Aidan’s Media Blog

If you don't live under a rock, or even if you do and that rock has great internet connection, you've probably heard about the EU passing something called "Article 13." Its an extremely controversial bill that establishes a form of "robo-copyright" but the bill is so long and convoluted that what exactly it does can be somewhat confusing. This would involve a series of digital algorithms programmed to detect any copyrighted software and remove it from whatever platform it happens to be on. But the bill doesn't set any clear guidelines for what infringes copyright, and it is unclear how it would be determined whether or not material falls under fair use, if that even comes into play. The thing everyone's been saying about the bill though is that it would "ban memes" or images and clips edited with witty subtext. In essence, this is likely, as many of these memes use still frames from various movies or television programs. This would preven...

Out of the four types of advertising presented in The Persuaders , the one I found most interesting was guerilla advertising. Similar to the concept of guerilla warfare where one side attacks mostly through espionage and ambushes, guerilla advertising seeks to catch the consumer off guard and get their attention. Because advertising has become, so oversaturated, people are numbing to it, and as such new methods are needed. Seeing ads in a magazine or on television doesn't work as well since the consumer expects it and is likely to tune it out. So instead of doing something interesting to catch the attention of potential customers, advertisers now just stick ads on everything in hopes that consumers will notice. Personally, I don't notice guerilla advertising a lot in my day-to-day life. While I can't speak for everyone, this seems to suggest that guerilla advertising has become less effective, and as such may need to become more innovative or just get replaced. For insta...

Television is dying medium, we all know that. While older viewers may still frequent news channels, as more and more younger consumers begin seeking entertainment, they tend to gravitate more to places like Youtube and Netflix, which are more accessible. But despite that, the movie industry remains alive and well, with Disney, one of the largest companies in the world reigning supreme. One of their key franchises, and the one I'd like to talk about, is their Marvel Cinematic Universe. Its developed something of a cult following over the years, with moviegoers and comic book fans alike flocking to the plethora of movies it produces. It has created something of a culture, with most of the friends I've talked to being excited to see the newest installment, Endgame, which comes out Thursday. The "geek culture" Marvel has developed is similar to the lifestyle many corporations seemed to want as shown in the documentary we saw in class this morning. People will see the n...

I have stated in my previous post on this blog that we all have biases, predispositions based on experience that affect how we perceive the world. But identifying these biases is very difficult, as there is no clear line between a bias and a value, and since most issues lack a single objective truth, it is complicated to try to decide what you actually believe. But a good place to start is ensuring your information is accurate, and phrased in a mostly neutral way. Knowing this, I have constructed a brief analysis of two articles about the infamous Mueller Report, each from opposite sides of the aisle, and from fairly prolific sources, those being Fox News and CNN.  The CNN article ( linked here ) uses terms like "numerous cases" to avoid giving a specific number of times Trump attempted to tamper with the election, while relying on the reader to assume it happened a lot. It also dismisses Barr's analysis of the report as "starkly different" from reality de...

Media is all around us. From the ads we see on billboards and magazines (though to be fair no one still reads those) to the way we socialize online, everything is put through something of a media filter. Most of us don't even realize its there until we stop and think about it, for instance, I never touch Facebook and only rarely check Twitter, but that just means I'm exposed to alternative media, whether I realize it or not. Youtube is the main reason this post is being put up so late alongside my inability to get anything done on time, while I probably spend more time on Reddit browsing news articles and short stories than I'd care to admit. While I may not see magazine ads, I still see lots of them on websites and videos, and though I only watch news channels like CNN or Fox when one of my parents puts it on, I still read assorted articles, often from those networks specifically on the internet. The point of what I say here is that we are all surrounded in our everyday li...