The Day the Music Died [greatest hits and b sides]

1. Keen elaborates on the death of media institutions radio, televsion, film and, most importantly music.

Radio, for example, traditionally highly populated with teenage listeners, has been seeing a rapid decline in activity as many companies are selling off their radio properties. I agree that the internet is fostering the death of radio as it has now become much easier to play ones-own music collection in the car instead of wading through whatever the radio feels like airing.

Keen goes on to illustrate the death of the print media .Newspapers are continuing to shorten content, the downsize the actual print in exchange for online driven content, by both the news media and the advertising agencies. Honestly I don't see this a death of news media. The print alternatives are however becoming outdated and are simply switching over to the internet, where they can reach the larger demographic/

Telvision is no exception for the "almighty wrath of the internet" according to Keen. For example, NBC Universal began slashing costs in 2006 with their "NBCU 2.0" initiative, which mostly cut jobs and reoriented their news programming around attracting more viewers instead of actual news. Along with the budget cuts, NBC began airing easier/cheaper-to-produce programming such as "Deal or No Deal" instead of original titles like Seinfeld or Friends. Keen sees this as the death of original content. I am inclined to slightly agree. While it's not the apocalyptic picture he's painting, I believe that some of the new programming is lacking in originality. However we have also seen the arrival of other new programs such as "Heroes", or "Lost".
2. Keen's reference to Utopia, "the sheep are devouring men" indicates how the product is destroying the producer and some select few find success. In his grand analogy, he uses YouTube as an example. The relatively small page, sold itself for 1.65 billion dollars to Google, all for a website that gets all of its content from its users. Newspapers such as The New York Times are not as fortunate. Should print media collapse, the paper wouldn't nearly be able to make as much revenue as it does right now strictly online without compromising content.

However most of this conjecture that Keen touts is cautionary, paranoid warnings in fear the worst case scenario DOES occur which in my opinon is a nigh impossibility.

Growing Up Online or The Internet is Serious Business

The internet, one of the greatest tools at our our disposal, is serious business. However, when it ends up in the hands of the nations youth, bad things can and often do happen. Most of this has occurred with the dawn of social networks such as facebook, or myspace. These offer young adults access to a new level of selective anonymity. They do things they normally wouldn't do, act in a manner they normally wouldn't act, and make generally more irresponsible decisions because they believe that just because this all takes place on the computer they're safe.

Kids may use it as an escape from authority, where they can make their own decisions. But this is exactly the stage where outside forces can influence them. Advertising agencies are disguising their propaganda through targeted advertisement based on interests documented on facebook or product-heavy games. The first notable appearance of these games I can remember is candystand.com. It consisted of dozens of flash-based games all covered in sponsorship such as life-savers or other candies.
This is only the beginning as we see major players jump into the "advergaming" business with companies such as Disney with their own Massively Multiplayer Online Games such as "Toontown Online" or "Pirates of the Carribean Online".

So now, while the youth adventure into the internet looking for independence, advertising is keeping one step ahead to capitalize the youthful inexperience.

The Art of Persuasion

In today's market-driven society, it becomes very easy to lose any sense of foresight and caught up in the moment if you're not being objective. The art of "the sale" has reached critical mass in American culture as corporations are taking up more and more space. For example, in sports media, broadcasters can't even fit room for another sponsorship: We've already fitted the stadiums with as many billboards as possible, and rather than be satisfied with commercials, we're seeing sponsorships of the halftime show or even something as inane as the call to the bullpen. It wasn't long ago that the Major League Baseball tried slapping sponsorships on their BASES because it could be used as advertising space (link).

Do we as Americans suffer some sort of susceptibility to these marketing strategies? In short, yes. While no consumer is a blank slate that mindlessly purchases whatever they're told to, marketing firms employ strategies that no longer sell a product. Because, generally, trying to sell a product almost NEVER works. So instead we are sold an experience, a status, or a community. For example, the success of Apple computers has nothing to do with the quality of the hardware being better, but rather, the image it fosters. Apple fans are notorious for being very clique-like as part of a vain hipster movement that believe it's countering the "suit-and-tie" culture of windows (as portrayed by none other than Apple themselves). So the point of the marketing here is selling counter-culture, and the community it fosters.

It's become increasingly difficult to ignore the ever-reaching arm of advertising in society. The only option for those who want to move with self-awareness is to stand aloof from any sales pitch they see. At the end of the day, if there's some product or sponsorship attached to it, cast it aside and purchase whatever you'd like.

Presenting....The Cool

In today's society, marketing to teens has become a mutant game of keeping up with the Joneses. There's always something out there that marketing crews are eager to find, use dry, then kill as a means to profit. It's a despicable practice because it preys on the impressionable youth and manipulates them for a quick buck. Not only that, but it stifles any good chance for them to develop an interesting culture of their own as it is constantly creating and destroying trends. And it's really necessary to do so. In order to make any profit, the market needs to be in flux.

And today's it's gotten even worse because marketing media is so eager to get ahead of the curve, they have practically skipped the target audience and have begun dictating to the general audience what they're supposed to like. It's become a painful cycle that shows no signs of slowing down.

How the media pros know their audience?

This is a very tricky subject. Knowing one's audience can be simple or difficult depending on the medium of the text. For instance, if you publish a print-only news journal, the only way to understand your audience is through direct research, surveys or other wise. However, with the dawn of web-based media, it's become much easier to track an audience. Website hits, podcast downloads, e-mail, all enable producers to track their stats and viewer feedback. Other methods of success have seen great boom in user-generated content. Websites like youtube (user videos) or digg (user-submitted news) or StumbleUpon (user recommendations) allow both control of the media while allowing creative influence on behalf of the audience.

We with the expansive growth of the web, we are seeing less of a need for personal analysis are some are working towards a "web 3.0" in which all the content is personally tailored and catered to you based on your browsing history and other preferences. This has the potential to seriously violate certain privacies we enjoy. Although that's still conceptual and a long ways off from fruition.

Bitmap Vs. Vector Quiz

Insert. Grade. Here.

Money as Debt

So last class in media literacy we watched a short film titled "Money as Debt." It was a very depressing take on the sad state of affairs in which our economy operates. We're shown the evolution of our current crisis and how it began. I certainly can't comprehend how we can maintain any stability on an economy that allows banks to conjure legal tender into thin air on one of the most unreliable systems, the borrower's promise.

But now that we've already built our society of so many years on this flawed system, we have no other choice but to ride it out until it collapses entirely. There's no certain way we can fix this immediate problem until we suffer a complete economic collapse and we're left with no other option but to build a new system.

The whole film was a cautionary talel; one that doesn't bode well for the future of America, or the world for that matter. I just hope we can solve the economic puzzle before it's too late.