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Dogs or cats? (To prove Mr. Starace wrong)

Media Reflection 1/21/18

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        Keeping this blog and taking critical thinking has acted as a rude awakening for me. Before having taken this class, I was a lot more unaware of many aspects of media than I would have like to have thought at the time. For instance, I did assume that companies used certain tools to try to convey to their audience that their product will be useful and worthy of consumers to buy. However, I never would have imagined every single technique, and how detailed the techniques are, they use, and how desperately they try to get them to work on their audience. I thought at the time that advertisements were attempting to market towards everybody, not just a select group of people (target market audience). However, this has now become obviously false.         Now that I am more aware of the strategies employed by advertisers, I am less likely to be pursuaded by their ads. While watching commercials and even some TV shows, I can identify a lot of the techniques that advertisers are usin
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Non Intuitive Media Platforms 1/14/18

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        I think the key to a well-performing and successful media site is intuition. If a site is not easy to operate or figure out within the first couple times using it, the majority of the potential audience is lost.         Before I chose to write about this topic, I was thinking about a different subject. I had imported my images (about five) to blogger and was trying to format it properly. I kept jumping back and forth between the post "composition" window and the "preview" window, trying to get the pictures to appear well-formatted. I spent easily over ten minutes trying to get the pictures to align the way I wanted them to. Eventually, after searching for multiple solutions, I gave up, because blogger's formatting wasn't letting me put the pictures where I wanted them.          Looking around at the successful media sites, such as Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, etc., they all have at least one factor in common: they are easy to use. The
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Sexist Dress Codes (Miss Representation) 1/10/18

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        This is a problem that cannot go unaddressed. It surrounds us: in and out of the workplace; schools; social events; and so on. Women are constantly subjected to torment over what they wear and how they choose to wear it. As much as some would like to think otherwise, this is even a problem at C.K. McClatchy High School.         I have witnessed/heard about a countless number of dress code violations since I have been here. Out of these, the vast majority of those accused are women. I can't help noticing and being concerned at this-why is this happening?         I took a look in the student handbook, flipping to page 11 where dress code policy was addressed. If you would like to look for yourself but don't want to bother finding your handbook, you can find it here . (On the website version, the first three bullet points discuss "revealing apparel", "length of pants, shorts, and skirts", and "wearing pants, shorts, and skirts below the wasteli
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"Merchants of Cool" and the Unsustainable Fashion Industry 1/6/18

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                      As discussed in Merchants of Cool, cool hunting is the method used by professionals to predict upcoming trends by surveying or observing trendsetters (cool kids)/a given company's demographic in attempts to become ahead of the game. These professionals then report back to big companies their findings. It's essentially a big formula--cool hunters survey trendsetters, present a company with their information, the company then turns around and uses the info on what's cool to tweak their products, and so on and so on. However, at the end of this chain, what this cycle ultimately suffers from is that the cool product is cool for a split second, the trendsetters move on, and suddenly the whole process starts all over again.         Keeping in mind that what's now considered cool won't be tomorrow, cool hunting is to blame for this horrible circumstance. What this process does is create industries that are quickly changing, and unpredictable. T
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Harmful Effects of Social Media's Techniques of Dragging us in Outside of the Platforms 1/5/18

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        Recently, I have felt more and more trapped in social media. I have started to realize different platforms' techniques to suck users in and keep them there. One example of this is Instagram's smart search feed which picks out posts you'll like based off of what you've previously viewed and liked. However, the most prominent example of this would be Snapchat streaks--where the user has to send their friend a picture everyday and expects one back from their friend. Snapchat keeps track of how many days in a row you've consecutively you and your friend have sent pictures back and forth. They add that number of days along with a couple emojis next to your friend's username.         There are a few problems this causes both in real life and on social media. The first, and most damaging, problem is that people assume that because you don't return their streaks, you don't like them. And if you break a streak with somebody on purpose, they are convince
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We're Living in a Privacy-Free Age 12/15/17

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        Recently, a video surfaced from a home surveillance camera catching an Amazon delivery woman, who was hired for the rush of the holiday season, going to the bathroom on the curb of a street. (I suggest reading the article that goes along with he video too, it's crazy how worked up people get over such small things). The video gained some popularity, and she was fired. This made me even more concerned than I already was for our lack of privacy in today's world.         The woman, probably overworked and sleep deprived, was doing what she needed to do in order to carry on with her job. Was there anything wrong with the appalled homeowner posting the video? Sure, what the Amazon worker did was wrong, but considering the circumstances, was it right to post a video like that? Especially knowing that these sort of things get people fired? I have began to wonder if more people use security cameras for catching "funny" moments on video than actually catching crime-
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Product Placement in Spectre 12/10/17

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        Besides being a great movie, Spectre is a gem when it comes to finding a movie littered with product placement. James Bond films always have been and always will be a classic when it comes to Madison and Vine techniques. The most popular being Aston Martin, many brands and businesses use these movies as advertisements for their products. In Spectre alone, the list of brands advertised in the movie is unbelievable. Spectre advertised: the Aston Martin DB10; the Omega Seamaster 300; Tom Ford clothing (including sungalsses); Range Rover vehicles; Vuarnet sunglasses; Belvedere vodka; Sony; and the Fiat 500.         This brings us to a big question-is product placement always wrong to use in movies? Does it really detract from films? In many cases, yes, it can be wrong to sloppily use product placement left and right in a film. It can cause distraction and contribute to the overall clutter in movies--not to mention the seemingly endless commercials we're fo
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