Trekkies

After viewing the Trekkies video I would say that I am not as effected as some other people but like Joli Jenson said this can be disrespectful to others, encourages elitist assumptions, and acts as a scapegoating mechanism. I would say that this movie is disrespectful to others in different ways. Even as we watched the video we were laughing at how ridiculous some of the things they did were. For example, the fact that one of the cling ons paid thousands of dollars for the mask. We also make fun of them for dressing the way they do or even for how much stuff they collect from the show. Some of the assumptions that we make from the Trekkies video is that some of the people are loners who may not be but the movie or even how they act makes them seem like they are. We do not know everything about their background or what they do fully besides what the movie made them out to be. It is not fair to them. We also have the opposite extreme where like the group that met every week and had discussions about Star Trek. I would also say that the ladies who ran the talk show were on the opposite extreme. We think that they are all nuts for being so involved in a show.

My Fandom

I would say that the difference between normal and obsessive fandom is how in depth you go with the fandom. For example, are you someone who must follow everything the person or show does, like the people in trekkies did or just someone who really enjoys that person or show? I would also say that obsessive fandom would be not knowing much of anything else. Like in the trekkies film when all the people were dressed like the people of Star Trek and followed what they did. It really depends on who you ask whether or not there really is a drastic difference in normal and obessive fandom. I think also depends on the actual person who has the fandom. I think they in themselves can make it a drastic change depending on what all they adhead to. I cannot say that I have a specific fandom because I am not really I have to watch this all the time or this is my asolute favorite movie or show or person. I have some movies and shows I prefer over others but nothing I would say I was obsessed with. When I watch shows or movies I usually do not pick up on major things that I want to follow or be like oh I want to be like this person. I just enjoy watching certain things rather than others. Some people may say that I am obsessed with One Tree Hill because I love you to watch that show but I can not say that I follow really anything they do. I do not even have any of the seasons on dvd or pictures of the cast members which I think would be some of the characteristics of someone who is under a fandom of a certain show or person.

New TV genre

If I were going to create a new tv genre I would create something that would combine the genres of kids and history. I may even make it a cartoon to make it even more interesting for younger children. I would take fact portion of history and turn them into stories for children to understand. This would make the genre mainly kids focused because it would include all the kid aspects in it but have history facts throughout the entire show. The cartoon would just grab the kids attention a little better because most kids enjoy animation actors over real actors. This hybrid would work because it would make the kids more interested in learning new things while doing something most of them love to do...watch TV. It would be a new style of teaching instead of making them sit in a classroom to learn everything they need to know. I would pitch the idea as.... A new way of learning... cartoons. This would grab their attention to watching the show and it would just tell them a story about what happened but in a more simpler way than before.

Fandom

As we discussed Fandom in class, I was surprised that there were so many people who were effected so much by characters on a show or movie. I never thought that something so drastic could have not just an effect on one person but on an entire community. When we watched the video about the Trekkies it was interesting to see how much each one was shaped in their own way and what it meant to them to be apart of the conventions with each other. However this was not the most shocking part to me throughout Alyssa's lecture. The idea that fandom came out of indrustrialization and modernization were very interesting to me. I would have expected the fandom to come out of something such as loneliness or just infatuation. We allow everything around us to affect us in more than one way. Indrustrialization was something that changed our country as a whole and it also did individually. It is just another example how some type of mass media shaped us into changing not us into shaping what happens in mass media.

Immediate or distant?

After class on Thursday I started thinking about the Magic Silver Bullet Theory. On of the big items we discusses was whether or not the media effects were immediate after viewing it. I really think that this can vary. I believe that it depends on what the effect is. I believe that if it is something that is said then it can be picked up easier than an action in most cases. However, this is probably also effected by the child, their age, and how their brain comprehends things and what they decided to do. For example, I was blocked from viewing different things when I was younger and was taught that they were wrong so that when I finally did see it in action I knew it was wrong and should just let it go through my brain and just know its something others do. But there are other children and people out there who do not have this type of restraint or are not taught that these concepts are wrong. There are other factors that take a role in how a person is effected by a movie or television but these are a few. I think it depends partially on a parent and what their friends are doing and saying that impacts how much they are effected by it. It could be something that is not really popular to the people around them but if someone views it enough and they see it by and actor or person they like a lot then they will want to do it too. This is just another factor in how someone will be effected by it. So it really is all on the person on whether or not the effect is immediate or not, but I think in most cases it is immediate.

The black box

As we talked in class on Tuesday about the convergence black box I realized how much I was a part of the little black box definition. We said the black box was when all media was in one source. For example, my black box is my laptop. It does not have everything on it because like we said there will never be a perfect black box. However, I can spend a whole day on here if I wanted. It has forms of communication like facebook, e-mail, and AIM. I am able to do the majority of my homework on it. I can watch movies or listen to music for entertainment without having to have other things around me. I find myself in this box on weekends and when I am at my house. The weekend is my key homework period and I spend some time relaxing but it tends to still be on my computer. At my house I miss friends and want to talk to them or get bored and I will just entertain myself with facebook or games on the computer. I never realized how much I was in this group and how true I made this definition of convergence until now. And to be honest I would probably be stuck if I did not have it. I do not think I will ever walk away from the black box, perfect or imperfect.

Media impacting society

In class this past Tuesday we discussed how media impacted us as a society and how there were different types of impacts. I thought more and more about this throughout the week as I interacted with media. I thought about how media affects the society as a whole (macro) and just me personally (micro). I came up with many of the ideas that my group did in class. We mentioned things like setting cultural standards and allowing us to think critically about different topics. One other key idea we mentioned was how media influences our identities. But also found myself thinking about how because of media I turn away from things. Many people fall into the trap of seeing things on TV and wanting to follow the people like the "Mook." The more I watch TV it seems like the more I want to turn away from the concept of "Mook." But then I realized in doing this thinking I was in the trap of the 3rd person effect. I felt like since I was turning away from those paths that I was not really being affected by the media but really I am just as much as anyone else if not more since I am walking away. However, I guess that I am more positively affected because I am going the opposite way but not nessecarily. The society as a whole can take each aspect in different ways be affected in either a positive or negative way.