Ryan Klingenberg
Final Examination Part 2
“Media & Me- A Day In The Life” Final Paper
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I have a laptop next to my bed with wireless Internet. I have a computer about a yard from the foot of my bed. I have a Kindle with an Amazon account, in the drawer of my nightstand. Within reaching distance from my bed are many different mediums to enjoy. Today it seems ludicrous to not indulge in cable, the Internet, films, newspapers, magazines, music, and the radio. Some days I use all these eight types of mediums. As a freshman at Champlain College in Burlington, Vermont, I take a course called Media and Society. The professor Rob Williams has taught me how to use the techniques media uses on consumers, to analyze a specific medium.
The first thing I did yesterday was listened to music. Every opportunity or time of the day I can tune out to music, I do. I use my Dr. Dre headphones by Monster to listen to my Ipod Touch, using I-Tunes off my laptop, and I also blast songs over the speakers in my room. I am a “hip-hop” head and love soul music even more. “In 2008, I-Tunes became the No.1 retailer of music in the United States” (Media & Culture, 75). I get a lot of my music from I-Tunes but I usually download from websites like www.datpiff.com, www.mixtapetorrents.com, and www.hotnewhiphop.com. I turned the switch on the side of my headphones and closed my eyes as Sam Cooke belted away "What a Wonderful World". I clicked over to Lloyd Banks on my artists list and watched the video for the song "Bomb First." I swung my I-pod to the side and the motion command shuffled to the next song. Andre 3000, my favorite rapper (dudes a monster), began to rap the song “Babylon.” “I came into this world, high as a bird, from second hand cocaine powder, I know it sounds absurd.” Not too long ago for me to remember, I was listening to this same song on my Walkman Disc Player. In my house I have a Record Player and I myself collect Vinyl records. I found it extremely amusing people are starting to get back into buying records for “the quality of the sound.”
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While still listening to music, I clicked the Safari Internet browser tab on the homepage of my Mac computer. My mother had recently asked me to make a Christmas list for myself to give to her. I went on one of my favorite clothing websites www.karmaloop.com. I found about fifteen items I liked and copied all the links. I pasted the links onto another tab that had www.aol.com up. I emailed the list of links to my mother. I went from there to my usual quick browse of www.facebook.com. “Facebook, in particular, has been one of the fastest-growing sites on the Internet” (Media & Culture, 53). I never like spending too much time on the megatron super social network so I went onto www.hotnewhiphop.com. This website has all the newest hip-hop, rap, and R&B singles to download immediately. They also have links to the best mixtape and music news websites. I downloaded two songs by Papoose and closed my computer.
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Being a student in such a class as my Media and Society course at Champlain College tends to spark my thought of all mediums. Sitting there listening to my set list of favorite songs on my I-pod I decided to take the gamble and try the radio. “Edwin Armstrong, who first discovered and developed FM radio in the 1920’s and early 1930’s, is often considered the most prolific and influential invent in radio history” (Media & Culture, 125.) I pressed the FM button on my I-pod dock. Luckily I was in New York and not back at school in Burlington where I would have no idea what station to pick. I click until I’m on 97.1. The song playing is “Miss You” by Trey Songz. I snap my fingers in disappointment, shrug my shoulders and turn off the radio. I guess I’m too picky for regular FM radio. I went to boarding school and never got my license and don’t have a car so I never have to worry about getting stuck with the radio.
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After listening to some tunes I decided to take the magazines out of my drawer I got at the airport and browse through them. The only time I really buy magazines is when I am traveling by plane. I haven’t had any subscriptions to magazines since Sports Illustrated for Kids in elementary school. “Sports Illustrated, Rank #4, Time, INC, A Subsidiary of Time Warner, NY” (Media & Culture, 307.) The magazines I get for the airplane are XXL, Hip Hop Weekly, The Source, and Rolling Stone. Three of the four are hip-hop magazines and Rolling Stone is a general music magazine. I started with Hip Hop Weekly and read an article about Kareem Biggs, one of the co-founders’ of Rocafella Records getting arrested for the possession of 177 pounds of marijuana. For me hip-hop magazines are entertaining even within the ads. They are always for some flashy diamond shop, a liquor company, or a brand of rims. They use rappers and sexy women to stand next to their product and make it appealing.
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Later I made a nice grilled cheese and sat down in my den. I turned on my TV and flipped up on my IO box through the channels. I always start at channel 36 (ESPN) and stop at every channel till 55 (MTV2). If I find something I like it is most likely on Spike, USA, TNT, Comedy Central or TBS. Today nothing was on these channels I desired so I went up to the 300’s. These are the movie channels such as Showtime, HBO, and Starz. This is where the shows I love are played. HBO has my favorite show, the Sopranos. “U.S. cable companies introduced a new and improved pay-per-view option to their digital customers in the early 2000’s-video-on-demand” (Media & Culture, 200.) I went onto HBO On Demand, the watch instantly program on my television. I turned on episode 8, season 2, of the Sopranos. This episode Tony’s nephew Christopher is shot by two kids he’d run safe heists with. Personally it’s one of my favorite episodes. I relaxed and watched the Jersey crime family led by actor James Gandafini for 50 minutes.
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Still stuffed from lunch and comfortable in front of the tube, I decide to look for a movie. I went from HBO on demand to Movies On Demand. This is where I can watch a large lists of movie, from all different genres for a few dollars a pop. I looked under New Releases and nothing made me intrigued. Instead I went onto www.netflix.com and went onto the “watch instantly” section. “Online DVD rental service Netflix begain offering “instant viewing” of movies and videos by streaming some rentals to customers” (Media & Culture, 241.) This is where I can click play and watch any movie from a selection of thousands of titles. I decided to watch Casino, one of my favorite movies. I plugged a wire that attaches my computer to my TV so I can watch Netflix on a larger screen. I sat and enjoyed Martin Scorsese’s direction on the story of mobster Sam Rothstein played by Robert De Niro. Scorsese is an amazing director famous for his Crime films such as Goodfellas. This movie is always exciting and interesting to me. The cast is sprawled with greats like Sharon Stone, Joe Pesci, James Woods and Kevin Pollak. The movie idolizes the life of crime in Las Vegas and all the perks that come with it. It also shows the hardship of deceit between friends and lovers.
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In the late afternoon I was bored and alone so I decided to read. My favorite authors are Fyodor Dostoevsky, Ernest Hemingway, Chuck Palahniuk, and Charles Bukoswki. I also enjoy many other Russian novelists for their style of writing and the gloomy psychological element. Three years ago, every time I would read it would be a paper or hard cover book. Now, after my birthday last year, I have a Kindle. “The Kindle from Amazon is the latest, and arguably the most successful, attempt to transform books from paperbound purchases at a brick-and-mortar store to a completely online experience” (Media & Me, 329). I was too tired to keep open my eyes so I turned it on auto speech. For twenty minutes I listened to the novel Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk. I tend to really enjoy my kindle. I really liked the idea of having a large collection of classic books and such, but the convenience of having them all on one source to read from is excellent. The convergence from physical text to a digital e-book, for me, is extremely helpful for consuming literature. I never use to take books with me on the subway and train to school before I got the Kindle.
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After reading a little I put the Kindle down and got the New York Times. “New York Times, 3rd rank newspaper, 1,077,256- Average weekly circulation” (Media & Me, 257.) I never read the newspaper. I decided I would take a browse. I flipped through the pages. There was a lot of coverage on murders and crime. I read an article about the increase of armed militias in the United States. After that I looked at the ads because I am always curious how much cars cost. It’s funny the different ways that express how much they are and the options for payments. Following the ads I read the sports section. I checked the football standings and made sure the New York Jets still only had two losses. After reading for a while I thought maybe I should pick up a newspaper more often.
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Recollecting this one-day shows my participation in the eight forms of media. Sometimes I spend hours using a medium to entertain me. On an average day I use at least four of the eight types. Majority of the world use less but some mediums everyday as well. After taking the class Media and Society taught by Rob Williams, it is apparent to me the way advertising and media drag a consumer in and benefit themselves. Not that all mediums aren’t beneficiary, but it is their job to attract people. I am glad I can take seconds of video, or a few words on paper and name the specific ways they are persuading the viewer.
Excellent (minus) ME(DIA) MEMOIR here, Ryan.
ReplyDeleteSorry Blogger is giving you grief, but you wisely cover your bases by hyperlinking to each image.
And with under 20 followers, you've earned a very good assessment for the semester - we gotta find you more followers.
Keep blogging and listening to great music, and enjoy your holiday!
Dr. W