Mesmerised by the media

After a long 6 or 7 tedious weeks of blogging about media, I must now think to myself what did I learn? Well besides learning my best friends sleeping pattern revolves around lectures I have surprisingly learnt a lot.

It was not apparent to me before this course how interesting media actually is and what goes on behind the scenes.

It’s amazing how influential ANY person’s opinion can be on ANYONE! Media is such a monumental part of our lives that it has an effect on people, and rightly so. It was also was identified that some media has more effect on people than others, for example a superhero movie may not influence kids as much as adults as generally the majority of adults can understand the difference of fiction and nonfiction better then children.

Another interesting discussion was about controversial advertisements and this presented to us advertisements which included the use of drugs, sex, Hitler and many more taboo public subjects.

But then, surely, we had to question who was allowing this media to go out in to the realm of the mediated public sphere… for EVERYONE to see. It’s the likes of Fairfax and Newscorp which have mass control over media. Does this bother YOU?

Who controls the media does not bother me one bit, however if the owner uses media to strongly persuade people to believe certain things such as who is wrong or right at war or presents one sided views, this is wrong!

Possibly the greatest part of the mediated public sphere is that it in fact allows people to comment on bias news reports and have their say on what happened and allow for other people to back them up… unless of course you live in North Korea. North Korea, to put it politely, is not mates with the mediated public sphere and they have full control over what their citizens see. A funny yet shocking example of North Koreas overpowering media control took place at the 2014 South African World cup. In North Korea the news presenters lied to fans stating that they had won games that in actual fact they didn’t win.

The BCM110 course has been extremely interesting this far and I am looking forward to learning more… and blogging more

Peace! Bless!

What is the world’s opinion?

It is possible for people to have their say on almost any subject and share this globally on the World Wide Web. Then other people in this mediated public sphere may also comment on someone else’s comment and it goes on like so until whole conversations between people are viewable on the Internet.

An example of an event that is displayed in the mediated public sphere annually, is the Golden Globe Awards this attracts viewers from all over the world. In 2011 The “Golden Globe ceremony was up 14 percent from 2009’s roughly 15 million viewers.” The 2010, 2011 and 2012 awards were hosted by Ricky Gervais and the reasoning behind its viewer increase is that viewers were eager to hear and comment on Gervais’ controversial presenting.

A large amount of people were offended by Ricky Gervais comments at the three Golden Globe awards he hosted as he presented an array of controversial comments on the Hollywood realm.

I personally thought they were funny and must admit Gervais is my favourite comedian, but some of the people that were the subject of his taunts did not and nor did their fans, and Gervais ‘haters.’ Gervais’ remarks were challenged by the mediated public sphere with articles deeming him as “racist, sexist and homophobic”… That’s a bit harsh.

The U.S., media rounded on The Office comic dubbing his performance ‘uncomfortable’, ‘corrosive’ and ‘abusive’.

Actors such as Christian Bale took it a lot lighter; he made this comment “Thank God for comedians. I’m hoping he’s going to keep going further.”Gervais thrived on the opportunity to scare people stating, “To be the most feared man in Hollywood for three hours is so much fun.”

It is interesting hearing EVERYONE’S view on topics, however some people take things too far and actually begin to try strongly influence people to agree with their personal hate or love towards someone.

The Phat Controller

The media has to be controlled to a certain extent.

For instance, companies need to make sure that their program does not present any unethical or immoral ideologies from the TV presenters themself. They can, however, show an immoral event such as a murder, but they will of course present their personal view that what happened was a terrible event.

Think about this… when was the last time you saw a news presenter, or any news source be racist, encourage murder, or swear on TV? Hopefully never, and this presents the good side of media control as the owners would not allow this.

Now let’s look at the other side of control. When was the last time that you saw the media support a certain side of politics, or promote/demote a celebrity due to their best interest? This happens all the time! The owners of media companies such as News Corp and Fox will generally not allow for their media platforms to present anything that may hinder their amount of viewers. For example Fox news will not present the Middle Eastern view on the War in the Middle East because Fox is mainly based in America. Adolf Hitler showed the world in the late 1920’s and early 1930’s how it is possible to persuade people, through media, to follow you. Along with his minister for enlightenment and propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, Hitler was able to broadcast his speeches, ideologies and ‘Fuhrer myth’ to the German nation and the world. The media helped to give him Demi-god status, gain him full power of Germany and also time magazine man of the year… sorry what? Yes that’s right he was voted time man of the year in America in 1923

Imagine you owned a media company such as fox or Newscorp and your best friend was running for prime minister… would you publish a story on a sex scandal from their past or a gambling addiction they maintain, probably not.  So in these circumstances it is an issue when viewing the news from a biased source, but most people are biased in some way.

Personally I try my hardest to stray away from viewing the news; this is mainly due to the farfetched news and desensitisation presented by “news” shows such as ‘a current affair’ and ‘today tonight.’ The link below shows ‘The Chasers war on everything’ team mocking today tonight.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZG2tWuLTS_A

This video shows the poor quality of news; this quality begins from the top with executives and owners of companies ordering these stories to be published so they appeal to the mass public and instead of broadcasting a story on global warming and what we can do to help they’d rather a story on cats that eat garbage and turn into vampires at night due to the chemical imbalance of astronauts.

The pink elephant in the room…

Any advertisement that contains Hitler must be offensive right?

The Sicilian fashion brand “New Form” caused uproar in Palermo, Italy and all over the world with its appropriation of Adolf Hitler in their 2010 campaign “Change style – Don’t follow your leader.”

The way in which people interpret this image probably won’t vary as much as other controversial advertisements because initially it seems so shocking. The denotation of this image is a made up Hitler dressed in pink, with a love heart armband replacing his usual swastika and Nazi colours. Many would rightly be offended at the use of Hitler in advertising and also may interpret the image as undermining the seriousness of Hitler and the Nazi regime.

Local Palermo politician, Councilor Rosario Filoramo argued that “the use of an image of a person responsible for the worst chapters of the last century is offensive to our country’s constitutional principles and to the sensitivities of citizens.”The sheer shock of this image would draw me away from buying a “New Form”  product, due to a taboo of using Hitler to promote anything.

In looking at the connotations of this image, however, it becomes evident that there is more to this image then first meets the eye. The company tries to present a contrast to the usual image of Hitler by giving him female qualities and mocking him by putting bright make up on him.

Without the help of the slogan, “Change style – Don’t follow your leader,” this image is quite ineffective at getting its message across.  When I first viewed the image I had no clue what it was about until I saw the bland slogan (which didn’t really stand out). The message that “New form jeans” are trying to get across is that people should be individual and try their new range.

This campaign got publicity due to its shock value, but it was not beneficial and the campaign was quite unsuccessful.

Really, who wants to buy something Hitler endorsers?

You will be effected Im-media-tely

When it comes to tragedy, people are quick to blame the media as it is an easy scapegoat. From so-called copycat violence to personal accidents, one single event should not be blamed for such an occurrence; there are too many factors which come in to play for a single event to be pinpointed as the sole cause.

The way I see it is that the majority of people who view movies such as Spiderman, lord of the rings etc can distinguish between fiction and nonfiction. I know plenty of people who have watched all the “Saw” movies and haven’t become serial killers, and I know plenty of boys that have watched “The Notebook” and haven’t become romantic. I don’t think the media should take on ‘full’ blame for someone’s actions.

A very unfortunate event occurred recently in London, a young boy Kevin Morais fell to his death from his bedroom window on the third floor of an apartment building. This event caused distress to his family and friends and in no form am I going to contest that or the seriousness of the event.

What I am going to contest is the general response to this tragedy.  The media or the parents or both, (as it was in the daily mail article) put quite a lot of blame on the Spiderman enterprise. Twice in the title of the ‘Daily Mail’s’ article the hero is mentioned. The use of strong emotive language such as “loved” and words of ownership such as “his hero” encourage readers to straight away “blame” Spiderman for the death. The title reads:

Six-year-old boy who loved Spider-Man fell to his death from bedroom window after thinking he was ‘invincible’ like his hero. 

Like I mentioned before, not one singular event in someone’s life can be to blame for such a serious issue and tragic accident. I’m not denying the poor kids love for Spiderman, I’m just saying that before blaming the media some more background information should be studied. This is what David Gauntlett implies when he states that “The effects model tackles social problems backwards”. By looking at such events through the effects model we simplify these tragedies rather than looking at the interconnected and multiple causes.

Link – http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2275716/Six-year-old-boy-loved-Spiderman-fell-death-bedroom-window-thinking-invincible-like-hero.html

GIDDY UP!

Hi I’m Joel Mucci, you may remember me from such classes as BCM 110 and BCM 112, now here’s an introduction to MUCCI101.

What you will need to know about me to get a good grasp of my character, are these five things:

1. I have become one with the beach…. well not really but I do enjoy surfing, spear fishing etc. My favourite surf spot is unfortunately not in Australia, it is Raglans in New Zealand and my oh my is it gnarly.

2. “Don’t push me cause I’m close to the edge!” I am a huge fan of old school rap, old rock ‘n’ roll (The Beatles etc.), indie rock and enjoy listening to Triple J… except for when it plays dubstep at 9 in the morning. I just woke up people give me something chilled!

3. My favourite TV show (as your may have noticed) is Seinfeld, but I also love The Office (UK), Boardwalk Empire (I froth on this) and How I met your mother.

4. I am a diehard soccer enthusiast and play at a semi-professional level for the Woonona Sharks, feel free to watch. Also I support the almighty Napoli SCC.

5. Lastly, I would love to start travelling the world and check out my origins in Greece and Italy.

That’s me through and through so keep posted