Melissa Doyle

hello ! wow, it has been a while since I have been on here :) started this blog up analyzing media and now im back to do just that ! hope to read your comments on the media analysis posts to come.

Today, me and my group took part in our podcast. The location we chose was the Woodbine shopping centre. This podcast was done to give people a comedic tour of the mall, with a taste of clever insight regarding the holiday season. During this project , I found that your voice can have a large impact on the amount of people that are willing to listen to you. With radio stations , the disk jockeys and announcers need to be able to speak loud and clear ( and though this concept has been heard time and time again, it hold true.) I never perfectly understood how clear you actually have to be , until taking part in this group project. This was a great way to practice not only public speaking, but speaking clearly in general and being able to get your point across in as few words as possible. Some of the topics we took on, included women’s wear department clothing, Cinnabuns, and the holiday spirit. I now have a much better insight on how television reporters and live-radio broadcasters must feel about doing work on the spot. Not in the sense that they do not have work prepared, but that whatever happens to them in the chance they get to do it live, there is no going back. Another concept that this reminds me of, is SNL ( Saturday Night Live ). In this tv show, the actors play a part, which, whether they have rehearsed it a lot , or not at all, they still are accountable for having what the do live, to represent them, whether as they true selves or portraying a character ( fictional or not ).

Other that a few years , what is the difference ?





compare the clip from the grease collaboration at - 3 min 17 sec to....



to the clip that is found at - 1min 33 sec in this Rihanna music video

Growing up as a big fan of the movie Grease, I was very dissapointed to see this much to similar scene with both women waving a scarf for the men to drive, and race each other. This upset me a lot , because subconsciously , people will be thinking that, if it is okay for a woman to be doing in a classic movie, then Rihanna doing this means it is alright to , but it is not. It shows that mean are making the decisions ( i e driving to race) , and the woman only tells them when. This can also be compared to the film, My Big Fat Greek Wedding , when the mother says to her daughter , that even though the father is the head, the mother is the neck and she can move the head anyway that she wants to. Although in the film, it is meant to be a comforting analogy, the truth is that, the mother doesn't have an opinion unless the father considers the suggestion first. By stating this, it is clearer to see that although Rihanna in this video appears to have power by waving her scarf, he power is only based by the men driving, which is odd, considering the title of the music video is Shut Up and Drive.

This collection of news articles, comics and facts I found to be quite appealing. It focuses on the many different aspects and corporations. It was key to helping me do a good part of the research for the project on mapping media hegemonies. The book even goes out and maps CBS ( which can be found on pgs 134 and 135). While some of the book focuses on the negative connotations and myths that exist, it also helps to clarify them as well. It does not bash the industry as much as Toxic Sludge, but it does help to create awareness. The pieces that interested me the most , were those based on advertising. Despite the fatc that I am planning on specializing in journalism, and writing for a newspaper, ads always have interested me. Just the way in which something can get you to purchase products, without a good agrument at all, amuses me. One of the key messages that can be found on pg58 of the book, states that, " We don't buy products, we buy the world that represents them." This defines the idea of purchasing and advertising much clearer, in the sense that , when you buy a product with a brand, you are buying into the world of people who buy their products.

Media Books that Interest me:

Throughout this course , I have found that there are books which, either indirectly or directly affect the way people view the media. Here is a list of books that I am interested in reading, or have already read with deal with the meda.

1. A Million Little Pieces : by James Frey

2. The Great Cat Massacre: and Other Episodes in French Cultural History: by Robert Darnton

3. V for Vendetta : Alan Moore

4. Of Mice and Men : John Steinbeck

5. Business as Unusual : Anita Roddick ( founder of the Body Shop)

6. Stan Lee and the Rise and Fall of the American Comic Book : Jordan Raphael

7. The Phantom of the Opera : Gaston Leroux ( I have read it ! )

8. The Hunchback of Notre Dame: Victor Hugo (

9. A Year in the Life of the Man Who Fell Asleep: Greg Stekelman

10. The Davinci Code : Dan Brown ( I have read it ! )

Wednesday November 21 2007 : the Beauty of your shovel

Analogy day:

I have never heard so many different analogies than when i was in this class. We discussed the information that we would be
producing for our blogs as well as our final word. The way that Mark Lipton had stated that we would be marked was through what we do with important information versus not as important information. This was transformed into the analogy of shoveling stool, and that we are graded on the beauty of our shovels. I have had teachers in high school say this statement, but it is odd how that is probably one of the best ways to put it. It makes a lot of sense. For example, when I took band throughout my high school career, we were not graded on regurgitating the songs, but the way we played them, and with how much spirit we had when we did.
As well, throughout the class , Mark Lipton always made the keen use of the word integrity. Although I am aware of its
meaning, to be honest about yourself in the work that you produce, I found that this being key to most of the work we have
produced so far. For example, for our first paper and presentation of the media autobiography, it is near impossible if you
are not able to honestly represent yourself. And now, with the last word, not having integrity, we will only be retelling Mark
Lipton what he has already provided to us, though the lecture and syllabus.

Wednesday November 14 2007 : There are no original ideas:

This class , was one of the most interesting by far. I have never seen such a controversial movie, at least not before I had read and watched the film for the Davinci Code ( the book being much better than the film). In class today , however, we watched the film that is found on the web site www.zeitgeistmovie.com . It explains, as Mark Lipton had stated, that our identites are in a place that we do not understand and we are distracted by our own sense of ideas. Myself, being a dedicated catcholic, at first, took this to be quite offensive, and then, I found that it was not at all trying to put down the faith, but give us a better understanding of things that we do not percieve as such. The media, always has made each religion seem as though it had nothing to do with another, as they are all , supposedly , different. Watching this , from the 8min to 9min point, and then the first half an hour, I saw something that I was not even aware of. That , truly , there are no original ideas.

Sometimes though, people use the media to broadcast their ideas is ways that are somewhat either hypocritical or controversial. For example, when we spoke of this in class, I brought up the point that , even though Al Gore is making the point of being a somewhat greener person, not only makes videos, and uses slides in the video, but he also drove a car around in the video.

For our group project, we did our timeline on consumerism and a sample of the key inventions that have had an influence on our purchasing power. Some of these , however , are so influential that people have even taken them for granted. That they have always been there , but there is a start to everything. Some of the inventions that we metioned in our presentation included, the lightbulb, money ( though this was an extemely large subject) , the printing press, credit card, and the assembly line. I believe that the lightbulb is what had the largest impact on our buying power, along with the others, because being able to work , or shop, at later times, begins to involve more and more people.

November 7:

In class, we discussed , along with how our blog is to be more of our personal reflection on the class and out letter to Mark, are the 5 areas that structure human need, according to Abraham Maslow. These are survival , saftey , belonging , esteem and self actualization ( in this order ) . I found this to be quite true , in terms of interest and appeal to others as well. One of the television shows that deals with many of these areas is the tv series Lost. This is a television program based around the crash of a plane on a deserted island with times where people seem to be mad and disagree,tough everyone, in the end result , all want the same thing. It’s main theme is survival, referring to who is actually going to get off of the island. The idea of safety follows this closely. Belonging to a group, is also one of the ways in which they surface around this show, as well as esteem ( to feel good about who you are ) and self actualization, which are key to appearance on at least one in every three of these episodes. Although I have not seen every episode of this television series, it is key, from even just watching one episode, that these basic needs are key to the survival of the people both for their physical and inner selves.

After mapping out as much as I could in order to find large , well known corporations, the owership by Barnes and Noble ( see the link: http://www.theyrule.net/2004/index.php?mapid=5055 ), I found that the following companies are all connected and linked either directly or indirectly to this company, and some of these were quite shocking to find: Starbucks, Gap, Dillards, A T and T , Mc Donalds, Goodyear Tire and Rubber, Black and Decker, Dollar General, Procter and Gamble, Harley-Davidson, General Electric, General Motors, Time Warner, FedEx, Dow Chemical, Microsoft, Kellogg, Coca Cola Enterprises, Pepsi Bottling Co., El Paso, Nike, General Mills, Hilton Hotels, Colgate-Palmolive ( which I find a bit disturbing that we are buying toothpaste from a company that sells us dish soap) and Home Depot to name a few. It amazes me that , in the end , it is the same people that are running each of these seperate corporations.

In class on October 10th, we discussed many different topics, which all can relate back to the main media conveyed message that we are being played like a musical instrument as opposed to having our own views and ideas. We also discussed the concept of semiotics. This can be anything that relates to media , whether it is a TV show, film or a song. It is seeing things through popular culture that we normally would not , by slowing down the events that are occuring. For the sake of TV shows , everything that you need to know about the TV show, will be shown in the opening credits. The example that was shown in class, was the opening credits of the show , six feet under. The symbols that play a part in this move from concrete to abstract.

Language, through this medium, is not based on only words, but on everything we interact with daily. This is from the colours we choose to paint our house , to the clothes we wear. It is even based on the people that we choose to hang out with. And all of this language can be read as text. As well, it was discussed why people watch TV and what is intriguing people to do so, whether it is to get away from reality for a half hour everyday , or some humour enlightenment from a comedy sitcom. Everything has an impact on how we communicate with others. One of these forms of communication , people have found is through love. During class , we learned that love does not actually exist, but it is a metaphor. It is composed from the structure of understandings that we were raised with , whether it be through pop culture , our parents and guardians, or as far back as our ancestry.

One of the main discussion points included symbols, through the use of semiotics and how they differ. This brought into play the book , Understanding Comics, by Scott McCloud, as well as the recommended web site. Visual symbols are either digital or analogic ( as one of the categories in which they are placed. For example, the picture of a dog , the word d o g and the sound that you make when saying the word “dog” all make an artificial connection, when really there is nothing that links any of these symbols together. Usually words are to represent a visual though an arbitrary connection, though there is the possibility of onomatopoeia , for example , the word hiss, where the sound of the word and the sound that a “hiss” makes are connected.

Also, there is the sign. It can be broken into two parts, the signifier and the signified. The signifier is the tangible item that does exist in reality/ real life such as a cup of coffee, whereas the signified is the mental concept that enters out minds when we think of the object. The concepts of communication through signs goes far back, not only to the ancient Egyptians , but by cave paintings and cave persons grunts.

Meaning of these signs falls into three different levels of meaning . These levels are denotative , connotative( being your personal association and feelings towards and ideology. For example , in the case of the word dog, canine is the term that specifies what denotes what a dog is. Our personal feeling of what we believe to be a dog , is included in the level of meaning as well. There is also the fact of how dogs are percieved in society and the media. They are seen as , lazy, dumb, mans best friend, and a dependent service animal. An example of this would be Scooby Doo. The same can be interpreted for cats, as they are denotatively feline, as well as having nine lives and being seen as bad luck ( when a black cat crosses your path).

One example that was done in the class, was how the poem Dust of Snow by Robert Frost ( what were the chances he would be writing about snow, with a last name like Frost, what are the chances of that) to the television series 6 feet under. They both have the connection of death through different symbols. Some of these included from the poem, are : the crow, for death, dust ( as ashes of someone who has passed away ) snow ( winter is the season in which plant life , such as trees die) and the last , but one of the most important, the hemlock tree ( which is connected to poison).

The similarities that these have to the tv show’s opening , include: the signifiers of the hands, (cleansing hands, which are letting go and can also be compared to when Pontius Pilate , in the bible , washes his hands to the death of Jesus) , the stretcher that goes from the light to darkness, death of plants, the lily is dying ( which is , in turn , a funeral flower), the death tag on the person’s toe and there are no faces are shown which shows that no emotion or character is given to the people, a sense of death.

The hands and mouth are the key symbols of power.

Sometimes I am so upset with the way that life is portrayed because of the media , and ways that people have been shown through media through the past , some people call it a stereotype but to me it is something quite different, it is odd how i am able to be myself with people i have not even known for long, but it is my family that treats me a lot differently ,and i feel as if i am living on a different planet entirely . When they say that men are from mars and women are from venus, what i would like to know is where am i from, maybe that is why the new and upcoming film interest me , called the martian kid, about how a child walks around with a box on his head, thinking he is from a different planet. The trailer for the film made it seem heartwarming, although the reality is that a story of this sort may just be the opposite, somewhat to the degree of when Prof. Mark Lipton was mentioning in class how he taught students in a school, where the drop out rate was 50% , which is similar of a concept to the movie Freedom Writers. The fact that the media falsifies the actual reality that we are living in is strange, and so much to the extent that the beliefs that people grew up with in the past, have now changed and only so many are able to keep up with the new structural ways that we are to live by. the use of computers is tremendously spreading , not just through corporations, but through the typing hands of post-secondary students. While it is seen to people as a joke, as fun , or even that it is a game. This kind of ignorance upsets me because people are only taking into account what they have seen once , and then applying that knowledge to everything else that is related to it. I found the film Freedom Writers to be well done, though after the lecture with Lipton, I think that I am beginning to have a change of mind, in how much can actually be believed, because , truly , in reality, it is nice and sweet to believe that all things will turn out well in the end, but this is not true. Not to sound pessimistic , but , realistic.

After much analyzing and review of the many multitude of topics that are available in the media realm, I have chosen to do my semiotics paper on the PC versus Mac commercial. There are many, and I am aware of that, but I find that, whichever one i decide to use , it will still carry the same underlying meaning. I learned much on how to better understand and review the ads though not mainly the book Understanding Comics, but through the web site that was merely reccommended, although I found that it was much much easier to get the "jokes" of the book, after reading through the web site, yes, the entire site, all links included. It was well worth it !

Toxic Sludge ( no, wait , that doesn't exist anymore, only biosolids ) yes, Biosolids are Good for you !


Bottled water. People drink it as opposed to tap water, but for some reason, since the outburst of its consumption, it is looked down upon. The book Toxic Sludge is Good for you, it a well documented collection of incidents in which PR practitioners have gone too far in their need and greed for money. Not to say that all PR people behave in this manner , but many of them do. Mark Lipton, in class, gave examples of the typical starting rate that one would make , when going into a profession. Journalists, being in the middle , PR making the most money, and Image Arts, the least. What people will do for money, makes me wonder ...why ?, but I suppose that maybe there is some truth it what PR practitioners do promote about their companies.

Media through symbols and semiotics has a way of appearing in the most unexpected places. Just the other day, when I was reading at the school, about to plug in my laptop, when the outlet was broken. No, I did not injure myself in discovering this , but to my surprise , someone had taped a sign, with a drawing of an outlet , that simply stated “fix me”, ( a picture of this can be found below ). Even before thinking that the person had drawn the outlet , my eyes had envisioned a sad face, instead. When I think of the book, Understanding Comics, it makes me laugh that truly, we are vain, and do see ourselves in everything.

Dreaming without Chance:

Today I was talking to my younger sister and she brought up an interesting argument. She was suggesting that people have the power to create their own dreams. “How?”, I asked her , and she made reference to the recordings that help someone to memorize information, or to learn a new language, saying that we can just make our own tapes, and therefore, the dream is one you came up with all on your own. I found this information she was discussing with me very similar to the concepts that have been discussed so far in Mass Communications class. Although, this theory seems not possible and somewhat difficult at best, I found the way to create this pre- determined dream interesting. Especially the way it relates the fact that one of the key ways that the media is having it’s information absorbed by people such as myself, is not only from the advertisments that we see daily and our affects in that particular moment, but the times in which all of the media that we see throughout the day, are compiled into one story-like or sometimes choppy spread of information.
It is nice to think that we have the power to control what to retain and what not to of the ads and everything we read, from newspapers to cereal boxes. A lot of the material is simple and often repetitive, but in some way, the Public Relations practitioners or TV producers have found a way to get certain images and ideas stuck in out heads. As it was stated in the last class, the icon , symbol and index of ideas are played out in our dreams, although it is mainly the index ( the relationship that is not as direct ) that plays a more important role in our subconscious thinking otherwise known as our dreams . It is easiest to see the more dominant images, although some are occuring in out minds without us even knowing it. As stated in class, watching about 33 images a second, whether it be on TV or a movie screen, we will always take in only certain images. Maybe one day, we can create our own dreams.

For the documentary project that I took part in, the chosen documentary was Triumph of the Will which was created by Leni Riefenstahl. This woman, could today be seen as a public relations manager for Hitler, because her film mainly portrayed that. Not to be seen as a movie , it is more of propaganda. Used to attract people in viewing Hitler’s ways as the right ways . Music in the film is key to the emotions that are meant to be felt thoughout it. An example that I found to be quite odd and similar , was when i compared a clip of the film, where the workers are laughing and joyful music is played in the background, to the song “Heigh Ho” from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the Disney movie. And the strangest part is that they came out within the same time of each other , the Triumph of the Will on March 28 1935 and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs , April 5 1938. As well, the original story of Snow White , from literature , is a German tale, written by the Brothers Grimm in 1812. Further in the video , the dwarfs even begin to march in an orderly fashion, one after the other which is visible thoughout the entire video of the Triumph of the Will.



http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9076835539195533187&q=triumph+of+the+will&total=929&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0

( for the Triumph of the Will clip, the part that I am referring to is during time section 16min 50 seconds to 20min and 18 seconds )

For the second group project ,Jacyln, Stephanie, Cheryl, Marianna and I did a project on environmental awareness and entitled it “Going Green?”. The purpose of the title was to emphasis the theme of why it is important to be aware of the environment. As it turned out, many people were willing to stop and learn a bit about what they are doing and what they can do . The media such as the Real Canadian Superstore, Al Gore and other companies and leaders have played an important and therefore, were key to use when attracting the attention of people passing by our stand. From this experience, I learned that people actually do care, and then emphasis on a particular theme, ( or in our case , colour ) makes a big impact. As well, students from the class came and had sincere interest in either stopping by for some green tea or helping out. One of these people that did offer to help was Samantha Stevens.

Overall, the event was a great success and we managed to run out of the 50 apples , multiple cups of green tea and even a good number of handouts and flyers for anyone who would be interested in picking up a fluorescent lightbulb or a canvas shopping bag.

For the first group project I took part in, Marianna, Nadia and I put together a slideshow, consisting of captions and pictures that represented the change of fashion throughout the era’s ( the ones we chose being the 80’s, 90’s and present.) This theme was in relation to the book by Berger entitled “Ways of Seeing”, showing how throughout time, we can see the change of the time period through art. Berger chose women, and our group chose fashion. From this project , I learned that similar qualities can be found when observing a spread out set of similar information, and that although many things have changed , a lot is still the same.

Understanding Comics, not really, though understanding the web site makes so much more sense.

Semiotics is such an interesting topic, and yet the book Understanding Comics, I did not find interesting at all. Although the semiotics web site was only recommended reading, I found that reading the book Understanding Comics before the web site helped out a lot . Their were parts in the book, where jokes were made about certain concepts of signs versus words, and I felt that they could not be understood well, unless you either have a great background, coming into the course , in semiotics, or you have read the web site. Despite its length, with relation to the book, I found that the web site was more precise about the information and less humourous, although the meaning was simpler to grasp. For example, their is a particular point in which the comic artist makes reference to the eye being but a symbol, whereas , in the article online , it goes into much further depth and allows the reader to understand the concepts of what he is saying , rather than hope that the person taking in the information, is already aware of semiotics.

As this is the first review.. I cannot start it off with anything less elegant. This lovely french piece of literature is, at times, overshadowed by the media influenced film, and stage production. While I do love both, nothing quite tells the story like the Gaston Leroux's vivid descriptions. Raoul pacing around the room of mirrors, drawing up a carnival horror setting, where all he wants is to find his loved one. All he wants is Christine to return to him. She is stuck in the darkness and not the light. While, similar to other french novels such as The Hunchback of Notre Dame in it's wordiness, it becomes a necessity to describe the settings and place you there. Leroux's novel , is one that will never leave our hearts. Whether we feared the Opera Ghost , or loved him with all of our pity, his hate for almost everyone providing empathy, it is a novel that everyone should read , at the very least , once.

hello friends and followers alike :) here you will find a list of books I have read , in the past or recently. I will post here books that I have liked and those that didn't really move me. hope you enjoy!