Blog #5 Sports, movies and Society

            In society everyone has a certain thing that they do for entertainment. A stereotypical male will watch hours of sports on television. Men watch a lot of sports because they feel that is shows strength and they like teamwork. They also will watch sports because then they have something to talk about with their buddies. Athletes are idolized because of the athletic abilities of the athletes and how they look because it shows strength. In sports both males and females can be idolized sexually and in the 2 pictures we saw they were. The male had his picture of him staged and it was only covering his gentiles. The women was in her sports bra after taking her shirt off from winning soccer and everyone made a big deal about it but, I feel since she was in a sports bra and it was a natural reaction it is not a big deal and it is not a big deal due to it being a spontaneous reaction. The Male was a staged picture because it was photoshop'd so that he was jumping out of the pool and there is no way he would be able to do that and still cover up his genitals.

            Sexism also ties into the Jud Apartow movies like knocked up and 40 Year Old Virgin because in these movies there is a stereotype and many sexual references. In Knocked Up that is the reason that they guys including Seth Rogan’s Character go to the club because they want to dance with sexy women and try to “hook up” with them. Katherine Hegel’s character is the stereotypical female who is hard working and trying to have a little fun when she and her sister go to the club. When her and Seth hook up it is because of them both being drunk so she takes him to her house and they end up having sex which you can tell she regrets later on. Society is like this because it seems like it happens a lot where people get drunk and do not know what they are doing and they regret it after. Another stereotype that comes up in the movie is that all guys think about is sex because the guys are watching movies to see where boob flashes are. Also after Katherine Hegel’s character ends up pregnant and she and her sister go to the club they are turned away because they are not the idea of what they bouncer feels is sexy. These stereotypes end up getting imbedded into people’s minds which causes them to think that way. In 40 year old virgin there are a lot of sexual references because of Andy (Steve Carelles character) never having sex because he wasn’t good at it. Also the guys pick on him and this is what happens in society when a guy hasn’t done what most guys have done he is perceived as either a gay guy or he is a loser. His buddies are all giving him bad advice because that is what they have seen on TV and have experienced so they feel that this is the way he will be able to lose his virginity. The comments they make are all stereotypical but it is comments that happen in society when just guys are around.

            Lastly Pulp fiction was about society and its stereotypes but Quinton Terrentino was making fun of what happens in society because there was detailed dialogue between the two guys who were acting as the investigators/ mob hired help. His style was also to mock the way that violence is by making it unrealistic. Therefore, the movie was realistic but funny at the same time.  All of these examples portray stereotypes that happen in society just maybe not at prominate as they did in the films and they are funny to look at and it’s a way for our society to look at the movies and relate them to other people and then laugh at themselves.             

Technology in movies

Technology plays an important role in society. Everyday people use some form of technology examples include if you want to listen to music then many people use a MP3 Player or IPod to play their favorite songs ; if you want to watch something people go to their computers or to the television and put something on.  Movies show many different form of technology many movies today have some form of robots.  Top Box office movies include Iron man, Iron man 2, Transformers, Transformers 2 these movies show how robots are helping to restore problems to normal with the help of human beings. In Iron man it is man himself that uses technology to his advantage to be able to wipe out rebel forces and help everyone that is involved to be able to live happier.  Iron man is similar to Armageddon because without the technology to save the world from the asteroid everyone would die.

            The technology seen in Armageddon was experimental and is still not available today but this movie shows that it probably will become available in the future due to how it was used. The space shuttles were experimental and NASA has not created new ones and is retiring the shuttle program anyway so maybe they will take a technology from a different movie and use it. Also in Armageddon the armadillo’s used to dig the hole on the asteroid doesn’t seem realistic but we do not see anything that is used yet. In the near future there will be technology that will get developed.

blog 3 infotainment

Television is used for entertainment purposes but it is also used to get the news from around the world. There are people who watch conventional news such as ABC world News tonight with Diane Sawyer or CBS news with Katie kurick. These news stations are conventional and informative but they end up only showing small clips of the news story because they don’t want people getting bored with a longer news story. The local stations have to show local news and national therefore, if there isn’t a big national story it normally gets less coverage than the local story. When there is breaking news then there is hours of coverage done by the big news stations such as ABC news, CBS, CNN, MSNBC.

          The other type of news coverage that there is entertainment news like the Daily show and the Colbert report. On these shows they tell you the news but they laugh about them all the time.  Jon tries to use comedy to explain the news through comedy. He tries to make fun of what is going on in the world so that people can laugh at the news but also know what is going on. This is called infotainment.

There are also shows that poke fun at politics more than others. Examples of these shows include Conan Obrian, Jay Leno show and SNL. They take the issues that are going on in politics and they make fun of them. They also try to create comedy out of the woes of the world. Some people will watch these shows and believe everything that is going on as the truth.

I feel that the shows like the daily show are for entertainment only. If I want to watch the news I will turn it on at 5,6,10 (on some stations), or 11 so that I can get the correct information. Also, I do not watch any of the infotainment news I only have watched SNL for comedic relief if I watched the Daily show with Jon Stewart it would annoy me and I definitely wouldn’t pay attention to the issues of the news.

Blog 2- Viewing TV

Television provides an outlet for people to get the news, seeing commercials on TV that can create persuasive messages and emotional experiences that are different to others.  Also, television is used for entertainment by watching movies or TV shows that they are interested in.  Encoding and decoding also plays an important role in the way people perceive certain television shows.

Depending on the context of a television show it explains how a person interprets the show. On a show like NYPD Blue, CSI or NCSI the viewer is able to distinguish that whatever happens on the TV show is real life because someone always seems to get hurt. On these TV shows you see friendship grow within the teams due to them extensively working together. On NYPD blue detective Det. Andy Sipowicz is seemed as the father and he keeps the team together. He is also the rough and tough cop while the others do their jobs but they have a different approach to how they do it. This show shows the real life experiences of NYPD officers and the day to day life they live every day. On CSI Grissom is the head of the team and he is also well liked by his employees because he is a people person. This TV show also covey’s a certain look to how Las Vegas is. It starts out showing the glamour of the city and then it shows the team in the lab and they get a case or they show the team at a crime scene ready to get to work on the case.

The way I view television is that there is a lot of violence on TV and sometimes people view it as the norm so it is brushed off. Some portrayal’s our not the norm but for shows like CSI and NYPD blue they are normal to society because they show law enforcement at work and the drama that they have to go through in their everyday life. I am glad that these TV shows are on later because children could end up seeing these and act like the people on TV because a lot of parents use the Television as a babysitter so that they can do their own thing at home and not be bothered by the kids or play games with them. Some commercials on TV that children see are not good because they end up acting like that and the parents wonder where they learn it from and don’t realize that they have seen it on TV.  Television is a big part of entertainment and it will always be viewed differently by other people.

What is pop Culture?

                     Pop culture is what is popular in society at the time that the ideas come out to the public. The majority of people also will decide on what they feel pop culture is. Pop culture is seen in movies, TV shows, music etc.  Mainstream music is a large part of pop culture because you see it a lot and hear it a lot if your listening to radio stations such as Kiss 98.5, Star 102.5, Z 101 because they play the top 40 hits everyday all day long.  An example of this is the F**U song because it is in the movie She’s out of my League and it is also on the commercial for the movie the Dilemma.

The media shows people in a way that everyone is suppose to look a certain way. Women are most often portrayed in most TV shows to be thin, attractive, sexily dressed etc…. and they get what they want or their life seems to be going great. Many shows don’t show the average person and that they have struggles. When people compare themselves to these TV shows they are living in a false reality and life will seem a lot harder.

                Although, the majority of people do not always agree upon pop culture it is a big part of the American life and even if we don’t realize it we as people get sucked into it one way or another.