Comment pages, and thier evil

COomment boards are dominant on the internet. It is as if people feel they are contributing to the internet by commenting on online news message boards. People become absolutely viscous on discussions and comment pages, insulting complete strangers using extremely vulgar language on every offensive topic imaginable. Religion, politics, gay rights, and abortion are easily the top four topics which inspire the most hateful language. It is interesting and horrifying to realize that if people were to say what they had writing out loud in public, there is a very good change that they would face dire consequences due to their language being offensive in hte highest degree. And yet people do not seem to notice how awful they are being, and indeed the feel completely justified in what they are spewing at people. It seems to me that internet commenting is a lot like what people always say about a drunk friend: they are saying things that they would only be thinking sober. Sure such hurtful and cruel opinions do crop up of their own accord, they must have always been there, unable to come out until the perfect anonymity of the internet made it possible to spew such venom without being beaten up for it. If you don't know your victim, and you don't know your attacker, whats to stop you from turning into a monster. Would we all become such monsters in the face of non existence consequences?

Advertising

Advertising has changed greatly due to the emergence of the internet. It is costly to print paper ads with ink, it is virtually free (resources wise) to do so online. Online advertisements don't require paper and ink and in this sense resources are being saved, however it is still very costly to advertise at all. This is because the ads are often used as the sole source of revenue for many online publications, and are thus very costly. They also take up a lot of energy to run online, every hour of every day. They also require software space, they clog up the internet both in space and in visuals. Regardless of how much bandwidth is required for online advertising, these ads take up a tremendous amount of space on the screen for most publications, and it can be very irritating to have to wade through the vast amount of junk advertisements to even get to what you were searching for anyway. The reason for all of this is, as always, that it is profitable, the same reason for news publciations themselves switching to online anyway.

Encyclopedias

Encyclopedias, while not on the same scale as newspapers, are greatly influenced by the recent trend of internet news. While Print newspapers are impoverished,understaffed, and grammatically incorrect, encyclopedias have been made obsolete entirely. There seems to be absolutely no yes for them anymore. Public schools usually will not allow students to cite from them, which causes students to shy away from referencing ans encyclopedia for assignments. Hardly anybody even reads them at all anymore, meaning that nobody buys them anymore, which also means that it is increasingly difficult to get rid of a set of encyclopedia's. They are large, bulky, and take up a ton of space, which is exactly what the internet is not. The internet allows for instant access to information, is portable, easily accessed, and takes up no physical space, safe for whichever console is used to access it. It is no wonder that encyclopedias are left behind, the internet has truly replaced them.

Commercail Media

Another interesting aspect of newspapers I have not yet focused on is that of the commercial impact of newspapers. Op ed sections of newspapers have as a whole been cut largely. The space is becoming too expensive to produce now in the age of online news publication. This hurts local businesses, because without the professional reviews and support of the news, their products are not being advertised to the proper critical mass of people. this is especially true for Books, CD's, and other aspects of culture. The exceptions seems to be movies, which usually get plenty of coverage by the news. Retail seems to benefit from this trend to, because newspapers are relying on more and more ad revenue to continue to produce themselves. Culture seems to be homogenizing itself then, to retail and cinema outlets while smaller aspects of culture are left behind.

Medical Journals

Online journals have largely made Print versions obsolete, something I will be exploring in my Media Ecology paper. Print has quickly been dying out in recent years sue to the widespread availability of online resources for relaying news. It is simply cheaper to produce a paperless and ink less version and out it online than to go to the trouble of printing and distributing a hard copy. What I find interesting, however, is that I found that this phenomenon is prevalent in all areas of publication, even medical journals. It is somewhat surprising to find that medical journals are now increasingly online and out of print, considering that it is still tactless to assume that all people have access to computers. Largely, I found sources where Doctors in third world environments complain that their local publications are being run to the ground by larger corporate, western publications. This will be interesting to study in the future, because I had not thought before that the emergence of online media was anything but obsolescence. Online media has also replaced other resources.

Shes the man

Recently, I realized the parallels between Shakespeare's Twelfth Night and the contemporary movie She's the Man. I only saw the film once years ago when it first came out, but the parallels are striking. Normally I am annoyed by modern day film makers insistence on copying Shakespeare as i feel that the directors are only revealing their own creative deficit. However, this time the result is amusing, thoughtful, and (most importantly) plausible.

Kinect

I'm not much for video games, but even I have to admit that the XBOX Kinect is cool. For the first time, video games which advertise that they promote exercise are actually not shitting you. The Wii is not only lame and for children, but the controllers are expensive and the break, creating a wonderful money pit for microsoft to lap up. The kinect, while expensive upfront, will hopefully require little maintenance.

Trash Writing

I find it very disturbing that all major news syndicates in this country are incapable of prioritizing their news. That Prince William of England's engagement received more attention than the awarding of the Medal of Honor to the first living recipient in 34 years is appalling. For one thing, we as American's ought to know better seeing as we don't even have royalty, and as such DO NOT CARE about the figure head British royal family. Secondly, the positive achievements of our own people ought to take precedence in the news. That many people were distracted by the news of Prince William's engagement is pathetic. Is is sad, and makes me wonder what the hell are people thinking? Celebrity culture has gone too far.

Dream worlds

Dreamworlds Jayne Koath
10/28/10
Kenneth Burke’s film “Dreamworlds III” draws our attention because it effectively uses a technique known as “perspective by incongruity”. Burke uses this technique by juxtaposing several things against one another in the hopes that we as viewers will experience an emotional response. Burke is successful at doing this because he is able to create that juxtaposition in several different ways, often all at the same time. When this happens, the result is sensory overload.
To start off with, we must define the dream world as it exists to Burke. He argues that music videos portray a false reality, (thus, the dream world), where men are entirely dominant and live without consequences or repercussions to their actions. In Burke’s idea of the dream world, women are seen in a certain role which the rarely break free of. They are weak, needy, sexualized beings who live for the abstract pleasure of men. They have no agency, no independence, and virtually no will. The Dream World then, consists of all the trapping of a teenage boy’s fantasy. The women are plentiful, cheap, and easy for taking whenever, wherever a man wishes. Burke exerts that this dream world is a false reality and that music videos are a major culprit in exacerbating the survival of the dream world ideal.
Burke uses perspective by incongruity to, in essence, shut down the dream world, at least within the confines of his film. One of the most effective ways he does this is by stripping the music videos of their actual music and leaving us to soak in the images of women writhing around scantily clad, existing only for the pleasure of men. Burke cuts out the music completely, and the only thing we hear is his own voice narrating his argument. When he does use music, it is in the background and is more akin to what we might hear during a horror film. This is tremendously effective for his argument, as we then subconsciously equate the sexual violence and domination with horror. The incongruity here exists with Burke replacing the artist’s music with horror themes, or even cutting music out altogether. In doing so, he forces us to focus on the actual images within the video. We may quickly see how when we hear the music, it often validates the images we are seeing as legitimate. Without the cushion of the music, we are better able to see the images for what they really are.
Burke also uses his own voice to equate the actions within the videos with horror. He speaks with a monotone inflection. Burke never reacts to what we are seeing on the screen. He never emphasizes something, and he never leads us on with his tone. This allows us as viewers to fully take in the images we are seeing and to process them on our own. The realization of how far the sexual violence goes within these music videos is that much more chilling when we realize it on our own, without the narrator’s voice telling us how to react.
Camera angles play a large role in creating the incongruity within the film. Anyone who watched movies or television has likely been exposed to the image of a nearly naked woman on screen before. What we are not used to is the camera being used so that we feel as if we ourselves are in the middle of the action. Seeing a nearly naked women grind against a veritable thug is disturbing enough without being forced, through clever manipulations of multiple camera angles, too see the action for the point of view of the woman’s leg. This and other such instances where camera angles are manipulated creates a jarring effect on viewers, as we are forced to view something that was once vaguely revolting form a point of view which makes it downright disturbing.
Burke creates perspective through incongruity in his film “Dreamworlds III” by twisting and omitting certain traditional aspects of the music video experience. These manipulations, or incongruities, challenge the dreamworld by forcing us to view it in a way which revolts ans disgusts us.