Americans Vote For Obama’s Personality Instead Of His Policies

Barack Obama has not won over the American people through his political views, but instead by carefully constructing himself through media representations; The Obama brand demonstrates the power of political branding to distract voters from a critical analysis of Obama’s actual policies and positions. Paul Street’s book, Barack Obama And The Future Of American Politics portrays Obama in a negative light as it demonstrates to readers the issues that arise from the “Obama brand” that is created through the media and the corporate elite. The film The Obama Deception, directed by Alex Jones conveys similar messages to its viewers in terms of the president’s involvement with the corporate elite. It discusses whose interests Obama is really serving along with his true policies and positions, which depicts him negatively. Even when Obama is shown in a positive light in HBO’s documentary series By The People: The Election Of Barack Obama, it can still be demonstrated that he did not win the American people’s votes through his political policies and positions.


Paul Street demonstrates the power of the “Obama brand” and how it distracts American voters from a critical analysis of Obama’s actual policies and positions in his book Barack Obama And The Future Of American Politics. Street believes, “…the term “Obama Brand” suggested the commodified nature of a political culture that tends to reduce elections to corporate crafted marketing contests revolving around candidate images and characters packaged and sold by corporate consultants and public relations experts (Street 2). He calls attention to the issues of Obama’s political branding through the media such as corporate involvement, and the inability of Americans to elect a president specifically on his or her political policies. Street first explains that presidential candidates generally cannot succeed without the funding from concentrations of private power in America, which shows the continuing economic shift in the United States (Street 11). He demonstrates this through exploring Obama’s relationship with the Company Maytag’s director, Henry Crown. Maytag abandoned the working families in Galesburg Iowa with the company’s Galesburg shut down, which should have been something that was upsetting to Obama who proclaims himself to be serving the best interests of the average American, and not the large corporations. However this did not concern enough to push his elite political investor, Maytag director Henry Crown to do anything to avert the Galesburg shutdown, which demonstrates that securing his campaign finance tied to the crown family took precedence over serving Galesburg workers. This is due to the simple reason that one cannot run a possible presidential campaign without the election investments from wealthy and powerful interests like the crowns provide (Street 187). In this case the elite choose to fund campaigns that will benefit them and control public communications and culture in ways that set dangerously narrow and business-friendly parameters of acceptable debate (Street 11).


Croteau and Hoynes’s book Media and society shows how streets claims take place in terms of the elite controlling media to ensure the election of the candidate for their interests, and the issues that this causes. The book discusses how the widely adopted argument of media ownership becoming increasingly concentrated will ultimately lead to uniform media products that serve the interests of the increasingly small number of owners (Croteau/Hoynes 48). However this is a problem because Mass Media control what American’s know and how they learn this information. Croteau and Hoynes provide an understanding to why this is a problem when thinking about political debates. A political debate usually used to take place in a public forum where a crowd was physically present. But now most people watch them on their television alone, or with a small group of people. Because of this, “We view the debate through the lens of the media conveying it to us” (Croteau 6, 15-16). In other words the corporate view becomes the American view, even though the interests of the corporate entities that own mass media are far from universal (Croteau 50). This is dangerous to the American people as the elite can market the candidate serving their interests in way a that makes him or her seem to be serving the American people’s interests. Due to the corporate media’s political marketing manipulations the candidate serving them gets elected and puts the rest of the population at a dis-advantage. The “Obama Brand” involves the involvement of corporate political marketing, which is dangerous to the American people as the candidate whom they thought was working for them, is really serving the interests of the elite.


Street specifically discusses the “Obama brand” and how it distracts American voters from a critical analysis of Obama’s actual policies and positions through its political marketing. Most of political marketing does not involve conveying candidate’s political views, but instead it entails showing their personalities and making them likeable to the people. “Candidate fortunes rose and fell on campaign marketers success or failure—and corporate media’s messages on which of the two candidates was mean or nice; honest or deceptive; personally ambitious or socially committed; funny or humorless; tough or soft; self-assured or needy; positively connected to his or her spouse or not; likeable or disagreeable; calm or intense; balanced or neurotic; hip or square, and so on” (Street 66). Street demonstrates this concept of political marketing that directs people away from critical analysis of politics again when he explains that Obama scored very high among active voters on questions of personal character and attractiveness, which are questions that seem to have more impact on voters’ decisions than policy or ideological “issues” in a candidate and image- centered elections system and political culture (Street 166). This shows that Obama’s success did not involve around critical thinking and analysis on his political policies or stances, and instead the people were distracted by the Obama brand that preached hope and unity. Street reinforces this message when reflecting on the answer of a college student when he asked for her opinion on Obama. “Oh,” the young woman said, “he’s just so cool. He’s on Television all the time and he’s just really excellent. Nobody ever heard of him before and then boom—there he is like…I can listen to him all day” (Street 168). “He is really handsome another student chimed in” (Street 168). This brings many to the conclusion that “Brand Obama’s” pure media-created celebrity-hood has been a major factor in his ascendancy, particularly with regard to younger voters (Street 169).


The idea of the political marketing of the “Obama brand” turning the success of a campaign into something that is based on the celebrity hood of the candidate instead of politics is also demonstrated in Neil Postman’s, Amusing Ourselves To Death. Postman discusses how the television brings an in-justice to the people when it involves showing serious modes of discourse such as politics because it turns them into entertainment (Postman 159). He explains that this is because what is traditionally shown on the television is usually for amusement and is therefore associated with social culture, and not politics. He says, “Political figures show up anywhere, at any time, doing anything, without being thought odd, presumptuous, or in any way out of place. Which is to say, they have become assimilated into the general television culture as celebrities” (Postman 131-132). “Being a celebrity is quite different from being well known. Harry Truman was well known but he was not a celebrity. Whenever the public saw him or heard him, Truman was talking politics” (Postman 132). In other words whenever the people viewed Truman they would associate him with politics and because of this people only judged him based on his political policies and stands. However the television enabled politicians to be viewed outside of politics, which causes people to associate them in terms of their personal lives and political marketing is able to sell the American voter the candidate with the best personality. This is what occurred with the Obama brand as voters viewed him as a product that is outside of politics so the corporate media were able to market his personality and personal life to distract people from critical analysis of his political policies and stands. The functions of the television, which enable people to watch Obama anytime, anywhere, doing anything is demonstrated in M.T. Anderson’s Feed. In his book Anderson explores that idea of people having constant access to information through their feeds, which causes them to be bombarded with advertisements. When referring to the main characters going to the moon he said, “We flew up and our feeds were burbling all sorts of things about where to stay and what to eat. It sounded pretty fun, and at first their were lots of pictures of dancing and people with romper gills and metal wings…when we were flying over the surface of the moon itself…there is just the rockiness and the suckiness…” (Anderson 3-4). The characters in the film were always exposed to advertisements that tried to sell something due to the feed, just like how American voters were constantly able to see Obama everywhere from the television and therefore the corporate media was able to sell his personality constantly to distract people from critical analysis of his policies.




Obama’s connections with the corporate elite were also exposed in the film, The Obama Deception, where he is shown in a negative light. The film brings attention to important facts that have been overlooked by many Americans with the distraction of the “Obama brand” portrayed in the media controlled by corporate elites. These facts include whom Obama is really working for and his real agenda. The film demonstrates that Obama is not concerned with the best interests of the American people and instead is serving the corporate elite, as a face to distract and lead people into a new world order that places all of the power in a new world bank. Hip-hop artist, Professor Griff of Public Enemy especially highlights this when he said, “where did we get this sense that just because we have a black man as President everything is going to be ok…everything is NOT going to be ok” (The Obama Deception). He brings attention to the idea of the corporate moneymakers using Obama to distract Americans from their plan for a new world order through the media, his race, and rhetoric of hope which attracts a great deal of the voter’s attention. The film demonstrates the success of the elite in distracting the American people from thinking critically about Obama’s policies when it lists the people in his administration, and viewers are brought to the realization that the majority of his administration is made up of the corporate elite that are apart of groups such as the Bilderberg group and the Trilateral Commission, which both consist of the wealthiest people around the world. This means that the government’s policies are decided by these corporate elites, who are not concerned about the American people and are only working towards achieving their new world order.


Peter Phillips and Mickey Huff demonstrate the concept of Obama supporting the corporate elite and the fact that a great deal of his administration consists of the big business people he pledged where the problem in America’s economic crisis in the book Censored 2010. One section states, “a long thread of sociological research documents the existence of a dominant ruling class in the US, which sets policy and determines national political priorities. A global dominance agenda also includes penetration into the boardrooms of the corporate media in the US” (Phillips 203). The book confirms the messages in The Obama Deception film and goes on to explain that only 118 people comprised the membership on the boards of directors of the ten big media giants in 2006, which in turn all sat on the corporate boards of 288 national and international corporations. This demonstrates that big media in the United States effectively represent the interests of corporate America, as the media elite, a key component of the Higher Circle Policy Elite in the US, are the watchdogs of acceptable ideological messages, the controllers of news and information content, and the decision makers regarding media resources (Phillips 203). This enables the creation of the “Obama brand” that won American voters as Obama was marketed in a very positive light through the corporate media, which focused on his personality and diverted people from analyzing his politics.


Phillips and Huff go on to reinforce the fact that a great deal of Obama’s administration are members of the corporate elite when it says that he, “appointed no less than eleven members of the trilateral Commission to top-level and key positions in his Administration” (Phillips 203). The book even gives specific names of the elite who were involved with Obama. It said that during his presidential campaign Zbigniew Brzezinski, co founder of the Trilateral Commission with David Rockefeller in 1973, was Obama’s principle foreign policy advisor (Phillips 287). This shows that Obama is working for the corporate elite and not the American people, which is very concerning when thinking about the future of America, and for that matter the world. What is even more concerning is that most Americans are unaware of this information due to the political marketing of the "Obama brand.” The marketing of Obama through the corporate media enabled the elite to control the information that the people receive and portray Obama in a positive light by placing most of the attention on his personal life. This distracted American voters from critical analysis on his political policies and stands, which led to Obama’s election and the power of the corporate media and elite without the people even knowing.


HBO’s film, By The People: The Election Of Barack Obama shows a very positive view on Obama, however it can still be seen that he did not win the votes of the American people through his political views and stands. Instead of discussing his political views the film focuses more of the power of Obama’s rhetoric as he speaks of hope, change, and unity. It shows crowds of people who were inspired by his words and the triumphs of his campaign, as it engages its viewers through the limbic brain and they are persuaded through the emotions, sounds, and images in the film. The film also shows what happens behind the scenes of Obama’s campaign by telling the story of the young Iowa Organizer, who lived in a car during the first few years of his life, and showing images of him calling his mother crying when Obama won the presidential election. The film is very convincing as Obama is seen as a guy with nothing not to like when thought about in terms of the limbic brain. But when viewing the film analytically and critically it is seen that Obama was not elected for his politics since it does not show any footage or information on his policies or where he got his funding for his campaign. This leads to understand how powerful the political marketing of the “Obama brand” is as the film shows how many of the people’s votes for Obama were determined by his image and personality.



Neil Postman discussed the power of the image in terms of politics in his book, Amusing Ourselves To Death. Postman talks about the idea that politicians have the ability to show, or market themselves in a way that is pleasing to voters rather than showing their true political policies that are either not a concern for the people or don’t go along with their beliefs. He said, “For on television the politician does not so much offer the audience an image of himself, as offer himself as an image of the audience” (Postman 134). This is true with Obama as the “Obama brand” kept Americans from seeing him for who he really was in terms of his politics, which support the corporate elite. Obama’s political marketing conveyed him in a way that the people wanted to see, which distracted them critical thought. The rhetoric that plays a large role in the image of the Obama brand speaks of hope, unity, and change was what the people wanted to hear in a time of crisis and economic collapse. However it proved to be very distracting as it kept them from thinking about the truth of his policies and political stands, which would bring about the complete opposite of what he preached. Postman highlights this concept when he says, “We are not determined to know who is best at being President or Governor or Senator, but whose image is best in touching and soothing the deep reaches of our discontent” (Postman 135). When thinking about this in terms of Obama it can be seen how his image and his rhetoric that shaped his image played a large part in his election. In a time of crisis the voters were ready for change and Obama’s image of an African American who spoke of hope was exactly what Americans were looking for to sooth their worries and answer their problems. Unfortunately they were distracted from seeing past the “Obama brand” and thinking critically about his political policies. Paul Street’s book, Barack Obama And The Future Of American Politics, and the film The Obama Deception both portray Obama in a negative light that demonstrates the notion of Obama’s election being determined over the political marketing of the “Obama brand.” Although the HBO film By The People: The Election Of Barack Obama shows Obama in a very positive light when viewed critically it can still be seen how he was not elected by his political policies and stands, which voters were distracted from due to the political marketing of the “Obama brand” that was demonstrated in the limbic brain engaging scenes of Obama’s personality and rhetoric that dominated the triumphs of his campaign.


References

Anderson, M. T. Feed. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick, 2002. Print.

By The People: The Election Of Barack Obama. Dir. Amy Rice and Alicia Sams. A Green Film Company Presentation In Association with Citi Productions, 2009. Film.

Croteau, David, and William Hoynes. Media Society: Industries, Images, and Audiences. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Pine Forge, 2003. Print.

Phillips, Peter, and Mickey Huff, eds. Censored 2010 the Top 25 Censored Stories of 2008-09. New York: Seven Stories, 2009. Print.

Postman, Neil. Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. New York, N.Y., U.S.A.: Penguin, 2006. Print.

The Obama Deception. Dir. Alex Jones. Alex Jones Productions, 2009. DVD.

Street, Paul Louis. Barack Obama and the Future of American Politics. Boulder: Paradigm, 2009. Print.

Green Beav Productions Sustain Champlain Reflection

1.) I wouldn’t say that there was one specific moment that was the most difficult when making this video. However there are a few that were more challenging than the others…

-The first difficulty was making the beaver suit because no one in the group was particularly experienced in making a costume. My boyfriend was a bear one year for Halloween so I volunteered to put the costume together, thinking that I could use part of his bear outfit. Unfortunately his outfit was nowhere to be found so I had to start from scratch. I decided to buy brown sweat pants and to staple a slab of felt to the back for the tail, but I was still stuck on how to make the face. I wondered around the fabric store until I found a white mask, and the idea of spray painting it brown came into my head. I then found white felt to cut out the teeth and once they were glued onto the mask I added some finishing touches with sharpie pens. I was worried that people would not know what the mask was, but my group mates and I thought that the brown face with the big white teeth would bring people to the conclusion that it was a beaver.

-The next difficulty was shooting the Champlain students. Initially my group and I wanted about 20 people but it was too difficult to get that many people together at one time due to schedule constraints. The other difficulty with shooting the students was coordinating everyone to do the same thing at the same time. Everyone had to wait until the beaver turned around from slapping their hands to look at the camera to shout Audeamus, which was a problem because everyone had to face the camera making it difficult to judge when the beaver was facing the camera too. After a few practices everyone was able to slap the beavers hand and through their hands in the air while shouting Audeamus all in unison.

-The final difficulty that we encountered was choosing a song for the background of our film. We wanted it to be the Eye of the Tiger by Survivor because it went well with the Beaver being on a mission to practice sustainable activities. However we could not use this song due to copy write and purchasing issues so we decided to use a free song from Radiohead instead.


2.) Finishing the video was the most rewarding moment in the whole process because it was good to see my entire group’s hard work come together to create something that we are all very proud of. But besides that the most rewarding moment in making the film was having all of the people who were in it ask when it was going to be done. It was nice to see that they actually cared about what we were doing and about sustain Champlain. It was also good to hear them talk about the different things they do to help the environment, and that this is an issue that even college kids care about and do their part in helping solve the problem.


3.) Three specific lessons learning about film production and/or "group process" in making this video…

-That if everyone in the group is flexible, things will get done faster and in good spirit. With everyone in my group either having different majors or being in different grades it was hard to find times where we could all meet to shoot and edit the film. Luckily, everyone in my group was very flexible and willing to do whatever needed to be done so that we could all work together. Because of this the factor of finding times were we could all meet that could have been a huge issue, was not.

-Having the appropriate sounds in a film is crucial to highlighting its messages and getting viewers engaged in it. Having the right or wrong music will either make or break the film. After seeing the footage for my group’s film I was not sure how it was going to come together, but hearing it with the Eye Of The Tiger playing in the background completely changed my opinion as it set the whole mood of the video and brought all of the footage together. I was bummed when I learned that we couldn’t use the song, and I think the film would have been better with it, however the song we have now by Radiohead is still good and I think our film continues to be very strong and something that my group members and I are all very proud of.

-The third idea that was highlighted to me when doing this project is that during the filming process the group members must be adaptable because ideas will not always work out or go as planned. This happened with our group as we had several ideas of what we were going to do in our film, that were changed because they did not work or go according as planned. We were first going to film the bathroom scene but had to stop and film the students first because it was the only time we could get them all together. We also had to re-work the scenes with the students because they were too difficult to shoot. Because everyone in the group was about to adapt and compromise our video ended up being better, and we were not stopped by these minor problems.

4.) 3 specific things I learned about Champlain College and/or the "Sustain Champlain" project that you did not know before completing this project are…

-Water efficient shower heads- before doing this project I had no idea that water efficient showerheads even existed. With access to clean water being a major human rights issue around the world I think that these showerheads are very important and could help save water for the people in need.

-Green roofs- before completing this project I was also unaware of the functions of green roof tops such as eases storm water runoff, keeping the building cooler in the summer, and keeping it warmer in the winter. I have seen them before and have always thought of them as serving more of a cool architecture design purpose. After this film I understand that they are so much more, and are something that I hope to have on the roof of my home someday.

-To be honest, before this project I had never even heard of the Sustain Champlain group. After learning about the different ways it helps make the environment more sustainable and educates students on how to do this I think it is a great cause. It is really nice to know that Champlain College is doing its part to help save the environment by making its campus green.

Media Meditation 8: Comcast’s Faulty Cable and Internet

The beginning of June in Burlington, Vermont will be a month filled with college students moving into their new apartments. It will also be a month filled with appointments with Comcast to set up their cable and internet. Unfortunately these students should prepare themselves for the problems that they may experience with the cable provider. One of its latest singalong commercials, entitled Dream Big, proclaims that the company provides faster and stronger internet connection, along with a variety of cable and telephone options. It sends the message that their cable company is always “dreaming” to make itself better, but this is not the case. Comcast is unpopular with many college students including me. From my experiences with the company I have found that it is all around unreliable both in the services it provides, and its customer service. My roommates and I first started experiencing problems with the company about a month after they installed our cable and internet and have since experienced four more issues. Their have mostly been problems with the internet connection, which to this day is still ongoing. The last time we called about our internet not working my roommate and I took turns talking to the people and were on the phone for a total of 3 hours, and finally reached the conclusion that the company would send people to look at the problems and that we would receive no benefits to compensate for our previous problems. During the time of their appointment we had left a note saying that we would be back within fifteen minutes, but apparently this did not concern the company’s repairmen because they left. I called them again the reschedule the appointment and left a message, but received no call back. To this day our internet has not been working properly for three months, and my roommates and I have become aware of how dependent we are on the Internet, both for entertainment and school work. We often become frustrated when we are unable to go online to complete homework assignments that require the use of the internet, or when we are not able to see what the latest news is on our facebook home pages. These concepts of dependence on technology and the inability of its service providers to fix its problems is demonstrated in M.T. Anderson’s, Feed through the character Violet as her body is dependent on her feed, which cannot be fixed. In the book Violet’s feed slowly stops working and causes her body to shut down. Unfortunately the people who provided her with the services of the feed are unable to figure out why it isn’t working and how to fix the problem. This is similar with my experience with Comcast as the company is unable to fix its problems with the services it provides, which my roommates and I are dependent on to do our homework and for entertainment. Neil Postman would also include Comcast in his idea of people entertaining themselves to death. Most people have access of at a few News television stations without Comcast, but they choose to use the cable provider so that they have channels that they watch strictly for entertainment, like HBO for example.

Tribune Brain: Comcast’s new commercial engages the Limbic brain a great deal through conveying its message through music, which is processed in the Limbic brain. The music is up beat and fast paced, which gives viewers emotions of happiness and a feeling of progress with the cable provider. This makes them have positive feelings towards Comcast and believe that it is always moving forward to better its services. The commercial also engages the Limbic brain through its images of happy animals and of people doing leaser activities such as skate boarding, and sitting in a hot tub. Comcast’s advertisement does engage the Neocortex through the way it presents the words that the people are saying. In the commercial the people talk extremely fast so it takes a relatively high degree of thinking in the Neocortex for viewers to process and understand what the characters are saying about the cable providers services. The Neocortex is especially engaged at the end of the film when the actors spell out the name of the company. In this part each person says a letter in the word Comcast, but they never say the word so viewers must use their Neocortex to put the letters together and understand what they spell.


8 Trends…

Epistemological Shift- Comcast’s commercial demonstrates the epistemological shift from word to image. The advertisement consists of almost all images that display the town, animals, people, and the activities they are doing. The only words in the commercial are basically at the very end with the letters that spell out the word Comcast and the words, dream big, next to them. Their are a few random other words in the middle of the commercial that are rather insignificant. Neil Postman talks about the epistemological shift in his book, Amusing Ourselves to Death as he discusses how most people do not gain information through reading about it, and that it is usually obtained through images that also entertain them at the same time. This is true with the Comcast commercial.

Aesthetic Shift- Comcast also represents an aesthetic shift of convergence. The cable company converges the medias of the telephone, cable, and internet into one service. Comcast also demonstrates convergence as it provides different types of channels together such as News stations, music stations, cooking stations, and movie stations.

Economic Shift- Comcast is also an example of the economic shift to corporate consolidation. Instead of being a local cable provider, Comcast is a large corporation that provides its services to people all across the United States. The company then chooses, which local stations, or shows it wants to be apart of its service and then provides those to the people. The disadvantages to Comcast being such a large corporation is that if people have a problem with its services they may spend hours trying to get help from people on the telephone who may even be in a different country, that cannot actually provide them with assistance. The other issue is that a person does not have access to some of the channels he/she may want including local ones. (Comcast Building above)

7 Principles…

Reality Construction- Comcast’s commercial engages in the principle of reality construction. This is done through the characters they use and the way the advertisement is produced. By having characters that represent every age, gender, and lifestyle saying positive things about the company constructs the reality that Comcast is a good cable provider that has services to satisfy everyone. By having it produced like a cartoon in a positive atmosphere of a town and people doing fun activities also constructs the reality that Comcast is a positive company that the viewers will have positive experiences with. However this reality comes at the consequence of people using its services and not getting everything that the company makes itself out to be in the commercial.

Pacing- Comcast’s commercial is all about the principle of pacing. The company sets the commercials pace to be very fast in terms of what the characters are saying, while their settings are noticeably slower when viewed critically. By having the words be said quickly, viewers are distracted from thinking about them analytically and simply take them in. Also by having the happy settings move at a slower pace viewers have more time to notice them and as a result are more likely to take them in and have positive feelings associated with Comcast.

Emotional Transfer- Comcast’s commercial most operates on an emotional level. The entire commercial conveys its message through an upbeat song, which engages positive emotions and feelings of progression. It also operates on emotion through its images, which also derive positive emotions and feelings.


Persuasive Techniques…

Warm and Fuzzies- The commercial contains a little bit of the persuasive technique of warm and fuzzies. This is done through using the cute animals of the squirrels playing the instruments at the very beginning, and the dog pulling the guy on the skateboard, which make viewers smile at the sight of these images. It also uses this technique through having the boy talk about what he likes about the T.V. services Comcast offers and the little creature next to him, which makes viewers laugh.

Plain Folks- Comcast’s commercial uses the persuasion technique of plain folks a great deal. This is done by having a bunch of different, but at the same time average people conveying its messages.

Diversion- The commercial also persuades through diversion. By having the people say their words at a really fast pace, viewers are diverted from critically thinking about the words and simply to them in.

Repetition- Comcast’s commercial also demonstrates the persuasion technique of repetition a great deal. From the beginning to the end of the commercial there are people delivering the same message of the company progressing each media of the telephone, television, and the Internet that was conveyed first through the blond character at the start of the advertisement.

Media Meditation 7: The Crackberry

Recently I upgraded my cell phone to the blackberry Tour and now understand why so many people refer to them as “crackberrys.” Many of my friends who have blackberry phones are constantly using them, and now I find myself doing the same thing. Using a blackberry is almost addictive (this may be a bit of an exaggeration) causing people to be on theirs all the time, which makes it comparable to crack, since supposedly it is addictive and the people who use it are on it all the time. Personally I’m not sure why crack is addictive, but I can understand why one would be using his or her blackberry all the time. The blackberry has the ability to do all of the normal functions of a cell phone, plus receive and send e-mails, download and listen to music, take pictures and record videos, access the internet and has applications to use any function on the internet like facebook, and twitter. These are many different tasks the mobile device is able to do that most people do on a daily basis. This makes the blackberry very convenient as many of the things a person does during the day are on one place that can be brought with them almost everywhere they go. People can do all of these tasks at any given point in the day or night as long as they have their mobile device with them. For example everyday I get the New York Times electronic news paper e-mailed to me, so when my alarm goes off on my blackberry in the morning the first thing I do is read the New York Times on my phone rather than having to get out of bed and get on my computer to read it. I also often times respond to e-mails I receive right away on my phone whether I am walking to class or grocery shopping, which I would not be able to do without my blackberry. The concept of the convergence of technological functions of the Blackberry and relying on it, is highlighted in M.T. Anderson’s, Feed. Anderson demonstrates the convergence of many functions of the computer and cell phone through having the characters have their personal Feeds in their brains where all of the functions they would need to do, can be completed in this one place. He also conveys the idea of relying on this convergence of technology especially through the character violet, whose body completely shuts down after her feed stops working. These are concepts that should be considered when using devices such as the blackberry, which can play a large role in our everyday lives.



Tribune Brain: The Blackberry mostly engages the Neocortex part of the brain. When using this media people have to be able to complete multiple tasks at once such as e-mailing, calling, looking up information, downloading, and messaging. In order for them to do this they must use the highly developed part of their brain, which is the Neocortex. Many of the ways people receive their information on blackberrys is through words messages, e-mails, and other sources on the internet, which requires the use of the Neocortex to process this information. The Limbic brain is also engaged when taking into account the physical appearance of the phone. Many people choose case covers and background pictures of the phone, which draw out certain emotions and feelings that are processed in the Limbic brain. The reptilian brain is also engaged from time to time with the blackberry smart phone when people are surprised from the sounds and alerts from their phones, causing adrenalin to kick in, which is a basic bodily function of the reptilian brain.


8 Trends…

Aesthetic Shift- The Blackberry smartphone is a prime example of aesthetic shift towards convergence as it can download almost anything, play music, e-mail people, access the internet, and perform all of the other tasks of a phone. This is a good thing because all of these media functions are in one place, but it can also be bad because if the phone fails to work then a person who relies on being able to do all of these functions at anytime may be hindered by not having the ability to do any of them. Having this convergence also makes it hard to distinguish what is news, entertainment, business, art, ect… because they are all brought together into one mutli-media.

Cultural Shift- Blackberry’s BlackBerry messager (BBM) system represents a cultural shift from privacy to surveillance. BBM enables a person to send a message to another person with the BBM application and view whether or not the receiver has read their sent message or not. This is a shift towards surveillance because the person who sends the message can know if the receiver has their phone with them, and if they have opened the message that was sent to them.

Personal Shift- The BlackBerry also conveys a personal shift from the mass to participatory. A person with a blackberry has the ability to make things personal to him/her along with participating in the media by being able to set up the phone the way that works best for him/her, being able to go on his/her e-mail account and internet whenever he/she wants, along with making phone calls and sending messages whenever he/she desires. Because of this the phone is customized to their wishes and they participate in using its different functions.


7 Principles…

Value Message- This media can demonstrate the principle of value message. By having many functions of different multi-media in one place it does give off the message of valuing the convergence of multi-media functions and the convenience this brings, as people are able to complete their different jobs in one place at almost anytime. This also sends the message of constantly being involved in media, which can be negative if a person is too influenced by it.

Individual Meaning- The Blackberry smartphone also reflects the principle of individual meaning as it is a media that is very open for interpretation on its functions and meanings. Those who use the internet a lot may see it as a helpful tool that allows them to have access to the internet almost all the time. Others who are concerned about keeping up with the newest phones may also view the BlackBerry smartphone in a positive light and as something useful. College students may could view it as a helpful way to keep in touch with their teachers and find information due to the internet access. On the other hand, people who use phones simply to call and text message people may view the Blackberry smartphone as something that is over the top and unnecessary.


Persuasive Techniques…

Bandwagon- The BlackBerry smartphone includes the persuasive technique of bandwagon when considering what applications to buy for the mobile device. For example when I purchased mine the salesman at the Verizon store persuaded me to get the push to talk feature for the phone through bandwagon. When he was explaining the application to me he said that it was something that everyone will soon get for their phone and it will be something that I will want.

Simple Solutions-One way of persuading people to use a BlackBerry would be through the technique simple solutions. For example a person could make the claim that by getting a BlackBerry a person’s problem of needing constant access to the internet and his/her e-mail account would be solved by getting the cell phone because in theory it is supposed to allow a person constant access to the internet and his/her e-mail account.

Diversion- Another persuasive technique used to get people to use a BlackBerry smartphone is diversion. For example when I purchased mine their was a person whose specific job was to teach people how to use their BlackBerry and to help them fix it if their were any problems. Having this person diverts attention away from issues that people may have with the phone such as it being too difficult to learn how to use, or too hard to fix the problems it may have.

Media Meditation 6: The Sickening Reality Of Our Food

Recently for one of my classes at Champlain College we watched Robert Kenner’s film, Food Inc. People who have watched it before said that it will make you look at your dinner in a totally different way, and they were not kidding. I was aware of many of the problems with commercial food, but I did not know how badly they were and that the American government was involved until after the film. This made me question why haven’t the American media shown these issues when they are so important to every person in the country. The answer become evident to me soon after. If the media were to show the issues in the film then they would be making the government and large corporations look bad. Here the principle of ownership is reflected as the media, like in this case, are very driven by government and corporate interests. In cases like this it is proven that secondary medias sources are always a good thing to follow and often times present information that is more important for Americans to know that the mainstream media.




The film shows viewers the reality of America’s food industry, demonstrating how it has been consolidated into just a handful of large corporations whose objective is to make a profit, with the aid of the American government’s policies. This brings about many dangers as these companies are not concerned about the health of Americans, the farming industry, the well being of animals, or the environment. Kenner reveals the results of the commercial farm’s profit driven goals such as the need to use pesticides, fertilizers, antibiotics, and other chemicals just to keep the plants and animals alive. He shows how the crops are so mass produced that the farmers need to use machines and pesticides to grow them, instead of properly caring for them. He also demonstrates how the live stock are confined to the point that they are on top of one another sitting in their own waste, and need to be fed antibiotics everyday so they won’t get sick from one another. The film demonstrates the farm’s use of chemicals as they are put on the produce so that they stay ripe long enough to be shipped to far away commercial grocery stores. Kenner then demonstrates how applying these practices comes at the expense their consumers, animals, and the environment. The pesticides, fertilizers, chemicals, antibiotics, and keeping animals in barely-breathable confinement is extremely harmful to American’s health causing e coli outbreaks that lead to illness and in some cases death, like with 2 1/2 -year-old Kevin Kowalcyk, who died so tragically in 2001 after eating a hamburger contaminated with E. coli. Another issue resulting from commercial farming that the film demonstrates is the large use of fossil fuels to run the machines on the large farms and to transport the products across the country, which are very harmful to the environment. It also discusses the American government’s involvement with these harmful factory farms as the implement policies to support them and to hinder any farm that questions what they are doing, creating a monopoly over the whole farming industry. The film does have a positive side as it shows viewers what they can do to help stop these problems, such as demanding better food, eating locally, starting farmers markets, and eating organic food. It is up to Americans to start demanding better food and that the media start showing these problems that are so significant to each and every American.


Tribune Brain: This film engages the Neocortex a great deal through the different information and analysis’s it presents about American’s food industry. As it talks about the different problems from Commercial farming such the viewers must use their Neocortex to process this information and think about how it affects them, others, the farming Industry, animals, and the environment. The Neocortex is also engaged when viewers must think about what they are going to do to stop the problems presented in the film. Kenner also uses material that applies a great deal to the limbic brain as well. He does this when he shows images of the mis-treatement of the animals, which draws out emotions of sadness and compassion for the livestock. The limbic brain is also engaged when the film tells the stories about the little boy dying from e coli, the families who cannot afford any other food besides the kind from the commercial farms, and the smaller farmers who had everything taken away from them by going against the government and commercial farms. Doing this brings out emotions of sadness, fear, shock, and uncertainty from viewers.




Eight Shifts…

Epistemological- the film demonstrates an epistemological shift from writing to image as almost all of the information is shown to viewers in images. The film contains almost no words.

Economic- One of the main themes of the film demonstrates the economic shift of consolidation. It discusses the consolidation of the smaller farms in to a handful of large commercial farms.


7 Principles…

Value Message-This film contains value message as it conveys to viewers the message of valuing better food, the environment, animals, and buying local food.

Ownership- the principle of ownership where the media is in terms of business and commercial interests is also conveyed in this film as it is evident that most of the information it shows that is clearly significant to the American people is not shown in the media because it would make the government and corporations look bad.

Emotional Transfer- emotional transfer is also highlighted in this film as it creates symbols that represent different emotions and ideas. This is done with the commercial farms, as they become symbols that represent people who do not care about the health of their consumers, the environment, or the animals.


Persuasion Techniques…

Testimonial- There is a great deal of testimonial in this film. All through out the movie it shows people who support its claims: the family of the child who was killed by the e coli supports the claim that the meat from the commercial farms is dangerous to Americans health, the farmer who had everything taken away from him because he went against the government and commercial farmers supports the claim that the government controls the farms and has a monopoly over the industry.

Warm and Fuzzies- The film uses the persuasion technique of warm and fuzzies with the appeal of cute little children and animals by including the sad death of the 2.5 year old boy and the mis-treatment of the livestock in his film, which touches viewers hearts and makes them more upset about the issues in the film.

Plain Folks- Plain folks is a persuasion technique that is also included as the film is directed to the everyday American that should be informed about this information.

Media Meditation 5: RSS Feed Makes Nothing Unseen, Even In the Internet’s Sea Of Information

With the Internet enabling us to have an unlimited and constant flow of information, it is easy to get lost in the sea of words, sounds, and images. It is hard to sift through the information to find specifically what they are looking for. Because of this there is a desire for a tool to organize this sea of words, images, and sounds. Up until recently I had no idea what an RSS feed was, and when I found out I was required to get one for my CCM 315 class with Dr. Rob Williams I was a bit overwhelmed. Luckily it was very simple to install and easy to learn how to use. There are different RSS feeds to choose from depending on the computer a person has and which program he or she likes the best in terms of how it is organized and how you use it. I have a mac computer and was recommended to use NewsFire as my RSS feed, which works well with my computer. To install it, all there is to do is go to the NewsFire website and download the free version of their RSS feed. Using an RSS feed is very easy. It’s organized into columns according to the topics selected to receive new information on them if any are published. When there is new information on the topic it is sent to your RSS feed and you can click on the article if you are interested in reading it. So you know there is new information a notification pops up, which can be set to notify you every time something new happens, every few hours, or once a day depending on what you want.
The RSS feed is very similar to the feed M.T. Anderson discusses in his book, Feed. In the book anyone can seek new information at all times and they are constantly updated on different happenings, and topics, just like the RSS feed. Their feed also organizes all of the information they receive, which is another characteristic of the RSS feed. Overall I think an RSS feed is very useful if you want to be up to date on any topic or issue and will definitely help you stay more informed than the people around you and get ahead of your competitors. For example, over the summer I will be interning on the campaign for Anne Marie Buerkle who is running for congress, so set her as a person to receive information on in my RSS feed. I am given constant updates on anything that has to do with her so I am always up to date on the most recent news on her campaign or anything that happens in her life. I also set up an RSS feed on her competitor Dan Maffei, so I am given the most recent news on him, which helps me learning information and devise plans to help stay ahead of him.

Tribune Brain: RSS Feeds mostly engage the Neocortex part of the brain, as a person must read through the articles in each category to organize and learn information. Once they click on the headline that brings them to the new information, the people must use their Neocortex to process and understand the information because it is gained through reading. There aren’t any pictures or sounds on RSS Feeds, which are strong tools that are usually used to engage the Limbic brain. The only pictures and sounds that people experience are with the new information that they are directed to.

7 Principles…

Individual meaning: This media may contain the principle of individual meaning as people can interpret its purpose differently. Some may see it as a tool to keep them informed on the latest information on a topic or issue, or as a way to make educated decisions through being constantly updated with new information. It can also been seen as an organizational tool to help people organize the endless information that is on the internet since it only brings up sources that relate to a specific topic. Another way RSS Feeds can be seen is a form of entertainment as it can provide people with information not to educate them, but on topics that amuse them and that they only care about for entertainment purposes. This idea is expressed in Neil Postman’s book, Amusing Ourselves To Death as most people use the media to seek information for entertainment. It can also been seen as a useless tool that is not needed. Some people may view it this way because they may not want to be constantly updated on a topic and believe that if they did want to be updated they could find that information by themselves.


Eight Shifts…

Technological Shift- there is a technological shift from analog to digital with the RSS Feed. This is because it is used on a personal computer, and a person cannot receive the data anywhere else.

Personal Shift- Personal shift occurs with the RSS Feed as it is both personal and participatory. It is personal because a person can set their RSS feed to be custom to them as he/she has control of what they want to receive information and how often they want to be notified on that information. It participatory because a person must actively engage in setting up their RSS feed and has the ability to view the information whenever and as often as he/she wants.

Cultural Shift- There is a great deal of cultural shift with the RSS Feed. There is a lack of privacy for people as any new information on them can be shown to others through the RSS feed. In my case this is true with Anne Marie Buerkle in that anything new about her will show up in my RSS feed for me to view.


Persuasion Techniques…

Group Dynamics- although RSS feeds do not use words such as “us” and “we” it does provide a sense of togetherness. When a person constantly receives information on a topic of their choice through the feed, it can make him/her feel as if he/she is apart of the community surrounding that topic.
Simple Solution- RSS Feeds can be seen as using the persuasion technique of simple solutions by providing the program as a simple solution to gaining and organizing information from the internet without having to spend the extra time to find the specific source needed.

Diversion- it can also be seen as using diversion through being viewed as a tool that takes attention away from the negative points of view about the internet providing too much information to sort through, and therefore is useless.

Mid-Term Reflection

1.) After studying media for 8 weeks in Rob Williams class, Contemporary Media Issues I have learned a ton! Basically how to be way more analytical about the media through all of the concepts of the tribune brain, 7 principles, 8 shifts, persuasive techniques, and ideas from Postman, Anderson, and the Media in Society book. Media is very complex and powerful in shaping the way information we receive, how we receive it, what we think about it, and our actions.

2.) Most important thing I have learned about myself as…
A.) Critical reader: Apply the concepts we used in class more. I don’t simply take the information presented to me.
B.) The way I write is shaped by the media I use. Example- I write differently on Twitter than I would in an e-mail to someone.
C.) I have become a more critical thinker. I don’t simply accept information being given to me. By being aware of the several tool sets I have learned allows me to analyze media in terms of the knowledge I have gained.

3.) One thing I would do differently this first half of the semester is apply the readings from the book assignments and the concepts from our tool set packet to the small articles we read and blog about.

4.) I have gotten a ton out of this class and I am being honest when I say that I don’t think you should do anything differently. I like the readings, assignments, and tool sets we have learned and it makes me view the media in a different light. Now I am analytical about the media I use and the information that is presented to me, instead of taking it in without really thinking about it. I also find myself applying what I have learned to other classes.

5.) Usefulness of…
Course Blog: Very useful- learned how to blog, allows me to learn from other students blog posts, allows for the assignments to all be in one place.
Personal Blog: Very useful- Causes me to reflect more deeply about media that I choose and apply the concepts in the books and packet a great deal.
Films/Books as learning tools: Very useful- Has given me many new concepts and ideas to think about and demonstrates them. Through the information in the books and films I am better able to understand how the concept are applied to media.