Inside Your Seach

I found a website that explains how search engines work. Well, kind of, its a play on search engines. We talked a lot about the internet and search engines in our class and I thought this link would be fitting. It adds a humorous approach to how some may think a search engine works. Its a sort of behind the scenes action of your Google search. Check it out.

Photo shop

Lately we have been talking about photoshop. I thought this was a funny example example. The jibjab (this land) video is a really good video that captures what animators can do with presidential elections. Another great example of photoshop is the cat video where the guy took the cat out of the photo completely and replaced it with a stain. Photoshop can be powerful, especially to those who wouldn't know the difference. All the Obama photoshop pictures both hurt and helped him. Photoshop can be used for almost any argument and is a very good and easy tool to use.

Walmart: The High Cost of Low Prices

Me and Ted were talking about this the other day, and i really wanted to take a look at it. It goes along with the culture jamming we talked about in class, the used walmart's smiley face and their slogan and twisted it around to be an anti walmart ad. "The High Cost of Low Prices"

Advertisement (extra credit)

In class we talked about advertisements going to extremes to reach out to people, especially kids our age. In all the books we've read, it mentions how we just look over, or skip through ads because we have become so used to seeing them. I found this interesting and began to wonder if companies were catching on to this, and how they were responding. The image above provides an answer to both of these questions. It showed that companies are getting our feedback even though we are not directly telling them how we feel. Also, it showed to me just how far these companies are willing to go to reach out to us. They will create 3D billboard designs to become different and get away from traditional ads. But is it working?

Political Photoshop (extra credit)

As we had talked about in class, photoshop can be very useful, especially in the world of politics. Politician and their supporters can use photoshop to create any image they want. They can make it a positive or negative message. The funny thing I discovered was when i typed in the word politics to google images. the picture above is what i discovered. I found this interesting because it not only covered what we talked about in class, but it combined the two just to show how it can be used.

Regrets Every Time

This a culture jam I created using a cold 45 ad. It can bee seen in many low income and minority neighborhoods. It promotes the use of alcohol by advertising the product as a way to get sex. However, all the consumer usually ends up is regrets instead.

Collaboration

I decided to go back and talk about chapter five some more. In Jenkins book of Convergence Culture, in chapter five, he talks about the harry potter wars and how children get together collaborate to form new ideas and thoughts on the issue. There are many sites that are related to this site, in that they are set up with similar structure and purposes. Just as we were previously talking in class on the previous chapters, the spoiler websites are related to this in some way. They both are where people come together to collaborate their ideas and form new conclusions and ideas from what they can piece together. In The Daily Prophet, the children learned how to write and played with their fantasies while they did it, but on the other sites such as the spoiler sites they are looking for the conclusion to a show or question. Today we were talking about sites that are set up to talk and ask questions on a certain subject that are very helpful when we are lost on that topic. The collaboration within these sites is impressive and interesting to see how they form a conclusion or new idea from what is said. Here is a link to a website that then takes you to further wbsites where you can talk with others on a certain issue or topic. It is interesting to see how many different sites there really are and how many people really get involved with it.

Politics and photoshop

In chapter six of Jenkins, he talks about photoshop and politics. As todays case study showed, photoshop can play a big role in politics. People turn politics or something positive into something it doesn't mean or imply at all. Many clips or images are turned around to go against a certain political group. Here is just one link to the many different video clips made on the many different political issues and debates. There are several more out there if you simply just type it into google or other search engines. Photos are also made to change things within politics. It doesnt just go towards politics either. Everyday photos or issues can be altered with photoshop, adobe, or flash. With the technology we have today, many things can be altered and transformed from its original version. This can have either a negative or positive impact. It may cause for issues but it may also clear some things up. It really depends upon what is being altered and how it is altered.

Wal-Mart Culture Jam

Culture Jamming is like photoshop as being another means of getting our voice and opinios heard. I think of culture jamming as a way to ridicule those companies that we don't really like becuase maybe of poor customer service. Wal-mart is not as friendly a place as portrayed. I walked in one night close to closing time and the greeter looked at me and said hurry up, get you stuff and go so we can close. I really don't like Wal-mart since then. This picture is one that i made using photoshop to portray how much I really don't like them because of that.

China

One thing I think a lot of us think about when we read these books in class about today's world and how it is so digitally involved is that we only look at the smaller picture of the places around us, just the states in the U.S. What we don't see is that we aren't even compared to some other countries. China, with its surging economy, right now is on a building boom of buildings that you can't imagine. They will soon be home to the world's largest airport, and the first fully sustainable city. The buildings are amazing. It just comes to show us that we are not the only one's that have this "creative" side. America isn't the only generation with this digital life, China surpasses us. Here is the website so you can look at some of the wonders the Chinese have in their cities.

Inspirational Reality TV

I feel as though we can easily see the negitives in Reality TV but I began to think of shows like Intervention or Biggest loser and the motivating inspirational stories showcased by Reality TV. This is a positive thing! I know from the lesson Ted had given on the MTV reality shows like 16 and pregnant and how it seems like they are saying it ok and looking sympathetic to the people in the shows but they're actually setting rights and wrongs of society and are actually saying No you don't want to be like this... (maybe this was a lesson in my other class with Ted sorry) So even though they may be mocking fat people in the biggest loser letting us all get enjoyment out of over weight people trying to exercise I'm thinking about the guy/girl overweight sitting at home watching this show. I don't feel like she see's those negitives. I think to someone in the situation these shows can be very inspriational and comforting knwoing someone else struggles with the same thing you do and then in the end seeing how they overcome their battle. Intervention is another one. This show follows drug addicts and their families trying to intervene and stop the person drug use. This show can be what makes someone sit down and realize their own problem and maybe a parent in the show can vocalize to their son or daughter better than the mom watching about how their drug use hurts them. Over all i think there is some cool things Reality TV can do. I found a blog by a former contestant on The Biggest Loser and I thought it really showed how involved and inspired people can get when I started reading the comments on her postings
Check it out


http://tvwatch.people.com/2009/09/16/taras-biggest-loser-blog-a-second-chance-is-a-beautiful-thing/

Do people really think Reality TV is real?

I decided to jump back to the talk about Reality TV. I have two roommates who both well and myself love to watch shows on MTV like Tool Academy, Real Chance on Love, Tough Love, and DR. Drew Rehab. When I say things like ha-ha come on looking for love it's all staged my roommates get really offended. They're like no it's not, Real and Chance both really like her and oh my I wonder who he's going to send home. I'm just like are you serious you think people act like this in real life? Then I wonder wow is Reality TV really shaping our views on social groups. Then I think maybe Reality TV is just playing up the views and feelings we already have on social groups. Take Tool Academy, if you haven't seen it girlfriends bring their boyfriends to the academy to fix whatever about them makes them a tool and turns them into a gentleman. I'm like wow this is why we think all guys are the same, shows like this that showcase men cheating and lying but I realize that before these shows women talking to other women often say all men are liars and cheats (sorry guys but we do say it). This makes me think is reality TV just playing on our own stereotypes because people love to be right so when you can be like look see I knew he cheated on her does it becomes rewarding for us to watch? Also watching other people’s lives and issues makes us feel better about our own? I don't know the genre of MTV Reality just makes me wonder!

I found some statistics about who is watching Reality TV
http://www.truth-it.net/statistics_surrounding_reality_tv.html

Culture Jamming

Culture Jamming is like photoshop as being another means of getting our voice and opinions heard. I like to think of culture jams as our backlash to the advertising and media industry thinking that they control our every move. It shows them your advertisement says this but this is what we really see when we think about your company or your idea. I love it! These are some cool ones I found

Photoshop is awesome

Photoshop is an example of one of the 8 norms of the net generation. CUSTOMIZATION is what we all love and our curiosity on how to be heard is only growing. There are many bad things about Photoshop and misleading information but I want to talk about the positives with the younger generations. With a huge love for social networking sites and people who aren't even in college or high school creating blogs and websites for personal interest it's no surprise that we are loving Photoshop and discovering the cool things it allows us to do. Photoshop is a creative tool that in a way lets you see ANYTHING from your own perspective. Seeing things from your own perspective is great with artwork. Anyone who knows Photoshop can take any picture advertisement etc and change anything they like or don't like about it. You can even create an entirely new project of your own. What this is doing is sparking the creative imaginations of younger generations. We are doing what Bauerlein thinks we never do and that’s use these technological tools outside of the classroom for personal use.

I found a random guys blog with a post called Sex Lies and Photoshop what are we doing to the young generation. It doesn't go with my views in my post but he focuses on how the media alters a woman's body in magazines and he shows some cool before and after photos of models, I thought it was neat the changes are crazy!

http://www.bradruggles.com/2009/05/12/sex-lies-and-photoshop/

Parents being over protective?

In reading about how controversial of a book Harry Potter is and checking out a previous blog about the most controversial books over the times I'm shocked as to what's considered controversial over the times. I personally think that our times have become so modern to the extent of things not shaking us up and bothering us the way they used to. Think back to olden days when a man and woman weren't seen to sleep in the same bed or live together until they're married now couples can be found living together in high school. A man and woman used to have to dance a certain amount of space apart. Now look at dancing go to the club and you'll wish people still danced far apart after what you see in there. I know that can be of thanks to Hip Hop music but even African American dancing has changed from footwork to now for lack of better word "booty shaking" and grinding. It seems like it used to be just more risqué and sexy for the times now it's just plain sex. Why I'm saying all this is because boundaries are meant to be pushed and rules are meant to be broken but what happens when you push so far that it's like what else can you do? Think of things like the music industry, dancing, drugs, teen pregnancy, inner racial dating, and homosexuality. Other than congress and a few uptight people in America everyone else has just forgotten about these issues they are accepted now well maybe not accepted but at least ignored by the discriminating people who still uphold mean views on these topics people just kind of look away or they accept it. So I think by finding the book Harry Potter controversial maybe it's just an attention ploy to try to control something that society already knows it has lost control over, the curiosity of today's youth

I found a cool article by someone who decides to point out how parents and teachers can use The Harry Potter books as an advantage to the children's desire to learn. I thought she had some great points

http://childrensbooks.about.com/cs/censorship/a/banharry.htm

Culture Jam

We have recently been talking about culture jams, just as Jenkins did in chapter six of Convergence Culture. I went onto the web and just started searching and looking at all the different culture jams. Jenkins talks about how photoshop is affecting the government, business, or other aspects they are targeting. I found this particular culture jam to be interesting. It is about nike and it uses the same slogan as nike does. The piggy bank represents the money that we spend on nike products. It is targeted to those who are interested in buying nike products and therefore should not think of the price just buy them. The slogans are the same relating it really close to all the other nike ads. There are several culture jams on all different industries and businesses.

All-State

McDonals Jammer

Photoshop

In Chapter 6, Jenkins talks about the importance of tools originating with the study of media and popular culture. One of the tools he points on is photoshopping images. This has became a major way of voicing view points in the United States. People are taking original photographs and with photoshop, publishing them with a different meaning. They are used for campaigns such as the presidency, world wide issues, even towards marketing wal-mart. An example of this popular new voice would be the I Want YOU slogans with Abraham Lincoln on the front. They are orginally used to help the war effort, concentrating on bringing in more people to the military. Now there are slogans that pertain to advertising, Windows 7, even Obama.

What about our rights! Harry Potter!

In Chapter 5 Jenkins talks about how controversial Harry Potter is, because of how certain parents view the book. Well, what ever happened to our rights under the Constitution. Freedom of press, and why do the parents want to argue of a non-fictional book. If their children are able to read a Harry Potter book, then they are probably old enough to realize that it is just a made up story, and that they will not be able to perform spells and be a wizard. Seriously, parents need to get a reality check if they think that Harry Potter is the worst book the child will read, i read worse books in elementary school! And let me tell you if the kids want to reaad Harry Potter, they will read Harry Potter whether theie parents say it is ok or not!

We Hate Bush!

In Chapter 6, Jenkins talks about how the United States in particular has used digital technology to show their "appreciation for our past president. They are not changing laws or starting a revolution in from of the White House, instead, right before the 2004 election many "haters" of Bush formed sites, blogs, and even books about how Bush should not be re-elected. This is not anything new to the U.S though. Political cartoons were once and still are a prominent way to express feelings about presidents policies and their reign. Today, the internet can be used to politically affect an entire nation. Last year's presidential election had many people blogging about reasons of why their candidate should be elected into office. Every video of each of the candidates was scrutinized on YouTube under the comments section. Every political site starts a fight between republicans and democrats. The 2004 election was no different. Republicans nagged at Democrats becuase the Democrats wanted Bush out. Democrats nagged at Repulicans because of Bush's policies. Little has changed. The only thing that has changed in the changes in technology and this will continue to change for future political elections.

Site about Bush:

http://www.city-data.com/forum/politics-other-controversies/150608-101-reasons-we-hate-bush.html

Controversial Books

In chapter 5 Jenkins talks about how many parents think Harry Potter is a very controversial book for children to read. So this got me thinking about what other books have been controversial in the past. I found this website that has picked out what they believe are the 1o most controversial books in the last 100 or so years. When I looked at this list I noticed that wow, I have had to read 3 or 4 of these books in some of my high school English classes. Harry Potter was even read to me during my elementary days. So after realizing this I think when parents go crazy about kids reading Harry Potter they are completely overreacting. I think most kids understand that they are not going to be able to perform spells and such, but they really just enjoy reading the Harry Potter series.

10 Most Controversial Books

Harry Potter Controversy

In chapter 5 of Convergence Culture, Jenkins begins by stating that corporate media increasingly recognizes the value and threat posed by fan participation and uses Harry Potter as an example. I agree that fans are participating in shows a lot more now than they used to because of the internet. Many people go to their favorite show's website, purchase items associated with the show, and even visit spoiler websites, like Jenkins discussed in chapter 1. When he talked about all of the controversies associated with Harry Potter, I really hadn't heard about most of them. I went to a Catholic grade school and we read the first two books and none of our parents complained about it and I didn't hear of any controversies with us reading them. However, I went to google and looked up some information about the controversies and was surprised at how serious parents and teachers become when their kids are reading the books. Here is a link to just one of the websites I found. I find it interesting because controversy is usually a bad thing but at the same time can give a book a lot of publicity and make it even more popular.

Harry Potter

In chapter 5, Jenkins talks about the "potter" wars, and everything with the Harry Potter books. I have never actually heard about this until i started reading this chapter, and i was shocked on how parents may think that this fictional book is a bad influence on their kids. I'm just wondering how you can be mad at that crew. I'm not a big big fan of harry potter and the books but I do sometimes like watching the movies. (mostly because of Hermione) But, i was surprised on all the feed backs from their parents, and all the negative comments on the books. I don't find these books a bad influence, but thats just me...

Seed vault

Norway created a Seed vault, that is located in the mountain tops of Norway. 390 ft deep into the snow, this Seed vault was created in 2008 and the very first seed was brought to it in january. I think that this is a very smart thing to do, because if for some reason, the world would lose some what of its seeds, all we have to do is go to this Seed Vault, and there will be over millions of seeds in there.

link.

On the Time's Best Inventions in 2008, the Seed vault was ranked number 6 on the list, and i agree that this is a really smart invention for the Norwegians

Dreaming

I have always tried to remember my dreams, but it seems to always back fire. I have a found a couple websites that talk about Dreaming, and more than half of these facts i had no clue were true. Dreaming is a very tricky thing, you can have good and bad dreams. But half the time, you don't even remember what you are dreaming about. It is a proven fact that, when you wake up from a dream, and you walk for 5 minutes, you have already forgotten half of what your dream is about, and that after 10 minutes, you have forgotten your dream completely, unless you wrote it down in a notebook or journal.

One crazy fact about dreaming is that 67% of have experienced Deja Vu in their dreams, but it happens more to females than to males. Another crazy fact that to me, seems odd. But, blind people can still dream, and see whatever is in their dream, although they might not be a human figure, they get an image from what they hear, smell, and touch.

These two websites got more facts if you would like to check it out.