Response to Beauty Backlash

The campaign for Dove I think was a very successful campaign but I find it funny that they are pushing to have an image that is contrary to their own product.

I think it is important that people feel comfortable with their own bodies.  However, there are a lot of people in the United States who still feel uncomfortable with their bodies.  Dove's campaign I think was a step in the right direction.  They wanted to show their audience that they think any body, no matter the shape, is beautiful.  It is a direction I think more products need to move in.

Even if it is a step in the right direction if you look further into where this message is coming from it is hard to believe that they truly believe that; the message is completely contrary to their products.  If everyone is beautiful why would they need beauty products to make them look even better.

This campaign is much like the cigarette companies creating a campaign for smokers to stop smoking.  In my mind it hardly makes any sense.  Overall, it is a message that needs to be heard but it is coming from a source that is hard to take serious.

It's JUST a car with wings... Oh wait, it can fly too?!

Well, it looks like we are getting a little closer to the Jetson family.  For years, people have been dreaming of what it would be like to have a personal car that could take flight; that day has come.

TERRAFUGIA has created the vehicle called Transition^®.  It is a completely street legal car that has the ability and potential to fly over it's competitors (literally).  The picture to the left shows the cars ability to fly over buildings.  So, it actually reaches heights that make this a flying car.

This car plane street legal plane is also fairly impressive on the street; it get's 30 mpg at highway speeds.  The specs for this vehicle can be found here.  It is looking as if this might be one of the first viable options for a relatively low cost plane/car combo.  The anticipated purchase price still might seem a bit high at $194,000 but considering most would easily spend $300k+ on a personal aircraft $194k is a reasonable price.

As, the years move on I am sure this car/cars like it will come down in price making this an affordable option for many.  When looking at training this vehicle requires as little as 20 hours of flight time in a Transition®-specific course.  If you are already a pilot all you need is a quick familiarization training it comes with every Transition® vehicle.

Maybe the Jeston's world is closer to us than we realize.  As a product I think this one shows a lot of promise.  With a relatively low price of $194,000, the need for only 20 hours of training, and the possibility to use this plane as a car on roads makes this, in my mind, one of the best products of 2010.

Hamline Univeristy - Fictional Press Release

Mystery, Inc. Debunks Ghost Sightings That Drove Students Out of Manor Residence Hall

For many years, students have been experiencing ghost sightings in Manor Residence Hall which forced Hamline University to consider closing the building.

St. Paul, MN (Hamline University) March 21, 2010 – At Hamline University, Manor Residence Hall has been part of many ghost stories. Each class that has gone through Hamline has their own story to tell about ghostly images and strange events that have occurred to them or a friend. As of recently, the stories had risen to a tipping point where students would had rather moved off campus than live in Manor Residence Hall.

Hamline University refused to believe their building was haunted. To prove to the community and campus that Hamline is ghost free Hamline University called on the help of a group of teenage detectives and their dog to debunk the mystery.

Mystery, Inc. arrived early Monday morning on the 15th of March. Hamline University, provided rooms for the detectives as they and their dog searched for clues behind the stories of the haunting. The last day of their visit they had come up with enough clues to finally know who or what was behind the haunting.

The man behind the haunting was Mr. Jenkins, a local land owner, hoping to increase the interest of his apartments; which were located very close to Hamline University. He was quoted, “And I would've gotten away with it, if it weren't for you meddling kids!”

After the man behind the haunting was found many students were able to relax and now the occupancy of Manor is on the rise. Even though the stories have been debunked the ghost stories are still being told by upperclassman trying to deter first years from moving into Manor Residence Hall.

Hamline University:

Hamline University is Minnesota’s first university and one of the first coeducational institutions in the nation. It provides education to nearly 5,000 students within its undergraduate, graduate, and law programs. Hamline University is also located in a very centralized area which is known as the Midway. The Midway is positioned right between Saint Paul and Minneapolis.

Contact:
Christian M. Swanberg
Hamline University
1536 Hewitt Avenue
Saint Paul, MN 55104-1284
651-523-2800

For information:
Website: http://www.hamline.edu
Phone: 651-523-2800

###

War Made Easy

Watching the film "War Made Easy", really opened my eyes up to how easy it is for a government to control what the population sees and thinks.

The messages conveyed no longer have areas or shades of gray. Things are now black and white; people must pick sides. When trying to get people to think a certain way this could be a very helpful tool. It creates a binary that you are right or wrong; patriotic or unpatriotic; good or evil. The binaries continue on and if you are not on the side of the majority you will be ridiculed and made to look obscure. Even though this may be really effective I do not consider it to be ethical.
 
To create an environment where things cannot be questioned is to create a stagnant community. There will no longer be growth or self exploration. To be able to really help the population the government needs to seek out those that are willing to be the devil’s advocate; we need a voice of reasoning. A voice of reasoning will create an environment where people can ask questions and not be afraid of the outcome. They will not be censored and they will be hailed as the ones who are trying to get to the truth. If something is justifiable it should be able to be backed up by information and facts that will withstand the tough questions.

I do not think that this questioning happens enough in our everyday life. It is important to know why things occur a certain way; or who owns that radio station you listen to and their other affiliations. We need to work at creating a generation that will ask the critical questions. I challenge all of you to ask hard questions of authority if ever you are confused. Do not follow blindly.

--Final Version--

About Christian

Well, normally bloggers will introduce themselves before they start blogging. I am doing things in a bit of a mixed up order so you will have to just go with the flow on this one.

My name is Christian Swanberg and I am a Communication Studies student at Hamline University. This blog is used for the reason of completing assignments that I have for classes. The blogs that I have written prior to this were for my Mass Communication class thus they will probably have a little bit different focus than the ones to come. The posts that are to come will be done for my Public Relations class.

This seems to be a tad bit boring so now on to the more important part of this post; me! I like long walks on the beach, moonlight strolls, cooking and baking, making my significant other happy, smiling, and working out. Outside of class, I am involved with things like Residential Life, Track and Field, Relay for Life, and many other various things. I like to be involved around campus and helping out others when I can.

I am the type that most would just assume that I would blog; most likely becuase of my heavy usage of the internet. I am truly addicted to social networking and social gaming. These things I will pour hours and hours a week into; probably close to 60 hours a week combined. I am trying to reduce this usage considerably but it is just too easy to lose yourself on the internet and to all it has to offer. One thing I am addicted to besides Facebook and Youtube is a game called Ikariam. I have a prior post that talks about this game a little bit and if you like the game Civilization I am sure you would enjoy this game.

Hmmm… It seems as if I have turned to rambling about myself which I wanted to avoid. I just wanted to write about myself and that’s, for the most part, what I did so I hope you can handle the adventure into my rambling world. If you did I think you will enjoy my posts to come.

Internet Memes

Internet memes is a very interesting topic and have been around since the late 90’s. “Web citizens use the term in its loosest form meaning an "Internet phenomenon" where something-an idea, art, person, joke, even advertising-goes from unknown to extremely popular very quickly” (Bulik and Kerwin, 2006). The video service web site called Youtube allows for it’s users to post their own videos. Once the video is posted anyone who has an internet connection will be able to view it. With this widespread access a single video could be viewed thousands of times in a very short instant. This allows for these memes to be created very quickly and then bleed through to other parts of our culture; outside of the internet.

50 Internet Memes in 100 Seconds:

I am fascinated how videos on Youtube can become an overnight hit. Something else that interests me is how Youtube has almost its own culture. If you are not apart of this culture you may not understand references made in videos or references made by your friends in every day conversation. If I were to do a study on Internet Memes I would hope to figure out how Youtube makes it easier to spread these Internet memes. In addition, I would like to find out to what extent Youtube Internet Memes penetrates our everyday lives outside of the internet. What I expect to find out is that Youtube is not the main contributor to the spread of Internet Memes. It is a place for these memes to be created and hosted but the real place where they spread happens on social networking sites. When I look further into Youtube culture I expect to find that it does exist. Also, I think I will find that the members that are the most deeply entrenched into this Youtube culture are the ones that first start the spread of the videos before they become Memes. When looking at how these memes affect parts of our lives that are not connected to the internet I think we will find it in advertising or places where they are looking for profit.

Facebook Me

Facebook over the past few years has gone over many changes. It had a humble beginning as a social networking site for Harvard. It slowly started to incorporate more colleges and universities as it expanded. Now as it stands anyone over the age of 13 can create a Facebook profile.



Facebook is a site that has had many critiques but I think it is a service that many can use to keep in touch with others that they would have not otherwise. In my mind user that are still in High School cannot use this service to the full extent or purpose. Many students in college have many people from high school that they may want to keep in touch with and without Facebook the relationship would diminish. Once a person is out of college I think this tool could be used to it's full extent. This site allows for a person to post photo's and keep other updated on what is going on in their lives.

Several months ago my mother decided to make a Facebook account. The reason for this is so that she can stay up on what is going on with family members. I also have four other siblings and often times when we are around her we refer to pictures that we say on Facebook and she wanted to be apart of that experience because she felt like she was missing out. I think that is often a sensation that many feel now that a large portion of the population has Facebook. They want to hop on the bandwagon and not get left behind. Even while I am at home both of my parents are starting to adopt language used by regular Facebook users; which is very amusing. Almost as amusing as when my mother was rapping to Eminem but that is another story.

Even though some users could use Facebook to a more full extent I think depending on what stage of your life you are in you use Facebook differently. If anything users of different generations have different reasons for using Facebook. Facebook can be a very useful tool to keep up-to-date with "friends" but it can also in some people's minds be to personal. Sometimes it may show people information that you don't care for them to know. A person with Facebook often times has a more public life because of this tool.

Examining the Influence of Telepresence on Spectator and Player Processing of Real and Fictitious Brands in a Computer Game

1) Research topic and researcher(s):
Examining the Influence of Telepresence on Spectator and Player Processing of Real and Fictitious Brands in a Computer Game, by Nelson, Yaros and Keum. Journal of Advertising, (winter 2006), pp. 87-99.

2) Rationale of the study:
Advertisers have noticed that they have not been effective at reaching the male population with their advertising on TV. This study takes a look at how real and fictitious brands are recalled by both players and spectators.

3) Literature review:
• In the past there have been studies that have shown how media context influences individual, subjective mental states of embedded commercial messages.
• Past research has yielded results of a positive relationship between telepresence and advertising effectiveness.
• The definition of telepresence is: The impression of being present at a location remote from one's own immediate environment. “Transported into a virtual mediated environment.”
• Telepresence is measured by six things – social richness, realism, transportation, immersion, social actor, and medium as a social actor.
• The two parts of telepresence includes: departure and arrival.
• Interaction is the greatest way to create telepresence; however, all media can create it.
• Because of the interaction level it is important to look at games. It allows for a greater interaction than a movie or a television show. The game allows a person to control perception by controlling point of view.

4) Research method:
These researchers created a case study using a racing video game. They also analyzed the recall of both the player of spectator of real and fictitious brands using a questionnaire.

5) Subject of the study:
This study included 63 video game players which consisted of 45 males, 14 females, and 4 people left their gender undisclosed. These participants were ranging in age from 18-30. All in all this study was about real and fictitious brands and how players and watchers were able to recall the brands.

6) Research finding:
During this research it was found that the spectator recalled more of the fictitious brands than the player. However, this was a very limited study because it only focused on racing games. More genres need to be tested to see if these results are constant or if they only apply to racing games. Also, the researchers could have tried to have a more consistent exposure time; they did not record the number of laps that each player completed. This was a good starting point but more needs to be done.

7) My position on this scholarly essay
This article is somewhat clumsy and at times can be hard to read. It is hard to take this study as a good example because of the lack of participants. I feel as if they could have included more people into this study and it would have made the results more concrete. Also, this study was only limited to one genre of games and it was a racing game. It would have been interesting to see other genres studied because there are many choices for consumers. In addition to the one genre they did not even keep track of how many laps each player completed. Therefore, you will have different exposure times for all the players and spectators which gives less validity to the varied results of peoples ability to recall the ads. Over, all it was a good start but I think there are many things that can be improved upon in further research that takes several aspects into further depth.

YouTube a New Medium

YouTube has been a thriving site for the past few years and was recently bought by Google. Using YouTube a person or a company can create something that millions of users will be able to see. YouTube is now an environment where T.V. shows can now release videos. An example of this cross over would be the Muppets. The Muppet Show was once a TV show that was made around different Muppet sketches. Now, users of YouTube can check out the Muppet Studio's Channel which has many skits that users can watch when ever they feel. This will give the audience a chance to view the skits when ever they would like without having to wait for a specific episode to air on TV. Also, these videos can be spread to others who have never experienced the Muppet Show. An example of how these videos could be spread is through Facebook. I had posted a video from the Muppet Studio Channel on my Facebook page which I thought others would like to see.




An example of a person creating a show on YouTube would be Philip DeFranco. He has gained a following of viewers by expressing his opinion on current news. Often times his view is skewed and one sided but it does provide entertainment. DeFranco is only one of many that have become popular through using Facebook as a medium. DeFranco and a few others have now come together with a company and now get paid to work on the VLOG's (Video Blogs).

Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOG)

There are many games that have been created within the last 10 years that create an environment where thousands of players can work together to achieve objectives and goals. This new environment is a place where people can forge new friendships. These are people that have often times never met each other in the real world. When looking at a game such as WoW (World of Warcraft), which is now one of the most popular MMORPG, the relationships that are created can often times transcend the gaming community. I know personally people who play the game who have met up with other members of their clan. A clan is a group of people who get together because of common goals or ideas. It gives a user a sense of community while playing the game and in some cases may make the game easier. It is hard for me to talk about WoW because I am not a user of the game.

A game which is considered a MMOG, that I play, is Ikariam. It is a civilization game that allows you to build new cities, gather resources, trade, and attack other players. In this game you can either do things by yourself or with the help of an alliance. An alliance in this game is equivalent to a clan in WoW. I have chosen the route of joining an Alliance. Not only did I join an alliance I decided to create an alliance. This alliance has 20 members and we are ranked 32 out of several hundred alliances. In this alliance relationships are not only made with members of our own alliance but also the other players of the game. There are several thousand players on the server that I play on. This Massively Multiplayer Game gives you the chance to meet and interact with thousands of players. The relationships created in this game may not be seen as valid to others. However, the relationships made in this game are just as real as a relationships which you might make with a classmate.