Class

In regards to Roberts blog, I too would like to comment on the class. I initially took this class because it was the only night class that fit my schedule, and it sounded somewhat interesting. I wasn’t quite sure what I would learn from or about media, but after all these weeks of class and reading, I’ve really had a hindered approach to the various types of media around me, and how they all work together. At least now I know when I’m in a store I shouldn’t let the music keep me in that store longer than I want to be there. And when I see something on the “news”, not to believe everything “reporter Joe” has to say. I would have to say the most interesting aspect of this class was how music can change our perception of something to a very intense degree. The train ride video we watched with the five or six different artists added to the clip really changed my idea of how much music can effect any situation I’m in. Funny how I felt comfortable watching the train pass through when It was music I enjoyed, and how on edge I felt with the same clip without any music added. Crazy. Anyway, I don’t know about the rest of you, but I got a lot out of this class, and look forward to living the day to day mediation we convince ourselves is “normal”.  - Aaron

Response to Davila

It was interesting reading Davila’s article on Hispanic advertising. As I was reading, I kept on thinking about the different demographics that agencies try and appeal to and how difficult it must be to try and cater to every demographic relating to what  you are selling. Generalizing is never an easy task- there are always exceptions to every one of them.  I kept on thinking about all of the groups within the Mid-West alone that advertisers try to target within their market and it makes my head spin. This summer I had a job promoting a product for Garnier. They gave out specific characteristics of who to look for and what to say before I even gave out any of the product.  Surprisingly enough, the demographic they were shooting for was not the most receptive of their product, but the minority groups they weren’t even shooting for.

To appease the blog Nazi…

…I think I owe one post to the blog for last week! So to keep that mean ol’ Beaster-Jones guy happy…I’ll add a “make-up blog.” As I think this is our final class, I’d just like to say I enjoyed hearing the various comments, ideas and conversations from the class this semester. Needless to say, our little planet is having a rough ride currently and I think the only way to fix the plethora of problems is to identify then discuss them in a setting such as college, university or beyond. I think everyone in the class has something positive to offer society but I’m already half way to taking a dirt nap so I’ll leave it up to you all to fix the mess! So get busy, good luck and enjoy your Summer! -Robert 

Degraded Images…

I was already semi-familar with the “Nigerian scam” from all the spam I get about sending money so they will send you money and so forth… A tell-tale sign you are getting scam mail is the misspelled words and bad grammar that a legit business would try to avoid. However primitive this may seem to me, I’ve read about Hollywood dummies who are already wealthy, falling for this scam. Greed follows greed. I found that Nicaragua had an “alternative free market” that seems similar to what is described about Nigeria in Larkin. Westerners look upon these structures with a different frame of reference, having never lived in a place so debilitated by poverty, political upheaval and latent Imperialism; it is hard for us to see this underground financial system as a valid enterprise. Ironically, things like what Larkin describes happen within our own urban ghettos, where poverty and crime mix to establish a counter culture within a country of capitalistic excess. So Nigeria is not so far away from our society, it is simply less “evolved” than ours.   

The Beauty of Sound

Over the past week I did a little experiment of my own dealing with how we ended last week’s class in watching the clip from India with several different songs and types of music in the background compared to the real sound of the train. Over the past week I found myself listening to music in a similar situation where it completely changes how you perceive your surroundings. Last Monday I found myself in the commons building with a sizable amount of noise and unable to even think. Then I just but my iPod on and all the sounds when away, so over the following days I did the same thing in different places around campus, whether it be in the commons, the huddle, or walking to class. The one place I found it the most helpful was in the library. Since the library is already so quite, except for the construction, one can hear anything that is said or is worked on in a large radius, but with another imputed sound that you want to hear makes the working environment a lot easier to work in.