Extra Credit

     I have never used a blog before this class. The first positive aspects that come to mind are that it was an easy and simple way of doing assignments. I encountered no difficulties at all, but I know that classmates of mine did. Blog prompts that dealt with things that were only skimmed in lectures were a little more difficult than the ones that were over concepts that were heavily emphasized. For instance, the globalization blog prompt could be seen as more difficult than the one over Ramirez-Burg's film shots. I would recommend it because it is a very swift way to turn in work. I would maybe want there to be more things that called for direct examples to films or media that the blogger enjoys. For instance, my favorite blog prompt was the one over the LS/MS/CU film shots. Even though this might have been the blog post that took the most time, it was definitely the one that I enjoyed the most. Because I went through an episode of The Wire and took screen captures and embedded them into the blog I felt that I was analyzing something I really loved. I don't think the blog prompt even called for posting pictures of the shots, but maybe in the future it should, because I loved doing that. I know that there are students who have more difficulty with things such as taking a screen capture, cropping it in paint, and embedding it into the blog, but I felt that was the most enjoyable thing I did. Yes, you can use my blog in a paper or report.

Globalization

     Globalization, in a sense, is the process of the integration between beliefs, cultures, and ideals throughout the world by the means of global communication. Though the use of telephones and internet technology, those halfway across the globe don't feel very far away at all. Due to globalization, countries can use the process to trade and interact with far away empires that would have been impossible to contact before the technological breakthroughs in worldwide communication.
     Cultural imperialism is the theory that one culture can dominate and take over a culture of a smaller society. Professor Straubhaar used the example of Brazilian villagers watching the American soap-opera "Dallas". Through globalization, an American television show can be shown to people outside of our culture, and in turn their culture will become influenced by our's. This can be seen in America as well, with the growing popularity of Japanese mangas and animes outshining our own comic books and cartoons in certain respects.
     I have personally experienced a sense of globalization with the music I listen to. I personally do not listen to very much American music at all, and get most of my pleasure from the music of Europe. Without the means of globalization, there is basically no way that I would even know what European music sounds like, and vice-versa for them. It isn't quite cultural imperialism, but there is definitely a growing number of people who prefer European music to our own American musicians.

Advertising

    Advertising uses particular appeals and strategies to target consumers in ways to get them to buy their product. What I find most interesting is when advertisements are intentionally put in places that they know where their target audience will see it, for instance putting Bud Light ads in a Maxim magazine. The internet has revolutionized this era of targeting audiences in advertising, and as far as pin-pointing their audience, internet advertisements far surpass other mediums.
   Depending on what ad we are talking about fluctuates the type of appeal being used, but for target advertising i would say that these use the appeals of affiliation more than anything else. Advertisements on certain websites pertain exactly to the content of the website, because they know that visitors to the site are most likely interested in what the site has to offer, so advertisements reflect the content of the page. For instance, IMDb.com's ads are going to be advertising movies more than anything else, because the majority of visitors to the site go there for the purpose of looking up films.
   I have an example of this opened in probably just about every tab in my browser. One of which is an advertisement for the HBO mini-series "The Pacific" on the TV section of IGN. Because I am going to this website to look up news and reviews of new TV shows, the advertisement pinpoints me as a target consumer of the product, knowing that it would interest me. This uses the appeal of affiliation because the ad is very relevant to my interests, and knows that if anyone would buy the product, it would most likely be a visitor to a TV review site.