Maxim vs. Cosmo

As everyone knows Cosmo is for women wanting to be sexy and Maxim is for men to look at sexy women and cars. I got some fashion tips from Cosmo, which is always nice, and some male confessions. From Maxim I learned how to pull out my own tooth (with a pair of pliers) and how sex with your ex might be a good thing. Besides the fact that the articles are geared towards the different sexes I noticed one major difference between the two magazines, the font sizes. Cosmo's words were not too big or too small. I could keep the magazine a conformable distance from my face to read it. But when I got to Maxim, I found myself moving closer to read. I just had to read about Bear Grylls though, his show is awesome! My conclusion is that the guys at Maxim must know that their readers are just looking at the pictures.

Chapters 11,12, and 13

I always knew that when you bought brand name products you where paying for the name not the product. This is proved in chapter 11 with the example of designer jeans. We pay more than $150 for “the same inexpensive denim that has outfitted farm workers since the 1800’s”. Why is that we pay top dollar for brand names? When we can buy generic brands for a lesser price? I know that when I go grocery shopping I feel the need to buy brand names because I feel as though I am getting more for my money or that I will like how that brands bread tastes over that of the other. To be totally honest I don’t think that I can stop buying my Bath and Body Works soap- it just smells to good. And maybe thats a part of the problem.
I’ve heard the term “Public Relations” before but I had never though anything of it or what they did. I was intrigued to learn that they are the people that change your view on a product such as denim jeans and Tylenol. After reading Chapter 12, I am left wondering how often my mind had been changed by PR.
When I think of Disney, I think of the movies I grew up with- Snow white, The Lion King, The Little Mermaid, etc. But today it seems like Disney owns the world. They create movies, own several theme parks, and own several TV stations. When I think of the Disney corporation I think of children’s movies, not ESPN and ABC. Whatever Disney is doing, they are doing it right.

Chapters 8 and 9

Chapter 8 starts off with this books most interesting introduction. It is about a woman named Elizabeth Cochrane, a young reporter who changed women’s role in the world of newspapers. She went undercover to expose stories on insane asylums, politicians, lobbyists and unscrupulous business practices. I think that it is so inspiring to read about women changing how things in society work. She took a part of society that was ruled by men and created a path for all women to follow. 

While reading the section Online Journalism Redefines News, I couldn’t help but think about a world without newspapers. What saddens me is that this isn’t a world that is to far way. With in a few years newspapers will be obsolete. What will this mean for the quality of the news that Americans get every day? Soon nobody is going to be reading about the stories of politics and other country, all the news is going to be about is who is having who’s baby and where she got her shoes. But then again is that so different from where the world is today? 

I found that I was able to connect with case study on page 271 really well because I am only of the many that get the free papers. Every Wednesday on my way to class I pick up a copy of the Village Voice. Although not all of the articles are very interesting some can be very entertaining. 

Chapter 9 brought me back to my childhood in the section TV Guide is Born. I can still remember when I was 7 years old and we used to buy the TV Guide. I used to flip through the magazine looking at what going to be on TV that night. Through this section I learned that the TV Guide actually had articles and didn’t just list the shows that were going to be on that night. If it wasn’t for this book and class I would have never known because when I was younger I never cared about the articles. 

After reading chapter 9, I can’t help but compare magazines and newspapers. I find it very interesting that newspapers are going to obsolete soon and I wonder when magazines will follow. I can understand that magazines are more catered to a certain demographic but when will readers just turn to their favorite webzine and throw away their old magazines? Sooner or later we will be completely dependent on computers. I can’t see that day being very far away.

Chapters 5-7

Before even reading the title of Chapter 5, my mood is already lifted by two characters of The Office being the first picture that I see! The beginning of Chapter 5 talks about how sitcoms popularity declines and how reality shows have taken over.  This is also true in my own house. My parents are addicted to shows like American Idol and Dancing With The Stars. Some of the reality shows I can watch but I don’t ever get attached to them and never have to seen the next episode. I think that reality shows have become more popular because people feel more connected to the “stars” of the show and they feel like they have to cheer on the person that they want to win.

In Chapter 6, the one thing that I thought about the entire chapter was how many TV channels there are. No matter what cable/satellite provider you have, you are getting a lot of channels. My mom has brought up a few times about how when she was young there were only a few channels to choose from and late in the night there would just be static on the TV.  What baffles me is that most of the time there is nothing really interesting on TV. Because I am living in the dorms I don’t have a TV in my room but I can still watch shows on my computer. But I can tell that I watch less television now because I can’t just turn on the television and watch some random show.

In starting off chapter 7, I’m already intrigued because the book brings up Muybridge! I learned a lot about his work in my Photo History class last year and I thought you should know that he also created a gun that takes multiple photographs. It’s pretty cool. In the section Television Changes Hollywood, it talks about how movies tried to drag people away from their television sets. I think that Technicolor was a very smart idea because it gave the people the one thing they couldn’t get from their TV’s, which was color. I found it interesting that 3D movies quickly wore off because now their are the “hot” things in movies now. Personally I’m waiting for 3D movies to go out of style again because I think that they are a really cheap way to make more money on a movie.

The Photographic Gun

Helium running low?

Brand New: Logos

Brand New is a blog by Underconsideration, which is "a blog devoted solely to the monitoring, discussion and critique of brand and corporate identity work in all its manifestations and across all categories." Basically they post companies logos and write articles about them. I'm a photography major and I've never really payed much attention to logos before, but after discovering this website I can't help myself from noticing them. And I learned that Myspace and Gap were creating new logos. Well as you will see in this article, Gap's logo was quickly shut down by the public.

Don't mind the Gap

and!

Gap-Undo

This article made me hungry

IHOP?

Media and Culture Chapters 1+2

In reading chapters 1 and 2 from Media and Culture, one section that caught my eye was “The Power of Media in Everyday Life”. What made this section catch my eye was that it was talking about how ancient Greeks described art. Plato thought it should instruct and uplift. Aristotle believed that “art and stories should provide insight to the human condition” but also be entertaining.  And Euripides believed that the arts should imitate life. I was intrigued by this paragraph because it reminds me of my Historical Intro to Philosophy class. On the first day of class, we had a discussion to determine “what is art”. For three hours we discussed our views upon what we thought art was, if bad art was also considered art, etc. I feel as though that you can give examples of art and culture, maybe you can loosely describe them but they are forever changing. Therefore there definitions are always changing and can never really be defined.

  In reading chapter 2, I discovered something very interesting. “The Net Widens” section states that in the “mid-1980’s fiber-optic cables became the standard for transmitting communication data”. I find this very interesting because Verizon commercials boast about how their tv connection uses fiber-optics. I don’t know anything about how their system works or if they upgraded their fiber-optics to make it faster and better then when it first came out in the 80’s (I sure hope they did). I just find it very interesting that they make it seem as though their system is new and innovative.  

Verizon Fios Commercial

Life

Life on other plant?

In this article on cnn, they talk about how this planet has a high probably that it can sustain life. But we wont get there for 220 years! I want to know now!

Media Unlimited by Todd Gitlin

In Todd Glitlin’s book, Media Unlimited, he brings to light how the constant interaction with media is changing our society and how it affects our culture.

Right now I'm drinking Raspberry tea from Trader Joe’s. As I take my tea bag out, even the paper tag is screaming Trader Joe’s Raspberry tea! Which I don’t understand because I know where I bought it and I took it out of the box that says the flavor. Even though I am questioning this advertising, this only comes after reading Glitlin’s book. “...in the 1970’s it became almost impossible to buy an unbranded polo shirt.” (pg70) In today's society I feel as though everything is branded. Looking around me I see that my cellphone has two brands on it and my alarm clock is made by a company that I’ve never heard of. The majority of the population buys name brands. The same goes for clothing, food, cosmetics, etc. When buying anything, most people buy the name brand because they believe that they are getting a higher quality item above generic brands.

Glitlin also talks about how humans are tempted by the “self-sufficiency” and freedom which is given by new technologies. This allows us to “carry [our] private current anywhere.” (pg53) Humans seem to always be connected into little screens that plug us into “the world”. However, I feel as though it disconnects us from real life. People cling to their blackberrys and iPhones waiting to be contacted. But always being connected allows us to be contacted by even those who we would rather be disconnected from. Essentially, we are always being interrupted by the thing that we cling to the most. 

I’d like to try leaving my phone at home one day and see how that would feel. I wonder how disconnected I’d feel or if I’d even notice. Because of how connected we are to technology, I wonder if we will ever become a part of it.  One day we may have little computer chips in our minds, then we can truly say that we are always connected to the media.