Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Animation Project


I chose Time Warner as the main focus of this particular project, like I have with many other projects. This particular corporation interests me most because of the vast array of other companies and franchises that it currently holds down. For my animation I decided to start with the name Time Warner to remain central throughout the entire animation, although its opacity blinks at the end. Through each frame a different element under Time Warner pops up, AIM, HBO, 90210, Warner Brothers, CNN TV, InStyle magazine, and Moviefone. At the end the opacity of Time Warner's elements and Time Warner itself blink back and forth a few times. I found that this animation illustrates the different companies and productions that Time Warner holds, it also illustrates the different audiences and mediums that it holds, illustrating a true media conglomeration and media globalization.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Duplicate Magazine Cover Assignment



These are my completed magazine covers. The cover on the left is the original cover and my cover which I tried to duplicated is on the right. I changed the color of the text on the bottom from yellow to orange in order to achieve the same continuity throughout the cover- the colors co inside with the colors from the image of the two towers. Lastly, I decided to just duplicate this cover because I feel that it says enough in itself and there is no need to change its message, for better or for worse. Additionally I think the replication gives off the same feel that the original does.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Blog Quiz: MEDIA GLOBALIZATION



1.The emergence or and continued dominance-small number of media conglomerates or transnational media conglomeration
It has become increasingly evident that major corporations and fortune five hundred companies are slowly taken over society. Very large companies are gaining control over many smaller branches which limits all of the media's control to very few central corporations. For example Time Warner has control over HBO and AOL as well as a variety of other television programs and networks and magazines. This could be incredibly detrimental to today's growing society because it places restraints on the smaller corporations which can stunt the growth of these companies and corporations in other networks (that could be useful in society as well as new and innovative). I believe that this could also have an effect on the advertising because it could limit what is being advertised through each different medium. For instance Time Warner could only being advertising there products and their services on their networks and through their services which makes it hard for other companies to integrate into the system. Although personally I don't think that this conglomeration really has much of a significant effect on today's society, it has been functioning for so long in such a way that the technological world has not been deeply effected in such a negative way that change needs to be sought out.
2. The promotion of the ideology of consumerism
This whole idea of consumerism can be closely linked to the notion of capitalism. An array of different questions can arise when beginning to examine this concept in a bit more depth. The idea that this idea of consumerism can be linked with capitalism has a sort of negative connotation. It seems that this whole idea of capitalism and consumerism can also give the concept of making money and spending money a negative tone as well. It seems that society today is almost solely based on this idea of consumerism. Think about it, people are always in search of the latest and the newest services and "things" and yet there is a certain greed that accompanies this idea. It also seems that there are unnecessary needs that are offered which can also a lot to this idea of capitalism taking over. Moreover, we currently live in sort of capitalist society in which because are always attempting to get ahead and rise to the top. Therefore with regard to media globalization and consumerism there is in fact a negative connotation that is emulated from this idea of consumerism with regard to making money. Therefore I do think there is room for worry, yet I am not sure how incredibly detrimental this is to society in this day and age.
3. Uneven flow of information with a global system.
This concept is a little bit tricky, and can be looked at from both positive and negative views. This whole concept simply refers back to who exactly has the access, and who exactly can gain the access to this "flow of information." This also is linked with a social-economic function that cannot be ignored, there are currently information rich societies and communities as well as information poor communities. It seems that uniting these two can provide an obstacle for those working toward the flow. Additionally there is a digital divide in which people from 3rd world societies cannot have access to the same amount of information and technology as those from 1st world societies. This can propose many problems and dilemmas to this system because the flow is not even and everyone is not on the same page. It seems that these 1st world societies could be bypassing these 3rd world societies in the blink of an eye. This is a scary thing because it is indeed two very different worlds, and how can aid be delivered if everyone is moving from different directions and there isn't a common understanding against the board? This uneven flow also can be linked to media ownership and how there are only a few major conglomerations that hold all of the power, the distribution could and can be uneven, resulting in an uneven flow of information across the world and throughout different societies.

(Note: the image I used is to show figuratively how Time Warner should be broken down into smaller pieces which could result in more control over media by more corporations and companies)