The Persuaders

Neuromarketing ( psychological )-

PlayStation commercials  can be considered nueromarketing because they will always show footage of someone with their family using a PS3 to try and make the PS3 seem like something that will bring the family together.


Emotional branding- Nike commercials makes their viewers feel like "Champions" if they wear and use nike products. Gatorade commercials also use this technique to market their products by using major sports stars in their commercials.




Creating a culture around a brand- Old Joe Camel and Marlboro Man ads tried to create a culture around their cigarettes. These ads were designed to make smoking seem cool. In the Marlboro Man ad it made it seem like a tough guy smoked cigarettes.


Narrowcasting- Facebook advertising is an example of narrowcasting because facebook ads are designed to advertise based on your relationship status and what you "like". Another website called Hulu asks if the ads on the site is relevant to you before watching a video.


Rhetorical marketing- Political ads telling us what we want to hear about a candidate such as senator so-and-so will cut taxes stimulate the economy and stop global warming etc.




Under the radar marketing-
 The "Like" feature on facebook can be considered under the radar marketing because it shows how many people like a particular product. When you look at a products page someone might think well everyone seems to like this product so maybe I should check it out too.


Across-media marketing-

Blackberry commercials on tv that show people going on youtube or facebook.

Product placement across media-In the movie “Unstoppable” before the main character leaves his house for work Family Guy is on TV in the background. The movie could be used to advertise the TV show Family Guy.

Guerrilla marketing- 
People in New York walking up to you and handing out flyers to buy a certain product. I usually find these people selling cell phones. Also Nike spray painting messages on the sidewalks

Viral marketing- An example of viral marketing is receiving a text message from a company about their products or the ads found on facebook or twitter.

The Persuaders

Illustrator Logo Recreation

Original

                 This is my recreation of the New York Yankees logo. I used the circle tool to make the baseball. Then I used the pen tool to make the bat, the hat, the stitching on the baseball and the Y for the Yankees. I used a font and typed "ankees" to finish the rest of the word. I used the star tool to make the stars inside the hat. I used the paintbrush tool and the straight line tool to make the inside of the bat look as close to the original logo's bat as possible. 

The internet and democracy

1. Based on this debate and previous readings, what definition of democracy do you feel is most fitting for us to use in-conjunction to our growing reliance and integration of digital networked technologies?

I think that a Direct Democracy (Chapter 4) is most fitting when we talk about our growing reliance and integration of digital networked technologies. Like Jimmy Wales, I think that democracy is when people come together as a society to share ideas on issues and then make their choices. The internet allows us to connect with others in ways that were not possible before. With features like blogs users can have a conversation about issues that you couldn’t have with a newspaper.

2. How does your answer to #1 fit into the unchecked nature of Web 2.0 technologies, and what are some tangible examples of this? Do you feel this is an important issue that needs to be addressed further?

When people come together as a society to share their ideas, they can literally say whatever is on their mind. Thanks to anonymity on the internet, people can share their ideas, even if they are controversial, without being shunned by society. People can share their thoughts with the world instead of only sharing what they would say in a conversation. I don’t think that this is a problem. Lets say someone made an offensive comment on a particular website. Although this comment may be unpleasant and hurtful, it allows us all to see the negative feelings of society. With this knowledge we can try to understand and prevent this type of thinking and behavior.


3. Define and describe the phenomenon of the Media echo-chamber as described in the Internet Debates. What are some examples of this silo effect, and do you believe it is an issue that need to be addressed? Why or Why not?

An echo-chamber or a silo (Chapter 3) is when people who feel a certain way about something only look for information that supports and backs up what they believe. An example of this is a conservative only getting their news and information from Fox News, which is considered more conservative media. I don’t think that the internet created silos or echo-chambers. I think that people will always tend to look for information that supports their beliefs. People like being agreed with more than disagreed with. Silos would still exist without the internet. The best way we can prevent this type of behavior is to encourage others to look at many sources of information before taking a side on an issue.


4. What are some ways that expertise and authority could be (or is being) enforced on the internet? Who would be behind these forces? Why do you believe are they needed or not needed?

I don’t think expertise and authority on the internet can be enforced. It is the users responsibility to get quality information from the internet. I think people can be encouraged to find quality information but it can’t really be forced onto people. I think finding quality information is encouraged in today’s society. My college professors constantly remind the class to gather good information for our assignments. When people look for information on the internet, they should remember not to believe everything they hear or read. Expertise already exists on the internet, people just have to look for it.


5. Give an example of an adaptation or improvement made by a of a social, political, or cultural group, government, business or individual to keep up with changing nature of the internet.

One example of a business making an improvement to keep up with the changing nature of the internet is Itunes. Itunes allows users to download songs from the store for 99 cents each. Since people are using the internet to illegally download music instead of buy it, Itunes allowed users to download music for a price. Itunes even shows music you may like based on what you purchased from their store. Itunes also allows its customers to download their favorite movies or tv shows in addition to music.


6. Is democracy threatened by the unchecked nature of the internet?

No, democracy is not threatened by the internet. The internet supports democracy by helping people come together to make choices. The internet allows us to communicate with others in new ways like forums and blogs. It gives us access to lots of different information. Everyone can participate in public conversation. On the internet everybody has a voice, not just the people working for mainstream media. The internet helps democracy rather than threatens democracy. (Chapter 6)

Andrew Keen

1. Keen believes that democratized media is destroying our culture. He says "democratization, despite its lofty idealization, is undermining truth, sourcing civic discourse, and belittling expertise, experience and talent." He thinks that an amateur should not be allowed to express their opinion like the "experts." He has issues with websites like www.wikipedia.com where anyone can write anything about a certain issue. He used Anna Nicole Smith's death as an example. People on wikipedia kept changing the cause of her death. He also has problems with www.youtube.com, where people made fun of Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" by replacing people with penguins. I think Keen is making a big deal out of nothing with the "An Inconvenient Truth" parody. Althought the video was made by a conservative political group, I don't think that satire is something that can destroy our culture.

2. Keen views technology and democratized media as a problem while Rushkoff views them as neither good or bad, just powerful. Keen doesn't think the average person should be allowed to write whatever the want and only "experts" should be allowed to express themselves. Rushkoff tries to see both the negative and positive effects of technology and democratized media. He says "I love the possibilities of a digital life; I love being able to experience the world through other people’s eyes; I love being able to broadcast a story from home, in my underpants; I love being able to imagine almost any possible future and to do so with other people, millions of them right alongside me." I think Rushkoff speaks to my own experiences more than Keen because Rushkoff understands that the internet is a great way to stay connected to other people and express ourselves, but he also realizes that the internet is not perfect. I think that you can't believe everything you read on the internet but I don't think everything we see online is a lie like Keen does.

Whither the Individual

Daniel Hunter

Professor Jacobsen

Media Literacy

October 5th 2010

Digital Nation

The social networking site Facebook, has become a major part of our lives. There are currently over 500 million people on Facebook. People all over the world, both young and old, use Facebook everyday. I think that when we join social networks like Facebook, we are extending and expanding our identities. With all of the features it has like viewing photos, posting a status, and having “friends” Facebook becomes a significant tool for expanding our identities.

Facebook is all about extending our identities for everyone to see. With Facebook, people can view information like, our genders, birthdays, relationship status, sexual orientation, religious views and other personal information that shows our identities. Our way of life is put online for the world to see. There’s also a “likes” section in Facebook where friends can see what a person likes. This can include, music artists, televisions shows, sports teams, hobbies and much more. A user’s photos show us their lifestyle. Viewing photos usually tells us how someone dresses, places they’ve been and who their friends are.

Photos and personal information aren’t the only ways Facebook expands our identities. A feature as simple as posting a status tells us a lot about someone’s identity. When someone posts their status it tells us how they feel, what they are doing and what’s on their mind. Facebook users can also share videos or photos with others through their status. Each time someone changes their status on Facebook, they show everyone a little something about themselves. Since users can see all of their friends’ statuses, they are always on top of what’s going on in their social life.

Friends are another way that Facebook expands our identity. Most Facebook users want to share their profiles with as many people as they can. Each user’s Facebook page shows who their friends are and how many friends they have. If the user has a lot of friends, it probably means that person is popular. I’ve noticed that people sometimes make judgments about others based on their number of Facebook friends. I’m sure that most people who use Facebook have people on their friends list that they don’t even speak to. I feel like Facebook encourages people to choose their friends based on popularity and social status. While Facebook helps us to share ourselves with other users, it also changes how we value friendship. A person’s quantity of Facebook friends is more important than the quality of Facebook friends. A user’s need to have lots of friends shows their desire to spread their identity to as many people as they can.

I don’t think the loss of “personal space” is the surrender of someone’s ego. People who use Facebook for popularity and status simply want to be a larger part of the online “collective organism”. I’ve noticed that people will post a status when they do something as trivial as leaving the house or walking their dog. They feel the need to put every single detail of their life for everyone to see. Certain Facebook users will even share very personal information about their love life or their family for everyone to see. Personal space doesn’t seem to bother these people, otherwise they wouldn’t have shared it with the world.

The creator of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, recently announced a new application called “Facebook Stories”. “Facebook Stories” allows users to share how Facebook has impacted their lives. Ben Saylor is a 17-year-old high school student. He used Facebook to restore the Pioneer Playhouse, the oldest outdoor theater in Kentucky. Holly Rose, a mother in Phoenix, checked herself for breast cancer after reading a friends status. She found a growth and she was diagnosed in time to stop the disease. The Danish Prime Minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, even went jogging with 100 of his Facebook fans.

It’s no secret that Facebook has had a strong impact on society. It allows us to share our identities with friends, family, and the rest of the world. Facebook users can share almost anything about themselves at anytime. We can share information with others in ways we couldn’t have a couple years ago. Just think, if a social networking site like Facebook was powerful enough to save a life, what’s in store for us in the future?

Sources

http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=409753352130

www.facebook.com

Discussion Questions

1.Today many TV shows and advertisements try to look amateurish or "homegrown" to emulate what is often seen on the Web. Do you think professional production values will continue to drop, or do you think amateur user-generated content will get better over time? WHY?


I think that the things we see on TV will continue to look amateurish and "homegrown" because it is popular and easy to do. Reality TV doesn't require as much work as a regular TV show. In reality TV there's no script or professional actors. The only thing the TV network has to do is film the show and edit what they filmed. Reality shows are popular and lots of people watch them, so why would TV producers make shows that are more expensive with less viewers? I think that the shows on TV are going to continue to get worse and production values will continue to drop.


2. What social media sites do you find yourself using the most, and why? In your opinion why is Facebook so much more successful than MySpace, and do you think Facebook is "here to stay" for the long term.


I find myself using facebook more than myspace because all of my friends are on facebook. I think facebook is more successful than myspace because it got "cool" and everybody started using it. If none of my friends are using myspace then I am not going to use myspace. The whole point of a social networking website is to connect with all the people involved in your life. If the people you know don't use the website you use, then you are probably going to switch to the website they use. I think facebook will be here to stay for a long time unless another social networking website catches on and becomes "cool."


3. Why is transparency such an important concept in the Social Media world? Is it MORE or LESS important in the offline world? Why?


Transparency is an important concept in the social media world because "it implies openess, communication and accountability." I also use transparency in Photoshop when I want viewers to focus on one object more than the others. An object with 50% opacity wont be looked at the same as an object with 100%. I think transparency is equally important in the online world and offline world. Strong communication using transparency is critical in forming relationships with other people whether it is online or offline.