Hello again everyone!
I hope all of my reader’s out there are still interested in what I have to say! Well ladies and gentlemen, the day has finally come! I hate to say it, but we are nearing the end of the fall semester which means that this is my fourth and final blog entry for MCOM 352. I cannot believe that this will be my last blog post for the wonderful Dr. Nichol’s Media Criticism class. I have learned so much throughout the semester with Dr. Nichol’s and I am so happy that I was able to take her class. This semester seriously FLEW by!
I’ve always found it extremely interesting to see how a topic can be understood so differently among a group of people. Since we all come from different backgrounds, everyone has their own individual thought process when interpreting pieces of information. I mean isn’t that part of media criticism after all?
Everyone writes differently. It is very fascinating to me how different a person’s writing can be from another’s when they are talking about the same topic. It is very interesting to see how two people can have an assignment, but interpret it their own way.
For our final blog entry assignment, we were asked to do just that, look at our fellow classmates’ blogs, and examine how we all interpreted the blog assignments and the different subjects within media criticism differently. This assignment allowed me to explore the different ideas of my classmates and compare their ideas with my own.
To start off, I’d like to discuss Isobel Kuchinsky’s blog post Ideology VS. World. After reading Isobel’s blog post, I was very impressed with the insight she gave.
Isobel,
I was so excited to read your blog because I love seeing how people can have completely different views on a topic.
To start off, I just wanted to comment on the overall appearance of your blog! I think the style really draws your readers in. It is very organized and looks like you put a lot of time into writing it. I love that you embed so many pictures to really help further your ideas and the things that you discuss in your blog.
I like your introduction as well as the in-depth explanation about ideology and the two videos we watched in class. It covers all of the important facts about what ideological criticism is as well as a detailed description of political economy analysis. You also did a great job of introducing your readers to the videos we watched in class.
I think it’s really important to thoroughly explain whatever you’re talking about so your readers can have a better understanding about the topic itself. Even though I am familiar with the videos we watched in class and ideological criticism, many of your readers may not be, and your explanation was definitely great for those who may need some background information.
My favorite part of your blog is when you talked about the film Mickey Mouse Monopoly: Disney, Childhood & Corporate Power. You explained all of the major ideas discussed in the movie and gave some great insight!
One thing I think you could have done a bit more of is added more outside sources and links to help further explain your ideas to your readers.
Overall, I think you did a great job on this blog post!
Next, I would like to take a look at Lauren Clifton’s blog post Grey’sssss. In this blog post, Lauren used the Genre Criticism approach on the television series Grey’s Anatomy.
Lauren,
I was so excited to read your blog because I love the television show Grey’s Anatomy!
I love the appearance of your blog! Embedding pictures and videos into your blog post really helps make the reader more interested in the topic because it allows us to visually see what you are talking about! I absolutely love the video and picture that you have in your blog, but I think you could have added a few more pictures, videos or links to further allow your readers to visually see your ideas.
I like how you introduced genre criticism as well as discuss the different approaches: aesthetic, ritual and ideological.
I love that you talked about reoccurring themes, such as Meredith narrating in the beginning and end of every episode, but I especially love that you talked about tragedy as a reoccurring theme! I agree with you that the creator of the show keeps tragedy as a reoccurring theme to keep viewers interested and always on their toes.
It seems like we have many of the same views towards Grey’s Anatomy. The television show definitely makes it look like it would be fun to be a doctor or surgeon meaning that this show has a certain power over us in controlling how we think about something.
Overall all, I loved reading your blog and I think you did a fantastic job!
Finally, I decided to look at Beth Hardisty’s blog. Like Isobel’s blog, I chose to read Beth’s blog on Ideology and Disney, Material World.
Beth,
Your blog was by far my favorite to read! Your personality was greatly displayed in your writing, making it so much more interesting and interactive for the readers to follow along and keep reading.
You did a great job talking about ideology and really breaking it down to make it easy for the reader to understand. We talked about similar things for this assignment, but I must admit, you went into SO much more detail about the film Consuming Kids than I did. In my blog post, I only really discussed and went into detail about Mickey Mouse Monopoly, so I was very interested in what you had to say about Consuming Kids.
I loved your use of videos, pictures and links! I think they greatly supported your ideas and really helped the reader to visualize what you are talking about. I also really loved your connection to the SpongeBob Macaroni & Cheese and how marketers did a great job in convincing kids that it tastes better, when in reality it tastes the same.
I think you did a great job talking about the two videos and ideology because you went into so much detail. You are a great writer and I really enjoyed reading your blog!
I thought that this final assignment was really fun and I loved reading my fellow students’ blog posts. I enjoyed it not only because it offered me more in-depth information about media criticism, but it also opened my eyes to the different opinions that can be drawn when given the same information. I really enjoyed this class and I plan on taking media criticism ideologies with me throughout my life as I continue to live in our media saturated society.
Thanks for reading all of my blog posts! You’ve been a great audience!
Sarah Claus 