Final Project

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White men as the Hero

The Big Bang Theory (Post 5)

This weekend I watched an episode of The Big Bang Theory. In this episode, two of the main characters, Penny and Leonard, are having problems in their relationship, in an attempt to try to make things better Penny begins to spend more time at Leonard's apartment. Leonard, however, shares his apartment with his roommate Sheldon. And of course, Penny and Leonard don't really get along. In this episode, Sheldon seems to be in power and he always shows how he is smarter than Penny, by talking about things that she does not understand, and also shows power over her when he offers her a chocolate whenever she follows his "rules". For example, they are watching TV and Sheldon likes everyone to be quiet when he is watching his shows, at this time, Penny receives a phone call and Sheldon glares at her, she looks at him and then decides to step out to the hallway to talk on the phone, Sheldon nods at her and offers her a piece of chocolate, she takes it and leaves the room. In other words, this show portrays men to be smarter than women. This example supports Gebner's claim that "people aren't born a minority, they are trained to act like a minority through that kind of cultural conditioning." In the show, it is all the guys that are the geniuses, and the only female role is the one of the dumb blond, which follows the stereotyping of blond girls. Continuing with the minority on TV issue, the show includes a Hindu person, Rajesh, he has a very thick Hindu accent and he is picked on and made fun of a lot, or more than other characters. The show also emphasizes the stereotypical geniuses or as we called them today, geeks. They are also another minority. They are portrayed as wearing geeky clothes and hair styles and not getting much female attention. This types of shows that make some groups of people a minority, and it is also shows like this that put labels on people, but even if it is not the best or correct thing to do, people still like the show and watch it.

Beauty and The Beast

The Beauty and the Beast has definately been a successful film because it has survived the test of time and it is still very popular today as it was when it first came out, making it a classic. The film success was proven when it won two Oscars, one of the most prestigious movie awards. With a production bugdet of $25 million, Beauty and the Beast was first released in November of 1991 making $145,863,363 in box office sales in the United States and a total of $424,629,916 worldwide. Even though the movie is meant for a young audeince, its charm of simplicity was able to capture the atention of older audiences too. The plot is safe, having a beginning, a middle and a happy ending. There are no unexpected turns that might disapoint or confuse the audience. The plot is simple and classic, making it an enjoyable movie for everyone. According to www.fandango.com, there are three major components that make Beauty and the Beast a success; one is the ancillary profits and comsumerism, there are all sorts of products that advertise the movie. An example of ancillary profit is in the following website; www.disneystore.com/beautyandthebeast. "Belle is a Disney Princess whose brand reaches far and wide. Expect to see Princess branding on consumer merchandise, food products etc, as well as in books, websites and other media," (fandango.com).  The possitive message the movie delivers to the audience also plays an important role on its success. "This timeless story has awlays revolved around the idea that it is important to see someone for who they are and not for what they look like. Also, brain wins over brawn," (fandango.com) Beauty and the Beast can be considered to be a movie not only for mere entretainment but for providing a lesson to the viewers, the fact that the viewers are able to take something from watching the film its what makes the film even  more popular. The last component is the positive role model in the film; "Characters change for the better. Belle sees the beautiful person inside the beast and he sheds his anger and sacrifices his own happiness for hers. Belle is a positive role model who values intellingence, books and individuality," (fandango.com) The more the audience is able to somehow relate or identify with the film or its characters the better for the film because that will increase its popularity, making it a successful film. The article "Flick Chicks" states that women portrayed in films cannot exist in real life, which can mean that Belle can fit into one of the categories Mindy Kaling mentiones in her article, since she is an animated fictional character, however, she does not fit into any of the categories. The categories that Kaling describes are by any means positive role models, and maybe that is why movies with that specimen of women are not very successful.
Recently in 2012 Walt Disney Pictures relaeased Beauty and the Beast in 3D, this version of the original 1991 film made a total of $47,279,363. Releasing this film in theaters once again illustrates its success throughout the years because most of the time it is only the most popular and also most successful movies that end up coming back, such as the Lion King, which was also released in 3D. "Ten years ago, 3D was a novelty, not a norm," (This Ain't Your Grandma's Dimension article) Today, many people are going to see movies that are released in 3D, which are almost twice as expensive as a regular movie. This means that the movie industry is making great profits with 3D films. Whihc is why they are making successful movies in 3D because if they were successful once in the regular screen, chances are it will also be successful in the3D screen. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osU_T8HB-9U (Beauty and the Beast 3D movie trailer)
Beauty and the Beast was realeased in 1991 and even now in 2012, the film is still as popular. There are still thousands of products with the characters, not too mention there is a broadway show too and it has inspired films such as "Beastly" starting Vanessa Hudges and Alex Pettyfer.  Beauty and the Beast was and it is still is  a very successful film. http://www.movieposter.com/q/Beauty+And+The+Beast_posters.html

Essay on Multitasking

As technology gets more advanced everyday, we are almost forced to be dependent on it. Being dependent is one thing but being so dependent that we are constantly connected not only to one source of technological information but many, is something else. Many people argue that multitasking makes them more efficient, saves them time, but really what are the true effects of multitasking on the human brain? The documentary Digital Nation and the article of interviews on multitasking conduct experiments on multitasking and the results they obtain are shocking.

            The documentary, a lot of the time focuses on college students because they seem to be the ones who are most connected most of the time, either on their laptops or on their phones, and are processing more than one source of information simultaneously. College kids seem to be able to do homework while having conversations on Facebook along with other websites open and active. However, it is not only college students who multitask on a daily basis, as the article states, “But obviously the world is changing, and more and more people, especially young people, but even older people are becoming multitaskers…we’re in a world where multitasking is being pushed on more and more people,” This fact is a concern for some scientist who study the brain because of the results they obtained during the experiments on multitaskers. On the article of interviews people said that they multitask because they don’t have time to do one thing at a time, so this way they save time. While this theory might sound logical, studies have proved that the brain is not meant for multitasking. Both, the documentary and the written article shared information about the experiments they performed on various people to reveal the true impact of multitasking. The goal of the experiment was to see how efficiently could a person’s brain could shift from one task to another by showing the person a letter or a number and having them press the key for if the letter is a vowel or a consonant and another set of keys for if the number shown is either odd or even. The results were extremely different from what the scientists and professors were expecting and they have raised serious concerns about the future of our nation.

            The article about interviews and the documentary have very similar thoughts about the multitasking issue, and they both come down to the same conclusion. Studies and experiments showed that the human brain is not meant for multitasking and that is actually damaging for the brain and can have long term effects on the individual. One of the scientists that conducted the experiments stated, “It turns multitaskers are terrible at every aspect of multitasking,” The experiments showed that when multitasking people are actually significantly slower than when they are focused on a single task. While people believe that they are good at multitasking, they have a hard time believing that they are not good at all and that it is actually bad for them. Both, the documentary and the written article on interviews reveal that multitasking caused people to be easily distracted and also caused them to have difficulty focusing. Multitasking has more negative effects that expected. Multitaskers get distracted constantly; they are very disorganized when it comes keeping their memory in order, and also have a deficiency with short term memory, but the most concerning on is the one that shows that multitaskers are bad at analytical reasoning, which is a extremely valuable skill in school and life situations, those are fundamental skills that are being lost because of something that is still thought to be beneficial.

            Above were the most significant effects of multitasking. Clearly, the brain is not meant to switch tasks and still be expected to perform well. Both sources of information used share the same opinions and findings about this spreading issue. While both sources admit that stopping multitasking is impossible they are both concern about the problems that it might bring for future generations. Multitasking at first glance might seem beneficial because it might help be faster and efficient but the human brain is not made for that kind of stress, even when the human body and mind might think it is.

           

Media Diet Essay

          We can't escape from it, it's all around, watching and waiting. It's something we can't avoid, thought everyone experiences it on a daily basis, we are not fully of it, we've learned to look a it as something natural and as a part of our lives. And that something is media, all kinds of media for that matter. For instance, people don't realize all the places that music is found in until they actually stop and think about it. Music is everywhere, even when we dont notice it. When we go grocery shopping, behind all the other sounds, there is always music in the background, also in the doctors office and even public restrooms. And talk about combining sources of media, every show and movie out there includes at least one song if not more.
           Lately, I've realized that music is the kind of media that is most important in my life. I listen to music all the time and someties I do it without thinking about it, I just automatically turn on the radio. I listen to music on my way to school, on my way home, and everywhere else I go. My favorite aspect about music is that I can always find the perfect songs that fits my mood. But moreover, I have also found that when I am watching a movie that includes a song that I like, I end up putting more attention to the lyrics of the song than to what is actually happening in the movie. I did notice this before until I started paying more attention to how I interact and respond to media, and most importantly, how it affects me.
           There are many aspects to music, I have found that music can do different things for me, it can relax me, get me pumped, all depends on what song I choose to listen. In other words, while songs can match your mood, songs also influence it. Sometimes if I hear a sad song, for example, "What hurts the most" by Rascal Flats, I can't help to feel a bit sad when I listen to it, because the whole mood of the songs is sad, with its lyrics and music. On the other hand, music can also be a distraction for me, for example, I can't do homework or study with music on because music keeps me from concentrating. What is interesting is that this only happens with music, I don't mind the TV being on when I'm doing homework, in fact I can read and focus on the book with the TV on. This proves how music is not only the most important sort of media in my life, but also the most influential.
          When I listen to music, this applies mostly to the radio, I expect them to play songs that I like. If you think about it, when it comes to music, we have as much influence on it as it has on us. If we don't like a song on the radio, we change the station, on Pandora, we click the thumbs down icon, ipods, we only download the songs we want, we can even vote on songs thanks to shows like Top 20 Countdown on VH1 and the Grammy Awards. Those are ways in which we can obtain what we want from the media, in this case music.
           There have definetely been changes on how I react and experience music over the years, and I have learned ways in which it affects me so I can make the best of it and don't let it influence too much. I don't think I would make any changes at the moment with this kind of media. Other sources of media? well that's another story.

A Demographic of Me

http://portal.sliderocket.com/BLTDN/My-Presentation-1