Thursday, 26 April 2018
Gender codes in Media
- Ritualization of submission
- Unaware / anxious expression
- Lying down pose
- Awkward contorted pose
- Lying down positon
- Anxious expression
- Almost assuming fetal position
In my humble opinion, advertisers using elements of pornography in ads to catch the attention of people is a scummy tactic, reserved for those who have nothing interesting to sell to you. They lack the creativity on their own to draw your attention with clever slogans or just well designed ads so in compensation they use sex to sell to you. No matter how unfortunate it may be.
Monday, 26 March 2018
Friday, 23 February 2018
Media Studies 120, The Medium is the message
There exists a game simply called Train. You may likely never play it unless if you happen to come across it on tour. The game opens up with players smashing a window pane, one of four corners. On top of the frame holding the window panes are train tracks and carts full of passengers. Players take turns rolling dice and moving their trains closer to the destination to win. Upon reaching the end, you pick up cards to see where your passengers ended up. Printed on them are things like "Auschwitz" or "Plaszow".
This is a real game. And many who play it for the first time find it horribly tragic, but what makes it tragic? In particular, is it the story that makes it tragic, the context behind it? Or the players own complicity with what the metaphors represented. The idea is, the Mechanics are the message, the Medium is the message.
The idea behind Train is to explore how game mechanics tell the story just as much as direct exposition from something or someone. The same can be said for any sort of medium. Movies and how they are shot can tell a story. Just by the time spent on a frame, how it builds up to a scene, or even with which the movies aspect ratio can be used to create a close and claustrophobic feeling such as in the movie Son of Saul. In novels, the way you phrase things, the very way you use your words can be used to convey something. In comic books, how panels are placed can emphasize action, such as reading from right to left, and using your natural eye movement to convey movement by having characters walk or do something in the direction your eye is moving.
In short, to say the medium is the message is to say what implications the way you chose to represent something can effect your end message. It's important to understand this concept. Sometimes, some stories only work in particular formats. Messages like Lovecraftian Cosmic Horror only work in novels and movies, where you can show characters fall into madness and fail at every step, but not in games. Because generally games that have the player fail through no real fault of their own is only frustrating, and having a story where the character is going through hell and keeps failing at everything, but a player that is breezing through challenges and overcoming any situation simply does not mesh the medium and message well together.
This is a real game. And many who play it for the first time find it horribly tragic, but what makes it tragic? In particular, is it the story that makes it tragic, the context behind it? Or the players own complicity with what the metaphors represented. The idea is, the Mechanics are the message, the Medium is the message.
The idea behind Train is to explore how game mechanics tell the story just as much as direct exposition from something or someone. The same can be said for any sort of medium. Movies and how they are shot can tell a story. Just by the time spent on a frame, how it builds up to a scene, or even with which the movies aspect ratio can be used to create a close and claustrophobic feeling such as in the movie Son of Saul. In novels, the way you phrase things, the very way you use your words can be used to convey something. In comic books, how panels are placed can emphasize action, such as reading from right to left, and using your natural eye movement to convey movement by having characters walk or do something in the direction your eye is moving.
In short, to say the medium is the message is to say what implications the way you chose to represent something can effect your end message. It's important to understand this concept. Sometimes, some stories only work in particular formats. Messages like Lovecraftian Cosmic Horror only work in novels and movies, where you can show characters fall into madness and fail at every step, but not in games. Because generally games that have the player fail through no real fault of their own is only frustrating, and having a story where the character is going through hell and keeps failing at everything, but a player that is breezing through challenges and overcoming any situation simply does not mesh the medium and message well together.
Thursday, 15 February 2018
Tuesday, 13 February 2018
A blasting critique of modern day media brought to you by Blogger™ a subsidiary of Google™
Today's media has taken over our day to day lives. You know our dependency on these large mega-corporations when if you but for a moment think if even just your fridge had all fruits of capitalism (pun unintended) just vanish, you'd likely starve. How'd you even start to provide for yourself let alone a community or these large equally squalid mega-cities? To the average person, could they realistically be able to manage a farm? I think most would have the will to, but tell me if you would know how to even start to go about collecting seeds to start a garden let alone a farm. And if say our housing were to vanish, how many people would know how to construct a mud hut let alone anything coming close to our cushy modern housing.
The issue is, we now have build everything around the corporation, the dollar, and the consumer. And if any one of these pillars are to fail then the entire thing just falls apart. Today, most of the "1st world" corporations are losing to those Chinese factories, which is just madness! They are commies, lower than us! How could have our sacred and perfect western values have failed us, I mean, those charities show us how awful it is to live anywhere but here! Regardless, the point is that our patriotic corporations that love Canada god bless! Have instantly turned tail and its long hours for the China men now! We're losing that pillar of our society today to foreign competition. At first it was good for us, the manufacturer and raw labor jobs vanished, but they opened way to the office job, the service job, and the snarky online agitators. This whole rant is about the ungodly pedestal we put corporations on. You might think you don't, but you do. If you have ever Gushed over a new product releasing including
A new video game
A clothes brand
A new smart phone
A new 'important and generation defining film'
A new book
The whole point is. You have, and because we put them on a high pedestal. We allow their sociopathic behavior to occur because of "profit at any cost". And now when its coming back to haunt us instead of pushing us forward, we blame each other, because the Chinese are fully responsible for our companies to leave for them.
Upon the second pillar I probably should just nail the numbers "2008" and probably be done with it, maybe "1929" to be sure. Or maybe "1973" just to really nail the point home, money is fragile and our value of money itself changes. The Canadian dollar used to be better than it is now, and if a huge unspoken pillar of our society can fluctuate in value and itself be a representation of value. Well look no further than Venezuela for when your currency and sources of value stop being valuable.
The last point is us, we are a huge part of the problem. We want to be healthy, yet more people seem to want to eat some miccy dee's and sit at home. People want television to take risks and push the boundary, yet most people watch shows in bulk that are considered padding for programs with nothing else to show, people wanting MTV to be about music again yet they make more money broadcasting shows like Jersey shore that are, if the consumer is to be believed, universally reviled. If this current society is anything, it seems to be Hypocritical. We all say one thing, then act in another way. It makes it seem like there is no point in trying to change anything if people are just gonna revert back to they way they carried on before. We seem to really support media picking fights with individuals, serving up unhealthy food at the cost of the consumer, and media being in-general, creatively bankrupt and just making the same thing over and over again. Well, we may seem to say otherwise but why then is CNN still making a profit? Why is McDonalds still making a profit? Why are we still getting more seasons of TV shows like The Simpsons and Spongebob when long ago we seem to have agreed collectively that they are no longer worth watching? My point is, we vote with our money. And we've been voting for everything we say we hate, yet cannot help but to watch and want more of.
This whole rant ties back to one thing, media literacy. And maybe to clarify my stances and why I picked all the topics I did. I consider media in this case to mean in any way in which Corporations interact with us and how we view corporations. And the point is we don't seem to have media literacy. And we pay for it dearly. Listed are three market crashes, 5 media scandals, and just a few examples of media just plain sucking and not being interesting and rather just being junk filler that no one cares about yet turns in profit after profit every year. Really, we don't seem to ever learn nor do we want to. We are still seeing scandals come out whether its video game gambling or Hollywood and almost everywhere else being rocked by sex abuse accusations. 2018 will likely be like 2017, 2016, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, and every year before that because honestly, Media Literacy simply seems to not exist.
The issue is, we now have build everything around the corporation, the dollar, and the consumer. And if any one of these pillars are to fail then the entire thing just falls apart. Today, most of the "1st world" corporations are losing to those Chinese factories, which is just madness! They are commies, lower than us! How could have our sacred and perfect western values have failed us, I mean, those charities show us how awful it is to live anywhere but here! Regardless, the point is that our patriotic corporations that love Canada god bless! Have instantly turned tail and its long hours for the China men now! We're losing that pillar of our society today to foreign competition. At first it was good for us, the manufacturer and raw labor jobs vanished, but they opened way to the office job, the service job, and the snarky online agitators. This whole rant is about the ungodly pedestal we put corporations on. You might think you don't, but you do. If you have ever Gushed over a new product releasing including
A new video game
A clothes brand
A new smart phone
A new 'important and generation defining film'
A new book
The whole point is. You have, and because we put them on a high pedestal. We allow their sociopathic behavior to occur because of "profit at any cost". And now when its coming back to haunt us instead of pushing us forward, we blame each other, because the Chinese are fully responsible for our companies to leave for them.
Upon the second pillar I probably should just nail the numbers "2008" and probably be done with it, maybe "1929" to be sure. Or maybe "1973" just to really nail the point home, money is fragile and our value of money itself changes. The Canadian dollar used to be better than it is now, and if a huge unspoken pillar of our society can fluctuate in value and itself be a representation of value. Well look no further than Venezuela for when your currency and sources of value stop being valuable.
The last point is us, we are a huge part of the problem. We want to be healthy, yet more people seem to want to eat some miccy dee's and sit at home. People want television to take risks and push the boundary, yet most people watch shows in bulk that are considered padding for programs with nothing else to show, people wanting MTV to be about music again yet they make more money broadcasting shows like Jersey shore that are, if the consumer is to be believed, universally reviled. If this current society is anything, it seems to be Hypocritical. We all say one thing, then act in another way. It makes it seem like there is no point in trying to change anything if people are just gonna revert back to they way they carried on before. We seem to really support media picking fights with individuals, serving up unhealthy food at the cost of the consumer, and media being in-general, creatively bankrupt and just making the same thing over and over again. Well, we may seem to say otherwise but why then is CNN still making a profit? Why is McDonalds still making a profit? Why are we still getting more seasons of TV shows like The Simpsons and Spongebob when long ago we seem to have agreed collectively that they are no longer worth watching? My point is, we vote with our money. And we've been voting for everything we say we hate, yet cannot help but to watch and want more of.
This whole rant ties back to one thing, media literacy. And maybe to clarify my stances and why I picked all the topics I did. I consider media in this case to mean in any way in which Corporations interact with us and how we view corporations. And the point is we don't seem to have media literacy. And we pay for it dearly. Listed are three market crashes, 5 media scandals, and just a few examples of media just plain sucking and not being interesting and rather just being junk filler that no one cares about yet turns in profit after profit every year. Really, we don't seem to ever learn nor do we want to. We are still seeing scandals come out whether its video game gambling or Hollywood and almost everywhere else being rocked by sex abuse accusations. 2018 will likely be like 2017, 2016, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, and every year before that because honestly, Media Literacy simply seems to not exist.
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