Medium is Singular, Media is Plural
Medium is Singular, Media is Plural
Week 1 Blog Post
The subject that I agreed with the most would have to be our discussion on expectations from the media and our responses to the media’s deviations from our expectations. I see this most vividly in the portrayal of horror movies. As you may not know, I am an avid viewer of horror movies both past and present, both cheesy and well plotted. When I was younger my friends and I got into George Romero’s movies about zombies and the like, most importantly in “Dawn of the Dead.” In this movie we not only got accustomed to slow moving zombies but also a slow moving story and a slow moving camera. The plot was well thought out, but it took its time to develop and to reach a climax. Comparing this with the remake of Dawn of the Dead, me and my friends were shocked by the changes in technical presentation. The zombies were running with extreme athletic ability and the camera movements and frame shots were quite rapid. At first none of us enjoyed the movie because it offended what we became accustomed to, the slow pace of the horror movie. However, after watching it a couple of times we became really impressed by it. (Although we still maintain the best part of the movie is the introduction with the music provided by Johnny Cash.) We grew an appreciation for the fast moving pace of the movie to reflect how the characters were feeling anxiety and other heart pounding emotions. Even with this appreciation however, we can admit the remake is good, but we still feel the original was better. The new special effects and fast motions are cool, but we feel this takes away from the actual plot of the movie. Romero’s purpose of the movie wasn’t to make the audience jump or physically scare them, but rather to mentally scare them or scare them in the thought of the situations that is unfolding.
The subject that I disagree with the most would have to be our discussion on content expectation. Before I continue, I want to mention that I don’t fully disagree with this concept but only partially. For example, I am a huge fan of Family Guy. In this sitcom there is a certain content that many fans have come to expect. For example, Family Guy includes many flashbacks (“this is more embarrassing than the time I”), or family references (“like my great great uncle”) which add a lot of humor to the show. And in my partial agreement, I do expect this content to be there. However, I also would like new content to keep me a fan of the show. For example, after coming back to television, it seems that show is forcing in all of these flashbacks and family references. Its almost like every other sentence from the show contains a similar reference. This gets me bored of the references where I don’t find them as funny anymore. Thus although I do expect the references, I also expect a movement away from them so I don’t get bored of the humor.
The part of our discussion that I didn’t fully understand was in our description of mass media and how it is technologically discriminated. Maybe I missed it in lecture or in the book, but I don’t understand this concept of mass media.
Week 1 Blog Post
The subject that I agreed with the most would have to be our discussion on expectations from the media and our responses to the media’s deviations from our expectations. I see this most vividly in the portrayal of horror movies. As you may not know, I am an avid viewer of horror movies both past and present, both cheesy and well plotted. When I was younger my friends and I got into George Romero’s movies about zombies and the like, most importantly in “Dawn of the Dead.” In this movie we not only got accustomed to slow moving zombies but also a slow moving story and a slow moving camera. The plot was well thought out, but it took its time to develop and to reach a climax. Comparing this with the remake of Dawn of the Dead, me and my friends were shocked by the changes in technical presentation. The zombies were running with extreme athletic ability and the camera movements and frame shots were quite rapid. At first none of us enjoyed the movie because it offended what we became accustomed to, the slow pace of the horror movie. However, after watching it a couple of times we became really impressed by it. (Although we still maintain the best part of the movie is the introduction with the music provided by Johnny Cash.) We grew an appreciation for the fast moving pace of the movie to reflect how the characters were feeling anxiety and other heart pounding emotions. Even with this appreciation however, we can admit the remake is good, but we still feel the original was better. The new special effects and fast motions are cool, but we feel this takes away from the actual plot of the movie. Romero’s purpose of the movie wasn’t to make the audience jump or physically scare them, but rather to mentally scare them or scare them in the thought of the situations that is unfolding.
The subject that I disagree with the most would have to be our discussion on content expectation. Before I continue, I want to mention that I don’t fully disagree with this concept but only partially. For example, I am a huge fan of Family Guy. In this sitcom there is a certain content that many fans have come to expect. For example, Family Guy includes many flashbacks (“this is more embarrassing than the time I”), or family references (“like my great great uncle”) which add a lot of humor to the show. And in my partial agreement, I do expect this content to be there. However, I also would like new content to keep me a fan of the show. For example, after coming back to television, it seems that show is forcing in all of these flashbacks and family references. Its almost like every other sentence from the show contains a similar reference. This gets me bored of the references where I don’t find them as funny anymore. Thus although I do expect the references, I also expect a movement away from them so I don’t get bored of the humor.
The part of our discussion that I didn’t fully understand was in our description of mass media and how it is technologically discriminated. Maybe I missed it in lecture or in the book, but I don’t understand this concept of mass media.
posted by Ron Bishop at 1:14 PM
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