The media can use this to create identities and brands for their products, whatever it may be, in order to draw in consumers. As Hearn points out in her article on ‘Variations on the branded self’, the goal is to produce profit. She argues that ‘a brand refers no longer to a simple commodity but to an entire “virtual context” for consumption’. I think she makes a great point on how before, an image/object/trademark was used to guarantee quality, but its now become ‘the sign of a definite type of social identity, which summons consumers into relationship with it’. I think phone companies are brilliant at this, as they seem to create an associated identity with their products, especially Apple with their iPhone and now, their iPad.

I found this point very interesting as it directly applies to my media subject for the assessment. In later years everyone that creates and develops media material would have also grown up with it, so there would be a difference of understanding and expectation for it. Holistically this will probably define the future of media technology as it will “pave the way for changes in media attitude and consumption”. 

As a member of the Internet Generation or Gen Y, it is so easy to be categorised in this group due to stereotypes and stereo-typical behavior witnessed from older generations in particular. The everyday language and vocabulary (as much as I’m ashamed to admit as a perpetrator) of Gen Y is spoken in a way that is just as lazy and grammatically incorrect as a typical text message. The excessive use of the word “like” is unbelievably common amongst this generation and the following one, that on a busy commuter train ride into the city, hearing someone say “I was like totally pissed off”, well you could guarantee it wasn’t coming from a person over the age of 40.

The second article looks at what a qualitative research report entails. Qualitative writing ‘must be a convincing argument systematically presenting data to support the researcher’s case and to refute alternative explanations’. Hence, they tend to be longer and less objective then quantitative reports. When writing a qualitative research report, the writer must consider the audience he is writing to. The aim is to transform the data into something that can be easily understand by potential readers.

Saussure, a Swiss linguist, proposed that the linguistic sign was divided into three aspects – signifier, signified, and sign. A signifier (the physical form of the sign) is only meaningful based on its relation to other signifiers. There is not only one meaning for each sign or word, as there is no ‘natural concepts that automatically and naturally attach themselves to signifiers.’

Volosinov believes that meanings do not come about through natural and neutral possess, but through the result of ideological struggles. He believes that the meaning of a word is determined wholly by its context, hence why there can be several meanings for the one word. Because of this, signs and meanings for words can be altered based on their context, and so it can be impossible to define something as right/wrong, good/bad, as it is all a matter of interpretation.

I agree with Shanuka’s response to the article when he states that “it can be impossible to define something as right/wrong, good/bad, as it is all a matter of interpretation”. In today’s society what I think it ultimately comes down to is the “relations between different signifiers” or in other words the gender, age, race and cultural background of a person or group. the example in the reader discussed the different responses in which two groups (young and old) were asked “is this a man”. Both reactions were different, which i believe in today’s media counts most. When it comes down to television, movies, newspaper reports, controversy usually sparks because of the lines between the generation groups.

In the popular music scene of 2010, Lady Gaga would be considered one of the most controversial artists around. Her music videos have been tagged as “too raunchy” by most people, in particular older people who find her material far outrageous and too explicit for public viewing. But the majority of her younger audience may think it’s cool and trendy. When interviewed about her video “telephone” she was stated as saying “there’s certainly always a hidden message in my videos“. People may attempt to figure out this hidden meaning but as obvious or concealed as it may turn out to be, this is exactly the point in saying that a message cannot be classified as anything. there is “always a struggle” and “meaning is always produced through conflict”

The second reading deals with how communication options have opened up to us, and has helped to ‘move the emphasis from being a user of communications to being a manager of communications’. Nowadays, we have choice in what forms of communication we will use, and when to use those forms. Many factors can influence our decision, from the quality of the communications vs. the financial costs, to even social factors. An interesting example put forward is how it is considered wrong to break up with someone through sending a text message.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQOFRZ1wNLw&feature=related

Above clip is worth looking at, it shows that if your dream is to become a famous performer its only a youtube click away…

After looking closely at the arguments raised by Abercrombie and Longhurst which states that contemporary audiences are diffused across space, Couldry questions where the best place is to study what audience members do. This cannot be answered easily with television users, as media audiences have gone above and beyond that platform as a centralised source for information. He concludes that the best way is to “keep up” with these changes and try to see the “larger picture of media’s role in the social world”.

Rizzo wrties about the different ‘playlists’ associted with the different forms of media, and how new media technologies that use playlists create a unique type of flow. She argues that these flows dictate the shape and form of media, such as how television has a set flow to it, but a Personal Digital Recorder like Foxtel IQ has the power to disrupt this flow, as it gives the viewer the ability to fastforward through ad breaks, and watch programmes when the viewer wants to watch it.