Extra Credit Evaluation Blog

The following are the answers to the questions posed in the email regarding the blog post sent to our class email list:

This is the first time that I have ever had to create and regularly use a blog. The biggest positive aspect of the blog, in my opinion, was the fact that the blog posts made me critically think about concepts that we reviewed in class. Without the blog, it is likely that I would have just memorized the lessons we learned during lecture, rather than think about their effect on my life and on our culture as a whole. In addition, by developing the concepts it helped clarify things that I was confused about during lecture. I appreciated the extra push that the blog provided to read further into tough concepts and definitions.

I enjoyed the blogs that developed ideas that are currently controversial in today's day and age. For example, I particularly enjoyed the blogs that I wrote regarding women's image in the media today because it was eye opening to see how easily the image of the "perfect" woman is engraved in my mind via advertisements and women's roles in all different media outlets. On the other hand, I found it difficult to elaborate on the blog regarding the Hollywood System, because it was hard to relate to something that hasn't existed in my life time. Although, I did learn a lot by looking into the effect of the Hollywood System and its audience an its actresses, which I appreciated. 

Although I did feel that the blog had some positive effects on my learning experience in RTF 305, I don't think that I would recommend using it again. This is because I felt that the blog assignments didn't help my understanding of the majority of the concepts we discussed in lecture. Although it enhanced my understanding of a few topics, when it came time to study for the exams I wished that I had completed assignments that clarified a broader range of topics that were on the powerpoints during lecture.

If the blogs do continued to be used in future semesters, I recommend that the sections make a point to cover topics that students did not elaborate on in their blogs. This way, the teachers will make sure that the students get to clarify all of the concepts, not just the ones used on the blog prompts.

Globalization

After lecture concluded on Wednesday, I have come up with the following working definition Globalization. Globalization is the process of increasing interconnectedness among nations, cultures, and people through developments in technology and media. Globalization increases the opportunity for people to communicate with each other no matter how far away they may be. As a result, an abundance of information is now available for massive amounts of people due to the seemingly unlimited access that technology gives to its users which creates a global audience, rather than just a local, regional or national audience.

However, one must look at the positive AND negative effects of Globalization and the "global" audience. It can be argued that increased globalization can lead to increased cultural imperialism. Cultural imperialism is the idea that, due to globalization, nations are becoming more Westernized and Americanized which is decreasing the amount of local, indigenous and national culture. The idea of cultural imperialism doesn't take into consideration 3 major factors. First, cultural imperialism doesn't take into consideration the diversity of different national cultures and media outlets. Second, cultural imperialism does not address how a product is made, or how the product is used in different nations. Third, many view cultural imperialism as too totalizing across different media outlets, nations and audiences.

A great example of cultural imperialism and globalization is the fact that most news stations are owned by 3 corporations.  In class we learned that the most "global-est" news corporations were AP (US), AFP (France) and Reuters (UK & Canada). Although there are definitely perks to having few conglomerations running the majority of the news, such as increased amount of information and access to news on an international level, there are some serious negatives as well. The power of that these few corporations have can be very dangerous in terms of their ability to call attention to certain issues, rather than others. For example, if there is a scandal with one of the news agencies, they have the ability to keep the details of the scandal under wraps, do to their massive power over an abundant amount of stations. Since globalization is creating more mass audiences than ever before, the ability to keep a story from getting into the news means that a massive amount of people will not hear about the story. This type of power held by so few companies leads to what is now referred to as a media conglomerate. In other words, the rich and the powerful have final say about what is important for the entire world to learn about on the news. This example could definitely be viewed as a way in which one corporations can have a large amount of power on the world, rather than just one nation or region.

Below I have attached a link that further develops the ideas of cultural imperialism and globalization in the media today.
http://www.mediamonitors.net/osama4.html

Subaru "Baby Driver" Commercial Attempts to Connect with Parents using the "Safety" Appeal Technique

Normally, I hate commercials. Most of them are ineffective, and highly irritating. However, Subaru recently came out with an ad titled, "Baby Driver," which I found to be effective. The ad shows a conversation between a father and his daughter, a new driver, only the daughter isn't the typical age of a new driver. Rather, the daughter shown in the beginning of the commercial is about 5-years old. The father is rattling off safety precautions while the young girl is putting her seatbelt on and starting the car.  I found the ad to be effective because the conversation was very realistic, and it reminded me of the speeches I received from my dad when I first started driving. In addition, the little girl's adorable voice and appearance made me highly sensitized to the ad's message about safety. 

In class we discussed different appeals of advertising that companies use to connect with their consumers through commercials. The appeal that Subaru used in this commercial was the appeal to safety. The safety appeal approach is generally aimed at an older audience, who is concerned about not only their safety, but the safety of their loved ones as well. Safety ads are generally less flashy, and more realistic. Ads with safety appeal use realistic situations to give their potential consumers assurance that their product will keep them, their families, and friends out of harms way. 

The Subaru commercial perfectly uses the safety appeal in its commercial. The commercial plays on the heart-strings of parents everywhere, who all share the same fear of handing the keys to their car to their child for the first time knowing all of the dangers that lay ahead on the road. It is a realistic situation that doesn't discuss all the flashy and up-to-date elements of the Subaru itself, like other car ads do. Rather, Subaru and its advertising team decides to focus on the consumer rather than the product. The consumer, after viewing the commercial, is supposed to feel confident that if he/she purchases a Subaru, the people he/she cares about most in the world will be safe while operating a motor vehicle. 

Below I have attached two links. 

The first, is the link to the actual ad. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qf8OGLqE1s

The second, is an article that supports my claim that the "Baby Driver" ad uses the safety appeal in the commercial. 

http://www.autoguide.com/auto-news/2010/08/new-subaru-ad-promotes-brands-safety-captures-teen’s-“first-time-out”-driving-moment.html