Tosh.0 is My.0: Media Meditation #4

Tosh.0 is hilarious and I think that everyone should check it out. It is a show that is based on viral videos that are posted to the internet and he makes fun of them. Daniel Tosh is a comedian and with his personality he makes the show fun and very funny.




Technology Shift
This is the perfect example of the technological shift in media. Since the convergence to web 2.0 users have gained the power to create content. With sites like YouTube, flicker, and vimeo it has made it really easy for anyone to share their videos and pictures. Sites such as blogger, wordpress, and tumblr have made it easy for people to share their thoughts and ideas. Tosh.0 is the show that you watch to get all of your viral videos of the week in one dose. The way that we get our information is shifting: newspapers to websites, mail to email, telephone to Skype, it is all shifting to digital. In a way we make up our own news. We can post anything we want on the internet and anyone can see it and share it. The people decide what is going to be on Tosh.0. If 4,000,000 people watch a video online about a person making egg salad that video will be on Tosh.0 for sure.



Individual Meaning
For me I love this show. I think it is hilarious and brilliant. But other people might not feel the same way I do. Some may say that it is stupid and a waste of time. That is fine everything has a different meaning for everyone else. For most a video with an older man singing a song called pants on the group is just another video in the clutter. But for me I have great respect for that video. It was the first viral video of 2010 getting over 1,000,000 views and this man got famous for being himself and singing his song. For me Tosh.0 means that I can see all the hilarious web videos in one spot. I don’t have to surf the web to find what is hot.



Humor
Humor is the biggest factor with Tosh.0. The show revolves around the comedy provided by Daniel Tosh. I am a guy that enjoys humor, I need it, and Tosh.0 is very funny to me, it helps me escape. For the 30 minutes that his show is on I take a break from the everyday struggle and enjoy to comedic relief provided by Tosh.0. Thank you Dan for being hilarious.



Plain Folks
The people in the videos are regular people, they are average Joe’s. Because these are real people in the videos it makes them even more powerful. It is one thing to see a Bud Light commercial of a dog biting a man's crotch, but it is another to see the neighbor’s dog muckle on to the crotch of the mail man. It is real and you know that it is real, it has authenticity.



Tosh.0 is a great show and it is on Wednesday’s at 10:30pm. I suggest you at least check out a show and if you are staying with the times and have a twitter you can tweet with Daniel Tosh during the show! It’s pretty cool to hear his point of view off the camera.

The Proof is in the Pudding: Media Med #3

There has been a lot of talk on and offline about the movie Shutter Island and I wanted to check out the trailer to see what it is all about. It is about an institution for the criminally insane. A couple of US marshals are sent to check out the institution after a patient goes missing. There is no sign of her escape it is as if she just disappeared. While investigating the case the two marshals find themselves trapped in the institute like a patient with no way out.

The intro music appeals to my limbic brain and makes me feel like something bad is going to happen. I know from listening to the music for 5 seconds that the movie is going to be a thriller or drama and not a comedy. It has the feel of mystery and suspense. The colors in the movie are dark and gloomy giving it a dismal feel. The trailer was exciting and it kept me on the edge of my seat.

Epistemological Shift
When I started looking into more info about Shutter Island I found myself only looking at video sources rather than a written description. For me a least, I get a lot more out of video than I do with text. If I can put a picture with the description I get a better understanding of the mood or feeling in the story. This case Shutter Island has a dismal thrilling feeling to it. All though I did get a good idea of the type of movie that Shutter Island is but I did not get a solid grasp of what the movie is about. While going through the trailer it was easy to see what was happening but when it came for me to put that into words I had a hard time. I had to go to a written source for the description info. Is it a bad thing that the younger generations reach for the visual media before traditional text? Yes and no. Yes because it is the new form of media. We are embracing technology and using it to the fullest advantage. No because some people, Neil Postman, could say that we are losing out on the critical reading and thinking skills that are gained through reading. For me, as time goes on and technology gets better, I want to stay on top of it. It is like a dish washer, maybe cleaning every dish by hand carefully will make for cleaner dishes, but using a dish washer will achieve almost the same results with less time and effort. If the world keeps moving the way that it is then it will not be long before we have these resources a part of regular life. It is like Feed, people could choose not to run their feed and when they did they were almost “out of the loop.” Today it is all about how fast you can access information rather than how much information you can remember.



Production Techniques

The production techniques were great in the trailer. The colors were very dull and gray giving the movie a dark, thrilling, mysterious feel. The camera angles are key because it enhances the film’s mystery. They utilize the dark lighting in the institution to maintain the thrilling feeling. They show a couple close ups of Leonardo DiCaprio’s face in the trailer that adds to the mystery of the movie. He looks worried and fearful which makes you wonder what he either saw or is thinking about. The only text that is on the trailer is credit text. This tells me that they people who made the movie want to only stimulate the limbic part of the brain and even the reptilian part of the brain with this trailer. They do not want to lose the emotion by engaging the neo-cortex to read some text. They don’t want us thinking about the movie they want us to feel the movie.



Big Lie

In the movie the guards and officials of the institution tell the US marshals a story about what happened to their patient. They do not tell the marshals the truth which leads them deeper into the institution and closer to the truth. This also keeps the audience’s attention as the audience wants to find out the real story as well.





Testimonial
Right in the beginning one of them gives a little testimonial about out Shutter Island, “All I know is that it’s a metal hospital.” This gives the audience a little insight on where the movie will be set and what type of people/thing you expect to see at a mental hospital. We take the statement as a fact and don’t really think if it is true or not because that is what is told to us, we assume.

Shutter Island looks like a great flick and everyone that I talk too that as seen says the same thing. It is out now and it looks like it will be one of those movies that is way better on the big screen. So pile everyone in the car and head down to the theater to catch this thriller.

Brand Hero: Media Meditation #2

This is kind of a guilty pleasure of mine and I was not 100 percent sure that I was going to share it in my media meditation but it is such a good example that I cannot pass it up. For Christmas I got DJ Hero from my bro and I wasn’t that excited about it until I started playing it. It is a surprisingly fun game that makes you feel like you are mixing some beats. Since I have been playing this game every now and then I decided to take it a little deeper and analyze this game.





DJ Brain

The box is very steezy and loud with bright colors. It has a very main stream hip hop vibe to it which is why I was skeptical at first. When you turn the game on there are a bunch of introduction videos (that I am sure appeal to every part of the brain and I could probably get a lot of information from there) but of course like every other person that is eager to play a video game I skip right through them all together to get to the good stuff.

The loading screens play songs from the game and they change every time, it isn’t the same song. This is cool because there is a wide variety of songs and you never know which one is going to play next. Some songs have an up beat rhythm to it and makes you want to dance. Some songs have a techno feel to them and just makes you want to head bob or fist pump. Then some songs are made with classic Jackson 5 or David Bowie mixed in it and I makes you sing out loud. You never know what is going to play on the loading screen which makes it a little more exciting while waiting for the game. One thing they all have in common is the fact that they all appeal to the limbic part of the brain.



Technological Shift

What is a video game really? You buy the consol with the controllers and you get a game that usually comes in form of a disk and together the gaming possibilities are endless. How does a CD make it so you can be fighting in a revolutionary war and with a quick switch of a disk you can be racing the latest Ferrari around a track? It is mind blowing to think about if you break through all the technical stuff you end up with a series of 1’s and 0’s. To the end user each game is very different but for the producer it is similar in the way that they are all made from 1’s and 0’s.

Now that gaming consoles are connecting to the internet there is not a need for the physical disk any more. You can download games right to your system with out having to put anything into it. This sweet DJ Hero game with all the good graphics and songs can be downloaded wirelessly. This game travels through the air and puts it self back together to allow you to play it on your TV, essentially the game gets broken down into nothing tangible.

Ownership

Who owns this game, who made it? These are questions that I ask myself when ever I experience a new game. I always look for product placement in movies and video games because it is becoming more popular. Brands and companies want to be a part of the action with a new movie or a new game. Puma is shown here on the jacket of the DJ. To most people they just see Puma and it resonates with them just like any other Puma jacket. With me I think “Puma must want to get into the hip hop scene by associating themselves with hip hop”. In the game the more you play the more you unlock, like most other games, and there is different accessories that you can unlock for your character based on the amount of stars you collect. The stuff that takes more stars to unlock is generally better than the ones that take little stars. If I was a headphones company how could I make it so my headphones are the last ones to unlock? How can I make it so that in the game my headphones are the best? I am sure the answer is more money, but what I am getting at is that video games reach a tremendous population. If they see that your headphones are the best in the game they might think they are the best headphones in reality as well.



Symbols

Symbols are plastered throughout this whole game from tee shirts that people are wearing to the equipment that is being used in the game. Tee shirts are the biggest spot that you see symbols in the game. You can choose the shirt that your DJ wears and they all have a logo or symbol that represents something.

Repetition

The DJ Hero logo itself is repeated all throughout the game. One might say “Yeah because it is the name of the game the logo will be all over” and another might say “Well I bought the game I know that it is DJ Hero so they don’t have to tell me every screen.” It is repeated in the menus, in the game itself, it is present all the time. Some of the characters that you can choose from don’t allow you to change their clothing and equipment so every time you see that person in the game their shirt always has the same symbol and the equipment has the same manufacturer. They have done this for a reason because that character supports or is endorsed by the brand. They are associated with that brand and they want people to know that.

DJ Hero is a fun game to play with your buddies. There is a lot of media coverage in the game that most people don’t think about and when you step back and take a look at what is actually in there it is very obvious. It is defiantly a game that appeals to the limbic part of your brain with all the music and great visuals.

Give That Filet o' Fish: Media Meditation #1

When I first sat down to do a media meditation the first media experience that I could think of was the McDonalds filet o’fish commercial. If you have watched TV or listened to the radio in the past month you know what I am talking about. “Give me that filet o’fish, give me that fish.” It is a catchy tune that gets stuck in your head all day. It is the type of song that you sing in your head when you first wake up, you have no idea why you are singing it, it is just stuck in your head.



Your Brain on filet o’ fish


The first thing that you see when the TV commercial comes on is a man sitting in his garage with a bag full of McDonald’s. It looks like a typical garage; there is a tool bench with what looks like a tackle box or two on it. There is a Big Mouth Billy Bass hanging on the wall. There is clutter all the way around the tool bench. It gives you this feeling it is a Sunday and the guys are hanging in the garage.



The music is what makes this commercial great. It starts with some catchy techno beeps which you cannot help but bang your head too. It appeals to the limbic brain making you feel good and move to the beat. Then the fish on the wall turns and starts signing the song. The first time that I saw it I was surprised that the fish started moving. There was a little fight or flight action going on in my reptilian brain. Do I like the catchy jingle or does the fish put it over the top and make it bad? Needless to say I stuck around for a while and finished out the commercial.



I don’t even like filet o’ fish sandwiches I just love the commercial because it has a very catchy tune and makes you remember the commercial.

Production Techniques
This commercial is a prefect example of a great ad, from the catchy tune in the beginning to the filet o’ fish montage at the end. It was carefully put together with the catchy tune so people will remember it. The montage is at the end so the last thing that you see in the commercial is the sandwich and you associate the picture of the sandwich with the tune, it is genius. Then when you are listening to the radio and hear the song “Give me that filet o’ fish” the picture of the sandwich is the first thing that pops into your head.



Media tools



Humor: Humor is the biggest tool that is used in this commercial. The song is catchy and it is also comical. For me the song boarders on the is it funny or is it annoying line which is why it work so well for me. I get a kick out of the jingle because it is pretty corny and it makes me laugh.

Plain Folks: The next best thing about this commercial is the fact that it has regular people in it. There isn’t any celebrities holding the sandwich saying that they eat one everyday when we all know that’s complete bullshit, it average Joe’s like you and me. Even the guy that is sitting in the garage is overweight and that adds even more to the average Joe image. I can relate to them, I have hung out in my garage before with friends. It gives the commercial more authenticity and it feels more real, real people.

In every way, shape, and form this commercial is a home run. The catchy jingle that gets stuck in your head all day and even when you wake up is awesome. Then the average Joe’s hanging out in the garage with the Big Mouth Billy Bass singing the jingle is hilarious. Way to go McDonalds and keep up the good work you got a lot to live up too with your next commercial.

All for one, and one for all

Brain: starts off with a list of deferent people and groups he is addressing. Really have to listen to what he is saying to process all of them. Uses our neo-cortex. He uses pauses in his speech to allow people to process what is being said. He speaks passionately which leads to authenticity.

7 Principles: Value Messages: Obama speaks very confidently and carefully. Each word that he uses in the speech is carefully selected. Because of this it adds value to the message. It gives us hope and understanding.
8 Trends: Cultural Shift: When I watched this video from the YouTube link all I could think of was surveillance. Because we can access media on the web like this it allows for data to be collected. They can see how many people have viewed the video, where they are from, and even what they are interested in. This data will allow them to see what demographic of people are viewing the video.

29 Techs
Testimonials: Letters from citizens asking for help, waiting for change.
Group Dynamics: He is speaking to the nation as a whole, “We need this” and “Together we can do this”
Strength: bold and firm and confident
Rhetorical Questions: He uses rhetorical questions in his speech to get people engaged in the speech. Because of this it adds some value to the message. Everyone can agree on the same question which appeals to all types of people.
Repetition: He keeps talking about change. That was the basis for his campaign and people are starting to question the “change”
Timing: He pauses after he reads the letter from the child that asks “when his father is going to get a job” this pause adds some emotional elements of sympathy.

Thesis: All differences aside we all face the same problem and we all need the same solution.
“We choose to move together as one nation, one people”
“1 in 10 American’s cannot find work”
“All of us, democrats and republicans to work through our differences”