This add alludes to both a stripper pole and being "green." Sex sells, but this draws humor to that. This also relates to the society context of democratic elections, especially now more so, because many woman are very important political figures. "Working the poles" is a pun because it draws upon sexuality of woman and also their ability to work the poles, politically (election polls). "Going green" is also a very contextual thing, because no society places a very high importance on doing things that are environmentally friendly.

This image of a car photocopying it's rear end is very funny because it alludes to someone in an office who is photocopying their rear end. This is a known joke but one doesn't expect the person in this joke to be replaced by a car. The quote at the bottom that says "anything but cute" makes it even more funny because no one associates photocopying a rear end with the word "cute."

Toys'R'Us Ad

This ad uses toys to represent a very famous scene from the classic movie "Titanic." Nearly all Americans are familiar with this image. The ad is advertising both toys and classic DVDs. I think this ad is more attractive to parents than children, because children probably are not as familiar with Titanic, but it is the parents who have to be convinced to take their children to the store. I think it's a very creative/cute ad.

Thinking some more about Chapter 1.

After looking over the chapter again, I started to think more about looking as an exertion or power. One may think that he or she has the power to control what they look at. However, there are many images and forms of media competing for our attention. The most powerful image therefore, gains our more of our attention. This is perhaps the competition that advertisers are in.

We can exert power by choosing to ignore a certain image or even a certain person, by simply choosing not to look at or acknowledge it or them. This is a very powerful tool.

With all the various stimuli that is around us, competing for our limited amount of attention, it is impossible to focus on everything at once. No one can take in every detail of what is going on around them, not even the most attentive person. This is important for advertisers especially to know, because they want to create an image that can get the most attention. That will shock, surprise, intrigue, fascinate, excite, and capture an individual.

It's interesting to take note of practices of looking and images in this sense.

Still Icon (headphones)

This is the 48x48 icon I made on photoshop. I wanted to make a new icon for my music folder. I saved it as a .gif because .jpg would not support the transparency when I uploaded it onto my blogger. It seems to work better this way.

2nd animated .gif ! =)

After making my last .gif and my friend mentioned that she was eating a popsicle so I thought this would be a more simple .gif that I could make look better than the first one. This only needed 19 frames and each frame is 0.03 of a second.

animated .gif =)

I chose to do a dinosaur eating a leaf from a tree. I wanted to pick something simple to draw, but at the same time something interesting. I had a bit of a hard time making the dinosaur look like it was eating the leaf. I found out that it was easiest just to make the animation go in a straight line, since I am not very experienced with photoshop. I ended up having to use 57 frames, which is a lot more than I thought that I would need. Each from is 0.07 of a second.

Media - The Extensions of Man Part 3

Media: mp3

Content: Dictionary.com defines mp3 as "The file extension for MPEG Audio Layer-3, a set of standards for compressing and downloading audio files from the Internet." It uses a lossy compression algorithm that is designed to reduce the amount of data required to represent audio recordings. These recordings sound just as good to the average person.

Message: This type of file allows for the fairly easy transfer of an audio file from computer to computer. With the invention of the mp3 there came to creation of file sharing websites such as Napster (originally) and now other websites such as Kazaa, Ares, Limewire, and others. These websites allow one person to download music onto their computer from another persons computer. This type of transfer became illegal because of copy right infringement. People illegally downloading music has caused the music industry to suffer a bit economically. It also perhaps spread the message that piracy is moral. For instance many people of my generation believe that there is nothing wrong with downloading a song from the internet for free. This is because they don't really see it as stealing. However with stricter laws many people now download songs from legal programs, such as iTUNES where songs cost 99 cents per download. While the music business has perhaps been harmed by illegal downloading this same type of downloading has done a lot to help musicians gain success. Many musicians will increase their popularity after their music is distributed freely over the internet. Also people have the opportunity to be exposed to a more wide variety of music that they may not have had access to otherwise. In addition to these social changes, mp3 players have become very popular. CDs are becoming a thing of the past when thousands of songs can easily fit onto one small hand held device that can be carried around, such as an iPOD. There fore CD stores are not frequented as much as say the iTUNES e-store. The creation of mp3s has not only changed the music industry but it also has changed other industries. Many cars are now equipped with plug-ins for mp3 players or voice synchronization to have hands free use of mp3 players. Also there have been inventions of protective covers to allow you to bring mp3 players into pools and showers. Mp3 players have really revolutionized the amount of music that people can have at almost any place any time.

These social changes can be seen as a negative impact with the increased amount of piracy, but also positive because the ability to include music more easily into a life style can have many benefits to both mental and physical health.

Media - The Extensions of Man Part 2

Media: Online data bases, such as WebMD or IMDB (Internet Movie Database).

Content: A data base is defined as a a comprehensive collection of related data organized for convenient access. A database contains facts that can be trusted. The facts depends on the type of database and can vary from medical facts to facts about movies.

Message: The average person is now able to access all types of information with out leaving home. Someone with a medical question could access a database such as WebMD to answer questions about certain medical issues. This saves a person time and money because instead of visiting a doctor every time they have a small question they can just visit the database. This also allows the average person to become more educated and have more knowledge about facts that might otherwise be completely unaccessible to them. Information is also organized in a way that is easily obtainable so research can be done more quickly and efficiently.

This is a very positive form of new media because it allows for the general public to be more educated and aware. It also causes people to be more independent and self reliant. The only down side to this is that people may become "too" independent, where as they aren't communicating as much or as often. For instance, with WebMD, people might misdiagnose themselves instead of communicating with a doctor who would have perhaps given them the proper diagnosis.

Media - The Extensions of Man

Media: Conference Calls

Content: A conference call could contain both live streaming of audio and video. It can contain many people on both ends of the conference calls. Usually these people are business people, which include both people in management and other employee positions.

Message: This really displays McLuhan’s idea of the Global Village. Many companies can do business very easily with companies overseas with the use of this new technology. They can have different branches of their company in different places and more easily communicate with them. This type of conferencing also serves as an extension of man and their senses because it allows their ideas to be spread all over the world, just as quickly as they are stated out loud. The communication established by video and audio conferencing over the web or telephone makes communication nearly or just as efficient as in person communication. Companies save money and time this way because they don’t have to pay for travel fees or have to take long flights or drives to have in person meetings. This means that many companies have branches all over the world and ties the world together. For instance there are branches of IBM both here in the United States and India. This ties the two countries together with some similarities because this means that people in both countries will both be aware of and be able to identify with IBM, greatly enhancing the concept of the Global Village.

This is a positive form of new media because globalization allows for the world to become more understanding of other cultures and to be more united along with the fact that this form of technology also aids the economy of many nations.