Reflection

I almost hate how much I've learned about media and the techniques it uses this year. Now I can't watch any TV show and its commercials without completely annoying all the people around me with my stories of the needs appealed to and how "they" (I don't even know who "they" are) are trying to sell this to us. My media consumption is through the roof, and it's only going to go up with the onset of summer and the beckoning of all my electronics without the counter-cry of homework and good grades. I don't even consume as much media as the large majority of people that I know, and I know that I use way too much. It makes me into a reclusive shell that would rather sit in her room than go outside and play with her dog or hang out with her friends. It also exposes me to all kinds of messages that aren't great for my development- images of heavily photo shopped, over-sexualized women and their dimwitted, jerky male counterparts. I wish I could say that after this class I'm going to cut down on my media time, but I would be lying. Media is too deeply ingrained within my life for a class, no matter how informative, to get me off of it. I will, however, be much more careful with how I consume my media. I will try not to be so susceptible to the not-so-deeply-buried messages of lesser worth and conformity. I won't let the media tell me who I should be just so "they" can make another sale. It is important for all of us to have media literacy, because most people aren't going to cut themselves off from media. But they can understand what media does to them and use that understanding to make sure that they aren't taken advantage of. Through keeping this blog, I was able to address some of the issues that I have with media, even though my short little posts weren't even the tip of the iceberg with my newfound distrust of media and everything and everyway that "they" are trying to sell to us, their consumers and cashflow. 

David Beckham Takes It All Off..... Not :(

Watching this commercial as a teenage girl, I felt the anticipation throughout the entire commercial. "WHEN IS IT COMING OFF? Now? No... Now?! No..." And then he never took his shirt off and I was deeply disappointed. While this commercial did use the physiological needs with the fresh strawberries, they mostly relied on Beckham's celebrity testimonial and the humor of everyone repeating "Take it off!" As much as I worship David Beckham and the ground that the walks upon, this commercial was pretty weak. First, an incredibly fit man like Mr. Beckham wouldn't be eating at a Burger King. Second, he wouldn't be working behind the counter. An third, no woman in the room would have been able to move, let alone speak, if they thought that his top was coming off.

OMAM

I guess I should probably at some point explain the name of my blog- Little Talks. It's the title of a song by my all-time favorite band, Of Monsters and Men. The song is what first turned me onto them, and since then I've been hooked. One of my favorite things about them, other than their music, is the fact that they are from Iceland. The fact that they come from a place that  holds so much mystery to me (I know literally nothing about the country other than this band) is really fascinating. But their music is what really got me. It has a very ethereal tone in my mind and makes me want to put on my hippie skirts, get some flowers in my hair, and dance in circles around a bonfire. To me, Of Monsters and Men offers a peaceful escape from the chaos and stress that surround every high school student. Their lyrics are exceedingly odd, which only makes them better. They are starting to gain popularity which really excites me, as they completely deserve all praise and adoration that they will receive. Some of their better  known songs are the aforementioned "Little Talks" and also "King and Lionheart." But my all time favorite song by them is "Dirty Paws."

 The lyrics to this song are some of the oddest and most indecipherable I've ever heard, but I LOVE IT!

Girl Gamers

As a female gamer, I have always felt mistreated. My first experience with a legitimate console game was Oblivion. To this day it is my favorite game, but from the very beginning, the sexism, while lesser than that of other games, painfully affected me. All female characters started out with certain stats lower than those of their male counterparts. This gave me the feeling that the only choice to be successful in the game was to be a man, and that is not a good message to be spreading to children. In the following video, another issue I have with video games is addressed- the blatant male violence against women.

Domestic violence is already enough of an issue in the world. But by showing the constant degradation and brutality towards women in a form of media that is used by many youths, the problem can only escalate. The protagonist- the supposed "good guy"- is given the position of power and uses it to abuse and murder women. If that is who kids are striving to be outside of reality, how much longer until it enters the real world? Not only are almost EVERY SINGLE lead character men, they only use violence. Because of that, women and people trying to stay away from violent themes are severely limited in their game choices. So many games that I hear boys that I know talking about as the "best thing ever" are filled with negative, hyper-sexualized and brutalized images of women. It really makes me sad that that is what the gaming community has come to.

Gilmore Girls

Gilmore Girls is a normally very over-dramatic, try-hard show. But one episode really impressed me- more one subtle line within the episode. In "Those Are Strings, Pinnochio", Rory, a super-smart teenager, has been accepted to Yale, but her single mother Lorelai can't afford it. When Rory learns this, she storms off to her room. When asked where she was going, she replied "To rage at God", to which her mother resonds, "Tell her I said hi!" HER! Yessss! I have always hated the stereotypical big old guy with the beard living upstairs. But they challenged the stereotype perfectly and subtly.

Same Love

Oh my goodness... Just as soon as my hope in America was lost (see Bow Chicka Wow Wow by Mike Posner) it was rekindled by this amazing music video. I disliked Mackelmore because of his song "Thrift Shop" but this song and video are amazing. In it, they are arguing for equal rights for ALL people- gay and straight. They feature a young man outside of the stereotypical gay man- a little, artsy, white boy. This boy is African-American and sporty. He spends his entire life feeling less than those around him until he is finally happy, marrying the man of his dreams. The lyrics to this song are fantastic and inspirational and give me hope for our country and our people.

Radio 94.7 is a Sacramento-based radio station that I really like. One of my friends turned me on to it a year ago and I haven't stopped listening since. One of the things that I love the most about the station is their connection to their listeners and what they want. Most commercial breaks are only 60 seconds long, which already makes it better than most of the stations around this region, who have 10 minute long commercial breaks after only a half hour of music. But what really puts them above all others is their texting system. If you like a song, you text them "LIKE" and they remember, playing the song more often if it gets enough likes. If you really hate a song, you text them "DISLIKE", and if they get enough, they will pull the song off the air and never play it again. And, if you really want to, you can become a Radio 94.7 "Insider" or a "VIP." Both get texts from the station about upcoming concerts and oppurtunities to go to these concerts for free or reduced rates. Also, every once in a while, they will have a "Perfect Playlist" where one person picks 5 songs that they love and get them played on the air! I was about to give up on radio until I found this station, and now I am sooooo glad that I didn't.

Candy Crush

My dad and I sat down for our weekly Top Gear showing. The first set of commercials seemed normal until- bam!- a commercial that really confused us. Candy Crush Saga is a game on Facebook that's also available as an app that both my dad and I play. So it was surprising to us when a commercial for it popped up on the tv.

I never expected to see an ad for a Facebook app on tv- I figured they would stick to their own site for marketing. But they were advertising to the perfect group- we watched Top Gear and enjoyed Candy Crush Saga, so they must've had something right in the marketing room. Sadly, the commercial seemed pretty low budget, almost faded, and just plain weird. But hey, I still like the game.

FOTC

New Zealand's 4th most popular comedy folk duo, Flight of the Conchords, are amazing. Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement are two of the most comical and entertaining people I have ever seen. They are like a stand-up group, except that they do their comedy through song, making it all the more enjoyable and accessable. They can be super akward and make it totally work. They can take super serious subjects and make an entire room fall off their chairs in laughter. The world needs more comedians and artists like Bret and Jemaine, as they are some of the best ever. It is a complete travesty that their show was cancelled after only two seasons (curse you HBO!). They give off a perfect quirky vibe while they deal with day to day issues, like racist fruit stands and male prostitution. Please enjoy just this one of their many songs and it will hopefully have you hooked.

ALMOND MILK!!!

I was grocery shopping with my dad, just about to check out, when I glimpsed a product I automatically knew that I needed. I didn't know what it was, but the matte packaging with little bits of perfectly placed color and a pretty girl's face made me sure I needed it. I slammed the cart to a stop and literally ran across the aisle to check out what my new favorite drink was. "Oh... It's... Almond milk?" I was quite disappointed. I don't know what I was expecting- maybe juice,  but nothing that it could have been warranted how excited that packaging made me. But it just goes to show you what packaging can do. Bravo, Califia Farms. You got at least one sale off of your packaging alone.

P.S. The almond milk was quite sub-par. DISAPPOINTMENT!

Sparkle and Fade

My new favorite album is Sparkle and Fade by Everclear. Admittedly it isn't exactly new, as it came out two years before I was born. But the songs, especially the lyrics, are amazing. My favorite song on this album would have to be "Pale Green Stars."

This song is about divorce and its effect on children. Not only do I relate to this song because my parents got divorced when I was six and then eight years later my mom got divorced again, but also because of the name of the song- "Pale Green Stars." After my parent's divorce, I had the aforementioned pale green stars above my bed- the glow in the dark universe that accompanied me to sleep every restless night. Another one of my favorite songs on the album is "Strawberry."

While this song is about relapsing, I find it inspirational for whatever I'm doing. Whenever I feel down I just listen to "Strawberry" and realize that I can't fall down now, or else I may never get it. It really gets me back up from the ground whenever I'm feeling down.

The Glades and the KIA

I've been watching The Glades, a show about a homicide detective in Florida and his nurse girlfriend. This nurse, Callie, is a single mother who drives a KIA. I stopped watching the show after a certain scene involving the car. As she was driving her son to soccer, the camera panned around the outside and interior of the car and Callie then proceeded to plug the various features that the KIA has, such as a sunroof and an awesome entertainment system. The blatant product placement ruined the entire show for me, and I stopped watching it. I just saw another episode, and they had basically the exact same scene, just with a different model of the same car. I'm sure that the money that KIA paid them to make their show into an ad helped with the production, but it also ruined the integrity of the show. I get that product placement is a new and innovative way for advertisers to shove more products down our throats, but it's getting to the point where it's counterproductive and the companies just seem desperate. WE have TiVo for a reason- so we can watch shows without ads.

Gossip Girl

Doesn't every teenager love pissing off their parents by doing thing that they don't want us to do? Gossip Girl, a CW show about the lives of Manhattan's teenage elite, took that love of rebellion and put it into an ad campaign.

They took the reaction of the Parental Advocacy Group, which was horror over the rampant sexuality that it shows, and pasted it over some of said sexual scenes. Seems as though the group's best efforts to rid their homes of "bad influences" backfired, as the show went on for a long while afterwards, with a large and dedicated fanbase. This is one of the few ads that appeals to our need for sex and also our wish to rebel from the normal lives we lead.

Boston Marathon Bombing Coverage

The Boston Marathon Bombing shocked everyone in the country and the different ways that it was covered by different news stations was very interesting. I was watching Extra and they actually had a story about the different coverages of the event of the different stations, in particular The Today Show and Good Morning, America. Good Morning, America featured a bunch of photos of the bombing and had a very dramatic coverage that seemed like they were exploiting the terrible situation just to get more viewers with the shock factor. The Today Show, on the other hand, has been commended for their stellar coverage of this disaster. They kept it much more low-key, which I'm sure that the victims really appreciated. I've always felt that while the news keeps us informed of what's going on in the world, news stations overdo it and make their coverage slightly disrespectful of the victims. But I found The Today Show's coverage to be perfect, which I'm sure others will agree with and perhaps increase their viewership.