Blog reflectin

January 23, 2019

While putting out media blogs multiple times a week I was able to see deeper on the media platform rather than just the stuff that I chose to see. After all the analyzing of multiple techniques and things I find myself looking at twitter or Instagram and recognizing a few of the techniques used in their advertising. In the beginning of the blogs I think I maintained a steady relationship with media and I would definitely say I'm still there. I even started to track my screen time. When narrowed down into specifics I average roughly two hours and 30 minutes on, “social networking,” according to apple. With me being on media I see it consumes most of my time that could be spent doing better things like homework or studying. But this large time on media I spend seems to be holding me back a bit when finding motivation, for I rather watch stories then learn about magical realism. Now that I am aware of the media more I would like to try and get off it. Knowing this was my number one distraction I would sometimes just leave my phone in another room in order to get my work done.

After learning the skills of media literacy I saw its importance, for it helps us navigate through the cluttered media that has so many points to it. With this skill I now see how it can be bad to be corrupted by media. For it can give you false assumptions for real life along with some standards. You don't get to see all sides through media, only the one that is picture perfect. But with knowing media literacy we can be sure we won't get tricked by these false realities presented to us. Also with the skill of being an educated consumer we can see the points advertisers are trying to hit at and not allow them to have us tricked into buying their product. Knowing they want us to feel sad and lonely will help us see they will really do anything just to sell their product, and they don't care individually towards you the consumer. With the constant keeping up with these blogs I gained more knowledge of the media side that goes more unseen, for no one really detects it. But  doing the blogs gave me extra practice into developing these skills used and finding the selling point. Finally after analyzing media as more of a whole I realized I don't really like some of the stuff out there. Its posted carelessly and effects others. Such as men's comments that were in Miss Representation and just other things in general. But I know that I should just try and be less active on it in order to help my efficiency in school.

Meal of Champions

01/14/2019
Imagine going to the white house and meeting one of our nations leaders. Expecting a nice full grand meal, 5 courses and everything. Then to be met with the sad reality of $5 cheese burgers that you can get anytime of the day. Well the Clemson Tigers were met with this sad situation after their national championship win.
With the longest government shut down currently at 24 days now, there was no food to feed the players.  Trump had come up with this brilliant idea to feed them,"Great American food." The food served came from multiple fast food chains including McDonald's, Wendy's and Burger king. And according to Trump all the expenses had come from his own pocket. At this dinner guests, players, and coaches all gathered around to eat this meal with one another. This meal is also the first one held by trump for athletes, after the Philadelphia Eagles dinner was canceled.

This story has gone around all media platforms becoming one of twitters trending tweets. I understand how this is news but I feel it too will be used to judge Trump as a leader, but this has nothing todo with politics. Most of what he says will and does come back to him even when its not politically related. But I guess its a part of the job.

MissRepresentation

1/12/2019
For the longest time men have always been seen as superior to women. With this always being a present factor in everyday life there has been some impacts of it on women. They are often looked down upon and are set to do certain, "womanly duties." Like maintaining a nice and happy home for raising children.
Growing up as a girl and with this mindset in most people I find that there are some struggles that we face. While watching this video made me see that this will be a present force within my whole lifetime. It showed so many examples of successful women who still deal with the people who still assume their job is to be in the kitchen. Like for these strong smart women who are running for office aren't seen by their thoughts and knowledge, but by their looks. As seen in the video women like Sara Palin are more seen as an object rather than a person. When shed make headliners they were move of how short her skirt was or this was a revealing top rather than her political views. And for Hillary Clinton some men would try and say she wouldn't be fit for president because shes a woman. The movie showed multiple times where a man would imply she counted run the country because women are, "B*tchy," or they are to emotional,or can get mad because of their period. Now not all men out there aren't like this but there is still a handful who think in this,'traditional,' way.
I think that because of the way media shows women some girls feel they need to set themselves to some standers to fit what men want. The movie had mentioned how 53% of 13 year old girls don't like the way they look and I can only imagine that number has gone up a large amount. Its sad to see that we are still trying to fit into what a media portrays women be. The size 2 beautiful blonde hair blue eyed girl that never eats and all the boys love her. But if the media can change the way they view women maybe we can start having girls that are comfortable with themselves and know that they can a person and not just some item to men.

The Oscars

01/08/2019
One of the most well know award shows is coming up, but there seems to be much conflict with who will host it. The show is less than two months away and it remains without a host. In December it had been announced that Kevin Hart would host the show. But after he was asked to apologize for his previous tweets which insulted the lgbtq community he stepped down. He says that he has already apologized. Although there are still people out there fighting for him to host the award show. One being Ellen DeGeneres, she took to her twitter to say, "I believe in forgiveness. I believe in second chances. And I believe in @KevinHart4real." Along with this she had released a few clips of him on her show from past times. Even her brother, Vance DeGeneres had spoke out about this situation. He tweeted about how his sister a good person and how, “you may want to pick on someone who actually deserves your criticism.” Recently on Monday hart did apologized to the LGBTQ community through his radio show and along with it mentioned how he would still most likely not be hosting the Oscars.
This hosting situation has gone way out of hand and to a point where others wouldn’t like to host it. Just recently Chris Rock recently admitted that he wouldn’t even like to host the award ceremony if he had been asked. He mentioned how he would have wanted to do so 5 yeas ago. But now everything is taken way to seriously, he thinks something offensive but funny would be fine back then but now people get offended by everything. 
 With all this host drama going on I wonder who will end up hosting the up coming awards. I understand where the conflict comes in and how it may be viewed but I stand with Ellen in believing that people can be forgiven. This comes to show us that what we do and say on the internet stays on there forever. These tweets were from years ago in 2009 and 2010 but still are relevant. With the media being such a big force in our everyday lives we really should be more careful as to what we do. 

 

Midriffs//1/06/2019

As we saw in "Merchants of Cool," there is a certain figure girls have been copying, called a midriff. These girls show a higher level of maturity than what they really are. For example it can be a 13 year old looking older and dressing older than what they rally are. By possibly wearing a lot of makeup and dressing more revealing. The midriffs have a certain image they want to obtain. They are consumed by their looks and are trying to flaunt their bodies. Someone who was a prime example of this was Britney Spears. In her early days of fame while she was much younger she had exactly what all the girls were looking for. She had presented herself way older than the reality and she portrayed an image of naughty innocence in a way. By putting on her school girl clothes that weren't to appropriate. With all her fame I'm sure that through her display of character she developed other girls ways of being.
Now this was a concept back in the early two thousands, but its still prominent in today society. I see it in girls often, I just think its not as much noticed anymore because its such a common thing for girls now a days. Especially with there being multiple media sites available like Instagram, twitter, VSCO, and snap chat there are more ways to display this. I think being a midriff is a desired quality to girls because this is whats common and what will make them fit in.

@wherearetheavacados

One of the most relevant alternative pop stars in todays age  has just hit 10 million followers on Instagram today, 12/17/2018. This pop star is Billie Eilish, and her insta handle is @wherearetheavacados . Billie is one of the most successful 16 year olds (will be turning 17 tomorrow) in the music industry. She has grown lately within the past year and its all due to media.

Now don't get me wrong,she has a beautiful voice that I am in love with, but with all of her media popularity has definitely helped her. She recently did a one year apart interview with vanity fair and there are major differences between her past and present self. The Fist one which was recorded October 18,2017 she mentions, "I have 257,000." When asked about her current followers. Then to the one in 2018 she has 6.3 million...a big change in just a year. From these we obviously know she's growing in popularity at such a fast rate, I mean she gained roughly 4 million followers within 2 months!

But what is amazing about her as an artist is her creativity and what she sings about. She writes then sings what she feels and has such a deep connection in what she saying, and she's so young. Her artistic ability too is something so unreal. She recently released a music video for one of her newer songs, When The Parties Over and it had even brought some fans to tears.

With all of her success both on and off media she has made many appearances in top name videos such as the one mentioned before, vanity fair. Recently this star also got a big break by being chosen to write a song for one of apples winter commercials. All of these extra things have helped this amazing teen get to where she is now. Media is definitely a present force in her life and has increased her fan base exponentially.

The Big Split

Recently it was announced the rapper Cardi B and Offset from the Migos are getting a divorce. It was announced over Instagram by Cardi B. Starting off with her saying, "I've been trying to work things out with my baby father." Then goes on about how they just haven been getting along but are good as friends and she'll always have love for him. Its been four days since the announcement and its still one of the top news stories on twitter. There are headlines stating, "I miss Cardi" or," Cardis rap about divorce." Its all about the drama and what's going on between them. Which I can imagine being tough given their whole personal life is out there and that this is a very personal situation.

Being in this day and age with social media all around us giving us all our news must be hard for these celebrities. People don't seem to care about their privacy but rather try and go deeper into their life and these people doing this are complete strangers.The medias current play in this situation is to give everyone the news on this split. For news sources like TMZ, people, cosmopolitan, and etc. are posting all about it.

This story is a major headline on sources like the ones listed. Some sources are even trying to say this is just a publicity stunt just to promote themselves. Which I find absurd considering this is ending a one year marriage. Not to mention they have a child together and this will be affecting her life as she grows up. With all of this going on in each rappers life I feel we should just let them be and settle this by themselves. But with media present we all know that's not a possible outcome.