Media Blog #7

Watching Shows like Jon and Kate Plus Eight gives people a false image of what raising families is really like. They make it look so easy and fun but in reality I hear it can be quite a hard thing to do. This family of ten has one working parent and one parent staying at home with the kids. Most families, especially those with large families, struggle to make ends meet even with 2 working parents. This show rarely shows the downside of their life, mostly because their life has no downside.
I do not think that it is right to include kids in these shows. The kids have no say in what is happening, since they have been involved since before they could understand what reality TV was. They have grown up with a camera in their faces and will be known to everyone for the rest of their lives. It is not fair that their childhoods be spent being followed around by cameras and scrutinized by the entire world. The parents, producers, and advertisers are taking advantage of these kids and making a whole bunch of money off of them. The kids are also being lead on that their life is so easy and fun and all this stuff comes free. I don't think it makes for a well-adjusted human being
Shoes like these most definitely give an unrealistic idea of how easy it is to raise large families. These people are heavily compensated for being on TV. They live in a big house and have plenty of clothes and food. This is definitely irresponsible of the producers. They are trying to show reality, and reality TV does not do that at all. Since it is on tv, the people in the show are getting paid for it, and primped for it. They have glamourized this lifestyle and made it seem more appealing and easy to people. This could end up creating problems in the end.

The Truman Show

The movie, "The Truman Show" creates a unique and controversial environment for one man who is unknowingly surrounded by actors in his own controlled world. The creator of the reality Tv show, Christof, has many challenges in keeping Truman content and entertaining in his own little world. Throughout the course of the film, Truman becomes suspicious of his fabricated life and seeks the truth. He wants to escape from his island and see the world. Truman is a real man with real feelings, living in a completely unreal world.
From the day he was born, Truman Burbank’s life has been controlled. His parents, his teachers, his friends, and everyone on the fake island of Seahaven where he lives, are all actors given specific roles to play in his life. Truman himself is the only one with a real personality and real feelings to what is going on in his life. He is sincere in his actions, words, and impulses. He goes to work every day, goes home to his wife, pays bills, and does everything else that a normal man of his age would do. Truman has real fears, too. His fear of water is caused by an experience that he actually felt. All of his actions are done by his own choosing. Some things cannot be controlled.
But none of it is real. It all amounts to nothing in the end. In the real world, Truman’s actions are worth nothing. His job is not helping anyone, his money is not worth anything, and his feelings are not reciprocated by anyone in his life. His family is made up of actors, and every event that happens to him throughout his life is planned by producers to work out a certain way. Ultimately, even though Truman thinks he is in control of his life, he is not at all. Even the weather is not real. Everything in his little world has been placed there. It is all for sale and his life is one giant advertisement that everyone else is in on.
Though Truman doesn’t realize it, his life is not a real one. Sure he lived and he felt and he worked, but it was not real. In the real world, it would all amount to nothing. Truman would have no family, no money, and no house. In his own sheltered life, things were only real to him. Once he realizes this, it is hard to tell how he feels. Even once he escapes the world of The Truman Show, nothing will be as real to him as it would be to a person who grew up in a normal world.

Media Blog #5 - "Gossip Sells the Goods"

Retailers who have celebrities who shop in their stores regularly can have a huge advantage. By being associated with celebrities, the companies are getting a lot more publicity and interest from consumers like us. People are interested in what kinds of things celebrities are using, and for some reason want to be just like them and think that by having the same things, they are somehow a better, cooler person. This is why stores are often trying to get celebrities to endorse their stores, which is even better than just shopping there because then they are actually going to get paid, so they will go out and wear and promote the product. Some people have issues with celebrities being used to sell or promote certain products or retailers because the retailers may try and enhance the way celebrities use their products or the extent to which they are used. There is also cases of companies who try and claim that people were endorsing their products, when in reality they were just using them. Celebrity endorsements help boost retail sales because they can spark an interest into a particular product that no one noticed or cared about before. Celebrities' faces or names grab people's attention, and when we see that they are attached to a particular product, it makes us notice and become more interested in the product. Like, "If Paris Hilton wears it, it has to be awesome. I want to be just like Paris Hilton so I am going to wear the clothes that she endorses, even though I've never heard of or seen them before, she's a trendsetter so it must be cool." According to the article, celebrities have become a part of the "business plan and business model" because where they go and what the do has a huge impact on places' business. By getting a celebrity on board with your business from day one, it will guarantee it to he a more successful place, with lots of interest. This means that if you are trying to start a business, having a celebrity involved will create interest because people follow the celebrity, and if they're at your place then your place will be recognized in the media. As far as I know, gossip doesn't have an impact on my habits as a consumer. At least, not celebrity gossip and not consciously. I know that just because I see someone famous using a particular brand or shopping or eating at a certain place, does not mean that I will run out and do the same. Subconsciously though, we all do it to an extent. Everyone in this room all fits into a mould that has been created by the media. We all want to be accepted, and yet we all want to express ourselves, as long as we are doing so in a way that is still socially acceptable. People follow trends, cut their hair a certain way, buy certain clothes, because that is what we see in the media. It might not be specific things endorsed by specific celebrities for some people, but because of whats available to us as consumers most people, I know I do, we follow along with whats current and what we see in the stores, the streets, the magazines, TV, and the movies.

Media post #4

Advertising affects everyone, more than we think. Even though it does not always make us want to jump up and go buy the product, it can often put the thought of the product or the company in out heads without us even knowing. There are signs we read as we drive down the road or walk through the mall, commercials with jingles that we hear on the radio while driving in the car, and posters with slogans we see in the mall, and everywhere else. Advertising is anywhere that it can possibly be put.

Slogans and jingles are an excellent way to get your message across and into peoples' heads. By creating a catch phrase and repeating it on the TV or radio, it gets stuck in people's heads. Very often you hear people singing songs like the "Mini Wheats" song, which constantly gets stuck in everyone's heads. Attaching a slogan to a product is also an excellent way to get people thinking about it. When someone hears "Maybe she was born with it," they are automatically going to think of Mabelline cosmetics.

When we did the matching activity in class, there were quite a few slogans and jingles that I knew that just kind of came to mind. I had no idea what they were until my mind was triggered by the slogan. I could picture the commercials and I realised how easily things can get stuck into my head without me even realizing. Even after hearing something only a couple of times, or being introduced to something I hadn'e heard in years, the slogan triggers a memory of the ad and the product itself.

Media Blog #3

Like most people, there are certain things that I have to buy a certain brand of. The quality, the price, and the style are the kind of things that tie me to a particular brand and keep me coming back. I have used the same kind of razors for as long as I can remember, and I always go back to Wal-Mart and get the same Conair hairbrush with the gel handle. I love Nokia cell phones and my last 2 were Nokia, and I plan on getting another one soon. There is also certain places that I will only go for food when I'm out, like Wendy's and Tim Horton's. In these cases, the brand is very important to me.
In some cases, the brand that I am wearing does not matter at all. My socks, for example, came in an-8 pack from Costco or Wal-Mart or something and are plain and grey. They are nothing special and no one sees them. They do not need to do any special job and they work for me. I would buy socks from wherever they were cheapest and most convenient. I also don't care where I get my jewelery, make-up, or nail polish from, or where I go to get my nails done. Some people care, but I do not. It doesn't matter, no one can see the brand on your face, they are all the same once applied. In these kinds of cases, the brand does not matter.
My opinions on brand loyalty have always been very strong. They haven't exactly changed but I have realized that I am more loyal to some brands than I originally thought. Although I am not loyal to any particular brands of clothing themselves, and I greatly dislike articles with a label and nothing else across the garment, most of my clothes come from brand name places or are brand name pieces. Brands are important, they give an identity and a stamp of quality to a product.

Media Blog #2

Over the last week, our look at product placement as well as various marketing techniques has made me more aware of the fact that advertising is all around us in such sneaky ways. Sometimes we don't even notice because it is coming at us constantly. They market their product to a specific target audience by putting it in places where the audience is likely to notice it. For example in the James Bond movie, which is geared toward guys, there is product placement for things that guys are more likely to be interested in buying, like cars, electronics, and cigars. I think that although product placement can be quite effective, direct advertisements like commercials get the message across better and are more effective. I think this is because it is more direct, and sometimes product placement is not noticed and goes right over our heads, and we don't even realize we are being advertised at. With a commercial, you know its advertising, and you see it and decide whether it interests you. Commercials can use those advertising techniques too and get more information about the product out there to consumers.

Media Blog #1

Coming into the course, all I really know about media is that it is all around us. It comes in many forms like television, radio, movies, music, newspaper, magazines, and books. Media has a huge effect on our lives. We all create it, and are subjected to looking at it or hearing it or whatever, sometimes voluntarilty, but more often than some people realize, not. Meida is in out lives in so many different forms that it would be impossible to get away from it completely unless we went back in time and lived in a place with no other people or modern surroundings. In this class,I would like to learn more about producing media, how it's done and what goes into it. I would also like to study the different ways it affects different people and what kind of an impact it has on people who think differently than me. I am interested to know how people's opinions differ on what is portrayed in the media and why they seem to show things in a certain way all the time. I also wonder about advertising and why people put so much money into it to make more money? I don't really understand how this works when it is done in such epic proportions. This week I have learned the different ways that advertisers get us to buy their products, and all of the techniques and why they work. I also came to realize that there is advertising everywhere possible now, like at the movies. It never used to be this way but this is the way our generation grew up. I will be more conscious of what is being advertised at me now.