Ethan Pham's Media Blogs

           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 w...

          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 w...

      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 ...

        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 si...

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,...

       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 stereot...

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 phon...