THE DAY MUSIC DIED

1) Andrew Keen's belief that there are “grave” consequences as a result of today’s participatory “Web 2.0” does seem to be coming true. Our values, economy, and creativity are being affected by the media growing and changing over the years. Keen gave some good examples of how "Web 2.0" is starting to kill parts of our economy and how we view what is right and wrong. One of the things he talked about is how movies today can be downloaded offline so easily that people do not need to go the see them in the movies. This is very true instead of spending the money on going to see a movie, people find some way to watch it for free illegally. Even if they are not downloading movies this way, now people can watch better quality films at home because they can get it on their HDTVs. A point that also ties to the movie industry was the fact that video stores are starting to lose a lot of business because people are downloading movies or using different methods of renting movies like using the online mailing system Netflix provides. I personally do use Netflix and love it, and now sometimes I also catch myself saying that I will not go see a movie because I will just get it on my Netflix when it comes out. A second thing that the Web is killing is printed text. More and more newspapers are putting all of their stories online focusing on their website more that on the printed paper they need to put out. Newspaper staffs have been getting smaller because of this and people are getting let go because they cannot keep them on in the dying industry. I know last year when I went on a trip to the Poughkeepsie Journal, one of the head photographers was telling us how the printed text (media) was dying and that now they are just trying to keep up with the online seen to try to stay alive. Lastly another thing being affected, not so much by the Web, but new technologies in general is how reality TV is over taking Scripted Shows. TV used to be something that people could watch to see the news and then be entertained by shows put on by all different stations. Now more than ever reality TV is taking over because it does not cost as much to put on. Good scripted shows are hard to find and it is scary for the TV industry to have to make so many cut backs just to stay on the air. I know I have been getting sick of seeing all these different reality shows taking over the TV. I think back ten years when I was younger and wish the shows that were on then could come back and be on again instead of the really "bad stuff" on TV today. The world, the media and technology are all really changing so fast that who knows that will happen in the future. Will we finally stop trying to change so much and just learn to stay with what is good? I do hope that the media world stops changing so much, so fast. Things are going by us now and we don't even realize it because we are on to the next new thing before the last one got old.

2) "Sheep are devouring men" (Sir Thomas More - Utopia) - this is a very interesting concept to think about and at the same time one that is true. It makes me think about how much we today relay on computers and the internet that we feel that without them we would not survive when this of course is not true at all. A question I think of is, did we become so dependent of something we created that we are letting it eat away at us instead of us keeping control of it? In a way I do think that the media and technology world is starting to shadow over our own. Sometimes I wish that ALL power would turn off, the computers would just stop working, that people could talk with one another with out having to feel like they need to text or IM them. Its almost like technology is dehumanizing us. As said in "the day the music died", "Five hundred years later, in the Web 2.0 world computers are consuming journalists with the same results: Many people are losing their livelihood, and a few lucky souls -- are getting very, very rich." I think it is trying to say that the Web is killing the world. Its not letting people live their lives to the fullest, instead it is letting only a few get richer and have all the control while the rest loose everything. Another question we can ask then is: Are the ones holding the power in the internet world pulling the strings and we are nearly puppets being controlled by them or are we all just letting the internet and the web take us over. It is a question we may never find the answer to, or at least not until it is too late.

Growing Up Online

After watching “Growing Up Online” I did not really find any of the information presented in it surprising. Instead I more find that it is sad how so many kids today are growing up online and are so obsessed with the internet that they do not feel like they can live without going on it at some point in the day. It saddens me to see how much the Internet controls young people’s lives. Teens today seem to think that without the Internet they cannot be cool or in on the latest gossip. Even the fact that kids and teens will not go out and do something together before they end up talking to each other online to play a game together using electronics and possibly the internet. I do not think it is healthy to see so many young people using the internet to express themselves. Why is it that they feel they have to use the internet to do this? Why can they not find different ways to get their ideas out into the world?

As much as kids and teens do say they know not to answer people they do not know on the internet and even through studies have shown that this is true. I don’t think that the kids and teens understand still how dangerous it is to go out on the internet and just let people look at their information or pictures of them. So many think MySpace is safe and that no one can look at their information unless they are friends with them but what if someone hacks the system and then all the information you thought was safe is out for all to see. And going back to the comment on friends, why is it that people accept others as friends if they have never met them or have only met them once? Why do they have a need to have as many friends as possible? I know personally on facebook I only let people I know, friend me, even if I only know them a little bit. I do not ever friend someone that I do not know at all because I think that would be creepy and that that person then could find out things about me or look at my pictures, which is really none of their business.
I thought it was interesting that the mother of four wanted her kid’s passwords to their facebook or MySpace accounts. I know my mom had asked me also about my facebook and I do not let her have the password because I do feel it is my page and therefore I should be the only one who should be able to change things on it. I do however let my mom look at it when I am online at home. In all honesty I don’t have anything on my facebook, which I feel I need to hide from my parents. I do not put anything up on my facebook that is too personal therefore why should I care if I show it to my mom so she feels better about what I have online. On the other hand I do know many people who are afraid to show their parents their facebooks or MySpace pages because they know the pages have things on them that their parents would not approve of. I ask them what their relationship with their parents is and I seem to always get the answer that it is OK but not a great open relationship. It just seems like such a stressful thing to have to worry about your parents not trusting you. My parents do trust me because they know what I am up to most of the time. I mean of course there are things that I do not tell my parents but it is never anything earth shattering and if I do not talk to them about it I always do with a close friend who I trust.

I understand where the parents are coming from somewhat because I know when I become a mom I want my kids to be safe and part of keeping them safe will be knowing what they are up to. I want my kids to be able to talk to me about anything and know that I am always there for them when they need help with something in their lives. I know I am terrified that someone I know will get cyber bullied and then want to hurt themselves or god forbid kill themselves. And of course I never want that to happen to my kids.

I do think that kids today are taking the internet to lightly. They say they understand the danger and to stay away from it but when you really think about it part of the danger is how much they are staying on the computer and the internet. Some spend hours and hours online doing nothing important, I mean of course I can understand if people go online to work on homework or find out information they need like directions, but how much to kids and teens need to really do this?

In the end who knows what the future will bring. The internet will probably keep growing and more and more kids and teens will start using it. What can be done about all of this no one really knows I guess, the best thing to do would be to have teens and kids watch documentaries like this one in the hopes that they will learn more about the internet and really look at how much they are exposing themselves online for all to see.

Do campain producers give us what we want?

1. Where are we headed? What's the future? What are your thoughts on how far the techniques of persuasion might go?

1) After watching “The Persuaders” the answers to the questions “where are we headed?” and “what’s the future?” can be hard to answer. It is amazing how much advertising has grown over the years and now more than ever advertising has to get more creative to keep peoples’ attention. I think that the advertising world is heading for bigger and brighter things; the future of ads is going to be determined by new technologies and advertisements we make over time. I do think the harder it becomes to sell something and persuade people to buy it, the harder and more money advertisers are going to put in to do anything to sell their product or idea. The constant search to find what people want to buy will never stop and I think more and more personal space and privacy will be
violated just so advertisers can figure out what they think we want.

2. Is there something distinctive in the American character that makes us susceptible to this world of advertising and messages? "The Persuaders" program explores the idea that Americans are seeking and finding a sort of identity in buying/joining a brand. What is this about?

2) I think the fact that we are Americans definitely has an effect on how we are susceptible to the “world of advertising and messages.” If there is one thing Americans are good at it’s wanting and buying things we do not need. For some reason the need to have all of this “stuff” has taken over and this is why the advertisers probably love selling to Americans. It can be tied into the last special we watched in class, everyone wants to be “cool” and because of this, many will buy their way into what they think is “cool”. The American culture will definitely always help advertisers because we are also not afraid to give feedback on how we feel about an ad or products. When “The Persuaders” talked about how Americans are looking for an identity in buying or joining a brand, I think this is talking about how people will buy a product because it is the kind of person they are and want others to see them as. For example people will buy a certain brand of clothing because they see it as the clothes “showing” their personality and want to show that off. When advertisers are trying to gear towards a certain type of “idea” or “style”, they want to make sure it will be to a large group that will want to buy their products. Many advertisers also try to sell to as many people as possible, showing many sides of a product. Take iPods for example, those commercials and ads all go towards many different types of music but will still use the same idea to keep the advertisement looking the same and therefore more recognizable.

3. What are the common elements in the persuasion/selling strategies of advertising and marketing? And how can we move about in this world with a degree of self-awareness as to what's happening, especially since all these messages are increasingly trying to move us to act and make choices on an emotional level?

3) Common elements in selling strategies come down to knowing what the person buying wants to see, wants to hear, and wants to show off when having that product. Like we saw in “The Persuaders”, advertisers are all about finding what people want to see and hear about in a product. We can see this in the fact that advertisers pay people to find out what words to use in an ad, what will make it more catchy to the people. Also we saw Clotaire Rapaille talk about how companies want to learn from his idea of figuring out what people want to buy. As he talked about how people don’t really know what they want, it is something deep down inside of them and the key is to find the “code” to what they want to buy. I do think that people need to become more self-aware about what they buy and how ads influence how they feel about buying a product. I know that advertising pulls me in a lot of times but one question I always ask myself before buying something is “do I really NEED this?” The answer to this question many times is no I don’t need the product and then I will not buy it. I think more people need to start THINKING about what they are buying and not just buy it because they like it or it is on sale. Advertisers are trying to touch us on an emotional level because they know that will affect us, and our thinking. The only thing any of us can really do is step back and ask ourselves, am I in control of buying these products or do they control me? I think everyone needs to start asking themselves if they really do need to buy something before they do or better yet people need to ask themselves did I really want to buy this. I hear that answer a lot when it comes to people buying - they say they bought it because they wanted to, but really did they want to or did they just have an emotional connection to the product and therefore, they feel they need to buy it. There are some questions we will never know the answer to when it comes to advertising and buying products. All we can do is try not to give into advertising and think about what we are buying before we really do it.

“The Merchants of Cool”

What are your opinions on the tactics and techniques of the marketing media who are targeting teenagers? Have they gone too far?

When I think about marketing media and the tactics and techniques used to form how teens feel about products I think two things, wow that is annoying but at the same time wow that is smart. It is amazing to think about how many people work every day not just to try to understand the American teenager but also try to understand what they will want to buy and become obsessed with. When I think about the American teenager I think about how so many look to the media and the commercial world to find out what is “cool” just like how we saw in “The Merchants of Cool”.

I do not like to see how much “cool hunters” do to try to find out what should be sold to teens. The fact that they go into kids homes or ask to take their pictures to go on a website just gives me this weird feeling. And yet it seems to work because the best way to get inside a teen’s head it to let them be who they want to be, or think they want to be anyway, and sell it right back to them in a mass form. I also don’t like how these cool hunters become all about selling not seeming to care if what they are selling to teens is healthy for them. Looking back again on what we saw in the video today a lot of what is sold to guys are products all about being crazy and fun when for girls is all comes down to your body type and sex. In a way the media is willing to poison young minds because they do not care about how it affects the teen, they only care if they buy it. We always hear how things are not all about the money - but what is media marketing telling us other than that it IS all about the money. I think about how many things are sold toward teens on the internet now. Websites label sections of items that are "What's Hot" or they show "hot" models wearing the clothes. Companies such as Abercrombie & Fitch and American Eagle are all about selling their clothing through these methods.

I think as much as I hate all this and wish the media did not market products to teens like they were animals to be fed, they do need to do what they do because selling to teens is their job. This is just one of the only good reasons why I understand why marketers are selling the media the way they do. And as much as I hate to admit it, the marketers are winning the battle most of the time, even if we don't like how much they influence what we think about a product and make us want to buy it, we have to admit marketers are good at selling with the media’s help.

How Do media professionals "Know" their audiences?

The question of how media professionals know what to sell to their audience has been looked at many times over the years. Of course all types of media are looking for ratings because these ratings then help the people who are putting the media out know what people like and more importantly what people will buy. Some of the ways professionals “know” how we feel about products are by taking surveys and getting direct feedback from people. Another way is by putting devices in or attached to things like TVs so it can measure directly what and when people are watching it. One other thing that can be looked at is how much are ‘the people’ talking about something in the media. The internet is an easy way now to learn what people think about any type of media because things like blogs and other website are put up online with people voicing how they feel about everything. Even on store websites with every product there is a section where customers can leave comments about the produce (a movie, TV show, book, CD, etc.) As much as we want to say the media asked us what we want to see in reality the media controls so much of what we think that as long as they do a good job selling it people will buy it. We see things like ‘the most watched TV show’ but then again about 10 shows are saying that and they cannot all be the most watched. This is because the professionals are selling us this “idea” that it is the most watched show and therefore why are we not one of the ones watching it? These are just some of the ways that media professionals can try to “know” their audiences and how the audiences feel about the media and how much the media prefessionals control it.

Quiz on bitmap vs. vector graphics

“Money As Debt”

After seeing, "Money As Debt", I was amazed how much could be done with the programs we have on our computers. Along with the fact that I learned so much more about our banking system than I ever knew. I did know some of the things the film talked about but never in the much detail. As much as I was impressed with the information in the short documentary, all the details that went into the graphics amazed me. I had no idea so much could be done with just a few programs. The movement that was made by the characters was well done and helped make the information in the film not so dull, all the animation made the film "come to life". I also liked how the animation was broken down into a few different parts with the quotes in between. It helped tell the story better I think. I also liked how it looked like the "camera" was constantly moving. Again the ability to make this animation with programs on a computer is just amazing. Overall I thought the film was well done and I hope one day to be able to make something like it, on a different topic of course.