This week our main focus in class was on fandom. Many of us become fans of certain things in our lifetime. Sometimes that may be over a TV show or over a movie. I know I have been a fan of certain movies and television series growing up. I think that you may find to like certain things based of your personality or what interests you. You can then find other shows and movies that relate to the ones you love. Fandom is something that many people may take more seriously than others. There are many events and other things people can attend to show their love and support for certain movies and shows. These things can help show their love and support to the people who make the shows and movies they love possible.

We also talked about uses and gratifications theory. This theory can tell why people seek out the things they love for a certain reason on certain forms of media. Some people have certain types of social media and media that they love to use. I personally love twitter. Twitter is my most used app behind snapchat but Twitter is a place I can be more active and find information I want, not just sending pictures. It is nice because I can figure out anything with just a simple search and scroll through my feed to find news and things I may find funny. We use media to help our needs. I think many people use social media as a way not to feel lonely in a sense. We use media almost everyday in our lives and many people can’t even go a day without using it. The media has been able to wrap people up in what they love and let them find the things they like by a certain search or touch of a button.

Lastly, we watched Galaxy Quest. This movie talked about a group of actors who were on a tv show called Galaxy Quest. Many of the cast members were getting tired and sick of the show. Then they meet a real group of aliens who need their help. They get blasted into space and are set on an actual mission. With the help of some fans at the end they make it back to earth after helping the people with their mission. This movie showed how many people participate in fandom.They had the convention in the film which showed everyone who was obsessed with their show. This is one of the ultimate ways they could participate in fandom. Another way fandom was shown was through the group of kids who helped them live at the end. They knew so much about the show and did so much research that they could help them with whatever they needed. Overall the movie showed how much some people participate in fandom and choose what they love to see on their screens.

This week we focused on the news. You can get the news from many different news stations. Cable news covers many different platforms and sides of important things going on in our nation. You can get your news from MSNBC, NBC, FOX, CNN and many other places. However some of it may not always be the truth and depending on the channel can depict it in a liberal or conservative fashion. But the problem with cable news today, is that many people are concerned with the fact that most of these platforms can show fake news. Some news anchors report news that may not be true. The people then will sometimes believe it because the way it is reported may sound true. Some reporters can be trusted but sometimes others cannot. Being sure that you look up facts on what is being reported can be important because it is not illegal for them to say something that isn’t true. I personally am not someone that watches the news much anymore. I have found the news to be very depressing. Most of the time on the news you see something about a mass shooting or something bad happening around the world. I also do not watch much anymore because it is usually just a debate over politics and people yelling at each other on the screen. Very rarely is there something good that is happening but it seems like even when there is they find a negative light on it. I have the app for the Washington Post and the New York Post on my phones, but the only time I find myself checking it is when I get an alert about something.

This week we also watched two episodes of the Newsroom. I have seen the pilot episode in Social Media and Society before, but the second one was new to me. I still very much enjoyed the pilot episode. The makers of the Newsroom really put so much work into the show to show how reporting of the news takes a lot of work and can at times be very frustrating. The second episode we watched I found very interesting. Will and Mac were faced at the beginning of the episode finding out that their rates had took a major dip the week before. They are then forced to cover the Casey Anthony trial instead of looking at major things like the debt ceiling vote. Will also hires the guy Mac cheated on him with to write a story on the Newsroom 2.0. We even find out about a whistleblower too and a congressmen who had an affair. Everyone is faced with a great amount of stress in this episode and try to handle it as best as they can. With this episode it is obvious that the news can get many stories but has to choose which ones they want to report and can be the best for ratings. They may not always make the best decisions but they have to take into mind what the country wants to see.

This week we discussed many things but mostly how the media can be misconstrued today. Often times we see things about fake news and how often many things on the television appear to not be true. At the beginning of the week we started talking about the Payne Fund Studies. These studies showed how children and younger adolescents reacted to movies. Many of the kids reacted in a way most may have reacted when seeing something like a scary movie. But, these studies helped show and predict the future of how some react to media as it was preformed in the early 1900s. We then watched Why Be Good which talked about censorship in early Hollywood acting and movies. It talked about Mary Pickford and Gloria Swanson who both became very big actresses and changed the way people saw them. Many just saw them as sexual symbols in acting but they really tried to just be themselves and act. Rudolph Valentino also became a big sex symbol in Hollywood at the time, one of the first males to become one as well. There were many scandals that happened like with Fatty Arbuckle and many of the scandals that ended up happening in the film industry led to the Production Code.This week we discussed many things but mostly how the media can be misconstrued today. Often times we see things about fake news and how often many things on the television appear to not be true. At the beginning of the week we started talking about the Payne Fund Studies. These studies showed how children and younger adolescents reacted to movies. Many of the kids reacted in a way most may have reacted when seeing something like a scary movie. But, these studies helped show and predict the future of how some react to media as it was preformed in the early 1900s.

Another thing we also watched this week was The Big Picture: Human Behavior Experiments. There were many experiments that happened in the 1900s. Some you could say were ethical and some you could say were not. The documentary started off with the Milgram Experiment which is very famous in psychology. Milgram studied how much someone would obey another person of authority and how far someone would go. The documentary also talked about some deaths of some people and how we have become almost immune you could say to some things that happen in society thanks to media. Media has made many people not do the right thing instead of doing the right thing. One death that they talked about was Matthew Carrington who was apart of a frat hazing scandal and eventually ended up dying from what they made him do. The guys in his frat thought he was ok but he really was drowning from the amount of water they made him drink. They ended up all pleading guilty but this just shows how people try to fit in. Media is setting standards about how people think they should act and what they should do. The show also talked about the Stanford Prison Experiment which included normal people who were then assigned the job of a prison guard or a prisoner. It was done to see how far a prisoner would go when these “guards” were authoritative figures giving them commands. Eventually though the experiment would then lead to the guards at Abu Ghraib preforming similar acts that these guards did, but way worse and too much more of an extent.

One last thing we talked about this week was Cultivation Theory and Agenda Setting Theory. Cultivation Theory shows the long term effects of what people see on the television. Much of what people see on the television may reflect in their everyday lives. People become immune and some people believe almost everything they see on TV. Their reality is then changed and we start to believe everything we see. Agenda Setting Theory is when the media puts what they think is most important at the top of the list if things to talk about. It may be true or it may not be true at all. Like we saw with the story of Justin Bieber getting arrested, the news at the time thought that was more concerning than learning about what the congresswoman was saying. Many times the media projects what they think they want us to hear first and that’s why they change the agenda.

This week we talked about the film industry and how it has changed so much compared to now. Movies have changed so much from being black and white with no words or noise and now having color, many cool graphics and noise. Many people do not appreciate the film industry and how it has changed many things in our culture and we should be appreciating the art these directors and other people on these sets are making now and from the past. On Monday we watched about 15 minutes of When the Lion Roars and it touched on when MGM was first found and opened. This showed how films were first made and created. MGM was founded in Culver City outside of Hollywood. Hollywood then became booming with new stars and eventually these people became big names in Hollywood and movies. He Who Gets Slapped was the first big movie created by them and showed people how movies were something people could appreciate and find funny.

We also then watched the documentary This Film is Not Yet Rated which I found very interesting. I did not realize how much went into rating movies until this documentary. Many movies in this documentary were rated NC-17 due to sexual content and other things such as language but mostly because of sexual content. I found it very interesting that many people on this board after doing some deep digging with the private investigator rated movies this because they would not want their kids to see that even though many people’s kids on the board were 18 or older. The NPAA rates movies very seriously when reviewing them and many people do not get their movies rated differently when trying to get it changed. Overall I found this documentary very interesting and showed what the film industry goes through when submitting their movies to the NPAA and how they can actually not get approved at all.

We then were asked to read from Structure of New Hollywood which talks about the Big Five otherwise known as MGM, Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox, Paramount and RKO. These studios flourished during the Depression but then had it challenges soon after with the Paramount decree in 1948. Eventually people started watching TV and films were being replaced. There were many great movies that were made however from the late 60s to the early 70s but then some of the studios went under new ownership which was just another task for them to overcome. The article also talked about Jaws and how it flourished when it was released. Eventually big releases followed such as Rocky and Star Wars which passed Jaws for all-time box-office hit. Then things such as HBO were developed and delivered movies to the people. The film industry has really changed and grown throughout the years but it is sad how TV has somewhat taken control and people have lost interest in the industry.

At the beginning of the week we watched an episode called Pioneers of Television: Funny Ladies. Women such as Lucille Ball, Mary Tyler Moore, Betty White, Carol Burnett, Joann Rivers and many more have paved the way for women working in comedy. Some of these ladies had their own TV shows or starred on other shows. Now women that want to work in the film or television industry can because of these women. They have really changed the way some woman get to work and how they get to do the things they want.

We also watched an episode from the Eighties. In this episode it brought up the show Dallas. The show Dallas was very big and people did not think it was going to become very big. The people ended up loving the show. The biggest episode to air from the show Dallas was the episode on who shot JR. Many people were very interested and could not wait to find out, even when it was pushed off due to characters on the show protesting. They also then talked about MASH. MASH’s finale was the most watched episode to air in history on television. 123 million people watched the episode from their homes or even at watch parties at things like restaurants. The last part we watched was about the show Hillstreet Blues. Hillstreet Blues was made so it wouldn’t be like every other cop show. The directors didn’t focus on things like catching the bad guy right away and it became big because of its plots.   

The last thing we watched Wednesday was an episode of the ER called Exodus. The opening scene was a building that had collapsed and someone was stuck under the building. The building had collapsed due to an explosion and many people got injured or covered in the waste.  Many other people were in and out of the hospital too such as a little girl who was dealing with E. coli. Eventually they had to move the whole unit to outside as the ER got contaminated with benzene. This episode really made me think about everything and how much producers put work into the things they love. They really thought of so many ways to show how an ER operates.

This week we started talking about television and how it has changed a lot of media and how we see it. Television has changed in many ways since it has first started. One thing that was said in the book is that television is a delivery device for consumerism. Many people watch television to learn about things happening in the world or just for entertainment. We often see shows made and people become interested in them because they are good at pertaining to a certain audience. It was also said that television can be an advertising medium. Many people advertise their products or business on television. This can help with the company and its promotion. It all comes back to it being this device for consumerism though. If someone is interested in something they see on television they will probably go look for it. The same goes for shows on tv, if someone likes a show they will continue watching it.

We also watched a documentary on Rod Serling. Rod Serling was a great writer who wrote and created the Twilight Zone. Many people know about the Twilight Zone and how it changed the way some people looked or watched television. Rod Serling started off with writing very controversial content for the Twilight Zone. Much of it was horror and different than the normal. It was unsure if people would like it but people started to latch on and love the show. The Twilight Zone went out of the box for what was typically seen on television. Rod Serling also liked to write about his life and what he experienced before writing. One episode he did was based off his life in Binghamton. The episode was called Walking Distance and the main character goes back in time and talks about how he tells him younger self to enjoy his life now. He also did episodes and wrote for other things based off when he was in the army. He took his own life experiences to help relate to other people, therefore drawing more people in. Rod Serling changed television and how people started to write and draw in an audience.

We also watched an episode of the Seventies. In this we learned about how the 70s were a time of change for television. Many important things happened such as the growth of Saturday Night Live. It introduced us to many influential people in television and eventually went to movies. We also learned about family hour and how there were shows that the government wanted played at certain times. Stations ended up going to court with them as it is not possible to say what a station has to show. HBO also got big during this period too because of the Ali vs Frazier fight which was aired.