Human Nature
Pick up a history book and its guaranteed you’ll read about violence almost instantly. It’s part of our human existence. We all naturally have tendencies to become violent. Its how societies are possible and how empires were built. Fear and violence play a major role in our lives. Violence to me is something we are born with internally naturally and nurtured by our environment as well. Television plays a role in increasing violence but its not the main cause by far. To solely blame television is ludicrous or assuming it’s the main reason.
The word television was first uttered between 1922 to 1927. It is considered by far the most influential device in the media. Television made its first debuted in the RCA Pavilion of 1939 World’s Fair located in New York City. The following next two years were followed by the regulation of television by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). They granted the first television station license. Three major networks were operating by the late 1940’s early 1950’s they were CBS, NBC, and ABC in the United States. At that time about nine percent of Americans households had television this equaled to about six million people. This was after World War Two where television began to boom. A decade later about 60 million households had television than by 1965 about 93% of Americans had at least one televisions in their home.
Television became phenomena rather quickly. It was always closely examined even from the very beginning. People have always speculated about it and its content. Some believed very early on that specific programming that was violent influenced children. The government even stepped in and started making investigations with the White house Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee. They held meetings on radio and television violence as early as 1952.
Violence and television have always coexisted. “Violence on television may be presented in many different forms and settings. It may be performed by heroic characters or by villains. It may be rewarded, or it may be punished. Violence may occur without much victim pain or suffering, or it may cause tremendous physical anguish. It may be shown close-up or at a distance.” (pg18). Under this assumption about violence on television it may appear that anything on the small screen is violence or therefore anything in life as well. It almost isn’t fair to blame television for increase in violence if to some degree even a positive gesture shown can have traces of violence. As I child I remember watching my favorite super heroes such as batman and super man defeating evil forces through violence to send a positive message. Whether a good or bad message it can be easily seen how children can be influenced to imitate their heroes or villains.
It is a well known fact that violence sells. “Media executies know it. More viewers means higer ratings, which add up more advertising dollars. So, as the National Institute of Mental Health has found, 80% of all television programs contain violent acts. But the violence is like a drug: viewers delevope a tolerence for it, so media “pushers” give them steadly more”(pg26). Today when you trun on your t.v there are numerous crime shows such as CSI, Law and Order and 24 . They all exhibited death and violent acts.
At a young age you cant tell fiction from fact. “Psychologist agree that up to ages 3 and 4, children cant distinguish fact from fantasy on T.V. For them, T.v is a reflection of the world, and it’s not a friendly place. Still, juvenile viewership is high.” (pg 26). This is parenting skills must come into place. You must talk to your child about what is fiction and what is reality. When I was growing up I could distinguish from the two. I knew and understood that television was entertainment but I cannot speak for everyone. I witnessed children who took television literally.
Parents play a major factor between televion violence and their children. My mother personally spoke to me about how entertainment and reality were separate things. I watched many violent cartoons and shows because my televion was never censored by my mother but I always had her guiding me and telling me what was right and wrong. The television was not my educator my parent was. Even if parents don’t have good judgment of televion exposure to their children there are ratings.
Televiosn 13 inches or larger are equipped with a microprocessor called the V-chip. “The FCC has adopted rules requiring all television sets with picture screens 33 centimeters (13 inches) or larger to be equipped with features to block the display of television programming based upon its rating. This technology is known as the "V-Chip." The V-Chip reads information encoded in the rated program and blocks programs from the set based upon the rating selected by the parent”. This helps in the efforts for decreasing any possible way of television creating more violence in society. T.V ratings are also given to all programs to show what age groups are appropriate to watch them. The ratings are TV Y (all children), TV Y7 (directed to older children), TV Y7 FV (directed to older children-fantasy violence), TV G (general audience), TV PG (Parental guidance suggested), TV 14 ( parents strongly cautioned), and TV MA (mature audience). As you can see the ratings go across the whole spectrum of content on TV.
I have to shift the attention to a factor I think is more influential to violence in society and that would have to be music. From personal experience I can say music plays a major in peoples lives. People indentify with music and even dress and act as their idols do as well as behave. Televsion has played a role in music too. There is MTV which is a televison music station. “The rock video is genterating the beat for todays youth”, [ Barry L Sherman and Laurence W. Etling state. They also agrue that] the risee of youth culture over the past thirty years “has been one of the most dramatic aspects of a culture change in American society since the adoptation of motorized travel,” and the music video as displayed on cable channel MTV has been extremely influential in shaoing that culture.” (Pg150). Music has great power in societies. Some can send positive messages and other send violent negative ones. An example of that can be metal rock. Many songs depict killings, bloodshed and fighting. Many concerts have moush pits, which are, people dancing while hitting each other which has become very popular.
Some have said that television no longer is the driving force in influencing today’s youth’s behavior. “In 1989, the American Medical Association released a report that concluded that music is greater influence in the life of a teenager than television.” (Pg151). Music is everywhere. Today it can literally be very single place you are with the introduction of mp3 players. In this case parental control is much harder. “Historically, older generations have railed against supposed decadent and immoral influences in the music their children listened to…such as jazz and rhythm and blues, were once condemned for immoral messages…today the focus is on rock and rap, and major concern is that some songs in these genres encourage and incite young people to violence.” (Pg28). It’s a cycle in every generation. Music and behavioral acts can be linked especially when examining teenagers.
Teenagers who are insecure or have low self-esteem usually turn to music for direction. “Dr. king compared music preferences with participation in violent behavior for 470 adolescents patients over three years. Heavy metal music was the choice of 59 percent admitted for chemical dependency. Of those, 74 percent were involved in violence, 50 percent in stealing, and 71 percent in sexual activity”(pg153). This data from the research shows how much music can promote negative activity by insinuating or out right saying that its okay to do drugs, sexual activities and commit violence. On a much more sad note there have even been suicide notes with lyrics on them. One teens parents went as far as to suing the artist Ozzy Osbourne “ after their son committed suicide while listening to his song:
Where to hide, suicide is the only way out
Don’t you know what its really about.
(“Suicide Solution,” Ozzy Osbourne)
There’s overwhelming evidence that music can be much more impactful than television and they can even work together as I mentioned with MTV. Another growing greater violence advocate is video games.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Blog Entry 14
I went to library and got a few books on media and violence. The books I got appear to be exactly what I need. I also found some more articles to research my topic. For homework I’m going to highlight the sections of the articles that support my claim. I need to do an outline to help me with this process. I'm going to work on that when I get home. As for film class I’ll do an outline as well.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,147986,00.html
http://www.enotes.com/media-violence-article
http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2003/03/media-violence.aspx
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,147986,00.html
http://www.enotes.com/media-violence-article
http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2003/03/media-violence.aspx
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Blog Entry 13
In this essay I’m going to prove how everything in the film Sunrise directed by F. W. Murnau has an opposite and clashing force. Throughout the film you can see direct polar opposites. They tend to collide as these worlds intersect. F.W Murnau uses many techniques to portray the opposites. This black and white film uses lighting, superimpositions, shots of city and urban life among other things to show opposites.
Sunrise, directed by F.W Murnau revovles mainly around three characters: the husband, the wife and the mistress. A woman from the city, (the mistress) arrives to a small rural town for a vacation. she begins a love affair with a married man and stays longer than she should have. It becomes obvious to everyone exactly what is happening.
The first interaction we see with the husband and mistress is near the swamps. Initially, the directer begins to compare the city and small town. As the mistress begins to entice the vulnerable husband with the city life, the director introduces us to images of a metropolis. We see the bright lights, buidings, fast moving cars and big bands playing. At fist, there's a superimposition of the city on the swamps as the two forbbiben lovers lay on the grass. There, we see two completely different places being joined to show the immense difference. The city and rural are also comapred with the husband and wife. In a shot where the husband and wife are walking together in the city the scenerary changes into the woods and than back to the city later on. We see them walking in a busy city full of people, then the background changes to the peaceful and isolated woods.
The film, Sunrise by F. W. Murnau begins with a text that says “…For wherever the sun rises and sets in a city’s turmoil or under the open sky on the farm life is much the same; sometimes biter, sometimes sweet.” Right from the beginning there are many comparisons. The audience gets a feel for where the direction the film is going. The text mentions sunrise and sunsets, which is very popular in the movie. The next polar opposites that are mentioned are the city life and farm life. That’s a theme that is constantly being compared through various ways by the director. The last thing in the text is about both places being bitter and sweet at periods of time. As you can see, the movie sets the tone for comparisons.
Night and day play an enormous part in the entire film Sunrise. The night generally associted with evil and mischief. It's when all the bad things occur, and this certainly rings true in the film. When we see the infidelity first happen it's at night. This is also when drowning the husbands wife is proposed by the mistress. The husbands image is then tarnished, he now begins to appear like a monster. He's shown as bareric, hunched backed and demonic. The next time the night is depicted in the Sunrise the husband and wife are on a boat. It almost seems as if though the night is going beautiful and everything is perfect as the husband and wife are in bliss. All of a sudden a storm begins. the boat tips over and the husband and wife are seperated. The town goes looking for the wife, along with the husband who survived. She appears to have been drowned but is found barely alive.
Another thing that occurs at night is that we see the mistress a lot more. She is portrayed as evil so it would be only fitting to see her at night. The vamp can be seen at night with dim lighting in the swamps and in the town trying to seduce the husband. F. W. Murnau places close attention at night. The set placed under a dim light.
The opposite to night was day in the film Sunrise. In the day we see the wife more often. She is assicated with good. In the day time the husband takes the wife for a boat ride to drown her. Since it's morning which is linked to positivity in the film she survives and the husband changes his mind. They later have an experience similar to a honey moon in the city, after the incident on the boat. The morning is full of happiness and a significant change of heart for husband and wife.
Right aorund the time when both husband and wife had a change of heart they sat and watched a couple get married. The pastor says " God is giving you,in the holy bond of matrimony a trust... she is young and inexperienced. Guide her love her." These are two things he did not do for her since the vamp entered there lives. Instead of guiding he was been tricked and mislead and instead of loving her he was cheating on her. He goes on to say"... keep and protect her from all harm". He did the exact opposite to his wife. He was putting her in harms way and inflicting pain and suffering on her.
One other major parallel comparison was the wife and the mistress. The wife was a loving mother. A devoted, wholesome, innnocent, traditional, good wife. The mistress on the other hand was all the opposite. She was a single, misbehaving, malicious, negative vamp. The wife was a caring mother who was very sensative with light clothing and never seen doing anything negative. Every time the vamp was seen she was up to nothing good. She could always be seen smoking a cigarette and in dark clothing. In a parallel editing sequence we can see the mother embracing her baby crying while the vamp is huging and seducing her husband smiling.
Sin and redemtion are compared plently of times in Sunrise. The hunsband continually cheats on his wife. Besides that he also tries to kill her. He commits many sins but he is able to redeem himself. When he finally gets forgiveness from his wife she almost dies. At the end of the film when it is apparent she is alive they embrace and kiss in the final shot. He was to redemption after all the sins he committed.
The film Sunrise was a ground breaking film that used many techniques still used today to show extreme opposites. It won two Oscars in the first Acamedy awards ever. It was among the first sound films. The theme of polar opposites is seen vivdly .
Sunrise, directed by F.W Murnau revovles mainly around three characters: the husband, the wife and the mistress. A woman from the city, (the mistress) arrives to a small rural town for a vacation. she begins a love affair with a married man and stays longer than she should have. It becomes obvious to everyone exactly what is happening.
The first interaction we see with the husband and mistress is near the swamps. Initially, the directer begins to compare the city and small town. As the mistress begins to entice the vulnerable husband with the city life, the director introduces us to images of a metropolis. We see the bright lights, buidings, fast moving cars and big bands playing. At fist, there's a superimposition of the city on the swamps as the two forbbiben lovers lay on the grass. There, we see two completely different places being joined to show the immense difference. The city and rural are also comapred with the husband and wife. In a shot where the husband and wife are walking together in the city the scenerary changes into the woods and than back to the city later on. We see them walking in a busy city full of people, then the background changes to the peaceful and isolated woods.
The film, Sunrise by F. W. Murnau begins with a text that says “…For wherever the sun rises and sets in a city’s turmoil or under the open sky on the farm life is much the same; sometimes biter, sometimes sweet.” Right from the beginning there are many comparisons. The audience gets a feel for where the direction the film is going. The text mentions sunrise and sunsets, which is very popular in the movie. The next polar opposites that are mentioned are the city life and farm life. That’s a theme that is constantly being compared through various ways by the director. The last thing in the text is about both places being bitter and sweet at periods of time. As you can see, the movie sets the tone for comparisons.
Night and day play an enormous part in the entire film Sunrise. The night generally associted with evil and mischief. It's when all the bad things occur, and this certainly rings true in the film. When we see the infidelity first happen it's at night. This is also when drowning the husbands wife is proposed by the mistress. The husbands image is then tarnished, he now begins to appear like a monster. He's shown as bareric, hunched backed and demonic. The next time the night is depicted in the Sunrise the husband and wife are on a boat. It almost seems as if though the night is going beautiful and everything is perfect as the husband and wife are in bliss. All of a sudden a storm begins. the boat tips over and the husband and wife are seperated. The town goes looking for the wife, along with the husband who survived. She appears to have been drowned but is found barely alive.
Another thing that occurs at night is that we see the mistress a lot more. She is portrayed as evil so it would be only fitting to see her at night. The vamp can be seen at night with dim lighting in the swamps and in the town trying to seduce the husband. F. W. Murnau places close attention at night. The set placed under a dim light.
The opposite to night was day in the film Sunrise. In the day we see the wife more often. She is assicated with good. In the day time the husband takes the wife for a boat ride to drown her. Since it's morning which is linked to positivity in the film she survives and the husband changes his mind. They later have an experience similar to a honey moon in the city, after the incident on the boat. The morning is full of happiness and a significant change of heart for husband and wife.
Right aorund the time when both husband and wife had a change of heart they sat and watched a couple get married. The pastor says " God is giving you,in the holy bond of matrimony a trust... she is young and inexperienced. Guide her love her." These are two things he did not do for her since the vamp entered there lives. Instead of guiding he was been tricked and mislead and instead of loving her he was cheating on her. He goes on to say"... keep and protect her from all harm". He did the exact opposite to his wife. He was putting her in harms way and inflicting pain and suffering on her.
One other major parallel comparison was the wife and the mistress. The wife was a loving mother. A devoted, wholesome, innnocent, traditional, good wife. The mistress on the other hand was all the opposite. She was a single, misbehaving, malicious, negative vamp. The wife was a caring mother who was very sensative with light clothing and never seen doing anything negative. Every time the vamp was seen she was up to nothing good. She could always be seen smoking a cigarette and in dark clothing. In a parallel editing sequence we can see the mother embracing her baby crying while the vamp is huging and seducing her husband smiling.
Sin and redemtion are compared plently of times in Sunrise. The hunsband continually cheats on his wife. Besides that he also tries to kill her. He commits many sins but he is able to redeem himself. When he finally gets forgiveness from his wife she almost dies. At the end of the film when it is apparent she is alive they embrace and kiss in the final shot. He was to redemption after all the sins he committed.
The film Sunrise was a ground breaking film that used many techniques still used today to show extreme opposites. It won two Oscars in the first Acamedy awards ever. It was among the first sound films. The theme of polar opposites is seen vivdly .
Blog Entry 12
Before I left on vacation I did more research. I found another website jammed with information. What i have to figure out now is how to use the online website to look for books. When I get home I'm going to read the pamphlet that was given to us on how to do that. I need to find out what the other "factors" are that increase violence in society. Thats going to make my midterm much easier to write once I have solid factors.
http://www.cybercollege.com/violence.htm
http://www.cybercollege.com/violence.htm
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Blog Entry 11
I said I was going to find evidence to support my claim. I also said I was going to figure out if my claim is what I really believed after doing some more research. I actually came up with a slightly different claim than I had before. I do believe television causes increase in violence but it’s a small cause of many factors. The next class I need to find very solid evidence to support my claim and build it up more. Heres a website that is helping me out.
http://www.parentstv.org/ptc/publications/reports/stateindustryviolence/main.asp
http://www.parentstv.org/ptc/publications/reports/stateindustryviolence/main.asp
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Why I said what i said to Parris and Johnny.
When I read Parris’s post I was a bit confused. He had a lot of great potential in some of his ideas but they never materialized. Ideas were scattered around sometimes even repetitive. I gave him some other things he could talk about that were in the ad instead of describing the ad in its literal form. I believe I gave a lot of constructive criticism.
Johnny had a very good post. He looked at a lot of the messages in the ad. I wrote about how I liked that he pointed out many of the ads massages it was trying to get across. I gave him some other things to look into that he missed. This can help him get even deeper into the message the ad is trying to convey.
Being a stranger to the paper’s topic defiantly affected the way I responded to the drafts. I was just thrown into the topic and had to critique two people’s drafts. I didn’t have a few days to learn exactly what the topic was about rather minutes. What I learned about critiquing peoples work is that you have to give constructive criticism. You have to pretend you’re a teacher and give advice that is going to help them improve their work.
Johnny had a very good post. He looked at a lot of the messages in the ad. I wrote about how I liked that he pointed out many of the ads massages it was trying to get across. I gave him some other things to look into that he missed. This can help him get even deeper into the message the ad is trying to convey.
Being a stranger to the paper’s topic defiantly affected the way I responded to the drafts. I was just thrown into the topic and had to critique two people’s drafts. I didn’t have a few days to learn exactly what the topic was about rather minutes. What I learned about critiquing peoples work is that you have to give constructive criticism. You have to pretend you’re a teacher and give advice that is going to help them improve their work.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Blog 9
Thesis / Thesis Statement- gives direction to a research paper. Answers the question presented to you. It creates an argument people can make. It can found at the end of your first paragraph.
Example:
A weak thesis - Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn is a great American novel.
A thesis with potential- In Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain develops a contrast between life on the river and life on the shore.
A strong thesis- Through its contrasting river and shore scenes, Twain's Huckleberry Finn suggests that to find the true expression of American democratic ideals, one must leave "civilized" society and go back to nature.
http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/thesis.html
Research – the search for information trough reading books, searching the web, watching a film etc.
Example:
Searching the web and reading different articles on a certain topic to collect information.
Argument- a debate with different opposing views.
Example:
Barack Obama and John McCain had many arguments in their debates about what the future of America should be.
Claim- a demand of a right. It states a position.
Example:
It is eighty degrees outside.
The world will come to an end in the future.
Reasons- conclusions from assumptions. It is used to justify ideas.
Example:
I am angry because you hit me.
Heaven awaits me due to the fact that I believe in Jesus.
Edivence-proof of a claim.
Example:
A picture taken from space is evidence that the world is round.
MLA Citation Style- helps identify your sources for your research. It gives credit to the sources.
Example:
The first gambling Web site appeared in 1995, and online gambling has since become the most
lucrative Internet business (Will 92).
or,
George Will reported that in 2002 Internet gambling surpassed pornography to become the
Internet's most lucrative business (92).
In your Works Cited list:
Will, George F. "Electronic Morphine." Newsweek 25 Nov. 2002: 92.
http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/legacylib/mlahcc.html
For my mid-term I’m being asked to be a media sociologist. I have to answer the question of if media affects society in a negative way. I believe media does not affect society. Human by human nature are violent and exhibit animistic behavior. We have been the same our whole existence. A television isn’t going to affect us in a more negative way and influence our natural human emotions. I can try to find evidence on the web that pertain to crime and television and look at graphs that compare the two. I can also use the online school library.
Example:
A weak thesis - Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn is a great American novel.
A thesis with potential- In Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain develops a contrast between life on the river and life on the shore.
A strong thesis- Through its contrasting river and shore scenes, Twain's Huckleberry Finn suggests that to find the true expression of American democratic ideals, one must leave "civilized" society and go back to nature.
http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/thesis.html
Research – the search for information trough reading books, searching the web, watching a film etc.
Example:
Searching the web and reading different articles on a certain topic to collect information.
Argument- a debate with different opposing views.
Example:
Barack Obama and John McCain had many arguments in their debates about what the future of America should be.
Claim- a demand of a right. It states a position.
Example:
It is eighty degrees outside.
The world will come to an end in the future.
Reasons- conclusions from assumptions. It is used to justify ideas.
Example:
I am angry because you hit me.
Heaven awaits me due to the fact that I believe in Jesus.
Edivence-proof of a claim.
Example:
A picture taken from space is evidence that the world is round.
MLA Citation Style- helps identify your sources for your research. It gives credit to the sources.
Example:
The first gambling Web site appeared in 1995, and online gambling has since become the most
lucrative Internet business (Will 92).
or,
George Will reported that in 2002 Internet gambling surpassed pornography to become the
Internet's most lucrative business (92).
In your Works Cited list:
Will, George F. "Electronic Morphine." Newsweek 25 Nov. 2002: 92.
http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/legacylib/mlahcc.html
For my mid-term I’m being asked to be a media sociologist. I have to answer the question of if media affects society in a negative way. I believe media does not affect society. Human by human nature are violent and exhibit animistic behavior. We have been the same our whole existence. A television isn’t going to affect us in a more negative way and influence our natural human emotions. I can try to find evidence on the web that pertain to crime and television and look at graphs that compare the two. I can also use the online school library.
Blog 8: Museum of the Moving Image
The Museum of Moving Image was a very interesting place. There were many insightful things about the history of images. The things that caught my attention the most were the major exhibits such as the voice over room and the green screen. It was fun to interact with the major exhibits and learn hands on with them. I enjoyed looking at film cameras throughout the history of movies. I thought it was great that they had a replica of what a movie theater use to look like. Something that amazed me is how there were portable televisions early on. Some objects from movies were at the museum like the Freddy Krueger sweater and a small building that was made to look enormous in a movie. I would go back to bring my younger brothers. It would be good to show them how images have evolved.
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