Comm 300: Procrastination

I knew it was going to happen, I just never realized that it would happen this quickly. Perhaps its because I'm a senior and I am sooo ready to be done with the school thing already. But, this week was terrible for me in getting all of my work done.
Though, I find that leaving the postings on Discussion Board till Wednesday was not as terrible as I might have thought it would be. The last online class I had there were about ten thousands posts made everyday. It's very nice that this one is much less dense.
But of course talking about procrastinating reminds me of the projects. I'm such a dork, but I really want to do something about the televised elections of black political leaders. I'm not talking about Obama though. What I really want to do it on is someone like Harold Washington. That NPR thing really got to me. I'd love to see a black mayor who was elected twice in a row and lived through it and compare and contrast between each election run. It would be interesting to do a comparison between black political leaders from different parts of the country. See if the south televises the candidates any differently... hmmm I'm gonna have a lot of thinking to do

Comm 229: CSI MIAMI

I remember watching this show for the first time and I absolutely hated it. And so, I was a bit leery about having to watch two episodes of this CSI that I don't care for. I am in love with the Las Vegas division however.
But, much to my surprise I really liked both episodes. I enjoyed how they had the first ever episode tie in so nicely with the Las Vegas CSI. I have never watched season openers ever before, so it was really neat watching them introduce the themes that we are going to be seeing in later MIAMI shows. For example, whenever I turn on CSI: Miami, I swear that that Eric kid is in the water. I never realized that the water was so nasty though, talking about taking antibiotics.
Though, I'm still left hanging about what exactly happens when honey comes into contact with plastic wrap.

Comm 300: American Life

This was the first time I have ever listened to the NPR radio, and I was really impressed. I was really interested in the first point that the host brought up in his introduction, when he was talking about the qualities of Harold Washington. He described Harold in almost the same terms that Cornel West describes a good black leader.
Harold Washington was an amazing speaker, it was so great to hear a politician speak the truth about the situation in certain parts of the neighborhood. It was fantastic how he was able to wipe the floor with the other two candidates. Excellent speaker.

Comm 229: The Power of Books

I find it interesting that I have been subjected to the media through books and have actually sucked up what they were telling me. The most recent episode of this was a few months back when I went on a Romance novel kick. The books were mostly o.k. they got pretty predictable after a while, but I was hooked. I remember putting one of these romance novels down and thinking about why my boyfriend wasn't able to be as perfect as the man in the book. I mean if she can have it so can I.
I eventually decided against reading Romance novels because I figured they were a bad influence. More recently I've come to the realization that my boyfriend has been greatly impacted by The Belgariad. I was rereading it the other day and there was a life lesson in there and I realized that he had adopted almost all of the lessons that were contained within the book.

Comm 229: Outfoxxed

This was the first time I have watched this video in its entirety. I had seen bits and pieces of it, but I never realized what movie it came from. I really enjoyed it, I thought that it was well done, and very very enlightening. I couldn't believe how O'Reilly treated the Glick kid. Almost a year later and O'Reilly was still bashing him.
So, since I've seen this film and have had my eyes opened to a very interesting aspect of the Fox news network I wanted to share my knowledge. I had my chance at my Grandmother's birthday party. Somehow we got talking about the news and so I eagerly explained to everyone how Fox news tells its reporters what to say and how to say it. Holy crap, it was like I had told them I created the nuclear bomb. They all went off, and do you know why??? Because every single one of them watches the Fox News Network. They all got sucked into it, and wouldn't even listen to what I had to say.

Comm 300: Old Shows

I watched an episode of The Cosby Show. It must have been a bad one "Play it Again, Russell" because I couldn't focus on it. Though, while watching it I realized that Cosby was acting as Cliff the way that he tells his jokes. I just thought that was really interesting.
Watching this show has made me think of other shows that Gray mentions in chapter four. Mostly, it got me thinking about cops. It's terrible, but bring me videos of white criminals that have done something other than drunk driving. Almost every other crime is committed by a person who is not white. Could you imagine what people would think of us if they only watched cops? Well hell, white people only really get drunk and drive around, occassionally beat their wives. Not too shabby. Those other guys though, they are the real trouble makers. Absolutely terrible. The worst part about it is that the media changes our perceptions of what's going on. I remember learning in an intro to criminal justice class that the rate of robberies had gone down. However, due to media coverage of robberies most people in the United States were under the impression that robberies were getting worse. Isn't that just dandy?

Comm 300: Semenya

So, there is more news about Caster Semenya and her test results. They are inconclusive. What this means to me is that they really wanted those test results to come back and say that actually she is a man, and can no longer run on the women's track. But, since that has not happened her results are going to be sent to a different lab for verification. They are going to be releasing her information in November.
I really hope that she comes back positive as a woman and that they apologize profusely to her. I think they are just pissed that she was able to kill on the 800 meter race.

Comm 229: Video Games

So, yesterday in a post I mentioned about how movies and media change due to the audience interaction. The audience wants to see something new and it is provided. But to get to my point...
My boyfriend just got Batman: Arkham Asylum. What's interesting about this video games is that it has incorporated parts of our everyday life into the video game. For instance, while Batman is running around the Asylum the monitors attached to the walls are continually playing an interview with one of the doctors. Except when the Joker has taken over the video monitors of course. What's really interesting is at the end of this interview it tells the viewer to go visit the Arkham Asylum website.
I just thought it was interesting that the video game has incorporated parts of our culture outside of the video game world. It makes the game that much more realistic... well as realistic as you can get with Batman.

Oh yeah, and the video game is awesome. Totally recommend it to anyone. I haven't played it yet, but I've watching Eric with it and I am dying to give it a try.

Comm 300: Gray's Book

I'm a bit disappointed with this book. Looking at the title "Watching Race" I thought that he was going to go into detail about how different shows are representing race in different ways. That type of stuff. Instead what I got was a long discussion about the politics and intrigue behind some of the shows. Not at all what I wanted or expected. It's not that I don't like the book... it's just that I don't want to read it. I find it a bit dry and boring. I wanted television shows to be analyzed by him, but maybe I haven't gotten far enough in it?

Comm 229: The Unborn

Allright, so I am officially upset about The Unborn. It wasn't all that great, and you could call every scary moment before it started. What happened to good horror movies? The ones that really scared you and made you terrified to sleep in the dark??
An interesting point however is that everyone at my house watching this movie knew what was going to happen. We all agreed that something terrible was going to happen just before it did. I find it interesting that horror movies haven't changed in so long that we all know what is going to happen before they happen. So, I am wondering now what director's are going to do to make horror movies scary again. The same old same old isn't going to work for very much longer. I don't want to see the same horror movie over and over again. I find it interesting how the movie industry must change because the audience gets bored with what they have seen. It makes me feel empowered, however little power I actually have.