Response to Joey's Blog

I think that in his response to the magazine lecture, Joey made a really good point about how much pictures add to a story. When a writer puts pictures into a story, it can provide so much more understanding for the reader because it gives them a visual of what the story is about. It adds so much more information and can help immensely if you don't have the ability to read. 

Check out Joey's response at: http://schusterpost.blogspot.com/2015/10/magazines.html?m=1

Response to Maggie's Blog

I Maggie made really good point in her response to the lecture about recorded music. She talked about how whether or not we realize it, music is probably a very large part of our regular routine. Which is so true! I think most people today would have a hard time thinking about a world without music but Maggie also talked about how before the recording technology we have today was developed, people probably didn't think about music the way we do now. It was probably a very small part of people's lives compared to what is it now. I never thought about this, but when I do, I find it really interesting. 

Check out her response at: http://moderatleymaggie.blogspot.com/2015/10/recording-technology.html?m=1

Radios

I found the lecture on radio very interesting. What I found most interesting was how soap operas originated on radio. Today, when most people think of soap operas, they think of really overly dramatic shows on TV. I found is so cool that they actually started on radio and why they're called soap operas was really interesting to me too. Soap operas are called soap operas because they were radio dramas that were mainly sponsored by soap companies. The original target was to housewives. I think this further proves a point that I previously talked about in a response to someone else's blog about how from its golden age to now, our perceptions of what radio was then and is now have changed dramatically as well as all of the things that have come as a result of radio. 

WLKY Media Critique

When looking at WLKY's website to see what was happening in Louisville, I immediately clicked on the tab that read "Top Stories" thinking that it would have the most important, most recent stories published. As soon as I got to the page, I was interested to see that one of their top stories was an article on a UK Football game. Initially it surprised me because I was not on the sports page and it was the only sports story listed. After reading the article, it clearly violates the yardstick of making the important interesting rather than the interesting important. The entire article mainly covers how the outcome of the upcoming football game could be important in proving they are not an underdog team and helping to unite programs. This story is not newsworthy yet is made important by WLKY. The content of the article does not describe an event that could affect a very large group of people for a large amount of time. It is not a story that should be published where it is. It is interesting and important to people who care about sports, more specifically UK sports, but is irrelevant to those who don't and therefore should not be made as important as it being made. 

Check out the article at: http://m.wlky.com/sports/lachlan-mclean-tennessee-game-important-measuring-stick-for-uk/36142390

Response to Piper's Blog

I think Piper made a really interesting point in her response to the radio lecture about connecting new radio with old radio. With the demassification of radio due to television and the Internet our perception of what radio initially was is completely different. I think it was really cool that she listened to the radio station Mr. Miller talked about and observed the obvious difference between new and old radio. Today, radio holds the upper hand in recorded music, which is why they are still as successful as they are. But initially, it was a large source of advertising and mainly talk shows. Of course, even on today's radio there are plenty of all three but I think it's interesting to think about what people use to expect when they turned on the radio when it was in its golden age, and what we expect when we turn it on now. 

Check out Piper's Blog Post at http://thenewpipertimes.blogspot.com/2015/10/radio.html?m=1

WLKY Observation

Since we started the news project, I had been expecting to see lots of coverage on the elections, other politics and bigger things affecting our nation as a whole. I was WLKY at 5:30 and there have been few to no stories about the election or other politics. As a local news station, WLKY focuses highly on crime and human interest stories. One might think with elections coming up and there still being soldiers serving our nation overseas, there would be more stories about event pertaining to these things. But for WLKY, that is not the case. The more I've watched and noticed this, it really surprises me because I didn't think that because the station was local there would be any less coverage on such topics compared to national news networks. 

Movies

During the movie lecture, I found it interesting how movies revolutionized mass communication by the immersive experience they provide. I never really noticed how much the large screen, surround sound, comfortable chairs, and dark lighting affects a person when watching a movie. It influences them and makes the experience sedentary and immersive. It's relaxing and easy, you don't have to think about anything. I also found really interesting how successful movies theaters are because of the fact that it has become a social event. Before the lecture, I think I thought of it as more of the other way around like "the movies are cool so we should hang out there" rather than "the movies are cool because we hang out there." I think the way the ideas were presented were good and I learned a lot from this lecture.

Television

After learning about multiple forms of mass communication and media, it seems that overtime no matter how popular the medium is at the height of the golden age, it eventually will demassify because of some new innovation that has become more popular. After hearing the television lecture, I see how true this was even for a medium like TV, which swept the world off its feet. At the height of its golden age, TV seemed unstoppable. It was more common in homes than plumbing. Television was taking the world by storm. It had taken everything everyone loved about radio, and put it into a viewing form. Television survived a long period of time but with the invention of the Internet, even television is starting to demassify so it doesn't lose all of its audiences.

Mass Communication

I think that the initial lecture on mass communication and the concept of it was really good. It was well given in the sense that it was very clear, understandable and I learned a lot.
I never realized how many stages something had to go through to reach the ultimate for of mass communication and I never realized what the factors that made something mass communication were. For something to be mass communication, it has to have the potential to reach a mass audience, has to travel through time and space without the creator, has to have distance, and can't receive any immediate feedback. I never realized that many things you may think of as mass communication actually aren't because they don't fit one or more of the criteria. I also found it very interesting how many things can interrupt the mass communication process. Things we may not even think about every day when we are trying to process information.

CNN Media Critique

For many years, CNN News Network has been a big source of current events for people across the country. Despite all this, the network has some bad habits when reporting stories that break some of the key elements of journalism. As a network, CNN has a tendency to make the interesting important rather than the important interesting and they often do large coverage on stories that aren't newsworthy.
For example, they recently ran a poll inquiring about people's fews with the county's deal with Iran. On the internet, the network posted the full story will all results of the polls but on air, they majorly downplayed the portion of America that is against the deal and only kept major updates on the portion that is in favor of the deal.
They also recently published an article regarding the Republican debate but it in fact had nothing to do with the debate. The network asked Iranians what they knew and thought about some of the prominent presidential republican candidates. The entire article was making interesting information important information despite the fact that it isn't and they then put it on their top stories page even though it is not newsworthy information because it does not affect a large amount of people for a long time.
CNN could potentially fix their problem by making a separate page on their website that is for stories that pertain more to interesting information rather than important information. The company also needs to be sure that their stories are matching on air and on their website so it doesn't look biased in any way.
If the company can make the adjustments needed, it could be a representative of good journalism but it first needs to make these adjustments so that it stop breaking two of major elements of journalism.

Find articles at: http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/13/politics/iran-nuclear-deal-poll/index.html
http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/17/politics/republican-debate-iran-photos/index.html

Conglomeration

I think that the concept of conglomeration in and of itself is very interesting. Before the lecture, I didn't realize how many companies own other companies that are so different. For example, Disney owns so many other companies like ESPN and ABC. I find it interesting how many effect it can have on the customers and the companies. Conglomerations help companies financially and increases efficiency while it helps customers because there is so much pop culture and the things you love to see are on over and over again.
I think that Mr. Miller did an excellent job on explaining it in an in depth way that made sense to everyone in the room. Overall, conglomerations are slightly more beneficial to companies rather than customers but they can be beneficial to both. I think that the conglomeration lecture was well done and understandable.

Books and the Printing Press

Out of all the lectures so far, I feel like I personally have learned the most from the one on books. I already knew that they intention of the printing press was one of the most important and impactful inventions of all time, but I didn't know how many thing besides books we wouldn't have today or wouldn't have had until much later on. For example there would be lower literacy rates, possibly no public education, no standardized language, etc. These are just a few of the things that were made possible thanks to books and the printing press. As a whole, the books lecture was very interesting and helpful.

Response to Wesley's Blog

I think that Wesley's response to the lecture on Gutenburg and the printing press was well written and made a good point about how young people today would probably never think about that as the most important invention in the world or it being the gateway to the world of mass communication.
If you were to ask many people my age today what the most important invention in history was, most people would probably say the internet. But after hearing the lecture on Gutenburg and how everything in the realm of mass communication, wouldn't exist. The development of all the innovations we have today would be much slower and many things may not have happened at all. I think Wesley made a great point about what she learned from the lecture when looking at it from the perspective of a typical teenager in today's society.

Read Wesley's post at http://www.wesizzle.blogspot.com

Response to Cameron's Blog

I think that Cameron made a really good point on her response to the lecture on hot and cool binary models. I agree with her completely that as, I too, often listen to music while doing my school work, I never think about the fact that I can listen to the music and still focus on my task because it is a cool medium. But the moment I try to sing along with a song while doing my work, it becomes harder to focus because although music is a cool medium, it becomes more of a hot medium as I try to sing along with a song. An example of a hot medium is a book because when reading a book, you have to be fully engaged to be able to follow along and know what is going on.
I think as a whole, the lecture on binary models was very interesting and I learned a lot about how each model plays into journalism or communications today. I think that Cameron made a really nice comment/example about how listening to music when we work is an example of a cool medium that isn't really noticed until you know about it.

Read Cameron's post at: http://www.cameronsjournalismblogs.blogspot.com

Magazines

When we began the lecture on magazines, I thought that it would be similar to the newspaper lecture in that there would be lots of dates and facts. I was surprised at how much I didn't know about magazines and found the lecture very interesting and intriguing. The most interesting thing that I learned was that magazines were the first national medium in form of mass communication. I didn't realize how much more impactful magazines had the power to be in contrast to newspapers during the same time period, especially after the innovation of photojournalism. The amount of power that they had from seemly simple innovations to intrigue larger audiences, fascinated me.
When magazines began to use photojournalism, the audience they could reach grew rapidly. It allowed them to communicate news with alliterate and illiterate people through pictures. While magazines were using it to reach larger audiences as well as using the technological advances of printing to reach audiences nationwide, newspapers were still contained within cities and occasionally states.
Eventually, magazines had to demassify due to the spread of T.V. but at the height of its era, magazines were using new innovations to rule the world of mass communication.