Here's a link to my project on popular web videos if anyone wants to check it out.

Popular Video Analysis

The articles that we read this past week bring up the important debate over the future of television. After reading various articles giving opinions about the future of television, I still find television’s future to be quite unclear. It is obvious that television is in need of massive reform but each television network seems to want to go in a different direction. As Pomona College students, I feel we are biased in our views of the future of television.

Here's a funny parody of politicians using the internet to attract voters.

While watching television and movies, I have always been interested in the increasingly prominent brand placement that goes on. With more and more television series set in “real time”, there are ever growing opportunities to place brands in the shows. I find it incredibly business savvy that many shows today are nearly completely funded by the strategic partnerships they make with large brands. Although over-placing brands makes for a gaudy final product, I often seem to enjoy shows with a lot of brand placement.

I thought this was really cool...

After examining last week’s various readings about videos games, I have found my personal views to align with those of the authors from the Game Theories readings. In his essay “Game Design as Narrative Architecture”, Henry Jenkins regards modern game consoles as:

Machines for generating compelling spaces, that their virtual play spaces have helped to compensate for the declining place of the traditional backyard in contemporary boy culture. (122)

As with all communication breakthroughs, the Internet suddenly allowed people to communicate with many new communities. At first, early users of the Internet created brand new communities that flourished in the realms of MUD’s, but the PEW studies have shown that people are not necessarily using the Internet to create new friends. From my experience on the Internet, I have to agree with the PEW studies in the sense that the greater purpose being served by many online communities is to improve communication among already existent communities.

in my aimless wanderings of the net i found this site called grouphug. it is an online community that consists only of anonymous unedited confessions. some of the confessions look made up but a lot of them seem sincere. i wonder how much this really helps people get stuff off of their chests.

if you want to check it out here is the link

Since it’s beginning, the Internet has tended to be viewed in a very utopian manner. For many people, the Internet is a place where they can go to avoid any stereotyping based on race or sex. When creating a character in the first online MUD’s, people were offered limitless possibilities because there character would be portrayed as whatever screen name they picked and by whatever they wrote in their “about me” section.

Seriously though, it is a really funny commentary on how people contribute massive amounts of content to the web 2.0 and don't see any payment for their work.