Oh Conor...

Finally, one of my favorite media-music! Ever since I was really young, music has been a huge part of my life. I've played in orchestras and jazz bands and am an avid listener of all types of music. Asking me to choose my favorite music and genres is like asking an English major to choose her favorite authors or books, but I'll give it a shot...

My iTunes library is filled with almost every possible genre from country to hip hop to indie rock to classical. What I like to listen to depends significantly on what I'm doing or how I'm feeling at any given time. Overall though, my favorite music is probably classified as indie rock or alternative. I'm not entirely certain if that's the appropriate title for the genre, but I think it does it justice. Currently, my favorite artists are Bright Eyes, Jenny Lewis, Belle and Sebastian, and Wilco. I've been to live concerts of all of these bands as well. My favorite thing about these artists is their lyrics. I think that some musicians have become the modern day poets, and these artists exemplify this. Each of these groups or singers also represents a wide range of genre as well. Some Bright Eyes songs sound like old fashioned country, while others are louder rock. On the flip side though, you can also frequently catch me listening to rap and hip-hop from 2Pac to 50 Cent. Again, the lyrics of some rap can be compared to poetry and really attract me. Even on tracks where the lyrics are admittedly not very deep, I still can't stop listening because of the rhythms and the beat.

One song that I particularly love that exemplifies my musical tastes is "Make War" by Bright Eyes. The song begins slowly with just a guitar and Conor's voice. Slowly the drums come in and the song begins to pick up. The song deals with the themes of fear in society and compares that to the fear people can have of eachother in any kind of relationships. A few lines in particular say: "And so we've learned to be faithless/stand behind bullet proof glass/exchanging out affections through a drawer." I love that the song deals with larger societal issues such as the level of fear that is generated through media and other factors and relates them back to the personal, a relationship between two people. I think that everyone can relate to these ideas in some autobiographical way.

Thanksgiving

With the upcoming holiday, I've found Thanksgiving and familiar traditions to be a hot topic for discussion. For example, I have a close friend who has never had a Thanksgiving dinner at home; his family always eats out at a restaurant. My family, on the other hand, has always had a huge home cooked meal that takes days to prepare. I think it would be interesting to film a documentary about Thanksgiving traditions and beliefs about the holiday. In my documentary, I would like to raise questions about the origins of the tradition of the Thanksgiving meal, people's perceptions of these origins, and the ways in which the practices have evolved.

In this documentary, I would interview a wide variety of people. I could envision interviewing three generations within a family - small children, parents, and grandparents. I would ask them why they celebrate Thanksgiving in their family. Children may cite learned stories about the original meal between the pilgrims and Native Americans, while parents and grandparents may understand that this story is a myth and may cite family ties as a reason to celebrate this holiday.

I would like to compare and contrast two approaches to the holiday. My family, for example, prepares months in advance by deciding which family member will host the meal. We begin cooking about a week before the meal and invite over as many people as the house can hold. Other traditions, though, include visiting the same restaurant with a small group of friends year after year.

Creating an authentic, realistic portrayal of family traditions should be fairly easy. However, in order to make a statement with the film, I would like to interview historians and teachers in order to analyze how the tradition has evolved and the real story of the first "Thanksgiving." If I could provide this sort of balance through juxtaposing the roots of the tradition and how families practice the holiday now.

Kare 11 Sunrise

Since being introduced to blogs and RSS News Feeds a few years ago, I haven't been one to watch my local television news stations for information. It really surprised me when I sat down the other day and actually paid attention to what was on these news broadcasts. I watched the Kare 11 Sunrise News this morning at 7 am. I was able to see about the first thirty minutes of the program. The first three or four minutes were devoted to a preview of the morning's programming and headline reviews of the weeks elections and the final vote counting in Virginia and Montana. From here, the program jumped into the local weather reports, filled with winter storm warnings! Then, there were a couple of short news segments on local community stories. For example, the first highlighted a charity event that the restaurant Dave and Buster's is putting on in order to raise money for the Emergency Food Network with the holiday season coming up. The second short report highlighted Westview Elementary School in Apple Valley. The clip focused on workshops that the students have been using in order to build community in the school and resolve conflicts. Both students and teachers at the school were interviewed. Lastly, right before I turned the program off, they were transitioning into an interview with a national college admissions counselor who was giving tips for high school students getting ready to apply for college.

During this thirty minute clip, I have to admit that I wasn't entirely surprised by what I saw. There was very brief coverage of the week's national political events, and then the focus completely shifted to national news. The rest of the stories were really geared towards the typical viewers of the Sunrise news show. Although I haven't read any demographic statistics, I would imagine that many of the viewers during this early time are parents who are getting their kids ready and out the door for school that day. The content of the news clips-the focus on the elementary school and the college admissions counselor-were very well suited for this type of audience.

Overall, I had mixed feelings about the broadcast. Personally, I think that local news is very important and I really try to stay connected to the happenings in my neighborhood and community. I usually do so through neighborhood newspapers and local publications, but I definitely see the appeal in watching stories about your community on the news. However, the local news stories presented in the broadcast didn't seem to represent a wide range of opinions or experiences. I almost felt as if there was no important news going on that day, so they filled the time in with stories that, although very interesting, did not bring up bigger news stories. I also think that one can make a mistake relying entirely on local news coverage for information on current events because so much is filtered out through the lens of the local news programs.

hatch2006.org

In examining advertisement this time, I chose to look at a multi-modal form of advertisements. With the upcoming midterm elections, I analyzed Mike Hatch's campaign website. I consistently hear rumors that Hatch is far ahead in the polls. As much as I want to believe it, based on the politics, both national and state, of the past few years, it seems unlikely. Hatch's website is a amalgamation of media promoting his campaign. While Hatch himself is probably not responsible for the exact content of his website, his advertising directors know what the are doing. From the home page welcome that exclaims "Welcome Friend," you can tell that Hatch is trying to sell a particular style of politics. Throughout the site, Hatch markets himself as the "guy next door," trying to show that he is accessible to all voters. While approachability is important to win votes for any candidate, it is especially important for a DFL endorsed candidate. A large part of Hatch's campaign rests on criticizing the esoteric style of government that the incumbant governor endorses, serving the interests of big business and not those of the everyday person (according to Hatch). Throughout the website you see other media propaganda promoting this same approach. For instance, in the "family photo album," Hatch includes pictures of his golden retriever (what all-American family doesn't have a golden retriever) with her nine newborn puppies. Who doesn't love puppies?

Hatch also plays into the hands of his reliable voter base in his biography and history outlined on his website. He highlights aspects of his daughter's public and community service work. He knows, rightly, that many liberals will be swayed to his side by knowing that his family has a personal commitment to the survival of the community as a whole. Likewise, another important voter bloc for the DFL is teachers. In describing his family, one of the first things he notes is that he was educated in Duluth public schools and that his wife has taught elementary school for over twenty years. Aside from teachers, many people are issue voters who vote based on who has the greatest commitment to the public schools, which he makes clear even without detailing his policy.

The website also includes videos of all of his television campaign advertisements, which highlight his commitment to public health care and education, two very important issues to most DFL voters and to all espcially in the upcoming elections. Hatch is able to bring people into his website through anecdotal stories and information that helps him appeal to the general voter and then cna drive his message home through the media that the voter is able to download once hooked into the website. In terms of advertising strategy, the website uses the multimodality of the internet to its extreme advantage.