AHA! moments...

'Three months' and a quarter is gone. It wasn't until now, I realized I had so much done in these past months and time just flew by. It surely has been a great experience to come to a entirely different country and learn something new on media. I had my moments and the most memorable ones were

• Back masking of the Beatles song when we were on the chapter 'Recordings and Radio'. I had a good laugh. I knew about parodies and mash ups but this was something fun and new to me and I enjoyed it.

• Magazine content analysis was another activity I enjoyed doing.  It gave me an idea as to how magazines work (to some extent) and if I wanted to make one of my own how should I do it, what kind of audience should I target it to and other aspects as such. Looking at some old magazines especially their huge paper sizes (Rolling Stones) was another fascinating aspect in this class.

• Lastly, the presentations and the potluck. The presentations helped me boost my confidence since I hadn't done one in a while now. It gave me a start and feel of going up front and talking to a mass. The food in the potluck were delicious since it was multi cultural some items were new. getting to know (in this case tasting) something new is always exciting and interesting(yummy!).

Thank you all for a wonderful and fruitful quarter!! Thank you!! Cecilia :)

Media Ethics and Law

On October 26, 2010, a U.S. federal judge granted a request from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) to completely shut down LimeWire due to its charges on online infringement which included downloading, distributing and sharing of songs occurring through its clients. LimeWire had been one of the world’s largest, most installed file sharing application, but as a matter, it has now ceased its entire operations due to charges of illegal copyright infringements to the music record companies. It is said that the company may be fined a total amount of more than a billion, as the final damages are yet to be assessed and the case is to be resumed in January, 2011.

"Click here to Read Article"

My opinion: There are always alternatives for everything, downloading and sharing songs being one of them. LimeWire may be permanently shut down, but what about the others! Will there be actions taken on those software companies as well?

Propaganda in Advertising

The techniques 'weight watcher' commercial uses here are:

Beautiful People:
The type of propaganda that deals with famous people or depicts attractive, happy people. This makes other people think that if they buy a product or follow a certain ideology, they too will be happy or successful.(Wikipedia definition). In this advertisement Jennifer Hudson is used to show how she lost weight getting in to the weight watcher plan.

Ad nauseam:
This argument approach uses tireless repetition of an idea. An idea, especially a simple slogan, that is repeated enough times, may begin to be taken as the truth. This approach works best when media sources are limited or controlled by the propagator(Wikipedia definition).To some extent the word 'I can' is repeated which assures the audience that it is possible to lose weight joining weight watchers . Even the background music says 'I can'

Internet

The social networking websites that are listed in wikipedia.org, numbered to 194.

The sites I've heard of are: blogster, facebook, flixster, flickr, friendster, google buzz, hi5, last.fm, mySpace, orkut, twitter, and windows live spaces.

There are no websites I know of, that isn't listed.

I did a research on "faceparty" and what I found out is that, it is an open UK-based social networking website, generally to those above 18 years old, where you can create online profiles and interact with each other through forums and messages like emails.

I use social networking websites for keeping in touch with friends, families and people I know. Facebook is what I use the most. It defines 'what's going on' with everybody. You get regular updates of people you know, events that are happening, and new posts that you are likely to be interested in. I've also used twitter, orkut and hi5. I once organized a dance party at a club in my hometown and posted the details in my facebook profile. In less than an hour, I got comments, reviews and lists of people who are attending or not attending the party, which really helped. It is that much effective and efficient now days.

Comic Books

Length: 2:39
This  video clip briefly summarizes the history of comic books.
Chapter 3 : Books
Question: What major step did writers take to reinforce comic books?
Answer: the writes's created stories where heroes dealt with real issues and less villains.

Movies

Favorite movie 2009:
2009 was more of a anime year to me and 'Up' made it to my favorite list. The reason behind Carl taking the whole trip was really sweet. The movie had some very touching moments and it had its own ways to give everyone a message about life.

View trailer: CLICK HERE!          Read review: CLICK HERE!

All time favorite:
Most girls tend to like love stories I am no different. My all time favorite is '500 days of summer'. The story is pretty much the ordinary but the presentation is what I loved the most and the soundtracks were awesome. 

View trailer: CLICK HERE!         Read review: CLICK HERE!

I watched both these movies in a DVD. Pirated DVDs were the ones you got in my country which came in for 23-24 cents since only a few movies got released in the theaters so that's a pretty good deal. I know it's illegal but I had to watch the movies downloading would take ages so buying a DVD was convenient :)

Magazines

Name: Two Worlds.

Concept: The magazine will only have photos. One story content will be taken and two sides of that story will be narrated by the pictures itself. For example, In this issue, on the first half I plan to feature how cow's are slaughtered in the United States and I will post photos step by step. Whereas, the other half will contain how cow's are worshiped in Nepal.


Readers: My magazine will be targeted to upcoming photojournalists, people interested in knowing about what is going on around the world. The targeted age group would be 18 and above up to 60,70. middle class population.


The Competition: British Journal of Photography, Shutterbug, Outer Photographer


Advertisers: EPSON, Canon, International Organizations such as UNHCR, PETA, UNDP. I will tell my advertisers that the reason behind bringing such a concept was to attract people. What I feel is when people flip through magazines they tend to look at advertisements and picture's more so why not create a magazine that only has pictures which which make them flip through every single page.


Cover page: The cover will show a brighter side and a darker side of the world. With the name of the magazine on the top middle and a sub heading to the topic.

              

Books

This sure is a tough call. I haven't really been reading books all that much nowadays, and amongst from the ones that I have read to find one that has influenced me is rare. I read books for fun. I would rather say the books that I really liked instead of the books that influenced me.






I have always loved books by Sidney Sheldon, read all his books and it is quite difficult to pick one from them . Nevertheless, If Tomorrow Comes has been an all time favorite of mine. I love the protagonist (Tracy), her wittiness and the ending is shocking the turning of events are interesting in this book too.

Another one of my favorite story is Lamb To the Slaughter by Roald Dahl this is a short story. I remember my teacher reading it out to me in class when I was in my 7th grade and at the end of the story I was like oh my god!. The plot of the story has always been on my mind since then and I have always liked it.

Lastly, the book that made it to my list would be  Five Point Someone by Chetan Bhagat. This was my very first Indian author read and I simply enjoyed it. I could relate this book to myself and I am sure every teenager will do too. It  is a fun read and has hilarious moments.

Media Impact

My idea of research would be how the social behavior of the youth is affected by watching movies. First, I would select a group of  pre-teen girls who are new to the idea of teenage movies and are quite simple in terms the way they act, dress up or talk. Then conduct a survey regarding their initial behavioral patterns like gossiping, socializing, the kind of friends circle and where they hang out. And now, divide the group into two, 'A' and 'B'. 

Group-A will be watching teenage movies in a controlled environment and Group-B will be left untouched. This conduct would span over a period of three months where Group-A will watch teenage drama movies like High School Musical, Cindrella Story, Confession of a Teenage Drama Queen, Mean Girls, Material Girls, Sydney White, etc. 

After the 3 months of tests conducted, a final survey would be done on both the Groups. As a result, group "A" will definitely be following the celebrity lifestyles, like, Miley Cyrus, Demi Lovato, Vanessa Hudgens. They would be gossiping about fashion trends, music, designer clothings and accessories, make ups, girls night out and other things related to what they have only watched for about 3 months.
As for group  "B", it would be the same. They would be simple and sober as they were, less changes are to be found.

Media Autobiography

 Media has been a huge part of my life. Among the kinds of media movies are what I am attached to the most. My father has been acting and directing for the past thirty years and basically I have been growing up watching him. Be it from going to shoots, meeting celebrities, getting interviewed to attending premiers.  I am always there and I have loved it throughout.

 Growing up in an environment with media happening’s everywhere is fascinating. A single step I take makes in to the news be it me coming to the united states for my further education or me getting all dressed up to go to a red carpet event. It feels like I have to watch every move I make sometimes and kind of like it is intruding my privacy but the feeling of everyone knowing you again is interesting.

 Media is still booming in my country Nepal. There are no film schools which was the reason why I chose to come to the U.S. My dream is to take our film industry (Kollywood) to the international level .I want to expose Nepal’s culture and tell stories about phases people go through in their life being in a third world country. I chose making movies my medium of voice.  A little bit I blame in on my genes but the rest of it it’s all my decision and I am glad I chose this profession because I simple love it.