listening to my favorite bands as well.

When I first started this class I wasn’t fully aware of how difficult it would be for me to unplug from the matrix and disconnect myself from the media; however, my eyes have been opened to the fact that the only time I’m not plugged in is during some classes. The media is everywhere, and as scary as it is to say; the media is my life.

Photo courtesy of: http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/03/19/time.cover.story/index.html?section=cnn_tech

Is Downloading Music Stealing?

We discussed this question in our tutorial on Monday and it pretty much forced everyone in the classroom to reflect upon their own file sharing and the subsequent moral values attached to it. Personally I can’t remember the last time I downloaded music but it would be close to a year ago now. You may ask why I don’t but it’s simply because I don’t use the excuse of downloading music to see if I like a new band; that’s what youtube is for.

Basically whenever I hear about a new band I’ll go on youtube to see if I like the majority of their music and then I’ll go buy their album if I feel like the $15 is worth it. I rarely use an ipod so having a song in mp3 format isn’t a necessity for me because I usually listen to music when I’m either on the computer or driving in my car.

As far as my moral compass is concerned with file sharing I have to side with most musical artists today; it is stealing, and we can all blame our law bending theft on Sean Parker for creating Napster. Music to me is privilege; not a right, and many people justify it by saying “Oh they make most of their money off touring anyway” however, there are countless people working behind the scenes to produce and distribute music that without monetary support would ultimately lose their jobs. Therefore, I believe that if you consider yourself a fan of somebody’s music get your cheap ass to a record store and support their work because without it they could be gone from the music industry tomorrow.

Photo courtesy of: http://www.electronichouse.com/article/new_napster_subscription_includes_5_free_mp3_downloads_month/

Grassroots Creativity.

Over the course of the term in my Media Living course we’ve been talking a lot about Grassroots Creativity and its role in pop culture media. We watched documentaries like “Trekkies” and studied how fan cultures can be so inclined as to create their own versions of a movie, video game, novel, etc. Despite this positive participatory culture surrounding movies like Star Wars, Star Trek, or Harry Potter, often times the creator of fan made media is met with hostility from those who own the porperty. The whole time we were talking about this I remembered a Playstation 3 game that not only accepted its users creating unique versions but actually encouraged it.

Little Big Planet 2 is a game created for all ages to have fun; and it succeeds. The game mixes cute animation with addicting gameplay and an individual experience for everyone who plays it. Apart from the portion the game developers created they also encourage users to create their own levels from scratch that can literally reflect anything from the imagination.

Sony uses this platform to its advantage, many of their commercials state that even once you finish the story created by the game developers there are thousands of levels uploaded online by players from all over the world. So technically you can never finish the game and there will always be something new to play. I found this incredibly inspiring that not at all media outlets are concerned about keeping their intellectual property in tact and welcome the individuality of its fans.

The Role “Alien” Played in Gender Roles in Film.

I recently was watching MTV and came across a show they have every Thursday called Movie Night. On the program they talk about upcoming movies, interview actors, and sometimes offer interesting facts about older films. What I found interesting was when they were talking about older Sci Fi movies; they discussed how the movie Alien was originally written with a male character in mind for the lead role of Ripley. However, obviously Sigourney Weaver was cast and it took the film in a drastically different direction.

Although the female character of Ripley was masculine in its own way it also dealt with different emotions felt by a woman; especially in the directors cut which dove deeper into the back story of Ripley losing a child. As the program said “Alien helped pave the way for numerous other female leads in Sci Fi movies;” like Mila Jovovich in the Resident Evil series and Linda Hamilton in the first two movies of the terminator series.

I found a great link that displays the top ten female Sci Fi characters of all time and it really puts into perspective the importance of strong female characters in hugely successful movies.

http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/532479/top_10_strong_female_sciencefiction_film_characters.html

Photo courtesy of: http://www.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://poppeelings.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/aliens-1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://poppeelings.wordpress.com/&usg=__CWht4keo3blcJXZ8zWWBkE2Svsw=&h=392&w=313&sz=22&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=qXxDQDfnmqRGfM:&tbnh=165&tbnw=157&ei=aimTTZrbB8f3gAfl25Aa&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dripley%2Bin%2Balien%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1020%26bih%3D621%26gbv%3D2%26tbs%3Disch:1&itbs=1&iact=rc&dur=281&oei=aimTTZrbB8f3gAfl25Aa&page=1&ndsp=15&ved=1t:429,r:3,s:0&tx=90&ty=90

Advertising in Sports.

I was sitting on my couch the other day watching the Philadelphia Flyers play the New York Rangers in NHL hockey and due to my superb observation skills I became fed up with just how much advertising takes place in professional sports. The straw that broke the camels back for me was when they digitally placed a advertisement for chocoloate milk of all things, on the glass behind the net. I looked the other way when the boards were covered in advertising, and only was slightly annoyed when they painted them under the ice but to go as far as CGI advertisements around the rink; I think that’s taking it too far.

A wise man once said that when they stopped the game to show a commercial they destroyed its soul. That might be a bit of a hyperbole but he did have a point; when commercial advertising interrupts an important game to show me how I can cure my erectile disfunction I get a little steamed (mostly because I want to watch the game, and partly because it doesn’t apply to me yet). 

I am aware that those sponsors running their commercials and plastering their logos all over the stadium help to run the franchises and leagues. And I know the media conglomerates who run the television stations that play the sports love the advertising dollars as much as the next guy, but all I as is to keep it tasteful. After all the sport is what should be in the spotlight not a new brand of laundry detergent.

Photo courtesy of: http://www.johnlabattcentre.com/images/signage/Scoreclock.jpg

One Week

I just finished the Canadian made film “One Week” starring Joshua Jackson and despite the stigma surrounding Canadian films it has made the biggest personal impact on me that any movie has ever made. The story follows an unhappy English teacher who has just been told he has stage 4 cancer throughout numerous parts of his body. And it took this devastation to allow the man to finally experience life by taking a motorcycle tour through western Canada while learning more about himself than he cared to notice preceding his knowledge of cancer.

Throughout this whole movie the narrator asks what you would do if you had one day, one week, one month to live? This question and the film itself helped to put my life into perspective and despite the fact my media living course explores the ways we communicate through technology; sometimes we need to disconnect. Sometimes we need to enjoy our existance. Sometimes we need to do things that aren’t in our routine. And sometimes all you need is a motorcycle, the unknown, and the beautiful world we live in.

Photo courtesy of: http://www.darwinwiggett.com/images/large/NMP8532A.jpg

Technology and the declining need for personal social interaction.

Recently, I finally got around to watching the film Up in the Air starring George Clooney which was nominated for best picture at the 2010 Academy Awards. Apart from the depressing story hovering above Clooney’s character there was a strikingly accurate commentary on society’s lack of personal interaction. Lately in my ICS course we’ve been discussing how citizens’, co workers’, and employer/employee relations are conducted with the use of computer technology and social networking; and this film shone a significant light on the negative aspects of this trend.

The plot follows Clooney’s character who is a business man hired by companies to fire their employees during the recession; however Clooney’s company decided to cut transportation costs and continue their work by terminating people via webcam instead of in person. Clooney’s character is outraged by this heartless and ineffective change which treats the people involved simply as numbers crossed off a list instead of human beings with emotions and dreams.

After watching this film it made me sit and think about my own use (or abuse) of social networks and technology and how impersonal my interactions often are with others. Despite the obvious advantages which come with new technology they often have negative aspects which lead to society’s laziness and overall lack of face time.

Photo courtesy of: cartoonstock.com

Is Bing the “Hamburgler” of search engines?

Now you may be asking how my lame McDonald’s analogy relates to the search engine war between Google and Microsoft’s Bing, but upon hearing that Google discovered their rival had been stealing their search algorithms all I could ponder was how incompetent Microsoft must be to believe they would never get caught.

Google put their “Bing Sting” into action by entering the same combination of nonsense letters to investigate if Bing’s search results and auto correct would yield the same answers as Google’s. No surprise they were the exact same; instantly infuriating the members of Google and causing accusations of stealing and cheating to be thrown at Microsoft and their search engine. Microsoft went on the record to establish that they did not copy Google’s leading algorithms; yet the proof seems to be in the pudding in my opinion.

This news story came out right before we discussed search engines in my Media in Living class last week and how Google had essentially cornered the market when it came to search engines. This scandal proves how rival companies will stop at nothing to gain a competitive edge or in this case an exact duplicate of their competition.

Photo Courtesy of: http://gizmodo.com/#!329603/microsoft-kills-off-vista-anti+piracy-kill-switch

 

I Stand Corrected

After my rant about the media ruining my brain with mind numbing senseless distractions I decided to go see the movie Black Swan starring Academy Award Nominee Natalie Portman. After entering the critically acclaimed film with low expectations I was fortunately left with immense hope that original film makers still exist. For those who haven’t seen the movie I’ll warn you that a spoiler alert follows…The plot follows a young ballet dancer played by Natalie Portman aspiring to become the lead in the production of Swan Lake. The ballet includes the white swan looking to find true love and her evil twin which takes the form of a black swan. After Nina (Portman) wins the role of both swans she is put under immense pressure to change her perfectionist ways and encompass the passion and lust of the black swan. As Nina struggles to find the role within herself, the pressure causes her personality to split and the once sweet girl is taken over by a dark force within; leading to her eventual suicide, shown by numerous scenes of apparent hallucinations similar to David Fincher’s Fight Club. Even today I am still unable to get the movie out of my head, which was exactly what I yearned for after my complaining last week.

After spending all last week discussing gender roles in the media in my Media in Living class, I took the time to be aware of how the movie portrayed the mainly female cast. Surprisingly this movie explored both ends of the spectrum of gender stereotyping. The lead female developed from a shy, obeying dancer to a manipulative, violent and suicidal woman throughout the course of the movie which contrasts most films depiction of females typically searching for love or marriage. For this reason I found the movie incredibly refreshing and praised the director and writers for creating such an original piece of work that no doubt impacted every audience member; unfortunately including small children in the theatre.

Without a doubt in my mind the performance given by Natalie Portman will win her the Oscar for Best Actress, and the movie itself will win many awards and create a reputation for itself as a true classic in American film.

Photo Courtesy of: http://www.onlinemovieshut.com/online-movies/black-swan-poster

The Golden Globes and Boardwalk Empire.

January 18th, 2011

The other night I was able to catch glimpses of the Golden Globe Awards which honour the best in Television and Movies. Considering these two forms of medium take up an amazing amount of my free time I decided to tune in to see if any of my favorites were nominated and to discover hidden gems I previously hadn’t heard of.

Thankfully I wasn’t disappointed; as I sat there eating chips and wasting my life away I noticed a HBO drama receiving a lot of attention from the awards voters. On two seperate occasions I saw Steve Buscemi up on stage accepting awards for his hit drama Boardwalk Empire; since I had HBO On Demand I decided to check it out. I was thrown into Atlantic City, New Jersey circa 1920 following a corrupt politician/gangster attempting to keep the alcohol business alive during the prohibition era.

I was amazed with the realism in production quality, acting, costumes, and set designs that seemed to place the viewer back into the roarin’ 20’s before the depression. Instantly I became hooked and wondered why the 21st century has strayed from dramas with substance to an age filled with reality tv and movies which simply distract the viewer from everyday life. With the exception of Inception I can’t think of a movie in recent memory that was as thought provoking or life changing as classics like The Shawshank Redemption, Donnie Darko, John Q, or even The Matrix. It appears the audience and the media is more focused on big budget money makers than movies that make the viewer think.

Photo Courtesy of: http://pcm-tv.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Boardwalk_Empire_2010_Intertitle.png