News Evaluation- CNN

I decided to watch CNN news, for about half an hour. Over these 30 minutes, they went over three major news topics. The first one was about bombings in Pakistan. Another major story talked about Israel and the United States beginning to do joint military trainings and exercises. Lastly, the third major story talked about was about a comedian on TV, Soupy Sales dying.

Bombings in Pakistan:

This story talked about how there were bombings in Pakistan where at least 7 people are reported to be dead. A suicide bomber committed this crime, and this bomb was blown near a military facility outside of Islamabad (the capital).

Israel and US combined Military Training:

This story talked about how Israel and the United States started their ‘largest’ ever joint military exercise. This occurred on Wednesday.

Soupy Sales passes away:

This story was centralized around Soupy Sales who was a comedian who came on television for quite a bit. This 83-year old died on Thursday in New York. He was seen many times on popular game shows.

Did the newspapers meet the criteria for what is news? Explain.

I think that the newspapers both met and didn’t meet the criteria for what is news. I believe that the Bombings in Pakistan story definitely meets the criteria for what is news. This is because it was something very surprising, and involved many deaths of innocent people. It is something that people should be informed about, as there is chaos going on in Pakistan. I believe that the Israel and US combined Military Training is considered for what is news, but shouldn’t be a top story/main headline. This is definitely something interesting and something that people should be informed about. Lastly, the story about Soupy Sales and his death is undoubtedly does not meet the criteria for what is news. This is about one man, and shouldn’t be telecasted at all on good news networks, especially like CNN.

What news was relevant or useful to citizens of the local area, including young people? In what way was it useful or relevant?

The bombings in Pakistan doesn’t seem relevant to citizens in Israel. However, the story about Israel and US combining military services and trainings is extremely relevant and useful to the local area (Israel). This is because the story is about the local area. This story seemed pretty useful and extremely relevant to Israelis as they get to hear about their country excels in terms of military. Lastly, I don’t believe that the story about Soupy Sales is useful or relevant to the local area. It might be useful and relevant to fans of Soupy Sales, however that’s about it.

Edward L. Bernays & The Birth of PR

This is a good reading I found on Bernays, who is considered, "The Father of Spin", when we had to read about him. This reading helped me quite a bit to understand the concepts Bernays presented in his book. This filled in the missing gaps presented in the reading we received on October 16 about Bernays. I think everyone should read this as it gives some valuable information in a clear manner.

Here is the link to the book review: http://www.prmuseum.com/bernays/bernays_1915.html

Fox News

Here is an article I found as a follow-up to the video we watched last class. This article talks about how Fox News isn't just bad, it also goes against America with its horrific bias.

Here is the link to the article:

http://www.newsweek.com/id/218192

And heres a funny photo I found with Fox News and their bias:

Norris-5 Article

Norris-5:

Here is the link to the article I read and did Norris-5 on: http://edition.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/10/15/un.world.hunger/index.html

1. Informative vs. Superficial: I’d say this is superficial. This is because the length of the article isn’t too long, and there is a lack of detail present in the article. The article fails to elaborate on various things mentioned. The article is shown to be only half a page long, which already gives us an idea on how much it would lack valuable information.

2. Accurate and truthful vs. False and deceptive: This is pretty much accurate and truthful. I don’t think they would be lying on an issue like this. I personally, also believe that this article is accurate and truthful since they use a variety of different quotes and sources that are reliable. For example, : "It is unacceptable in the 21st Century that almost one in six of the world's population is now going hungry," said Josette Sheeran, executive director of the World Food Program.

3. Objective vs. Biased: This article seems pretty objective. However, it may seem biased, favoring towards the hungry people. A good example showing this bias is, “The number of hungry spiked as the global economic crisis took hold and governments pumped resources into stabilizing financial markets. The move meant smaller investments in agriculture and food distribution.”

4. Pluralistic vs. Insular Viewpoint: This is definitely pluralistic, as it’s serving a message towards many people out there. There are a lot of key messages that this article is trying to convey. The article also uses quotes that serve messages, such as, "We know what is needed to meet urgent hunger needs- we just need the resources and the international commitment do the job," Sheeran said.

5. Balanced vs. Weighted Side: I’d say this article is pretty much balanced. It talks about the hungry people and what people have done about it. For example, we can see that in the article when, “The report calls for greater investment in agriculture to tackle long and short-term hunger by making farmers productive and more resilient to crises.”

Eminem

Here is the song that we talked about in class, when my group presented rap and hip-hop music.

This song is by Eminem and it is called Stan. This music video and song lyrics both had many stereotypical words and tried to make women look bad. This is the all famous song, where the pregnant woman is treated badly.

Here is the link to the music video on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQR6yBwFHQU

Here is the link to the lyrics of the song: http://www.lyrics007.com/Eminem%20Lyrics/Stan%20-%3E%20Feat.%20Dido%20Lyrics.html

Content Analysis- ENTOURAGE

Entourage- Character Analysis

(These are the 5 people I chose)

1. Name of program: Entourage

2. Medium: Television

3. Genre of program: Drama and comedy

4. Vincent Chase-

5. Sex: Male

6. Was this character the main character? Yes

7. Occupation: Movie star

8. Level of Education: High School

9. Race: White

10. Marital status: Single

11. Age: 26-35

12. Children: 0

13. Appearance: Attractive (he’s a movie star; all the girls are crazy after him)

14. Body Type: Thin, skinny, and tall..

15. Personal characteristics: Sexual, Emotional (laughs), abrupt, thinks on the spot, Dependent (cannot be alone- needs to have friends with him), Straight forward

16. Role of Character: Hero

17. Impact of Character: Positively affects outcome of the narrative

4. Ari Gold-

5. Sex: Male

6. Was this character the main character? Not really.

7. Occupation: Agent of the famous movie star

8. Level of Education: High School

9. Race: White

10. Marital status: Married

11. Age: 36-50

12. Children: 2

13. Appearance: Average, kind of attractive

14. Body Type: Average

15. Personal characteristics: Funny, Straightforward, Self-reliant, Emotional (yells)

16. Role of Character: Comedic character

17. Impact of Character: Positively affects outcome of the narrative

4. Eric Murphy-

5. Sex: Male

6. Was this character the main character? No

7. Occupation: Manager of movie star

8. Level of Education: High School

9. Race: White

10. Marital status: Single

11. Age: 26-35

12. Children: 0

13. Appearance: Attractive

14. Body Type: Average, a bit short.

15. Personal characteristics: Straightforward, Self-reliant, dependent, emotional (cries, laughs, yells, whines), sexual, intelligent

16. Role of Character: Supporting character

17. Impact of Character: Positively affects outcome of the narrative

4. Turtle-

5. Sex: Male

6. Was this character the main character? No

7. Occupation: Has no job. He is going back to college to do MBA.

8. Level of Education: High School; He currently is doing college

9. Race: White

10. Marital status: Single

11. Age: 26-35

12. Children: 0

13. Appearance: Attractive

14. Body Type: Just a bit fat.

15. Personal characteristics: Straightforward, flirtatious, sarcastic, dependent, emotional (cries, laughs, yells, whines), sexual, humorous,

16. Role of Character: Supporting character

17. Impact of Character: Positively affects outcome of the narrative

4. Johnny Drama

5. Sex: Male

6. Was this character the main character? No

7. Occupation: Works on TV shows; He’s the brother of the famous movie star

8. Level of Education: High School

9. Race: White

10. Marital status: Single

11. Age: 26-35 maybe even older

12. Children: 0

13. Appearance: He’s okay attractive (average)

14. Body Type: Fit and Average.

15. Personal characteristics: Sarcastic, self-reliant, emotional (cries, yells), worries too much

16. Role of Character: Supporting character

17. Impact of Character: Positively affects outcome of the narrative

Overall, this assignment on Entourage helped me understand the show that I love a lot better. This show is about a movie star, and his 3 best friends who he lives with, and his amazing life as a celebrity. I’ve realized that humor is a major part and subset to this show, and is used a lot to make the show addicting and fun to watch. Along with humor, the plot is also extremely interesting and grasps its audiences’ attention quite easily. The celebrity and his 3 best friends (including his brother Johnny Drama), all have many things in common. For example, they all have similar IQ’s, they all used to be poor, they even all went to school together, etc. However, only because Vincent Chase was extremely lucky to become an actor, all four of them got an amazing lifestyle. Eric Murphy got the splendid chance to be Vincent Chase’s personal manager and best friend. Johnny Drama is Vincent Chase’s elder brother, and Turtle is another close friend that lives with them. On the other hand, Ari Gold has one of the best personalities in the whole show. He is the funniest character on the show, and the smartest out of all the characters presented. He is also extremely wealthy, and grew up being wealthy as well.

Dove Ad-Campaign

Go online to http://www.Dove.us/. Examine Dove’s “Real Beauty” campaign and

write a short reaction on what you think about it.

Dove’s “real beauty” ad campaign has a lot of flaws in it that aren’t visible. When one sees one of these “real beauty” ads, we can easily visualize the ‘perfect’ face presented in the campaign. In all their campaigns, Dove has failed to show us what real beauty is. Rather, they show us a face, which has undergone Photoshop effects/techniques, tons of make-up, special lighting effects, etc. Women usually look up to these beautiful models; however do not realize that it isn’t truly them presented in front of the camera. On the actual website, when you flip through the different pictures and products presented, we see a line of pictures of beautiful women, with perfect faces (no wrinkles, no freckles, etc.) I find that extremely hard to believe. Furthermore, the first picture was one of a small girl quoting, “Now my hair is beautiful”. We can now see this image of a perfect girl has affected even the youth. All girls (old and young) want to have this ‘perfect’ image that they see in these campaigns. I’m beginning to get this feeling that Dove along with a lot of other companies aren’t advertising correctly and in the right manner.

Stereotypes

-Why do stereotypes exist? What purpose do they serve?

Stereotypes exist because media, stories, etc. have forced them to exist. Although people do not know that stereotypes aren't true and do not exist, people still judge and determine based on their interpretations. Usually, media interprets several sexes, races, etc. with stereotypes, and places several characters in reference to a typical race, gender, etc. Stereotypes usually tend to serve one sole purpose, amusement. They usually serve as humor; many comedians make jokes on generalizations. In other shows, they just serve as amusement. There are plenty of examples out there of stereotypes existing, for instance, the stereotypical big-nosed Jew always after money, the ‘hilarious’ Indian accent, the typical fat American, the dumb blond, etc.

Merchants of Cool Response

Merchants of Cool Response- Question 1

1. “The Merchants of Cool” describes the practice

of “under-the-radar” marketing, including hiring

teens to log-on to chat rooms to talk up bands

and recruiting college freshman to throw campus

parties where they distribute marketing materials.

Ironically, marketers have justified “stealth” marketing

as necessary because teens have become

more media savvy. Do you think that “stealth”

techniques are ethical? If a marketer offered you

money to log-on to chat rooms or throw a party,

would you? When you are tuned in to a concert

(like the hip hop concert feature in the program),

or reading a message in a chat room, how important

is it to know whether or not it is a commercial?

Can you identify the “storytellers” behind

the media you consume most often?

The film that we watched last class, titled, “The Merchants of Cool”, was extremely shocking and opened me to various different techniques and styles of advertising. I was surprised when they mentioned various different things that I had never heard of, such as stealth marketing. I never knew about how there was a whole other side to TV shows, concerts, etc. which involved corporations and advertisements. On the other hand, it did seem quite obvious when they presented a couple of means of advertising. For example when college freshemn are get them to throw parties (generally on campus), and distribute their marketing material. Although, one should believe on how the “stealth” marketing is horrendous and quite frustrating to what extent corporations go to advertise their products. Although these corporations may be unethical, but, I do believe that “stealth” techniques are ethical, as there is nothing stopping them from advertising and presenting their products in this way. Furthermore, they are willing to give up money and their time to advertise their product, so why shouldn’t they? On top of that, the audience is also getting paid, if asked to advertise these products (in parties, etc.) When I am tuned into a concert, for example the concert presented in the video, which was sponsored by Sprite, and made it seem “cool”. Or, if I were to be reading a message in a chat room, I don’t think its that important to know whether it is commercial, as people have their own view to these types of products; just one more commercial wont change anything. This is why I conclude that if a marketer offered me money to log-on to chat rooms or throw a party, I most definitely would. This is because, both the marketer and I am getting benefitted from this. The marketer gets his product advertised; and I get free money and products. Finally, it is up to the remaining audience of what they want to get out of the advertisement and product placement. Lastly, I am not perfectly sure on the storytellers behind the medias I consume most often. However, most of the times, I am aware on which advertisements are being placed and where. Most of the times, advertisements don’t convince me into buying products, which is why I believe that “stealth” marketing is ethical. In conclusion, I believe that the corporations have their rights to present their media and products. Although it may seem a bit unethical, but I think, corporations have a right to do whatever they want to present their media. May it be a normal commercial or hidden commercials, it doesn’t matter. Since, anyhow, the population (all of us) are consuming tons of media, which cannot be prevented.