Post 11: Extra Credit Blog

Other than my RTF 305 blog, the only other blog that I had was on my Myspace site a few years ago. It wasn't based on any focus, but that of random thoughts or if I had written something and wanted to share. I think one even just had photos. This blog was also not an everyday thing, in fact it was not constant at all. The blog was more of whenever I wanted to post something that I didn't want to stay permanently on my profile page. They were more like Facebook posts today, and at the time I did not have a Facebook.

The positive aspects of using blogs in this course was that I found myself relating certain examples that I had used in my blog to a movie shown in class, or a topic covered in lecture. In a sense the blogs were a bridging of understanding what was going on.

The first technical problem I encountered was putting a YouTube video on my blog. I did not want to save the clip to my computer, so I had to go to YouTube and select the share button at the bottom for Blogger, and copy the video to my post on another tab. Some of the blogs were written in a confusing manner and some seemed a bit too general. To fix these difficulties, I generally found another way of doing what I wanted to do, like the copy/paste thing I did with the YouTube video. To help the general prompt, I would go back to my notes to elaborate on an example that I understood very well.

The most interesting blog prompt to me was the one about advertising, because it is my field of interest and I felt like I knew exactly what I was talking about. The less interesting blog prompts were the first ones that dealt with terms. For example, the one where we had to explain a concept such as social learning. To me, it was tedious because that part of the class did not really interest me. I want to say that the most difficult prompt was the last one that was given about globalization because it was extremely vague and general. It was hard to elaborate because the prompt didn't really state what exactly they were looking for.

I think that using a blog is a great concept to introduce people to modern web use and technology, but to those that are a little more creative, I feel like prompts based on examples from lecture and not one's own defeats the purpose of checking for understanding. Personally, I felt that when I thought out of the box, I got lower grades than whenever I provided examples straight from lecture or the textbook. In regards to continuing the blogs, I would recommend having more opportunity for creative feedback as an option.

Yes, you can use my blog in a paper or report.

Post 10: Globalization

According to lecture, globalization is defined as “a process of increasing interconnectedness among nations, cultures, and people.” Ideas that circulate audiences around the world, contribute to the concept of hybridity in the sense of glocalization. Good examples of this concept come from television shows.

The United States is a good source of ideas when it comes to entertainment, but other countries from around the globe have influenced a lot of television programs that are watched here in the US. For example, “The Office” was first a British show, and “Ugly Betty” was translated from a Spanish soap opera into an iconic role for “America” Ferrera. The US has also contributed to other countries with shows like “American Idol” and “America’s Got Talent,” where the country replaces America with their own.

The following clips illustrate the show “The Office.” The first one is a clip from the British show, and the second is a clip from the American show. Both have the same concept but the dry humor is different to relate to their certain audiences.  Both talk about sexual relations in the clips, but are different in the way they are presented. For example, in the American show, the humor is a bit more expressed than in the British show.

To me, globalization is an interaction towards a communicative creation of culture and technology. Ideas circulate the globe and find common patterns to please their audiences. Television is a great example of the concept of hybridity because of their practice of glocalization. The more ideas circulate the globe, the more other countries will feed of each other for entertainment of their own.  

videos provided by: YouTube

blog 10: advertise here

ad provided by: http://www.sitcomsonline.com/photopost/showphoto.php/photo/39550

This following ad is powerful because it draws different audiences and it is persuasive through its humoristic approach. This ad is for the product of Dove Anti-Frizz Cream. Instead of using a regular model, I think that Dove caught the attention of more audiences by choosing to place a pop culture character that is recognizable: Marge Simpson. This ad is powerful because it makes its audience look twice. Most consumers are not used to seeing a television character as a model, yet having that model convince the consumer that the product even works for her. This is persuasive in the sense that an iconic frizz is no match for the Dove product, and it will make any type of hair, real or not, look smooth and appealing.

I think that this ad has a humoristic appeal in general, but when it comes to choosing one from lecture, I would choose the achievement, prominence, attention appeal. I think this has a humoristic appeal because it surprises the consumer with a sitcom character. This ad has an achievement appeal in the sense that the product has done its job. With this acheivement, it diffenetly gets the attention from the consumer. A general characteristic to this approach could be described as the "before and after" approach. Dove uses this approach to sell its Anti-Frizz Cream with Marge Simpson. Her before picture on the left of the ad even protrays her as thinking about using the product, and leads the consumer to the right of the ad to see the result of her decision. If the consumer sees Marge Simpson as a celebrity figure, then this ad is even using the celebrity appeal to sell their product.

This ad exemplifies this appeal by having a television sitcom character sell the product. It also gives the before and after approach a new face. Dove executes this appeal by giving their audience a new type of example, and a new type of model. Consumers are therefore drawn to this product because of a fictional character's attempt and beautiful no-frizz result.