Extra! Extra!: Media Meditation #2

Because I'm currently enrolled in a print journalism class (also at Champlain College), I've lately been picking up the New York Times. This is new for me because I used to absolutely loathe newspapers; I found them dry, boring, and hated the texture of the paper. Now, however I've done a complete 180. I love the newspaper, including the texture of the paper, and pick up the New York Times on an almost daily basis.

The Brain:

The New York Times engages primarily the neocortex. The limbic is engaged very minimally through the use of photos, but as with most newspapers, a reader must read and process the information in order to understand the articles. This is a job reserved for the neocortical brain.

The Eight Shifts:

News made the epistemological shift decades ago with the popularization of television. Before this semester I relied solely on television programs for all of my news information. Now, however, I enjoy taking the time to read the paper and like that I can process it on my own time rather than on a news station's schedule.

Many people believe that the physical newspaper will soon be an obsolete medium. Even now, newspapers are having a hard time finding the funding to stay in print. Readers are instead choosing to find and read articles online. This trend is representative of a huge technological
shift. For more on this shift check out this video.




The availability of newspaper articles online also represents a personal shift since people can easily e-mail articles, upload them to their blogs, and share them in a way that they couldn't before. Also, on some news websites, readers can comment on stories the way viewers can on YouTube. Also, as long as someone has access to the internet, they can read news articles form dozens of different newspapers meaning that it is no longer necessary for readers to pay for a subscription.

Again, newspaper availability on the internet represents an aesthetic shift since anyone with a smartphone or other handheld device can access the internet and read articles at form anywhere, and at any time.

Newspapers are also currently undergoing an enormous economic shift. Who would pay for a newspaper subscription when all the information is available for free on the internet? I don't think newspapers can start charging for online subscriptions without angering a lot of readers, but how else will they earn an income if this trend continues? My print journalism professor says that newspapers should have charged for online services right from the start.

News in general represents a discursive shift with so many alternative sources for information now available. People who are fed up with stories that traditional newspapers offer, or people who perceive a strong bias within news stories can turn to blogs or other alternative information sources.


The Seven Principles:

Without a doubt, newspapers definitely attempt to construct a certain sense of reality for its readers. Though most articles are hard news stories based on facts and actual events, many people see news media as having a strong bias, particularly concerning political issues. In my experience with the New York Times, I haven't really encountered such a bias, though I can be pretty naive in picking up on and interpreting hidden agendas and underlying messages. To attempt to educate myself I found this great article through Google.

Value messages are particularly important to news stories, especially if a news production company is notoriously biased like Fox News is often perceived to be. Because of these biases, individuals will interpret stories and messages differently than they would a completely neutral news source. Therefore the value of a news story is dependent on how you perceive the producer/writer of that story.

Ownership greatly determines the articles an information that a newspaper puts into print. A notoriously right winged newspaper will most likely not run a story glorifying President Obama and the Democratic party.

Like value messages, people will interpret individual meanings from articles they read in the newspaper. These are determined by personal experience and knowledge, what you know of the newspaper production company, your personal opinion of the newspaper in general, as well as many other factors. Luckily for me and the rest of my print journalism class, we often discuss articles that we find interesting in the New York Times. Given, we primarily discuss the writing, but often this has an effect on how we each interpret the story.



Newspapers have enormous potential for emotional transfer. Many hard news stories involve death and destruction which is obviously an emotional subject for much of the population. We recently just read an article in the New York Times titled "Haiti's Quake Set Children Adrift In World of Chaos." The article detailed the lives of a number of children who lost parents in the earthquake; the quotes from the children that the writer put in the story were heartbreaking. My print journalism professor also mentioned that in the months following 9/11, the New York Times ran a series entitled "Portraits of Grief." Everyday they would run a full page of pictures accompanied by two to three sentence biographies of people who died on September 11th. My professor always says that, as writers, we have to make readers care and connect them to the story. It seems to be that the best way to do this is through emotional transfer.

Newspapers are useful when regarding pacing. Because newspapers are read rather than watched, individuals can process information at their own pace. This is beneficial to people who have a tough time processing the 30 frames per second pace of television.

29 Persuasive Techniques:

The New York Times makes use of symbols just as any other company does. The distinguishable Gothic font of their heading is easily associated with the paper itself. Other newspapers and production agencies also make use of symbols such as the CBS eye icon.

The New York Times, as many news sources do, also use techniques such as rhetorical questions, testimonial, warm fuzzies (like in the story of Haiti's children), either/or, maybe,and scientific evidence. Examples of all of these techniques can be found throughout out various issues of the Times.

Sell & Spin: Media Meditation #1

I’d never been interested in a career in advertising until very recently. I discovered this newfound interest while taking an advertising course at Champlain College. Through this class, I’ve realized that advertising is a unique and complex process that requires an enormous amount of creativity and dedication. Something that I’ve found particularly interesting advertising’s history and how it’s developed over time.

So, after learning of this media meditation assignment, I decided to do my first media meditation on a documentary we watched in my advertising class entitled Sell & Spin: A History of Advertising. I was able to find this film in segments on YouTube, so included below is the first ten minutes, just enough to give you a vague idea of what the film’s about.



The Brain:
This film engages primarily the limbic and neocortical parts of the brain. The limbic is engaged through the use of images and music used throughout the film, while the neocortex gets engaged because we must listen and process what the narrator and interviewees are saying. Also, because this documentary focuses specifically on advertising and its role throughout history, it relates directly to our discussion of how many media messages were exposed to each day versus how many we consciously retain. Every advertiser knows that in order for an advertisement to be effective, it must successfully break through the “advertisement clutter” that consumers face on a daily basis.

The Eight Trends:
This program represents a huge epistemological shift. I could have found much of the same information from this film in my advertising textbook, but instead the class was able to watch it watch it in the form of a documentary. As a result, we were exposed to many more visual examples of advertisements then we would be if were to only study the book.

A technological shift is also evident due to the fact that I was able to find at least segments of this program on YouTube. This means that anyone with access to the internet can watch this documentary.

The availability of this program on YouTube also represents a personal shift. YouTube lets its members not only watch videos, but also rate and comment on them. This allows people to offer their opinion on a video, and also helps potential viewers determine if a video is worth watching.



Because this program can be watched via the internet, it represents an aesthetic shift. Because many cell phones now offer internet service, people can watch this documentary on their iPhone or other handheld device at anytime and anywhere.

Also, the segments of this program available on YouTube have been posted by a single individual, not the company that made and produced the film, which I’m fairly certain (if I remember correctly) was the History Channel. The fact that this individual posted the segments instead of the History Channel raises copyright questions and, in turn, represents a political shift.

The political aspect of this program’s availability on alternative media platforms leads us to consider an economic shift. Because individuals can watch this video on YouTube, it has the potential to take viewers away from the programs television airing. I’m not exactly certain how this might affect the television company’s income since both cable and internet must be paid for, but it definitely has the potential to impact a program’s ratings and polls.

The Seven Principles:
Reality Construction-any media production attempts to construct a carefully thought out sense of reality for its audience. Because this film is a History Channel documentary I, as a viewer, am under the impression that the information they are showing and telling me is factual. This is mainly because I consider the History Channel to be an accurate and reliable source of information, however, someone with a less favorable view of the History Channel, or maybe just advertising in general, may think that this program is merely trying to justify advertising’s role in our consumer culture.

Like reality construction, all media experiences use production techniques to influence the ways we think and behave. Because this is a documentary, it relies primarily on interviews, testimonials, and visual images to convey its message.

Media experiences entail intended and unintended value messages for the viewer. Because I see this as a documentary that is focused on factual information, I think it’s hard to determine the values messages that the producers of the program intended for the audience, however I would say that it portrays a slightly more favorable view of advertising than it does negative.

Almost all media experiences are products of the commercial industry. This means that most of the media we’re exposed to on a daily basis has commercial motives based on ownership. The History Channel is owned by A&E, “a U.S. media company that owns several TV networks on cable and television” according to Wikipedia.

Individual Meanings-all individuals take away their own meanings from media experiences. Personally, this documentary showed me the value and importance of advertising’s role in our society, however as I mentioned earlier, people who have other preconceived notions about advertising may not take away the same message that I did.

Emotional Transfer-as our toolsets say, “Commercials and other multimedia experiences operate primarily at an emotional level and are usually designed to transfer the emotion from one symbol or lifestyle onto another.” This was especially true of the advertising examples that they used in the film. In the early days of modern advertising, advertisers had to first create a problem, and then come up with the solution. To do this they often developed issues involving social anxieties such as body odor, or halitosis. Below is an example that focused on housewives’ fear of their husbands leaving them during the Great Depression.



Persuasive Techniques:
Because the focus is on advertising, this documentary discusses almost all of our 29 persuasive techniques, a few of which I've discussed below.

All of us associate certain symbols (or brands) with certain companies which help us distinguish that company's product from another. Symbols have proven to be a vital aspect of advertising throughout history.

This film mentions hyperbole when discussing the earliest forms of newspaper advertising. Daniel Pope of the University of Oregon says "Local retailers or merchants would announce the availability of their goods. They might throw in a superlative or two to encourage people to come and shop." Clearly hyperbole has worked as a form of persuasion in advertising since its earliest days.

Repetition is also mentioned by Juliann Sivulka when she says of advertisers "One thing they would do is repeat a message. This was the forerunner of early advertising slogans as we know them today. They would take a one line message and repeat it, and repeat it, and repeat it."



Also, in the third segment (at about a minute and 50 seconds in) we see an ad for Lucky Cigarettes that offers simple solutions. The ad simply says "To keep a slender figure no one can deny...Reach for a Lucky instead of a sweet." This line implies that keeping a slender figure is as simple as switching cigarette brands. We also see simple solutions when the documentary focuses on an ad that says "Cleanliness brings happiness and good cheer." Listerine is also mentioned which was advertised as an easy and simple solution for halitosis.

The documentary itself uses scientific evidence when they reference the 3,000 commercial advertisements that were exposed to daily and also when Juliann Sivulka says "This ad ran in the Ladies Home Journal and it so insulted some 200 some readers that they canceled their subscriptions. Yet in the same year the sales of Odo-Ro-No went up 112%."

This film also makes great use of timing. At times, usually when the music is playing, we just see a rush of advertisements in quick succession. However, whenever an advertising campaign is being discussed in detail, they make sure to slow down so the viewer has time to examine, read, and process the ad being discussed.

This program also relies heavily on testimonials from experts on advertising and its history, featuring various professors and officials from colleges and universities around the country who clearly know what they're talking about.

Commercial Script Writing Practice-Doritos: House Rules



SCENE #1: ESTABLISHING SHOT-OUTSIDE HOUSE-KYLE WITH BOUQUET KNOCKS ON FRONT DOOR.
Knocking on door.
WOMAN OPENS DOOR.
Woman: Hi.
Man: Hi.
HANDS HER BOUQUET.
Woman: Aww, thank you!

SCENE #2: MEDIUM SHOT-INSIDE WOMAN'S HOUSE-KYLE, WOMAN.
Woman: Have a seat. Kyle, Jaelyn. Jealyn, Kyle. Jaelyn, you play nice. I'll be right back.

SCENE #3: MEDIUM SHHOT, FOCUSED ON WOMAN'S LOWER HALF WALKING AWAY.
Woman's heels on hardwood floor.

SCENE #4: MEDIUM SHOT ON KYLE. HE MAKES AN IMPRESSED FACE.

SCENE #5: MEDIUM SHOT ON WOMAN'S YOUNG SON, JAELYN, SCOWLING WITH VIDEO GAME CONTROLLER IN HAND.

SCENE #6: CLOSEUP ON JAELYN'S HAND WITH VIDEO GAME CONTROLLER. HE DROPS IT.
Controller hitting floor.

SCENE #7: CLOSEUP ON BOWL OF DORITOS.
Jaelyn: Scammin' on my mama?

SCENE #8: MEDIUM SHOT-KYLE SITS ON COUCH, JAELYN STANDING BESIDE HIM.
Kyle: What's goin' on little man? I see you got your game skills down pack.
Kyle (AS HE PICKS UP DORITO): You might have your hands full once I pick up the controller over there.
JAELYN SLAPS KYLE.
Hand on face impact.

SCENE #9: MEDIUM SHOT ON JAELYN POINTING TO BOWL.
Jaelyn: Put it back.

SCENE #10: CLOSEUP ON SIDE SHOT OF KYLE AND JAELYN'S FACES, INCHES APART. JAELYN HAS TWO FINGERS UP.
Jaelyn: Keep your hands off my mama.
JAELYN PUTS ONE FINGER DOWN.
Jaelyn: Keep your hands off my Doritos.
JAELYN PUTS THE OTHER FINGER DOWN, THEN GETS EVEN CLOSER TO KYLE'S FACE.

SCENE #11: DORITOS LOGO-END CREDIT.
Woman: Jaelyn, are you playing nice?

Mash-up Script Writing



SCENE #1: ESTABLISHING SHOT - OUTSIDE LOLA'S MANSION - DANICA, LOLA, FANCY CAR.
Cheesy keyboard music.
Danica: Meet Lola.
Lola: Mmmm. Hmmm.

SCENE #2: CLOSEUP SHOT - ON LOLA'S FOOTBALL PORTRAIT.
Cheesy keyboard music continues.
Danica: The day he retired from football...

SCENE #3: ZOOM OUT TO DANICA WITH LOLA'S FOOTBALL PORTRAIT.
Cheesy keyboard music continues.
Danica: Lola started chasing his biggest dream.

SCENE #4: FULL SHOT-INSIDE LOLA'S LIVING ROOM-DANICA, LOLA, SCANTILY CLAD WOMEN. ZOOM IN TO MEDIUM SHOT.
Cheesy keyboard music continues.
Danica (walking): A business of his own.
Lola: Mmm hmmmm. Air kiss.

SCENE #5: CLOSEUP SHOT-ON LOLA.
Cheesy keyboard music continues.
Danica: Lola's first step? He built his website with GoDaddy.com.

SCENE #6: MEDIUM SHOT-INSIDE LOLA'S OFFICE-LOLA, COMPUTER.
Cheesy keyboard music continues.
Danica (walking in):And with GoDaddy's easy to use e-commerce tools...

SCENE #7: CLOSEUP SHOT-ON LOLA'S COMPUTER SCREEN.
Cheesy keyboard music continues.
Danica: Lola was soon selling his own line to the world.

SCENE #8: CLOSEUP SHOT-ON LOLA.
Cheesy keyboard music continues.
Lola: Oooowheee!

SCENE #9: FULL SHOT-LOLA'S POOL-DANICA IN FOREGROUND, LOLA ON FLOAT IN POOL AND WOMEN IN BACKGROUND.
Cheesy keyboard music continues.
Danica: Lola dreams big.
Lola: Uhh huh.
Danica: And who's to argue?

SCENE #10: SEE MORE NOW AT GODADDY.COM END CREDIT.
Chorus: Go Daddy.

I think the thesis of Obama's State of the Union Address is that though America is currently in a poor state of affairs, our government is currently working harder than ever to improve the lives of the American people.

He supports this thesis by proposing many government acts and reforms, such as the Recovery Act, "a fee on the biggest banks," and a New Jobs Bill, throughout the entire speech.

Obama also says that he isn't just going to do what's popular, but what's best for the American people.

He also gives an entire spiel on all the tax cuts that the government has issued in order to help working class families.

Brain:
The State of the Union Address relies primarily, and almost solely, on the neocortical brain. We must listen to what Obama is saying and then process it in order to understand the impact of his words.

8 Trends:
Watching this speech on YouTube represents a huge epistemological shift. Instead of hearing this speech on the radio, or reading it on the internet or wherever, we are able to see the video. This means that we get to see all of Obama's facial expressions and nonverbal cues. We also get to see the audience stand up and applaud various statements that Obama makes.

Obviously this represents a technological shift as well. Some years ago, our only chance to watch this speech is when it was originally aired on television.

The fact that this speech is available on YouTube represents a personal shift since people can comment on it as well as view and respond to the comments of others.

The availability of this video can also be seen as a cultural shift; anyone with access to the internet can watch this speech.

7 Principles:
This media experience definitely plays on "reality" construction. Obama is not trying to idealize the current state of our country; it seems to me that he is actually trying to convey the present reality of life in America.

Given that this is a speech with only one main "character" and one setting, I thought this video made excellent use of production techniques. For the most part, obviously, the camera is focused on Obama, but I thought it was interesting how they showed the audience every time he received a standing ovation. Also I noticed while embedding the video on my personal blog, that it was available to watch in HD.

Like many presidential speeches, Obama's State of the Union address contained many value messages about the American spirit and how important it is for us to not give up hope as a nation.

Regarding ownership, all I can say is that I noticed we were watching the video from the White House's YouTube page, so I feel fairly confident that it hasn't been edited or tampered with as I guess it could have been had we watched it through another source.

As with any speech, we're left to determine our own individual meanings regarding what our president says.

Though the video itself has little emotional transfer, Obama makes various emotional appeals when he refers to all of the Americans who have been affected by our poor economy and current state of affairs.

29 Techniques of Persuasion:
Throughout his State of the Union address, Obama uses many of the 29 persuasive techniques we've studied in class.

One of the major techniques used is group dynamics. The most obvious use of this technique is at the very beginning of the speech when Obama refers to his audience as "fellow Americans." Throughout the entire speech, Obama refers to the "state of our union," "our nation," "our government," etc.

Obama also makes attempts at humor when he refers to something being "about as popular as a root canal," and also when, after receiving a standing ovation for a particular statement made says "I thought I would get some applause on that one."

Obama employs the straw man technique when he says of a certain proposal "I know Wall Street isn't too keen on this idea, but if these firms can afford to hand out big bonuses again..."

Another technique Obama uses is hyperbole. He calls this year "one of the most difficult" in history.

Obama also scapegoats the banks by blaming much of our current economic state on them, saying "the banks that caused this crisis."

Obama also makes great use of scientific evidence. He gives various numbers and statistics regarding certain issues including "1 in 10 Americans still cannot find work," and "We cut taxes for 95% of working families. . . We cut taxes for 8 million Americans paying for college."

Plain folks is also a technique that Obama relies heavily upon in this speech. He repeatedly refers to the letters that he receives from millions of Americans that he "reads nightly." At one point, he even quotes one of these letters. He also makes references to small towns across America.

He also plays upon warm fuzzies when he mentions the letters he receives from children asking why they have to move away from their home and why their parents still don't have jobs. This also gives his speech enormous emotional appeal.

In a way, Obama also plays with simple solutions. In this address, he proposes the Recovery Act, as well as "a fee on the biggest banks." Though these proposals are, in no way, simple in their governmental workings, they sound simple when listening to them in the context of Obama's speech.

Symbols are also used since we can see the huge American flag directly behind Obama.

One can also argue the use of beautiful people since many women consider Obama very handsome.