Entry 9: The Media and I

           Within the realm of media I have been noticing some slight changes in the way I look at it. My ENG 102 class has been showing me that media is manipulative and scary. Everyday people are told what is the best product as well as who has done what. This has created a system where people are believing what they hear on TV or read in a newspaper without checking it out for themselves. Shows like TMZ show how celebrities live outside of their normal realm. TMZ could easily show you the worse part of a conversation with one of those celebrities and make the audience believe that person is mean or selfish. 

           I am a person who does not watch the news or TV to catch all the new gossip. For one I don’t like commercials that constantly try to sell me food and product that look so amazing that you have to get them. Then when you do its half of what you were expecting. It is easy to fall back to Netflix as opposed to paying for cable where the only thing I would ever tune into would be playoff games. There are many people like me out there who would prefer to have no annoying commercials that constantly play over and over to the point where people memorize the jingles. 

         So for someone like me who has as minimal media exposure as possible it still seems to find its way into my life. This could be from peers telling me about what happened to Ray Rice or annoying jingles sung by friends that in turn get stuck in my head. Short but sweat is the theme of this blog post. Its crunch time for students at Glendale Community College so that is all for now followers! See you soon!

Entry 7: Fiber One Commercial

            In my English 102 class we were assigned to examine a website called Dumb Men. The website is a collection of videos and commercials where men are played as unintelligent Neanderthals. All these. Instances where this comes up starts to paint a very clear picture of what society thinks of the average adult male. Fortunately, anyone can testify that this is not entirely true in that all men are created Dumb and that most men are actually fairly intelligent. That’s not to say that men are all intellectually savvy. Some are jock types who don’t lose the high school mentality.

          After watching some videos it is very clear how this cite shows the propaganda; in the case of men, shows how average males are not very smart or stupid which should be brought to light. In this specific Fiber One commercial the Fiber One guy convinces the husband who was instructed by his wife to throw away cereal. The husband tell the Fiber One guy that he likes the cereal and doesn't want to throw it away because it "taste way too good". But then the husband is played as a "wussy" to his wife and is scared when she comes up behind him. 

     

    Stereotypes like this, as well as many others are showcased on the website. This is a good idea for a website because the audience can post comments and voice opinions about the way people think of average American men. What is sad is how often these types of scenarios are used in media to get our attention and make us laugh or smirk. My final thoughts on the subject is that the website should be there. I see no reason for this to not be made apparent. That is all for now! We will meet again!

Entry 8: Twitch.tv

            For this self-generated blog post we have some freedom to write about what we please and it helps to tie it into whatever paper we are writing. So for this post I will be discussing the medium video gamers all can relate to. Twitch.tv is the medium for people trying to get good at games.

Twitch.tv is a very popular cite where gamers can watch other professional gamers play (live stream) the games they love. These people watching the game can learn new tactics and strategies, as well as get to know the pros on a closer basis. What this creates a central point for players who are trying to better their knowledge or just hang out with their favorite streamer. When streamers get popular from being good, just a fun personality, or both the result is mass amounts of viewers. These amounts of viewers tune in for a variety of reasons including, being a part of a mass group chat with peers their ages, learning tons of knowledge about the game they love, and the overall entertainment of the stream.

When steamers like Cloud 9 Sneaky turn on their stream and bring in more than 20 thousand people it is easy to answer viewer’s questions to make them think about what they already believe. Unless the viewers have no pre-existing knowledge on a subject, they are most likely going to believe. It is easy for one of these streamers to make the general population believe for instance how fun it is to play a certain game. Sneaky for instance streams League of Legends (a popular game on twitch) can simply wear a shirt that has a Hearthstone logo on it, (another popular twitch game) and make comment on it and half the streamers are inclined to play Hearthstone.

Viewers are also encouraged through this experience to upgrade their computers to hopefully be on the same playing field as the pros. People spend thousands of dollars on duel monitors, new mouse’s and key boards, as well as donate money to have a google voice lady say a message everyone watching can hear. A lot of the time it is profanity. But people are addicted to making funny comments through google voice for everyone to hear, which brings in thousands of dollars for streamers. Viewers can also subscribe to the channel to support the streamer as well as getting cool emoticons to use while typing in the chat. Also, merchandise from sponsors like Cloud 9 sell bracelets to promote the logo off the computer.

Streamers easily can act as a medium for gamer from all over the world. Whether you want to watch Korean streamers in America or American streamers in Korea. Again it is easy to see how one can be influenced by the people they look up to for gaming advice and other things. So for now that is all but more blogs are soon to follow.