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fragileheartxxx

dream-house-inspiration

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indieteen

goddessonthemoon-deactivated202

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boho-romance123

dirtyhippieproductions

Nature is alive and talking to us. This is not a metaphor ~ Terrence McKenna

☮ ❤ ॐ

imintheleaves

bohemdream

With child-like eyes, a mind of wisdom & a heart full of love we’re capable of saving this place

Amanda Machell (via bohemdream)

hazyybby

Sleep tight.

petit-poids

You won’t understand what I mean now, but someday you will: the only trick of friendship, I think, is to find people who are better than you are—not smarter, not cooler, but kinder, and more generous, and more forgiving—and then to appreciate them for what they can teach you, and to try to listen to them when they tell you something about yourself, no matter how bad—or good—it might be, and to trust them, which is the hardest thing of all. But the best, as well.

Hanya Yanagihara, A Little Life (via petit-poids)

septemberwildflowers

here’s a thought

let’s tell young boys that they are brimming with kindness and imagination and nobility. point out their gentleness, their fierce joy and limitless capacity to love everyone and everything. tell them they are princes in a kingdom of wonders and beauty and thoughtfulness and the warmth of their own hearts. take them to museums and symphonies and forests to make tree forts in. raise them to empathize, innovate and do good things. with confidence and humility.

Kimmie, Jessica, and Girls

Television is not what is used to be by any means. In fact, it seems that television is constantly evolving at an increasing rate. With the surge in platforms, genres, amount of shows, etc., it’s simply hard to keep up with all of the shows and mini-series that are now available to us with, quite literally, the click of a button. In fact, there has been a 270% increase since 2010 in the amount of people who own the technology trio of a tablet, smartphone, and laptop. So with the media world continuing to change and evolve, what exactly does this mean for the television shows themselves?

To better compare the differences as well as the shocking similarities between different television shows in today’s media, I am going to compare three shows; Jessica Jones, Kimmie Schmidt, and Girls. With these three shows I will discuss and compare genres, content, characterization, distribution, and audience.

The first television show that I had watched and analyzed was Unbreakable Kimmie Schmidt. This television show, which was created by Tina Fey, was released strictly as a streaming series on Netflix in 2015. Though this television show is produced as a comedy, it really has a rather dark and underlying story line. In this show, female writer and producer, Tina Fey, creates a sly and comical series which has the components of a character who has dealt with a series of extremely traumatic experiences.

Main character, Kimmie, was held hostage in a bunker and forced to take part in a religious cult for the majority of her life. The show takes place after Kimmie escapes from the captivity of the bunker, and is thrown into the “real world” in the only place suitable, New York City. When readjusting to her new “free” life, in which she hasn’t been a part of for a huge portion of her life, her terrifying, and quite frankly glossed over, past directly influences the way she reacts with the people around her. Her memories are the PTSD-inducing kind that fuel flashbacks, nightmares, random fits of anger, and distrust.

In the midst of adjusting to “normal life” Kimmie and her new roommate Titus, a gay Broadway enthusiast, face New York City as a massive entity filled with obstacles that are triumphed with non-other than wit, laughter, and enthusiasm. Ultimately, Kimmie uses humor to cope with her dark past.

The show takes potentially offending risks and has always played around the edge of political correctness, just like Fey's previous sitcom(30 Rock), subverting and supporting it simultaneously. Tina Fey makes light of portrayed sterotypes in our culture by providing the comedic relief of flamboyantly stereotyping black men, gay men, Native Americans, and wealthy white men. Because of it’s platform(streaming), and blatant risky stereotypes, this show appeases to the younger millennial generation much more than it does to generation X.

The second television show that I had watched and analyzed was Jessica Jones. This television show was also released via Netflix streaming in 2015, and was apart of the very well-known "Marvel" productions.

In this series, Jessica, the main character lives in New York City, which is portrayed as so massive and dark, that it acts as the perfect catalyst for the overwhelming chaos that takes place throughout the show.

Jessica, was previously held hostage by Kilgrave, a destructive, violent man who had the ability of mind control. She too, has powers of her own that involve super-human strength. Jessica had used these abilities of hers to escape Kilgrave, but he is now back in New York City, using people as pawns in order to manipulate her into falling back under his control. Season one of this series shows just how determined Jessica is to stop Kilgrave, regardless of who she hurts along the way. Her one downfall, is a hungry alcohol addiction.

Throughout the show, Jessica is a character in search of control, using alcohol to quiet her feelings and isolation to limit her exposure — except for one thing. The one thing Jessica can't control, despite all her best efforts, is her desire to help others.

The show directly discuss issues involving rape, consent, and PTSD. It also does a great job of involving people of all kinds; men, women, gay, straight, drug addicts, public figures. This shows that no one in the world is protected from the dangers of those specific issues, or any traumatic experience in general.

Girls is the television show of choice that I also had watched during the semester. Girls was released in 2012 via HBO. The writer and producer, Lena Dunham, also has a lead role of “Hannah” in the show. The series, now in its 5th season, is a comedy/drama about four girls (women) in their early 20s, living in New York City.

As you get to know all of the girls, the content is nothing less than raw and honest. The show covers topics of sex, love, jobs, family issues, drugs, addiction, and overall struggling to find your place in the world. The show is meant to portray real life millennia's as they encounter the struggles of everyday life, and it definitely does not leave out any of the dirty details.

From my personal analyzes, I would think that Girls had an audience of females in their twenties, mainly because that is exactly what the show is built around. But despite my assumption, 22% of viewers are in fact male, and over 50% of viewers of the TV show are ironically white males over 50.

All of the characters wear their quirks and flaws on their sleeve, and they deal with issues that the vast majority of us would like to believe we don't deal with ourselves. The "realness" of the show is what makes it so appealing.

When comparing these three television shows, there are a plethora of similarities as well as differences that are intertwined throughout all of them. The main difference between the three shows are the platforms in which viewers subscribe to and watch the series'. While Jessica Jones and Unbreakable Kimmie Schmidt are streamed via Netflix, Girls is obtained and viewed through HBO.

Since there are so many media outlets, media platforms have begun to "feud" on the basis of how to gain viewers over the other platforms. Despite efforts, Netflix currently has more revenue than HBO. In fact, Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos told GQ that, "The goal is to become HBO faster than HBO can become us (Learmonth, 2015)." I believe that if Girls became available on Netflix, the amount of viewers would skyrocket.

Regarding similarities of these three TV shows, there are more than a couple common factors throughout all of the series. All three shows take place in New York City. Ironically, the city has a very different purpose in each show. In Unbreakable Kimmie Schmidt, the city was used as a place where people of all different nationalities and backgrounds came to find their footing. In Jessica Jones, the city was used as a huge catalyst to enable violence to occur while remaining unnoticed. In Girls, the city was used as a place where young women and men come after college in efforts to pursue their passions and make their dreams come true. Because of the different perceptions of New York City in each show, this factor is used equally as a difference and a similarity.

All three shows are also produced by women, and have women leads. This fact alone is rare considering, "women and older writers face discrimination in television and feature film (Phalen, 2016)." Because of the female influence throughout each of the show, it is no surprise that they all contain female lead characters.

In conclusion, the analyses of these three shows perfectly demonstrates a couple points. First, how the same city can be used and angled to carry out three completely different purposes. Secondly, that the platform in which shows are released directly increase/decrease not only the amount of viewers, but the demographic of viewers. And thirdly, which should go without saying, that women producers/writers and shows with female leads can be just as successful as those with men producers or male leads.

Since the shows are on different platforms, they are going to be accessible to a different audience, and carry-out different viewing experiences. That being said, it is clear from this analysis, in a world of many different media platforms, and many different television shows, that viewers do not have to watch the same television show in order to learn the same lessons, issues, and life encounters. In fact, the same issues or situations can be taught in many different ways, through very different mediums, and they will still have a huge positive impact on viewers.

References:

Learmonth, M. (2015). Can HBO Win the War Against Netflix? HBO is offering a new, non-cable service in hopes of decapitating the competition. Newsweek, (11).

Phalen, P. F., Ksiazek, T. B., & Garber, J. B. (2016). Who You Know in Hollywood: A Network Analysis of Television Writers. Journal Of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 60(1), 160-170. doi:10.1080/08838151.2015.1127244

#MCST2200 #noel #unbreakable kimmy schmidt #jessica jones #girls

“Network” Analysis

“Network” is a comedy/drama, released in 1976, which shows the inside work, drama, and planning that is involved behind-the-scenes in the film’s depicted television news network, UBS. Throughout the film, head news anchor, Howard Beale, had seemingly began to go “crazy” as he got on air and told the world how fictional and unworthy the news, that he had been reporting for for years, truly was. As he seemed to descend into madness, the news network manipulated him and used his outrage to their advantage. As they continued to put him on the air, his condition got worse, but their ratings sky-rocketed. At the end of the movie, the network found Beale to be a liability, so they arranged him to be assassinated.

The movie’s intent was to execute a satire film based on how cut-throat the media industry is and can be. The film is basically saying that regarding television, money is the main enticing factor. Networks will manipulate whatever information they have in order to make a profit. It was/is meant to be a wake-up-call to the industry, which needs to reevaluate how far they will go for their own personal gain. “This is what the picture, essentially, was about. When do we say hold it, human life is a hell of a lot more important than your lousy dollar?”

Though this movie was released in 1976, viewers had no idea the magnitude of significance that the story line would hold and continue to hold in regards to television media. In fact, many say that this movie may portray today’s generation of media culture more accurately than it did during the time that it was first released. “A movie made 30 years ago that perfectly describes the situation today about television, news, and the main stream media. It resonates louder and sounds truer today that it did when the movie was made.”

Chayefsky, writer of the film, stated to Time Magazine, “Television coarsens all the complexities of human relationships, brutalizes them, makes them insensitive. The point about violence is not so much that it breeds violence–though that is probably true–but that it totally desensitizes viciousness, brutality, murder, death so that we no longer actively feel the pains of the victim or suffer for the mourners or feel their grief.” This statement alone shows the exact reason for the making of this film, and though this may resonate with viewers who saw the film when it was first released(1976), this issue of media insensitivity is still very much alive today.

In today’s media, there have been many, many instances where celebrities are put in an extremely negative limelight, and portrayed to the public in a way that nearly dehumanizes the celebrity. A few examples of celebrities who have dealt with this are Charlie Sheen and Lindsay Lohan. Both of these well-known celebrities were used as media money-makers as they dealt with very serious, very personal issues which led them down paths of self-destruction.

Sheen and Lohan, who had both been dealing with substance abuse/addiction, were highlighted in the media as being crazy, and viewed as a joke. What the media forgot to take into consideration is that these two people are in fact people. In both of these instances, “Network”s point is irrevocably proved; the media will comically publicize celebrities’ struggles as long as it brings in a profit.

We also see this phenomenon of the media using people and risking their well-being throughout reality television shows. In reality TV, people’s lives are twisted, and manipulated for the world to see. Producers entice fights that can potentially end up ruining relationships, and leaving the stars exposed and hurt. With the complete lack on control on screen, many of the stars end up being suicidal, or being diagnosed with anxiety or depression as soon as the show concludes. In these instances, people’s lives are tainted and potentially ruined so that the network can gain viewers, and make as much money as possible.

Unfortunately, with the media being the huge money-making business that it is, the producers of networks have an unsettling amount of control over how, what, and who is being reported on. With media coverage being out of viewer’s hands, the way that things/people are depicted to the world have to be taken with a grain of salt. Networks are greedy and will manipulate anyone or anything if it benefits them. Chayefsky knew this far before the rest of the world, and he wanted us all to know it. He was, “Mad as hell, and he was not going to take it anymore!”

#mcst2200 #noel

Portrayed Gender Roles in the Media, and How it is Affecting You

Whether you are a member of generation X, generation Y, or the millennial generation, each and every one of us have been introduced or inducted into a technology based world. We now have access to computers, phones, YouTube, a huge variety of streaming channels, and of course television. What many of us users do not realize, is that the people that we see portrayed in the media have a staggering affect on the way we view ourselves and the world around us based on the ideals of those specific fictional characters. A very natural instinct is to believe that you, as a human and citizen of this world, are immune to outside influence having an effect on your self-perception.Unfortunately, studies show that the majority of us are, in fact, heavily influenced by what we see on TV.

To get a better idea of how technology involved we are, statistics show that 80% of Americans watch TV on any given day, with an average watch time of 5.5 hours. Through all of these platforms, we are engaging with and contributing to the entity that is mass media.

Television is used as an outlet to relieve stress, to entertain, to pass the time, etc., and although it seems harmless, the amount of time we focus our attention on the media is abundant in our daily routines, and inevitably it is going to have an impact on us one way or the other. Unfortunately, the vast majority of us are not aware of the force of influence that media had over us, and what toll it takes on our psych. And although the impact may seem minimal, that is far from the truth.

In fact, “A great deal of research has looked at the portrayal of sex roles and issues of gender equity within the content of the mediated sphere based on the argument that the mass media reflect the values and mores of society, and have a significant impact on the beliefs and attitudes of citizens toward key social and political issues (Bergman, 2005).”

So, what exactly is television in relation to us, and what impact does it have on the way we interact with the world around us? When looking at television’s portrayal of gender, including gender roles and gender norms, the influence on viewers is exponential in general, but specifically when focusing on its influence regarding viewer’s self-perception and perception of others.

Studies regarding gender roles in the media have shown that “seeing gender-congruent portrayals in the media can be rewarding through positive affect resulting from perceived gender conformity, especially if one’s own conduct converges with traditional gender roles (Knobloch-Westerwick,2016).”On the opposite end of the spectrum, if one’s desire to express themselves does not line up with the typical socially accepted gender norm, seeing only gender-congruent roles in the media may be very detrimental to one’s own self-perception.

When referring to gender-congruent traits shown in the media regarding to femininity, the list contains qualities that show beauty, health, conformity, soft, sexy, desirable. In fact, “analyses of television and film ave revealed that women are overwhelmingly shown as objects of physical attractiveness and sexual desirability(Knobloch-Westerwick,2016).” All of these traits are more misrepresentations rather than truthful representations of women in society, and thus leads to decreased self-esteem and self-worth in women.

In addition to women being held to an impossible standard by television/media, we also see that women are extremely under represented in media reporting and media writing. The Women’s Media Center’s annual report shows a few shocking statistics that may or may not be surprising to many of regular television viewer: Women are on camera for only 32% of airtime, and write only 37% of print stories, 70% of talk show commentators are male, newspaper editorial boards on average have 7:4 male dominating ratio. These are just a few concrete examples of men dominating today’s media/television.

It is very important to realize and remember that the television media also holds men to specific gender norms just as much as it does women. Men in the media are portrayed as caretakers, powerful, strong, intelligent, seducers, athletic, etc. If any man fails to reach any of these mainly traits, society deems them as feminine, weak, “a loser”. In reality, men are individual humans with individual interests, personalities, and body types. Limiting the image of a “man” to these specific character traits is extremely detrimental to the self-worth and self-perception of boys and men in today’s society.

In conclusion, it is important to know that television and media, as fun and entertaining as it may be, definitely takes a toll on the way you view yourself and others, specifically regarding gender, after prolonged use. Whether the affects of media’s gender roll portrayals are good or bad on a specific person is not the whole issue, but rather that television has the ability to greatly affect our psychs and way of thinking in general. Information is the most powerful weapon, and it is important for our generation to gain knowledge on manipulation tactics of media in order to decrease the physiological effects that it takes on the way we view ourselves and the world around us.

References:

Dutta-Bergman, M., & Dutta-Bergman, A. (2005). The Consumption of Media Types and Attitudes Toward Gender Equality: A Population-Based Study.Conference Papers – International Communications Association, 1-25.

Kennard, A.R., Willis, L.E., Robinson, M.J., & Knobloch-Westerwick, S. (2016). The Allure of Aphrodite: How Gender-Congruent Media Portrayals Impact Adult Women’s Possible Future Selves. Human Communication Research, 42(2), 221-245. doi:10.111/hcre.12072

#mcst2200 #noel #WhatIsTVPt2 #finaldraft