The Beginning vs. Now

I am sad to inform you all that this will be the last post in our blog.  We've come so far since week one, and it has been such an adventure to collaborate and come up with new and exciting things to right about each week!  We have done everything we can to give you our best work and to update as often as possible!  We hope that you all have taken away some random facts that you didn't know before and that you have gotten some insight on what media fluency is.  All of your input has been such a great attribute to the site!  If you have any general comments about our blog feel free to comment on this post and let us know what you think about the blog in general!  

Goodbye for now!

and watch out.. you never know.. any of us could be back at anytime on a new blog!

Reality vs. Expectation of Stats

Hey everyone!  I am the keeper of statistics for our blog and I have some questions about our statistics for you all.


How many views do you think our blog has had throughout the semester?



Which device do you think was most used for viewing our blog (ex. Mac, iPhone, PC, etc.)?



People in what country other than America viewed our blog most?



Which one of our posts do you think was the most popular post?


Thank you so much I hope you liked our blog!

Reality vs. Expectation of Comments

This week's post is all about you. I'm curious about your opinion regarding our posts and your motivation to comment on them. Were some of our posts better for specific reasons and did they encourage you to comment more than others? Was our commenting system affective or did it constrain your ability to express your opinion? Did you just comment because of J 176 or would you have provided input regardless?

Please let me know exactly what you thought about our posts that led you to comment or not comment!

Our Blog vs. Other Blogs

When we started the blogs for J176, our group had a very limited amount of ideas to choose from to base our blog off of. Suddenly, we were hit with this idea of comparing the reality of things to the expectations, much like seen in the movie “500 Days of Summer”. We stuck with our idea throughout the semester, trying to speak to our audience about real life and how media portrays things. Do you think we did a good job at succeeding at this? Were you clear with our ideas? Have you ever seen a blog like this? We are looking for feedback to help us really capture how our audience was influenced (or not) by our blog!

Our Thoughts vs. Your Thoughts

This week we are asking for your input on our blog. We would like to reflect on the work we've done and see if you have followed along as we have developed our blog over the last several weeks! I am going to be asking questions specifically to our Facebook and Twitter pages, but check back throughout the week for questions on other topics!

1) Did you ever visit our blog's Twitter or Facebook pages? If so, did you find them to be a helpful to remind you of our postings each week?

2) Did you visit our blog's website because you saw it on our individual Facebook or Twitter pages? If so, did you consider this to be a successful way of promoting our blog?

 3) In what ways could we have improved our communication to you about our blog through social networking?

Thanks for your feedback! :)

Four Square vs. Danger

A popular social media app is called Four Square.  Four Square allows us to check in to different locations and become the "mayor" of a location if you go there enough.  Though this app is popular, it could be extremely dangerous.  By checking into locations, you put your information out to the world that you may not want everyone knowing.  It allows potential dangerous stalkers to follow you and possibly find you.  Social networks can be great, but when it comes to some like Four Square, we must be careful about the information we share with the world.  The Internet is fun but it can also be extremely dangerous and we must always remember that our safety has to come first.

Sleep vs. Xanga

Believe it or not, when I'm laying in bed at night not wanting to go to bed, I take out my phone or my laptop and I look at other blogs online.  My favorites come from Xanga.  Xanga is a blogring that is used for virtually anything.  I use it in order to look at different vintage photos, quotes, and fashion tips.  You must be careful when visiting this site though, because it becomes very addicting!!!!  I dare you to check it out.   www.xanga.com   :)

Pinterest vs. Other Time Wasters

Pinterest is a fairly new website that has become increasingly popular over the last year. Many people don't expect Pinterest to be as distracting and addicting as other online networks such as Facebook and Twitter. However, the reality is that it is easy to spend even MORE time on it than other websites. Pinterest allows you to look at pictures of almost anything, ranging from recipes to funny text conversations. Not only can your surf this page alone, but you can also connect through Facebook, looking at all of your friends pins too. It is easy to spend many hours on websites like this, like Tyler mentioned, and not even realize it. However, Pinterest might not be a complete waste of time. I, myself, have cooked a few great meals using recipes I found on there. I guess the big question is..is this website another mindless time waster like many people like to believe, or can it actually be beneficial in addition to being tons of fun? Happy pinning to all of you Pinterest fans!

Texts From Last Night vs. Homework From Last Night

(+69):

You made out with my dog and told me he tasted like a rainbow.

(847):

stuck in a tree...bring a ladder. also my arm might be broken. no questions are allowed.

(215):

If eating a cheesesteak naked doesn't make me feel better, then I don't know what will.

(909):

I'm so tired of waking up with my bed full of deli meats.

Have you ever spent a good 2 hours wasting time on the Internet instead of working on a paper or studying for an exam. Yeah, me too. Oftentimes I end up on these mindless websites for hours without even realizing it. My site of choice is Texts From Last Night. If you don't already know, it is a website where people submit funny texts, often related to drunken incidents. Sure they are funny, but usually it ends up being a big waste of time in my already busy schedule. Even for this blog post, I just wanted to add a few examples, but I ended up reading 14 pages of texts. I'm sure we've all read articles and news reports about how revolutionary and influential the Internet is and is becoming, but I personally think we overlook how big of a distraction it can really be. What are your favorite mindless, distracting websites? Do they really serve a purpose or are they more of a hindrance?

Instagram vs. Regular Photos

Instagram  is a free photo sharing program launched in 2010 that allows users to take a picture regularly on their phone and apply different filters to it. From there, they can share it on different social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Instagram is a huge leap from traditional, regular photos because there is no longer a need to buy a software to edit pictures or go have them printed and edited on a big machine. I use Instagram daily because I love to make my photos look different and add cool effects to them. As of this month, there are over 30 million different Instagram accounts made. Much like Twitter, you are able to "follow" different celebrities and friends to see their photos and how they edit them. Facebook recently just bought Instagram for $1 billion dollars in cash and stock, taking over one of the most popular phone apps to date. Make yourself an account and share your photos!


Below are the different effects you can use on your photos.

Cover Girl Vs. Other Make-Up Brands

Cover Girl is one of the most popular make-up brands out there, and this is partly due to the way they advertise. Cover Girl is famous for having celebrities in their advertisements, attracting all of the young women who aspire to be like them. In the above video, Taylor Swift is featured in a recent commercial for one of Cover Girl's new lines. Taylor Swift has a huge fan base, and Cover Girl recognizes this. By having celebrities like her in their commercials, they are able to draw a lot of attention to themselves and sell even more products than other make-up companies who have not used this same strategy. Also, a Cover Girl spread and commercial is given to the winner of America's Next Top Model each year. Young women that watch this show and see people they recognize in Cover Girl's ads are likely to be influenced to by this brand of make-up because they see them using it. However, the reality of Cover Girl is that they offer most of the same products and probably aren't that much different from other make-up companies. They have just used the right marketing strategies and have drawn a lot of attention to themselves by using famous celebrities in their commercials. Check out Cover Girl's website, www.covergirl.com, to see more celebrities they feature in their ads!

Toyota vs. Information

          We all know that commercials have gotten pretty over-the-top, but sometimes they really make me wonder what the companies were thinking. Although this commercial is slightly entertaining, its contents are completely irrelevant to the product that Toyota is selling, the 2012 Camry. Was Toyota just trying to add a humorous label onto their brand, or did they really think this commercial was going to sell cars? This commercial was one of the Super Bowl ads, which are notoriously supposed to be funny, but do curtains made out of pizza really have anything to do with cars? I think it was convenient that Toyota simply said that the Camry was reinvented without giving any actual details. This only allows the potential buyer to compare the car's alleged new features to couches made out of women and plants that fight crime. However, I did enjoy this commercial. I thought it was funny, but I don't think it would ever lead me to buy a Camry. I would want to know the actual details of the reinvented model, the price, the gas mileage, or, at the very least, how time machine babies work.

Diet Dr. Pepper vs. Dr. Pepper 10

You're a man- the manliest of them all- and all you want right now is an ice-cold pop. You go to the vending machine and view your choices. You know you should probably choose the diet soda and make the healthier choice, but to you, diet just seems girly. Not so fast, now you have the option of Dr. Pepper 10, the great taste of Dr. Pepper with only 10 calories! Sounds pretty great, right? That's the goal of Dr. Pepper. The new campaign now features a soda with only 10 calories, but ONLY for men. The new soda is now getting grief for being sexist. Do you think the new approach is sexist of Dr. Pepper or smart, targeting men with a strong, tough drink? Watch the commercial and give us your feedback!

Real Beauty VS. Technology

What we think is beautiful is often influenced by the media.  Yet, little do we know, we are so naive to what actually goes on behind the scenes.  Women really aren't a size 00 with abnormally long legs and a torso.  Women don't actually have the big eyes that we see in make-up advertisements.  Technology has made enhancing features an act that is done without question.  So, the reality of it is, these women are more like you than you think.  We expect these women to have flawless bodies and features, and with the help of computer enhancements, this is made possible.  Dove has put together a video that demonstrates this first hand... 

Paris vs. a Burger

At a first glace what do you think this commercial is about? Possibly something pornographic? Nope, but good guess.  Maybe that car? Or a car wash?  No, but also good guesses.  Oh wait…maybe it is for that hamburger that was show only from 0:39 to 0:40 for only one second? Yep, that’s right: a commercial for a hamburger that has absolutely NOTHING to do with a hamburger.  The reality is that someone like Paris Hilton would probably never eat anything like a fattening hamburger.  This causes girls to have a negative image of their bodies because they expect to look the way her body does while eating fattening foods.  On the other hand, the commercial seems to be effective to men.  Most of my guy friends decide they immediately need a hamburger after watching a commercial like this, while most girls are still stuck on the fact that she is being completely trashy and selling her body.  Commercials will always be deceiving because advertisers know how to hit our emotional triggers, and for men, this one seems to do the trick.   

Radio vs. New Music Mediums

Like Sarah and Kate both talked about, listening to music is now easier than ever. We not only have access to tons of radio station, but we can even listen to them online now. We often forget that decades ago, this wasn’t as easy. We expect that since we grew up with music always at such an easy access, it has always been that way. The reality of it is that reality of it is that radio has changed dramatically. Zoomer radio, wrote an online post saying:

“In the sixties and seventies, radio listening choices were much more limited than they are today.  It’s not that many more radio stations existed then. There were fewer formats.  For one thing, FM radio in the mid-sixties, for example, was relegated to just a few approaches, such as “easy-listening” instrumentals or classical music.  And, then, many people didn’t have FM receivers.  The most popular formats were all located on the AM band.  That, of course, is not the case today.  Both AM and FM broadcast popular formats.  Another difference is that, today, formats are much more specific in most cases.  When I was a teenager, my favourite “top forty” station played a wide variety of musical styles.  One could hear Dean Martin crooning a ballad, followed by the Kinks performing an edgy rock tune.  Today, stations tend to specialize their programming:  Classic rock, jazz, talk, all-news, etc.  With internet and satellite radio, it’s even more specific:  There’s actually an all-Elvis channel.”

Also, this website below has a video that is a talk about how radio has dramatically changed since new technology has developed. Check it out!

Watch video here!

Article discussed above

Old Radio vs. New Radio

Since the invention and widespread distribution of the radio, it has had a profound effect on how people listen to music, hear the news, and receive advertisements. However, as technology has developed, it seems as though the radio has taken a backseat to both television and the internet. People can easily watch the news on TV and listen to music on the internet. I personally only listen to the radio when I'm in a car and, even then, I usually play my iPod in my car rather than listening to the radio. While it seems that the radio won't be completely disappearing anytime soon, do you think it will eventually be drowned out by superior, emerging technologies? Will new formats of radio, such as Pandora Radio, continue the legacy of the radio, or will the days of hit stations and radio DJs end soon?

Pandora Radio vs. An Ordinary Radio

The radio has been taken to a whole new level.  Back when, you use to patiently wait for your favorite songs to come streaming out of the speakers of your car.  Today, Pandora radio has made it possible for you to chose the artist or song name of your choice and then creates a playlist for your enjoyment.  You can choose a smooth classical music station to study too or a hip hop and pop radio station to fit your Friday and Saturday night needs!  Other radios have no chance against Pandora!  So, if you haven't checked it out yet, I recommend that you take a look into Pandora radio.  Access it from your smartphones, iPads, and laptops!  And the best thing about it is that it is totally free! You would never expect putting a playlist together would be so easy, but the reality of it is, it has become easier than ever!!

iHeartRadio vs. Standard Radio

It used to be family gathering around at certain times, ready to enjoy the program for the night. Then, it moved on to being able to listen to that program in your own car. With progressions along the way, we took another big leap in the radio world; iHeartRadio.  iHeartRadio delivers access to over 800+ live, local radio stations from around the United States. It also gives us listeners access to exclusive digital-only stations and celebrity-hosted channels, and exclusive videos. A mobile app also allows users to listen to radio stations from across the country, create their own custom radio stations using particular artists and songs, and ‘tag’ songs they hear for purchase from mobile retailers. Looking back on what radio used to be, it is crazy to think that this is where we are today. I use iHeartRadio a lot at school because I can listen to radio stations from back home, which is always nice. Take a listen yourself and you'll see how this amazing radio network has evolved our radio world.

iHeartRadio

Re-Post from Professor Chris Wells

My Journalism 201 Intro to Mass Communications Professor, Chris Wells, agreed to allow me to repost one of his blog posts to our blog.  His post relates directly to the theme of our blog.  His post displays an example of when Mike Daisey lied about conditions in Apple factories in China on an NPR live broadcast.  Daisey was caught in his lies and Professor Wells created an assignment out of this journalistic flaw.  He wanted us to draw our own conclusions about what happened.  I know the radio broadcast is a little long, but it is definitely worth listening to.  It is insane how much someone can lie about on air.  I wonder what else we hear is false information?  When is it ok to stretch the truth/ use theatrical tactics about a situation when people could potentially be in harm's way?

Re-Post from Professor Chris Wells:

Last week, the famous National Public Radio WBEZ Chicago program This American Lifeannounced that it was retracting an earlier episode it had run on January 6, 2012. And a blog post by prominent media critic Jay Rosen is HERE. Your task in Online Assignment #3 is to learn about this case of journalistic mistake and retraction, draw your own conclusions about it

Photo of Mike Daisey.  

Twitter vs. Old Information

Scrolling through my Twitter feed is something I do on an hourly (if not more) basis. Whether I'm sitting in class, riding in the car, or just sitting around, I am constantly checking to see if there is updated news and waiting to be informed on what is happening around the world. Twitter, as defined by the creator, was "a short burst of inconsequential information," and "chirps from birds". This is what the world has come to. We no longer have to turn on the news or even find a computer. By the click of a button on our phones, we can read every important piece of information we need. So the argument strikes; is Twitter able to replace every old piece of informational news we used to depend on? Below are 20 interesting facts about Twitter from 2011 that give you an idea of how powerful this social media site is. 

1. There are currently about 110 million users on Twitter (as of 2011).

2. Twitter only had 8 employees in 2009. In 2011, they have over 400.

3. 21% of Twitter accounts are blank with no posts―get to posting people!

4. 93.6% of Twitter profiles have less than 100 followers and 92.4% follow less than 100 profiles. It seems like a majority of tweets are marketers.

5. There are more than 50,000 third-party apps for Twitter.

6. Of all Twitter accounts, 72.5% were created in the first half of 2009

7. Dominated by the few: 5% of all Twitter accounts create 75% of all tweets

8. Because of a Twitter donation, The Library of Congress has access to all tweets on Twitter for research and preservation.

9. New York has the most Twitter profiles. Los Angeles, Toronto, San Francisco and Boston vie for second.

10. On Twitter, there are more than 600 million searches done every single day

11. Women account for more than 53% of Twitter users

12. Most users do not follow that many people. Only 15% of users follow over 2,000 people

13. Everyday, Twitter gets more than 300,000 new users.

14. At first, Twitter’s goal was simple. It just wanted to be a very simple SMS-text service.

15. The U.S. Only accounts for about 40% of Twitter use.

16. Twitter is accessed by more than 30% users via their mobile phone.

17. Stephen Colbert sent the most re-tweeted Tweet in Twitter history thus far-- "in honor of oil soak birds, 'tweets' are now 'gurgles."

18. Lady Gaga was the first Twitter account to reach 10 million

19. There are over 10 proposals on Twitter

20. The death of Osama Bin Laden caused the most tweets to date