Week 2: So Many Critics, So Little Time . . .

One critic whose work I enjoy is Todd VanDerWerff, who writes for the Onion's A.V. Club. I find his observations enlightening in that he has a knack for picking up on underlying emotional themes, something that a show like Girls has quite a bit of. Often, I miss those sorts of things while viewing the first time, and I find it enjoyable to go back in my head and realize what was actually going on in a certain scene or shot. In addition, he picks up on things like, "Shoshanna’s hat, incidentally, is one of the greatest things to happen to America’s sartorial sense in quite some time. I hope everybody starts wearing hats like that." I wholeheartedly agree with that sentiment and found Shosh to be even more endearing than usual with that hat on.

Another critic whom I enjoy reading is Germain Lussier of slashfilm.com. He writes clear, concise film reviews, but I often find myself disagreeing with them. I believe that an important of intellectual growth is debate, forcing oneself to understand and appreciate opposing viewpoints, and then reconciling them against his or her own. The linked review of Gangster Squad raises several inconsistencies that I took note of in theaters, but chose to ignore. He's absolutely right that the film struggles to find a balance between serious and comedic, but I didn't perceive this to be as jarring an issue as he made it out to be. I thought the film was fun, exciting, told a unique (and true) story, and deserved more than the 3/10 Germain gave it.

Brooks Barnes of the New York Times has also proven himself to be well worth a read. I'll admit that I am a newer reader of his work than to the critics listed above, but his writing style is engaging and that's often enough to encourage me to read regularly. The article listed above details a film that premiered at this year's Sundance Festival, Escape from Tomorrow, that was shot entirely inside various Disney parks without consent or knowledge from the company. Barnes' description of the film and what it could mean for both the filmmaker and Disney sold me on the movie, and now I'm very curious to watch it and see what all the fuss is about.

Reaction: On TV Critics, Fandom, and Subjectivity

These articles from Slate highlight the unique plight of the weekly television critic. Most other forms of media reviews do not have to deal with the segmented and broken up delivery of content that comes with TV. One quote that speaks to this comes from Noel Murray, who said reviewing a TV show episode by episode akin to, "Reviewing a book chapter by chapter, or reviewing a movie every 15 minutes." This is especially the case with serial television that tells one story over the span of multiple season, but somewhat less applicable to procedural dramas that adhere to a fairly staid format.

So, is it right to watch TV under a microscope, explicating things like symbolism and editing on a weekly basis, even though the show in question should probably be viewed as the aggregate of its episodes rather than any one in particular? Perhaps, and perhaps not. There may be no immediate answer to the legitimacy of this type of review, but it is a good idea to keep it in mind while reading various reviews. Furthermore, the notion of the reviewer as a fan of the show in question brings into question how objective he or she can actually be about the show, and if such objectivity is even to be reasonably expected of TV reviews.

In one of the articles above, there is a hyperlink to a tweet from Alan Sepinwall wherein he says he pre-reviewed one night's shows thanks to advance screening copies he acquired. This makes me wonder if his impression of the episodes he watched differed from the viewing experiences of those who watched them with commercial breaks as they were broadcast live. Is one better than the other?

Another link that piqued my attention was Sepinwall's review of an episode of NBC's Community in which he had a cameo appearance. I followed the link from the Slate article because I'm a fan of Community, but the article turned out to be an interesting one about Sepinwall's appearance in the show. He pointed out that, while there were certainly reasons for him to decline the invitation to be on the show, he did it anyway and had a great time in the process. The fact that a regular critic of the show appeared on it seems a bit suspect, but I really don't take issue with it. After all, a piece written by someone passionate about the reviewed content often reads much better than one written by an entirely objective journalist.

Week 1: Media Profiles

Current Shows (all of which, with the exception of Suits, I watch online): Californication, House of Lies, Girls, Suits, White Collar, Boardwalk Empire, Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, the Newsroom

Peripheral Shows (watched with my parents when I'm home in Columbus): Blue Bloods, Castle, NCIS, Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune

Guilty Refusals: Modern Family, the Big Bang Theory, Scrubs

Guilty Pleasures: None, fortunately

All-Time Favorites: Arrested Development, Top Gear

Shows I Used to Like, But Not So Much Anymore: 30 Rock, How I Met Your Mother, House, Burn Notice, CSI

Shows I Resisted for a Long Time, But Now I'm a Fan: Downton Abbey, Breaking Bad, Boardwalk Empire

Shows I Wish Were Still in Production: Monster Garage

Blog Entry #8

For my final project, I will be writing about Audi and how the German company known for its strong advertising and luxury performance cars is utilizing social media across multiple platforms to bolster its already loyal customer base. Audi has a strong presence on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, and in my paper I will analyze the company's use of these media and how it has affected their numbers (sales or otherwise). I am a big fan of Audi myself, following the company on all of the platforms listed above, so it will be interesting to see what I dig up in my research.

Blog Entry #7

My favorite discussion topic of the semester so far has been the .com Bubble, which we covered in Module 4. Even though I was aware of the .com bubble, I was not privy to the detail to which I am now. It's interesting to know that websites today are still being overvalued by investors like they were in the lead-up to the collapse of the .com bubble, although I feel society is somewhat more cognizant of the value of websites today than it was back then. Internet based companies have proven their profitability, and even though some of them are highly overvalued, I doubt we'll see the type of collapse that crippled the economy 10 years ago.

Regardless, it'll be interesting to see the new ways in which websites attempt to prove their market value to investors in the future.

Blog Entry #6

So far in this class I have learned quite a bit about new media and the ways they are used today. Some of the theories we have discussed so far have been almost common sense to me since I've grown up with the Internet, but some of the discussions have shed light on interesting topics (such as the .com bubble) about which I previously knew very little.

My major gripe with the course is that the BlackBoard interface doesn't exactly lend itself to seamless learning, especially the discussion board. It's difficult to follow a string of conversation on the discussion forum due to the layout, and that can be frustrating at times. The weekly discussion summaries I've received via email have been very helpful and concise, as they highlight the major points from each week's lesson.

Blog Entry #3

If I were to redesign this blog, I would make it more visually appealing, first and foremost. On top of that, if I were to market something through the blog, the content would have to be relevant to that product or service. I could also use SEO to make my blog more easily found by people searching on the Internet. The integration of ads would help me raise funds so that I could hire a proper web designer to help me refine the page, and I could place ads on pages my demographic would frequent to increase my page views.