I had never used a blog before this course, nor had I followed any. I’m not an extremely technologically savvy gal, so it was nice to see how easy it is to set up and write a blog. Another benefit of using blogs was that we got to see our classmates’ blogs and their ideas in addition to our own. The only difficulties I encountered were technical as I sometimes had trouble inserting pictures or links. I overcame these difficulties by taking time figuring out what went wrong or how to do something a different way. The blogs that were more interesting to me were the ones that gave us more freedom to choose what to write about. For instance, I liked the recent prompt that allowed us to choose one of our favorite advertisements and write about it. Overall, I feel neutral about using blogs. I think you might as well keep using blogs in the future since it is keeping up with the new age. One way the blogs are superior to other types of writing assignment is with the visual and multimedia components of them. Especially for an Introduction to Media course, the blogs were an appropriate outlet with which to reflect on our studies. Nonetheless, the blog for this class has not inspired me to start a blog on my own anytime soon. Yes, you can use my blog in a paper or report.
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Cultural Imperialism in American Films
Globalization is a process of increasing interconnectedness among nations, cultures, and peoples; it is accelerated by technological developments. Globalization relates to cultural imperialism, which is when the cultural flow illustrates an imbalance in the global power structure. This occurs when the global media flow is neither equal in direction nor volume of material; the interconnectedness is controlled more by one group. The United States is a shining example of cultural imperialism with our ever expanding strife to “Americanize” the rest of the world. Aspects of the western world, therefore, are apparent in many other parts of the world now. Cultural imperialism is a threat to local and indigenous cultures because it has the potential to overpower and possibly exterminate them.
America’s Hollywood film industry exemplifies cultural imperialism because it is a source that has dominated not only in the United States, but all around the world. The number of American films that are exported to other countries vastly outweighs the foreign films that we bring here for viewing. One classic example of an American movie that blossomed into a worldwide phenomenon is the original Star Wars trilogy. The film’s extreme American success erupted into a worldwide success and is still widely known and referenced worldwide. This is just one of many instances in which American films have traversed our borders into overseas successes. The American film industry has maintained its dominance for many decades, and has yet to show any indication of relinquishing it.
image from: zazzle.com
Sunday, November 7, 2010
An Advertisement to Make You Snicker
One of my favorite advertisements is a recent television commercial for Snickers. Aretha Franklin is in a car with three other young guys, and she starts out by saying, “Can we turn the A.C. up, I’m dying in here!” One of the guys in the back with her offers her a Snickers, and when she asks why, he says, “because every time you get hungry you turn into a diva.” After Aretha eats the Snickers she turns back into Jeff, one of their friends, and is all better. This advertisement is persuasive because it uses humor to sell its product. The commercial isn’t making any outlandish claims that Snickers will transform your entire life for the better, but instead it plays on the simple truth that people are cranky when they are hungry. The advertisement is persuasive because its claim is believable; I’m sure that Snickers does subside hunger. I doubt it’s good for you or nutritious, but I’m sure if you eat one you won’t be as hungry!
picture from estergoldberg.typepad.com
The physiological needs appeal applies to this advertisement. Characteristics of this kind of appeal are related to human needs. Physiological literally means characteristic of the normal functioning of a living organism, so this type of appeal could relate to a number of needs from hunger to sleep. This type of appeal is usually persuasive because physiological needs are ones that everyone shares as human beings. When an advertisement addresses hunger, thirst, or sleep, more people are likely to pay attention because it applies to us all; we will be more interested in products that will supposedly defy these things.
This Snickers advertisement best coincides with the physiological needs appeal because hunger is a physiological need. The commercial uses humor to convey this appeal, also including celebrities to more strongly make its point. The humor stems from a simple, longstanding truism that people get grumpy when they are hungry. The clever use of a real diva (Aretha Franklin) more acutely conveys this idea, and her transformation back into Jeff, another young guy, proves Snickers’ point that the candy bar will subdue your hunger and thus improve your mood.
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