Extra Credit

Prior to RTF 305, I had never written a blog nor did I commonly read blogs by others.  I enjoyed using blogs for this course because it extended my learning and addeded to my preparation on tests.  However I did, on occasion, encounter technical difficulties in posting the blogs, yet this was easily overcome as I was able to email my TA the blog and be satisfied I would still recieve credit.
My favorite blog posts were those that gave us a broad topic and allowed us to find and discuss an example of our choice, such as the blog post on advertising approaches.  For me, these were the most interesting as allowed me to incorporate something I was passionate about, such as the TV show Modern Family or movie Almost Famous, into the coursework and made the writing of the blog much more enjoyable.
I would definitely recommend the continued use of blogs in this course, as it served as a great study tool and broadened my understanding on particular topics.  The only improvement I would offer would be the time at which the blog is due, because for me Sunday is a rush and was an inconvenient due date.

Yes, you can use my blog in a paper or report.

Globalization and Hybridization

 Globalization refers to the incerasing interconnectedness amoung nations, cultures, and people.  A byproduct of the expansion of largely western media, globalization has been spurred by the quick and large-scale communication available through the Internet.
A result of globalization is that cultures being to blend, a consequence of migration, which can lead to the loss of cultural autonomy as U.S. manufactured media penetrates other cultures.  The strongest way in which U.S. manufactured media penetrates other cultures is through hybridization, in which a successful idea or formula from one area is adopted by another.
A great example of hybridization is how the U.S. show American Idol has been duplicated or has inspired similar shows in other countries.  Currently there are 47 countries with "Idol" programming, such as India Idol, or Malaysian Idol, and even more shows, such as Britain's The X Factor, that have adopted a pieces of the Idol formula.  This now global use of the highly successful American Idol show formula exhibits not only the very definition of hybridization, but the increasingly connected global society we live in, and how it has been constructed through shared media.

Indian Idol 3 - Celebrity bloopers here

Embrace Life

The above ad, created by the British government to encourage the use of seat belts, shows a man at home acting as if he were driving, and then being saved from flying off his chair during a "collision" by his presumed daughter and wife.  I found this ad both powerful and persuasive, as it shows not only how fragile life is and what we stand to lose through death, but also how vital the use of seat belts are.

This ad is so effective because of its use of combining fear and safety appeals.  Fear appeal refers to the advertising tactic of scaring the consumer into compliance with the message of an ad, for there would be disastrous consequences should they not.  Similarly, safety appeals brush upon the consequences of the consumer's actions, though specifically in dealing with their health and physical well being.

By playing the "crash" in slow motion, this ad exemplifies the fear/safety appeals by emphasizing the physical harm that could have come to the man, the emotional harm that would have befallen his family, and how the use of the seat belt saved them all.

That's What She Said...Blog #7

One of the most important element of the sitcom as discussed by Colin Tait is the regular schedule it maintains.  Regular scheduling refers to how sitcoms often play during the same time slot on the same day and for the same TV station every week.  As almost every popular sitcom is available on TV sets or online across the nation, this creates what Colin Tait refers to as a "nation tribe",  since we ritualistically tune in at certain times and reference cocepts from these shows with family and friends.

Possibly the best example of how sitcoms can create in us a "nation tribe", is by looking at the affect the sitcom "The Office" has had on American vocabulary; in particular the four words "that's what she said."  Introduced to American culture by Micheal Scott, the phrase "that's what she said" has taken on a life of it's own, and has become so widespread that it is used and understood by a population of Americans that don't even watch "The Office".  It is referenced in other other shows, other networks, and even my AP government teacher.  Below is a collection of some of the top "that's what she said" moments from the show.

Almost Famous

Cameron Crowe's Almost Famous follows the journey of the 15 year old William Miller as he is hired by Rolling Stone Magazine to tour and write about the rock band Stillwater.  One of the most important scenes in the film is when the William (and the audience) meets Penny Lane, a groupie who serves as the catalyst for the story that follows.

The scene in which William and Penny meet begins as a long shot, focused on a gathering of young women on a hill outside the backdoor to the concert stage.  The shot is taken from William's perspective, down below by the door to the backstage of the concert, and serves to orient the audience as to what William is seeing.

The next shot is a medium shot, going from the general to more specific details.  This gives us information as to who the girls are talking to and relationships among the group, such as their promiscuous dress and groupie attitudes.  It is here that we first see Penny Lane, and although we can see that she is important (because attention is directed toward her), we lack details about her character specifically.

We are truly introduced to Penny Lane in her close up shot, which further cues the audience that her character will be important.  In the close up we see how beautiful Penny Lane is, and we also witness her kind and intelligent expression when she sees William.

The Studio System

Arguably the best representation of the Classical Hollywood studio system was the contract of talent.  This meant that directors, editors, writers, and actors were all signed to a specific studio, and allowed to work and be compensated on projects at the studio heads' discretion.  As these studios shared their theaters and films, they also loaned out their talent, especially their acting stars.

As the actors were interchangeable and loaned out, they began to be associated with not only their studio but also specific genres, leading to a house style geared to star-genre formulas.  These actors carried a specific set of character traits from feature to feature, resulting in Classical Hollywood's creation of simplified genre-based films such as musicals, westerns, horrors or comedies.

A good example of one such actor is Judy Garland.  Discovered as a child, she begin and maintained most of her career portraying the sweet and virginal characters she had been playing since the age of 14.  Also a talented singer, Garland was associated with the musical genre, and audiences could always expect a song whenever she took to the screen, such as in The Wizard of Oz.

A "Modern" take on the Family

In the 1970s, All in the Family was a highly popular TV show that depicted an average American family dealing with the current social issues of the time.  Among those issues was the topic of homosexuality, as our class witnessed in the episode shown last Thursday.  Perhaps the most similar of All in the Family's contemporaries  is ABC's Modern Family, another critically acclaimed family-based comedic television show.  Like it's 70's counter-part, Modern Family too includes situations facing the "average" family, such as homosexuality.

Yet while All in the Family and Modern Family are both situational family comedies shaped by politically liberal views on social issues, they approach such topics as homosexuality in completely different manners.  This difference results from contrasting family set-ups: in All in the Family the viewer witness' a single family's take on social change, while in Modern Family we see those social changes in action among a large, interconnected family.  So while in All in the Family viewers see Archie Bunker coming to terms with homosexuality in his own context, in Modern Family audiences observe two gay men, Mitchell and Cameron, in their efforts to create and maintain a family.

Perhaps since characters in Modern Family are more diverse than those in All in the Family, it's approach and coverage of issues is more subtly done.  For example, in the episode we watched on homosexuality, Archie Bunker is brass in condemning the actions of what he refers to as "fairies", while Mitchell's father Jay in Modern Family is loving yet sometimes naive in his acceptance of his son's sexual orientation.