Magazines <3

Me + Magazines = Heaven!

I love magazines, I can read them all day and all night! I'm one of those people who just has them stacked under my bed in a little wheeley drawer! :)
Sounds kind of sad... but I love to know whats happening in the celebrity world! Bad habit...

Yesterday morning, as always, I was listening to the Chris Moyles Show, and I started thinking about my next blog. Magazines are so much fun to read... but they are so misleading! I admit, I have been fooled many times by reading the front cover and the headline, buying it, reading the pages of that story and finding out its a completely different situation.

FOR EXAMPLE:
On the way to somewhere, can't remember now last year sometime, and I saw a picture of Jennifer Aniston on the front cover of OK! and she was pregnant... I got really excited, and bought the magazine. I then flicked straight to those pages that explained about her "pregnancy", and i soon found out that that picture was from her new film. Not good!

Plus, some of the stories that are printed in magazines aren't even true. I don't know why I still bother to buy all these magazines, but I do anyway, because I love the gossip! That's the thing that annoys me about magazines, the rest is GREAT!
They aren't just about gossip, they have fashion too! I love looking at the "What's Hot and What's Not!" pages.

However, every other page in a magazine is an advert, which is so frustrating, this is furthermore advertising more, sometimes the adverts are about phones, or T.V's, or T.V programmes, which is about the media aswell.
Basically:

THE MEDIA ADVERTISES THE MEDIA.

I still love magazines... and I will still buy them :D

MY FAVES ARE PROBABLY:

OK!







OR




heat









Hope you liked :)

Youtube. Good or bad?

Well. I love Desperate Housewives, and I missed the season 4 finale on sunday, E4. I don't like surprises, so I just went onto Youtube to watch the season 4 finale that I had missed. The "related videos" at the side caught my eye, and suddenly... I was on the beginning of season 5. I don't know how it happened... because then after that, I started clicking on the links from that video, onto the interviews with all the actresses and behind the scenes. Even the "bloopers".

So even though we can catch up on the programmes we like on Youtube, it is very distracting, as I have just spent an hour watching clips and sneak peaks from season 5 instead of doing my homework. HOWEVER! This distraction has then led me to write this post and bring up an interesting topic! This is losing Channel 4 and E4 viewers and money. I'm certain I am not the only one who does this... at least I hope I'm not! By watching all of these clips I am then not watching the programmes that come on T.V. I mean sure...its giving Youtube some money, but thats not too good..

I am sure many of you have 4OD (Channel 4 On Demand), this enables Channel 4 viewers to catch up on the latest programmes shown on this channel. Yet this is still using the media! Somehow my laptop does not allow me to have 4OD so I just clicked onto Youtube, sounds awful, but its quicker..and less time consuming. Plus, you don't get all the sneak peaks of season 5! But is this what the public want? To be shown what happens before it actually comes on the T.V? I just do it because its there, and I can't stand surprises.

Youtube also loses music artists money, some people listen to new songs just released on Youtube because they don't want to spend 79p on a song off iTunes. If everyone did this artistrs would not make as much money, so there would not be much point in them making music at all...

Just something to think about :)

SEE YA LATERRRR

Have we been brainwashed by the Media?

I thought that this topic was very relevant, I am learning about the Media, however does this mean that I am being brainwashed?

Last week, for Sociology, myself and a friend gave questionnaires to thirty sixth formers on "What is most important in your life?" A few questions were about what they did in the evening and what they do at the weekend. It was surprising to see how many of the thirty people we asked admitted to spending most of their time on the internet and social networking on Facebook, Myspace and MSN. I myself spend a lot of time on these websites and I have recently realised how much I spend on them having done the Media Diary. As well as the internet, many teenagers read magazines and newspapers, listen to many different types of music and watch their favourite TV programmes and find out what happens on Eastenders this week! A lot of the sixth formers we questionned also said that they spend a lot of their time and money listening to and buying music, and watching TV a lot of the time.

Although I have just written about teenagers spending a lot of their time with the media, a lot of older people use the media. Elderly people use the internet to order their food or clothes. A lot of people believe it is much more straightforward to use and it is much less hassle.

Along with shopping online, millions of people use Google, to just check something that has just popped into their head that they are not sure about. Youths in school use Google Images for their homework or projects, there are so many pictures and it is so simple to find a picture of what you want, when you want.

Advertising is a major part in the media and practically dominates the media. Every other page in a magazine is an advert for a different shop. There are billboards along the motorways and in towns advertising TV programmes and certain products. On the TV itself, inbetween shows there are approx. 4 minutes of adverts, which is annoying, but gets people interested in the programmes. These people are already watching the TV, and by advertising more TV programmes, the public will be interested in them and will remember to turn the TV on, once again and watch "that programme that was advertised the other day on TV."
Even on the radio there is advertising, just by sound, by little advertisement, maybe listeners will be encouraged to go onto the website of the product that was being advertised on the radio, making the Media being used once again.

The media is used a lot, throughout the country every minute of the day. It is an open question of "Have we been brainwashed by the Media?" One way or another, the media is used by basically every person, every day! I think that we are slowly being brainwashed by the Media in the way that we can't stop using it every day!

Sony - About the Company...

Approximately, Sony has about ninety-five companies. The major products that Sony sell are:

• Audio
  Home audio, portable audio, etc.
• Video
  Video cameras, digital cameras, DVD-video players/recorders, and Digital- broadcasting recording systems.
• Televisions
  LCD televisions, projection televisions, CRT-based televisions etc.
• Information and Communications
  PC, printer system, broadcast professional use audio/video/monitors and other professional-use equipment.
• Semiconductors
  LCD, CCD and other semiconductors.
• Electronic Components
  Optical pickups, batteries, audio/video/data recording media, and data recording systems.

Other products that Sony sell are: Motion picture, Music, Online business, Sony Playstation. Sony Corporation is a multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo and Japan, and one of the world's largest media conglomerates with revenue exceeding $88.7 billion. Sony is one of the leading manufacturers of all of the above in the market. Sony was founded on May 7, 1946.

In 1945, after World War II, Masaru Ibuka started a radio repair shop in a bombed-out building in Tokyo. The next year, he was joined by his colleague Akio Morita and they founded a company called Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo K.K. The company built Japan's first tape recorder called the Type-G. In the early 1950s, Ibuka traveled in the United States and heard about Bell Labs' invention of the transistor. He convinced Bell to license the transistor technology to his Japanese company. While most American companies were researching the transistor for its military applications, Ibuka looked to apply it to communications. Although the American companies Regency and Texas Instruments built the first transistor radios, it was Ibuka's company that made them commercially successful for the first time.

Sony was one of the first companies to create a portable transistor radio, this produced worldwide commercial success. It was not the first, but it was most successful. This success with the transistor radio made sure that Sony was dominant in the electronic field of business. Sony has diversified by developing on the products they have already produced, and modernizing those products over the years to advertise something the public will want to have in their home. Over the years, Sony has spread into many countries through the products they have created.
Sony Music Entertainment is a major global record label controlled by the Sony Corporation, being one of the big record companies. According to Variety Sony BMG will be re-branded into Sony Music Entertainment. In 1988, the Sony Corporation of America acquired CBS Records for $2 billion. CBS Inc., now CBS Corporation, retained the rights to the CBS name, and Sony renamed the label Sony Music Entertainment in 1991. Sony re-introduced the Columbia label after it bought the international rights of the label from EMI. Epic Records is the other major branch of Sony Music. The only country where Sony does not have rights to the Columbia name is Japan, where the name is controlled by Columbia Music Entertainment.

Sony Pictures Television, is an American television production/distribution company. It is a subsidiary of Sony Pictures Entertainment. In turn, the latter is part of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. SPT was previously known as Screen Gems, Columbia Pictures Television, TriStar Television and Columbia TriStar Television. The name was changed to reflect the Sony brand in 2002. From 2005 until May 31, 2006, SPT also distributed MGM's TV shows and movie library (due in part to the Sony-led consortium's purchase of MGM). In 2006, SPT joined forces with Program Partners to handle ad-sales and distribution rights to foreign television series in the U.S., mostly shows produced in Canada. In Summer 2007, the company introduced The Minisode Network; a digital channel for MySpace airing shows from the 1960s to early 2000s from four to five minutes.

Defining myself via YouTube...

I thought it would be interesting to find videos on YouTube that would define me, and the sort of person I am. The kinds of videos I will be collecting are the TV programmes I like, the music I like, what films I like, etc..

Last December, I went to the Spice Girls concert at the 02 Arena. I always liked the Spice Girls when I was young, and I still love them!



I also love Desperate Housewives, I have watched all 4 series, and I am so obsessed.



I also love Friends, my mum used to be obsessed, so I started watching it when I was quite young, and I have loved it ever since. I have every episode on DVD or Video!



One song I really like at the moment is Miss Independent - Ne-yo. I listen to it pretty much non-stop.


Another song i will always LOVE is Forever - Chris Brown, it's my ringtone, it's the first song i put on when im listening to my ipod, or on YouTube etc..

Mise En Scene!

The other day, we learnt about Mise en Scene. I learnt about what it is, and what I need to say when talking about it in the exam.

Mise en Scene is what you would see in a frame of a set and why it is there, or why are they wearing that? etc. For example, the colour of walls in the house, the type of clothes a person is wearing, or the pattern on the curtains, what do all of these symbolise or represent? Mise en Scene, literally means "put in the scene". It's french!

Within Mise en Scene, there are other factors that need to be considered when writing about Mise en Scene, like Connotations. Connotations are suggestions that are linked to something, e.g. if a red sports car drove around the corner, the viewers immediate reaction and thoughts would be "rich". Another is Enigma Code, this is a symbol with connotations, so if a key was brought out of a folder or a wallet, this causes mystery and excitement within the programme and the viewer would think, "oo, what does that open?!"

So that lesson we watched an episode of Eastenders. We were asked to write about the Mise en Scene of certain paused steps of the episode. It was interesting at how much there is to write about when it is in front of you, the colour on the wall of the house, the main characters, their hair, their make up, the lighting, the pattern on the teacups, the body language, the facial expressions and even what is on top of the cupboard in the kitchen! This was a good example of Mise en Scene.

Then yesterday, we watched a clip from Yasmin, a TV show set in Bradford, following an Asian woman and her life. We were asked to do a timed essay, so we saw the clip and had to write a lot about what we saw every few seconds! It was challenging but good practice. We then had to put all the notes we had quickly scribbled down into a long essay. The question was how the Mise en Scene contributed to Asian and British culture. Again, there was a lot to say as the culture clash between Asian and British was constantly shown.

Narrative Assignment

The other week, we were asked to write about the narrative in one of our favourite films, showing how the main character contributes to the narrative and how they are represented.

Synopsis:
The viewer first sees Bridget sky diving out of a plane for a news report, it goes wrong and she ends up embarrassing herself on Live TV. When she gets back to the studio, she gets a phone call from her boyfriend, Mark Darcy, telling her he cannot make dinner. She then suspects that he is having an affair and travels to his house to try and spy on him, climbing onto his roof and falling off in the meantime, only to discover that he is having a business meeting at his house. Bridget then gets told that she will be going to Thailand for work, along with Daniel Cleaver. While they are out there they Bridget almost cheats on Mark. On the way back, at the airport, Bridget gets caught with drugs that was disguised as a Thai bowl from her friend. She gets put into jail over night, however after a while Mark comes to get her out. Mark somehow found out that his girlfriend almost had an affair and breaks up with her. Mark and Daniel then have a fight outside and end up both in a fountain! Once back in England, Mark proposes to Bridget. The film ends with her parents renewing their vows and Bridget is the “bridesmaid”, then Bridget and Mark stand outside the church in the snow.

Representation of main character:
Bridget is seen as a clumsy, slightly podgy woman who almost cannot decide between two men. She cares a lot about her work and has done things such as slide down a fireman’s pole and sky dived for her career to work. Throughout the film, we see Bridget’s softer side and see her standing up for herself in difficult situations. The viewer realises during the film that she gets embarrassed easily from the things that she does. For example, she turns up to a formal function alongside her boyfriend dressed in a bright gold dress, and as she did her make up in the car, it is a mess and she ends up running to the bathroom. So she is portrayed as an embarrassment and some people can be disappointed in her. A few times in the film Bridget ends up alone and vulnerable, her boyfriend dumps her and she gets put in prison in Thailand for a week. In these difficult times especially, the real Bridget shines through and we see that she reacts very well in upsetting situations. Proving the viewer wrong, as they have been made to believe she is clumsy and embarrassing, she is actually intelligent and independent.

How the main character contributes to the Narrative:
Bridget Jones is the narrator in this film. The narrative is her reading out of her diary in the background of certain events happening. Or she will explain something out of her diary, and then it will happen on screen. Another example is when one of her diary entries is being shown on screen, and then she reads out her thoughts at that specific time, that are in her head and she can’t say out loud. This way the viewer can know exactly how she is feeling at that exact moment and the audience can produce feeling towards Bridget, e.g. sympathy, disappointment, etc.

Media Diary!

Almost first thing, I was asked to create a media diary, so I write down how many hours a day I consume the media.

Thursday-

TV- Friends, 5pm-6pmDesperate Housewives, 7pm-8pm, was so good!
Internet- Facebook, 8pm-10pm, to check my comments and to see whats going on with everyone! Went on MSN.

Friday-

Ipod, 3 hours, had a car journey.
TV - Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, 10pm-11pm

Saturday-

Wedding - listened to music at the reception, and in the church!

Sunday-

Ipod, for 3 hours again, another car journey!
Internet - Went on MSN, that stays up, but I'm not always talking to people. Went on facebook aswell and checked my wall posts.

Monday-

TV - Friends, 5pm-6pm
Had facebook running all night, but only checked it every so often. Had music on while doing homework. Listened to a playlist with artists such as Chris Brown, Katy Perry, Rihanna, Coldplay and Kings of Leon.

Tuesday-

TV - Friends, 5pm-6pm
Same routine every night! Have facebook and MSN running, but check every so often for wall posts and picture comments. Music is playing while doing homework, same playlist as Monday.

Wednesday-

Film - Othello - 10.50am to 11.50am, in English Lit.
That evening, went on facebook from 7pm-8pm, then watched Desperate Housewives from 10pm-11pm.

Thursday-

Spent 15 minutes on the computer in photography, printing off pictures to develop. In the evening, have facebook, msn, and blogger running, go to check certain things every so often. TV - Friends, 5pm-6pm.

Friday-

Spent 2 hours getting ready to go out, so I listened to music for 2 hours - ipod and speakers.When i got back, I watched an hour of TV - Friday Night with Jonathan Ross.

Saturday -

I was at work from 9-5, watched the Formula 1 Night Race on TV.Music in the background in the shop.I then babysat all evening, so I watched Friends, 5pm-6pm, then X Factor, 8pm-9pm, I then watched Away From Her (Sky Movies)

Sunday -

I went shopping in London all day, so I didn't use much of the media apart from listening to music in the evening while doing my homework. I listened to songs such as Miss Independent, Forever, If this is Love, The man who can't be moved. Shortly after finishing my homework i logged onto Facebook and MSN, for a general chit chat.

Monday -

In Media Studies, we analysed the Mise En Scene of Jasmin, a TV programme, 3pm-4pm. I then, as always, listened to the same playlist as above while doing my homework. Then logged onto Facebook at 8pm-10pm.

Tuesday -

Finished watching Yasmin in Media Studies, 9am-10am. In English, we watched some more of Othello, 1pm-1:45pm. On Facebook and Blogger at 6pm - 9pm.

Wednesday -

Watched Friends from 5pm-6pm, I then spent about 2 hours on Facebook and Blogger for a general chit chat... I then went on the cross trainer and listened to my ipod, I was on there for a good 45 minutes! Listened to a playlist including Chris Brown, Ne-yo, Kings of Leon, Katy Perry, Cascada and Darude.

Thursday -

Same sort of thing, got home, walked into the family room..watched a bit of American drama..then walked up to my room and did some homework...while listening to my ipod on my speakers..however..there are some songs i dont have on my ipod, so i went onto youtube and listened to the songs i like on there :D Then went on facebook from about 7:00pm to about 10:30pm, just to catch up with some buddys. While on facebook and msn, i listened to more music..