2nd 6 weeks: response to Maggie's post about movies

 I was reading Maggie's post and I was really amazed about her explanation on movie theaters popularity. She said "I think I thought of it as more of the other way around like 'the movies are cool so we should hang out there' rather than 'the movies are cool because we hang out there'". I thought this was a very interesting way to word it. I thought it described the lecture very well. I also agree with Maggie's points about how I never realized the immersive experience, but that it's the reason why going to the movies is a big deal. Maggie did a great job in this post with explaining why movie theaters are still popular despite the fact that we have things like Netflix.

Read more about Maggie great comments on the movie lecture on her blog at:
http://whatsnewsmaggie.blogspot.com/2015/10/movies.html

2nd 6 weeks: Response to Joey's post about magazines

Joey wrote about magazines and how they have only affected our society because of their pictures. I disagree. Since magazines have demassified, they have began to provide things for every group of people. The articles in magazines like InTouch are read by people who love to follow the celebrities, and articles in other magazines provide insightful articles for their audience. I personally don't read magazines to just look at the pictures, I actually read the articles. I also think that if magazines were only popular for their pictures then they wouldn't be as popular because you can just look at pictures online.

Read about Joey's opinion on magazines on his blog at:
http://schusterpost.blogspot.com/2015/10/magazines.html

2nd 6 weeks: Response to Luke's post on radios

After reading Luke's response to the lecture on radios, I decided that I partially agreed with him, but partially don't. Luke wrote about how radios have become less popular because of the fact that they don't provide anything that other forms of mass communication do. I disagree. Not only do radio shows play music, but they also have skits and little shows that they air episodes of. This connects to me because every Friday morning my sister and I listen to "War of the Roses" on 98.9. It is a comedic show about couples and their relationships. This is one example of something that can be found within radio, but not anywhere else.

I do agree with Luke in that radio has become a lot less popular, but I don't think that it's not used by anyone. People listen to the radio to hear new music, they listen to it in the car, and they listen to it in their houses. You may think that Spotify and Pandora will eventually replace radio, but I disagree because those are more hands-on and you can't use them as easily while driving. Also, they come with a price of advertisements, cellular data usage, or a monthly fee.

Read Luke's ideas on radios on his blog at:
http://lhdailyco.blogspot.com/

2nd 6 weeks: Response to Matthew's blog on recorded music

After reading Matthew's response to the lecture on recorded music, I noticed some things about music that I didn't before. Matthew pointed out that most live concert's today have pre-recorded music. I thought this was very interesting because music used to only be able to be performed live, but now that recorded music is so abundant, even live performances have music already recorded. The amount of recorded music we have these days is crazy compared to how it used to be. I like having music to listen to all of the time, but like Matthew said it kind of stinks that so much of it is fake. He talked about how in lots of songs today it's not real instruments that produce the music. I also liked his point on how music has evolved from something that was only for special events to something that can be heard any minute of any day.

Read more about Matthew's insightful comments on his blog at:
http://mdentingerjourn.blogspot.com/2015/10/response-to-music-lecture.html

2nd 6 weeks Response to lecture of recorded music

During the lecture on recorded music we talked about how the internet has really hurt to record industry. I found this really interesting because I know of so many artists that were not discovered by a record label, but by the internet. You don't have to be signed by a company to upload your music to Youtube and this has caused a lot of artists to post their music online instead of going to a record label. For example Justin Bieber was discovered on Youtube bur then was later signed to a record label.

Before the internet, the only way to get your music heard was to go through record companies, but now that people are working around that, the record industry is beginning to fail. This is just one example of how the internet is hurting the business of mass communication. There are online newspapers, online books, and online television like Hulu of Netflix.

Overall, I was really able to make a connection to real life because I like the music of many artists who were made famous on the internet. This lecture really helped me understand how much the internet is affecting our everyday forms of mass communication.

2nd 6 weeks: Response to Lecture on Television

We recently had a lecture about the history of television as a form of mass communication. I found it incredible that in 1936 there were only 200 televisions in the whole world, but by 1964 there were 73 million televisions, and by 1977, 97% of all homes had televisions.

When we learned about the impact that television has had I was able to make many connections to my life. TV keeps us indoors. I have noticed that a lot since the lecture. On a beautiful day you can go outside and not see many other people out enjoying the weather. That's probably because people prefer to stay indoors and lay on the couch watching TV.

I wish we could have maybe talked about how TV has affected overall health of people since more time is spent laying around instead of exercising. I think if we had talked about this than it might have showed more of the enormous impact that television has had. I don't know if TV has affected people's health, but if I had to guess people were probably healthier before television.

Another thing I could relate to was how politicians use TV as their main form of campaign advertisement. I can connect to this because whenever there is an election coming up I see an endless amount of ads for and against the candidates.

Overall, I could connect to a lot of the ways television has impacted our society.

2nd 6 weeks Response to parts of newspapers

When we learned about the parts of a newspaper I found it very interesting because I have seen all of them before, but I never knew what they were called nor did I understand their importance. My family gets the newspaper everyday, and although I don't always read it, I sometimes do. I see the front page with the headlines and the nameplates. I also recognize the datelines and bylines.

Before this lesson I just looked at a newspaper the same as everyone else, but now I can look at it and see all of the individual parts that make it unique. I can recognize when they use a banner instead of a normal headline, and I know how to find out where the article takes place.

Some things that never stood out to me in a newspaper were the kickers and the decks, I just never noticed them. But now I do notice them and I see their importance when it comes to writing an article. To me, the kicker and decks give you a little bit more information than the headline so that you know if you want to read the article or not. That is really important.

Overall, learning the parts of a newspaper has really helped me pick apart each article to see the pieces that it's made up of.

2nd 6 weeks: Vocabulary Response

The other day Mr. Miller taught us about the terminology used in newscasts. It was really interesting because I knew what each one was, I just never knew the name for it. 

The most interesting thing to me was the VNR, or Video News Release. I had never heard of this or noticed one on television news, but I am sure I have seen it before without noticing. Learning about how to spot a VNR has made me more aware of when they're shown so know I can recognize them on TV. Since we have to watch the news each night for our project, I decided I am going to look for VNRs and try to point them out. 

I wished we could have spent more time on VNRs and watched more examples. I want to be able to notice them whenever I watch the news and I think more examples would help with that. The example we did watch however was very helpful and helped me understand VNRs more. 

Even though this was not really a lecture I really enjoyed learning all of the words that newscasters use and their terminology. 

2nd 6 Weeks: Response to Radio Lecture

Our recent class lecture on radio's was one of my favorites. During this lecture I really made the connection between all of the different kinds of mass communication and that they all follow the same pattern. Like all other forms of mass communication, radios gradually grew in popularity and then reached a peak where they were extremely popular everywhere. But, after television was invented, radios began to decline and demassify, going for niche audiences. This is the pattern followed by most forms of mass communication.

Until the FCC regulated which stations played on which channels, radio stations would try and broadcast through the same channel. Because of this, you could hear part of one station and part of the other. The FCC regulated which stations broadcasted though each channel, but its different for each city. Because of this, you can be driving somewhere and for a brief time period, you hear two stations at once. That's because they run through the same channel. I thought this was relatable because this happens to us a lot when my family goes on road trips. 

Another thing that was really interesting was that rock and roll music saved radios from dying out. Radios were saved by rock and roll because teens began to use the radio to listen to music, which kept them popular. I can relate to this because I usually listen to music on the radio in the car and in my room. 

Overall, I personally use radios a lot and I know most people my age do as well. I really understand why radios are still around today, because I am a part of the niche audience. I was really fascinated by the history of radios and I wished we had more time to talk about them during the World War II time period.

2nd 6 Weeks- Response to Class Lecture on Movies

One of our class lectures was on movies. It was very interesting learning the history of movies and how they were very popular around the same time radios reached their peak. One thing I did not know before the lecture was that movies did not have flexible film until 1891. Before that, the film was solid, so you could not bend it at all.

We talked about how movie theaters reached a peak of 90 million tickets per week in 1946. Now, theaters sell about 23 million tickets per week. I thought that was amazing because when I'm at the movies,  they are always crowded, but its less than one third of the amount of people that used to go.

We learned why movie theaters are still popular even though we have things like Netflix and cable. Movies theaters have what is called an immersive experience, which is the large screen, dark environment, no commercials, and the sophisticated sound system. I knew all of these things made going to the theater a unique experience, but now I know the actual name for it.

One thing that I could really connect to was the social aspects that keep theaters in business. I go to the movies with my friends, because its a lot more fun that just watching a movie at home with them. I learned in this lecture that this is one of the things that has kept theaters in business after the internet and television were invented. Also, being able to go to premiers of movies at the theaters has kept theaters popular because people want to be the first to see certain movies. I could also relate to that, because I know the feeling of disappointment when your mom won't let you go to the premier and all of your friends saw The Hunger Games before you.

The most interesting thing about this lecture that I wished we had talked more about were the trends set by certain movies. Mr. Miller talked some about how a guy in a popular movie wore a white t-shirt and everybody began to wear white t-shirts. I thought it was really interesting to learn about how old popular movies that we've never even heard of have affected the way we dress today. I wish we could have spent more time talking about that, but overall it was a very interesting lecture.

Media Critique on Fox News

Two articles about European migrant crisis were published today. Both articles focus of the recent news that many migrants are pouring into Croatia to escape the violence in their homeland. The first article, from Fox News, was very informative, but failed to meet one of Ten Elements of Journalism that the other article, from CNN, did meet. The Fox News article did not make the important interesting.

The article from Fox, entitled "Thousands of refugees rush into Croatia to find new route to Western Europe", was filled with informative facts that really explained the crisis in Croatia. However, when it is compared it to the article from CNN, it was clearly missing something. 

The difference between the two articles was the way they were explained. The superior article entitled "Migrant Crisis: Thousands overwhelm Croatia" from CNN used very intriguing phrases that really grabbed your attention and described the situation much better. For example, the CNN article says, "Women were wailing and police tried to help children as masses of people pushed their way out of the holding area set up for processing," this is just one example of this article using extreme details and vivid adjectives to grab your attention.

The Fox News article had no details of a first person account, only facts about what happened. In this article, two paragraphs start with phrases such as "Authorities said," or "Croatian police said," rather than explaining the horror that the migrants were facing. Fox should have written about first person accounts of the crisis, in order to make the article more interesting. 

Another way that the Fox article failed to meet this element of journalism, was failure to use visual aids. Visual aids such as videos or pictures incorporated with the article really help make it an interesting piece of news. While the CNN article used many pictures and a video, the Fox article used one picture at the beginning of their short article. If Fox had used more visual aids, it may have made their article more interesting and may have brought them closer to meeting this specific element of journalism.

Under the element "Make the Important Interesting", it says, "Part of the journalist's responsibility is providing information in such a way people will be inclined to listen." Overall, this article written by Fox News failed to do so. Therefore, it does not meet all ten elements of journalism.

Read both articles here:

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2015/09/17/thousands-migrants-rush-into-croatia-in-new-route-to-western-europe/

http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/17/world/europe-migrant-crisis/index.html 

Response to Binary models lecture

Everyday I listen to music while I do my schoolwork. What I never thought about was how I can listen to music and still really focus on my task. During the lecture on binary models I learned about hot and cool mediums. Music is a cool medium. This means that you don't have to fully engage with it when listening to it. Other things, like books are hot mediums, meaning you have to give it your full attention.

Another binary model is information and entertainment. Information's job is to tell us things while entertainment is not meant to inform. But one thing that is happening is those two are combining and forming infotainment. One example of infotainment is The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. It is meant to inform you about the current events, but also entertain you. This is due to conglomeration. When one company owns a bunch of smaller companies, it's called conglomeration. This is leading to the merging of this binary model. This can be related to my life because my parents watch NBC news shows, which has no entertainment factor, but also shows like the Colbert Report that have the comedy incooperated into the news.

Commincation lecture response

Communication is something we do everyday. Whether it's talking, texting, or giving someone a high five, we are communicating with people all around us all of the time. Prior to the lecture on communication, I never really thought about the different ways we communcate. It turns out there are three types of communication. Individual, between two people. Group communication would be a small group of people like a family meeting or sermon. The last and the biggest form of communication is mass communication. This is the type of communication that has the potential to reach a mass audience.

I never understood how much mass communication our generation uses. Every tweet we post, every video game we play is mass communication. I knew my Instagram was a private account, but after the lecture I learned that my pictures could become mass communication. People could screenshot and share with others, giving it the potential to reach a mass audience. I thought this lecture was very interesting.

Response to Wesley's Post

Recently, I read Wesley's repsonse to the magazine lecture. She talked about how people don't really read magazines anymore and that people just watch TV or read on their phones. I disagree with that. I think people do read magazines still, but just not as much. Magazines remain around for a long time, I think, because it's not all current events that you must read that day. Magazines don't come out daily, so the articles in them can be kept around and read at different times.

For example, some magazines have recipes or articles on how to get fit. You don't necessarily have to read that right away and then throw it away. Also, you could share the magazine with your friends. That is one thing that Mr. Miller mentioned when talking about magazines and newspapers. There is not just one copy per person. It's usually several people per copy. So you could subscribe to a magazine and then give it to your neighbors to read, which is what my neighbors do.  So, magazines may be less popular, but people still definitely read them. They have many advantages over electronic articles and Internet magazines.

Read Wesley's blog at http://wesizzle.blogspot.com/2015/09/magazines.html?m=1

Conglomeration Response

One of our lectures in class was on conglomeration. I had never heard of that word until Mr. Miller taught it to us in class. Conglomeration is when a whole bunch of things are brought together, when one giant company owns and controls others. For example, Disney is a giant company. But I never knew that it owned so many smaller companies. The main ones that I can think of is ABC Family and Marvel Entertainment. But, there are many more companies that Disney controls.

Conglomeration can be a good thing and a bad thing. The company gets more money, which for them is a good thing, and we as the consumers get more pop culture. I love pop culture so I think conglomeration is great. We get the same things over and over. For people like me, who enjoy pop culture conglomeration is a good thing. But there are some negative things that come along with it.

A negative effect for the company and the consumer would be decreased quality. For the consumers that don't like seeing the same thing over and over again, a negative effect would be less diverse content.

Overall, conglomeration could be seen as a good thing or a bad thing. I see it as both, good and bad. I like that the consumers get more pop culture, but it also allows one company to dominate the media industry leading to less diverse content.

Response to Cora's Blog

In Cora's blog she talked about how she never really thought about the communicating we do on a regular basis. I agree! Before the class lecture, I had really no idea how radios worked. But now I can listen to the radio and understand how I am doing so.

Another thing is, I never thought about how things I post on social media has the potential to become mass communication. I never  understood that anything you put on the internet could become mass communication. But it can, because people can share it with their friends and they could keep sharing it.

Read Cora's blog at http://corajournalism1.blogspot.com/

History Of Newspapers Lecture Response

On Tuesday we talked about the history of newspapers. We learned that the oldest newspaper was in Belgium, and it was printed weekly, but is no longer printed. Before that, there was a monthly broad sheet in Venice, which was basically a large piece of paper posted somewhere where people got their information. One thing that I found very interesting was that there is a newspaper in Sweden that started in 1645 and still exists today.

Since innovations in printing have come a long way, the newspaper business has evolved. Since it used to take a long time to print things, newspaper-type things like the broad sheets in Venice only came out about once a month. Now, with our modern technology, we can print things daily. Inventions like the telegraph have also helped newspapers become more efficient. Telegraphs allowed information to travel quickly, so that articles could be written about far away events almost as soon as they happened.

Newspapers have come a long way. Everyday a newspaper gets delivered to my house, and is shared with all of my family members. There are many sections throughout the paper, making it enjoyable to most members of my family. That's one thing that sets newspapers apart. They are shared between many people.

I thought it was interesting to learn that newspaper articles used to be more literary. They used to be much more detailed and story-like. The reason they became shorter and less literary was because the telegraph was an expensive way to share information, so you had to shorten your stories.

This lecture was very interesting because I did not know anything about how and when newspapers started. It's fascinating to learn how much this facet of journalism has evolved.