Media Making Part 4

Globalization eliminates choices for people by decreasing diversity. Coke and McDonalds have done this. It’s easy to see what we have doe in restaurant chains in the U.S. by saying we have a variety of restaurants but really most are not authentic. For a homework assignment, my boyfriend had to find an authentic Mexican restaurant. It was not easy. Finally, he found one and the owner had lived most of his life in Mexico. He told us that restaurants like Taco Bell use the same vegetables but prepare their meat quite differently. He said that his business was family owned and he and his sister-in-law were the main chefs. Their radio played Spanish songs in between news spoken in Spanish. A lot of the menu was in Spanish. I think that part of the reason we lose diversity is because people may be afraid to adjust or try new things. You have to step out of your comfort zone and ask questions. So much familiarity to certain companies may be more appealing than a new experience. When you hear or watch Taco Bell ads, you know what to expect because they are identical in menu, appearance. Our visit to an authentic restaurant was a small one. But if everybody really thought about it they really don’t go for authentic Italian, Mexican, or Chinese that often. We live in a fake reality with globalization and this idea of everything being the same. Here is a picture of a Taco Bell taco and an authentic Mexican taco.http://www.insidesocal.com/tomhoffarth/crunchy-tacowebjpeg.jpg

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/81/220583510_9d009e2556.jpg

Media Making Part 3

One topic discussed in this section, is sex abuse towards women in the media versus real abuse. It is about whether or not there is a relation. In film, documentaries Dreamworlds 3 and The Merchants of Cool blame media culture either concerts or music videos with attacking women. At one of Bizkit’s concert, four women reported to being raped. Now, I do not like his lyrics. I find them disturbing and hateful. There are extremists and maybe they listen to his music because they are sick and want to do those things. It is very tense and frightening. But, I believe there is a huge difference between going to a concert to listen to music versus attacking someone else. I’ve always felt rape is not really about sex. It is about the pleasure of overpowering someone else. Victoria Secret ads give the idea of women being teasing and wanting to be used if you see it that way. It is a different means than vulgar lyrics but you could argue they have the same purpose. I do not believe the media has that much power to control someone’s conscience. If so wouldn’t have all the men raped women that night. I believe that this world has a fair share of crazies that believe other people exist for their use. Ted Bundy, the Craig’s list killer, Scott Peterson, to name a few. We are not drones, people have reason and free will. Here is a trailer to the Ted bundy movie. Acting out murder and suspense is far different than killing 35 women in real life. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IRJTTmv8CY

Children and Book Bans

Part II of Media Making discusses how popular books can be controversial. Working at a library, I run into this every so often. One book mentioned in this section is the Harry Potter series. Once, a little boy asked me where they were. I showed him and he was so excited when I handed him the first in the series. Then, his mom came down the aisle asked what book he had. Reluctantly he told her. She told him to put it back immediately. She turned to me and said, “We’re Christian. We don’t read those kinds of books.” She turned and left with her son. Well, I happen to be a Christian too. Anyone that has looked at the books knows they are not about really about sacrificing animals or blood or dark arts stuff. Actually, the books have a very Christian message. You can survive great and multiple hardships and your sacrifice can save others. Hello-that’s a Christian message. Not to mention a very human message. Small girls tend to flock to the Disney fairy tales. But every so often a girl asks me for the old tales which have dark content and don’t sugarcoat everything. I see parents open to it and others tell their children they wouldn’t like it. When children are so young and haven’t tasted much, I feel that they should be given the chance to try and pick out what they want. News flash to over protective parents the world is not a Disney fairy tale and sooner or later your child will find that on their own.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVByHK_ZHUE ( A clip showing that how J.K. Rowling's mother's passing influenced the Harry Potter stories and not dark arts)

Media Making Part 1

Oral culture has always been fascinating to me. Dr. Murray asked us in my Fairy Tales in Literature and Film class could we ever possibly trace back to the original story teller of a classic tale. No. It’s like the chicken and the egg when you think about discovering the origins of a story. Written fairy tales came from oral ones. Now, the Grimms recorded tales but altered them adding layers of medieval, religion, and Nordic references. Everything past down and did not come from sole Germans but the Norse, the French, and the Celts. The Grimms did not want to be associated with the French and Italians. It wanted to be purely German. Writers can educate in a way that oral culture cannot compete. When people are literate and attend school, they read history and loose the oral tales of their grandparents. We know for example that Columbus landed in the Bahamas in 1492 and with him brought “civilization”. Writing about this event can be very formal and just show statistics of how many people lost their lives to illness or cruelty. We lose the oral tale that removes the pain the people endured or how their lives were forever changed. Families destroyed. We only get one side of the story. Today, we can get our information from a variety of sources but if so much of the news in controlled by a few interest groups, how does the variety of means matter if they are basically identical. This picture shows a number of media outlets but after viewing documentaries in Visual Communication, I understand that they are owned by a handful of companies.
http://www.tv-streams.info/channels1.jpg