After reading Hall's complete lecture, I wanted to come back and embellish more of my thoughts about how I felt about his view.
I agree with Hall that communication is power and those with the power are able to get their messages out to the world. Youtube is a perfect example of a medium that uses it power to connect others with their product. I've had countless conversations with friends about what video is the most watched video from week to week. In addition, we have discussions about what the most popular videos are and why.
Youtube has proven that it has power over us.
But, have we let them control us without our knowing it? Of course, we have! We are a society and generation that relies on media that is fast and quick. We want to be entertained immediately. If we aren't, we quickly move to something that does.
In many ways, Youtube satisfies our need to a quick fix of moving pictures that capture our senses. We are constantly bombarded with videos of people doing things we like, wished we could do, or never imagined doing in our lifetime.
I think the problem our society faces is finding meaning in these images. I worry that Youtube connects people on a superficial level rather than the deep connection we get when we are face to face with someone else. Besides, are the images we see so important to us that we spend countless hours watching them over and over again?
Overall, I think Youtube has changed how we view images in our society. I think it has enabled people to "connect" in ways that we have never done before. But, do these images truly represent who we are or are they just a way to entertain us?
Personally, I think the images represent who we are as a society. We have created this world to satisfy the desire to show the world our personal lives that we weren't able to do in the past. We have now identified with each other that our world is just as diverse as it has always been. But, more than ever, we are exposed to images we have only dreamed about.
Time will tell if our new discovery can take on more than it can chew!!
Concession:
While Rosen argues that viewers of Youtube are mindlessly watching, Hall believes that the viewer is constantly making personal judgements and decisions as to the content and meaning of what they see.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
What's the Code?
I just finished reading Stuart Hall's Encoding and Decoding and compared it to Youtube.
Youtube has become a communicative event as Hall stated. Overnight, Youtube has linked groups of people together by showing videos of different worlds, places and people to the masses. I've been able to see things from other countries that I would have never seen without it. Unlike Rosen, the message is something we can't ignore. We are actively engaged in the process of watching videos. We get to choose what videos we want to watch and when we want to watch them. In addition, we can pick our favorites and even post our own videos.
Youtube is both a sender and receiver of information. We have used the medium to connect people into our lives that normally wouldn't be in it. We can get information from everything from the medical field to silly pet videos. I know that I watch it to learn the latest headline news, sports and comedic shows.
Hall asks, "What is content?"
Content is the story that Youtube gives us. There are millions of stories that people are exposed to. I know for myself how I enjoy watching a video only to find myself watching a link to another video. Suddenly, 2 hours have gone by and I wonder what happened with the time. Youtube links many stories together that pull people in to watch. It's not uncommon to have discussions about the content on Youtube. In a way, Youtube has built a community of viewers on not only a local scale, but an international one too!
Hall talks about how the representation of violence on television isn't violence but messages about violence. I thought this was interesting because I know that when I watch violent things on television, I am able to identify if something is violent or not. Scary music, dark lighting, or even nervous actors pretending to be scared, give the viewer the clues to identify violent messages. In addition, our interpretation of these messages is what we have been conditioned to base our decisions on. Now, with reality television, the viewer is exposed even more to the dysfunction of our society and have become desensitized to it's effects.
This leads me into what Hall says that, "Certain codes may be naturalized in to us over time". This is because they give you certain codes that make us think that we are looking at the actually object we are naming. We have been so accustomed to images around us that we have begun to develop certain ideas about objects in our lives. Again, we have been conditioned to agree with what is in front of us as fact because we don't question what we have been brought up to know as truth. Hall's example was the winter sweater advertisement. I agree with Hall and believe I've fallen into this mind-set even without my knowing it. As Hall states, we have identified and decoded a certain number of signs and put them in a creative relation between themselves and with other signs.
Hall finishes his discussion with 3 hypothetical positions. Each one offers ways we have adapted to watching media around us.
The dominant-henemonic positon is about the media operating with certain rules. Their job is to show images within a range for people to absorb and learn from.
The negotiated code is built around certain parameters that the message must be in. The focus is to understand what is right and wrong about what the images are.
The oppositional code is based on showing the opposite of what the viewers actually want.
I think all 3 positions offer a construct for us to look at media in a new way. After reading some of their definitions, I was struck with the idea that we move back and forth from each position. I think in that way, it helps to keep our minds active and our focused on what we really want in our lives.
Youtube has become a communicative event as Hall stated. Overnight, Youtube has linked groups of people together by showing videos of different worlds, places and people to the masses. I've been able to see things from other countries that I would have never seen without it. Unlike Rosen, the message is something we can't ignore. We are actively engaged in the process of watching videos. We get to choose what videos we want to watch and when we want to watch them. In addition, we can pick our favorites and even post our own videos.
Youtube is both a sender and receiver of information. We have used the medium to connect people into our lives that normally wouldn't be in it. We can get information from everything from the medical field to silly pet videos. I know that I watch it to learn the latest headline news, sports and comedic shows.
Hall asks, "What is content?"
Content is the story that Youtube gives us. There are millions of stories that people are exposed to. I know for myself how I enjoy watching a video only to find myself watching a link to another video. Suddenly, 2 hours have gone by and I wonder what happened with the time. Youtube links many stories together that pull people in to watch. It's not uncommon to have discussions about the content on Youtube. In a way, Youtube has built a community of viewers on not only a local scale, but an international one too!
Hall talks about how the representation of violence on television isn't violence but messages about violence. I thought this was interesting because I know that when I watch violent things on television, I am able to identify if something is violent or not. Scary music, dark lighting, or even nervous actors pretending to be scared, give the viewer the clues to identify violent messages. In addition, our interpretation of these messages is what we have been conditioned to base our decisions on. Now, with reality television, the viewer is exposed even more to the dysfunction of our society and have become desensitized to it's effects.
This leads me into what Hall says that, "Certain codes may be naturalized in to us over time". This is because they give you certain codes that make us think that we are looking at the actually object we are naming. We have been so accustomed to images around us that we have begun to develop certain ideas about objects in our lives. Again, we have been conditioned to agree with what is in front of us as fact because we don't question what we have been brought up to know as truth. Hall's example was the winter sweater advertisement. I agree with Hall and believe I've fallen into this mind-set even without my knowing it. As Hall states, we have identified and decoded a certain number of signs and put them in a creative relation between themselves and with other signs.
Hall finishes his discussion with 3 hypothetical positions. Each one offers ways we have adapted to watching media around us.
The dominant-henemonic positon is about the media operating with certain rules. Their job is to show images within a range for people to absorb and learn from.
The negotiated code is built around certain parameters that the message must be in. The focus is to understand what is right and wrong about what the images are.
The oppositional code is based on showing the opposite of what the viewers actually want.
I think all 3 positions offer a construct for us to look at media in a new way. After reading some of their definitions, I was struck with the idea that we move back and forth from each position. I think in that way, it helps to keep our minds active and our focused on what we really want in our lives.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
I need my iphone...
After examining many different forms of media and what really spoke to me, I thought of the iphone. I was reluctant to get the iphone because a lot of my friends had the phone. 2 years ago, I had the Motorola Razor. I thought this was the best phone because I could get everything I needed. I used that phone everywhere I went and thought I was so cool. Not a lot of people had it at the time so I felt very “in”.
Fast forward to the introduction of the iphone.
I remember hearing how this new phone would be the best phone ever invented. Some of my friends actually stood in line to get their phone so they could be the first ones to get it. I thought it was all hype and ridiculous because I thought that a phone couldn’t get any better. For the next few months, my friends raved and bragged about their iphone and how they couldn’t live without it.
Well, you know what happened…
My phone died and I was forced to get a new phone. The phone representative told me how great the iphone was and persuaded me to get one.
Wow, was I impressed and amazed!! I had a phone that could do more than my dinosaur phone. The best part was that I could now talk to all my friends about how I couldn’t live without out my phone and how I understood what they were talking about.
These days, our world is inundated with commercials about the iphone and how great it is. I couldn’t agree anymore about this. The phone does everything I need and it’s really cool. Actually, it’s very cool!! I truly believe that I have been influenced by the media to purchase this product. The ads have given true meaning to what having an iphone gives me. Plus, the commercials reinforce why I have to have this phone in my life. I think everyone should have an iphone. That’s the way to go and to be cool.
Have the images from the media seduced me to buy the iphone? I think so! I love that the commercials tell me how to use it in different ways that I haven’t even explored. The commercials are short. It’s almost like a short tutorial about the product. Everytime I see a commercial or an ad, I pay attention because I think I might learn something.
The iphone has trained me to be a dedicated user to them. I wonder what they will come out with next to help me on this communication adventure?
I need my iphone 4G!!!
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