Video Game/App Reflection

  Another game I like to play besides What's the Phrase is a game called Trivie. Trivie is a trivia game. You can play against a friend or a random opponent. You can choose from different categories of questions or you can choose the random question category. In order to choose a specific question category you need coins. Once you choose a category you may also choose if you want any power ups. However, the power ups also require you to use coins.

  This game is fun and I always feel like I learn a lot but unfortunately it's so easy to lose your coins. You have to use them for almost everything.

  If you would like, you can always purchase coins though.
750 coins = $1.99
1,200 coins = $2.99
2,100 coins = $4.99
4,500 coins = $9.99
15,000 coins = $29.99 (advertised as their best value)

  The game is always reminding you to upgrade or purchase coins...

  Whenever I see this while I'm playing it's easy to think of the lecture on MMORPG's, or massive multiplayer online role playing games.

  In that lecture we talked about World of Warcraft and how it has evolved into something huge. You can make a living farming gold, it has its own economy, and you can sell your character (Computer Mediated Comm lecture, 2013). World of Warcraft makes over 100 million a year! 

  Although Trivie probably doesn't make as much as World of Warcraft, it intrigues me to think that people actually pay for more coins because they like the game that much, and play all the time. 

Movie Reflection

  I personally don't know many people who enjoy watching documentary's, but I love them. One of my  favorites is called First Position. It's also on Netflix. 

First Position follows seven ballet dancers ages 10-17 training to compete in one of the world's most prestigious ballet competitions, the Youth America Grand Prix. Their performances determine their future in the art of ballet. 

  While watching this documentary I thought of the Uses and Gratifications theory. The uses and Gratifications theory was created by Blumler and Katz in 1974 and says that we actively choose what we want to enjoy (Mass Media lecture, 2013). It doesn't believe that we are unconsciously affected by the media. I believe this theory because it goes along with exactly why I chose to watch this documentary. 

  I chose to watch this documentary because I am a dancer and a dance teacher, therefore a documentary about ballet interests me, probably more than it would interest anyone else. I also chose to watch this so I could learn more about dance and ballet competitions. Nobody told me I had to watch this, I decided I wanted to watch it on my own. 

First Position Trailer: 

Website Reflection

  Today I visited Facebook.  I got on Facebook kind of late compared to all my friends. I believe I was going to be junior in high school at the time. The website looked completely different when I first started using it compared to today. 

  Facebook is always changing and even though some people don't like it, I believe it is a good thing. By changing up the website people stay interested. If the website was always the same people would get bored. It's hard for me to remember every single thing that has changed on Facebook, but there are still so many people who use it, therefore the changes that Facebook has made are working. 

  When thinking about social media in general I feel that it is a part of mass culture. 

  Mass culture is something that is mass-produced and isn’t considered important enough for serious critical scrutiny (Grossberg, 2006).

  The reason I feel that social media is a part of mass culture is because there are many different forms of social media. Today, social media is huge part of society and there are all different forms of social media. For example:  Facebook, Myspace, LinkedIn, Vine, Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, etc. With so many different social media sites, social media is so “normal” and it is used so much. Even businesses use it. 

Printed Media Reflection

  I sometimes get Vogue magazines in the mail. I usually don't read magazines, but I read my Vogue magazine I received in May for this assignment. 

  Usually when I go through magazines I don’t pay much attention to the ads. I usually sniff the perfumes and then turn the page. This time, I paid closer attention to the ads in the magazine, and I found that the Laura Mulvey’s Gaze Theory applies to almost all of the ads that I saw.

  The Gaze Theory is a theory by Laura Mulvey from 1976 that states women on screen are subject to male gaze (Gender Media Critiques lecture, 2013). Male gaze means that women are seen as objects or subordinates (2013). This theory looks at how men see women, how women see women, and a women sees herself as well, because it isn’t just men who adopt the male gaze (2013).

  While I was looking through the magazine ads almost all of them had a women in vulnerable body positions or in revealing clothing. Although none of the ads had saying like the ads we saw in class, a lot of them had one word on them. Some said “desire” or “Impulsive”.

  By seeing ads like this in a women’s magazine made me realize that the Gaze Theory is correct. Both men and women see women as objects. Although I saw a lot of ads that backed up the Gaze Theory, I believe that if I looked at a different magazine like Cosmopolitan, I would have seen even more racy ads that support the Gaze Theory.  

vogue.com

Something Else Media Related That I Enjoy

  I sometimes watch the show Catfish on MTV. I watched every single episode the first season. And the very first episode caught my attention right away. I figured that talking about this episode would fit this assignment perfectly.

  First, Catfish is TV show about people who are Catfished. Catfishing is pretending to be someone you’re not on any social media site usually to pursue a romance or friendship. The show on MTV shows the stories of people who are in online relationships who want to meet the person that they’re falling in love with via Facebook, Myspace, etc.

  Unfortunately the person that they were talking to turns out to be someone completely different.  

  The first episode is called “Sunny and Jamison”. In this episode Sunny falls in love with a man named Jamison. He claims he is a model, writer, and is going to college. Sunny is in love with this man and hopes to one day get married and have children. However, when they finally meet it turns out Jamison is not who he says he is. Jamison is actually a woman.

  This episode makes me think of gender switching and why people choose to do it. I learned that people gender to switch to explore those characteristics or to release feelings of homosexuality (Computer Mediated Comm lecture, 2013). When Sunny first meets the girl pretending to be Jamison she asks if she’s a lesbian and the girl quickly responds “no”. However, if I remember correctly, at the reunion episode she did admit that she was coming out. I believe that pretending to be the opposite gender is beneficial to the person pretending but harmful for the person on the other side. 

Reality TV Show Reflection

  I finally was able to watch the show Naked and Afraid. Naked and Afraid is a survival show on the Discovery Channel. A man and women are naked and stranded on an island, in the jungle, etc. and have to survive for 21 days. They are allowed one personal item, but in the end if they make it, there is no prize. Their only prize is their accomplishment to survive in some of the worst weather conditions and with some of the worst animals and insects.

  After watching this show once, I was addicted. I found this show extremely interesting and I liked that there was no cash prize at the end. I think this show really tests the survivalist’s abilities and I found myself rooting for these people to make it the 21 days.

  While watching this show I thought about the interpreting meaning lecture that we had in class.

  One thing I learned is that people look for two common things in a certain text:

1.    Behavior

2.    Meaning

(Interpreting Meaning lecture, 2013)

  There are also a couple of reasons why people turn to the text in the first place and why people enjoy certain texts.

  They might be looking for a role model or a way of living. People enjoy learning how to do something (Grossberg, 2006). I believe that this is why I enjoy Naked and Afraid so much. I like to learn new things and I feel like this show teaches as well as entertains.

  Another reason a person might turn to a text is for a meaning below the surface (2006). I also believe that the reason why I enjoy the show is for another meaning, which is communication and teamwork. I like to learn but at the same time I enjoy watching the teamwork together to survive as well as get over the obstacles they face as a team.

Full Episodes