Great Big Sea
This blog entry by Alan Doyle, a group member from Great Big Sea, was very well done in my opinion. There are lots of blogs out there, one that may interest one person might completely repulse the next, this blog isn't for anyone. You probably wouldn't be interested in reading it unless you are a GBS fan or a young musician. But for those of us who fit that profile, its very entertaining. He talks about his home life and life on the road and the way his life flows, being a musician of such high demand. Although his blog is not posted in point form, it is broken up into paragraphs to make it easier to follow and read. He gives his thoughts and ideas for up coming albums and new things he would like to try within 2011. He asks his readers many questions and looks for feed back and ideas and has a place available on the web page to do so. He is very personal with his readers, he really seems to be himself and I as a reader love the idea that he is looking for his fans ideas and suggestions and the fact that he really seems to take them seriously and into considering makes it all the better. He really communicates with his fans. Replies back to what they have to say and always says thanks. He uses humor and makes fun of himself and the fact that he has no clue whatsoever how to use Twitter, but he explains that the reason he got it was to really keep in touch with his fans. It really makes us as viewers see him as down to earth and not too famous to live beyond his fans. Also, there is a link on web page to the blogs of the other GBS members and tour dates along with their entire discography and online store.
Go Travel and See The World
This blog was extremely well done as far as I can tell and I, as a traveller, will definitely be visiting this blog before any trips I will be taking in the future. It gives tips on everything! It tells how to make your own blog (which has nothing to do with travelling but I found very useful because we will be making our own blogs soon), told of her personal experiences in many many places in the world, and even has an alphabetical list of links to all the places in the world in which she has posted blogs about. It tells of the best way to really get the full affect of the city or town you plan to see and the "must see places". The site of full of links to travel sites such as Expedia and hotel deals all over the world. It even has links to other travellers blogs and "deals of the day". She keeps it personal, all the pictures that are on there are taken by herself. All in all, its full of color and kept up to date and lifelike. No wonder her blog was suggested to us!
Monday, February 14, 2011
Thursday, February 10, 2011
The Key Roles of Mass Media
Strong and Free
This book is definitely one that informs us about events that happen internationally. Before speaking with Becky and reading her book, I had no idea about the kind of things that still happened in the world today. I thought there was no place on earth that acted in such inhumane ways. It really makes us aware of the way a big part of the rest of the world lives, we should all be more thankful and really appreciate the life we live as Canadians.
Mean Girls
This movie has got to consume most of the cruelest humor out of all of the movies I've ever seen. The way girls back stab each other and talk behind each other's backs, they do it so much that it almost seems normal. It seems to come natural to most of these girls. In the movie there is a book they call the "Burnbook". The girls take pictures of all the other students in the school, paste it in the Burnbook, and write a nasty comment or rumor about them under it. After this movie was released, things got to the point where even girls I know were making their very own Burnbook. Life is cruel enough, we don't need Hollywood giving us ideas on how we can be even more horrible to each other.
National Geographic , "Inspiring people to care about the planet since 1888."
National Geographic is by far one of the largest and most well known magazines in the world that links us with all sorts of information we could never imagine. It opens us up to the world of anything from Cenotes to the worlds most dangerous fish. I'm sure you could list off any topic in the world and National Geographic would have done an article on it. The best part is, all of their information is researched and factual.
Lollipop
This song and video, produced by Lil Wayne, is the first video that came to mind. I've been singing this song for a few years now, and knew all the lyrics off by heart, but never stopped to think about what they actually meant until a few months ago. I couldn't believe that I had been singing those lyrics for such a long time without cluing into what they were actually saying and the meaning behind them. Songs like come everyday to us, were all at the point that we sing them without even listening to ourselves and for most of us, even after realizing the meaning behind them, still don't stop because this kind of thing is so common to us that we believe it has no impact on us whatsoever. If this were even ten years ago though, there is no way it would be playing on radio stations and seen on TV.
Also, even from working in a movie theatre, I see the way the ratings are changed. I couldn't believe it when I saw a grandmother and her young grandson walking into a sex scene during one the movies and not even thinking twice about it. What really caught me off guard though, was the fact that the grandson was even of age to see this movie, ratings have dropped so much even since we were young. Cartoons now come with swearing and what used to be a parental guidance film has now dropped to children.
The Coolest "Billboard" Ad's Ever!
I was originally looking for the ad with the wire's travelling through the bald man's nose (advertising for nose hair trimmers) and found this site with the top 10 "Coolest "Billboard" Ad's Ever!". I couldn't choose just one so I posted them all. I think all of these advertisements are awesome, they all interact with the public and some even get them involved in making their own ad like the Sharpie ad for example, where it was a digital screen that allowed to you write on it with their digital markers in any color you chose. I also like the ad for the batteries, it made it seem like they had the strength to power an entire city bus. The ad for skydiving was the best though I thought, where they painted a scene looking downward onto a city on the floor of an elevator. That would have a huge impact on people! I know for sure I would not be able to go on that elevator, just the idea that we were crashing onto the ground would be enough to scar me. They are all very memorable ad's, ones that I'm sure people will never be able to forget about.
Simon's Cat
Simon was just a normal guy who made up cartoons about the real life experiences with his cat. He then began publishing them on Youtube a few small years ago and has gained tons of recognition since then. He has also just recently published his own cartoon strip book called "Simon's Cat". The videos are absolutely hilarious, we literally sat around for about an hour at our last family dinner, everyone crowded around the computer, watching these cartoons he published of his cat.
This book is definitely one that informs us about events that happen internationally. Before speaking with Becky and reading her book, I had no idea about the kind of things that still happened in the world today. I thought there was no place on earth that acted in such inhumane ways. It really makes us aware of the way a big part of the rest of the world lives, we should all be more thankful and really appreciate the life we live as Canadians.
Mean Girls
This movie has got to consume most of the cruelest humor out of all of the movies I've ever seen. The way girls back stab each other and talk behind each other's backs, they do it so much that it almost seems normal. It seems to come natural to most of these girls. In the movie there is a book they call the "Burnbook". The girls take pictures of all the other students in the school, paste it in the Burnbook, and write a nasty comment or rumor about them under it. After this movie was released, things got to the point where even girls I know were making their very own Burnbook. Life is cruel enough, we don't need Hollywood giving us ideas on how we can be even more horrible to each other.
National Geographic , "Inspiring people to care about the planet since 1888."
National Geographic is by far one of the largest and most well known magazines in the world that links us with all sorts of information we could never imagine. It opens us up to the world of anything from Cenotes to the worlds most dangerous fish. I'm sure you could list off any topic in the world and National Geographic would have done an article on it. The best part is, all of their information is researched and factual.
Lollipop
This song and video, produced by Lil Wayne, is the first video that came to mind. I've been singing this song for a few years now, and knew all the lyrics off by heart, but never stopped to think about what they actually meant until a few months ago. I couldn't believe that I had been singing those lyrics for such a long time without cluing into what they were actually saying and the meaning behind them. Songs like come everyday to us, were all at the point that we sing them without even listening to ourselves and for most of us, even after realizing the meaning behind them, still don't stop because this kind of thing is so common to us that we believe it has no impact on us whatsoever. If this were even ten years ago though, there is no way it would be playing on radio stations and seen on TV.
Also, even from working in a movie theatre, I see the way the ratings are changed. I couldn't believe it when I saw a grandmother and her young grandson walking into a sex scene during one the movies and not even thinking twice about it. What really caught me off guard though, was the fact that the grandson was even of age to see this movie, ratings have dropped so much even since we were young. Cartoons now come with swearing and what used to be a parental guidance film has now dropped to children.
The Coolest "Billboard" Ad's Ever!
I was originally looking for the ad with the wire's travelling through the bald man's nose (advertising for nose hair trimmers) and found this site with the top 10 "Coolest "Billboard" Ad's Ever!". I couldn't choose just one so I posted them all. I think all of these advertisements are awesome, they all interact with the public and some even get them involved in making their own ad like the Sharpie ad for example, where it was a digital screen that allowed to you write on it with their digital markers in any color you chose. I also like the ad for the batteries, it made it seem like they had the strength to power an entire city bus. The ad for skydiving was the best though I thought, where they painted a scene looking downward onto a city on the floor of an elevator. That would have a huge impact on people! I know for sure I would not be able to go on that elevator, just the idea that we were crashing onto the ground would be enough to scar me. They are all very memorable ad's, ones that I'm sure people will never be able to forget about.
Simon's Cat
Simon was just a normal guy who made up cartoons about the real life experiences with his cat. He then began publishing them on Youtube a few small years ago and has gained tons of recognition since then. He has also just recently published his own cartoon strip book called "Simon's Cat". The videos are absolutely hilarious, we literally sat around for about an hour at our last family dinner, everyone crowded around the computer, watching these cartoons he published of his cat.
Monday, February 7, 2011
Media Literacy and Your Expectations
What is media literacy?
The first video is summarizing the actual definition of the term "media literacy". Media basically being anything from commercials and advertisements to billboards and computers and literacy being the way we read and create, AKA how we interpret what we see. It "summarizes the 21st century digital media landscape" says Rob Williams during an interview. The video also rhymes off facts about the media, for example; people see about 3000 discrete advertising messages a day. Its quite a big eye opened and makes you more aware of what you really see everyday. It also discusses the useless media today, saying that the read media producers of the world have to work especially hard to stay on top of and keep the attention of viewers today, getting across the important facts rather than the useless ones.
Media Literacy, Education & Choice
"Media literacy is the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and create media in all of its forms" is the opening line in this video, and it also describes what the video itself is about. It describes the five core questions of media literacy and talks about the way we need to learn to interpret and deal with today's media and the different ways people interpret things. Maybe the message we view doesn't include all the true facts and evidence behind it? The video is telling us that we, as viewers, will probably never know everything that is actually going on behind the news stories we are hearing. There are probably many things that are and are not being said.
One of the major things I would like to look at in this course, is the racism and manipulating going on behind many of the Walt Disney movies. For example, in the movie Dumbo, all of the characters are white in the entire movie, except the circus workers who are all, for some reason, black. What kind of image are they really trying to portray to the public?
The first video is summarizing the actual definition of the term "media literacy". Media basically being anything from commercials and advertisements to billboards and computers and literacy being the way we read and create, AKA how we interpret what we see. It "summarizes the 21st century digital media landscape" says Rob Williams during an interview. The video also rhymes off facts about the media, for example; people see about 3000 discrete advertising messages a day. Its quite a big eye opened and makes you more aware of what you really see everyday. It also discusses the useless media today, saying that the read media producers of the world have to work especially hard to stay on top of and keep the attention of viewers today, getting across the important facts rather than the useless ones.
Media Literacy, Education & Choice
"Media literacy is the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and create media in all of its forms" is the opening line in this video, and it also describes what the video itself is about. It describes the five core questions of media literacy and talks about the way we need to learn to interpret and deal with today's media and the different ways people interpret things. Maybe the message we view doesn't include all the true facts and evidence behind it? The video is telling us that we, as viewers, will probably never know everything that is actually going on behind the news stories we are hearing. There are probably many things that are and are not being said.
One of the major things I would like to look at in this course, is the racism and manipulating going on behind many of the Walt Disney movies. For example, in the movie Dumbo, all of the characters are white in the entire movie, except the circus workers who are all, for some reason, black. What kind of image are they really trying to portray to the public?
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Predictions for 2011
After looking through the list of technological predictions for 2011, I believe the disappearance of the DVD and Yahoo are most likely to occur.
For years, VHS was the way to go. But slowly, DVD players and DVD's began coming to the stores and replacing movies on the rental shelf. Then it seemed that out of nowhere, movies were no where to be found and DVD's were the way to go. VHS's disappeared completely and VCR's were no longer being made. It forced people to buy into more technology and spend more money. If ever the time came where they wanted to rent a new movie on a Friday night, they had no choice but to buy a DVD player. Now slowly we see the BlueRay coming to shelves and the players replacing the DVD players. I would bet anything that out of nowhere, DVD players will disappear and no longer be produced and that it will yet again, force people into getting rid of the old and buying into the new. Its all about money making. There are not many people who will go out every weekend and spend $10 per person to watch all the new videos in the movie theatre. Most people will wait until they come to the shelves and if they plan on watching them, then they will have to buy a Blueray player.
I also believe that Facebook is very rapidly replacing Yahoo; but not only Yahoo, replacing all sources of email including Hotmail and Sympatico. Why would you go through the effort of checking your email when you can easily long onto facebook and check your in boxes, and check several other things such as pictures and status updates at the same time? Facebook even makes it easy to create a group of contacts, ex. Jessica's surprise birthday party, and inbox a message to the entire group of people all at once. It serves all the same purposes as email servers, plus more. It makes that much more sense to get Facebook rather than open an email account. Literally the only person I know today that still uses their Yahoo account regularly is my mother. I used to check my Hotmail daily, now I check it once a week for my work schedule and that is only because it is against guidelines to post it to Facebook, other than that I never check my Hotmail, Facebook has all that already waiting for me.
Two technological predictions I believe will be less likely to occur is Apple dominating the cell phone market and the electronic wallet.
Although Apple is a huge company and growing larger and larger every day, there are a lot of things to consider when comparing it alone to all other cellular devices. Apple may dominate when it comes to music players, considering MP3's and CD players are basically unheard of anymore. Why bother buying CD after CD and having to change each one once it has played through when you can just download music off of the Internet for free and buy an iPod dock and listen to days on end of music? That part is understandable. But there are tons of other cellular phone companies who all make different models of phones. From a personal point of view, I would never buy an iPhone simply because I hate touch screen phones. They become dirty quickly and break even easier. A close friend of mine had an iPhone and he simply pulled it out of his car trunk one day and found the screen shattered. Even if people do like touch screen phones, there are lots of other models of touch screen phones such as the Blackberry Torch which also comes with just as many applications as the Apple iPhone. From another personal point of view, I find the Apple iPhone way too large. I like a small phone which is easy to stick in your pocket and not uncomfortable to have on you.
And as far as the electronic wallet goes, it may become big one day, but I definitely cannot see it dominating in this year mainly because I have never heard of it until day, so there are probably a lot of other people who are yet to hear of it. Also, although it may be useful in the fact that you can store everything in one, but what happens if it breaks? Or what if you lose it? Losing your debit card is much simpler, you just go and get another one from the bank at a low cost. But buying electronic wallet after electronic wallet will quickly build up in costs and people just don't have the money for that these days with the state our economy is in.
Although I do not fully understand even a fraction of the media predictions, I am going to try my best and respond to them.
The main media prediction I can see happening in this year, 2011, is Social vs. Search. I for one nearly never watch the news, and I know nearly no one I go to school does either. Everything we need to find is posted on the Internet, ex. Facebook. If people find it important or interesting, it gets posted on there. Even though I never watch the news, I know I am still not behind in what is going on in the world today. I still know what people are talking to when they bring up the latest pandemic. Therefore it just goes to prove that anything you need to know about, will eventually find its way to Facebook. If you are not a Facebook, I'm sure the same thing goes for Twitter. If it gets posted on there, or talked about on there, people have complete access to it.
TV's, but I believe the television will still be here for a long time. They are much cheaper than the interactive TV and households are going to want to have more than one screen. I believe most households will probably have one of the interactive TV's and one of the regular televisions.
One news prediction I make for 2011 is that the newspapers are going to disappear. Why would you go out and buy a news paper when everything you'll ever need to know about the news can be found on the Internet? Or ever more, on the Internet on your cell phone? It's a waste of money to go the extra mile and buy a newspaper. The Internet makes everything easier, instead of flipping through page after page trying to find what you are looking for, why not just Google it? It just doesn't make sense to me.
One media prediction I make for 2011 is that 3D is going to take over all theater and home theater systems. From personal experience, working in a theater, I see how fast these changes come into play. This time last year I had never heard anything about getting a 3D movie player in our theater, and last July, two got installed. It happened that fast. And now whenever we don't have a movie in 3D, people are becoming very upset. There is such a high demand for it. We live in such a small city which most of the rest of the world has never and will never heard of. What about the big cities like New York or Tokyo? They have probably been using 3D for years and we are just the last to hear about it.
For years, VHS was the way to go. But slowly, DVD players and DVD's began coming to the stores and replacing movies on the rental shelf. Then it seemed that out of nowhere, movies were no where to be found and DVD's were the way to go. VHS's disappeared completely and VCR's were no longer being made. It forced people to buy into more technology and spend more money. If ever the time came where they wanted to rent a new movie on a Friday night, they had no choice but to buy a DVD player. Now slowly we see the BlueRay coming to shelves and the players replacing the DVD players. I would bet anything that out of nowhere, DVD players will disappear and no longer be produced and that it will yet again, force people into getting rid of the old and buying into the new. Its all about money making. There are not many people who will go out every weekend and spend $10 per person to watch all the new videos in the movie theatre. Most people will wait until they come to the shelves and if they plan on watching them, then they will have to buy a Blueray player.
I also believe that Facebook is very rapidly replacing Yahoo; but not only Yahoo, replacing all sources of email including Hotmail and Sympatico. Why would you go through the effort of checking your email when you can easily long onto facebook and check your in boxes, and check several other things such as pictures and status updates at the same time? Facebook even makes it easy to create a group of contacts, ex. Jessica's surprise birthday party, and inbox a message to the entire group of people all at once. It serves all the same purposes as email servers, plus more. It makes that much more sense to get Facebook rather than open an email account. Literally the only person I know today that still uses their Yahoo account regularly is my mother. I used to check my Hotmail daily, now I check it once a week for my work schedule and that is only because it is against guidelines to post it to Facebook, other than that I never check my Hotmail, Facebook has all that already waiting for me.
Two technological predictions I believe will be less likely to occur is Apple dominating the cell phone market and the electronic wallet.
Although Apple is a huge company and growing larger and larger every day, there are a lot of things to consider when comparing it alone to all other cellular devices. Apple may dominate when it comes to music players, considering MP3's and CD players are basically unheard of anymore. Why bother buying CD after CD and having to change each one once it has played through when you can just download music off of the Internet for free and buy an iPod dock and listen to days on end of music? That part is understandable. But there are tons of other cellular phone companies who all make different models of phones. From a personal point of view, I would never buy an iPhone simply because I hate touch screen phones. They become dirty quickly and break even easier. A close friend of mine had an iPhone and he simply pulled it out of his car trunk one day and found the screen shattered. Even if people do like touch screen phones, there are lots of other models of touch screen phones such as the Blackberry Torch which also comes with just as many applications as the Apple iPhone. From another personal point of view, I find the Apple iPhone way too large. I like a small phone which is easy to stick in your pocket and not uncomfortable to have on you.
And as far as the electronic wallet goes, it may become big one day, but I definitely cannot see it dominating in this year mainly because I have never heard of it until day, so there are probably a lot of other people who are yet to hear of it. Also, although it may be useful in the fact that you can store everything in one, but what happens if it breaks? Or what if you lose it? Losing your debit card is much simpler, you just go and get another one from the bank at a low cost. But buying electronic wallet after electronic wallet will quickly build up in costs and people just don't have the money for that these days with the state our economy is in.
Although I do not fully understand even a fraction of the media predictions, I am going to try my best and respond to them.
The main media prediction I can see happening in this year, 2011, is Social vs. Search. I for one nearly never watch the news, and I know nearly no one I go to school does either. Everything we need to find is posted on the Internet, ex. Facebook. If people find it important or interesting, it gets posted on there. Even though I never watch the news, I know I am still not behind in what is going on in the world today. I still know what people are talking to when they bring up the latest pandemic. Therefore it just goes to prove that anything you need to know about, will eventually find its way to Facebook. If you are not a Facebook, I'm sure the same thing goes for Twitter. If it gets posted on there, or talked about on there, people have complete access to it.
TV's, but I believe the television will still be here for a long time. They are much cheaper than the interactive TV and households are going to want to have more than one screen. I believe most households will probably have one of the interactive TV's and one of the regular televisions.
One news prediction I make for 2011 is that the newspapers are going to disappear. Why would you go out and buy a news paper when everything you'll ever need to know about the news can be found on the Internet? Or ever more, on the Internet on your cell phone? It's a waste of money to go the extra mile and buy a newspaper. The Internet makes everything easier, instead of flipping through page after page trying to find what you are looking for, why not just Google it? It just doesn't make sense to me.
One media prediction I make for 2011 is that 3D is going to take over all theater and home theater systems. From personal experience, working in a theater, I see how fast these changes come into play. This time last year I had never heard anything about getting a 3D movie player in our theater, and last July, two got installed. It happened that fast. And now whenever we don't have a movie in 3D, people are becoming very upset. There is such a high demand for it. We live in such a small city which most of the rest of the world has never and will never heard of. What about the big cities like New York or Tokyo? They have probably been using 3D for years and we are just the last to hear about it.
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