Music Video

I had a lot of fun creating this homemade music video to one of my favorite songs! The quality on Youtube did go down, I think because I was using my phone, but the MP4 version on my thumb drive has great quality!

Semiotics of Media and Culture

Were were asked to read an article called Semiotics of Media and Culture, we were given response questions to help us understand and comprehend the article.

1.     What is “semiotics?”

To study semiosis, which is signs in human and non-human elements, can also been seen as a cultural science. Seeing signs and texts in mass media formats

2.     What is the “semiosphere” and how it can be both liberating and constraining.

Regulates and enhances human cognition in tandem, people born in already fixed systems will understand their environment and determine how they understand whats happening around them. Which can constrain them to their culture, but liberating becayse they can provide resources where the people can construct new signs and systems at their own will. Mass communication plays a big role in this.

3.     What is the “semiotic law of media?”

as the media change, so too do the sign systems of culture 1950’s it was a large discipline

4.     The author sees the 1938 Radio Broadcast “War of the Worlds” as a “simulacrum.” What does he mean by that?

Where media can twist reality and people are so invested that they can get the two mixed up. His radio show was about aliens in New Jersey, and people actually started to panic! Well educated people could tell the difference better

5.     What did Paul Lazarfeld discover in a 1956 study on media and elections? What is “Flow Theory,” and why was the 1960 election different?

He discovered that people will only take from the media what agrees with their mindet already, and it had virtually no effect on elections. The two step flow is when media starts with an opinion leader and then goes to the group members in 1960 people who listened to Kennedy and Nixon on the radio thought Nixon won, but people who watched it on TV thought Kennedy did because of the way he presented himself. Visual media has a large effect on people and their opinions

6.     Describe McLuhan’s idea of the “mediashpere.”

he idea of mediation, or the notion that media influence texts and other aspectsaditional religious sphere in shaping signification

7.     According to Roland Barthes, how can a photograph have CONNOTATIVE meaning? What is “textual pastiche?”

It can have connotation by where it is placed, what the caption lends, and where it is on the page or book where it is being shown. Mix things together using ideas and things from other texts

8.     What is the “culture industry?” What forces does Chomsky identify as shaping factors on media production?

"churning out popular texts for instant consumption"same way that factories churn out products. Government has a impact on what is shown across media

9.     Stuart Hall identified three possible “readings” to a cultural media text. Describe them.

Preferred reading is the one that the makers intended to convey with their text. A

Negotiated reading is the one that involves some negotiation or compromise with

the text’s intended meaning. An Oppositional is when the meaning is the opposite of what the audience thought.  

oppositional reading is one that is in opposition to what the makers of the text ha

10.  What is “markedness?”

Which version of an idea stands for everyone or just one type, they showed the example of calling all tourist in the male form, and when saying tourist in the female form it is specially referring to a female

11.  Roland Barthes held that all texts have denotative (linguistic) and connotative (rhetorical) power. Explain.

When someone sees something as a denotative they see what the actual meaning is, but on another level when it comes to connotative they will have an unconscious meaning of the object.

12. Name some evidence of Levi-Strauss’ idea of "mythic opposition" in Star Wars.

Where Luke is dealing with his father being a villain

13. How would Mikhail Bakhtin describe and explain the antics of outrageous celebrities in modern media?

That celebrities make a name for themselves with how they present themselves and portray themselves to their viewers. Some of it is  just for show, while at other times they are passionate in what they are doing. It is a modern day “media carnival” famous people go against the flow of society and they go against tradition

Travel video!

History of Cutting

The history of cutting video was interesting because it told some history about the art of film making and gave some important names. The video explains that films started as animated photographs, which is interesting because as we learn the Ken Burns effect, that is what we are doing as well. The video talks about Melies and how he created the camera and made his own films. It also talks about Porter and how he would create narratives and created temporal overlaps which is when action is duplicated. It then talked about Griffith and how he created hundreds of movies in a short period of time. This video was short, but very informative and interesting. I enjoyed learning about the history of something that I am started to work in.

Video Editing Experience

Editing in class on Tuesday was a really cool  experience. Learning how to use the software was exciting, but also challenging. We had to really pay attention to what Mikey was saying, but he was showing us step by step which was helpful. It was cool to learn the different effects and how to add pictures, videos, and sound. I know I will need to continue to practice, as it will be a learning experience. But it is exciting to already have started editing on the second day of class, and I look forward to when I can edit on my own. I also created a Youtube channel that we will be posting our videos on throughout the semester!

First day video

The video that we watched on Thursday was about a futuristic world where people could preserve their brains so they could live forever.  In the episode there had been a security hack and the brains were no longer functioning correctly. The show starts out with a commercial advertising the process of preserving the brain, and it comes off as any commercial people see on TV. This was a thought provoking short show because it could really happen. I do not know what my opinion on the topic is, I see the pros and cons of it and how it could effect people. It was interesting that someone thought of this show because with the way technology is moving it could very well be possible within the next 10-20 years! Also, the fact that is was set up like an everyday commercial was cool because it seemed to be the new "normal."