http://digitalclaxon.wordpress.com/2008/04/23/what-you-agreed-to-when-you-joined-that-social-network/

With an "exam" like this, there shouldn't be a final project as well - we should have the choice between the exam or the project. Or at least we should be able to choose one or two of these essays not be forced to do all three in this short time period.

-Douglas

http://www.stateofthenewsmedia.org/2008/narrative_online_contentanalysis.php?cat=1&media=5

Once you build a brand, a company doesn't have to work as hard to get the consumer to remember the brand (Please see the portion near the bottom regarding Fox Network and The Simpsons).

- Douglas.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonkin_Gulf

Internet conspiracy theorists think 9/11 was another example of government manipulation.

[http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7160790539111319889&q=zeitgeist&total=4006&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=5]

Interestingly enough The Watchmen, a comic written in the 1980s, has a superhero kill 8 million people in NYC to unify the world against an unknown alien invasion.

Remember: both sides produce propaganda.

Enjoy!

- Douglas

Chinese "photograhper" faked image.

-Douglas

-Douglas

Check out this site if you want to find some cool custom widget applications for our assignments.

Take the time to watch this.

http://essentials.baltimoresun.com/micro_sun/homicides/

Enjoy!
-Douglas

[http://www.salon.com/media/col/shal/1999/05/28/kenya/print.html]

Video link (need some kind of account - didn't try to get one)

http://commercial-archive.com/node/7798

Mr. Vail, of Pepsi, said he would monitor online viewers' reactions through a tracking study conducted by the research firm Dynamic Logic, to determine how much use Pepsi will make of such ads in the future. "Yes, it's intrusive," he said. "But I think customers will like it, because it will be so far superior to anything they've seen online."

Yeah…no. There is no way anyone wants to be bothered by an ad. I don't know what this guy was thinking when he went on record saying people want to watch ads. We should send him a letter and ask him how he faired with that idea.

Google just snuck ads into YouTube videos, but I even find that annoying (but the least intrusive of any method I've seen to date).

I also passed along the links to the raising of the American flag during WWII at Iwo Jima. He was grateful to have those links since since he was a good friend of one of the men who was there in the original photo. He did give credit to the photographer and the fact that there were two shots of the iconic photo due to the desire for the larger flag.

Interesting having another slant to things.

In reading the "The Way That Music Died," it really pains me to read the comment about MTV:
" "What it did really is make the business a one trick pony — and everything became about the three minutes, the single, the hit single," entertainment attorney Michael Guido tells FRONTLINE. "I think the album died with MTV. The culture in the record companies in the last 20 years has been to reward artists for three minutes of music, not for 40 minutes of music." "

In reading this book, of which I'm halfway chapter 8(total of 9), the industry was created around providing music to people to make them as "culturally rich" as the Europeans while making it American at the same time. These records were intended to represent the highest standard of what culture should be, as defined by Eldridge Johnson, maker of the Victor Talking Machine. By the time the Depression hit, and the record industry mostly tanked, the ideals of "high society" were pushed aside to make records featuring popular tunes. The popular tunes, as developed and persued by Jack Kapp, were to be songs that sounded the same, but were different from each other. Also, these songs needed to be addictive to the ear and resonant with musical memory, while not growing annoying and repetitive - essentially, this was the birth of pop music as we know it - except then it was called dance, swing, and croon.

For more info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eldridge_R._Johnson
http://community.mcckc.edu/crosby/jackapp.htm
http://www.victor-victrola.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Talking_Machine_Company

-Douglas