Fads

As members of Generation Y, we are all familiar with fads that have come and gone throughout the last 15 years or so. From Pokemon cards, to yoyos. From tamagatchis to silly bands, we've all had the pleasure of possessing one or more of these items. No one really knows how fads arise or why they die out, but we do know that when   they are in style, not having one makes you somewhat of an outsider. Fads have changed over the years, and as technology expanded and attention spans decreased, the fads evolved. No longer were kids interested in things like pet rocks and easy bake ovens. They were interested in small electronics and magical monsters that reached well beyond the realm of reality. The manner in which these messages are accepted by the public is consistent with the hypodermic needle model. The passive audience, which in this case consists of young children, is injected with the message that these objects and behaviors are considered cool and in style. No one can really explain where these fads come from, or why people adopt them so readily. It would be interested to take a look at why certain trends have been able to withstand the test of time, and what makes some last longer than other. Kids these days are much more tech savvy and know much more about the world. This increased exposure makes simple gadgets and toys from 20 years ago unappealing to young people today. It is really a shame because kids think that these simple pleasures aren't cool anymore.

Here is a site that shows some of the fads from the 20th century:

www.crazyfads.com

Ebonics

Ebonics is an interesting topic because to some, it is a way of life. Ebonics, which is a portmanteau of ebony and phonics, is the vernacular that is common among poorer, lower class inner city residents. Although it is entirely based on English, an outsider would be perplexed by the complexity with which this popular slang has evolved. Terms in ebonics are often derived from the creator's personal experience or the likening of an object to another. New York is considered one of the epicenters for the evolution of ebonics, and many popular slang words used in a young person's vernacular today were originated there. In this case, the medium is the message because the language is the message and the vessel through which it travels. Not only are there a complex list of vocabulary words that one must master in order to be fluent in ebonics, but there is also the matter of inflection. Different words have different meanings, and inflections can help an individual contextualize the situation. This also goes along with the theme of decoding messages because the meaning of certain phrases and words vary. One may misinterpret something's meaning, resulting in conflict or discontent. Although the language flourishes in many urban areas, there is still a stigma against it. People who are not used to hearing it assume that people of a lower class speak it. However, it is used by many races and cultures that live in diverse cities like New York. The culture of one group permeated into society and has become a vital part of it.

Here is a list of common ebonics phrases.

Fly - good 
Supafly - very good 
don't be trippin' - Do not be anxious (a difficult word to translate) 
keepin' it real - keeping things in prespective to reality

Hypem

This week, I decided to write about a website that I love to use and one that happens to be a powerful medium. It is called the hype machine, also known as hypem.com. It is a music blogging site that gives you exclusive music  from bloggers. The entire site is based off of a model called crowdsourcing, which relies on user generated content to run. None of the songs are posted by hypem administrators, truly making it a site of the people. Users are encouraged to make an account and begin posting links to their favorite new music. The great thing about the site is that the music genres range from hip hop, to alternative, and even a large selection of electronic music. Crowdsourcing is an interesting medium through which companies achieve a model that is totally manipulated by the community that uses it. Wikipedia is another example of a website that uses crowdsourcing as its core model.  This way, the messages that are encoded in the website are so varied, that virtually any user has something that suits their preferences. Therefore, there is an endless possibility of ways in which the content can be interacted with. It is definitely a cool medium because it requires you to participate in the medium interpretation process.


www.hypem.com

Halloween Costumes

Halloween at Babson and all over the United States is a exciting time of year when we can live vicariously through our favorite pop culture icons, monsters, and villains. The costumes in themselves are an important medium, especially around one of our favorite holidays. It allows us to become someone or something else, and mask our true identities. Personally, I love costumes that play on inside jokes or obscure pop culture references, just because when your audience figures out who you are dressed as, it makes it so much funnier. I did some research and I found out that the tradition of wearing Halloween costumes arises from the Pagan holiday called Samhain, in which individuals dressed as evil spirits to get rid of them. Today, we have given it a much more secular meaning, and dressing up is something that we can all enjoy. My point is that costumes are a medium that influence the audience that we project them to. For example, a girl who is scantily clad at a costume party is obviously doing so for a reason. For others, taking a more conservative approach shows their personality as well. There is something for everyone, and personally, I love costumes that I can craft out clothes that I have and a few scarce resources. Being the broke college student that I am, this Halloween I decided to dress up as Token from South Park. All I needed was a purple t shirt, black pants, and a yellow letter T on my t shirt. It worked out well because the audience decoded the character, and appreciated the resourcefulness with which I made my costume. Not to mention that I bear some resemblance to him. Here is what token looks like haha:

Political Cartoons - Not Suitable for Children

This week's reading, which is about the organization structure of the media, caused me to reflect on one of my favorite types of media. Everyone loves seeing cartoons, and when paired with satire, it makes for a humorous and entertaining play on a serious topic. I am talking about political cartoons, whose subject matter can range from politics to the economy. I have chosen a few political cartoons about the media in particular. In this case, one form of mass media is used to depict an even bigger form of mass media. Chapter 4 mentions the concept of conventions, which are standardized formats of conduct and form in the media industry. In this first cartoon, the artists suggests that media bias is a convention that has been around since the inception of television and radio broadcasting. The artist shows us that there is a bias from CBS, but that it is not talked about.


The chapter also describes the process that many journalists go through in order to obtain a compelling news story and have it printed in the newspaper or broadcast on the evening news. The author mentions that they must sift through several news stories and determine which ones are relevant. The next cartoon is a show of what media professionals have to go through in order to get these compelling stories, often having to jump through hoops to get the story.



I think that political cartoons are a way of poking fun of the things that are left unsaid about society. However, they are a source of news themselves for people who are looking for a twist on the traditional news format. In a sense, these drawings have become a convention through which artists can express their satisfaction or disdain for an issue.

College Dorms: A Media Sanctuary

Whenever I look around my room, I realize that every poster, every picture, and every object that I own is a reflection of myself. What we choose to put in our rooms and how  we decorate them can say a lot about us. I live in the ONE Tower (Keith B) and I have a single. Living with 14 other people who also have singles, I have made several observations about their rooms. The people who tend to be more sociable and creative tend to have a room that reflects that personality; and the people who tend to be a little more reserved have barely anything at all. This brings me to my point, that our dorm rooms serve a medium through which visitors can get a glimpse of our lifestyles. One can analyze so much just by taking a look at how a room is set up. When thinking about all of this, I realized that it ties into the concept that the medium is the message, and that a dorm room is a hot medium. It creates a sense of interaction with whoever enters the room for the first time. I know that whenever I go into someone's room for the first time, I can immediately draw several conclusions about their lifestyle and habits. Even living in a triple my freshman year, although we didn't have a lot of space, I knew the idiosyncrasies of both of my roommates just by the way they kept their things. Reflecting on the topic, I also realized that it ties into a concept that I learned in my introduction to consumer society class. We learned about the concept of conspicuous consumption, which is the purchasing of goods and services to show a certain level of social or economic status. After some thought, I realized that college students are purveyors of conspicuous consumption. You see this with huge TVs, expensive furniture, loud sound systems, and other items that students use to distinguish themselves. Although many of these items are not essential to a content lifestyle, they serve to show that we are not life everyone else. In essence, our rooms not only reflect our personalities, but also our spending habits and how we choose to distinguish ourselves from a socio-economic perspective.
Here are a few pictures of my room:

Rize

  Dancing has always been thought of as a medium, but for this blog entry, I wanted to highlight the movie Rize. The film, which chronicles the krumping dance movement in South Central Los Angeles, highlights key insights into the evolution of the style. Krumping, which is a fast paced, aggressive dance created in Los Angeles looks more like a ritualistic fighting ceremony than a dance routine. In the film, the director juxtaposes the expressive dance moves done by the characters with a tribal African dance. To most people who haven't been exposed to krumping and its style, it looks like nothing more than a series violent body movements. To put it quite simply, it is comparable to an entertaining seizure, in which the dancers' bodies convulse to express their anger and passion. This movie is a perfect example of how class experiences shape the way that we decode the message of the dance. The film concludes with an epic battle between two crews that prepared for months to get a shot at the crown. For people who think that krumping is an obnoxious and unimpressive dance style, this battle seems superfluous. But to the competitors in the final battle, it is their life. Their entire livelihood depends on the outcome of this single battle. This is a perfect example of polysemy, in which this event means so much to one group but nothing to another. In the end, the underdog team was victorious and the main team (called the Clowns) was extremely distraught. As an outsider, it looked as if they had lost a member of their family or as if a traumatic event had just occurred. However, the style that the created and had held so dearly, failed them.

     Due to the success of the movie, krumping has become a mainstream part of hip hop culture. From its humble origins as a crazy street dance, it was able to evolve into a message that can appeal to the masses. Now, people appreciate the style that was once deemed too erratic and obnoxious. Here is a clip from the film:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSq09Z7TBt0

Billboards Everywhere

We've all seen them as we pass by in our cars. Sometimes we read them, but most of the time, we pass them by without even paying attention. Billboards are a medium that have been the subject of controversy over the years. One such controversial billboard is this one:

This provocative billboard has the power to affect the way that we think, live, and interact. The one billboard that gets me every time is the one that is outside of Fenway Park, as you drive along the Mass Pike. This is what it looks like:

Someone who has never seen this billboard before would find it hard to digest at first sight. After further review, one would realize that it is actually an anti-gun advertisement, and that the billboard is meant to be sarcastic and witty. This reminded me of our discussion in class about advertising and its negative and progressive effects on society. I think that the first image above is an example of how advertising is often forced upon us, and subjects us to propaganda. The second image shows a progressive example of how advertising can be used to do good. In this case, both billboards are not corporate, and are not advertising products or services. But I think that billboards that do not advertise a good or service are the most effective because they force us to observe something out of the ordinary. Billboards are a quick, cool medium that force us to make split second decisions about how we are going to interpret its message. When I think of billboards, I think of a concept called "thin slicing" that was coined by the author Malcolm Gladwell. Thin slicing refers to a series of processes that occur in your subconscious that allow you to make mental connections. The thin slices of memories and experiences that we have been through allow us to connect with the media that we see. In this case, we use this concept every time we look at a billboard because we are forced to make a split second decision. That's what's so great about these giant postcards; they are subject to individual interpretation. I think my favorite billboard has to be this one:

Until next time...

The Origins of Pop Culture

To me, television is one factor that defines a person's cultural capital. Especially among our generation, television catch phrases and pop culture memories create a catalyst for conversation. They also create a world of generalizations and stereotypes that can negatively affect one's outlook on things. This week, I chose television as my media artifact because I now realize how much of an effect it has had on my life. During my entire freshman year at Babson, I did not have a television. Although it was strange at first, I got used to it after about 2 weeks, and found myself without any serious withdrawal symptoms. The only thing that felt strange was not being able to watch the evening news. In that sense, I felt disconnected from what was happening outside the bubble that is Babson. Now that I do have a tv in my room, I often find myself watching mindless reality television, which has more of an effect on me than I care to think about. Although all of this content enriches my cultural capital, it also creates a narrow minded viewpoint of the world. After reading "The Power of Popular Television: The Case of Cosby" by Justin Lewis, I realize how much you can analyze from a sitcom or reality show. He asks an interesting question, "Have things changed at all in the last 30 years, in the forms of media representation which characterise images of black people and ethnic identities in popular culture?" After reading this question, it made me think of the images that I see on a daily basis on VH1 reality shows. Unfortunately, a lot of black culture that people are exposed to is on television. Most of the images are of rappers and athletes, and African American intellectuals are not very prominent in media settings. This has shaped my culture and way of thinking because I do not want to fit into those stereotypes. One show that comes to mind is The Boondocks, an animated series about a black family on Cartoon Network(Adult Swim). Although the show is very funny, a lot of the subjects on the show deal with racism and negative stereotypes about African Americans. I feel that if more positive images of African Americans were displayed on television, then more young kids would aspire to be like those intellectuals. Until the media changes its portrayal of minorities in a satirical or negative light, the cycle of stereotypical behavior will not end.

An ad for the boondocks, in which the main characters have their mugshots taken. 

Media Artifact: Facebook

Although it seems cliche that I chose facebook as my artifact, it has had a significant cultural impact on my life. The social media site that connects more than a half a billion people worldwide is truly a media juggernaut. There are several reasons why facebook is important in my life. For one, it has allowed me to keep in touch with my family in the Caribbean. Since my family is so far away, it is easy to loose touch with them. Social networking sites are the catalyst for conversation among people across the globe. They also provide you with information about people that is sometimes forgotten or looked over. There have been countless times where the only way I will remember my cousins' birthdays are if I see it on facebook. I can even figure out what to get someone for their birthday from their interests on their facebook profile. Although some might argue that social networking is a less personal approach to interacting with one another, I disagree. It has brought us together in ways that we could have never imagined and has created a global community. 

McLuhan would say that facebook is a cool medium, simply because it provides a stimulating device through which we can interact. It delves into the subconscious and makes users think about exactly what they are posting and reading on the site. The chat feature of facebook provides live interaction as opposed to the static interaction of wall posts and comments. That's what's so great about facebook; it is alive. It is a living, breathing creature that mesmerizes anyone who uses it. Social media has had a significant impact on the way that I identify with my culture and stay in touch with my relatives, and I am grateful for it.

A New Definition of Media

A New Definition of Media

The word media can be interpreted and analyzed in a number of ways. In a traditional sense, and according to Webster’s dictionary, it is “a medium of cultivation, conveyance, or expression”. However, many believe that the true definition is relative to each individual, and is more holistic in approach. Personally, I believe that media is a means by which we receive and analyze information through the five senses. In this way, media is not confined to the traditional examples of radio, television, film, etc. Media can now be a term applied to a multitude of different ideas, both abstract and tangible; to describe how we use our senses to interpret what is happening in the world around us. Traditionally, media only involved invoking two of the five senses (sight and sound) in the interpretation of the messages that are disseminated every day. I believe that my proposed definition is a sound one because it shows that media can invoke the use of all of the five senses. This breaks away from the conventional view that only mass media accounts for the ideas described in its definition. With my proposed definition, media takes on the role of a vessel through which our five senses are stimulated.

            By observing the development of technology and the improvements in the way we transmit information, we can see that media has evolved. With this evolution of concept comes an evolution in the way we define media. Currently, the touch screen interface has come to the forefront of technology and is ubiquitous in society. The ability to touch a device and have it respond creates a human-like sense of interaction. The act of touching a screen is an extension of one’s body to the device and allows for a different dimension of control. McLuhan says, “With the arrival of electric technology, man extended, or set outside himself, a live model of the central nervous system itself” (43). By this, he means that the technology that we use to disseminate media is essentially a projection of our nervous system. Every type of media is associated with one of the senses, and works in conjunction with our physiology. A sense that people don’t often associate with interpreting media is smell, which believe it or not, has been used to convey an atmosphere. Smell-o-vision has been used in movie theaters, and although it has been slow to catch on in the consumer world, it is an effective tool to deliver a message. No longer are we confined to sight and sound; now our olfactory senses can now be stimulated as well. With a combination of multiple senses, the way that we absorb the media around us is totally altered. McLuhan states, “Physiologically, man in the use of technology (or his variously extended body) is perceptually modified by it and in turn finds ever new ways of modifying his technology” (46). We are naturally inclined to develop newer technology to stimulate our senses to the fullest.

The sense of taste has not been fully explored through a media lens simply because food has never been considered a form of media. However, if we say that media is a means of carrying a message, then food fits the criteria. Certain foods evoke emotions and can transmit a message from the person who prepared the food to the people who consume it. For example, sending someone chocolate or strawberries shows that you are thinking about them; or having your mother cook your favorite meal shows that she cares about you. Since food can evoke emotions and convey feelings from one human being to another, I believe it can be considered a form of media. This last sense encompasses the last aspect of my definition of media.

In conclusion, media is relative to the consumer and people prefer different types of media over others. However, one thing is consistent, and that is the fact that media has a huge impact on our lives. Although we may define it differently, it undoubtedly challenges us to think of new ways to engage our five senses.