Alina's+Media+Log

**Alina's Media Log**





Media is all around me. Everyone, anywhere in the world has experiences with media from birth to death. Depending where one lives, they might have more or less encounters with media. These encounters with media shape us and it affects the way we look and behave with one another. There was a quotation once said, “We shape our technologies and than our technology shape us.” The quote is very realistic and true since every day we work on making a better form of technology to use. We find new ways to expose thousands of advertisements to the society through these technologies. In the past, media consisted of radio, billboards, and posters. Today, with the explosion of new technology we are exposed to media through of radio, billboards, posters, and television commercials, newspapers,websites, apps on phones, subway advertisements, clothing, magazines, phone calls at home, and “junk” mail. In my life, I’ve been surrounded by messages and values that influence my personality, how I see beauty, fashion, and how I use technology.

Advertisements want us to buy their products because with their products we will achieve that “perfect image”. With persuading words, camera angles, colours and sounds used in any advertisement, we are convinced to go buy a new pair of headphones, mascara, running shoes, acne cleanser, smart phones, laptop, vacuum cleaner or clothing. With everyone trying to live up to a perfect image because of these constant messages, we are surrounded by it is hard not to buy these new products.( bad sentence, doesn’t make sense) There is one major problem with the media, they are trying to make us live up to a non-realistic image. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and we have to see beauty for ourselves rather than what we are told is beauty. The image our society has been trying to live up to is the “happy” actors or celebrities we see and hear about every day in the media we experience. Since there is only one way celebrities achieve a “perfect image,” everyone in society buys the same products to use to become a “perfect” celebrity.

Girls try to obtain a certain image when they wear the newest in-fashion clothing, high heels, the mascara that will give them the longest eye lashes, the new acne cleaner for that “perfect and flawless” skin and even starve themselves or buy diet pills to become “slim and fit”. Boys obtain this image by buying the newest play station available, going to the gym to achieve the “built” body that girls will be all over, and by buying clothes that will try to make them look “sexy”. In general, we all buy products that will make us live the “perfect life” just like the celebrities. Therefore you can say all media are just constructions of reality. They are images that construct “perfection”.

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In conclusion, I experience media ever day. To me, “media's the most powerful entity on earth. It has the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent.” It makes me buy products to try to achieve an unrealistic “perfect image”. I am bombarded by advertisements everywhere I go, that influence the way I think, act and look.



**“In the age of peep, the challenge isn’t to protect your private life – but how best to capitalize on it!”** media type="youtube" key="yf59ckL5FZI?version=3" height="360" width="640" The Peep Culture documentary is about a man named Hal Niedzviecki and how he tried to understand how peep culture was changing our social lives and privacy. Hal Niedzviecki put cameras all over his house and in his car to record his life 24/7. Hal is one of the thousands who try to have their own reality show by broadcasting their lives on TV and internet websites.These people who broadcast their lives do it for numerous purposes. Some reasons are to become famous or attract attention to ourselves, “make” friends, gain “fans”, stop depression or to entertain others. Although even though it is called “reality TV” no one is “real” in front of the camera. Hal Niedzviecki says in his documentary, Peep Culture, "I feel as if I'm becoming a character, not a real person."



Throughout the documentary we are exposed to different individuals who broadcasted their lives. These people who are broadcasting their lives are turning themselves into products. One example is a woman named Lisa, who went through a weight loss surgery and then started a blog that kept track of her daily life after her surgery. Lisa, who was selling her body, got a numerous response from readers about her emotional and shocking stories. Lisa wasn’t credited for anything but for going through suffering. In the documentary, Hal talks about how we now began to see suffering, like in Lisa’s case, as a form of entertainment. I found this very interesting because it made me wonder if it’s authentic. As more examples were shown in the documentary, it was proven that Hal was right. The audience has expectations and they want to be entertained. In most cases, blogs or videos about an individual going through pain and suffering have more viewers than others.

To relate Peep Culture to my daily life, I began to think of the different ways I “broadcast” my life to the world. Unlike, Hal and the thousands who film their lives, I only use an international used internet website, Facebook. I have had a Facebook page for a few years now, but there was one year where I deactivated it for 9 months. Those 9 months, I didn’t upload a picture or video, update my status or write on others wall. I remained “invisible” in the social media. However, after a few weeks I was still very interested in the latest “updates” of my friends, so I would go on my sisters Facebook to check the “News Feed”. This made me wonder how important social websites are to us today. Many people today relay on social media to communicate with others. They expose themselves on Reality TV, blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and more. **"Forget Pop Culture – we’re living in the age of Peep Culture." **



**What is “Pop Culture”?**

<span style="color: #404040; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">**Pop culture** is what defines our society and it includes everything mainstream. When you think of the latest trends you think of fashion, movies, shoes, music, body appearances, sports but mostly, the newest technology. Our society is constantly improving technology and making new laptops, computers, televisions and cellular devices.

<span style="color: #404040; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> Most of us, who live in a developed country, own a cellular device. However, it isn’t any cellular device, it is the <span style="color: #199f9f; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">SMARTPHONE which has become increasable popular. A Smartphone is an advanced mobile phone which exceeds the capability of a regular cell phone. Many cell phones in North America are now quickly being replaced by these the Smartphone. Most popular Smartphone’s of today are the<span style="color: #3e3ed0; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;"> iPhone OS (Apple), <span style="color: #2703c4; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">BlackBerry OS (RIM), <span style="color: #2c1ad5; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Windows Mobile (MS), and <span style="color: #2c16c0; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Android (Google). <span style="color: #32e79c; font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 200%;"> <span style="color: #404040; display: block; font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: center;">These Smartphone’s are becoming popular because they have many positive impacts on society. They are easy to use and are used for multi-purposes. Smartphone’s can be used as regular cell phones, they are able to take videos and pictures, send and receive e-mails, allow us to download different Apps, allows us to play games and browse the internet. People, from young to old ages, use Smartphones more and more every day.



<span style="color: #404040; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Smartphones changed society’s ideology. For example, this year Smartphones are now permitted to be used on school property for educational purposes. This allows students to browse the internet and find information more quickly than past times. Smartphone’s have only be seen to be very convenient although very addicting.

<span style="color: #954195; display: block; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: center;">A celebrity is a famous person who has great influence on media. A celebrity that has caught my attention since the beginning of the school year was **Charlie Sheen.**



<span style="color: #954195; display: block; font-family: 'lucida sans unicode','lucida grande',sans-serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: center;">Carlos Irwin Estevez, better known as Charlie Sheen is a famous actor most known for his part on the television show, //Two and a Half Men//. This past year Charlie Sheen was fired from the famous show and his role was taken over by the well-known actor and comedian, Ashton Kutcher. When the school year began, it was all over the news about __“Charlie Sheen’s Roast”.__





<span style="color: #954195; display: block; font-family: 'lucida sans unicode','lucida grande',sans-serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: center;">The Charlie Sheen Roast made highlights on news channels; it was tweeted about for days, and seen on multiple social media websites. The Roast was given many opinions; however majority said it was taken too far. At the roast, the comedians took a no-holds barred approach, taking aim at Sheen's history of employing prostitutes and using drugs, even comments about his ex-wife and children. Here are the highlights of the Roast:

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<span style="color: #32e79c; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 170%;">Prince William and Kate Middleton ... Political figures or Celebrities?

Prince William and Catherine (Kate) Middleton got married on Friday April 9, 2011 at Westminster Abbey. Their wedding was on the news since the day of the wedding was released till days after the wedding passed. The media gave them great attention and it was broadcasted on many news channels, on twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and other social sites. Prince William and Kate Middleton were becoming from Royal political figures to CELEBRTIES. They appeared on every magazine and everything they did, it was posted on some sort of media for the world to know. Furthermore the media started paying attention to Kate Middleton’s sister, Philippa Charlotte “Pippa” Middleton.