Day 2 - Some Terms and Ideas

Forms of Media ( a few suggestions)

• - TV
• - Music
• - Video
• - Advertising
• - Books
• - Video games
• - Posters
• - Magazines
• - Internet
• - Radio
• - Newspapers
• - Flyers (direct mail)
• - Clothing (subtle advertising)
• - Licensed or branded products of all sorts
• - Public speaking (media requires a message, a way of getting it out and an audience)
• - Texting (which we agree NOT TO DO IN THIS CLASS PLEASE)
• - Social networking (Twitter, Facebook)
• - IM
• - Skype
• - Podcast

Different Forms of Media are all doing a variation of the same thing:

Allowing a particular group of people (PRODUCERS) to communicate with another, larger group of people (AUDIENCE/CONSUMERS) through a MEDIUM that usually involves some form of technology

Technology changes every day, therefore the media change every day, and yet, much remains the same over the years.

EG – Avatar is a movie. Shot on video, in 3D with computer generated images. The actors get their dialogue from a screenplay, which is a written story with a classic old format.

Podcasts are like old time radio programs.

Texting is just the written word, as old as dirt, regardless of the short forms and slang.

However, one of the biggest changes in the media over the years is that, in these modern times:

Modern media is more USER GENERATED and more a participation between the CONSUMER and the PRODUCER and the distance between these two groups is shrinking more every day. – Youtube “celebrities” are an example, Twitter and podcasts are another.

Justin Bieber – created his own career at 15 by posting Youtube videos of himself singing covers. Usher saw them and now Bieber is famous, whether you like him or not.

This is the first video he put out, and it was videos like this that attracted the attention of people in the industry:



Studying the media involves looking at:

The Producers
The Medium (the way they choose to communicate their messages – often a form of technology)
The Consumers
The Context, the time period, the messages that they are communicating, etc. – this area is important because it tells how and why – when we know this, we know more about what we watch or listen to
But Who Cares? Why should we know anything about what we watch?

We are being manipulated all the time.

Our main line of defense is thinking.

EMS30 Some Important Truths:

Mr. Lobb may be the only person in the world that you can trust. Including your Grandma. What? Can this be true?

Maybe. Here’s why:

Everybody else wants something. Even your Grandma.

Who Wants Something?

Mom/Dad – want me to be a good person, even if I want to be a robber – they want me to be a success, even if I want to lay on the couch and eat Doritos instead of working

They’re correct in what that want of course, but it’s still affecting how they deal with me. They hide the truth, they want the best for me. They don’t necessarily have the ability to tell me the absolute truth – they are in some way perhaps blinded by their parental feelings for you.

Girl/Boyfriend – forget the obvious, she wants me to love her, she will behave in a way to enhance our relationship – she wants me to make her feel wanted and so on.

Nike – one thing – cash – they might want your loyalty to get more of your cash

Mr. Matthews – wants you to be respectful and disciplined in the building to make everything work best for everyone else in the building, including for you.

Mr. Sub – cash and loyalty

James Cameron – cash, loyalty, wants you to be amazed and affected by his movie.

Mr. Lobb – wants you to think for yourself and find your own way, your own answers, your own reasons. He wants nothing else. It would be great if you would want to hand in all your work and get great marks with awesome assignments too, but that is something that he wants YOU to want.
In general, we need to look at the people who do things around us, to us, for us and we say – what does he/she want?

When we do this, we start to learn what’s REALLY happening around us.

This is a key part of our goal in EMS30 – to get critical and analytical on the media and the world around us, and maybe even learn to put our own voices and messages out there and be producers ourselves.

Speaking of which – don’t forget to start up that blog at www.blogger.com and send me an email with your blog address and you email address.

See you next time