Ethan Pham's Media Blogs

Throughout this quarter, I have become hyper aware of my media usage and the effect it has on my life. Although I do not like to admit it to myself, I probably spend and upwards of 4 to 5 hours on my phone each day.  Yet, even though I know I am wasting away so much of my life on media, I still cannot stop.  I think that my reliance on media for connection with my peers has consumed part of my social life because I communicate digitally through Snapchat instead of actually talking with them.  Instead of picking up a book like I used, I spend my time re-watching the entirety of the Office for the 5 th time. Although I haven’t changed my media usage over the course of my media blogs, I can recognize certain tactics that advertisers use to persuade me to buy their products.  For example, whenever I see a sponsored Instagram advertisement for FashionNova, I am able to identify all of the appeals and techniques that they are using, such as “testimonial appeal” and the “need for sex.”  I

           As a child, my favorite show was Phineas and Ferb.  From memorizing all of their theme song to watching in amazement as the constructed a roller coaster into the sky, this show played a large role in the development of my imagination and creativity.  Every character holds a special place in my heart, especially Perry the platypus, who managed to thwart Dr. Doofenschmirtz evil plots.  Each engaging episode filled my young mind with new thoughts, ideas, and contraptions, causing me to want to become an architect when I grew up.            Each character taught me certain stereotypes about people that I held with my peers.  Many of the characters fit certain stereotypes, such as a personality matching how they look.  For example, there was Buford, who was the fat, white tough guy - or Ballet, who was the nerdy, scrawny Indian kid who was smart.  These characterizations that I learned from media translated into how I saw kids at school and in my surroundings.  Whenever I saw pe

          As media has progressed over the decades, certain trends have become integrated into it.  Over the last decade, the rise of social media has created a new culture in America - meme culture.  This new humorous art form can be summed up as jokes told over pictures or videos.  Many times, the video or picture is the joke in itself, but it requires a certain type of humor to understand.  That is why it has become such an influencing part of teenage life, often dictating the trends and humor that people follow.  In personal experience, I follow several meme accounts on my Instagram account, as I  know many of my friends do as well.  Around the world, memes have become a prominent aspect of media.  Certain accounts have managed managed millions of followers from memes alone, gaining sponsors and becoming a legitimate career for its managers.          What has contributed to the rise of this new trend? The popularity of smartphones have replaced the old forms of gathering informati

          In the film industry, women are constantly objectified and sexualized.  In the few lead roles that women are given, most often they are wearing revealing outfits and have rather shallow character.  The focus remains on their exterior instead of a prioritization of character development and plot.  However, most women never are able to reach the spotlight because they are swept into the roles of sidekicks or sexual satisfaction. Although I am not a woman, I understand the impact that representation can have on ones confidence and personality. Media images constantly showing women that they are not real people, but just sexual objects, creates a culture of sexism and unfair treatment.           Even certain franchises that began with good intentions have fallen into the cycle of misrepresentation.  One example that illustrates this is Wonder Woman. The first movie was refreshing to watch - Wonder Woman was able to create an engaging plot line without romance or sex  that result

         Fashion Nova is a clothing company that is based in their social media following.  As far as I'm aware, the majority of their advertising is through social media platforms such as Snapchat, Instagram, and Youtube.  Throughout my Instagram feed, I often find Fashion Nova ads sponsoring popular meme and sports pages to reach a younger audience.  Their techniques are very effective due to their ability to adapt to current trends set by the youth.           The first technique they use is sex appeal/women empowerment.  They are walking a fine line between the two.  In one video, a model dressed in a bikini or tight jeans walks around flaunting her body and fashion, while the captions say something like "How confident I feel when I wear my Fashion Nova skinny jeans!"  It grabs the attention of both women and men because it deals with sex for men and addresses feelings of insecurity for women.           The other technique they use is to hire trendy celebrities to we

          Thor Ragnorok is the ultimate Marvel movie.  Filled with humor, bloodshed, and a great storyline, the audience is kept captivated with their eyes glued to the screen.  The movie uses many techniques to give the movie a certain mood and atmosphere.           First of all, the comedic timing of the dialogue is near perfect.  In small conversations, the actors have precise pauses in between certain words to enhance the humor.  Someone who is great at this is Jeff Goldbloom.  As the Supreme Leader, he plays a quirky and odd character that is mostly built upon humor.  Using small fluctuations in his voice and pausing during certain moments, he adds another element to the dialogue that is just hilarious.              Another technique was the camera angles.  During certain scenes, such as Loki and Thor on the elevator, the camera angles are as close as possible to their face.  This allows us to see every expression on their face as they go through their dialogue.  Especially is

          The Kardashians are the perfect example of what our society has come to.   How have the Kardashians accomplished their rise to fame and success?  Is it after years of grueling and tireless work and innovative ideas?  Nope.  Kim rose to fame in ways which I cannot name, but from there she gave her family a pass to a life of Grandeur.             Kylie Jenner is a entrepreneurial billionaire due to her makeup company.  This may seem impressive at first glance, but she was given everything to her to build up.  The only reason why the product sells is because of her popularity and reputation that she was given by her name.  Yet, our society reveres and worships these people.  Recently, a saw a headline that said that Kim receives 300 thousand to 500 thousand dollars per instagram post.  I nearly fell out of my chair when I read it.  Celebrity culture is odd in how it celebrates people who do not do much of anything, while the average person who works 10 times as hard still goes

           As each year passes by, I seemingly see more and more young children with technology.  Whether it is at a restaurant, on a park bench, or in the mall, parents have begun to rely on technology to entertain their children.  Our new era of smartphones and screens has lead to a decrease of human interaction and an increase of screen time.  Many argue that this will have a negative effect upon their   minds and social skills, while others claim that it is just a new aspect of life that we have to adjust to as humanity progresses.          What age should parents give their children phones?  According to HavenLife, the average 10.3 year old owns a phone, which is a drastic drop in age from the recent decade before.  Although this age is quite low, there is no specific age or number you could use to measure when a child is phon ready.  It should be according to the individual and determining whether they have developed the responsibility needed to keep one.  The idea that there is

          Recently, Marvel released the movie Avengers Endgame , which 22 movies have been building up to.  The amount of hype surrounding the movie is unprecedented.  Their first weekend broke the box office with the first week surpassing the titanic to sit in 2nd place for highest grossing films.  Certain movie theaters decided not to show any other movie besides Endgame .  Personally, this is the movie that I have been the most excited to watch... ever.   It was unbelievable to see some of my friends back away from their social media accounts to avoid being spoiled.  What has lead to all of this hype and excitement for the movie?   An endless amount of advertisements across all social media platforms.            Before the movie was in production, Marvel was planting seeds of excitement in the audience's mind for this movie.  At the end of every Marvel movie, there is a post-credit scene where they hint at the upcoming movie plots.  By showing scenes of the ultimate villain, Th

      4/26/19          Over spring break, I binged watched a Netflix show titled Sex Education.  The plot was about a boy who was entering high school and learning to deal with sex.  His mother was also a sex therapist, which encouraged him to become a sex therapist for his peers.  Although it is just a show, it reflects a lot of the current problems that high schoolers experience, such as dealing with drugs, sexuality, etc.           In television, I have begun seeing a lot more sex-positive shows that have been targeted at a younger audience.  I think that media like this is important in destigmatizing things that are often looked down upon like sex, while also encouraging safety during those things.  One of the characters becomes pregnant and decides to get an abortion, and the audience is able to see the emotional trauma that results from being careless in your actions.  Another social issue brought to light is how teenage boys should handle societal expectations of masculinity.

        4/26/19           In the documentary, " The Persuaders," many different forms of advertising were introduced.  Out of the types that they mentioned, the most prominent form that I have experienced is "guerrilla advertising," which is where advertisements ambush people or appear in places where they do not belong. Examples include public transportation, video games, or social media.  Advertisers have created a world where living ad-free is virtually impossible because everywhere we turn we are faced with new products, cars, and clothing lines.   The boundaries of TV breaks, newspapers, and magazines has been broken and we are entering a new era of constant exposure to advertising.          On social media, I am witnessing the amount of ads constantly increasing.  From just a few years ago, I feel as if the number has doubled.  Websites, such as Youtube, have an ad play before every single video, or news sites have you watch a mandatory video before you are

4/22/19           Pete Buttigieg is currently having an explosion of popularity in mainstream media.  From being a "nobody" candidate just two weeks ago, he is now headlining dozens of articles from CNN, MSNBC, and other large media establishments.  Not only is he getting plenty of exposure, but every article I have seen has been positive and practically fawning over him.  In this CNN article, titled "Pete Buttigieg is the hottest candidate in the race right now" by Chris Cillizza, there are numerous examples of how he uses language to influence our perspective of Pete.           First of all, I disagree with the placement of CNN on the chart of media bias.  There is bias beyond just right and left because CNN is an example of heavily pro-establishment bias.  This means that they only show positive support upon candidates that will maintain the status quo, who mostly have no policy substance.  For example, they write almost no negative articles about Kamala, Pete,

       4/22/19           As an asian boy growing up, it was hard to find western movies or TV shows that not only had asian men in lead roles, but just generally portrayed them in a positive light.  Of course, there were the cool asian spies, such as Jackie Chan, that gave a certain image to asian people, but it was always one of the two extremes.  The asian man has always either been the sidekick, the nerd, or bad kung fu guy with nunchucks, but never a normal character or protagonist.  When I was a child seeing this, it made me believe that I had to fit into one of these extremes.  I can now see how it has changed the way me and my asian peers grew up.  Personally, I believe it played a part in me pushing my parents for me to give me karate lessons, when looking back I don't know why I wanted them.  In middle school, a few of my friends purchased fake glasses to wear to school, I'm guessing to fit the stereotype of being the smart asian kid.           Another impact that t

4/11/19           What is media? Is it the social media apps that I have on my phone, or could they be the billboards I see as I pass them on the highway? Through this year, I have come to discover that media is involved in every aspect of my life and has influenced every thought.    I feel as if I have become progressively more addicted to my phone and media over the course of my middle to high school years.  Now, I turn off my screen time statistics because I'm afraid of seeing the truth about my relationship with media.           In 6th grade, my parents gave me a phone and placed harsh regulations on my usage.  As time passed, those restrictions decreased to this point where I am basically given full freedom over how much time I spend on my phone.  Out of the last few years, the total amount of days where I have been without my phone are probably only in the range of 10-20.  I have been without my phone or access to media during the week where it was taken by Mr. Starace and