Computerized Voices - Comm 403

“Turn left” “Take to exit on your right” “Calling Dad” These robotic and computerized voices are in each one of your phones and GPS devices. However, have you ever noticed the same characteristics of each of the voices in these devices? Most of these computerized voices are female voices. Why? It is suggested [by http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/21/tech/innovation/female-computer-voices/index.html?eref=rss_tech&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_tech+%28RSS%3A+Technology%29 and Stanford University Professor Clifford Nass ] that the reason for this is biology and human history.

It is believed that the female voice is more demanding in an electronic voice because of a mother’s voice that has been embedded in our psych since birth. A study cited by Nass shows how the human fetus reacts more to the mother’s voice rather than the father’s.

In history, a female voice is used throughout all other automated devices and even services run by real humans. This originally was not because biological reasons but because of convenience and efficiency. The female voice is distinct and easily heard. Thus, humans have grown accustomed to hearing the female voice.

In addition, culture has given negative connotations to the male voice and perhaps swayed producers of products away from the male voice. This is mainly from the move “2001: A Space Odyssey” when a computer named HAL had a male voice.

In conclusion, the robotic female voice that we have become accustomed to is on the rise on technology now and in the future. This phenomenon is caused by biological, historic, and cultural influences. Perhaps in the future, if robots are ever invented, they too will only be female.

Framing - Comm 403

One aspect of communication is framing. Framing is a form of communication understood by a particular view separate from other views. For example, as the article exemplifies, particular words, concepts, and ideas are known only from particular political platforms. In a way, it can be looked at as a genre.

A better example would be the horror movie genre. Because of framing, certain aspects of the movie are expected. But, they are only understood from audiences of horror movies. Suppose you were watching a comedy. In this comedy, the main character is seen in a dark room with very little movement. The character slowly walks to the closet. While this is happening, no music is being played and the scene of the comedy is very quiet. The character then arrives at the closet door and opens it slowly. Suddenly, the music begins loudly with very low and sharp sounding brass instruments with overlaying string instruments as this sudden volume change scares the audience. Does this sound like a comedy? No, and the audience of the comedy will most likely become confused and dissatisfied with the movie. It’s all about the framing. The audience of the “comedy” were expecting laughs and fun. However, the movie delivered scare tactics and long, drawn out scenes with very quiet build-ups. This breaks what is expected and confuses the audience by using a different language and genre they don’t understand or was not prepared for.

Semiotics of of Wedding - Comm 403

In my last blog I discussed the implications of semiotics of particularly advertisements. However, semiotics does not always have to be applied to texts such as pictures, movies, or advertisements. Events, places, and ideas can also have hidden connotations that can be revealed using semiotics. In my case, I would like to reveal the semiotics of weddings, a very important rite of passage in most people’s lives.

A wedding has many underlying meanings. However, we’ll start with the denotation of weddings. However, I will not denotate an entire wedding, but particular events and ideas that have particular underlying meanings.

A wedding is an event that the bride and groom most likely plan and organize. A bride is expected to wear a rather large white wedding dress while the groom is expected to wear a suit. In the middle of the ceremony, the bride and groom usually partake in the “Unity Sand” (sometimes it is the “Unity Candle” which is an older version of the Unity Sand. At this event, the bride and groom go to a table that holds three items: One rather large empty glass and two smaller glasses with different colored sands in each glass. The bride and groom grab their own color and pour their sand into the larger glass together.

Now, with theses few events and ideas in mind, we can start to connotate these few particular events in a wedding.

First of all, the wedding as a whole can easily to connotated. A wedding is only understood under social standards. We as a society created it. It is only important because we make it important. (like money) Religion in particular makes weddings important. Therefore, a wedding is not just viewed as an event that lasts an entire day, but a rite of passage that marks the beginning of a journey for the couple getting married.

Next, the attire that the couple is expected to wear at the wedding. There is not much to be said about the groom’s attire, but the bride’s attire is very important. Everyone tends to pay more attention to the brides dress than anything else in the wedding. (Watch the show Four Weddings. They have a whole rating category for just the dress alone rather than many characteristics of a contestants wedding) Moreover, the dress is white to show purity. The bride is expected, according to most religions, to be pure prior to her wedding. This white represents the purity that brides are supposed to have prior to marrying.

Lastly, the connotation of the Unity Sand. The two mixing sands that are poured into the large empty glass are mixed together forever; for, you cannot ever separate those two colors once mixed into the large glass. This represents the couple transitioning into one person under god, rather than two separate people represented by the individual colors.

Denotation, Connotation, and the Myth/ideology of POM’s “Cheating Death” Advertisement: COMM 403

Pictured above is POM’s advertisement for their antioxidant beverage. It can be analyzed using levels of 1.)Denotation 2.) Connotation 3.)Myth/ideology
Denotation: A lone full bottle of POM’s juice is shown in the left third of the image. Wrapped around the bottle is a twine rope which is tied into a noose. At the end of the noose is a frayed and torn rope which ends not too far from noose’s knot. On the left third of the image, text reads “Cheat Death.” and “The anti-oxidant power of pomegranate juice.” Each text is very plain and simply to read with clean text. Also, each statement has a period at the end of it. The overall image has a very harsh lighting with highlights on the text but lack of highlights on the actual bottle of juice.
Connotation: POM’s ad simply claims that if you do not drink POM juice, then you have a better chance of dying. The noose is broken to symbolize POM’s power to “Cheat Death” by using its antioxidants. The darkness of the lighting further pushes the scare tactics that POM is portraying by using dark and scary lighting.
Myth/ideology: The biggest myth or ideology is arguably the noose. On a denotative level, the rope on the bottle is just seen as a rope tied in several wraps and loops in a particular way that makes the loop at the end of the rope tighten when given pressure. If we stayed on this level, we may not understand the message of “Cheating Death” . However, because of the ideology that a “noose” has in society, we understand POM’s message. The noose is known throughout world history as a tool for death. It can/has been used to execute and even used for suicide. However, it is also known to lose its effectiveness if the rope is cut or broken. (as exemplified in many western movies) Therefore, we understand POM’s message of a broken noose on the bottle because of society’s implications.

Semiotics

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnxpdUdD0Ro&feature=related

The link above is a foreign ad above AIDS awareness. By using Semiotics, we can further analyze what it means.

Under denotation, it shows a man and a woman having sex. And later the man turns into and appears to be Hitler.

Under connotation, many messages are sent. One is that you are similar to Hitler if you have sex with someone if you have AIDS or if you irresponsibly have sex. This is because of the common fact/history of Hitler.

Style in Music Videos

Lately, in my music video class, style has been a very important subject. We have observed different styles of music and video such as: gothic, hard rock, classic rock, rap, and country. Each style determines the structure, content, and audience of the music video.

Perhaps the most important function of a music video is the commercial aspect. Music videos, like much other things, are a way to advertise and make money. Therefore, the commercial aspect of the video reflects very much on the style. Some important artists that take advantage of this aspect are: Morse, Jhally, Levy, and Aufderhide; and each artist has an intention to publicize their music video.

While all these artists have the same overall purpose, their approach is slightly different. Morse and Jhally see music television as a perfect medium to advertise and boost sales. Moreover, Levy seems to have the same approach; however, Levy seems to focus on demographics to advertise the most effective product and to attract the particular demographic to that item. For example, if Dove was advertising soap in a rap music video, Dove would not advertise their product with an elderly man or woman, for this would be ineffective to the certain demographic, which is typically late teen and young adult man and women. However, Dove would use the same age group as the music video’s watching demographics. These aspects of advertising make the music video different, thus determining the video’s style.

Another form of style in relation to advertising in music videos comes from Adferhide. Aufderhide seems to follow the style of Levy. However, Aufderhide seems to target his audience based on political values. This seems perfect because the audience of music television seems to be young and new voters. This is why the “Choose or Lose” campaign has started.
Overall, style is based on “the aesthetic, generative process”. Mostly, the aesthetic fields which are:

-Light and Color
-Two-dimensional space
-Three-dimensional space
-Time & motion
-Sound

These aspects determine the style of the video and duplicate a style, one must follow the fields in their style above by: Repeating, Amplifying, and repudiating. If one follows this process, their music video should be effective and original even though most aspects are repeated.

The effects of Music Videos on Myself and Society

When you watch MTV today, you surprisingly may not find many music videos playing like MTV had long ago. However, music videos are still popular today on outlets such as Youtube and itunes. These music videos are still being played every day even though MTV does not. In addition, these videos play an important role in society in the way it influences us and in the way the visual actions interpret the music and lyrics.

When you listen to music, most of the time it may be on the radio or stereo. In other words, you do not usually watch music videos when you listen to music. However, I argue that by watching a music video, it changes one’s experience with that particular song from that point on. The visual aspect of the music video can change how one views the song. For example, a song may seem upbeat and exciting when listened to on the radio. However, the visual aspect of the music video may suggest a morbid and sad feeling that contradicts one’s previous opinions. Then, when listening to the song on the radio again, the same individual may not seem so excited and upbeat about the video. Personally, whenever I watch a music video, the video is instilled into my head from that point on. Then, whenever I listen to the song without the visual aspect, like perhaps on a car stereo, the music video is played in my mind while the music is played. The music video affects me far after I am done watching it and makes me feel different the next time I hear the same song, based on the visual aspect alone.

The same can be said for how the visual aspect of the video affects the meaning of the lyrics. For myself, I do not usually listen or pay attention to lyrics. I usually focus on the overall beat and melody. However, I find it hard to ignore the lyrics when a music video is being played. Perhaps because the artist may be speaking with the lyrics or the video is visually relating with the lyrics. I believe that a music video has all control of interpreting the lyrics. For example, Kevin Williams writes in “Why I [Still] Want My MTV” about a music video and the images presented. One lyric is “Right now, nothing is more expensive than regret” (150). However, the music video further interprets these otherwise confusing lyrics by showing an image, “A rolled condom appears bathed in light” (150). This reveals the true meaning of the lyrics that, without the visual aspect, could be left to be interpreted into anything.

The final aspect that, in my opinion, affects society today is the influences of dress, fashion, and actions that the music video expresses. I argue that this is based on mostly the visual aspect because the lyrical aspect alone can be interpreted by the visual aspect. Nevertheless, actions in the music video highly influence myself and society. For instance, “shutter shades” are glasses famously worn by Kayne West. The glasses offer no useful value. Rather, they are just fashionable because West wears them in his music videos and performances. The same can be said for clothing and many different types of fashions. Even the actions artists perform in their music videos influence society. For example, various dances such as the cupid shuffle or the “duggie”. Particular brands of products can be used in music videos that influence others to use the same because it was in the video.

Overall, I believe music videos have a direct affect on my life and society’s. The visual aspect effects the music’s meaning which affects how we listen to it and the feelings and emotions we get. Also, our fashion and actions are influenced based on the actions of the video.

Realism in Music Videos

When watching television, such as the news or talk shows, one might notice that programs seem to be presented in a live format, meaning they seem like they could be live at that moment even though we may know it is not. This “realism” is portrayed in various television programs and most programs are expected to follow this rule. In my opinion, this is an attempt to convince the viewer that he or she is actually at the event living the moment. For example, if a news program was presenting a news story of a house fire, the news program would use anything they have from the fire scene to make the viewer feel like he or she was there: sound clips of the fire, people standing around, sounds of sirens, visuals of flashing lights and fire hoses, and interviews from witnesses. I’m sure if the news program could somehow make the television burning hot and smoking so viewers could feel the fire, they would. This example can be said for many other television programs. But, this is because the events actually happened in real time and in front of a real audience. However, music videos are usually never filming in front of a live audience and it is never filmed in real time. The music video must now seem like a real live event. Music videos have the freedom, now to be prepared and film as a live event; an advantage that most television programs do not have.

When you view a music video that portrays realism, you may feel that you are actually seeing the band, live in front of you. However, this is not mainly true. Most music videos are filmed in front of a limited number of people (the film crew) and are never filmed in a live format. (meaning, if the music video is four minutes long, it did not take the band four minutes to film) Each shot is usually done carefully and separately. Kevin Williams states in “Why I [Still] Want My MTV” , “To establish this realism the technical and aesthetic aspects of television are rendered as invisible as possible through conventional modes of presentation that construct the appearance of being live” So, what techniques make music videos seem like a realistic and live event?

One is timing. By timing, I mean the timing of the video in relation to the soundtrack. For example, if there is a strong and steady bass beat in the music video, the drummer footage has to appear in sync with the audio. So, the bass hits should be perfect with the audio track. Without this synchronization, the video would fail to appear live in action and the fact that the video was not filmed live would be more prominent, distracting and turning-off the viewer.

Another aspect is details. This was not in my readings, but I feel like it should still be mentioned. I feel that continuity in filming is important, and if an error with this is found in the video, it can, again, turn-off and distract the viewer. For example, if the drummer is not holding drum sticks, or if the guitarist’s shirt was buttoning in one shot and un-buttoned in other. These details matter and can make or break a music video.

I argue that these techniques of making a music video seem real do not complicate filming a music video, but frees it from traditional television. Most television programs will not have a chance to go back and change a certain shot, because the real event was already filmed and in most cases, you cannot change reality such as a crime scene. However, music videos have to freedom to carefully craft each shot to appear real in however fashion or style it chooses.

Music Video Update

As said before, this semester at Shepherd University, I am expected to plan, shoot, direct, edit, and produce a music video for a mass communications course. I have been making great progress on the planning of the music video and I already have a strong script prepared for the shoot. The music video I will produce is titled “The Heart Break” by a local band in Hagerstown, MD that calls themselves: Matinee at Midnight. “The Heart Break” is a great rock song and can be found on the following link: www.battleofthebands.com/u/matineeatmidnight . Please note that “The Heart Break” is the second song on the playlist. The song contains a series of repeating lyrics including “I can’t take a Heart Break. I can’t make, can’t make the same mistake.” From these and more lyrics, it is obvious that the song is about a refusal of a potential relationship in order to prevent heartache or a ”heart break”. Therefore, my music video should reflect on this aspect.

According to my rough script, most shots are of the band simply playing on a stage with fast shots and interesting views. However, while the band is playing, there is no audience expect for one fan, which is a very attractive women in the front row. Near the first minute of the video she is seen flirting with the lead singer. Later in the song, the lead singer leaves the stage and continues singing. The flirting women continues to make eye contact with each member of the band until each member leaves the stage. (the music continues, but they are singing the chorus instead) Perhaps, the band members could be singing to the girl “I can’t make the same mistake” to then give further meaning to the lyrics, suggesting that “the same mistake” was made by one of the other members in the past. In the last portion of the video, the members re-enter the stage after the attractive women leaves the location and music video.

Altogether, I believe I have a strong script that will help to produce an entertaining music video. Also, the script very much relates to the song mood and lyrics.

Effect of Dove Ad Campaign

On the left is an image of perhaps the most well known ad of the Dove campaign. It is an image of a women seperated down the middle. The right side of the picture is her natural self with out make up or digital work, while the left side of the picture is her with makeup, hair work, and lots of photoshop work. The ad shows how distorted our look of beauty can be. Although the campaign exposes these truths and is considered a "feel good" campaign, I argue that the campaign serves an effective way of selling products. The campaign shows that normal women: young, old, flawed, or not; can use these products and they are made for them. In my opinion, other ad campaigns that show over-the-top models using these products, could turn off women to the products because they believe it is not for them because of their flaws. However, Dove expresses an opening to these women that others do not.

Semiotic Ad Analysis

On the left, you can see an image of a group of sperm cells in a triangle pattern with one distinct cell emphasized. This one cell has a mustache and hair much like that of Adolf Hitler's. The ad's intention is to show how devastating a single sperm can be to one's life and increase the demand for protect from a sperm such as the one in the ad. Thus, the ad increases the demand for condoms. However, why are these characteristics understood and expressed this way? There are several ways the ad expresses in terms of Semiotics: The large swarm of sperm is the signifier. It signifies a large chance of the sperm reaching its destination. Thus, creating fear for the reader. The swarm is also shaped like a triangle, which suggests an offense stance. Of course, the most obvious signifier is the hair on the emphasized sperm in front. The hair signifies that the sperm is evil and bad. This is understood because the hair style is identical to Alolf Hitler's and culture identifies with the hair style and projects Hilter's actions to the sperm cell. This emphasizes the damage a cell can do to one's life, further showing the importance of a condom.

Ad Changes

This past week my Advertising and Imagery class has been working on a magazine advertisement for a cell phone targeted at pre-teens. Also, each ad is gender-specific: One is targeted for boys, one is targeted for girls, and one is for both. The ads are posted above. After reviewing my blogs and considering some of the comments by my classmates, I now have a few changes I would like to make to my ad.

The first change I would like to make is to completely change the female specific ad. (The one with the one girl in a suit) I have found the ad to be irrelevant to the other ads because the girl has no power and is not doing anything. Also, the girl needs to be in more gender specific clothing. Finally, the girl appears to be much younger than the target age group.

The other ads, in my opinion, have a very strong message and they function as they should. However, a few comments gave me some very useful feedback. It may be beneficial to change the background of the text on the bottom of each ad. Also, some of the children in the ads look younger than the specific age group. Overall, after these changes are made, I believe this group of ads could be very effective.

Social Media

Lately, companies are using social media outlets to advertise their products. These companies do this for several reasons:
1.) It’s effective. Almost everyone uses social media such as Facebook and Youtube.
2.) It’s inexpensive. Companies spend next to nothing producing these ads campaigns because most of the information is spread by consumers.
An online Forbes article shows some of the most famous and effective social media advertisement campaigns.
One example of how effective these ads can be is the Old Spice ad campaign. I am sure that everyone is familiar with the latest ads of Isaiah Mustafa on television. But, Mustafa did not stop there. He continued to comment on consumers questions online. According to Forbes.com, over 180 consumers were given a video response. This kind of social advertising is very effective because each of those 180 consumers will most likely share his or her experience with a friend or family member. This kind of interaction will effectively instill Old Spice’s name in the consumers mind as well as the friends and family of the consumer. That is because, in my opinion, word of mouth is the most effective advertisement method. I believe that what you hear from others will affect you more than what you might hear from other forms of advertising.

Ad Campaigns in Films

Advertisments are all around us. We are influenced by them whether we know it or not. Most often they are annoying and we tend to ignore them. However, in my opinion, there is one advertisement genre that tends to stick out: advertisements in movies. When this thought first popped into my mind, I, at first, could not think of an example. However, a youtube video showed me otherwise. I soon found the reason advertisements in films were so effective and popular was because the technique is very subtle. Most times, the audience does not notice the advertisement, because there is often not a break in the storyline. For example, in “E.T.”, Hershey paid to have Reese’s Pieces in the movie. The Reese’s Pieces acted as a part in the storyline rather than an interruption similar to a commercial or a magazine ad, which disrupts and pauses the storyline. In addition, film advertisements arguably enhance the feature. The advertisement, if popular, functions as a tool to relate to the audience and it makes the film more realistic. After all, the world record for the most advertisements in a film goes to the latest Transformers movie, which was a massive hit in the theatres.

Advertising and Imagery Intro

This semester at Shepherd University, I am participating in an “Advertising and Imagery” course. In this course, I plan to learn and understand ads so that I may better interpret ads in media and society and so that I can better create ads for my business.