April Media Dissection (Burger King)

A little something for the Ladies! ;)

1. Burger King Paid for this Ad

2. Burger King has recently been under fire with their sales slipping, and their menu items becoming underwhelming. Since then, they have been doing an over haul of their products, and this is the result.
3.The Target of this ad is WOMEN, and to a much, much, lesser degree, soccer fans.
4. I conclude my theory about the target audience by noting David Beckham basically seducing everyone at Burger King, and it works. I am not even that big a fan of David, but this won me over. The court is still out on whether or not it made me actually want to buy BK.
10. The connection to the world of commerce is food, and their attempts to regain their 2nd place spot in sales back from Wendys who recently surpassed them. 
14. This ad is complete fantasy because David doesn't glow with angels hovering around them. Managers do not randomly fall in love with customers,etc...Not to mention the food will never look that nice when you actually order it.
8. The methods of persuasion are: Celebrities, beautiful (VERY BEAUTIFUL) people, Euphemism (he is pretty much seducing the staff), beautiful food, and humor.

Hunger Games March Deconstruction

I chose to do a media deconstruction on the Hunger Games because I feel this will lead to lots of interesting blog writing on this topic

1. Lionsgate produced the movie
2. Lionsgate has been in trouble in the past, but after acquiring the rights to movies like Twilight and Hunger Games, their revenue has sky rocketed.
3.The Target of this ad is teenagers, but it can inadvertently target older and younger audience members
4. I conclude my theory about the target audience by noting that this was a young adult novel. The people who read the books are encouraged to see the movie. They also target older and younger audience members because I have seen adults and elementary children alike reading this series.
10. The connection to the world of commerce is through the selling of ticket sales, which boost the theater as well as the movie companies, though it is the movie companies making far more bank than the theater, though they get to gauge prices for snacks at the theater. 
14. This movie is fantasy, because obviously, we would not be sending kids off to fight to the death. People would not stand for it, no matter how down trodden they are.
8. The methods of persuasion are: Association (because it used to be a successful book series), Celebrities (this movie has them), beautiful people, Euphemism (because this movie deals with a lot of close hitting things in our own society, like reality TV), Slippery Slope, and Analogy.

PBS - Digital Media Literacy

I got a score of 6/12 on the quiz. Multiple choice combined with percentages just is not fair :P !
I can't say I was surprised too much.

Digital Media Landscape:

What is it?
http://www.commoncraft.com/

I liked the idea of this one. For the most part people like consuming information through short videos as long as it has some semblance of interest, which it does. I did not know this site existed, so that is something I learned! However, when I tried to watch their videos it kept lagging every two seconds for me, which would not be very conducive to learning if it happened within a classroom environment.

How Do I Use it?
http://www.commonsensemedia.org/

I really like this site. This is a place that I would like to go to more often to help synthesis my media use, which is the reason for the site's existence. I love that you can get practical reviews for movies and games on here.

Learn More:
http://edorigami.wikispaces.com/

This is another site that I did not know existed. This wiki serves to help teachers integrate technology in the classroom and how to elevate instruction for the 21st century. Has some great starting off points for lessons. (digital citizen link)

Examples:
http://www.classchatter.com/

I remember reading about this in my bookshare book! I like being able to have an online blog with my students which I can totally make safe and private for them. This is a site I might be interesting in using in the future.

Resource:

http://www.pbs.org/teacherline

This would be a good spot if I feel the need to brush up on anything I was supposed to learn during my educational career at UAF. To be honest, I have no idea if this will be something that I will end up using as a teacher, but I wont discount it either.

Integrating Digital Tools and content:

I would most likely implement the bringing in a guest speaker through Skype. I like this idea, because I have a lot of friends who live outside of Alaska, and it is really nice this service exists, and I  know it works fairly well. It would help me connect my students to the world in a way that they wouldn't immediately think was feasible.

First Solo Media Deconstruction: Poop, There it Is

I chose to do a media deconstruction on this video because I have seen it a lot on TV and it is driving me nuts...

1. The Luvs corporation paid for this ad.
2. The company needs to sell this ad in order to sell more diapers that are more capable of keeping in messes than their competitors.
3. I can only imagine that parents, specifically mothers, are targeted in this ad. However, considering the cartoon-ish nature of this ad, I would imagine that it appeals to younger children as well.
4. I conclude my theory about the target audience by noticing that parents would be the only people worrying about diaper purchases. I believe that this ad appeals to children as well through its humor and cartoonish exhibition.
10. The connection to the world of commerce is through the selling of their diapers which people are always purchasing for their babies.
14. This ad leans closer to fantasy, because of the size of messes their diapers are claiming to contain.
8. The methods of persuasion are: Humor, Intensity (for the diapers' capabilities), Babies (I did not notice this in the list, but...come on...babies....) I would not say they are using a warm and fuzzy method of persuasion, because what they are doing, just isn't cute...

Group Media Deconstruction

http://medialiteracyproject.org/deconstructions/mastercard-tailgate

1. MasterCard

2. The company needs to run the ad to sell more credit cards. They want to make bottom line. 

3. The average 35-40american male is targeted. Especially those who love sports, even more specific, football fans. 

4. The ad features for nearly forty males hanging around a grill outside of the stadium eating food. "Typical" American male behavior.

5. The ad's text is that mastercard is there to make sure you can cover the expenses necessary to have the "priceless" moments. The subtext is a complete disregard for the consequences of using a credit card: acquiring debt, credit scores, monthly bills, etc...

6. The culture represented is middle America. The sports loving culture who live close enough to stadiums that can tailgate. The glamorization of sports fans.

8. Nostalgia is being implemented, for most who are remembering the good times. They also use association with the fun activity of tail gating. The people used follow under the category plain folk. Simple solution is implemented, via the MasterCard that pays for tailgating expenses.

Ian picked picked, I was too tired to fight it...

48 Hour Media Diary Reflection

I knew before starting this diary that this was going to be a lot of recording. I am almost constantly using media for no other reason than I am bored.

On the first day, I had school to go to, but only one class for that day because the other was cancelled. I had I lot of free time until I had to start work, so I tried entertaining myself. I checked Facebook frequently, which I usually do. I like to check it so I feel connected with my friends. More often than not, it only serves to aggravate me. Especially this weekend, but I will get to that later. I watched a lot of Netflix that day, solely for entertainment purposes. I watched some How I Met Your Mother, it is a fluff sitcom type show that is easy to unwind to and is not a large time commitment.

At four pm, I had to start work and was forced to limit my phone usage . My phone, by the way, was the sole medium for my media usage other than the Taco Bell radio. I did frequently check my phone for the time, but this was almost a constant checking. I think I have a compulsive disorder with my phone....

I had a break from work at 630 which allowed me to go back on my phone and amuse myself with such things as Memebase, which has funny photos with captions. I can lose a whole night going through them.

EX:

The rest of the night was much of the same. When I got home and settled into bed, I watched more Netflix on my iPhone and went to bed. This was pretty much any typical day

Saturday:

I had to wake up early for a writing sample I had to give at UAF. I would have driven myself except it was way too cold for my van to start. Facebook was frustrating today because everyone was complaining about the cold and posting pictures of the weather. This was more frustrating than actually looking up the weather, so I did not.

After the test, I was stuck on campus so I spent more time on Facebook and Memebase trying to entertain myself until my parents picked me up.

I did not check my phone much after than because we were running around town doing grocery shopping and trying to find elusive wood pellets. When we got home, I checked Memebase once more and opened my laptop for the first time in two days to knock out my taxes. After I completed my taxes, I surfed on the internet till way past midnight.

It seems to me a little sad that almost all my media use is for entertainment purposes only. The only thing that could be considered productive were reading the Facebook statuses reminding my how cold it was complete with a screenshot of the weather app on my iPhone.

Even if the weather was warmer outside, I think I would have spent just as much time on my days off using media and surfing the web.

First!

This a test...