Vacations

Now that everyone has returned from home and travel for the Thanksgiving break, it seems worthwhile to examine vacations as media. There are a few different reasons for vacations and different types of vacations satisfy these reasons. Sometimes vacations are to relax, which beach vacations, cruises, and resorts are good for. However other times vacations are full of information. Cultural and historical information can be transferred from country to visitor, host to guest or guide to tourist. This makes locations as well as vacations to them an interesting type of media.

Throughout the semester we have repeatedly seen how technology and our digital age evolve how news is delivered via media. Similar ideas apply to travel. It is much easier today to physically travel far distances because of speed and ability to overcome distance, similar to the ability for a message to travel quicker today than in the past. Rather than having the message come to us via media, travel is the media which delivers us to the message.

While you can get messages by going on vacation in the form of learning things the type of vacation can be the message as well. This is similar to how we started the course; the media can be the message. A relaxing cruise or beach vacation has different meaning from a safari full of learning. Regardless of the type of vacation, it can revitalize people for when they return. Thanksgiving break is a nice tease as to what is in store for us during winter vacation a few weeks from now.

Breakfast

Food in general can definitely be seen as a medium but breakfast is much more telling about a person and therefore is a more specific medium that contains a more detailed message. Originally I said media was anything that transmitted a message. Breakfast can do this in a number of ways.
First messages can be transmitted over breakfast. If you eat with a group of people it becomes a social activity. In this sense stories can be shared, news exchanged, and friendships born. For me this has been an especially important part of breakfast in college. Especially at busy times, meals become a chance to see friends when we otherwise do not have time.
Second, the breakfast itself can be a message. Initially there is whether or not a person eats breakfast at all. This can say a lot about a person in itself. It can show that they are a healthy person or that they get hungry easily throughout the day. It can also demonstrate whether or not they are morning people, willing to get up early enough to go to or prepare breakfast.
The third piece of breakfast which sends a message about the eater is what they person chooses to eat. This is where breakfast becomes the same as any other food. The person's decision about what to eat tells a lot about them. Are they a toast person? Or do they like a more filling breakfast of eggs, sausage, and two strips of bacon? Perhaps they're more of a yogurt and granola type?

Next time you're in Trim for breakfast, try to notice what those around you are eating. See if it fits in with what you think they would eat based on what you know about they're personality. You'll probably learn more than you think.

Looking in the Window

Few things are more important to stores than their displays and product staging areas. This is most noticeable when walking along city streets or through well-decorated malls.The settings that retailers create are getting more and more elaborate and emphasize attributes and ideals of products which they are trying to sell.

More than anything stores want to embody the lifestyles their products are supposed to give people. They have to put up an ideal and create an image that people want to see themselves as a part of. In the summer, beach scenes are particularly noticeable and make it easy to imagine perfect family beach days with a cooler, umbrella and all the items required to outfit a group for the beach.

The storefront window is likely the inspiration behind all types of retailing advertisement. Magazine images, electronic ads, and tv commercials all try to stage some kind of ideal, similar to storefront windows. Old Navy even took it a step further and made manequins, the primary means of displaying their product in the windows, into the main characters of the television and print advertising.



This also goes back to the reading that we discussed about media being the message. Setting up something physical and three dimensional drastically changes how people interact with it. Old Navy tries to bring this into their television advertising with some success but makes it more of a character situation than a setting. The setting is the emphasized part of store windows to try to make certain aspects of that setting appeal to consumers.

In The Bedroom...

Don't get too excited. All I am about to say is that the bedroom is just another type of media. I have rarely, if ever, distinguished between whether or not my artifacts are mass media. Obviously the bedroom is not mass media, at least for most of us (just kidding).

The bedroom is media because it sends a very distinct message about its inhabitant's personality, life, and lifestyle. Some people hang massive posters with favorite celebrities, role models, video game characters, aspirational objects, or sports teams. Other people may put up posters, blankets or display accomplishments in the forms of trophies or certificates. Of course, there are many other possibilities of how people can send messages about themselves through their habitats.

The bedroom is especially important for students in college. This is the only space in our lives that is actually our own so we tend to make it more personal with our own effects. This drives us to be more individual and unique in our own rooms, partially because the actual rooms themselves are so similar. This is similar to the formulaic nature of mass media today: all the TV shows are very similar, as are movies. Examples could include television mystery shows like all the CSI shows, Law and Order, Bones, House, etc which all follow the same routine. In terms of movies, romantic comedies seem like the best examples. All of our dorm rooms are very similar, if not the same, and we find our own ways to differentiate them in the details. These details then send messages to others about our inner selves.

Another aspect, a less permanent one, of our rooms is how presentable we keep them. Are we organized and put together? Is everything neat and put away? Or are we disorganized and messy so no one can sit in our room comfortably? The answers to these questions are part of the message that our rooms send about us. And this is what makes the bedroom a type of media.

Location

Location , location, location applies to more than real estate. Location is its own medium because it makes implications and determinations. Certain purposes can be impossible without a location designed to meet them, messages can only be transmitted with this proper location. Photographers need just the right angle of a certain event to send the intended message. Thus location becomes their medium for a specific photograph.

Similarly, billboards are inconsequential and fail at their mission without correct placement. Although a large number of people don't need to see a billboard, if less people see the advertisement, it must be seen by the right people. This is usually not the case and it is more successful to target a large quantity because the chances of the intended audience being among the large number is better. However strategic location has the same potential for success as large audience exposure.

Location gives messages relevance. Our book mentions location of news stations, but makes a more interesting point about where national news does not have locations. It also determines the messages that can be relayed to news readers or viewers. My original thesis and inaugural blog post was that anything that can send a message can be media. Location sends select messages about what is important. 

The Chapter even uses location as a metaphor for ranking importance of manuscripts for publishers. The chapter uses metaphors of piles and lines. Some piles go straight to the top while other authors stand in line with little hope of being acknowledged. This metaphor shows how location determines deliverance of a message about importance. Location can send the message or render it undeliverable.

Facebook in the Context of Old Media

I was trying hard to resist doing a post on Facebook and I hope this one isn't boring. I want to highlight an aspect of traditional media (TV, print, etc.) that is fairly typical and apply it to Facebook, where this aspect is examined less.

The aspect and role within media that I am looking to examine is the editor's job of deciding what gets published. This is easy and typical to examine when it comes to television, magazines, and newspaper. What TV shows do viewers want to see? Who is the target audience of a specific time slot, television station or specific programming? Similar questions can be asked of newspapers and magazines. What kinds of stories will appeal to the people the writers are targeting? Going deeper, what kinds of stories will appeal to the audience of the advertisers? Thus is the double role of old or traditional media-- appealing to their target audience and the target audience of advertisers. This goes back to questions raised in the chapter about stereotypes in media. If middle-aged, upper middle-class white men are determining programming, there is a good chance that programs will be about this group of people.

However, fast forward to today's saturated media world where web 2.0 (and what I will call media 2.0) and a new parallel set of questions can be asked. When you publish a facebook status, what is your motivation? This is just as much a rhetorical question as it is something you're welcome to answer in the comments. I know that I have different purposes depending on the status. Sometimes I share things on facebook for me, to fulfill my own need to share with people. Other times I post statuses because I want other people (sometimes specific people, sometimes anyone) to see them. This is very similar to the choices publishers and editors make with traditional media. What gets published and why?

With this question in mind I would encourage you to visit Facebook and look over three things. First, read through your newsfeed and ask why each post got published. Second, do the same thing for your own profile and third do it for a close friend's profile. This may seem like a new level of "facebook stalking" but it raises entirely new questions. It also seems like a great reason not to use Facebook and was one of the many reasons that I deleted my account for a month over the summer.

I will conclude by asking for your reactions. What do you think about this? Are my questions over analytical or do they raise good points about what our generation wants peers to see/know about us? Will this change how you use facebook at all in the short or long run (for me it might change how I use it today or this week, but overall I'll continue to use it just as I always have...)?

Technology Changing Media

There's no doubt that as technology develops media changes. In fact, many media have arisen because of technology and other media are technology. Because most, if not all, media is technologically driven, the actual mediums often change. For instance, television is in many ways the successor to radio. Although radio still exists for music, its use as primary mode of entertainment and news reporting is very different because television has replaced radio for many people for these purposes. However, it is often more interesting to look at specific mediums and how they change and evolve because of technology.

My example for this is again the radio. Due to the rise of the internet and technology, radio has drastically changed. In part, the definition of the radio has changed. The world-wide web has given rise to internet radio. Some may argue that this is not radio at all, but I believe it is. But this is getting off topic. My point is how the internet has changed radio. My media artifact for this week is internet radio such as Last.fm. Most people are more familiar with Pandora, but Last.fm serves my purpose and argument better in this case.

For both examples, technology has greatly changed the way people listen to radio. Internet radio, like these two examples are vastly different from what most people are accustomed to from radio stations. There are three distinct differences which technology has caused.

First, these types of radio have made radio customizable. This is the main attraction of websites like Pandora and Last.fm. Users/ listeners can customize their radio stations to guarantee the music that is played is all to the listeners' liking. This can be accomplished in a number of ways. Whether it be by selecting a preformed station based on genre, entering an artist name to emulate, or a specific song to match, technology drives all of these.

Second, because they are hosted on webpages instead of airwaves, the advertisements can be on the website rather than interrupting the music between songs. Last.fm has no auditory ads, while Pandora has greatly fewer than traditional radio. Without technology of the internet this would not be possible.

The third difference is that it can be accessed anywhere in the world that allows access to the internet. This is in stark contrast to traditional radio which can only be accessed within range of the broadcast. Last.fm allows people to listen to its service anywhere they can access a computer with the internet.

Technology drives much of the change in society. Radio is just one example. In many cases it makes media more interactive, a much cooler media. Previously radio had almost no interaction, but websites like Last.fm and Pandora let people interact with the music, saving preferences, radio stations, and even favorite tracks.

Without technology media would be much slower to evolve, if it could evolve at all. Luckily, technology shows no signs of stopping, making the media world a fascinating social experiment in how much society can alter the way it receives information. Benefiting listeners everywhere, consumers should be grateful that technology enables radio to advance. What will happen to traditional radio is less clear in the long run, but also raises an interesting argument that I will save for another blog post.

Reality and Reaction

Everything today is becoming interactive and responsive. This especially visible in web advertising and the media content presented to us by the internet. Everything can be customized to the viewer and aimed (ideally) to the target market. On the other end, some advertisements are becoming responsive on the other end to make a point to the aforementioned target market. I noticed this while in New York City this weekend and the media stood out to me. This advertisement supposedly represents global Hyundai sales and provided a live update with the number of people that chose to buy Hyundais.


It was also one of the simpler, cooler media in the tower of advertisements. Samsung and coke both had video advertisements, leaving little up to the viewer. Hyundai, on the other hand, makes viewers look at the advertisement and ask what made all these people choose that specific brand. Its simplicity compared to videos is less overwhelming and more noticeable. It also caught my eye because of its placement below the other advertisements.

Interaction and response is underutilized. It is a very personal and makes viewers a part of media. They can relate to content and react to it on a level that is not present in traditional media. This kind of media gives me an experience. It makes me ask questions and think. It challenges me to be more than just a viewer. And this is what people are looking for. They want involvement through reality. And reality is not still media or print media. Reality is a network of cause and effect; interaction, reaction and response. Slowly, media is becoming all of these things and more reflective of reality.

Media Everywhere You Look

During my week, a friend and I discussed how we thought it would be challenging to come up with a unique and truly interesting artifact to blog about weekly. Luckily this caused me to look for artifacts that were hopefully not only interesting but thought provoking and a bit odd.

And that's how I'll introduce this week's artifact: the Trim napkin holder. It's strange but it really is a form of media. Babson and many different organizations often use these napkin holders to relay a message to students who are casually dining in everyone's favorite food venue on campus. The accompanying picture shows an example of this. Media are everywhere and most of them probably go unnoticed by most people. Even more importantly for our class' discussion of media and what media is, most people probably even more rarely realize that what they're viewing is media. Something similar to a napkin holder, in my opinion, is the side of a bus. No one would normally think of a bus as media. But so often public transportation has advertisements on it which turn a regular vehicle into a medium.

Which brings me back to my example of the napkin holder. Normally a napkin holder would not be media. It would be virtually purely functional and deliver no message to anyone. However, Babson and other organizations that target us through our napkin holders use the fact that everyone grabs a napkin once in a while to their advantage and turns a ubiquitous object into an advertising tool, and thus, a medium for influencing us. When you think about it, it's really a very interesting use of a boring object. Excellent creation of a medium, if you ask me!

Media as Means to Preserve Memories

Writing about my camera seems to be an appropriate post after my weekend. I spent the weekend with my Dad's family at my cousin's wedding. We took lots of photos to preserve memories and got some great shots of family throughout the weekend. Besides being able to send a message from one entity to another, media can save and preserve messages from the past. This is an important historical reference point that we would not have without media.

Obviously any medium can serve as a historical reference, but with the advent of the camera it reached another level. The photograph and camera were evolutions of the painting/drawing as a historical record. With my camera I was able to preserve memories of my cousins wedding and keep literal snapshots of that day with me forever. In comparison with older forms of visual preservation such as the painting, the camera sends a distinct message just by being a photograph. In this sense it is very similar to the argument that the medium is the message. The fact that I chose to use a camera this weekend was a very conscious choice which says that I did not have the time or talent to capture paintings or drawings of the occasion. It also portrays a more realistic image, capturing exactly what the viewer sees rather than leaving it up to my interpretation. In this case the medium was the message; and the content had a completely separate, unique message. 

First Paper; Defining Media

The rise of media is primarily an event of the 1900s into the 2000s due to the growth of technology and the numerous ways in which it facilitates communication, especially mass communication. Essentially media are anything used to send a message from one entity to another, whether it be person to person, businesses to people, social institutions to people, or the inverse of any of these relationships. These relationships are only examples though and in no way reflect media’s limitations of senders and recipients of messages. In the text, Croteau and Hoynes discuss how media developed after many years of only print media. At the time, messages between people in different places took as long as physical travel between these places. However, the text’s authors also note that media’s complex and intertwined relationship with technology has dramatically changed this in the last 200 years, starting with the advent of the telegraph through to the modern proliferation of the internet.

            It should also be noted that telephone calls, text messages, emails, correspondence, and other communications between two people are forms of media: “…but scholars generally do not consider these to be mass media because messages in such media have a single, intended, known recipient” (Croteau and Hoynes 7). This class focuses on mass media, and so will this paper.

            The broad definition of media must also be considered. For most things it is not useful to define them so broadly but truly anything used to send a message can be media. Media really can be anything used to “facilitate communication between… the sender of a message and the receiver of that message” (7). Because the definition includes sending a message, some objects have the potential to be media but are not necessarily used that way. For example, a solely blue tee shirt sends no message to the masses except about its wearer’s fashion choice. However, the same tee shirt with a business logo and slogan or recording artist’s image sends a distinct marketing message to anyone that sees the shirt. It promotes the business or artist and sends a message to viewers about it/them, making it a form of mass media that a blank tee shirt would not have been.

            This tee shirt example also helps to define mass media. It is not intended to be seen by a specific audience, rather the tee will infer to anyone and everyone who lays eyes upon it that the business is respectable or the artist ‘cool,’ or any other message an entity wants to send about itself.

            People, scholars, and the text “generally recognize…print, film, radio, television, sound recordings, and the internet” (7) as mass media. Although all these things are accepted as the most common forms of mass media, many other things can constitute a single medium. The tee shirt above is one example, while there are a myriad of other items which can function as media whether they carry a brand logo, advertisement, slogan, or generally a message. A desk calendar full of advertisements and coupons, an arguably less common medium, has the potential to be functionally superior to typical advertisement media such as television or the internet. This shows the broad range of what can be considered media. This example also shows how nearly anything that can be seen by a large number of people has the potential to function as mass media.

            Once again, the desk calendar and tee shirt examples show that any object, despite not fitting into the typical view of what media are (television, print, radio etc.), can function as a medium as long as it delivers some kind of message. Whether it is also mass media simply depends on the scope of its intended audience. In this way, the message makes something a medium.