Penultiment Media Meditation Analyization

Beep, beep, beep, beep. The first thing I hear in the morning or interact with is an alarm clock. I usually turn it off with my foot. After snoozing for a little bit I slide out of my lofted bed down to my chair where I check my email and news feeds. Using the internet is an integral part of planning my day. It is how I figure out what is happening in the world, not just in the actual world but also in the world of video games. It is my window in the world. The technological shift from news papers to websites really make the world news more accessible. After making sure it was time to head out to school I run down the stairs and hop on the bus. Since it is usually early in the morning I will stop at jazz-mans to grab a bagel and see what the monkeys in suits have to say about the news. After pausing to read the crawl at the bottom of the screen I am on my way to class. After class is over I usually head back to spinner. When I get back I throw my backpack on the ground and fire up one of my favorite games on the computer. After playing for awhile I might drive to a place to get something to eat, and I usually listen to NPR. Realizing I have a doctors appointment I drive over to it getting there a few minutes early, gazing at the magazines in the waiting room I think “man I am bored, I guess ill read one of these p.o.s.” After getting out of the dentists I head home, I drive past a bill board and its for a new movie coming out. Some bad action movie starting some shaved gorilla. I keep driving, I decide that I would rather hear what Harry Potter is up to so in goes the CD. Listening to disk 4 of Harry Potter and the half blood prince while driving made the long haul back from dentists tolerable. Once back to spinner I hit the books. Listening to my favorite bands while I work made my homework just fly by. Now its late, I set my alarm clock wondering about the significance of my media interactions for the day. I lean back and analyze each of my relationships with media outlets.

The internet is how I can keep up with the ever changing world around me. Using a verity of news sites and blogs I can figure out what is happening. The most trusted news distributor is definitely NPR.org which is the web version of national public radio. It gives a much needed independent and un-bias look at world events. Which is a breath of fresh air in this age of video news releases and persuasive techniques. The internet is almost the wild west, anyone can upload data the only places where the internet is censored are schools and libraries "The children's internet protection act of 2000 was passed and upheld in 2003 this act requires schools and libraries that receive federal funding for internet access to use software filters that blocks any visual content deemed obscene, pornographic, or harmful to minors, unless disabled at the request of adult users."(MC 62).You actually get the news not the opinion that so many news outlets cannot seem to cut out or are unwilling to cut out. I also use the internet to find out news about my favorite games. A favorite website is joystiq.com which is large blog which has contributes which talk about every thing from new releases to the politics of the game industry.

Depending on what day it is and my work load I might turn on a game and play for awhile. It could a heart pounding first person shooter, or maybe a more mellow game like a RPG like world of warcraft or a game from the fallout series. These games are a big part of my escapism from school and work, they make me relax but at the same time they can be very stress inducing. For example getting wrecked in an FPS like the call of duty series can usually ruin your good time. But at the same time doing really well in an FPS can make you feel really good and can be relaxing. The RPG is more of a time sink. "The newest part of web 2.0 is the virtual world of online role-playing games."(MC 54)They can speed up time, because time flies when you have fun, right? But usually games are good way to unwind and disconnect from facebook or the internet. You may ask “But you need the internet to play these games.” The answer is yes, but since they require attention you really cannot multitask while playing. Stimulating the limbic brain is important to me it also helps me work on focusing. It really allows you to just sit back and focus on one thing. I would compare it to reading a book. Yeah you can text and check face book while reading it, but you really don’t get the full value or entertainment value from it if you multitask.

When I was kid my favorite thing used to be listening to Morning addition on WNYC which was the local NPR broadcasting station in New York City and its outlying suburbs. NPR started in the 60's "They were mandated to provided alternatives to commercial broadcasting. Now, NPR's popular news and interview programs draw three to four million listeners." (MC 132).I would listen to it every chance I got which was almost every car ride anywhere. It is almost a reverse technological shift, being able to find the news on TV or the internet, but id rather hear it on the radio. Maybe my limbic brain likes sound more than pictures I did not have a real musical taste until I was in high school, it really did not interest me. Its really interesting because it was structured like how TV news was in the 60's and 70's which was there was an hour of news a night and they needed to report the important things then and if you wanted more obscure stories you had to buy a paper. NPR has news they report between 6am-9am and then from about 6-8:30pm at night. That is when they report the news. Between that is the opinion pieces and shows that bring attention to local events, it is a vocal news paper.

I really dislike television, I really don’t watch it any more since coming to college. I feel like it really only is good at one thing showing sports. Which is a good thing since not everyone can go see their favorite team. I will admit there are some good TV shows such as Walking Dead, or 30 Rock but these are two shows out of an innumerable amount. I feel that everything else on TV is garbage, especially the news outlets. The TV news has become far to polarized "...Is the increasingly influential role of television in our national political lives."(MC 179). It is just a bastardized quest for ratings. It does not matter their political affiliation whether it is Fox, CNN, MSNBC, it does not matter. They really give face time to news stories that really do not affect any anyone. Mentioned earlier the crawl should be what they report on. I remember watching CNN for a little bit while at Jazz-mans cafe getting my breakfast. The hosts of the show were talking about a man who taught their dog to pray at the dinner table. While they crawl went by reporting a train bombing, a natural disaster in Burma, and some other generally more interesting and informative topics than a dog praying.

Sound recording/music is really the only way I can get work done. I love listening to good music while I write a paper. For instance I am currently listening to Dethklok, Dethablum 1. Music really tunes out the background noise and replaces it with noise that I can easily work with. Instead of having to listen to people talk, passing cars, television, or any other distractions I can put on music I find help me work harder. Usually it will be some sort of metal or hard rock a few favorites are Disturbed, Dethklok, The Offspring, and System of a Down. Metal seems to be still stuck in the historical trend of banned music "Through out history, popular music has been banned by parents, school officials, and even governments under the guise of protecting young people from corrupting influences."(MC 73). So many people think that they preach death and destruction but from what I understand many heavy metal bands actually like to play into the stereotype that they want people to become violent killers. Dethklok is a great example they have songs about murder but the lyrics(if you can understand them) make it a lot more lighthearted. I don’t know what it is about this music but it helps me focus on any task. But I also enjoy other kinds of music. I really do not know how to describe it I guess it would be classified as orchestral music, but not classical. An example is the soundtrack from the movie avatar.

Books...suck. I love the stories but the way books communicate with me just does not make me enjoy the experience. Actually having dyslexia and ADD effected my interest and ability in reading. The audio book seemed to be too good to be true when I listened to my first one. By being able to shut my eye but still be reading really opened my mind to imagination. Being able to envision the story as it unfolded really made me enjoy the story. The only paper books i can stand reading are comic books and graphic novels. The pictures go along way in helping me understand what is going on. These books are the descendants of the dime novels of the 1800's by no means are these a niche market in "By 1870 dime novels had sold seven million copies and by 1885 one third of all books published in the US were popular paperbacks and dime novels."(MC 319) This was in the 1800's now i cannot even imagine the numbers sold and the number of printed books. There seems to be a common thread between a lot of these media. The limbic Brain loves being stimulated and I love to stimulate it. It really can make a book come alive, since I am not shackled by sight I can really visualize what is happened really well. The downside of audio books is that the neocortex usually remains unstimulated by audio books so you are not analyzing what you listen to you are merely listening without hearing.

90% of movies are bad. "Hollywood may be the only industry that makes more money dumping failed products abroad than it does marketing successful ones at home."(MC 238). Which makes total sense. Our only true export in the new melineum is war and bad movies."(MC 238). The 10% of “Good movies” only about 4% are actually movies I would go see and of that 4% only about a half of a % are movies I would actually consider

good. I'm really picky about movies. I like action movies but most of the time they suck, the expendables is a perfect example. In the last year I have only really liked two movies and by that I mean I would watch them again within a short amount of time and enjoy it every time. The two movies were Avatar,

and Watchman, both of these movies just blew me away. Avatar was visually tremendous, musically brilliant and the world it was able to create makes me sorely wish that it was real. The plot for Watchman really changed the way I look at truth and justice and it really took the innocence away from super heroes. It really portrayed them as deeply troubled people that have the responsibility of the world on their shoulders.

Magazines serve an interesting role in media culture. They exist to serve a niche market, and only to serve them. Unlike a paper like the new york times they offer open bias and only cover topics of relevance to the title of the magazine. Parenting magazines are about parenting, gaming magazines are about gaming. They will even target races with magazines "...Johnson and a small group of editors to start Ebony, a picture text magazine modeled on Life but serving black readers."(MC 300).They serve to give me a periodic look at the state of the world of the topic they are printed on. They are not as flexible as a website, but they offer more in-depth articles than a TV can bring to you. The only two types of magazines I enjoy reading are magazines about video gaming, and national geographic. The game informer is my magazine of choice when it comes to video game news. I like the format of the magazine and the writers. Natgeo is just a great magazine to read in general, it really allows you to get close to the natural vistas of the world and the breathtaking photography isn't to bad either.

Newspapers have an important role in disseminating information. "As chroniclers of daily life, newspapers both inform and entertain. By reporting on scientific, technological, and medical issues, newspapers disseminate specialized knowledge to the public."(MC 249) They are the last bastion of truth in the United States. In particular the New York Times has a reputation for challenging the government. Publishing controversial material including the pentagon papers, things about water gate, and currently the cables published by Wiki-leaks. They are given the materials to publish the truth they show they are true Americans by exercising regularly the right to freedom of press. They will be the only news paper I ever trust to deliver me the news. They tell the truth, and you cannot ask for more from a news paper.

My relationship with the eight forms of media is interesting. I will accept nothing less than truth and unbiased reporting in my news. But I still enjoy the bias of magazines and some websites. My limbic brain loves being stimulated over both the neocortex and the reptilian brain. I very much believe in government work to suppress the media and that only a few new outlets have remained free to report the news. Besieged on all sides by critics, propaganda, public relations, and misinformation they are still able to tell me whats going on without fear of reprisal from the government.

Source of images listed in order presented.

http://scientopia.org/blogs/scicurious/

http://encefalus.com/cognitive/proof-videogames-smart-2/

http://www.amoeba.com/blog/2008/09/eric-s-blog/the-death-of-old-time-radio.html

http://www.blackseanews.com/2010/03/16/russian-demonstrators-burn-ukrainian-books-in-crimea-tv-report-transcript/

http://www.sliceofscifi.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/watchmen_poster2.jpg

http://www.realbollywood.com/news/2010/08/the-expendables-good-action-film-ians-movie-review.html

http://www.buymagazinesonline.co.uk/

http://www.historycommons.org/timeline.jsp?timeline=civilliberties&civilliberties_privacy=civilliberties_privacy