Total Recall Of This Class

I wish I could say that I have a total recall of every single thing covered in this class this semester.  If I did say I had such recall, I would be lying though, and I am not one who cares to lie, now or ever.  This class has covered lots of material from media management to media research to living in a liquid world to reading a selection from a fellow by the name of DiMaggio but not a baseball player to films being filmed outside of Hollywood to creative clusters to media firms to Infographics to Lucas Films to IPTV to the ten key features of new media lives of new media workers today that nobody can deny.  I have thoroughly enjoyed this class, my professor of the class, and my classmates of the class.  I am glad I have stayed away from any major quarles in this class.

 

Gone Digital

Media has gone digital in recent years.  Digital media has reached domination in the media landscape of our nation and throughout most of the Western world.  Content of the available media is catering to individual interests.  It has become a la carte.  Cable providers in the USA are still refusing to other individual channels a la carte except for premium channels such as HBO and Showtime.  I believe that someday cable providers will finally offer channels a la carte but probably not until at least the year 2020 though.  Media content is appearing everywhere.  This is the case with television, the internet, cell phones, and elsewhere.  One day, it will probably appear on watches though this may already be the case somewhere in this world.  Some televisions are now being manufactured that are allowing people watching the televisions to be able to access Youtube and other internet portals.  Philips and Samsung are two such companies who are manufacturing such televisions.  The technology for this is called Internet protocol television or IPTV for short.  Free content offerings are emerging with media.  This type of content is made free due to an abundance of advertising.  This is widly being seen with the website Youtube nowadays even happening prior to the viewing of the first visit in some cases.  Media used to be an exclusively passive experience but has now become active allowing people the opportunity to share their opinions with others through the means of video clips, blogs, and etc. means.  This can be a threat to media companies but can also be an opportunity.  Media content is reaching a global reach.  Globalization has definitely reached media content.  It is a frenzy even in its reach at times.  We have heard the term “globalization” at class often throughout the semester, but we have needed to hear it often because our media world is experiencing this phenomenon.  Really, this particular phenomenon is being experienced in every aspect of living life nowadays.  I see the world around us changing daily.  It was just a few short years ago that Twitter meant nothing to anyone, and today, Twitter means so much to so many people.  I utilize Twitter at times and not at other times.  Shortly ago, the combination of note for many channels was Facebook and Myspace.  Today, the combination still includes Facebook, but Myspace has been replaced in the combination with Twitter.  When I was in undergraduate school, I once had a professor who put together both Facebook and Myspace for fun during a lecture and called it Spacebook.  Today, this professor would probably say Twitface instead for fun during a lecture.  Class, do you feel the pattern of daily changes in the world around us will continue to occur daily in the future ahead?  When it comes to digital media being present in the USA, our part of the planet has truly Gone Digital.

 

3 Little Pigs

3 Little Pigs

We read about three little pigs in this week’s readings for class.  Of course, I am just kidding about that.  I did have three little readings though to look at for this week’s class.  The Zandberg/Neiger reading was about journalists.  It discusses that journalists do struggle with working for the “good of the people” when facing rather difficult times.  Since 2001 for sure and even at times prior to then, there has been growing interest in studying the work of journalists during times of crisis such as at times of wars or terrorist attacks.  Personally if I was a journalist, I would have a tough time dealing with facing the reality of wars and/or terrorist attacks.  I probably would not even have the strength to survive facing such reality in such a zone with wars and/or terrorist attacks being the common everyday reality.  I could not imagine being in a place where I could get shot or somehow killed while sleeping in a bed without even necessarily going outdoors at all.  Then again, I could be killed right here in Murfreesboro in that way.  Considering where I am at the present time in my living life, I do not feel that I should pursue my life in trying to obtain the opportunity to be a journalist.  The Zandberg/Neiger reading mentions that the concern that journalists do face in times of crisis is that the journalists will abandon ideas of neutrality, factuality, and objectivity in favor of patriotic loyalty.  When facing times of crisis situations, journalists have become members of two communities.  They are simultaneously members of the professional community and of the national community.  This gives the journalists a look of a concept such as dual citizenship, but it is nothing at all like dual citizenship and is certainly not dual citizenship for sure.  In this respect, I would not want any part dual here, especially with duels or duel equivalents going on surrounding me.  The Grant/Wood reading deals with film and creative clusters.  Creative clusters themselves are found present in filming but also found present in other enterprises such as publishing or healthcare among others.  This reading talks about an area of northern Canada at a place called Baffin Island located near the Arctic Circle.  It tells about it being July of 1976 at Baffin Island.  It is a place home to a group of people known as the Inuits.  The area would be about the last place on Earth that anyone would expect for a film crew to be at filming a film, but this area was home to the filming of a film in July of 1976.  The film that was being filmed there at the time was the climax of the opening sequence of the James Bond film

The Spy who Loved Me.  Unfortunately, I have not seen this James Bond film as of yet, but I would now like to partake in seeing it someday just because I have read about it for this class.  The reason this scene was filmed in a land far away from Hollywood was due to this particular area of northern Canada having the mountainous look that the film needed for completion of the climax of the opening sequence for this film, and it was something not possible in Hollywood and hardly possible anywhere else on the planet that could be reached by the film crew in order to remain within the means of the budget for this 1970s film.  I did research this movie online and found, according to http://www.imdb.com, this movie was filmed in its entirety outside of Hollywood, and this was almost forty years ago.  I found the movie was filmed nearly entirely within different parts of Europe except for filming in Canada and in Egypt.  This movie really sounds like something being filmed partially within Egypt and partially within northern Canada.  I really do need to see this film someday.  This reading did go on to talk about creative clusters and how some areas are better known for one thing as compared to other areas.  One example provided is how it is New York City and not Los Angeles that today is the main center for publishing within the United States of America.  The reading even mentions Nashville within it and how Nashville is the big creative cluster for country music nowadays.  One thing I did find within this reading that I currently do not completely understand at present was the statement, “economic logic underpins the orderly marketplace.”  I think the statement means that the creative work and really just work in general that is completed is the work that makes the most sense economically and will make the most profit economically even if such work presents some amount of chaos or confusion.  I could truly be wrong here in this thinking though.  This reading goes on to discuss release windows for Hollywood movies (movies considered Hollywood movies at any rate).  Five release windows are mentioned with the first being movies play in cinemas for a duration of time lasting anywhere from a week to a year though for most movies this window will be more around a month.  The second one is a DVD release that results in a DVD being for sale typically for a 1/2 year to a year.  The third one is a release on a pay television network such as HBO or Showtime which will typically happen about a 1/2 year after its initial release to cinemas.  The fourth one is a release on a network television network such as ABC which will not happen until a while after the release on a pay television network.  The fifth one is a release to any cable television network such as USA or Lifetime or local or independent station and will occur at some point and time after appearing on network television but not necessarily but definitely after appearing on pay television for sure.  The Scott reading was the reading I had the unfortunate displeasure of not being able to read through in its entirety thanks to E-learn.  It was a nice reading to read among the first few pages I was able to read.  The reading does let it be known that the television agency sprang up in New York City in the 1940s though radio had been around for many years prior to then in New York City.  Initially, the Hollywood movie studios were really hostile toward television.  This went on for the first 15 years or so of television.  By 1960 though, the attitude was far different among these same studios that now, well then, were forming their own television programming divisions.  Thus, the 1960s was a time of more television happening in Hollywood as compared to New York City.  Today, Hollywood is home to over 90% of all television program productions within the United States of America.  Unfortunately, this was where I got terminated by E-learn with the Scott reading though I do feel I have made at least a respectable blog post for this week though.  In thinking back to the Grant and Wood reading, I was ten years old back in 1995.  Back then in 1995, it was about 9 months or so before a movie was released to videocassette after its initial release into cinemas.  Nowadays, it is only about 4 months and possibly only 3 1/2 months in some cases until a movie is released to DVD after its initial release into cinemas though the wait time can be 5 or 6 months or so if it is a movie marketed as a certain type of movie such as being a Christmas movie or a Halloween movie or even an Easter movie.  I believe I had previously read somewhere online though do not recall where online that the last movie that was released exclusively for videocassette as opposed to being released for DVD in the United States of America was released at some point and time in 2008 which is around the same time that one could no longer buy just a VCR by itself in this nation and had to buy a VCR connected with something else such as with a DVD player.  Well, this is where I will close this blog post for this week.  I wish my whole class happy blogging for your blogging activities this week and to come ahead.

 

One Link Because It Is Election Day

The following is a link to a news article courtesy of Yahoo! news dealing with the presidential election and link is http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/road-trip-florida-4-corridor-mother-road-swing-191743661–election.html.  This article talks about Florida and Interstate 4.  If you want to know more, check out the link.

 

Election Day Today, Go Vote

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury I mean of our class, today is Election Day.  I encourage you all to please go vote today unless of course you did like me and voted in the early voting.  Please do go vote today if you have not done so already.  The future of your nation might be helped by your vote but certainly will not be helped at all if you do not vote.

 

Enter MMW Chapters 21, 22

Enter MMW Chapters 21 & 22

Chapter 21 covered a concept known as technology that has been previously mentioned in other readings earlier in this class.  The chapter covered at great length the recording industry.  The recording industry has had its ups and downs over the years.  The year 1999 was the very best year ever for the industry in terms of making financial profits due to the emergence of teen pop music being fueled by one Britney Spears.  After 1999 though, technology was causing financial profits for the recording industry to start in a state of decline that is still the case even to 2012.  The technology that hurt the profits starting in 2000 was online technology

via peer-to-peer sharing website networks which were becoming widespread across the internet throughout 2000 and 2001.  To combat the growing technology problem of such networks, artists decided to opt to finding experimental methods of selling music.  Indie music labels and artists have found great success in promoting and selling their products and networking with their fans online.  Lots of this success on the indie front has happened through blogging of all things.  As you can now see and hear, blogging really does serve as a tool of importance online.  Due to the recording industry attempting to sue those responsible for operating illegal music download websites back in the early 2000s and later, they have lost lots of potential business from not forming legal pay music download websites.  Just imagine what record companies could do if they would only embrace the new technologies of today instead of trying to party like it is still 1999, literally.  Until recent times, artists had few options to market and distribute their music widely and efficiently other than through labels.  Thanks to technology and the recording companies remaining behind the times, this sure has changed greatly for artists.  Chapter 22 covered management and a weak job outlook for workers of new media and for creatives.  This also has been covered in readings earlier in this class.  The reading in this chapter lets it be known that management is extremely important in working in new media.  The worker working in new media today must live by the motto “life is a pitch.”  When I read that motto, it made me start to think of another word, but I cannot state it here in this blog and definitely should not in any blog or really anywhere for that matter.  The chapter did go on saying that globalization is causing for more irregular work opportunities in new media today.  I agree with this assessment and do feel this extends truly to all lines of work today.  Growing numbers of employers are considering a creative worker as one to potentially be a source of trouble.  In other words, creativity is definitely not a good thing anymore.  I have personally always wanted to be a more creative individual, but I am probably in better shape being less creative due to how the job outlook is nowadays.  The reading of chapter 22 stated ten, yes ten key features to new media lives of new media workers today.  These include 1)love of the work, 2)entrepreneurialism, 3)short-term, precarious, insecure work, 4)low pay, 5)long-hours cultures, 6)keeping up, 7)do-it-yourself learning, 8)informality, 9)exclusions and inequalities, and 10)no future.  This work arrangement is not attractive at all but certainly necessary in order for a growing number of workers to attain any work at all.  Now, that is scarier than attending a graduate school class on Halloween evening.  This is the ending point of this blog post.  I do hope and wish the job outlook gets better soon overall.  Happy blogging this November and always.

 

Two Movies Not Filmed In Hollywood I Watched On This Past Thursday

Back at class on this past Wednesday (Halloween evening), we had talked about how more and more movies are being filmed outside of Hollywood.  Well, I happened to actually watch two movies on this past Thursday, the day after class, that were not filmed in Hollywood at all.  One movie was called Fun Size while the other movie was called Ted.  Fun Size was filmed in and around Cleveland, Ohio, and stars Victoria Justice from Nickelodeon.  Ted was filmed in and around Boston, Massachusetts, and stars a couple of folks from Family Guy.  Both movies were filmed in 2011 but released in 2012.  I might watch five or six movies throughout the course of an entire month, and it really is something that I managed to watch two movies in one day filmed entirely outside of Hollywood.

 

A Little About The Other Reading Selections From This Week

Enter Deuze MW Chapter 6 & Deuze MMW Chapters 12, 13, & 15

From chapter 6, I learned that children are getting television sets in their bedrooms so that the parents can watch what they want to on the television sets in the living room and other parts of the place of residence.  I never thought about this idea quite like this before, but this was in the reading of chapter 6 nevertheless.  Class, did any of you have a television set in your bedroom at any point and time while you were growing up.  I personally did in my teenage years.  A few other items from chapter 6 include that change is being expreienced greatly in both the film and television industries right now, production is the actual making of a film, and sometimes the courts must intervene in law matters being dealt with within the entertainment media industries.  From chapter 12, I read that both the film industry and television industry are similar but are indeed different industries.  I already knew this prior to reading the chapter but a reminder never hurt anyone.  It is truly the production and labor processes along with the technologies employed by the two industries that makes them different.  Television is broadcast while film is centered around being produced for the cinema.  The international film industry is dominated by Hollywood but as I noticed in reading chapter 14, other locations including locations in Canada are being utilized as filming locations for films.  The entertainment industries are attractive to young people, and this is true from film to television to singing even.  At this time, think red, and think Taylor Swift.  Freelance working is growing in the entertainment industries while achieving diversity in employment in the entertainment industries is hard to do.  Class, would any of you work in the entertainment industries if you to go into it in a position of working in freelance?  I am not sure I would personally but since I have not tried thus far in my life, I would not know if I would do so if push came to shove on the matter.  From chapter 13, I read that in recent years, the costs of producing and distributing media have dropped steeply.  This is something I have known for many years and always reminds me of the huge drop in the cost of the VCR from the late 1980s into the early 1990s when I was just a child.  Today, we are now in a brave new digital world.  Digital is here today and here to stay.  New technology has come to film recently in the advent of both HD and 3D.  I did really learn two things in reading this chapter though.  I learned that most feature films and primetime television series are developed by independent production companies.  The one thing was the film side with the television side being the other.  Until the 1990s, television production was largely centered in the Los Angeles area and to a lesser extent in and around New York City.  British Columbia has really seen a surge in movies being made there in recent years.  It reminds me of my reading of chapter 14 that centered around, oh, Canada.  Chapter 15 gave me a nice little histroy lesson.  In reading that chapter, I learned that the middle of the 1950s brought about a crisis in the USA for the media entertainment industries.  The formation of both unions and professional guilds happened due to the crisis.  The entertainment media industry in the USA is highly concentrated thanks to the conglomeration of media companies such as News Corp, Disney, and others.  Hybrid jobs are becoming more and more commonplace in the entertainment media industry nowadays.  An example of a hybrid job is a movie that has one person who is both the director and the producer of a movie.  I believe that such a person would be called, unfortunately so, a predator.  I guess Nashville is not the only place home to a predator anymore.  Anyways, this ends this blog post.  Look forward to my scary I mean not scary PowerPoint presentation over chapter 14 at class very very soon ladies and gentlemen.  Happy Halloween!

 

Enter MMW Chapter 14

Do not be scared ladies and spiders I mean ladies and gentlemen.  Yes, it is now Halloween, and yes, this is my take on the Deuze MMW chapter 14 textbook reading selection I will be presenting a PowerPoint presentation for very shortly ahead.  Honestly, I thoroughly enjoyed reading chapter 14.  Charles H. Davis did a great job bringing forth a nice read with an emphasis on a foreign land located some nearly 600 miles or so to the north of Murfreesboro called Canada.  Well, that would place you in the part of Canada right by Detroit, Michigan.  Anyways, this chapter dealt with media industries and media firms as well as about the concept of entrepreneurs.  From the reading, I did learn that the media industries display very high rates of new firm formation.  The media industries are breathing new life to getting media firms going nowadays.  With the media firms getting started today, the new firms must address taking care of their needs in terms of business, management, and marketing.  Class, do you feel that new media firms must take care of needs in the areas of consideration of business, management, and marketing?  When thinking about the media industry, it should be imperative to note that it is an industry that is renewing itself on a regular basis.  A great deal of this renewal is due to constant and continuing changes in an area called technology.  Class, do you agree or disagree that the media industry is renewing itself on a regular basis.  It is the truth that most management-oriented studies of media firms focus on studying the large firms in existence while study of small to medium size firms is nearly negligible.  Well, this is the truth for Canada and is even the truth too for the United States.  Another thing I learned from reading chapter 14 is that the screen-based media industry is seeing much growth in the areas of self-employed individuals and microenterprises.  This is definitely the case in the English-speaking world.  The textbook does touch on entrepreneurs in covering chapter 14.  When it comes to entrepreneurs and opportunities, they will create, define, discover, and exploit them.  Entrepreneurs have the opportunity really to enter the screen media business sector through any one of a variety of different directions.  It has been known that Hollywood has been home to lots of film production over the past century or so of time.  Over the past two decades or so though, more and more film production has been outsourced to many areas outside of Hollywood with some production being brought into Canada at various locations nationwide including both Toronto and Vancouver among other locations.  An interesting statistic brought forth in chapter 14 was that by 2010, the Greater Toronto Area was home to nearly 1,600 media firms ranging in services from film production to film distribution to other areas in-between.  Chances are that your favorite movie might have been filmed at least in part in Canada.  Class, do you feel that more movies will be made entirely within Canada over the next decade?  Public policy issues are difficult issues today for those working in media industries not just within Canada but those working throughout North America with issues including health insurance, child care, and retirement among other issues.  This is what I read and got out of chapter 14.  Thank you Charles H. Davis for bringing a little bit of Canada to our reading of the master by the name of Deuze.  Enjoy my upcoming PowerPoint presentation ahead as well as all of the other PowerPoint presentations ahead.  Have a nice and safe Halloween, and above all, be careful while remaining safe.

 

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween everybody.  I will be giving a PowerPoint presentation on chapter 14 at our Halloween evening class meeting ahead.  Hopefully, you will not be too terribly too scared of the presentation.  This presentation will not contain a freightfully high number of slides.  It is chapter 14 and has a total of 14 slides within the PowerPoint presentation of course.  See you guys at class in just a little bit over 14 hours from right now.  Let us have a bootiful class meeting for Halloween evening!!!!!!!!!!!!!!