Cover Girl

 Marathon Lip Color by Cover Girl
 Marathon Lip color
 1998
 Procter and Gamble

There are so many ads that we see everyday and most of the time we don’t realize what the ad is really showing us or the hidden messages that it is relaying. Honestly, who likes to watch commercial ads? Yes some of them get our attention because they are funny, clever, or have really attractive people in it, but a lot of them we just flip through. The Cover Girl ad isn’t one of my favorites but I know why is gets our attention. The ad has a very attractive girl, Niki Taylor, who is trying to sell to the niche audience of girl viewers, a lipstick product that supposedly doesn’t wear off. Is this ad really selling lipstick or something girls want to look like? Of course this ad isn’t just selling lipstick, but instead it’s trying to sell the idea of what girls should look like, at least their lips anyway. Honestly to me there isn’t anything that makes this commercial memorable or effective. I guess for those who are longing to have long lasting lip wear, this commercial is ideal for them. The actress is showing us how the lip stick stays on her lips and doesn’t rub off on things like a straw, a coffee mug and even her fingers. Come on now, how often do us girls kiss our hands and fingers? Along with watching the ad, if you listen closely you can here the ad using puffery words like; “transfer resistant”, “lush”, and even the song tells us if we use this product we will be “fresh faced to the world.” Ok girls, here is a warning, if you DON’T use this lipstick, please don’t go out in public. Even though the actress is never holding the product I think she is also displaying Juxtaposition, which is another type of puffery. She is always smiling while supposedly wearing the product. I’m not really sure of the first time I saw this commercial, but I’m pretty sure that the advertisers were smart enough to show this commercial during an episode of America’s Next Top Model, or Sex in the City. This ad really didn’t work for me. Normally I don’t wear lipstick, so this commercial didn’t make me want to go out and buy it. Maybe if Cover Girl had a Chap Stick commercial my actions would be different.

Good Old Rift

Let me tell you about a man named Rift. Yes his real name is Rift. To be exact his name is Rift Fournier. He got his named from his mother, after her and his dad rifted around trying to come up with a name. His dad wanted to name him a jr. and his mother was very against it. At birth Rift was born a Jr., but after being baptized his mother legally changed his name to Rift. At the age of 16, Rift got Polio, which confined him to a wheelchair but did not stop him from adventuring out into the world. It seems that Rift has been all over the world and back and had worked everywhere possible. He has been to New York and California where he went to school to become a writer. Later he changed his mind and went to law school, which later on decided was also not for him. He worked at places like a morgue, which he ran, and then worked at a jail. With all of his experiences he then went into writing. He first wrote just wrote jokes and then became a dramatist in New York. He then went to a television station in Omaha, Nebraska. He has written a bunch of children series and wrote some dramas and documentaries. He also wrote scenes for the hit television show NYPD Blue. He won the 1973 Peabody Award for all of his hard work. Since he wanted to teach and shape the minds of future writers, he now teaches at Lindenwood University. His main advice that he gave to us was to READ! If we don’t read we will not make it. He said that creative people steal. Not steal literally, but when people read they come up with great ideas. I really enjoyed listening to Rift talk about something he was so passionate about. It was a real eye opener.

Internet Part 2

So I have been looking around at different blogs to see what all was out there. I have noticed that there are only a few that I really get into so far. I noticed that I tend to like the blogs with a lot of pictures, videos and color in them. Granted...they can't just be any pictures or videos, but ones that I am interested in. While looking through different blogs, I found one that I like so far. I found it on Media Bistro. It is hard for me to say if it’s my favorite or not just because there are so many other blogs out there that I haven’t even looked at yet. The blog is called "Galleycat" and I think it was actually the name that got me interested to begin with. When I first read it, I thought it said alley cat, instead of Galleycat. Once you read through this blog you notice some cool pictures, like the guy with the 80's style hair. There is also a video talking about a campaign from awhile ago that uses plastic army men. Who would have thought? Even some of the titles are pretty catchy. The one thing I was kind of bored with was the background. There isn’t any color in this blog what so ever...okay maybe in the heading and the pictures. But other than that it is completely dull. All it is, is a plain white background with your everyday black text. Boring!!! Throw some color in it and this blog would be better I think.

Shows on the Internet

T.V……what’s that? A lot of people may have forgotten that a television still exists. Most people rely on their computer or even their phones to watch shows and movies. For some people this is by choice but for people like me, it’s because we are never home to watch TV. People like me who work full time and go to school full time hardly know what a television is anymore. If you were to ask me what the big hit shows were now….I couldn’t tell you. The only shows I really pay any attention to anymore are the old ones that I always used to watch. Well, thanks to the Internet, I can look up my favorite show when I have the time. The Oprah Winfrey show is my favorite. Granite, I haven’t watched it in a while but I used to make sure I was always home at 4:00p.m. to watch it. Now days, since I am always at work, I use sources such as, Oprah.com, YouTube, TV.com and even ABC.com to watch her shows or bits of it. So, If I can’t make it home in time to watch it on the, “old fashion television”, I can always tune in on the Internet and watch what I missed. Again, this is all thanks to television and the Internet coming together. I think that the Internet and convergence has a made a big impact on the television industry. I think in January when people have to buy a certain kind of box to watch television shows on their TV., most people will rely on the more on the Internet than they already do. I think that may impact the television industry more than people think.

Round 3

Round 3

So if you haven’t already heard, the final campaign debate between Sen. Obama and Sen. McCain was Wednesday, October, 15. Was it everything you thought it would be? I wasn’t sure what to expect before watching it. Was this debate going to be different then the other two, or was it going to be pretty much the same? What questions was Bob Schieffer going to ask and how were the senators going to answer? These were only a few of the questions I asked myself before watching this debate. I wasn’t able to watch it on Wednesday, so I watched it on YouTube. Granted the picture wasn’t as clear but I was still able to get the main points. After watching it and taking everything that had been said into consideration and watching the movements and the actions between the two Senators, I started to get almost annoyed. The questions that were being asked were good questions I thought. Some of the questions we already knew the answers to, while others were a little surprising. To me one of the questions that I was surprised about was when Schieffer asked both men to explain why they thought their running mate was good for our country. I was also kind of surprised when the two candidates’ were asked to answer the question, “Should Federal Government Play a Larger Role in Education?” Of course the main argument between the two men was should we use vouchers or charters, rather than answer the question head on. And if I have to hear “spread the wealth around” one more time, I think I may scream. When Schieffer asked the men, “Why is your Economic Plan better than your Opponents?”, all I heard was “spread the wealth around.” For most people, they don’t want to be wealthy, yes it would be nice. But most people are just worried about being able to put a roof over their head, clothes on their back and food on the table. While many people believe that this debate determines pretty much who is going to win and who is going to lose, I would disagree. For most people they already kind of know who they are going to vote for before all of these debates go on. I knew who I was going to vote for before I watched this. But after watching it, I really know who I want to be President. I noticed myself getting more irritated and annoyed the longer it went on. By the time this debate was over I felt that I had heard enough from McCain to last the rest of my life time. I never want to hear that man speak again. I felt like during this whole 3^rd debate, he was rude and immature. Who in the heck constantly laughs at their own jokes, especially when they aren’t even funny? Why did McCain find it completely necessary to continually interrupt not only Obama but Schieffer as well? I think that Obama did this debate very professionally while McCain on the other hand, only knew how lash out. It felt to me that McCain was very defense and the way he was always moving around in his seat gave me the impression that he wasn’t going to be able to be civil for very much longer. I think that everything that has happened during this whole campaign will go down in history. Maybe quotes like, “I’m not President Busch. If you wanted to run against President Bush, you should have run four years ago.”, which was said by Sen. McCain, will be a quote that sticks out for years to come.

A Chat with Bob Wigginton

So lately in our media class we have been talking about newspaper as a type of media. So on Monday, we had a guest speaker come to our class and tell us what he thought about it. Bob Wigginton, used to work for a newspaper in Little Rock, Arkansas, and now happens to be a professor at our school. He came to Lindenwood to inspire us students to keep the newspaper industry going. Because of the news we already get from the television or the internet, we hardly pick up a paper and read it anymore.

I guess since he has been to Afghanistan and has reported on the things he saw, along with things he probably shouldn’t have seen, he would come to Lindenwood. He would come here and work through the battle of students being connected to the internet 24/7 and the television and try and turn them towards the hardcopy of news, which would be the newspaper. The first thing that Mr. Wigginton noticed when he came to Lindenwood was that all the students weren’t carrying newspapers but rather laptops, and now days that isn’t that uncommon. Most people cannot live without their phone or their computer, I know I can’t.

One comment he made about the newspaper is how lately newspapers are almost overwhelming to read. On the front page, it’s not so easy to figure out what the lead story is anymore. The front pages of newspapers are flooded with visuals and not words. Personally, the pictures are the things that get me interested. For me it’s easier to look at a picture, and if it gets my attention then I want to read the story. If not, then I may bypass the whole thing all together.

Besides all that, another main point that Mr. Wigginton talk about was the diversity in the news room. How many people don’t get a job because of their race and sometimes by their sex. Granted, I know this happens in every work place but I don’t think its right. I think that everyone should have to go through the same interviewing process and who ever seems like they fit the job better, job performance wise, should get the job. I agreed with Bob when he said that diversity in the newsroom was a good thing. When there is diversity, then there is a little bit of something for everyone. When Bob worked for the newspaper in Little Rock, I was surprised to find out that the majority of people were women and that they were white.

The last thing we talked about with Mr. Wigginton was censorship. I both agree and disagree with it. I think that for the most part people have a right to know what’s going on and who’s involved and so forth. But on the other hand, if I were the person in the news, I’m not so sure I would want people to know every little detail about what was going on in my life. What if it was something tragic and didn’t really involve anyone else, I would want time to grieve, not read it over and over again in the newspaper.

Kids and Media

In today’s world we see different types of media everywhere and in everything we do. We see media all the time and most of the time we don’t even realize it. Media today consists of the cell phones we use everyday and computers we check our emails on. Media also consists of the TV shows we watch, the music we listen to and the magazines we read.

Does all the media we consume really impact our lives and makes us who we are today? For the most part, I think the answer to this question is yes. It’s kind of sad if you think about it. For example, kids remodels these days aren’t their parents or other older people they look up to, but rather Hannah Montana and other television characters. Teenage girls are getting the impression that they are supposed to look like the celebrities that they see on TV or magazines.
Reality check….the celebrities that we see on television are most of the time fake. What do I mean by fake? I mean that celebrities are supposed to look flawless and perfect and that’s all due to makeup artist and airbrushing. Yes most of us adults know that it’s all fake, but for the most part children don’t. I’m not saying that this is all necessarily bad. I just think that parents and adults have to do a lot more explaining on what is right and wrong. Teach kids what real and what’s not.

Teaching children what’s right and wrong is especially important when it comes to the internet. Or should I say what’s safe and unsafe. I think it’s great that kids are becoming more involved in computers and the internet. Our world today is becoming so technologically oriented, but I think that it’s making a predator’s next victim a little more convenient. It is so easy for people to act like someone they really aren’t. Predators know what to say to children to make them trust them and want to meet them. And for the most part, kids don’t know any better.

Not only can children run into predators on the internet but they can also see things and get information they really don’t need to know at such a young age. I think finding information on the internet has gotten a lot better since I had to do research papers in high school but it’s still not perfect. I remember having to do a report on the White house and boy did I get a lot of information. Let me just say it wasn’t all on the White House I was thinking about. I’m not saying that kids should never get on the computer and explore, I just think that parents should try to monitor the best they can on what their child gets into.

When it comes to media and kids there is so much to talk about and so little time. Just remember that kids pick up things quick, both good and bad, so just try to teach them what is important and what’s not. I’m not just talking about the media that comes on the television but also the internet, music and video games. No we aren’t going to be able to protect kids from everything, especially when it’s hard for us as adults to not be influenced, but we can sure try.

Meida in India

International Student Interview

Have you ever realized that here in the United States, we rarely see any kind of advertisements or entertainment from other countries? If you think about it, how often do we see commercials with famous foreign people, or hear new song from hit artists in places like India. We may have a channel here or there that is relevant towards Latin people who only speak Spanish, but other than that we hardly see any kind of commercials or ads from other countries. Because of this I would have never guessed that in some countries, United States media had such an impact on them. In some countries, they may see more U.S. media than media from their own country.
The other day I was able to interview an international student who was from New Delhi, India. Her name was Sakshi and she is 20 years old and she came to the United States in February 2007. While interviewing her, my main goal was to find out how much media her country was getting from the United States, how it was impacting the younger people and what the older generation thought about all of the messages it was sending.

While interviewing Sakshi, I have learned that the people in the part of her country where she is from, they are very accustomed to the media we send over there. Media sources ranging from our television shows, top artists and their new hit songs, radio, commercials and their advertisements, to the biggest sources of media, such as, ipods, phones and the internet. To her and the other people in her country the media we have here in the United States is pretty normal to them. Since U.S media was so common there, I wanted to know what did they think about it and how was it impacting their lives and beliefs. I wanted to know, was the media affecting them the same way it was affecting us here in the United States? Surprisingly her response wasn’t a surprise.

Basically, people in her country thought it was both good and bad. Of course, the older generations, who are more old fashion and are very conservative, look down on all the media that the U.S. is sending over there. They think that it has a negative impact on the younger generations, making them greedy and spoiled. Not only is it the materialistic things that are an issue, but also all the violence and nudity that the younger generations are being exposed to. The older generations think that everything is so open now and that there isn’t anything that is private. The younger generation, on the other hand, love the media they are getting from us. They have grown so accustom to it that they don’t even realize the impact that it’s having on them. Just like for the people here in the United States, it’s hard for them to distinguish from their needs and their wants. Not every part of India has the luxury of living like Sakshi did when she lived there. In my opinion the people who didn’t live in New Delhi, know the difference between the things they want and need. They haven’t been influenced yet by what the U.S. has to offer them.

Since doing this interview, I have been able to get a general idea of how much of our media is being shown and advertised in other countries, such as India. I have also, realized that the United States media doesn’t only affect us here in the states, but also those in other countries.

Millennials

In today's society anyone who is born between 1980-and the present are known as the "Millennials." This generation, which would be the one I fall under, seems to rely on solely computer technology. When I say this I'm not referring to just the old fashion computers that our parents and grandparents grew up with, but everything else including ipods, phones and internet just to name a few. Until taking this class I never really knew that we were classified like the baby boomers were. While watching the 60 min clips Part 1 and Part 2, I never would have believed that people my age act like this towards working. Yeah it sounds nice to go in at 9, or whenever you may happen to roll out of bed, and then get a "nap break" at work, and happy hour at 4 or 5, but all that sounds so unreal to me. Yes I play it safe, I'm 24 years old and still living at home with mom and dad, but compared to the "Traditional" millennials, I have always had at least 2 jobs ever since I was 15. I would never think about telling my boss what I would and wouldn't do or argue about taking a "nap break." I work at Quik Trip and we are lucky if we even get a (one break) for the sometimes over 8 hours a day we work there. My opinion, most of us are middle class people who do what our bosses tell us, come in and leave work when we are scheduled to and take breaks when and if we get them.
Maybe I'm not a normal millennial, I watched a clip on youtube and I felt like I related with a little of both my generation and past generations. I agree that most people my age are heavy into technology and wouldn’t know what to do if they didn’t have it. I think the only few ways I am the same is that, I wouldn’t know what to do with out my phone or a computer from time to time, and I love getting on myspace.
Even though there are a few ways I may fall into this category, I think I may be a minor example of a millennial. I don’t have an Ipod or want an Iphone. I have never blogged until I had to for this class and may never again when this class is over with. Blogging is just not my thing. I don’t rely on text messaging and email to have conversations with people. I would never expect to get paid more for hardly doing any work, it’s sounds nice, but to me is unrealistic. And even though I may still live at my parents house, I plan to move out really soon.

Tragedy

So here I am supposed to write about something I am passionate about. For most people this isn't a hard topic, it’s a book, a favorite hobby, or something along those lines. A lot of people can answer this question without even thinking twice about it. Well I guess in my case I'm not like most people. I have gone over and over in my mind to think of something I was passionate about and came up with nothing. Maybe it's because right now my mind is full of so many other thoughts right now, such as work and school. Or it might just be because just this past weekend not only I, but a lot of people who knew him, have lost a friend to something really stupid.

We have lost a great guy to something he should have known better not to do..... drinking and driving. Why? Why do people drink and drive? Is it because most people think that nothing will ever happen to them if they do? Honestly, I think it's about time that people, especially college students wake up and realize that most of the time the outcome to drinking and driving isn't good. Yeah people may get away with it here and there but all it takes is that one time you don't. That one time you run into a ditch, hit a pole or another car for that matter. In my friends case, it was that one time he was driving extremely too fast, swerved to miss hitting an oncoming car, which caused him to run his SUV off of the road and flip. Not flipping once or twice but multiple times, and killing not only himself but one of his best friends, and putting his other three friends in intensive care.

I’m writing this blog not to tell you really about what I am passionate about, but I guess mainly, just to let people know that maybe they should try to make better decisions when drinking. Since having this whole tragedy happen I have come to realize that my passion isn't a book or a hobby, but definitely the people in my life and the ones I now realize I have taken for granted in the past.