Classmate Blog Response - Stephanie's Why Movies are Still a Thing

     I recently made a post that briefly covered how different forms of media have survived through demassification at the hands of television. (See that here.) Stephanie Little also made a post similar to this on her blog, but she focused solely on the movie industry. She went in-depth in her explanations, organized her points neatly, and emphasized the ideas with pictures and examples. It's lightly humorous, very informative, and interesting. She describes things in detail, but with simple explanations so that it is easy to understand.

A+

Gold Star

Classmate Blog Response - Kaylee on the TV Lecture

     Our classmate Kaylee recently posted a blog entry about Mr. Miller's  lecture about television. She went into great depth on the topic, explaining the effects of TV--including those on society. She gives a detailed recap on how it affects the way we dress and act, and also how it affects things like elections. She does all of this with a sarcastic sort of humor that makes it not only educational but also very entertaining.
     I especially like her picture of Barack Obama with the caption of "that's right friends i won." (Just saying.)

Class Response - PR and Advertising

     In class today, we were introduced to our new unit on PR (Public Relations) and advertising. I'm very excited for this unit, because I'm interested in PR.

     We had worksheets to do today, and we were told to think about the worst and best advertisements we'd seen. I thought this was interesting and it got me thinking. Either way, I wanted to share my favorites and least favorites.

Worst:
Head-on: Apply directly to the forehead.

Well, it definitely captures the "repetition" method of advertisement. This repetition is probably to make up for the fact that the commercial is boring, lacking information, and just downright annoying. In just the thirteen seconds of the original version, it manages to irritate me. This, however, is a ten minute long version. Enjoy!

Best:

Public Service Announcement: Dumb Ways to Die

I love this! It's actually a public service announcement, but I'll still count it. Throughout the whole time I was watching it for the first time, I thought it was just a cute little video. Then at the end, where it was revealed that it was a PSA from Metro, I was pleasantly surprised. It's cute, memorable, catchy, and you don't even think of it as an advertisement at first! I show it to my friends just because I think it's cute, and they love it too! There's even an app for it now. That is really great marketing!

News Source Review - Camm Trial Verdict

     As I'm sure that we all know, on October 24 of 2013, David Camm was found innocent after a long, expensive, and much-talked-about trial. That day, every news station and the Courier Journal's lead story revolved around the trial's outcome.

     WHAS spent such an extensive period of time discussing the trial, in fact, that on that day, there were only two real news stories when you exclude the sports and weather. The lead story alone lasted almost nine whole minutes. Combined with the long breaks and excessive amounts of weather and sports stories, there was only time for one more, very fast and barely relevant story.

     However, it was not a slow news day. Every other news station still had at least seven stories that day, despite the Camm Trial. On top of that, The Courier Journal's archive shows clearly that the two stories featured were not the only newsworthy of the day. A list of news stories from the courier-journal.com's archive for the 24th is shown below.

While not all of these stories are relevant and several are sports related, there are many significant stories that viewers of WHAS news would have benefited from hearing. Things such as a new bullying protection order in JCPS, a vote to ban alcohol sales after two a.m, and a program aimed to prevent teen car crashes. These stories have more impact than the unnecessarily lengthy story covering the Camm trial, and are also far more interesting.

On October 24, 2013, WHAS violated the yardsticks of newsworthiness (it told about things that had little to no impact for only a short period of time) and enterprise (they did not seek out answers; they asked "what" rather than "why"), and they principle of making the important interesting (rather than making the interesting important).

Class Response - How Other Forms of Media Survived the Television Apocalypse

     With the intense popularity of television, all forms of media were forced to demassify. However, we still see these mediums today. Each medium had something about it that kept it around, and they each demassified into something that people would still have an interest in.

Newspapers
     Newspapers are still used today for various reasons. You can see these reasons in detail in a previous post by me by clicking here.

Radio
     Radio was forced to demassify and focus on a niche audience. However, this demassification is not the primary reason that radios are still around. What really saved radio is music--rock and roll. In the 50s and 60s, as television grew more prevalent, it seemed as if radio would be doomed. The music industry's involvement in radio got people interested in radio again, despite TV's popularity.

Movies
     There are many reasons as to why movies are still very popular. For one, Hollywood began making big-budget, extremely expensive productions that television could not afford. The movies also had a large variety of genres as well. On top of that, there is a cultural influence--the need to be first. Going to the movies also became a social experience, where you could spend time with friends, family, and romantic interests. The setting made it an immersive experience--the large screens, dark room, surround sound--which also appealed to people.

Classmate Blog Response - Alyssa Durbin Media Critique

     Alyssa's blog recently featured a media critique that reprimanded the WLKY news station for their lack of news--in multiple ways. She not only mentions the absurd amount of time that is spent in a thirty minute show with just advertising. With so many breaks, there is only twenty minutes left available for news. Between five to ten minutes of this, Alyssa claims, is spent on sports and weather.

     She also explains that the news that is actually featured in the news is not even good, relevant news. She elaborates by providing details about the David Camm murder trials--which we all know by now has been made to seem far more important than it is.

      I agree with all of Alyssa's points. However, her argument could have been made stronger if she had told which principles or yardsticks of journalism were violated by her station. Another thing I noticed was some sort of typo, where she ends a sentence abrubtly and with no punctuation before continuing with her next paragraph.

She trails off in the middle of a sentence, which is something that no blog should ever

Class Response - How TV Took Over the World (and/or caused many forms of media to demassify)

     The invention of television in 1927 changed mass communication massively. Previous forms of mass communications--newspapers, magazines, radio, and movies--were all forced to demassify after the incredibly quick growth of television. See below how each type of media was affected.

Newspapers
     As TV grew more popular, newspapers quickly became old news (pun intended). TV took both newspapers' audience and their advertisers. TV provided news faster than newspapers. Since TV reached a broader audience for a far cheaper price, businesses favored TV for advertising, which meant less money for newspapers. Magazines had a similar problem--TV did not actually take their audience, just their advertisers.

Radio
     Television, as with newspapers, took radio's audience. For radio, however, TV also took much of the radio's talent. Most major radio stars were easily convinced to jump in the bandwagon and become television stars, where their faces could be seen along with their voice.

Movies
     TV also took much of the movie industry's audience. It allowed the same entertainment, but from the comfort of your own home, and for free.

Class Response - Movies

     Movies were invented in 1888 by William Dixon, who worked for Thomas Ediso. He was the first person to take motion pictures. His motion pictures captured both sight and sound, by taking not just one picture but many pictures each second to provide the video. However, Dixon's invention could not easily be played back, and could not be played on a large screen for an audience. It required a carousel.
     However, the 1891 invention of flexible film, which allowed film to be put on a reel, played, and projected, fixed this problem. The Lumiere brothers were the ones to figure out how to project these flexible film reels onto white screens, in 1895.
     It wasn't until 1922 that Fox Studios managed to figure out how to project film and sound in sync. This allowed for movies with sound--known as "talkies", at the time. 1927 introduced the most popular talkie, called The Jazz Singer.
     Movies, especially the talkies, grew incredibly popular. By 1930, there were over nine thousand theatres with sound. Already, silent films were becoming a thing of the past.
     Movies in general made a large impact on media. People had never seen anything like it, even when it was just black and white. The idea of moving pictures was astounding and all new.

Class Response - Radio's Introduction and Growth

     Radio was the first form of mass communication that was live. This was a huge innovation--live communication allowed for truly "breaking news". Prior to radio becoming popular, you could not hear about an event almost immediately after it occurred. Newspapers had to be written, printed, and distributed, taking at least a few hours after an important news story before the people could hear about it. This did not only change news, however. Radio provided entertainment for very cheap. A wide range of stations were available to many, all at the same time, through the one object.
     While radio in general contained a wide variety of different stations, each different station was targeted toward a niche audience. With the many stations available, there was something for everyone on the radio.
     Radio had fairly speedy growth. In 1922, there were about one hundred thousand radios and five hundred different stations. Two years later, in 1924, the number of stations had tripled to fifteen hundred stations. By 1947, there were over forty million radios.