While I am a firm believer in activism, I believe that many “organizations” can go far beyond the necessary means of conveying their opinion.   I use the term organization loosely because for these “over the top” activists, it seems as if there is no real organization and that people are causing scenes just to create a general disturbance.  Often time’s protests are done peacefully and without any real incident.  Compared to more radical groups the general consensus is that the more peaceful group is more approachable when negotiating the issue that sparked the protest.  Having watched a commercial and subsequently read through the home page of Plane Stupid, I believe that those behind Plane Stupid should cease all types of radical advertising and vandalism.

What brought Plane Stupid to my attention was a commercial in which a typical city block is featured with views from ground and on the roofs of buildings.   A plane is heard overhead and figures begin to fall from the sky.    The camera then begins to focus on these objects falling from the sky and it is then discovered that these objects are polar bears.   As more come into the frame, many can be see hitting the roofs and sides of buildings, splattering blood across windows and panels.  Also, many polar bears are seen hitting the ground and parked cars at very high speeds, accompanied with loud thuds and the scene of very realistic blood.  While I am a firm believer in using multiple ways to promote a certain message, this crosses the line.  Suppose a young child would just happen to turn on the television and witness a scene very similar to the tragedy that took place on September 11th.   Multiple talks would then need to be had between the parent and child even when the child wasn’t the intended audience!

Plane Stupid has partaken in other forms of protests involving trespassing, assault, vandalism, breaking and entering, and interfering with everyday lives of common people.  These forms of protest not only jeopardize the protestors’ lives but also those who just wish to travel long distances in the shortest amount of time.  An alternative to “Plane Stupid’s” tactic of sit-ins would be to organize an informational booth where they could calmly pass out literature about their cause.    This would not only promote a positive image of the group but would also help to eliminate some of the hostilities between the airlines and Plane Stupid.  As of now, your methods of protest only bring negative publicity to your cause.

Should Plane Stupid decide to take my advice into consideration, I believe that a new and positive image of the group would be created.  While many people today are concerned about the condition of the global climate, your cause would gain a lot of positive attention through the use of non-confrontational protests.  And think about it, all the time the planes are on the tarmac, waiting for your people to get off, so many polar bears could be alive!

Sincerely,
Justin Bruchey

The basic plot of “Transformers” is that there are two rival factions of alien machines, The Autobots and The Decepticons, who are in search of an object called the “All Spark”, which turns everyday things into living entities.  It is discovered that the “All Spark” is on Earth and so begins a mad race between the Autobots and The Decepticons to find the “All Spark”.  The Decepticons wish to use the “All Spark” to destroy the Autobots and take over the world, while the Autobots wish to use the “All Spark” to rebuild their home world, which was destroyed by the Decepticons and to end the war between the two factions.  Upon arriving on Earth, both the Autobots and Decepticons disguise themselves as cars which can transform into giant fighting robots.

At this point, the plot becomes irrelevant.  A love story between two humans overshadows the actual storyline between the two robots, almost making this film unwatchable.  But what does make this film worth watching is the sheer amount of product placements.  We’ll start with the obvious, the cars.  Some would argue: “Justin, this movie is about cars that transform, of course there will be some product placement.”  Well sir or madam, I can see your point but I will refer you to the original “Transformers” cartoon.  They were generic vehicles with no distinguishable characters other than there being a truck, a car, an airplane, and an ambulance.  These simplistic designs could have easily transferred over to the modern film resulting in stronger ties with the original followers of the animated series.  Aside from the obvious cars being the main product placement in the movie, many other companies got to insert their product as well.  Apple, Hewlett Packard, Ebay, Panasonic, Burger King, Pepsi, Microsoft, and many others were very noticeable during the movie.  Some of the placements were very direct in which I mean that a character would make a direct reference to the product while others were in the background, but still very noticeable.

Overall, “Transformers” really isn’t much more than meets the eye.  Yes, the pun was intended!  The movie is a glorified commercial for car manufacturers and other companies who managed to scavenge a few seconds of product placement.  “Transformers” managed to disappoint die-hard fans of the series and to also lose any potential fans by the “modern interpretation” of a 20 year old storyline.  When you strip away the love story between the two main human characters and all the over the top product placement, you would have a decent action movie, but as a whole “Transformers” is another example when making money interferes with the creativity and depth of a story.

Transformers Product Placement

I will begin by with a typical trip a student takes, beginning midway through the journey by the Center for the Arts.  As you turn the corner to go behind the Center, one thing should definitely stand out.  A large black pick-up truck with neon green (or blue) graphics on the side of it sits in the parking lot surrounded by needy students.  This could only indicate one thing…Monster Energy drinks, or the zombie apocalypse.  I’d go with the second option, but sadly it’s the first.  This being college, we all love free things.  Monster preys upon that factor by giving away their drinks to anyone who walks by.  This seems fine and dandy but when sugar and caffeine enters the blood system of a student, a wonderful chemical reaction takes place resulting in a high-energy student crossing Cross Campus Dr. and walking up to parking lot #20.

Upon reaching parking lot #20, loud music can be heard, alcoholic substances can be seen, food can be smelt and a general sensory overload can occur, all taking place in a caffeinated college student’s mind.  Should the student arrive before the opening kickoff, chances are he or she will wander around lot 20 partaking in many of the activities going on.  If the student decides to partake in all of the things going on during the tailgate, he or she would not be sober, would be energized due to loud music being played,  and would overall be the “perfect” fan going into a football game; one who is completely engrossed in the game and ready to encourage others to participate.

During the actual game Towson University does a phenomenal job in keeping the fans energized despite the typical score.  The Towson University Marching Band is the main force of this which uses catchy songs as a way to both keep fans moving and focused on the game.  Also, Doc often roams through the stands which gets many people, particularly small children, excited and always trying to snag a picture with the mascot.  Ultimately, Towson’s best effort in getting everyone into the game is the Marching Band.  The deals that the school store provide which include free or discounted clothing, etc are dwarfed in comparison to the effect that the band has on a fan’s devotion to a particular game.

Multiple factors influence a fan’s interest in game besides who is playing and the actual score.  One of the main reasons why so many people go to the football games as opposed to just watching them on the television is because of the atmosphere.  The smallest amount of an energy drink or alcohol, the timing of a song being played, a chant started by a fan in the bleachers, or even a certain song being played can dramatically influence someone’s behavior.  Overall, Towson University does a tremendous job in providing an enjoyable atmosphere for people of all ages to enjoy a sporting event.

Monster Energy Drinks!

One of the reasons why “Lamb” appeals to me so much is because of my Catholic background.  I have gone to a Catholic school all of my life and have heard the stories of Jesus throughout my life.  Although I don’t consider myself a very religious person, I can appreciate the stories the Bible tells and can gain a lot from them.  One of the things “Lamb” does beautifully is blend traditional Bible stories involving Jesus with stories that ultra-conservative Christians would consider blasphemy.  It is of my opinion and those who have read the book (including my previous religious teacher) that the story is done in a very tasteful way that anyone can relate to and enjoy.

Anyone who has read the story of Jesus knows that his teenage years are unaccounted for.  This leaves many theologists (religious scholars) to question what happened to Jesus during these twenty odd years.  Christopher Moore takes it upon himself to describe Jesus’ many adventures with his childhood pal, Biff.  “Lamb” starts out by describing the adventures of Jesus and Biff when they are children living in Nazareth under Roman Rule.  The early chapters describe how Jesus discovered some of his many powers, particularly resurrection.  As the book progresses so does the relationship between Jesus and Biff.  The two go on many adventures travelling from Israel to the Middle East and Asia.  Each chapter features Jesus learning something new about him, discovering/learning a new power, and/or gaining a deeper understanding of him.  Biff on the other hand is a typical teenager, where acts of debauchery are his favorite things.  The final chapters of the book explain the Passion of the Christ (from Biff’s point of view) and why Biff isn’t included in the Christian Bible.

The impact “Lamb” has had on my life is one that has allowed me to expand my reading literature in ways that are both humorous and though provoking.  Although some of the stories in “Lamb” are a little absurd, they all serve a purpose in gaining a deeper understanding of Jesus, even though many are not what the Catholic Church would call “legitimate”.   “Lamb” has also set the standard for what type of book I look for.  All of Christopher Moore’s novels have an eye catching cover, complete with bright, vivid colors and interesting graphics.  Contrary to the popular saying “you can’t judge a book by its cover”, with Christopher Moore’s novels you can certainly expect an entertaining story, one with a compelling plot and humor to match.

http://www.chrismoore.com/

Positive themes that occur in Disney movies are trust, friendship, family, selflessness, love, and perseverance. These themes all play a key role in life by helping to develop strong morals to help in difficult situations further on in life. Disney puts these positive themes to the test by developing conflicts (both internal and external) with the protagonist. Many parents allow their children to watch these movies in hopes that the lessons learned by the protagonist will in turn help the children when the parent(s) is not around.

Recently there have been more people coming out stating that Disney has been promoting negative themes through their movies. These themes include sexism, defined roles of men and women, and racism, among others. In many Disney movies the male character is the provider and the dominant role in the family, while the woman stays home and cares for the man’s needs. As we know in real life the role is sometimes reversed but normally there is a good balance between the two roles. Disney also portrays the main characters as Alphas. They are very intelligent, extremely good looking, and always come out on top. There are many Beta males and females who although they are not the best at everything are overall good people. Disney however either portrays their characters as Alpha males/females or bumbling idiots, typically serving as a comedic side-kick to entertain young kids. Finally, racism is a very subtle theme in some of Disney’s movies. A good example of racism in a Disney movie is the hyenas in The Lion King. Hyenas, often considered savages of the African plains, are given black and Hispanic characteristics.
From what I can remember, watching Disney movies when I was younger gave me a positive outlook on life. Luckily, my parents took it upon themselves to balance out the constant positive image in life portrayed by the characters of Disney movies by allowing me to watch whatever I wanted to watch (within reason). When a child is growing up it is best for the parent to supply the child with positive life lessons. Three methods of doing this are directly from the parent, from teachers at school, and supplemental lessons from television shows or movies for when the parent can’t be around. As the child gets older and becomes more mature, the parent should then begin to expose the child to the real world (both the positive and negative aspects). When this “whole new world” (pun intended) is gradually exposed to the child, the lessons from the parents, teachers, and for example Disney movies are there for the child to look back on for guidance.
Despite the flaws in many of Disney’s films, many people today, including myself, hold fond memories of them. They allowed for us, when we were children, to begin to develop imaginations and to aspire to be someone of high status, a knight or a prince. Our parents would then say, “don’t you want to be like Simba, the king of the jungle?” Of course we did! We would then look to the examples set by Simba to then live our lives by, hoping that we would one day become a successful person.

Click HERE to go to a site that expands upon the negative themes in Disney movies.

Facebook is designed to emulate everyday scenarios that we have such as bumping into old friends, flipping through photo albums, and joining various clubs.   These highly addictive features of the website keep users logged on the website for an average of 169 minutes a month compared to just the 10 minutes people spend on the New York Times website.  As social technologies continued to spread, various organizations began to realize the massive influence these sites have.  For example, political parties are using Facebook as a way to organize rallies and companies like Dell, are recruiting and screening employees by using Facebook.

Facebook’s ultimate goal is to become a standardized communication and marketing platform.   “It becomes the equivalent of the phone itself: It is the main tool people use to communicate for work and pleasure. It also becomes the central place where members organize parties, store pictures, find jobs, watch videos, and play games. Eventually they’ll use their Facebook ID as an online passkey to gain access to websites and online forums that require personal identification. In other words, Facebook will be where people live their digital lives, without the creepy avatars.”

To obtain this ambitious goal, Facebook is relying on the steady stream of advertisements that decorate Facebook.  After the failure of the application called Beacon, which allowed users to see visited website and even purchases of other users, Facebook is now implementing a new feature called Facebook Connect.   “Facebook Connect lets users log on to company websites using their Facebook logins.  “The system, which dovetails with the vision of a Facebook account as a form of personal ID on the web (privacy settings and all), appeals to advertisers for a couple of reasons. When a user logs on to a third-party site using Facebook Connect, that activity may be reported on her friends’ news feeds, which serves as a de facto endorsement.”

Not only will these social networking technologies reinvent the way we talk with friends and family or search for a job, they will reinvent the way we purchase everyday commodities.  In the near future we will no longer have to search through a website such as Amazon.com for a product, but rather all we will have to do is look at one of our social networking sites and recommendations for purchases will be displayed.  Also in the future it is possible that electronic forms of media such as DVDs and CDs will no longer exist as they will be replaced by digital downloads, possibly from larger social networking sites.

Social networking technologies will not only impact the way we communicate with friends and family, but they will drastically change many of the things in our everyday lives.  These technologies will improve the way we shop online, expose us to various forms of media we were not aware of, change the way we are subjected to advertisements, and render many of the technology today obsolete.

How Facebook is taking over our lives.

Since The Colbert Report is a satirical news show, the show and website function as an informational/instructional, surveillance, and an interpretational/decision making media use.  As a “news” show, the Colbert Report does give the news to the viewer in a typical way, but with a slight but obvious twist at the end.  This allows the viewer to understand the news and also receive a punch line no matter how serious the story is.  The interpretation/decision making aspect of the show comes from Colbert’s critique of other news sources such as CNN, NBC, Fox, etc.  One of my favorite critiques comes from Colbert’s rants on Glen Beck.  Words cannot describe my hate for this man, but Colbert does one hell of a job by both painting him in a highly negative light and ripping apart Beck’s stories.

Colbertnation.com is a website that is highly focused on entertaining those who visit the site.  If someone happened to miss an episode or wants to see a clip of the show they fell in love with, they can easily visit the website, search for what they want, and watch it instantly.  Another benefit of viewing episodes online is that the amounts of commercials are decreased.  Being that this is a show geared toward young men, the commercials range from alcohol, sports, and sex.  Videos on the site that are not directly of Colbert normally consist of movie trailers that relate to guests scheduled to appear on The Colbert Report.  For example, trailers for The Invention of Lying lined the website because Ricky Gervais, the star of The Invention of Lying appeared on the show.

One of the best features of Colbernation.com is the community section.  Not only does the community section have forums in which the members of Colbert Nation can discuss episodes and other show related information, they have the opportunity to create videos with special effects provided by the Colbert Report staff, and other user generated content.  Through the user created content, users can express their own views on subject matter that may differ from other people’s views.  The community section of Colbertnation.com is one of the best features of a website I have seen in a long time.  Aside from having the user generated content posted online, The Colbert Report often shows the content that was put online on television which is a great example of media convergence.

Overall, I believe that Colbernation.com does not need any changes.  As a site that is dedicated to a television show, the website should have clips/full episodes from the show and a forum for the fans.  Colbertnation.com goes above and beyond the expectation of the online community by allowing the viewers to create their own content, purchase material relating to the show, and provide behind the scenes looks of The Colbert Report.  As The Colbert Report continues to air on Comedy Central, I can only hope that Colbernation.com will continue to grow along with the show.

Colbert VS Beck

Wednesday was my downfall.  I started the day by resisting the temptation to use my Ipod as I walk to class but around 11 a.m. I lost it.  It wasn’t as though I needed my music or phone to survive they are just things that I enjoy and since one of my philosophies in life is why deny yourself the things you love I figured that this would be a good time to practice what I preach.  After my four days of logging my willing and unwilling exposure to media I can really appreciate how clever we have become at getting messages across.  This was an excellent assignment because not only did it make me aware of how much subliminal and obvious media there is on campus but it made me do some self reflecting on how media affects my day to day activites.  Without access to an MP4 player or a cell phone I highly doubt that my days would be as full of activities as they are today.

Another video that I stumbled upon was how corportations invest millions of dollars on marketting to the general public.  This video focuses on McDonald’s and their association between their mascot and the actual product they are selling.  Note: If you are scared of clowns then this video might not be one you ought to watch.  Also, if you feel like going retro, here is a link to the first ever McDonal’s commercial. Click HERE.

I had the opportunity to log my media exposure on a Sunday and Monday which allowed me to compare two separate routines.  What I found was that on Sunday I was exposed to a lot of media that was expected for a day when a major football game was going on.  Various advertisements for alcoholic drinks, snack foods, and other items that would appear on the screen directed to the target audience, men.  On Monday, I was bombarded with a variety of different types of media geared toward a much larger audience.  There were signs all over encouraging people to vote in the upcoming building elections,  “walking billboards” or people who wore shirts that had their favorite band or sports team on it, chalk on the ground for various meetings, music blaring from people’s headphones, and television or movies playing from peoples’ rooms.

During these two days, I spent a lot of my down time listening to music, playing video games, watching television, using the internet, and talking to friends either face to face or through the phone (texting and/or phone calls).  These were readily available ways to pass the time in between events and even during events that didn’t require a lot of attention.  Having all of these resources literally at my finger tips doesn’t allow any excuses for being bored.  While waiting for friends to go to dinner at The Den, I could easily whip out my Ipod Touch, check facebook, listen to music, and plan an event for the next day, ALL AT THE SAME TIME!

At the end of the two day period, I came to the conclusion that the next two days would be very hard for me to go through.  Having all of this technology at my disposal and then suddenly not being able to utilize it would definitely leave a void in my daily activities.  During these two days I spent about an hour listening to music, five hours watching television or playing video games,  sent and received about 250 text messages which is a bit below average for me, made and received 24 phone calls, and participated in a research study which focused heavily on facebook.

I hope my life never gets THIS hectic!  In my opinion,  the rules that the Today Show set for this man, Dennis, are very unreasonable.  This man’s career is highly dependant on the technology that he uses.  Without this technology it would be impossible to arrange some of the business deals between countries with the same amount of efficiency.   Aside from his career, Dennis is a divorced father of a young girl.  He is very dedicated to being available to be contacted by his daughter.  Without devices like his cell phone or laptop his daughter might seem a million miles away which would make any father cry.