Media Focus on unimportant issues in presidential debate

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/SNL_breaking_news_John_McCain_crazy_0316.html

Truth Campaign: Anti-Smoking?

This Truth advertisement is geared towards keeping kids off cigarettes. However, it takes a critical eye to understand the true meaning of this advertisemet. "The Magical amount, not enough to kill you, but just enough to make it count" are the lyrics to the Disney-esque tune, and a child may not pick up on the sarcasm and humor of the immediate message. The child would have to view the ad critically to understand the true meaning. And oddly enough, children are not the first television viewers to pick up on sarcastic humor and underlying messages. When a child sees this message, they see cartoon animals singing a song about how cigarettes aren't that bad. We, as adults can see that this is not what Truth is saying, because of the comment at the end, "The magical amount? Are you serious?" But this comment isn't enough to undermine the majority of the advertisement. It can be broken down like this:
Of the 60 second ad--
Beginning; 10 seconds (17%), yelling through megaphone, hard to understand.
Main message; 44 seconds (73%) song with cartoon characters
End; 4 seconds (10%); closing.

As you can see, the majority of the message is not necessecarily anit-smoking.

Why are anti-smoking advertisements like this?
In 1998, legislature passed a bill that banned anti-smoking ads on billboards and required all big tobacoo companies to spend $300 million per year on anti-smoking ads for the next five years. (End 2003). However, since this requirement ceased in 2003, legislature has still been requiring tobacco companies to contribute money for more anti-smoking ads. Subsequently, the content of the anti-smoking ad is directly related to the amount of money contributed by big tobacco companies.
In closing, ads like this are not unintentional. Big tobacco companies look for ways to twist anti-smoking ads into ads of questionable integrity, and it would not be surprising to see more of this in the future.

Media Conglomorates: News Corporation

News Corporation: Owned by Rupert Murdoch and has over 50,000 employees ang grosses over $14 billion dollars. Any large media conglomorates are prime examples of media synergy. A large corporation, such as News Corporation or Disney, has the power to promote and cross-promote their products using media synergy. Media synergy is the promotion and sale of a product (and all its versions) throughout the various subsidiaries of a media conglomerate.

News Corporation owns multiple newspapers and magazines, including the New York Post and the Wall Street Journal, Myspace.com, the Colorado Rockies MLB team, Fox Corporation, the National Geographic channels, and many other assets. The power of a media conglomorate to promote it's products through media synergy is monumental and has many benefits. An example of News Corporation utilizing it's assets for cross-promotion would be:

While watching the Colorado Rockies baseball game on Fox Sports Net, a commerical break promoting "What Happens In Vegas," a 20th Centry Fox production airs. Next, a commercial featuring a new program on The History Channel or National Geographic channel airs. The possibilities are vast for cross-promotion in a large media conglomorate such as News Corporation.

Hillary vs Obama

The political debate is striking up new conversations and arguments like never before. In previous elections, candidates focused on important issues. In turn, potential voters were also focused on the important issues the candidate spoke about, and these were the reasons people voted for a candidate. The support behind Barack and Hillary have become superficial, with the focus now on image, mistakes, and stereotypes.

This video found on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqOHquOkpaU) features two young voters arguing about the qualities and qualifications of the two Democratic candidates. However, their argument is not fact or information based, but is about petty mistakes or infractions of the two candidates. Their blatant, sarcastic tone undercuts the real serious issues. They are constantly insulting each other and trying to undermine the other. Using this tactic, each person is insulting the other one while trying to build their selves up. However, this makes each person look ignorant because of the negative tone they are using.

Sadly, based on current trends, the next president of the United States will not win because of their knowledge and support of current issues, but because they played the best game. The president who will be elected will be the candidate who is the best entertainer. Politics focus has shifted as the internet becomes more and more crucial for campaigning.

Advertising in the Media

Advertising in the media has taken a turn for the worse. Advertising used to be about the product, and enticing people to buy it and use it. More and more everyday, advertising is about shock value. The advertisers who have the most obscene, violent, sexy, or profane ads are the products who get remembered most by the public. Advertisers know this, and this is why they continuously are pushing the envelope. The controversial advertisement for the videogame "Hitman" (http://www.joystiq.com/media/2006/04/adcritic_hitman_pcgamer_BIG.jpg) is a prime example of advertisers going overboard. The ad is suggesting that murder can be a beautiful thing, hence "Beautifully executed." Sadly, this advertisement has opened yet another new door in the advertising world.

My First Blog!

This is my first blog I have ever written! I have Mass Comm tommorow at 10:20 with Suda. I learn a lot in there, it has a lot of tie ins to my other Suda class, called Critical Media Studies. I feel that taking the two classes together helps me learn the information better. Today was Sunday and I spent the day going to the mall and then I took a nap and now I am hanging out, watching TV and movies and doing homework with Nick and his cousin Louis. This blog is not a very indepth one, but the next blog will have more information.