Gender Inequality in Music Video

Image by Florbela
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I feel that the video we watched in class on January 26th that dealt with gender inequality in music video was spot on. Almost every music video seems to have women viewed more as objects than human beings, and many of the videos are based on a masculine view. However, I do not feel that the usage of women in such a way is right. Music videos should be intended for just about any audience, but it seems as though they are always made for the enjoyment of heterosexual males. More gender-equal music videos would, more than likely, improve society by presenting a world of equality. Instead, the gender-biased videos that are put out today (especially by rap and hip-hop artists) harm society because they cause certain societal members to think in the same manner as the made-up world within the video. Also, the comparison made between the portrayal African-American's in rap/hip-hop music videos today and D. W. Griffith's film Birth of a Nation was actually pretty accurate, which is sad.

Continuing Research (Week of January 23rd)

Photo by Simon Dean
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So far, I have been looking into various audio news stories and documentaries to find the "proper" way of formatting a script for my own news stories. In addition, I read an article from the "Nieman Reports" site titled "What the Hell is a Radio Documentary?." This particular article relates to my project because I plan on doing 3 to 4 news stories/"documentaries" about living on campus. Unlike a typical documentary I do not plan on having audio scenes that play out a particular story. Instead, I plan on having sound bytes from interviews and possibly having appropriate sound bytes of effects, if necessary, playing alongside my own narration. I have not had much practice with doing news stories other than two years ago in Studio Production, but I have done a couple of small ones before and hope to use that experience on this project.

Possible Research Sources for my "News Stories" Idea

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I have decided to work with my "News Stories" idea for the Capstone. My plan is to create audio news segments that could possibly be ready to air on radio and that could make a good short podcast series. I was just recently introduced to the idea of doing this as a podcast, so I plan on doing some research about various podcasts and their forms of structure. Most of this research will be done by simply listening to several different podcast programs. I have also found some websites with tutorials on creating podcasts such as this one simply titled "How to Podcast."In addition, I am also planning on getting a few books on the subject of radio journalism and trying to find information and templates that have proper script format. 

PowerPoint (It All Depends on How it's Used).

Photo by Matt Hurst
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I believe that some of the statements made by Edward Tufte, writer of "PowerPoint is Evil," are overly dramatic and ridiculous. According to Tufte, PowerPoint presentations "degrade quality and credibility of communication." He also compares PowerPoint to an expensive prescription drug that does more harm than good. However, I am not so certain that his description is always the case (or even ever the case in the way in which I have seen them used).

Meanwhile, David Byrne, writer of "Learning to Love PowerPoint," argues that PowerPoint is an useful artistic medium. He mentions that, at the beginning, he created presentations with little content. However, he soon learned that he could add short videos, photos, music, and scanned images to the presentations. He also learned that the presentations could be run on a timer so that no one was required. Byrne seems to realize what a convenience that PowerPoint is both as an art form and as a form of business presentation.

When I think of PowerPoint, it is mostly thoughts of presenting scholarly or business related material to a crowd. I do not see it as an artistic medium as much, but I also do not see it as a degradation of speech when used effectively. Effective use for me includes: showing visuals and speaking about them, adding sound when necessary for a particular topic, keeping animation on a down-low to avoid distraction, and as a way of showing lists or reading notes. My version of effective use, for the most part, involves the PowerPoint being a visual while I attempt to do the speaking. I believe that my vision of PowerPoint differs from the vision of both of the writers', because my vision simply involves providing an entertaining visual to accompany a speech instead of using PowerPoint for art or just using it without an accompanying speech. A PowerPoint presentation does not (and should not) just give itself in a business or class setting.

Forbes Best Social Media Campaigns

Man Checking Twitter
Photo by Steve Garfield.
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The Forbes article actually brought back many memories for me because I had long forgotten about some of the campaigns mentioned. I now remember some effective social media campaigns such as the Blair Witch Project one when they tried to make the movie look real and the Burger King one with the chicken online taking orders. The success of campaigns such as the Burger King Chicken, Blair Witch Project, and Old Spice Isaiah Mustafa seems to rely on the fact that the target audience is more engaged. People could find updated information on the products by visiting websites, posting questions, or, in the case of the Blair Witch project, by finding updated false articles about the investigation of the missing teens.

Recently, I have been kind of locked away from many social media outlets because of not watching much television to get the information and the fact that I never pay attention to Facebook or Twitter style sites anymore. However, I do remember friends of mine looking up the Blair Witch reports, which affected me because they got me into the idea of looking up the reports too. It seems that I am being forced back into the social media realm now that I am back to Shepherd, so I will have to start paying attention to the ways in which particular ads are geared toward the social media.

Even today people question the Blair Witch authenticity. Click here for a Yahoo Answers question about it posted in 2009.

What I Hope To Accomplish / Learn About in Comm 406.

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I am hoping that I will learn effective advertising strategies and how to target specific audiences. Just so you know, I am not so certain that I would want a career in advertising. However, with as much work as I have done with photoshop the last couple of years, I should be prepared to use the software to create ads anyway. I would also like to know how ads affect me because I figure that they do more than I think.

Senior Capstone Ideas

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I have many possible ideas that need to be narrowed down some upon discussion with my director. First, I thought about possibly finding and recording potential news stories involving Shepherdstown or the University. This would include finding topics and potential people to interview who are affected by the topic, followed by sound editing the interview to fit within a specific time. Second, I thought about the possibility of writing articles and reviews on select band cds or electric guitars and brands. Maybe, in this case, I could compile all of the reviews on a blog or website. Third, I could do sort of an experimental short film depicting some sort of “drug trip” or similar experience that makes use of repeated imagery and focuses more emphasis on sound. I mentioned an emphasis on sound because I like sound editing a little more than video editing. Fourth (and last idea so far),  I thought about the possibility of taking funny phrases from youtube videos and creating entertaining songs out of them. An example of this would be the “Hide Your Kids, Hide Your Wife” song inspired by Antoine Dodson.

Photo by Heather Vescent 
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One other idea I came up with involved the use of stock footage and making use of soundtrack pro and recorded audio (along with library audio) to mix a video much like what I did in Sound Design. It would include both video and audio editing, and the project would, more than likely, help me improve on my audio/video editing skills. Just an extra thought that I decided to include.

Favorite Ad Campaign

Photo by Orin Zebest

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My current favorite advertising campaign is the one that Snickers is doing when the "hunger" transforms people into other people (usually celebrities). I believe that the slogan is "you're not you when you're hungry, Snickers satisfies." I like these commercials mostly because they are funny and exaggerated to an extreme level. Any commercial exaggerated as much as these captures my attention. These commercials work well because of the use of known celebrities, types of people, and comedy. Using Betty White and Aretha Franklin as "hunger transformations" in a commercial is pretty much an ingenious strategy (especially since the people turning into them are also guys). Betty White is used to show that the guy playing football is doing a poor job while hungry, and Aretha Franklin in the newest one is used because "divas" are known to be whiny and the guy is whining due to hunger. Then, of course, a Snickers bar enters the scene and the celebrity eats it and changes into the guy who was hungry.

Here is a link to the "diva" Snickers commercial on youtube.

Website Project Ideas

So far I have two possible ideas for my website.

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1st. I could create one that deals with electric guitars and their history, famous artists who played them, the different brands, sponsoring, local and larger named shops, personal overall reviews of the brands, etc.

Photo by Kaakati 
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2nd. I thought about creating a website that has information on coffee such as the different types, their origins, reasons for or against drinking, history of US coffee trade, processing and production, etc.



Currently, I am not certain which idea to go for. I am just trying to pick a topic that I am interested in and that has plenty of information for me to use in the creation of a decent sized website. Any other possible options will be taken into my consideration too as I come up with more ideas or as I am suggested ideas.