I recorded the audio twice with the mentality that if one part of the narrative does not sound good, I can use the other one for that part. This has served me well except for a couple instances where I am not really happy with either recording. If I had more time I would be able to rerecord this, but unfortunately I am rushed. Still, I think I am doing a good job guiding the listener via sounds and music. I have been playing with sound effects to signify when I am driving and when I have pulled over. I am also trying to get a robotic voice for the sound of the GPS. This has been difficult because I can’t find a text-to-speech mp3 creator- only avatars. Therefore I’ve had to record the avatar via the little mic on my computer. The quality of this isn’t perfect but it’s better than nothing.

I would say the most fun part of this project is choosing the songs and which parts of songs to include and where to put them. I love cutting songs up and using pieces of them for the effect. The process of creating this podcast has gone more or less smoothly, but I find things that I want to change but cannot. That is, there will be a line in the narrative that I think is unnecessary, but to cut it out what make the audio sound funny. On top of that, there are lines I want to add but cannot at this point. I am happy with how this is coming, but I always find small problems that I wish I could fix.

One example of this is the joke about me having a crush on the GPS. This is a huge part of my narrative, but there are some times that I push the joke too far and it gets boring. If I could go back I would put much less of an emphasis on this part of the story. I also hope that others find it funny. I think in some parts the concept is funnier than the actual outcome, but I will just have to see how the whole thing turns out. At this rate, I will be done by tomorrow and will have a lot of time to revise and edit. Working on this subject is still funny for me because I feel like I capture how scared we were when we realized we had no idea where we were. My friends and I still look back on that day and laugh about. Hopefully when this is done they will find it funny.

Although I know how to use the program pretty well, it is still different making a podcast. It’s a slightly new format but the principles are mostly the same. I feel like I won’t have many problems editing the audio that I’m going to use. Nonetheless, I still want to experiment a lot with sound effects- something I have not played with before. I don’t think I will run in to a lot of problems, rather I am excited to play around. I love garage band as a program and I think I can probably make this podcast sound cool. I considered writing my own music for the project, but with the time constraints, that might not be in my best interest. Still, I have high hopes for my project and a lot of ideas of how to use garage band’s features to make it the best it can be.

My first band used garage band to record

One concept that he emphasized and then demonstrated in Plan B was to not make a huge, flashy anecdote to open the story. His anecdote was very modest and straightforward. Nonetheless, it was affective. I paid attention to what he had to say and understood exactly why he had mentioned the scene in the classroom. He also talks about language as one of the most important factors in story telling. He maintains a natural speaking voice while eliminating all of the unnecessary words and phrases of casual conversation. The story about the Cuervo Man seemed to find that perfect equilibrium. He does not ramble at all- everything he says is to the point. Yet, it still carries an informal tone. He says “cut the crap” and speak with aggression. This reminded me a lot of Strunk and White’s “omit needless words.” Besides the tone in which one talks, I feel like storytelling is just writing. Good writing is terse and informative, but can still have any tone the writer wants if he or she is good enough. Obviously being able to speak the written words helps with creating a tone, but that can only go so far.

His story has a definite pace to it- there is no dabbling. Nonetheless, he takes the time to describe and depict rather than race through to the point. He seems to have the perfect balance of describing an unimportant scene without spending too much time on it and making us feel that it is more relevant than it really is. The only times I began to lose interest was when Cuervo Man actually talked. His storytelling was not very interesting. It helped to hear his voice, but I would have been just as happy hearing it from Ira Glass.

This interactive ad highlights Burger King’s motto, “have it your way.” Being able to make the chicken do anything gives the viewer a feeling of complete control. Ideally, the viewer does not need to make this connection for the ad to be affective. The ad targets anyone who is bored and has some time to kill. Subservient Chicken has the potential to entertain a wide variety of people. Likewise, Burger King does not attract specific demographics of people- it tries to get as many people as possible, unlike Dove soap, which specifically targets women.

Now that's just inappropriate

Manovich describes interactivity as a psychological process that forces the recipient to “fill in the blanks.” In this advertisement, the blanks are all of the acts that the viewer can get the chicken to perform. This ad is incredibly affective because there is nearly a limitless number of actions that can be performed. Therefore, a viewer could theoretically sit for hours, typing new commands. The longer the viewer interacts with the ad, the more its message is primed (subliminally instilled in the viewer). As The Barbarian Group suggests, there is a large, shiny Burger King emblem above the box with the chicken. As one plays the game, he or she ends up staring at this emblem unknowingly.

I had a lot of fun playing with this ad. In my experience, the ad pulled in my attention as I tried to discern whether or not it was real. After I figured it was all prerecorded, I kept messing with it to see how many things it could do. Burger King has developed a great way to captivate their audience and subliminally instill ideas.

In middle school there was a huge fad that my friends and I called “the Goth scene.” These kids were unreal. They would prance about in their dark colored clothing, heavy chains, tons of makeup, etc. and berate us “conformists” for being so “mainstream.” One instance in particular, a girl laughed that I wore Old Navy jeans and said that she only buys clothes at Hot Topic (a clothing haven for Goths). Hot Topic turned out to be the most ironic, contradictory place on this planet. The message that the store gave was “don’t succumb to fads and commercialism. Be a nonconformist and buy these things.” It worked. The people who shopped there were even worse than us “conformists” who liked Old Navy- they went around advertising the store! Even if I was persuaded by an Old Navy commercial to buy a pair of jeans, it was no comparison to how brainwashed they were by this marketing technique. The best part about it (that everyone seemed to neglect) was that Hot Topic is a branch of Abercrombie and Fitch, the most notoriously preppy clothing store. Eventually the fad died, probably because people grew up and became more educated. Either way, the aforementioned examples demonstrate that this approach to marketing still exists and thrives. The only way for a buyer to avoid falling for these tactics is for he or she to be aware of the marketing techniques of all of these brands. Only then can a buyer decide if the product truly speaks to him or her.

Most ad campaigns for products use weak arguments (not clear-cut reasons why this product is the best, but rather make it look appealing). The weak arguments aimed to persuade a recipient’s subconscious are called “source factors.” In the venus razor ad, the main attraction of the ad is the girl. Venus purposefully portrays an accessible and enviable teen girl. She is accessible because her room is slightly messy, she is clearly just goofing off and having fun, and she is texting people on her phone. At the same time, the most engaging part of the photo is how attractive she is; if a recipient envies or looks up to the source, he or she is more likely to be persuaded. Although the photography compliments her legs, the emphasis of the ad is on the girl’s lifestyle. The slogan in the middle says “goddess of communication”- unrelated to shaving products. The goal of this ad is to get girls to associate venus razors with this snapshot of beauty and fun rather than to argue that venus razors are the most effective or highest quality.

Nonetheless, the ad does attract the recipient’s central route as well. In the top left of the frame, written in small print is a description of the product. Although the ad intends mainly to trigger the audience’s subconscious, it also argues a point for those who feel a high sense of personal relevance towards razors (i.e. they care a lot what kind of razor they use). Most product advertisements try to create associations rather than list reasons as to why the given product is the best investment.

Venus Ad

In Murray’s essay The Maker’s Eye: Revising Your Own Manuscripts, he suggests that students often sell themselves short by not rewriting their work. Something that I have been told that stuck with me is that “writing is rewriting.” Any good piece of writing is the product of a massive process. One cannot crank out 5 pages of gold right away- it takes more time editing than free-writing to produce anything of quality. I have gone through my definition essay several times already to fix the language to say exactly what I mean, but it could always be clearer. At this point all of my ideas or on the page and it’s just a matter of organizing and clarifying them. I should have enough time to go through and fix what needs to be fixed before the due date.

Nevertheless, I think it’s important to write these. Since all of the vocab in this course is very subjective, then we need to agree (or disagree) on their definitions. By disagree, I mean understand the differences in our perspectives on these terms. Either way we will understand what someone is trying to say when he or she says “avatar” or “social media.” Fortunately, I am studying some of the same concepts and vocabulary in my communications class. Even in that class there is a lot of confusion and disagreement over terminology. My GSI explained the definitions that we are learning vary from text-to-text. I had to think of our class and how relevant that statement was to our paper.

Granted I don’t remember much about 1992, I can assume that technology was even less omnipresent than it is now. Today, people have become accustomed to having ultimate access to technology via blackberries and other PDAs. People will search the web and communicate with whomever they want, whenever they want, like it’s no big deal. The fact that we are so used to having these abilities proves Woolley’s point.

He also comments that the web will develop into a community where we can all reside. Again, Woolley prophesizes the fate of the internet community. All over the world, people have found their niche on the web. For example, World of Warcraft. The WOW community is a huge community of gamers that all live in and interact in a virtual community. Every player assumes an identity and strives to achieve their fantastic goals. Nonetheless, players all over the world feel a sense of community from this virtual reality. I often hear stories of people becoming so caught up in this alternate reality that they lose touch of real life. Although this is an extreme case, it embodies Woolley’s point that the cyber community is on the way to surpassing real-life communites.

Woolley ends the article on a cynical note saying, “Could this be where the denizens of the global village truly belonged? Could this be a new reality?” Like McLahun, Woolley introduces his most radical idea at the end of the essay. Nonetheless, I think he makes a valid point that becomes more evident over time. I don’t know how immersed people in the early 1990’s were in the web, but new technology allows for more and more opportunities to escape reality and recreate yourself.

But can we disregard the content of new media? McLuhan believes we can. This assertion raises the question of whether it is harmful to expose children to violent or sexual content, since after all, the content is irrelevant. I agree that the content is less important than the medium as a whole because the medium determines the effect of the content on the viewer.  That said, exposing children to themes such as violence and sex via any medium is inappropriate. Therefore content, although not as powerful as the medium by which it is communicated, is nonetheless important. It would not make sense to prohibit a child from watching an explicit movie but then allow him or her to read the book- it is the same message communicated to different senses.

In his article Media Hot and Cold, he brings up the idea that every medium of media can be classified by either “hot” or “cold.” Hot media is highly engrossing and instructive, whereas cold media is very participatory and uninformative. He goes as far as to name American culture as “hot” and less developed countries as “cold.” He describes the chaotic effect of combining hot and cold cultures as creating disorder.  Although McLuhan’s ideas were far beyond his time, he could only hint at the media revolution that would come 50 years later.

The revolution of new media is beginning to blur the lines of hot and cold. This change has not created chaos, but has created a new medium for content. Interactive media such as blogs and social networking tools takes elements from hot media (news, television) and cold media (telephone, literature,) and allows the viewer to give feedback. McLuhan’s definition of the terms of media reminds me of how we are in the middle of a new era of media. Like with any new medium, the consequences are unforeseeable.