Brittshoe's Blog

When I went to see the Harry Potter premiere this last Thursday the last thing on my mind was blogging but when I started looking at our recent power points in my Survey to Professional Media class, I came across the slide on Collecting Money.

In this slide, many things were discussed directly and indirectly, were the main topics.  I learned that direct is buying media products directly (books, magazines, DVDs, Internet or cable subscription, movie tickets, etc). However, indirect is buying advertised products.

So basically, buying any forms of mass media — generate revenue both directly and indirectly — like magazines, major movie premieres, or cable companies.  They charge subscriptions, sell advertising, or even the un-noticeable movie advertisements.

This one slide made me think back to watch Harry Potter and The Deathly Hollows. I recently read an article called ‘Harry Potter’ Has $330 Million Debut Weekend by Brook Barnes, on November 21, 2010.

Through reading this article I was informed that the seventh Harry Potter movie opened to a jaw-dropping $330 million in ticket sales, globally, just over the weekend. Proving that the Warner Brothers marketing and distribution departments, stepped it up to the plate and hit a home run, yet again.

That total easily made “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1” No. 1 in North America generated a $125.1 million. It is the second-biggest domestic opening for the entire Harry Potter franchise; adjusting for higher ticket prices, “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” sold $127.4 million over its first three days in November 2005.

The strong results for this film obviously reflected the continued popularity of the J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books.  It seems as though every single one of these movies has also earned strong reviews in all of the box office.

But just as important was the strenuous yearlong, full-court press by Warner’s global marketing chief, Sue Kroll, to position the “Deathly Hallows” as a must-see event for both children and adults, alike. These advertising campaigns played up the sophisticated, yet darker elements of the plot. Harry, Ron, and Hermione are now all grown up and that good-versus-evil battle is becoming extremely intense.

The marketing materials also showed some type of edge into the different types of franchise by taking risks like identifying the film only by the letters “HP7” and posting posters and billboards with what looked like blood; especially posters like the one that depicted the Hogwarts castle in flames.

“It paid off to the point that was unexpected, about 25 % of the North American audience for “Deathly Hallows” was in the 18-to-34-year-old age group,” according to Dan Fellman, Warner’s president of domestic distribution.  “No other franchise has been able to age and expand the audience this way,” Mr. Fellman said. Thus, young and old media professionals should observe how things affect one another in marketing.

Generation Y, definitely took full advantage of this movie, considering the intensity of how many people from this age group attended or supported the movie/books.

The Harry Potter series will finally conclude with the 3-D release of part 2 of the “Deathly Hallows” on July 15, 2011.  This franchise, that is overseen by Alan F. Horn, Warner’s chief operating officer, has generated $6 billion at the global box office and billions in television, DVD, and merchandise sales.

“The success of “Deathly Hallows” just how big a hole Warner, owned by Time Warner, will have to fill once the series ends,” box office analysts said.

“Today, after more than a century of electric technology, we have extended our central nervous system itself in a global embrace, abolishing both space and time as far as our planet is concerned,” is just one of the many famous quotes by Marshall McLuhan, this particular quote is found in Understanding Media, 1964.  Born as Herbert Marshall McLuhan in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, on July 21, 191, McLuhan lived a long and extremely prosperous life.

Recently, in my Survey class we were told to write about this man.  I personally questioned, “What’s so great about this guy?” as I began to look up articles, movies, and videos about him. I started to realize how much he truly did change the outlook on Media to this day.

Throughout his life he attended college at the University of Manitoba and, of course, Cambridge University. In 1939 he married, Corinne Keller Lewis of Fort Worth, Texas. But not letting marriage slow him down, by 1942 he received his doctorate began to teach, write, and basically do anything his little heart desired. He even received quite a few honorable awards ranging from, “Honorary Award in Culture and Communication” in 1967 to “Man of Achievement” in 1975, with many others in-between.

"Marshall M" contributed by Google Images

But, I’m not here to tell the world about how great McLuhan was, I’m here to talk about why the heck this guys matters today, to communications.  Not only to adults but STUDENTS too!

McLuhan believed that the print revolution begun with Gutenberg, the “forerunner” of the industrial revolution. One unforeseen consequence of print was the fragmentation of society.

McLuhan argued that readers would now read in private, and so be alienated from others.  “Printing confirmed and extended the new visual stress. It created the portable book, which men could read in privacy and in isolation from others,” McLuhan said.

On the other hand, his “global village” theory allowed the ability and access of electronic media to create a unity of groups among people. What McLuhan did not live to see, but maybe perhaps saw in the future, was the merging of text and electronic mass media, in this new media called the Internet.  Thus, to answer the question, “Why does this pertain to students today?” The INTERNET!

Marshall McLuhan was the first person to popularize the concept of this global village and to consider its actual social effects among people and their lives. His insights were completely and utterly revolutionary at the time and changed how everyone has thought about media, technology, and communications ever since.

McLuhan came up with the phrase “global village” to show his observation that the media was rapidly integrating the planet.  Like, events in one part of the world could be experienced from other parts of the world in real-time; this is what human experience was like when we lived in small villages or colonies.

While McLuhan made this concept popular, yet he was not the first to think about the unifying effects of communication technology and fully admits this.

Concerning the new status of man in technology and media-dominated society, McLuhan states:

“If the work of the city is the remaking or translating of man into a more suitable form than his nomadic ancestors achieved, then might not our current translation of our entire lives into the spiritual form of information seem to make of the entire globe, and of the human family, a single consciousness?”

McLuhan announces the existence of a global village and predicts the extraordinary intensified media/more of the world community to its present expression.

McLuhan is well known for his division of media into HOT and COOL categories. Hot media are low in audience participation especially due to their high resolution.  Cool media are high in audience participation due to fact that has a low definition.  McLuhan’s philosophy was influenced by the work of the Catholic philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.  In that he believed that the use of electricity extends the central nervous system.

Mcluhan was known for many quotes a few of my favorite are the following, “The nature of people demands that most of them be engaged in the most frivolous possible activities—like making money,” this reminds me so much of how people treat others today, I have had so many people mistreat me, due to the fact that they were treated differently because they grew up with tons and tons of money. I know this isn’t exactly what this quote means but its how I relate it to my own life.

Another one is “The trouble with a cheap, specialized education is that you never stop paying for it,” when I was in high school I was taught that if we at least tried we would succeed, even in honors courses, however whenever I got to college, phew, did I get a slap in the face with realization?… I had to basically try 3 times as hard as if I would have if I had been taught correctly in the first place. The final quite that is one my favorite is, “People don’t actually read newspapers. They step into them every morning like a hot bath,” this reminds me of people and how they read into stories not just in the newspaper, but on the daily news, or even magazines, they take their emotions into all factors.

On McLuhan’s gravestone are the words “The Truth Shall Make You Free.” People may not fully agree with his outlooks however, most do remember that his life was dedicated to showing men the truth about the world they live in.

Recently, I read an article named This Brave New World is More of the Same written by Curt Hopkins.  This article was written recently on November 3^rd.  He goes on and on about how different Internet technology aspects have come along over many years.

The main conclusion was that, “All technologies that flow from the Internet – including Web, social media, and mobile – are not qualitatively different than anything that came before. They are instead, differences in quantity.” Speed and access are the qualities that every normal average everyday person relies on in internet technology.

When someone that was born in the eighties looks on the internet they go about it for varied tasks completely different then someone who was born quite recent.  Thus, instead of writing a letter that takes days to receive, anyone can send an email and receive it just seconds later. Or on the other hand, you could take into factor the instant messaging, on Facebook, MySpace, etc.

Even RSS feeds give access to more thoughts, more quickly than visiting blogs and online sites, for different types of materials.  The only possible exception to this state of Internet/extensive amount of exposure is called augmented reality.

Instead of looking up a map on the un-reliable MapQuest, using a GPS to determine your location and then using a search engine to look up information on that location Augmented Reality just speeds up the process.

And now that I have followed that line of thinking through this argument seems more compelling than the qualitative, even Augmented Reality.

So, do you agree or disagree? If which then later, which technologies do you believe are qualitatively different than that which came before? Or which tech has changed the nature of our world instead of simply compressing the speed by which we reach it or broadening access to it?

“To be clear, I don’t think this necessarily makes the technology less important or useful or needful of coverage. Simply, as that most odious of Georgians once said, “Quantity has a quality all its own.”

This ties into our current unit due to the fact that, we have recently talked about Public Relations. In Public Relations, the entire range of efforts by an individual, an agency, or any organization attempting to reach or persuade audiences.

“The multibillion-dollar industry remains virtually invisible to the public, most of whom have never heard of Burson-Marstellar, Hill & Knowlton, or Ketchum.”
-Media & Culture Public Relations

The Social and cultural influence is immense as in Public Relations helped convince many American businesses of the value of nurturing the public and important once America became consumer-oriented society.

Generation Y is generation in which they are completely consumed by media. I personally am part of it and am part of this. When I started to read this article I automatically could relate to it. I always feel as though there is so much technology in so many different forms and I can barely keep up.

When it comes to qualitative verses quantitative, one can tell that technology seems like there is always another updated version, thus, a large quantity of items.  If you don’t have the I-Phone, High-Speed Internet, or even a Mac Comp, then you will be lost in the “techy” world/media.

Recently, I saw an advertisement on T.V. that was for the Statefarm, Insurance Company. It’s a simple 30 second commercial. However, for some reason it was embedded into my head all day, I hummed the little song over and over again. Within a few hours, I noticed people were posting this specific commercial on their Facebook pages, Youtube account, and of course Twitter.

The commercial caught my eye due to the fact that it was just a funny commercial.  It appealed to many audiences, considering there were many different types of people in it, including men and a woman, both African American and Caucasian races. Thus, there could be no discrimination.

Even though insurance is something that most teenagers do not think about because of parents who pay it, this commercial gives them the opportunity to be intrigued as well as adults. It has a bit of a younger crowd so it portrayed to them as well.

I would say there is some “puffery” used throughout the advertisement. Especially when you look at the fact that it includes magic or having something just appear because you want it.  Even though it looks like they could be selling a grilled cheese sandwich, a hot girl, or a hot tub, they are actually selling insurance.

The actual “conventional persuasive strategy” used here would be the “Wit and Humor” and “Bandwagon Effect”. In the “Wit and Humor”  types of advertisement customers are attracted to products that DISTRACT the audience by giving viewers a reason to laugh or to be entertained by many different clever uses of visuals. On the other hand, the “Bandwagon Effect” points out in exaggerated claims that EVERYONE is using a particular product.  Brands that refer to themselves as “America’s Favorite” or “The Best” imply that CONSUMERS will be excluded or left out if the ignore and do not use/buy these products.

I believe I was watching Desperate Housewives when this commercial came on.  For some odd reason, my whole family and I try and watch this show together. So, this does mean it reaches a wide variety of people. My mom, dad, younger brother, and I all are a variety of ages.  As this commercial came on, even though, it pertained to either my parents or a somewhat younger crowd, all of us were filled with laughter.  I would say that this was nicely placed with the T.V. show.  It may have not intended on being such a success( Even though I’m sure they were trying to be as big of a hit as they could 😉 ) but I believe it was perfect in this time slot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SauUa5Z4Ihw

I would have to say, the target audience would have to be men and women ages 25-50.  I know this is a large group of people, but I believe this is a fit.  Once you see the commercial I think you’d think the same thing.

After watching this commercial, I did NOT buy the product.  I know that I found it quite entertaining and enjoyed watching it.  However, I already have Insurance and do not necessarily need this product. All in all, I rate this commercial at least a 9 out of 10.

While reading some articles online, I came across this one called ‘Facebook Launches Groups to Address Social Networking’s ‘Biggest Problem‘ by Irina Slutsky, from October 6, 2010.

This article caught my eye due to the fact that it was over Facebook.  Facebook to me is something that’s great for networking and keeping in contact with friends and family, near and far.  HOWEVER, I do believe that Facebook does take things to a new and not necessary extent.

So, as I was reading I began to find out quite a bit more about this “Facebook.” I discovered all of the different detailed features, Such as; groups, group chat, download your information, and dashboard.

These are just a part of several changes recently designed to give Facebook’s half-billion users more control over the information they share, including updates, messages and photos.

The new solutions to some problem that have formed are these so called “groups.” These groups allow users to depict what their friends or networks within their Facebook accounts can see. “Do I really want to annoy all my friends who don’t care about running about how I had an awesome jog this morning? How do I solve this?” Mr. Zuckerberg asked.

There are many different things to consider when creating groups. The groups can be public, closed or secret, and the users can even control the levels of privacy of the groups. Plus, users can have an email list, document sharing, and group chats. There is NO OFFICIAL LIMIT on the size of the group, but once a group gets beyond 250 people, the group gets turned off or is limited, automatically.

I believe these ties into the class I’m taking, quite a bit. The way Facebook has improved so much throughout the few years it has been in function, affects our generation (Gen Y) especially.

Group Chat has also recently been developed.  The Vice President Product management, Chris Cox who has been involved in these projects said, “Targeted marketing is not possible for groups at this time, and may not be for a while.”

Mr. Zuckerberg also commented on top of this, saying that he is going to observe many different types of social interactions with the new Groups product.  Especially due to the fact, that he can only see about 5% to 10% of Facebook users may actually use this Group Chat.  He goes onto saying that this will hopefully pane out into covering much more than just 10%, but this could take months to do.

Yet another new feature is a tool called “Download Your Information.” This feature allows any user to download a file of everything they have ever uploaded, said, or RSVP’d to, on Facebook. This includes all wall messages and photos, too.

However, Seth Goldstein, StickyBitz founder, said “Facebook still keeps some of the most valuable information and activity users have “created” on Facebook — their relationships and interactions with other users.”

The final newer feature added to Facebook, recently launched, is a dashboard. This shows users all the applications they have downloaded/ allowed access to their profile and all information that application used.

Engineers also said, the new feature helps tremendously to make sure, that the applications are using the proper information and time. It also allows much greater visibility into what’s happening to each users’ information.

Meghna Luthra

I recently interviewed one of my very good friends named Meghna Luthra, from New Delhi, India.  We got to talking about the difference between the United States and India.  When she moved here around 3 years ago, she had no idea what to expect, especially in the media.  She could only rely on the cookie cutter image that was shown to her in the movies, TV, magazines, etc.

Meghna was raised in a typical Indian home.  She was taught the basics of her culture through her parents and brother.  The media she was raised on was much different than the United States.  Starting with radio; in India the radio consists of 60% Hindi and 40% English.  Hindi is the native tongue in most of the Indian countries and surrounding areas.

Instead of hearing a commercial every 5-10 minutes, you hear one maybe every hour. On the topic of music, the most popular type listened to is Pop or House music (similar to Techno), mostly due to the Bollywood culture. Bollywood is very similar to our Hollywood, consisting of musicians, actors, actresses, etc.  Along with the music, the dancing comes natural.  Not exactly on the subject of media but, the type of dancing that they do in the majority of India is , it’s basically like belly dancing/folk mixed with a high paced music.

Television in India is not like the United States, filled with non-stop reality T.V.  Even though there are regular channels like news, MTV, and VH1. There are many other stations that do not exist in the U.S.  There is a station like ABC Network that is called Starplus.  Starplus contains many comedies, movies, etc.  Another type of T.V. is ZTV it is similar to Starplus but has different channels within the channels for example the following; Z1-News, Z2, Z3-Movies, etc.

On another note, movies in India are almost all musicals filled to the brim with love, for example Slumdog Millionaire. But the other 5% are about war, youth, mythological, drama, etc.  A few that Meghna suggests are Rang De Basanti- Patriotic, Fashion-Realistic, and Hum Tum- Romantic Comedy.

Another aspect of media we talked about was books and magazines. Most of the books are written obviously by Indian authors like Ruskin Bond or Chetan Bhagat.  But they do have a few classic books that are from the U.S.  As for magazines, most of them are identical to ours, like Cosmo and Sports Updates. There are few that do not exist here, like Stardust that comes from Bollywood.

When Meghna arrived in the U.S. she had a complete culture shock.  The culture and environment is revolved around media.  She immediately thought our culture was full of vulgarity and hostility.  Throughout the movies, radio stations, books and magazines you can tell that our society is revolved around sex, drugs, alcohol, and violence. The movies are blown much more out of proportion here, from the drama to the reality. Radio companies are filled to the brim with sex and uncensored songs.  Even down to books and magazines covered from front to back with overwhelming obscenity.  All of these types of media are open to the public to see, from adults to even down to young children.

All in all, I have learned so many things from Meghna whether it is about Indian media, food, attire, or family traditions. But, this isn’t the reason I consider her such a good friend.  It’s the way she looks out for me no matter what the situation maybe, her being Indian is just a plus.

Brittany C:

I recently read an article about Twitter. The name of the article was Some General Comments on the “Twitter Experiment” by Monica Rankin.  Twitter is for some reason a subject I was not quite familiar with, so I decided to read up on it.  In this article Twitter is about a teacher and her own experiment with Twitter. She wanted to see if Twitter truly could be used for an advantage inside and outside the classroom. 

During this experiment, the teacher set up her class, while still teaching regular lectures she also included a specific day a week to include the “Twitter Experiment.”  Once a week the class would be required to read a section before this class and then have to take a quiz before beginning  their “Twitter Discussion.” 

With as many students as 90, I defiantly see the advantage of using Twitter in this situation it gave each and every student the opportunity to give input and speak up in each discussion.

Current and future Media Professionals should defiantly take into consideration this type experiment with Twitter.  Due to the fact, that it not only helps the teacher but the students as well.  Each student probably got more out the class with the Twitter discussion board, as to compare to those who did not have this option in class.

Twitter may just be a fad and I was not the slight bit interested in it until now.  After reading this article I do believe I will try to understand Twitter a little bit more.  Linking this to my future career could be extremely useful and such. So thanks to Monica and her study I might just be a little bit closer to my dream job in Public Relations.  Twitter just might just be a friend after all.

God Bless Ya’ll -Brittany Shoe 🙂

Some similar info on Twitter:

http://rennster.wordpress.com/2010/03/12/twitter_tips-twitter-and-politics-frie/

Honestly, I had never heard of Generation Y until now. 

Looking at few videos and reading a few research articles I see now what Generation Y typically stands for, the twenty somethings that look towards the future.  I do see where the researchers seem to be confused at this generation.  However, since I am in it, I see it from my point of veiw.  Which to be honest I do beleive that this generation is very different then the others and is unpredictable.  I do see in the future, this generation making a difference in the world, slowly but surely. 🙂

Brittany