Ledgers performance

After reading all of the hype and praise Heath Ledger was getting for his perfomance in “The Dark Knight,” I often asked the question, “is he getting all this acclaim because of his death,” but after watching the movie I must say that all the hype did no justice for his performance. He simply stole the show and made the movie what it was, fantastic. The fact that someone passes  of course gains more viewers for the movie and will of course cause people to be more lenient towards the persons performance, but he simply does not need anyones pity for his performance to be held great.

Now, there are already talks about him winning an oscar for his performance, and so far i have yet seen anyone outdo him this year. If someone does surpass what he did, i do feel that his death should’nt interfere with the decision of who will win. I know plenty of people will criticize the oscars if he wins, and theyre argument will be because of his death. He already put up a great performance, and if he doesnt win an oscar so be it. At least he will hold a legendary performance under his belt and will always be remembered for doing it on his last show. One can only imagine what other great things could have came from this talented man.

tobacco addiction

After taking two communication classes, I have come to learn new information on censorship and stopping certain products from being advertised on regular television. Tobacco was banned in 1969 by congress, and since then has not been advertised on television nor radio since then. Even with congress censoring it, the tobacco companies spend more money every year by advertising than any other product on the market.

Tobacco companies have turned to motion pictures to showcase their products and to keep their companies running strong. They pay millions of dollars for certain actors to smoke on screen in order to keep their products relevant. One movie i recently watched for the millionth time was Independence Day. Now with the little knowledge I have acquired by my classes, I look for certain things in movies I normally would’nt have. The thing I noticed this time was how certain actors throughout the movie claimed that cigarettes and cigars “can kill you.” Surprisingly at the end of the movie, when things get tough, Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum light up two cigars, and just by lighting those up they somehow gain confidence again and the boost helps them save the day. Not only that, but Jrff Goldblum’s wife in the movie says to him, “I thought you did’nt smoke,” and he replies with a smile, “I can get use to this.”

Showing cigarattes or cigars in a positive manner, especially a movie where millions of teenagers and young kids will watch, to me is completely wrong. I know that the motion picture industry is protected by the first ammendment, but the movie industry needs to realize that tobacco is killing more people in the U.S. every year than anything else. I’m not pushing for cigarettes to be banned from advertising comletely, but to not be shown in a positive manner in any way. The addiction it causes is already strong enough to not even having to advertise. The least they can do is stop glorifying it and having kids jump on the bandwagon because of it.

medias influence is timeless

Throughout my life of watching television and different movies, I have noticed that not much has changed when it comes to the influence they have in the people. From Kanye West’s “Polo Shirts” trend, to Basketball legend Michael Jordan with his own Jordan shoe that most men want, or to famous women wearing designer clothes. The influence has always been there and will continue to do so.

A perfect example of the medias influence being timeless, is actor Clark Gable’s classic movie “It happened one night.” He was the leading man of hollywood motion pictures in the 1930′s and was looked up to by all men. In a famous scene where he is sharing a room with a woman, he takes off his shirt to get ready for bed. When he takes it off, he has no undershirt (muscle shirt), and just with that small shot of the movie, undershirt sells plummetted. It became so bad that he had to get on the radio and urge people to start buying undershirts again and claimed he used them himself.

The medias influence is still present today and can be seen in every person; one way or another the media has formed a persons identity. It seems quite simple to drift away from influence (just wear what you like), but you have to be exposed of something first before becoming favorable to it, and just with that you’re already influenced. I guess media influence is inevitable and will continue to shape society.

media power

Through many years I have went through constant messages thrown right at my face by the media without noticing them or questioning why they are there in the first place. I recently watched an older movie (2002), Anger Management with Adam Sandler and Jack Nicholson. In various scenes, when the movie goes back to filming at his apartment, before theyh show the inside they always take a shot of the outter apartment where there is a huge army billboard. Also, sometime in the beggining of the movie, there is a scene where they’re on a flight and they make comments about the 9/11 incident and that the country is “In a very hard place, and will not tolerate any racism.”

After watching this movie again, I realized how powerful the media is and how successful they have been in getting the general public to follow whatever they want them to believe. This was a time when they had everyone feeding into their propaganda and believing Iraq is a country that must be dealt with. The army billboard that constantly shows up goes to show how slick the media can be and advertise ideas that they want accepted.

It’s six years later now and the army or any other military promo has died down dramatically, besides commercials. They’re are more things in the media now that opposes the war more than anything, and coincidentally the general public opposes the war. Basically, I now understand how much of an influence media has on the publics feelings and beliefs. They control many lives and society, and now I know understand why we need more media knowledge to be able to think for ourselves.

 

 

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