Late But Great?

This is late because i forgot and I'm hoping that I still get some credit.

All in the Family was very different from 8 Simple Rules for Dating my Teenage Daughter. One difference is that if they tried to say "fag" on 8 Simple Rules, I'm pretty sure they would've been censored or cancelled. Another is that they did fight a lot, but for some reason I felt like in All in the Family, Archie was a lot meaner than really anyone in 8 Simple Rules. 

Some similarities of both include: the bickering or petty fighting. In both, there was a lot of fighting about things that are really just ridiculous to fight about. Archie calling a guy a fairy is clearly insensitive and mean, and two sisters fighting over boys is equally pointless, though without dealing with a big issue like All in the Family. 

8 Simple Rules dealt mainly with the petty issues that teenagers face, but also the issue of losing a parent and trying to move on and keep living after it happens. I also think that 8 Simple Rules dealt with the issue of gay discrimination like All in the Family did.

Do I Sound Like I'm on Old Time Radio?

          I think that technological change had the most influence, partly because I'm a huge geek and would like to think that about everything, and partially because technology changes everything. Technology, in general, shapes everything we do. We use it every day, from when we get on a bus, use our phone, use our computer, or turn on the television. With the arrival of new technology comes the arrival of something new and exciting. Even if there is no way for someone to obtain whatever it is, just the fact that it's there is exhilarating. 

          Once the technology became readily available, the newfound industry grew by leaps and bounds. It wasn't just a way for the government to communicate across long distances anymore. It brought music, entertainment, and news directly to the people. It brought people together, but it also opened up a world of possibilities in the economy. Radio operators, technicians, actors, and anchors were all needed, not to mention the fact that it was now significantly easier to hear music and bands had an easier time gaining popularity. Basically, technology is a major influence in how the world changes.

Priming

          I think that the theory of priming is definitely something that if it is true, would be hard to prove. Priming Theory is a theory that basically states that once someone sees something, they're likely to repeat it. I, personally, have been playing video games and watching violent movies and TV my entire life, but I have never gone out and reenacted things that I've seen. It may affect some people but I would be willing to bet that a good majority of people use those things as a release and not as a way to get new awesome finishing moves.

          This article: http://videogames.procon.org/, states that there are many articles and studies that link video games to increased violence, but there are also many things that contradict this statement. It lists many results found by these studies. Unfortunately whenever studies are trying to find out if video games are linked, they don't usually look at the casual games and the impact that they have. No one has all horribly violent video games and if they do, that was a product of something else entirely, like people bullying you, or abuse at home.

Framing

              I think this Houston Chronicle article definitely helps me to understand framing: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/business/7197770.html. Basically framing is something the media does to spin a story so that people interpret it the way they want them to. They do it with every article they publish, putting someone in the "bad guy" role, or putting someone in the "good guy" who needs to be sympathized with role. In political articles they spin it favorably for one specific politician or one of the parties. Newspaper articles might reflect the views of the writer or the publisher/editor respectively while on television the story usually reflects the views of the person who owns whatever company is doing the reporting.

              The article I provided is a prime example of framing. They're putting Boehner in the good guy role who works for the sake of all and doesn't do just what his party supports. They also spun it in a way that makes it sound like the president and the democratic congressmen are the bad guys, trying to take away some tax relief from the wealthier Americans. They even say this: "Obama himself has been leading the charge against Boehner, traveling last week to the Republican minority leader's home state to accuse him of offering little but stale ideas that led to the economic meltdown," which is a very good way of putting Obama in the bad guy role, and trying to get sympathy for Boehner.

Why I'm taking RTF

Originally I was going to be a comp sci major, but that was literally destroying me. See below picture:

Taken from: http://www.chrisis.org/lace_onscreen/venture_pix/vb_brock_punch.jpg

Anyway, I knew I wanted to have something to do with the making of video games and modeling and animation sounded really interesting. Unfortunately I have yet to technically transfer into the Communications School, but that shall soon be remedied hopefully. Luckily for me I already even know where I want to work :-D I want to eventually work for a company called Bethesda Softworks. They made the Elder Scrolls games and Fallout 3 which are definitely among my top 5 favorite games.

And so here is a link to one of the trailers for Fallout: New Vegas, a game they're producing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epFupigyIN8; originally taken from machinima.com