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The Life, The Media, Of Zach Lewis

Image From: http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photo-media-icons-image10195870

Media is mass communications, “the process of designing cultural messages and stories and delivering them to large diverse audiences through different mediums.” (Media and Culture an Introduction to Mass Communication) When you drive down the street, walk around your house, hang out with your friends, media is everywhere. Our lives are becoming more and more media dominated. There are many mediums, TV, internet, radio, books, magazines, movies, music, the list goes on. The thing about media is that it is endless there will always be a new song, magazine, next top grossing movie. Constantly evolving becoming more eye catching and entertaining. Mediums are forms of communication which is “the creation and use of symbol systems that covey information and meaning.

Image From:http://www.artsjournal.com/bookdaddy/2008/07/

Books are one of the most popular mediums. They bring you into another world. You can fly in the sky on a dragon, fight an evil doer, or swim to the bottom of the ocean. Books are your ticket to anywhere and anything. Tuesdays with Morrie was the most recent book that I have read. I am not much of a reader because I am very picky about what books I read so it is hard to find a book I like. When I do find a book I like I will sit down and read for hours. It is a magical thing when you get into a book. “The film industry gets most of their ideas from books” (Media and Culture an Introduction to Mass Communication)

Media is in your life if you like it or not. “Dating back to the 1800’s, films have had a substantial social and cultural impact on society.” (Media and Culture an Introduction to Mass Communication) Movies are one of my favorite mediums,like books they bring you along on an adventure and will bring you into a new world. Some of my favorite movies are Saving Private Ryan, Forest Gump, and Billy Madison. Netflix is the best investment that I have ever made. They have thousands of movies to choose from. I will sit down at least once a day and watch a movie just to relax.

Television like movies uses motion pictures to convey a message or story. TV is used for many things. One thing Television is used for is to tell the public about things that are going on around the world. I learn most of my knowledge of current events through the television. “Since the 1960’s, broadcast journalism has consistently topped print news”. (Media and Culture an Introduction to Mass Communication) Since I came to college I haven’t been watching nearly as much TV as I used to. In just the 3 months that I have been away from home I have missed a lot of events that go on because TV was my favorite news medium. Recently I have been getting used to going online to find news related articles.

Image from:http://www.artsjournal.com/bookdaddy/2008/07/

Newspapers have been around for hundreds of years the first paper in America according to Media and Culture an Introduction to Mass Communication was, “Publick Occurrences Both Foreign and Domestic.” Personally I don’t read newspapers that often. When I do I look at the want ads and the comics I love the comic section, there are classics that have been around for years and new ones that are just as good. I normally read them when it is winter, sitting in front of my fireplace and spot it when I am crumpling up paper for a fire. My favorite comic that is printed in newspapers around me is Calvin and Hobbs.

Music is almost the exact opposite of a newspaper, it is spoken words or sounds that are said/made in rhythm to create a mood and tell a story. “The music that helps shape our identities and comfort us during the transition from childhood to adulthood resonates through our lives,” (Media and Culture an Introduction to Mass Communication) I live for music, for me it is something to calm you down if you are upset, something to fill silence and just an amazing thing. I carry my iPod around everywhere with at least one earphone in. I can never get enough music. I’m listening to music now and every time I write it puts me in the mood I can almost do anything listening to music.

I live with magazines; my dad has worked for magazines his entire professional carrier. When I am at my house at least once a day I see him working, it’s like a back stage pass to the magazine business. Countless times I have sat with him and watched him work and help out where I can. I will give him advice about a picture or what looks better on a page layout. I don’t read them much though I will occasionally flip through one at a store or at my house if I see a cover that interests me. Magazines always catch your eye, they have flashy covers, sexy ads, and beautiful people all over the cover. “We read magazines to learn something about our community, our nation, our world, and ourselves.” (Media and Culture an Introduction to Mass Communication)

Image from: http://www.wvpubcast.org/eclectopia.aspx

“Radio affects most people intimately, person-to-person, offering a world of unspoken communication between writer-speaker and listener. That is the immediate aspect of radio. A private experience.” (Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media, 1964) Cruz zing around in my car blasting Jammin 94.5 is something I do on the regular. I love music and the radio just makes it better. I didn’t have a radio for a while in my car; it really made me appreciate the convenience and importance of radio as a medium. I love listening to Romero and Pebbles on the radio. They are on in the mornings on Jammin 94.5, which is a hip-hop station. They are hilarious; they make everything fun and entertaining.

The internet is a medium that reaches across the world. For me the internet is just another part of life. I use it almost every day, to use e-mail, Facebook, look up a new song, find directions, or anything that you could think of. The internet has made us as people closer, we can stay connected. I keep in touch with my friends from back home through Facebook (or as Dr. Rob Williams would say “Crackbook”); I can see what they are up to and they can see what I’m up to. “In 2006 Facebook opened their doors to everyone; by 2008 they had 60 million users.” (Media and Culture an Introduction to Mass Communication) it’s a growing sensation!

Image from: http://elementaryexplorations.wikispaces.com/The+Art+of+21st+Century+Communication

From the creation of language humans have been advancing communication and make it easier to communicate with one another. Mediums are the results of this race to communicate. Our lives are consumed of switching from one medium to another to keep in contact with the rest of the world. If it’s reading book or listening to the new hit song on the radio, we all absorb media. Media is mass communications, “the process of designing cultural messages and stories and delivering them to large diverse audiences through different mediums.” (Media and Culture an Introduction to Mass Communication)

Silly Billy {media meditation #4}

The other day i watched the movie Billy Madison. I have seen this movie so many times. Adam Sandler is one of my favorite actors he is hilarious. I laugh at all the same jokes and it just keeps getting funnier. "O'Doyle Rules!" hahaha. I personalty believe that this movie deserves a 10 out of 10.



The best part was the field trip. Billy makes peeing your pants sound cool so all of the kids in his class decide to do it. He did it to help a boy in the class because he peed his pants and was embarrassed. Doing this Billy's teacher a very attractive woman starts to like Billy. I recommend seeing this movie if you haven't and if you have watch it again!

Where is my ipod!{media meditation #3}

I lost my iPod about a month and a half ago. I was riding the bus and had my iPod touch in my pocket. When I got to my room I couldn’t find it and the bus had left. My iPod was my life. When I found out that I lost it I was so upset. I asked everyone that I saw in my building if they had heard anything. My life seemed so dull. I love my music and always play it just walking around. It wasn’t just the music that I was upset about. I used the iPod for an alarm, I watch Netflix on it when I get bored in my apartment, and I play games when I’m waiting for something or on the bus to kill time the list just goes on.

The iPod touch is an amazing device. With over 250,000 apps there is an app for almost anything you could ever think of. My favorite app so far is the Netflix app. I love watching movies and TV shows on it when I’m just hanging out in my room or anywhere I get wireless internet. You can get an app to text friend’s cellphones through Wi-Fi. I use it when my phone is dead. I find more things it can do every day I was lost without it.

One day I was walking around on campus and I saw a guy from my apartment that I know but not very well. He came up to me and said “hey I found your iPod a month ago and didn’t know whose it was because it was dead. And the other day I got a charging cord from my friend and figured out it was yours when I plugged it in.” After a month of searching and asking around I got it back! It will never leave my pocket again, and by the way I’m listening to it right now.

Living in the South Shore, the greatest place on earth!

Image from South Shore Living.com

Thesis:

"Rabideau Publishing is multi-title publication company publishing magazines for those who love Cape Cod and the communities South of Boston ("The South Shore"). Titles include Cape Cod Magazine, South Shore Living magazine, Chatham Magazine, Cape Cod Guide and The Arts & Antiques Handbook."

http://www.ssliving.com/ under the About us page.

Five Facts:

1.) South Shore Livings top competitor is Cape Cod Life

2.)The magazine is about life style and activities that are going on around the south shore of Boston.

3.)The magazine company throws an event every year called "The Best of The South Shore"

4.)South Shore Living is published 10 times a year.

5.)My Dad worked with this magazine for multiple years

Triune Brain:

This magazine plays off of the limbic brain. It shows pictures of landscapes, houses, events and inspires a calm/amazed feeling when flipping through the pages. Also the magazine sparks activity in the neocortex, you have to actually read and process the text. Also it inspires thoughts about the south shore including questions and ideas.

8 Trends:

When talking about South Shore Living you could say that it reflects the economic shift, the publishing company has 5 magazines that are published on a regular basis. Also the magazines website has links for you to fallow them on face book and twitter linking it to the personal shift/trend.

7 Principles:

A principle of media that this magazine utilizes is emotional transfer. South Shore Living has an image of outdoors on almost every page. The pictures make you feel calm and play off your emotions.

Techniques-words and images to construct an image to get a story, or message across.

29 Persuasive Techniques:

The most used persuasive techniques in South Shore Living is testimonials, plain folks, and nostalgia. When on the subject of restraint reviews or any review they use quotes from people that always eat there or go to the place they writing about including famous people. They do the same thing with plain folks except on a smaller scale. Nostalgia is always used with pictures or stories about families etc.

Midterm Reflections for the greatest class ever!

After studying 21^st century media for the past eight weeks I have learned how complex media is. Through this class I have learned how to look at media and take in a deeper meaning about the content of the media. Also we have learned about the history of media and how it has evolved. In addition to that we have been learning how to use social networking wed sites like Facebook and Blogger and things that affect how they appeal to others.

Personally I believe that the most important thing I have taken from this class is the skill of stepping back and looking at a medium through a critical scope. Taking what is in front of you and gaining a deeper meaning of it. I find this very interesting and in a way fun.

I wouldn’t do anything different. I have tried to get everything I possibly could out of this class. Everything we do is interesting to me. I am an undecided comm. major and this is one of the classes that I am going to use to make my final decision on what my major is going to be.

Dr. Rob Williams shouldn’t change a thing in his media classes. The class is being presented in a way that I can really grasp. Also it is very engaging which is good for me because it keeps my attention.

The power tools are very helpful. The only thing I have to note is that we could have spent a little more time going over them in class before we implemented them. The course blog is a great idea it allows us to not only do our homework but it makes us use a medium to do it

Violence is everywhere even on my blog! [media meditation #2]

“Danbury wasn't a prison, it was a crime school. I went in with a Bachelor of marijuana, came out with a Doctorate of cocaine.” (Blow) Blow is the story of George Jung the man who established the American cocaine market in the 1970's. The movie follows his life and how through selling marijuana and eventually cocaine he managed to gain popularity, money, and an amazing life. When I first watched Blow I thought “wow what I would give to have his life.” It is very easy to feel this way when watching movies and indulging in media like this and many teens and preteens feel the same way. Movies, music, video games, and TV all portray gangs, bank robbers, and what society would deem as criminals, as a hero and someone to aspire to be. We hear music wherever we go, in stores, cars, and restaurants it is very influential. Gangster rap is very popular with teens; they talk about gang violence and drug use. Crime related and violent video games can promote violence in kids and cause them to be more comfortable with the idea and act of crime. Books for centuries have been written about pirates, bank robbers, gangs, and organized crime. Grand Theft Auto is a very popular video game series in which the player plays gang members and mobsters. Television is also guilty of this twisted view for the youth, the HBO series Weeds follows a family that encounters a money problem, and to keep the life that they have they are forced to sell marijuana. Many people believe, as well as I agree that the portrayal of these negative role models is polluting the youth of America.


This is what kids do on their free time playing video games.



People have been drawn towards violence for thousands of years. The roman coliseum was built for mainly violent and gruesome shows; there were hundreds of pointless killings just for entertainment. The fact is that violence and crime is everywhere in life and media and it will never go away. In a way it is a part of our culture and fighting it will limit the amount and level of it in the media but it will not completely go away. The best thing we can do is try to shelter our children from over exposure of violence and crime until they have a strong understanding of right and wrong. This will give them the ideals and views that will allow them to engage in these forms of media without taking them seriously. When I was a child my parents didn’t allow me to play violent games or watch certain programs because they felt that it would give me the wrong picture about violence and crime. This works for most but some people will end up bad anyways and there is no point in stressing over something that we cant control.