Blog 15

Fernando Torres

Mass Media

Dr. Louis Lucca

April 29 2010

Is television a reflection of us? Or are we a reflection of what tv portrays? Violence on television, brutality in movies, aggressive and offensive lyrics in music is seen and heard everyday but are we becoming more violent or are we just continuing this up and coming cycle that has become extremely popular in this generation? Throughout this paper we will explore how tv and other sources of media has exposed us to many truths of other people and has become a main concern of promoting violence.

Television, from birth, has always reflected our society. However, what part of society is it truly reflecting? Popular shows from the 1950’s depicted the “perfect” family image, but was a perfect family back then? Most of television owners in the 50’s were white and relatively well established. But what about the flipside of the 1950’s culture?

The United States, a melting pot of cultures, is not limited to just the white American. Minorities were not considered to be apart of society, therefore they were not represented in media. Now however, most cultures are represented in American media. Because this generation has become more exposed to other cultures and ideologies we are witnesses to other forms of struggles and lifestyles. The changes in American media also gave insight to a deeper and more complex look on the white American experience that wasn’t viewed before. Once tv shifted towards a realistic reflection of all cultures in America, viewers were exposed to a more truthful and not so picture perfect image of life.

“Reality” shows such as The Real World showcase a group of individuals facing preset “real life” situations. The show intentionally places individuals whom they might not otherwise associate with, and whom might be at odds. In many occasions, the show’s characters become very physical with each other through acts of sex, violence and addictions. The show grew very popular in the 90‘s for portraying conflict and clashes different ethnic groups.

Could violence on tv be a reflection of our suppressed primitive instincts? The more evolved we are the more civilized we’re supposed to be - but aren’t we animals after all? Television touches upon all our suppressed instincts and inner thoughts. It reflects our fantasy of being superior through the primal violent impulse we have learned to restrain throughout the centuries.

Our culture has repressed so much of the violent tendencies by expecting us to be more civilized, yet everything around is based on violence. Our entertainment culture is driven by competitiveness, deceit, lies and violence is often a result of these things. According to the article “Has TV changed Bhutan?” on BBC News Online it discusses how TV affects humans. Within just five years of King Jigme Singye Wangchuck’s introduction of Televisions and the internet Bhutan, being the last nation in the world to turn on a television, have experienced crimes. Many Bhutanese blame the introduction of televisions for the cause of the crimes however others argue that this can not be entirely true being that seventy percent of the country live without electricity yet alone televisions.

Another example of human tendencies towards violence are the multiple Law & Order series. Although these shows aren’t directly showing violence, their showing death as a result of it.

Along with this, documentaries such as Lockup: Raw and Gangland show’s the consequences of violence and how it affects not only the individual who’s violent but the those who are victimized. These shows can desensitize the viewer to death and it’s complexities. It’s second nature for these individuals to consider violence as the main source of their livelihood. Their explanation for participating in such acts goes back to survival of the fittest. Some of the gang members who are now reformed get into the whole concept that an act or multiple acts of violence is a way of proving themselves to the group they are trying to get into. There’s no sense of consciousness or guilt for what they performed because these acts of violence are just a normal part of their psychological reasoning. Their power comes from the fact that they all find comfort in packs. This pack mentality is very similar to how the animal kingdom works and how family is united and protect one another at all cause. Gang life and it’s violence is also portrayed in film.

Overly violent films such as Scarface and The Godfather play on these instincts by focusing on the release of violent and angry energy. We tend to watch things that can relate to us. Watching a sad film can make us very depressed if we are going through a tough time as well as watching a comedy to make us laugh. We rely on television or movies to act violent for us in times when we can’t. Quentin Tarantino is a director who specializes in gory films. In his recent film Inglorious Bastards, their were many graphic scenes at points where you saw a baseball beating and scalping of the mans head. Also in the fire scene, you see how one man shoots another in the face repeatedly and the skin is lifted off the face. Tarantino has proved that as a director he speaks to the audience’s more primitive nature. Violence in America sells. The most violent films have been great box sellers. Training Day sold over 76 million, Silence of the Lambs sold over 130 million and The Godfather sold more than 133 million in movie theaters. Soundtracks to feature films can also have violent music that relates to the film.

Music has a capacity to persuade us into whatever emotion it wants us to feel. The instrumentation, the pace, the bass and the rise and fall of the music creates an atmosphere for the listener. Depending the genre, music can shift the listener from one set of emotion to another. Rock music contains a fast or deeper tempo in their songs. Also, the typical image for the artists playing this music is very dark. People who listen to this type of music could be effected negatively and those who may have a weaker tolerance may find music to trigger their violence. The Columbine High School Massacre was a pure example on how music contributed to an act of violence. Although, music can not be fully responsible for the act.

Politically themed groups can also add fuel to an already existing fire. Rage Against The Machines is a popular communist band in the United States. Many of their songs consist of screaming and powerfully moving lyrics which can push the audience in a specific direction. Other bands have strong song titles such as The Dead Kennedys, an early punk 70’s group, have two songs called “I kill children” and “I kill the poor”.

Trends in video games have become recently violent. Violence has become more interactive and realistic. In his article Regulating Video Games: Parents or Uncle Sam?, Adam D. Thierer states:

“Long before ‘Pong’ and ‘Pac-Man’ revolutionized the world of children's entertainment, kids found many ways to play interactive games that included violent themes, such as ‘Cops and Robbers’ or ‘Cowboys and Indians.’”

Violence in children is not a new concept. The imagination of children has always contained a level of violence. The games in this generation are just pushing violence further into the child mentality. A recent article on The Wall Street Journal .com directly speaks about California’s battle against violent material and children:

“California said violent videogames harmed minors psychologically and made them more likely to exhibit violent antisocial or aggressive behavior. The state also said that industry self-regulation was a failure.” (Kendall)

Children enjoy these violent games because they are fantasy but many of these games show real life situations and show real life guns so children take these acts lightly and transfer them to real life, reenacting them with the thought of it being right. According to the article 10 Most Violent Games Named by Brendan Sinclair, he lists the ten most violent games and the top three listed were Resident Evil 4, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and God of War. These games offer a variety of brutal acts that can potentially lead to cruel and aggressive behavior in the real world. When children become tired of playing these games they might go on to seeing a movie or turning on the television and these violent images become a part of their lives and it’s what they expect out of these mediums in the end. When children turn to another form of media such as tv, they are bombarded with images equally as disturbing as those of the video games.

Humans are in constant search for satisfaction and if these mediums provide what we’re lacking or desires then we will continue to worship television by cable, the internet, going to the movies, playing video games and listening to censored music. It’s much like the question “Which came first the chicken or the egg?”. In some instances television is a reflection of our inner desires. Television might reflect on certain groups of people and certain groups of people might reflect television, they both might come hand in hand. As long as there’s something that can mirror our society there will always be a reflection of what we long for or what we hide subconsciously.



Work Cited

1. BBC News, “Has TV changed Bhutan?”. Entertainment. BBC News Online, 17 June 2004. Web

2. Box Office Mojo. “The Godfather”. Movies A-Z. IMDb, April 2010

3. Box Office Mojo. “The Silence of the Lambs”. Movies A-Z. IMDb, April 2010

4. Box Office Mojo. “Training Day”. Movies A-Z. IMDb, April 2010

5. Kendall, Brent. “High Court to Hear Videogame Case“. Technology. The Wall Street Journal, 26 April 2010. Web

6. Thierer, Adam D., “Regulating Video Games: Parents or Uncle Sam?”. Individual Liberty, Free Markets and Peace, CATO Institute, 14 July 2003.Web

7. Yahoo! “ 10 most violent games named.” Video Game News Online. Yahoo!, November 2005. Web

Blog 14

I am trying to figure out an intresting argument for the film " Sunrise". I've been rewatching the movie over and over again and i'm trying to find a creative point. Tonight I will finish putting together the entire paper

Blog 13: Sunrise Draft

Not Finished! Really messy!
In this paper I will demonstrate how the actors
Acting style:
The wife:
The actress, who plays the wife, had these very sad loving eyes. Her eyes just broke me down in every scene because they’re so expressive and convey all of the emotions she is feeling with just one stare. She is so eager to get just any bit of attention from her husband. She portrays naturalistic gestures throughout the whole film and in one scene where the husband takes the wife on a boat trip and the husband returns the dog back to shore. Her face is priceless and she becomes sad again because their moment was interrupted. She looks down at her hands and starts to then realizes something was eerie and you can see her rise to get up but her husband had already came back.
The husband:
Since we first saw the husband he seemed unhappy and sad. The scene in the house where he is indecisive about leaving to see the mistress is a good scene. He has one hand in his pocket and The other is rubbing the back of his neck.
Editing:
The city shots behind the husband.
When the mistress and the husband were in the moonlight woods and images of the city and lights and a band playing shows above them.
When he asks the wife to go on the boat trip and visual of him pushing her of the boat and drowning her
Also while he was sitting he in visions the mistress caressing him and just there
F. W. Murnau

Blog 12

Searching, reading & more searching!
I've spent the time in class to collect my ideas and understand what I'm reading online and from different articles. I've been trying to see what issue or argument I can put on each page of the essay and I haven't finished that yet but once I have, which will be done by the next class time or tonight, I'll be able to focus entirely on getting the facts and fill in the pages. The only problem i might be habing is organizing what i want to come first or last. I'll be able to set it up better once I've gotten all the informtion.

Blog 11

My main goal for today was to focus on researching more on my claim. I want to strengthen my opinions with facts and I want to really get into this. I want to search as many sites and documents as I can. I took the library time to do just that! I looked into the different websites to back my claim up with religion and psychology. I emailed links to myself on my email and I’ll continue to read and find more information tonight and further during the week. For the next class I should be able to have my claim and have enough facts to convince myself that this is the side I want to stand by and argue about.

Blog 3: The Truman Show

The Truman Show was a great film about the life of a man named Truman who had been controlled and lived in a "safe" and fantasy world his whole life. Seahaven was the place where he had lived all of his life. He trusted that place until something his father who had "died" in the film came back as a extra and Truman spotted him and all went wrong and Truman discovered the truth that Seahaven wasn't exactly what he thought it was. If I were to find out that my whole life I had been living a false life and that everyone and everything around me was fake and i had absolutely no control in the decisions i made i would definitely want to enter into the other world. I'd like to have a choice. Whether or not the choice would be right and if i would completely dislike the other world or the real world, I'd know that the decision was mine. It would be exciting but frightening at the same time. I'd be entering a world where I don't know anyone or anything. I'd have to start from scratch. I know I'd leave to the other world. Having spent my whole life living someone else's life I'd want to take the risk to see if i was strong enough to survive on my own and to teach myself new things and be able to understand the world.
I feel that Truman will be overwhelmed shocked by the drastic difference between his happy fantasy land world and our cruel and dark world. All over the world you'll find that their are good people and bad and each and every single one of them will have an affect on you. He'll realize that not all people are friendly or honest or dishonest. That theirs crimes and scandals and non of us are perfect and that we are all sinners. I don't doubt that he wont make it but i know it'll be hard for him at first to adjust and understand what is truly real. Truman had knew all of the people in his neighborhood and he had his routine. He will try and look for all of these things in the new world and believe that anything he's seen in Seahaven will work the same in the new world. He'll definitely be more cautious, not be able to trust anything at first or for a while.

Blog 2: The Allegory Of The Cave

The allegory to the cave is a fictional story, written by the Greek philosopher Plato in the book called The Republic, where he writes a dialogue between his teacher Socrates and Plato's brother Glaucon to show the ways in which we believe and perceive in what is reality. The story takes place in a cave, where he imagines a group of prisoners who have lived and been chained, arms and legs held and chained in place, in that cave for almost their whole lives. These group of people face a blank wall and watch shadows made by things that pass in front of a fire behind them. They make stories and assumptions to what they believe is going on behind the fire. The people making the shadows are using wooden and iron objects to cause these images. They believe that these shadows and sounds that they see and hear are in fact real because that is all they've seen and heard. Socrates adds that if one prisoner is set free that he would not recognize these objects if seen in reality and that the prisoner will view the real truth as aching and would want to go back to the shadows and images they've been so comfortable seeing all this time. Now accepting the fact that these shadows aren't true the prisoner is forced to step out of the cave and be face to face with the sun. The prisoner would now try to recognize the shadow and its reflections as he has done his whole life from the wall. Eventually he will adjust to the sunlight and be aware his surroundings and realize that the sun has much to do with everything around him and that he is finally aware of truth and reality. He will understand the truth and return to the cave from where he lived all of his life. The other prisoners will laugh and judge because they cannot imagine anything beyond the wall and its shadows. So at this point, the freed prisoner represents a leader. He becomes the leader because he can see better than the rest because he's lived it and is now able to lead and govern with truth and goodness. He is expected to take care of them and educate them.

Blog 1

Fernando Torres
Dr. Smith
English 101/103

The men and women in the early 1900’s would be overwhelmed by so much technology. We’ve advanced so much, and we still continue to, over the years in the media. With everything around us changing, ex. music, art, transportation, everything is modernized now a lot because of technology. Technology can be seen, used today, in medicine, sports, the military and art. From the time I was born until now we’ve seen some drastic changes in electronics. Phones are more popular than ever, now carrying internet and some even give you the chance to watch live TV on it. Phones originally were meant to call and just be able to contact someone if they lived far away or if was urgent. Now it seems like more and more people are texting and fewer calls are being made.
You can access and do just about anything on the internet. Certain popular websites such as Ebay and Amazon let you shop and sell anything and everything on it. Customers bid on items and try to top the next one’s price. Google and other search engines have become extremely important in finding anything you’re looking for. Downloading music has been at its highest because of amazing products being made by companies such as Apple and Sony. Apple has launched the iphone and ipod which both sold millions in the few months it debuted. Technology is getting faster and better and is controlling almost everything in our daily lives that we don’t even notice. These would be called social cyborgs. A cyborg is a cybernetic organism that has both natural and artificial systems. We’ve seen examples of this in famous movies such as the matrix, the terminator and blade runner. This gives us the idea of having a man be robotic or have machinery components or that of a machine having human and natural qualities.
There is no doubt in my mind that everything around us is becoming more technological, but I wouldn’t go as far to say that we are becoming cyborgs. I agree, naturally we have adjusted ourselves to a more high tech and socially cyborg environment, although some of us participate in these activities we are aware of what we’re doing. Some choose to not have cell phones and use the internet or anything modern in that sense. Also, in medicine or sports, athletes who lose a body part have the option of using steroids to enhance and recreate their body. They have willingly chosen to take this and at times it’s necessary to take these forms of drugs to help you recover from an accident or sickness. Athletes who lose an arm or leg have the option of getting a prosthetic leg or arm replacement. It may be that one day the world will completely be controlled by computers or a higher technological device and humans will be ruled by it and future humans will be born as cyborgs, but as of now we’re free.