Summary of Blogging

Wow! It seems like only yesterday that I was starting this blog! Amazing how time flies. 

Believe it or not I did learn a little bit through this blogging experience, and I hope you did as well. 

My first blog was about these little green flyers that I hardly glanced at a few days before and then when seeing them again later on I instantly recognized them. It is so weird how the media knows that once you see an advertisement or hear something on the news they know that you will remember it somehow. They research all of this stuff with everyone and know exactly what to say or do to get anyone’s attention. 

Then in my second blog I learned about this really cool fridge that is being invented, and how the media advertises things like this for many reasons. One being for pure entertainment because who wouldn't want a fridge like that. Another is the researcher wants some help in finding the exact substance that could be made for the refrigerator and puts his idea out there for someone to help him out. Of course, another reason would be to see what the publics’ interest is. They want people to like the product so that the inventor can turn out a product and, of course, a little bit for the media who helped him out with the advertising. 

Then I went on to recycling and how Recycle Mania caught my attention with flashing $250 at me. That certainly attracts the eyes. The media does this for one reason gain your interest so you will buy into what they are selling. It is as simple as that. 

After recycling the mini van man taught me about advertising techniques to help gain the audiences' attention, and also how all of us use word-of-mouth without really thinking about it. The mini van man commercial used humor, which, is always going to be appealing to the viewer, but there are more ways than just humor. The media uses intelligence, sex appeal and more. It just depends on what they think is going to be appropriate for the audience that they are trying to sell to. Then there was also word-of-mouth, which, everyone has done. It is almost inevitable and I think the media knows that when they think of doing commercials or any other form of media. Word-of-mouth is almost the biggest seller of a product and usually helps seal the deal for the advertisers'.

Finally, the last blog was about the Starbucks coffee sleeve. The sleeve states that it is hot and to drink with caution, yes, but it also tells us that the product is recycled. A lot of companies are doing the same thing that Starbucks is doing. They are looking for anyway to gain your trust. Once they have your trust that they are being environmentally friendly then they have your wallet. It is such an easy kill for the company. 

So there it is, the things that the media does to us on a daily basis. Everywhere you may go, the media is right there with you. It may be the newspaper that you read in the morning before work. It could be the radio station that you listen to on the way to school. Maybe, it’s the advertisement that you see during the dreaded commercials. Possibly, it is blogs, websites, or posters in the locker room at your local gym. Where ever you go the media is there, waiting for you to give them notice, watching your every move so that they can learn what you like. Then when they have figured that out they will try and gain your trust. Once they have your trust they will try anything else to get your money into their pockets. . 

Basically, the media knows exactly what they are doing when it comes to getting your time, interest, trust, and money. 

Saving the Planet...One Coffee Cup at a Time.

While drinking a hot and steaming mug of Joe this rainy morning I was, once again, confronted by the media in rather interesting way. The coffee mug sleeve. Believe it or not this small piece of cardboard really made me think.

It seems that more and more companies are turning over a new leaf, literally. Companies all around are trying to reduce their impact on the environment by using recyclable products. A perfect example of this would be Starbucks coffee; every cup and sleeve states that the product in your hands is not only hot and to be drunk with caution, but is an already recycled product.

Yet again, there is something for the companies' benefit here.

Companies, like Starbucks, might be doing this to gain a certain respect in the world with environmentalists, but most likely are trying to gain the respect of you, the loyal consumer. They want you to know that what you are drinking out of is "all-natural" and completely safe for you to drink from (plus there's a possibility of burning your taste buds on the first sip). Hopefully with the trust that they gained from you, the drinker, they will get you to buy their product again and even advertise it wherever you go. There is never a time that you can ignore the sleeve, because you put it on when you get your coffee. When you see the sleeve your eyes go immediately to the writing that states that the product you are using has been recycled. Maybe some people do not have a reaction, but if you are one that is involved in being environmentally friendly then you will most likely be pleased with that particular fact. A fact that my coffee reminded me of.

It is a simple  method, yet, extremely effective.

Mini Van Man

Over Spring Break I was enjoying a lovely card game, called Speed, with my mom in the kitchen when a song came into my head. There was no particular reason that this song came into my head, it just, literally, popped into my head. When this song popped into my head I immediately realized it was a song from a mini van commercial and laughed realizing that I remember it being kind of funny. Of course, my mom would ask why I randomly laughed. I then proceeded to tell her that it was partially because I just beat her for the thousandth time in Speed, but mostly because I wanted to show her this commercial.  So I walked into the computer room and showed her.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYQ-jRHeCW0

I know that it is not the funniest commercial ever made, but I still find it somewhat entertaining that a man sees a mini van as an attractive vehicle for himself. Usually I think of it as a soccer mom vehicle, but who says I am the one to judge?

Lets get down to the point of the mini van, shall we? There are two forms of media here in this little scenario that I would like to show you. One being the advertisement, and the second being word-of-mouth. Now normally I do not think that word-of-mouth is considered an actual method used by the media to try to get people to buy their product, but it seems to function with every other method in getting the consumer's attention.

So let's start with the first one, the actual advertisement. The advertisers want the consumer's money and will do anything to learn what the consumer wants, and how to get the consumer's attention. In commercials and other advertisements there are many methods to doing this, such as sex appeal, humor, intelligence, and the list goes on. In this particular commercial the advertisers went with a little bit of humor. This gets the consumers' attention, and makes them laugh a little, which is always good. If they can make the consumer happy that is always a plus.

Now, the second point, word-of-mouth, is a big one and is probably the biggest part of an advertisement. I think advertisers know that this will happen when they put out an advertisement. The advertisers' jobs are to put the ad out for the world to see and influence the world to buy their products. Then the job of the people is to spread word about the product. Word-of-mouth could mean telling people that you know how great a product is and that they should buy it, or how horrible the product is and to never waste money on it. In my little scenario with my mom over spring break, the word-of-mouth would be showing her the commercial that had popped in my head, and in return wanting to show her how funny I thought it was.

This whole process happens with all media. It is kind of like the “circle of life” for the media. The media puts something out there for the public to see, the public passes the information on to their neighbor, the person and their neighbor may like the product or they could absolutely hate it, and then that feedback of the consumer goes back to the media where they try to do something with all of that information to make it better for the next round. 

It is a never-ending process. 

Recycle For Money

Yes, it is true. In order to get people to recycle we have to bribe them by waving some big green ones in front of their noses. I am not one to talk, though. My own roommate has to remind me every time that I throw away a plastic water bottle how bad I am damaging the earth's fine greenness. From my point of view the earth is already so trashed that I wonder how it is possible to make it greener. Who knows, maybe it can be done. But just because I cannot throw away a water bottle is not the reason that you, my friend, are reading this. Ah yes, you have guessed that I am, yet again, pointing out to you that it has been another fine day when the media is in my life. Other than the paparazzi following me around everywhere. Ha! Just kidding. 

On this lovely windy morning on St. Patrick’s Day I was eating a fine omelet made at the Northwest Quad when my eye fell upon, yet again, another advertisement. To your surprise it was not a green flyer this time. It was in fact a small billboard that was sitting on our table. Ok, I guess you could call it a flyer that was standing up-right with it's two sides taped together, but still it was a form of advertisement that struck me today. Anyways, when reading this black flyer I read that Recycle Mania is giving away a grand prize of $250 to the winner of a video contest that they are holding. Unfortunately, as I  read on Facebook, no one had entered a video as of March 9th. So to anyone interested I would say, "go for it." 

What I found so interesting in this little, up-right, taped, black flyer is they way the bold print that said $250 captured my eye. How hard is it not to get a little excited about $250? That’s a good amount of gas money that anyone can use these days. It is funny how all kinds of businesses use a few numbers to get anyone’s attention. It definitely catches the eye, and makes the reader notice the company or product that the company wants to sell to you. Take for instance banks. When trying to find a place to save up your money for a new car, you are looking for the banks with the best interest in your future, right? So what do they do? They advertise about you, their future customer, winning a new iPad, or they say, "Join us and you can enter and win $1000 and a trip to Hawaii for FREE!" Yeah, sure, that could happen... to one in every 10,000 people. The point is that now they have your attention and possibly your business. Hopefully, with you being wise in all your years, you have noticed that the interest rates of the bank that you are wanting to join are not that good, and you have moved on to the next one. 

The point is advertisements that have some kind of award are always going to attract you, because they seem to have your interest in mind. Now, most of the time they don't, and they just want your money, but you catch my drift. 

Hope that I gave you a good read.

Peace be with you. 

Media Dipping Into The Future...

A friend of mine recently exposed me to a new type of futuristic equipment that everyone might be using someday, which I thought was really exciting. Maybe the reason that it is so exciting is that it is where you will usually find me hanging out at random times during the day, and possibly because it contains food. For those of you who know me personally, you have probably guessed that this product is in fact a refrigerator. Believe me though, it is not your ordinary fridge. Plus, who wouldn't want this fridge to be invented?
Take a look for yourself...
http://inhabitat.com/zero-energy-bio-refrigerator-cools-your-food-with-future-gel/



Now my Media and Society question is, why does the media post this on the Internet? One of my thoughts on this question was that it perhaps helps the inventor get feed back from the public. Getting feed back could be a huge deal because they could soon be buying your product, and of course you want them to like it in the first place. If they don't like it, well, they are most likely not going to buy it unless they have so much money that they do not know what to do with it. I'm guessing that is usually a rare occurrence.

Another reason why they could be doing this is for public entertainment. Which, I don't know about anyone else that has seen this, but it certainly entertained me. The fact of putting my food into some green goo would normally repulse me, but for some reason it looks like a ton of fun. I wonder if you could put a person in it?

One other possibility is to gain other ideas for the new invention. If you had read about the actual gel-substance that will be used in this new refrigerator, you will have read that the gel is not exactly ready for our time. No one has actually tested this "gel" to see if it actually could work for this purpose. The guy making this fridge could be putting this out to the public to reach out to others for advice and knowledge, which could bring this new invention to the stores even quicker.

There could be more ways that the media puts articles like this out on the internet; I am sure one is for money, but there are probably others besides the ones I wrote about. However, the fact that the media puts out these articles amazes me. They are so interesting, and attract me to want to read about them more. Right there, the attraction of the reader definitely is one other reason that the media does this, and most likely it's the main reason. Their goal is to get our attention so that we will read more of their articles, which in turn, always brings them a profit.

So there you have it folks! In writing all of this I finally answered my own question!!

1st Blog of Blogging Choice Assignment

March 1st, 2011, is the first day for me to ever start a blog. So far I would say that this is extremely interesting. Not quite sure what I should say other than the fact that I feel legit, being a new blog owner.

Now let's get down to business...

Finally, with Fayetteville's weather warming up for one of the first times since who knows when, I was able to enjoy walking around on campus without it either freezing or my getting soaked. It was a nice change. With this change, also came the opportunity for a freshly plucked journalism student, like myself, to go out and put some of her knowledge to the test. 

As I was walking out of my Media and Society class I happened to notice a college peer passing out green flyers. I immediately knew what they were for, having seen them a few days before on my dorm room door, but was unfortunately bypassed when two people closer to him attracted his attention. It is so funny how little things like that green flyer you have seen before are almost instantly recognized when you hardly took notice of them first time around. Advertisements have a funny way of doing this to us all the time. Whether it is on the Internet, television, or radio, there is usually some kind of way that one song, or character, will get enough of your unconscious attention, and when seeing it again with your full attention, you will instantly recognize it.

Amazingly enough, people who make these advertisements in the real world start out by going to college for four years to learn all about how to gather this amazing unconscious (unconscious meaning that I hardly saw the green flyer on my door the first time) attention of ours. Of course once they acquire a job after college they will have to continue taking these drills, as well as classes on how people observe things or how to get a person's attention. What is their way of getting the least bit of attention from us? Well, first is understanding what every person wants. They research children, women, men, teens, elderly, college students, Caucasians, African Americans, Orientals, Native Americans, Indians, and Europeans. If you name it, they have probably done some sort of research on it.

Remember that the one goal that they have is that no matter what it is you (the viewer) want to see, they will find out how to please you in order to make the big bucks. That is usually the ultimate goal, and I really couldn't see any other goal to have than that one right there, because money does make the world go around, sadly. The most important thing for them to do is to get the viewers' attention to get the viewers to buy the product. Without the viewers' attention or approval of the advertisement, there will be no sale for the company trying to sell their beloved product. 

Now the green flyer that I had happened to come across was not trying to sell any product, except for maybe non-student people that wanted to attend an event. People who may have had to possibly buy a ticket. It was an advertisement to get students to attend a Christian movie that is being held tomorrow night at 8 o'clock in the union theater. I would love to go and see this movie, because later today I ended up once again bumping into one of the "flyer people" and talking to them about the movie. However, I have to attend the basketball game tomorrow night, also at 8 o'clock, to receive recognition for an above 3.0 GPA for student athletes. Otherwise I would enjoy continuing my journey with the green flyers and see their movie, and initially what they had been advertising about.