11/22/10 readings

In this week’s readings Marshall McLuhan, a pop prophet and media visionary, gives us his thoughts and ideas about the media. The media explosion in which he describes was a series of explosions that will last us through and beyond our lifetimes such as the radio, television, and film. The second explosion in the media generation are the coming of video games and discs and cable. Perceptual numbing McLuhan describes is a stubborn insensitivity to all but the most extreme experiences in life. Another idea by McLuhan, depth involvement, is something in the media that may be undermining our confidence in the possibilities for first hand individual experience and reliable knowledge about events in the world. The irony of McLuhan’s achievement is that his description of media’s effects applies better to the new, second generation of media than to the initial generation of radio and television he was trying to describe. He saw that these two media explosions would create two possible alternatives. One was Utopian, in which people’s view with television would create a change in people’s views and perspectives with other media modes. There is a critical distance between the reader and his book, between the moviegoer and the screen. The videogame player becomes his game in a way that the reader does not become the book. He is saying that there is a gap between this types of innovations that have captured people in way that they have ignored the old ways of media.

commercial- Go Daddy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKQEpzJTUio

The Go Daddy commercial is also a funny commercial and having Danica Patrick and another pretty girl advertising this website, they both have nothing to do with the website. Go Daddy is an Internet domain website for business companies and the like. Their commercials, such as this one, have nothing to do with what the website does, it just creates a mind set for the audience to think that if they advertise their website with two beautiful women, one being a race car driver, they would make people visit and be curious about their website.

commercial- Axe Clean Your balls

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPwhMoQBg_8

-The Axe Clean Your Balls commercial is funny because it’s exaggerating what Axe can do for guys. They use a pretty girl to advertise it because its funny yet at the same time it’s what guys want, a pretty girl to play and clean their balls, no pun intended. And that’s the message of the commercial.

11/15 blog readings.

In the readings, television news sets the standard by directing our attention toward a daily series of unrelated events just to entertain the audience. It reveals its main purpose, which is to entertain, not to inform which they make it seem to be. A newspaper critic believes that, “the job of the anchorman is to distract viewers from the disturbing parade of images that constitutes the news”. The article goes on by saying how newswomen never have any wrinkles, in another words the newswomen are always young and pretty looking women. I agree with that belief in our media today. In the article it states that’s, “seven out of ten people now get their information about the world exclusively from TV. Yet one recent study revealed that these people can no longer give even one reason to justify their choice of a particular political candidate or policy”. I also believe and agree with the facts. I see it happen all the time with people arguing about politics and have no idea what they’re talking about and have no evidence to back up what they are saying. The job of TV news is to distract us from worrying thoughts while preserving the excitement provided by an illusion of danger and fear.

Week 8 Nov 8th; Net Neutrality cont'd

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYQGdpZ3QhA


Net Neutrality interview with Fox. Also New York Times article link: http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/subjects/n/net_neutrality/index.html

Week 8 Nov. 8; Net Neutrality

Net Neutrality is the guiding principle that preserves the free and open Internet. Net Neutrality means that Internet service providers may not discriminate between different kinds of content and applications online. It guarantees a level playing field for all Web sites and Internet technologies. Net Neutrality is the reason the Internet has driven economic innovation, democratic participation and free speech online. It protects the consumer's right to use any equipment, content, application or service without interference from the network provider. With Net Neutrality, the network's only job is to move data, not to choose which data to privilege with higher quality service.

The nation's largest telephone and cable companies such as: AT&T, Verizon, Comcast and Time Warner Cable; want to be “Internet gatekeepers”. They want to be able to decide whether how fast or slow they make the Internet. They want to tax content providers to guarantee speedy delivery of their data. These companies have a new vision for the Internet. Instead of a level playing field, they want to reserve express lanes for their own content and services.

The supporters of Net Neutrality include leading online buying companies such as Amazon, EBay, Intel, Microsoft, Facebook, and Yahoo. They need Net Neutrality to stay in business and it is vital for the people to have their freedom of speech on the Internet. They rely on the public to create their business.

This from the New York Times, “The Federal Communications Commission has come out in favor of keeping things that way, but its ability to do so has been in doubt since a federal appeals decision in April 2010 restricted its authority over broadband service.” Those cable and telephone companies have been trying to get rid of the Net Neutrality.

 I think that Net Neutrality should continue. If the Internet was regulated by the cable and telephone companies I don’t think the same amount of people would still be interested in Facebook and all those online social services.

http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/subjects/n/net_neutrality/index.html