Trekkies continued....

My first reaction to this video was that these people were just absolutely out of the ordinary and it was just a ridiculous idea to me that people would waste their time and money on this interest for Star Trek. But the more we talked about fandom and the validation for it, I guess that I could see some positive things coming from the Trekkie group. The two functions we talked about were Identity and Community. So many of these fans identified themselves through Star Trek. There was one guy who even changed his name to one of the commanders because he felt that he would be happier if he was associated with the particular Star Trek character. The dentist shows us an example of community. The dentist wanted to have people be able to come to his office and experience the community of Star Trek. He and his family not only wanted to be a part of the Star Trek community and bring others into it, but they identified themselves through it as well, wearing attire and such outside of work as well. The idea of people dressing up as Star Trek characters and going to conventions all over the world is a crazy and a new idea to me, but I do accept that this is a group that effects our media and the way that we view industrialization and modernization. We all have different interests and belong to different affinity groups, I just think that sometimes letting TV shows and media consume our lives, withholds us from seeing the important issues of the world sometimes…which may be just what these Trekkies are doing…kind of forming their own little society and group, trying to avoid some important and perhaps, emotional issues within society?

Trekkies

This video just put me in a state of amazement. I didn’t even know that such groups such as the Trekkies existed. When we started talking about pathological loners and hysterical crowds, the first thing that came to my mind were just crazy people who were obsessive fans and crowds that are obsessed with different celebrities and bands etc. When I thought of hysterical crowd, I had a flash back to memories of when the Backstreet Boys and N’sync were huge and girls would mob them crying and screaming when they were on talk shows or in concert. But, the Trekkies gave me a whole new perspective on this idea of fandom. I definitely saw many pathological loners throughout the movie. The first obsessive fan that comes to mind is the 15-year-old boy who is obsessed with Start Trek. He, along with many other Trekkies, are so obsessed with Star trek and want it to be a part of their everyday life, that they feel the need to wear Star Trek apparel. One woman even wore it as she went on trial, which made her well known by many, but the 15 year old boy blew my mind because it was just crazy to me how much time he put into his love for Start Trek. He spent a lot of time making videos and designing different outfits to wear etc. I know we all have our different interests, but I personally think that a 15-year-old boy should have other interests as well and should be discovering who he is through these different interests. (Of course the video only focuses in on his start trek interests, so he may have others.) An example of a hysterical crowd would be the people at the auction who are willing to pay thousands of dollars for a star trek mask. This is just absurd to me, but I guess some people find it worth their money to spend it on these things. (Continued.....)

Parasocial Interactions continued....

I enjoy reading Christian romance novels (sounds corny, I know), but I enjoy reading these books because when I read them, I feel so connected with many of the women characters in them. All the story plots are usually similar; they are trying to overcome some obstacle or obstacles and their faith is revealed or discovered through them and they learn much about themselves. Sometimes the characters do feel very real and I feel like I am a part of their lives and learning more about myself through them. I also enjoy sports, especially, cross country and track. Most people have favorite sports players that they follow, but for cross country and track, there isn't really much to follow on them. They don't get much feed on sports networks etc. (especially distance runners.) But there defiantly are professional runners I look up to and follow, but I just feel that they are more of a role model than a parasocial relationship. So, I have come to the conclusion that maybe I do need to be more aware of celebrities and leaders of our society, but at the same time I am content with just being aware of these parasocial interactions and just focusing on connecting with the people that I actually encounter on a daily basis.

Parasocial Interactions Part I

I have really struggled with trying to come up with someone that I have an interpersonal relationship with. I couldn't even come up with an example in class. To be honest, it was a rather embarrassing moment! I felt so unconnected with everyone else in that moment. I felt so not normal for not being able to think of someone to connect with like everyone else in the room. The thing is I don't know why I feel like I don't connect with anyone. I watch TV, I watch movies, I read books, I read PEOPLE magazine. I do "normal" things just like everyone else that connect me with people in society. But for some reason, I just couldn't think of anyone I really follow and look up to besides people in my everyday life that I actually encounter and interact with. The more I have sat here and talked with my roommate and tried to think of someone to connect with, I have discovered that I don't necessarily have to have an parasocial relationship. I feel that if I did have to choose to connect with someone it would be not necessarily a specific character, but characters that I can relate to on life issues.

Effects of Mass Media Part II

As we talked about TV, I was surprised to find that to be considered a heavy TV watcher, you only have to watch 4 hours of TV a day. I am most certainly not a heavy watcher, but I do use TV and radio often for background noise and sometimes just for comfort when I am alone in my room doing work. But maybe, when I look at it that way, I may be considered a heavy consumer of TV and radio. I also found the Mean Scary World Syndrome to be very interesting. I do believe that TV does affect me and makes me believe that crime is more prevalent in my life. I used to be a big fan of scary movies in middle school and high school. I remember after I watched them, it would be very hard to go through the night and next few days without thinking about it and being paranoid about my surroundings. Mainstreaming does affect TV and influences opinions across all people.
I found the two-step flow very interesting and very true. I do agree with the fact that we are all highly influenced by opinion leaders, from actress and actors on TV, to the people in our very own community. I think that this idea of opinion leaders can be a negative or a positive thing, depending on what this leaders message is. But, I do think that opinion leaders are important and I do believe that as a member in society, I too, can become an opinion leader. I have really enjoyed learning about the effects of mass media and I do believe that the more educated I become on it, the better I will be able to educate and inform others on this issue that is such a big part of our society. I believe that God has a place for me in the education field and that He will reveal to me where exactly that is and how I can further His kingdom.

Effects of Mass Media Part I

For the past week, I was struggling to find motivation to blog. After class today, I found some motivation. Today we talked about the Effects of Mass Media. We have talked about this earlier in the semester and I have expressed the effects of media several times throughout other blogs. I do agree with parts of the Magic Silver Bullet Theory. This offers that media are direct, immediate, uniform, and powerful. I agree that media is direct and immediate, in the sense that we do have access to some form of media pretty much, anytime and anywhere we want. Media is also very powerful. Media does influence our views, whether we realize it or not. I don’t necessarily think that media is uniform because it doesn’t effect us all in the same ways and we don’t all consume the same amount of media or the same kinds.
I also found the different uses and gratifications to be very interesting. The two motives that we talked about were Utilitarian and Ritual. As I thought about both of these, I would say that I am more of a utilitarian user. When I look back on the past, I would say that I was more of a ritual user in high school. Now that I have a lot more work to do, I don’t find the time to use it for pleasure as often. I currently use media for lots of schoolwork, information seeking. I also use it to form my identity through Facebook and socialization, (which is pleasure as well).
To be continued....

Conglomerates

I felt kind of confused by the idea of conglomerates after discussing it in class earlier this week. I understand what a conglomerate is. It is a large oversight company, but some of the other ideas, such as vertical integration and synergy were kind of confusing to me. Then, I was sick on Thursday, this pass week, so I didn't get to attend class, which made me even more confused! I borrowed Ashley's notes. She explained to me that there was a debate in class over the idea of weather conglomerates were good or bad. After reading these notes and doing the reading, I feel much more confident about conglomerates. I do feel that conglomerates have many good and bad effects, and to be honest, I don’t think I know enough to make a choice at this point, but I am aware of their effects. I realize that conglomerates are huge, successful, corporations that have made their way to the top. They provide us with many pleasures, such as TV and radio, which at the same time, contain many harms. I look at Disney and all its success and how enormous it is, and think about how many people it effects. This is so crazy to think about…just how huge Disney is and how everyone knows about it! And it continues to grow today. The idea of conglomerates is hard to wrap my mind around- just how huge and powerful they really are, which is really kind of scary. I am not so sure that we want conglomerates to have so much power over our society if we look at the bad effects that TV has on people and is how greatly it is effecting generations of today. I am excited to explore much more about this idea of conglomerates and the effects they have on society and to understand ideas such as synergy and vertical integration better.