Marystellar+Park

 Media Journals  Deconstructing Our "Reality" (Note: Can't see the picture below this comment? Try clicking on my page again and click "No" when the safety message comes out. Because these pictures are from external links, your computer might not think it is "safe")

October 11 2011 (my experiences with media) "I don't know the definition of this word!!" Then just google it." Growing up in this society where google has become part of our pop culture, I never thought it strange to use Google for everything I did and to be surrounded by people who use Google as well. The first time it really struck me was when my cousin (who came from Korea just a few weeks ago) asked me one day, "It's interesting how you use the name Google as a verb!" For the next few seconds, I didn't quite understand what she had said to me. I've been so used to using it as a verb, that for a second, I really thought 'google' was a verb! That was what made me keep track of when and for what reason I would use the Google search engine, so that maybe I could understand a bit of one of the most biggest and well known form of media. (One note. As I researched later on, it turns out that the Oxford English Dictionary and other english dictionaries have added "google" as a verb!) -check my gmail -chat on gmail with my friends || -check my gmail -do homework and projects -find definitions of words I might not know (if I come across any) || The short chart above is a "basic" schedule of when I use Google and why I use it. I realized the most times I used Google was when I was doing homework (either to search up a definition or picture) or to check my gmail. I was baffled to see the results that 90% of the times I was using Internet, I was doing something related to Google. However, at the same time, I felt that it was completely normal because it seemed that everything I used was somehow related to Google. Starting from Youtube, Google Chrome, Google mail, Google phone, and Google search, to even embedded Google search engines in other websites, my entire media source was filled with Google. I came to the conclusion that the reason why I cannot get away from Google from my daily life is because Google seems to be //everywhere.// Another thought that came to me during my Google investigation was, "Why Google?" I know Google is not the only search engine on the net because we have Yahoo!, Bing, MSN, and many many many others. So why not "Let's Yahoo it!" or "I MSNed the definition"? What's the reason for our constant want for Google? To find the answer, I had to google it.
 * **WHEN** || **WHY** ||
 * -right after I wake up || -to check the weather on my "iGoogle" and decide what clothes to wear ||
 * -a few minutes before school || -check my gmail ||
 * -during lunch || -do some assignments
 * -after school || -I'm bored so I try to find something to do

Oct 11 2011 (pop culture) media type="youtube" key="hC_M6PzXS9g" height="315" width="560" align="center"

It's kind of strange to try and find out what started a trend or how something became a part of our pop culture. In most cases, it just seems that it was always there! To give an example, try and answer this question: "When did you start using Google on a daily basis?" include component="comments" page="Marystellar Park" limit="10" I know when I asked myself this question, I kind of blanked out because I really had no idea when Google entered my life. To add to that, why did I use Google in the first place? Here are some of the reasons my friends/family/relatives have told me:

- "It's easy to use." (It has a simple interface and it's user-friendly) - "It loads faster!" (Unlike Yahoo! and MSN that has all sorts of things like the weather, news, on the homepage, Google is simple and loads much faster) - "It's easy to spell." (I can spell Google in less than a second!) - "Everyone else is using it." (My friends use it, my family uses it, everyone else uses it, so it seems reliable) - "It has everything." (I can search anything on Google and it'll be there!)

During my research, there were many people who told me that they used Google because everyone seemed to be using it. They felt that all of a sudden, everyone was using Google with no apparent reason! I know better that media is a construction of reality so Google had to come from somewhere. When did the "Google Boom" begin? I had to research the net for a while before I could find the answers to those questions. It really all started when Google's initial public offering took place in 2004 and was able to raise so much money that in just about 2 years Google had bought Youtube for 1.65 billion dollars. The bigger the company gets, the harder it gets for people to avoid that company and that's exactly what happened with Google. Once Google had a variety of different services (Google Earth, Gmail ...etc) it literally popped up everywhere on the net and after that is just a round of domino. Once your friend uses it, you use it, and then your whole family uses it, and so on. I think that's exactly what happened in my family when I found out about Google from school since now Google is officially the homepage for all our desktops and laptops. It's amazing how in such a short amount of time, something that started off as a research project from two guys ended up as part of our pop culture.

October 16 2011 (celebrity)

Can you identify all these faces? I had a little survey with the peers around me and asked them a few questions. "Do you know who founded Microsoft?" "Do you know who founded Apple?" At first, they looked at me strangely and then answered. "Bill Gates/Paul Allen." "Steve Jobs/Steve Wozniak/Ronald Wayne." Now my survey wasn't whether they knew the answer to those questions because most of the time, they did know it. No, I was most interested in the next question. "Do you know who founded Google?" I found it interesting how just a couple of people could answer this question as "Larry Page/Sergey Brin." This leads to my next question: What makes a person a celebrity? What makes Bill Gates and Steve Jobs more famous than Larry Page? In other words, what does Bill Gates and Steve Jobs have that Larry Page doesn't? To answer that question, I think it is because Larry Page is not very interesting. Bill Gates became famous because he was rich (approximately $56 billion) and Wikipedia even has a separate page for his house (Bill Gate's house)! Steve Jobs became famous when he passed away on October 5 2011. There are so many things to talk about these two people which causes people to gossip. When people gossip, the media takes their interests and it becomes published either on web pages or magazines. From that point onward, they become a celebrity. Now if we take Larry Page, what can people gossip about him? Is he richer than Bill Gates? No. Is he dead? No. Did he get charged for a murder? No! If there's nothing to talk about other than that he founded Google, then he won't catch people's attention. I think that's one reason why Larry Page is not such a "big" celebrity.

One note about Steve Jobs. To tell the truth, I didn't know who he was until he was on the front page news one day "Apple Steve Jobs Dead". This was probably because of my disinterest for technology (such as new phones, new laptops ..etc) but all of a sudden I knew Steve Jobs. This was mostly because of the video, "The Triumph of the Nerds" that we watched during class but also because of his death. In conclusion, I feel that a real celebrity is someone who is famous to people that are not even interested in that area. I mean I'm not interested in computers but I know Bill Gates. I'm not interested in movies but I know Johnny Depp. The list goes on...

October 16 2011 (Peep Culture)

Hal Niedzviecki says in his documentary, Peep Culture, "I feel as if I'm becoming a character, not a real person."

Have you ever watched your favourite star on TV and thought, "He/She wouldn't do something like that!" I think that these kind of thinking is a great example of what Hal talked about when he said that people were becoming characters and not real people. The audiences have a certain image, a certain expectation from the people that they are "peeping" on and when their expectations are not met, it causes them to wonder if it's authentic. Their real lives do not become "real" enough to be on "reality" shows. And most of the time, anything that the person shows on video, the audience believed it to be real. To take an actual example, I want to look at a famous Youtube person: Ryan Higa (aka NigaHiga). Think about the following: 1. If Ryan had a video of himself eating cereal for breakfast, do you think Ryan actually eats cereal for breakfast in real life? 2. If Ryan had a video of him and his friends playing a game, do you think they would actually play those games when the camera is off? 3. If Ryan has no videos of himself playing an instrument, do you think he can't actually play a musical instrument? A little more research on Ryan Higa: - he joined Youtube for a little over 5 years - he has over 4 **million** subscribers (that's around the entire population of New Zealand!) - his song "Nice Guys" with his friends is now on iTunes - has his own website [|www.higatv.com]

So why is everyone so interested in this guy who seems to be talking/acting/singing in his house or neighbourhood? Most people would answer this question as, "Because he's funny!" Let's look at one of his videos. media type="youtube" key="cGU0kRRWy_w" height="315" width="560" align="center"

Returning back to the original thought of becoming a character and not a real person, the audience may have different perspectives of his personal qualities. Such as, they might think he is a very bright, sarcastic, funny person who always seems to have these crazy ideas of entertaining people. On the other hand, he might actually be a very quiet and conserved person who totally changes his attitude once he is in front of the camera. ("put a camera in front of us and we change" -Hal-). We are not looking at his life directly but rather peeping in and does not allow us to see the whole picture. So if Ryan actually walked quietly and tiredly through his neighbourhood, people might think he's acting for his new video and not even suspect that Ryan's original personality is like that.The Ryan Higa that we know through his videos may very well be completely different from the every-day Ryan Higa. The question that lies now is which one is the "real" Ryan?

October 18 2011 (open entry-election ads)

"Yes? May I help you?" "Hi I'm here to give you this pamphlet on the election taking place soon." "O-Okay..." "Can you please vote for Liberals?" "Uh... " "Well take the pamphlet anyways." "Uhh...okay..." "Okay good bye! Have a nice day!" "Thank you..." That was my short interaction with the people trying to encourage votes for Liberals. Of course this was only a start before I was surrounded by the media on the election from ads to phone calls. When I went to check my mailbox one day, I realized that there were a lot of squished paper inside of the small mail box. In hopes that they were cards from my friend, I excitedly opened the box but was left with handfuls (and I mean handfuls!) of election ads and brochures. There were the usual Liberal pamphlets and Conservative pamphlets but what caught my eye the most was the "Say No to the LIberals" pamphlet. I am not very interested in politics and rarely do I take an interest at these elections, but this brochure really caught my eye when I first saw it. Why? There were two things that really stood out.
 * Knock knock*
 * Close the door*

1. Government is all about trust (bolded, text in white and background in dark torquoise) 2. We don't trust you! (bolded, text in white and background in red, pictures of two Liberal party members crossed out in red)

My first response was, "Whoah! What's happening here???" I've never seen a pamphlet so straight forwardly accusing a certain party. Then I tried looking for the party that made this pamphlet I realized that there were none. It seemed that these people were saying "Any party but the Liberals!" The ironic part was that I also received the Liberals pamphlet and could really compare the two brochures.

(Note: Unfortunately, the pictures I took of these two pamphlets won't show up on this website.)

I realized that if you read the pamphlets separately, then both of them were very convincing. Their choice of words, whether bolded or not, and their choice of pictures all affected the overall mood of the brochures. Then I also realized that the people who made these brochures weren't just people who put some words and pictures together. No, they spent time, money, and effort into making a pamphlet that would capture as many votes as possible (the most if they could). One thing I learned from studying brochures is that you can't analyze one party's pamphlet but you have to look at a variety and see their differences. I'm sure those differences are there for a reason like how Liberals focus on the candidate and the other parties focus on other aspects (such as what they accomplished...etc).



Another aspect of the election in Ontario (2011) was that people could vote by mail. The reason I think this is important is because it seems the government cannot ignore technology any longer. To prevent any fake/illegal votes for the elections, it was mandatory for people to go to the voting place and place a ballot. However, the constant increase use in technology meant that less people were interested in actually going to the place to vote. Now, the government allows people to vote by mail and even vote //any time// at their riding office. These flexible alternative ways for people to vote encourages them to actually take part in the election! The comic above shows how the man explains the changes that happened for this year's provincial election. However, I am also interested in what the woman says, "So I can't vote on Facebook?" It kind of gives me the thought that someday, there will be a time when elections will be done through the computer (ex. social networks, emails, or even some kind of technology that does not exist currently!)