COMM 222: Comm & Pop Culture

Sure! 

1. Hegemony refers to the way that media create a “consensus” around a particular set of ideas (or at least contribute to that consensus). It helps to explain how we come to view/understand things as “common sense.”  For example, media can be understood as “hegemonic” by the power they hold in getting us as a society to accept - and BELIEVE (whether we want to admit it or not!) -  stereotypes about women or racial minorities that are constantly circulated in the media. This works politically too, in the way we come to accept certain ideas (ideologies) as “fact”. Hegemony is also a term that helps explain how a particular set of ideas or worldviews “rule” as common sense at any given moment in time. Some scholars (political economists in particular) believe that the media are owned and operated/run by the “ruling class” since the people who are able to control the ideas that society hears/sees are able to essentially control the population. An example of this, then, would be the media’s constant perpetuation of the “American Dream”. We believe in this myth as if it was real; the media present (over and over again - through TV shows, movies, news stories) cases where the “American Dream” works for someone. It’s the narrative behind most commercials - it’s what makes us buy things. (e.g., having a car, buying a house, going to college! the American Dream!) Yet all of those things require money and consumerism. But yet millions of people continue to live below the poverty line…but not the media owners! Media owners need people to buy goods so that advertisers keep buying commercial space in the media! If we can get people to believe that buying things = the American Dream, then media owners keep making money, poor people keep working (so they can buy things & buy the Dream), and people with money keep spending what little they have (without thinking much of the working poor whose conditions are oftentimes not of their own making).  That’s a pretty basic example, but it gets to the point of how media can be understood as “hegemonic.”

2.  Information Society: Yes, what you say there. But it also pertains to the way our economic base has changed since industrialization. What’s different about the Information Society than an Industrial Society? Refer back to that chart from the earliest weeks, and that should help.

If you want to know your current grade for some reason (which doesn’t actually matter - what matters at this point is how many of the 125 points you earn to get the grade you want!) then divide your current total points by 375.

The course is out  500 points, and there’s 125 points left in the course, so you need to divide your current # of earned points by 375 (since 500-125=375). To date:  Exam 1 (100 pts) + Exam 2 (100 pts) + Exam 3 (100 pts) + Assignments & Quizzes (75 pts) = 375 points.  

If you did extra credit, than awesome - that’s extra points. But you still divide out of 375 because the extra credit doesn’t factor into the total # of possible points. In other words, you wouldn't now divide out of 384...because then people who didn't do any extra credit would actually a lower score. That’s what makes extra credit “extra” :)

Let’s say you currently have 280 points and your scores look like this:

Exam 1: 70Exam 2: 76Exam 3: 80Quizzes/Assignments: 45 Extra Credit: 9

So if you currently have 280 points, then: 280/375 = 74.6% {after you move the decimal!} 

A relevant example to our course sent by COMM 222 student Kathleen Layman while "while procrastinating to study for your exam." (her words, not mine!) :)

Product placement is when some type of product is placed in a show or movie, usually for a fee. In this short clip from America favorite reality TV, Duck Dynasty, the Harley Davison Motorcycle is part of product placement. The Harley is just sitting in Willies parking spot contributing no use to the show except giving the producers money. The producers of the show make sure that all the viewers know that it is a Harley because when they focus the camera on the Harley logo so that everyone watching knows that this is a Harley motorcycle and not just some random company’s motorcycle. Product placement is really the advertisers being savvy. They are placing this Harley in this show because you cannot skip over the product and the viewer are already entertained by the show. This way the Harley company does not have to think of ways to make their ads interesting or a way to get you to watch them; they simply put their Harley in this popular show and the show does all the work for them. Now this is different from product integration, where the whole show would be based around the product; therefore, if this Harley would have been product integration the whole thirty minute show would be about the Harley and how the family and company stole it or some way that made the whole show based around the Harley. Instead, here, we see product placement because around a twenty seconds is dedicated to camera shots of the Harley. What is interesting to me no one in the show call the motorcycle a Harley, they either call it a bike or a motorcycle, when it clearly is a Harley.  Maybe that wasn’t in the contract agreement to say the actual Harley name, and if the company wanted the actors of the show to say the name they would have had to pay more. Either way this Harley in Duck Dynasty is a great example of product placement!

What is it?

Soft sell advertising is when the sellers of a particular product or service create a specific branding and experience. It focuses on hitting the viewers emotions to make them feel not only connected to product, but that the product is connected to them. With the product, the viewer would feel that with this product they have the control and outcome of what they can do with it.

This advertisement is for the Windows Smartphone. The “seller” in the advertisement is Grant Hill, a basketball star, and his appearance appeals to the youth, young adult, and early-mid adult as well. Athlete or non-athlete, the star appeal to Grant Hill gives credit to his reliance on this phone to do what he needs for business and personal use. The ad shows him playing basketball and working out, creating an emotion for productivity, confidence, and reliance for fast-paced use. The ad also shows Hill playing and interacting with his family, creating an emotion for connectivity and relationship to our family and friends.

The reason why Pepsi is in the middle and is blown up is because Pepsi owns all of these other brands. This is an example of horizontal integration. Horizontal integration is when a company owns products in the “same business” based on what the book says. This works because Pepsi is a drink that owns other drinks such as Aquafina water, Sierra Mist, Mountain Dew, Brisk tea, &up, diet Pepsi, Starbucks Frappuccino’s, and these are just some of the drinks they own. There are several that they own that are not even on this picture. 

It’s actually funny that I found this ad, because I found it when I was looking up a specific episode I remember Glee doing a very obvious product integration scene, but I saw this ad instead. This ad included with my web browser tabs provides a clear example of the new ad techniques that the internet offers. It shows the method of behavioral marketing. Behavioral marketing is when third parties track the sites I visit, the information I enter into my online accounts, the purchases I make from online stores, the amount of times I’ve visited a particular website. Tobi is an online boutique that I visit very often and make tons of purchases on. I’ve subscribed to their emailing lists, used many of their promotional codes, and it’s even a tab on my browser when this screen shot was taken. This ad was then placed on this random blog site, because through algorithms, the third party ad programs knew I would be interested in this boutique. Through their behavioral marketing techniques and tracking they found this out.

The term I chose from the study guide is Prosumers.  We are prosumers because we consume and produce information.  An example of this would be an online dating profile because the user creates a page in which they describe themselves, list their activities, and what they are looking for in a partner.  They produce information for the website but also consume it when they look at others dating profiles which are listed on the same website.  In this particular example, Batman says where he is from, his age, height, interests, personality, looks, and his ideal match.  There is an option to contact him, tell a friend about him, and block him if you're not interested. He also has these same options when searching for a match by clicking the "Find Profiles" button. He is producing information about himself, and consuming information about others, and other users are doing the same.

Hard cell tells a buyer exactly what a product is and uses rationality. Soft sell appeals to emotions.The Budweiser commercial captures viewers hearts with the foal and uses this connection, and the viewers emotions, to help sell their product.  The scrubbing bubbles commercial tells viewers exactly what the product does and why they "need" to buy the product. It uses reasons and rationality, making an example of a hard sell.

Scrubbing bubbles: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajLVS9H5HkE

Product integration occurs when a product becomes a part of the narrative of a show or film.  In this episode of New Girl, Jess fills in for her friend CeCe who is a model.  Her job is to model and show off the Ford Fusion to her audience.  The scene should have been focused on Jess filling in for her friend but they create an elaborate scene that holds all the details of the car and is subliminally giving viewers good information in the middle of the show.