Thursday, May 6, 2010

Blog 17

For my finale in Mass Media class I have to present a project that has to do with something related to the media. My project will center around a song I made. I'm going to make a music video. First I have to break down the song. There needs to be a message/story line. Than I have to make a story board. I have a camera at home. I have a friend who edits video very well. The music video is going to be how veryone is surrounded by media constantly.

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Blog Entry 16: The Matrix Possibility

David Mitsuo Nixon claims that it is possible that we all live in the Matrix. He goes on to explain that beliefs can be false and we can all be living in a false reality. Nixon says that we justify our knowledge and until we are not fully justified it won’t be knowledge, therefore false. I do not believe we can possible reside in the Matrix.

I would like to begin by saying that Nixon is presenting the probability of living in the Matrix not the possibility. He says “But not everything that is possible is something that we have good reasons to believe is actual.” (Pg. 32). Right from the start you can see there is no real chance we possibly live in false reality. The probability is also very low.

Writing this essay at this moment proves I am in the real world. If I were in the Matrix there is no way I could question it or write about it. I am acknowledging there is no possibility of a Matrix. It’s nonsense. There is no way to prove we are living in the Matrix. The beliefs I form are from the real world. The shape who I am and how I wiew the actual world I live in.

My beliefs are based on experiences. I know that some of my beliefs are true but some may be false. Knowing that I can question my beliefs proves I am not in the Matrix. I can decide at any moment to get up and search for it. The truth is I won’t find that I live in the Matrix. I have the power of thought and questioning.

Nixon mentions that false cannot exist without truth. The truth is there is not a possibility there is a Matrix. When we go about our daily lives we have the ability to think about anything we want. In our minds we are free to imagine any possibility but it will not transcend into reality, but at least we have the ability to think it.
Nixon states that in the Matrix the machines program us to believe things and not question it.I can at any moment decide I don’t believe something, which I do often. No one has that control over me. Without a doubt I have influences and my experiences but, no one is feeding me beliefs through plugs in my body. I live in the real world.

Nixon says, “We can only make sense of a person’s having false belief against a background of her having other beliefs we take to be true.” (Pg. 39). In other words a person can only say something is false if they have true beliefs to combat it with or compare. This isn’t true. I myself can say something is true to me without other beliefs backing it up. It’s called intuition. My feelings are real because I feel them.

My five senses hold the key to my reality. Nixon says “…the Matrix Possibility implies the following: It’s possible that a heck of a lot of my beliefs right now are false.” (Pg.29). I know that many of my beliefs are true and a minority are false or not yet fully developed. When I experience daily life it’s real and true. I can question and do things out of the ordinary if I choose to.

Nixon purposes a good argument but it’s obvious it’s not possible. Granted we may have false beliefs but not a “heck” of a lot of them to the point where we live in “The Matrix”. This life is as real as it gets. The possibility of us living in the Matrix is none.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Blog 15

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 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

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 .

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

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
 
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Staying Sane by Christoher Negron is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.