THE INVENTION OF A NEW MEDIUM- THE IPAD

I would like to dedicate this blog to the birth of a new medium, 'the tablet.' Apple invented the ipad earlier this year and sales have sky rocketed. The ipad has become a new medium between media producers and media audience. The invention of this product is similar to the invention of the television or the home PC. In fact building  this product is similar to building over 1000 walmarts. What I mean is that the ipad has become a better way in which manufacturers and producers of content can distribute their product to their customers. The IPAD is revolutionizing the way human beings interact with news and books. It is even influencing the way we shop. The app store has over 100,000 apps and almost every one of them are trying to sell you something. I purchased my ipad last week at 500 dollars and I already purchased a year long subscription to the Wall Street Journal. I even bought my mom a gift from AMAZON. Mind you every dollar I spend through this product apple gets a piece of it. Do you guys think the tablet industry will have a profound effect on future generations, like the TV industry had on us?

RAW IS WAR!

WWE Raw is war used to be one of my favorite video games as a teenager. This is a wrestling video game based off the tv show World wrestling entertainment. The wwe is all about rivalries and special moves. My favorite move was the "Rock Bottom" by the Rock. My friends in highschool loved 'stone cold steve austin' and 'the undertaker.' And their favorite moves were the stunner and the pile driver.  

The reason I am talking about this game is because I believe it did bring about violence within our friend circle. The article about the video game revolution http://www.pbs.org/kcts/videogamerevolution/impact/myths.html spoke about how kids that were exposed to violence through video games were less likely to commit crimes and showcase 'antisocial' behavior. However I disagree with that statement. I believe it is not entirely accurate. I would go further and say that it depends on the games the kids have been brought up playing.
I for one, have seen the violence from video games infiltrate my life. One of my friends and I once got into a fight about something, we argued and began punching each other in the face. We started acting like our favorite characters from the video game and when we did the characters special move, things got really ugly. My friend got stitches in his head because I gave him the rock bottom on a concrete floor.

Now I am considered a person who never fights but my most violent years were when I used to play that video game.

What do you guys think?  Do you feel that violence from certain video games transcend into the real world?

Bridging Cultures with the Sling Box

The Sling box created by sling media is one of my favorite media devices. The sling box connects to your comcast/direct tv/etc... box and also connects to the internet. Then you can go anywhere in the world and watch your tv there. So my parents sitting in India can watch American TV. Infact recently the company has even launched blackberry and iphone applications so that you can watch your tv on the go anywhere in the world.

Sling media offers tremendous potential for people from different parts of the world to tap into American tv and culture. The reason I have labeled this blog entry Bridging Cultures is mainly for this reason. I also find it interesting that the sling box is only $300 and you pay no subscription fees. Another interesting thing that struck out to me was that should this be illegal? How can tv be rebroadcast-ed without affecting someones copyrights.

Anyway to connect this to our readings this device creates more uncertainty for the media producers in terms of who their audience is. We know that media producers and advertisers do not know their audience however they know that the audience is located in America. However through this product there is a leakage in the process. Media Producers can no longer control the broadcasting of their shows, the internet can  "sling" their messages to be decoded and judged by people in other countries.

As the company grows, I feel the sling media will one day become an important tool in the future to bridge the gap between cultures.

Time

Tick tock tick tock.... It was 1 o clock! What did that mean? Why was I nervous? What did time tell me? In that brief moment I realized that time sent me many messages. 1 o clock to me meant, finishing the assignment or being faced with a low grade, it meant it was time to eat healthy or be faced with bad health, it also meant call my girlfriend in London or be faced with her nagging you for not caring.

Over this weekend I realized that time is a medium that we rarely think about. So I want to take this opportunity to explore time as a medium. The first thing I observed was that out of all the mediums we interact with on a daily basis time seems to be the only one that gives us stress. Think about it almost every other medium we interact with, we do so with the intention of gaining some pleasure out of it.


Time is also one of the only mediums that is intangible. Also if we are to define time based on the coded messages and information it carries then I would say that time contains the most information that needs to be decoded. I mean every minute there are so many things happening and so many messages being decoded that time is one of the most interesting mediums.


In your comments please write about other unique characteristics of time so we can get a better understanding of this medium and how we interact with it.

Curiosity in Media---every puzzle must be solved.

Curiosity is in our blood. Humans enjoy solving problems and finding solutions. We learned through our readings that media audiences actively construct meaning. In this blog entry I want to take that idea further and develop it. Media producers encode the message they want to send and the audience decodes the message and then constructs meaning. The message they interpret may be intended or unintended by the producers of media. However I believe that good media producers are ones that create and code their message in ways that appeal to our curiosity and are relatively harder to decode.

Take for example one of my favorite movies, 'the Matrix.' The directors Andy Wachowski and Lana Wachowski did a very good job of encoding their message. The whole idea of an alternate reality controlled by machines is very hard to understand. The first time I saw this movie I just could not figure out the story. However after watching it several times and discussing it withj my friends I finally encoded the message the director and story writer were trying to convey and I just loved it. As a matter of fact I believe one of the main reasons why people like the matrix was because it appeared to be so deep and philosophical.

I know you may all not agree but allow yourself to understand and appreciate my point. I will give you more examples. 'Inception' was another movie which was hard to decode and that's why I believe people loved it.

My argument can also extend beyond just movies. Think about the riddles or deep statements that people make such as ' the purpose of life is a life of purpose.' think about how you feel when you read that and think about why people like reading or listening to those messages.  

I hope my thesis ignites comments and opposing views.

Below is a video of the matrix decoded on youtube. There is a reason why people like that scene.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmJPjUbwNhk&feature=related

Victoria's Secret is Brainwashing

www.victoriassecret.com/

During the last class we saw the killing me softly video. I honestly found it one of the most interesting videos I have seen. And I want to explore a very famous female undergarment brand named Victoria secret and their effect on the minds of women. We all know that Victoria secret models are the most gorgeous girls in the world,  We know them as being super tall with picture perfect bodies and big breasts and beautiful faces. Take for instance Adriana Lima one of the most iconic models of Victoria Secret.She is supposed to be the role model for young ladies. Think about what insecurities could come about if you aspire to be like her. I mean she is genetically taller and has a body type of a super model. My younger sister has a picture of Adriana in her room. She is only 17 and she is quite short for her age and she tries to starve herself just so she can fit into her jeans. This is appalling, she even asked my mother if she could get a nose job. I think the video is absolutely right and I feel women should realize the effect media is having on them from a young age. They should not aspire to become like these fake women. I am going to send the killing me sofly video to my mother and my sister, and I hope they realize that they are perfect the way they are.

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Infomercials = Intentional Hypnosis

When the professor showed us those videos in class about media and hypnosis it changed the way I look at media. I was never protecting myself from all the commercials and infomercials. So I decided to avoid watching commercials. However this past week I fell into the trap of a very successful infomercial campaign.

Day before yesterday I spent a full half hour watching the p90X infomercial. And I was seconds away from paying them $120 dollars for a few DVDs.Just then I spoke to my parents and in that conversation I realized how unnecessary those Dvd's were. If I want a fit body, I exactly know what to do but that infomercial made me doubt myself by telling me that I need that DVDs to be fit. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyOVeiF3EZc 

 P90X is one of the most successful infomercial products this year and their revenues have exceeded 20 million.Which means that over 200,000 people have become victims to the hypnotic ads and have spent over $120 buying this program.

This week I will be talking about infomercials and how hypnotic they can be. We all watch infomercials. But there are things that we need to keep in mind before we decide to buy something we see on TV. 

 

My last roommate's family is in the infomercial business. And he told me that his family makes a living by creating products that people don't need. He admits that they brainwash a consumer by playing on their fear and greed. Just to put things in perspective his family controls 70% of the infomercial business in Amercia. They have created the shamwow, cami secret, pedegg, iron gym, slap chop, yoshi blade, snuggie, etc.. 

Now in our reading we learnt about the importance of the producers of media and how because of  a profit motive they will play on your fear and greed and sell you products that you don't need. Its absolutely true.

You may argue that some of these products are useful and you do need them. I agree with you, but what you don't know is that when you call them they up sell you the delux version or something else that is absolutely unnecessary. In fact majority of their revenues come from up selling products that are not on the infomercial. Beware of that before you buy something in the future.

Walking On A Dream!

http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=yMJjF4LHOkY&feature=related



Walking on a Dream by Empire of the Sun is one of my favorite songs.It has over 4 million hits on Youtube.

This blog entry is not about this song but about how sound and its effect on humans. Most sound is accidental. Sounds like the cars passing by, the humming of the HVAC in your department, random people talking etc.... Our relationship with sound is largely unconscious. However this medium has tremendous power over the human condition. Sound affects our hormone secretion levels, breathing, heart rate, and brain waves. Music is known to significantly affect our emotional state. Therefore I ask you to control your music, Listen to soothing songs like walking on a dream to put your self in a state where you become more productive in anything you do.

Thinking about the cosby show and stereotyping, I have come to realize that Music as subtle as it may seem has become a source for stereotyping. Especially in our generation. Think about it. In Babson if we were to tell someone that you listen to house music or techno they automatically would stereotype you as an international student who spends a lot of money and goes to clubs in Boston. Further more if you have a facebook friend who's favorite song was some rap song from snoop dog you would immediately categorize them as one those guys who gets wasted every night, grinds with girls and throws up at fraternity parties and who wears chains and probanbly has some tatoos on his body.

I think its really interesting that we subconsciously judge people on the music they listen to and maybe evern avoid them if their taste in music isnt the same as yours.

Please share your favorite songs and music that puts you in a happy emotional state.

Thanks Guys!

YouTube to YouJizz

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Defining Media

Last year my science professor Mr. Steven Holt asked me to define life. And as easy as it may seem it was one of the hardest questions I had to answer.  Through studying and analyzing ‘life’ I learned that you can never truly understand it. However you can define life by listing its unique cluster of characteristics. Nevertheless by studying and analyzing “media” I have come to realize that it is very similar to ‘life’ and that it too can never truly be understood. However it can be defined by listing its unique cluster of characteristics.  

What do I mean when I say media cannot be understood?  Take for example any medium, let’s say your blackberry. What is a blackberry?  Is it some plastic, some metal and some glass combined together? Or is it a by-product of oil, by-product of nuclear fusion, and by-product of superheated sand. Or is your black berry a result of 4 billion years of evolution of amino acids? Or maybe even just debris from a supernova? Is your phone nothing but atoms put together in a particular sequence? Or is it simply stored energy/matter? The truth of the matter is you never truly know or understand your blackberry. Your blackberry is a façade. Its content; the plastic, the metal, the glass is another façade covering yet another curtain. The process goes on.  In fact all the above mentioned contents of a blackberry are curtains to more content. And where do all these curtains and facades come from? The answer is the processes of socialization. From the time we are born society starts labeling things, creating facades. The word ‘book’ is a façade for an object presented to us when we are in school. And that is a façade to the words in the book which are a façade to the atoms which make up the pages. All of this labeling is a result of interacting with society. At the crux of it all, media constitute unprecedented amounts of content which curtains more content. I would say it is similar to my understanding of life. It is important to know that the content could be physical; metals, atoms etc…and non-physical like information, ideas etc…

Analogous to life let us attempt to define media by listing its unique cluster of characteristics knowing that we will never truly be able to understand what media truly is. 1) I believe Media, apart from the obvious consumer electronics, include paintings and sushi etc… Media are made up of different cells or circuits or elements that perform a certain function. Eg: The CPU in computer processes binary calculations, structure of carbon in a diamond serves the function of making it hard etc… 2) Complex organization patterns are found in all media and life. Eg: The unique arrangement of carbon atoms in a diamond compared to the arrangement of carbon atoms in my body. 3) Media uses energy or rather converts energy from one form to another. Kind of like life as well. Eg: The TV uses electric energy and converts it into heat, light, UV radiation etc… and in life plants use energy from the sun to convert into food/glucose through a process called photosynthesis. 4) Like in life, a medium too is Homeostatic. It has an ability to maintain its internal stability by adjusting the amount of electricity it consumes. Eg: laptop uses less energy when on battery saving mode. And the human heart beats faster when running. 5)&6) Growth and Reproduction are other qualities that a medium shares with life. For example print media grew with the invention of the printing press just as a bodybuilder grows in size with the invention of steroids. And the computer and the phone reproduced the smart phone just like the man and the woman produced a child.

In conclusion, If Marshal Mcluhan argues that media are the extensions of man then I would say that media are living things. Media and life are similar when it comes to the unique cluster of characteristics that define it however we know that media includes more than just life. To sum up media include life and everything else including all the conceivable and unconceivable content.  Therefore everything is media.