Exploring Media Ownership

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Some parent companies who own most of the media in Canada are Rogers Media, Rogers Television, Quebecor Media, SRC, RNC, CBS, Radio Canada, Corus Entertainment, NHL Network Canada, Torstar and A Stations. These parent companies are all connected through the map through smaller corporations associated with them.

Main Theme in Sound City

           Due to improved technology, improved knowledge, and improved experience and training, I believe that music has gotten better over the years in many ways. However, this does not apply to all genre's of music. With improved technology, comes artists who "overuse" what they have access too. Hip hop is a prime example of a genre of which has done so.  Updated technology has allowed us artists to hire a producer, who spends nearly every waking moment in the studio laying down tracks, beats and remixes to make songs more appealing to their listener. With the use of auto tune, it is nearly possible to make anyone's voice sound appealing to the listener. This is a downfall in the music industry because now the industry not only consists of artists with talent, but rather  of artists with either pure talent or with enough money to hire a producer to make their song sound good.

The Source

          Generally, I get my information about the world from Google. This source is appealing to me because of it's wide range of information. Google was founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin met at Stanford University in 1995. By 1996, they had built a search engine (initially called BackRub) that used links to determine the importance of individual webpages. On average, Google makes over $100 million dollars per day. The amount of money Google makes in a day is staggering, but these figures are just gross sales and or gross income. The question and probably the most difficult formula to figure out is true profits. With ten’s of thousands of employees, huge data centers with lots of servers storing terabytes upon terabytes of data doesn’t come cheap. Google makes the vast majority of their income through advertising.

Think About the Themes

          The constant creation of war films affects American society socially and politically. The way war and violence is portrayed in most war films is very different from the way violence is carried out in war in real life. Most war films focus mainly on explosions, shootings, or men dressed in uniform maintaining a "tough guise" image. Although these are things are very much present in war, film deceits these concepts and makes it seem that is all that war is. Not too often do you see a bunch of American soldiers breaking in to a poor family's home, committing treacherousness murders and robbing them for everything that they have. In film, war is portrayed in a way that won't turn the viewer against it, therefore narrowing what the film exposes to the viewer. 

Value and Ideological Control

     My Best Friend's Girl is about Tank, who faces the ultimate test of friendship when his best friend hires him to take his ex-girlfriend out on a lousy date in order to make her realize how great her former boyfriend is. The movie is rated "R" for restricted. Personally, I think a more suitable rating for this film is 18A. There is very intense and aggressive coarse language, many sexual references, limited instances of simulated sexual activity, and substance abuse. There is very little violence present in the film as well. On the "Quick Reference Guide to the Elements" chart, the films falls under a variety of categories. But overall, I think 18A is a fair rating for this film. 

How we Negotiate the Meaning of Music in Film

"Coming Home" by Bob DiPiero demonstrates a strong meaning about coming to the realization that you are not where you want to be. This could be used in a film where someone is in the middle of fulfilling a dream and coming to the realization that in reality, maybe it wasn't what the person actually was destined to to. This song could also be used in a film where someone is completely satisfied with the events that have occurred in their life, and they are ready to back to where they were born (home). An example of this could possibly be an gymnastic, who has spent all day, every day working towards her dream of winning a gold metal throughout her entire life. When the time finally came for this to happen, this song would  be suitable to be playing when the athlete is happily returning home.

Film Constructs Reality

        
           Paranormal Activity is an example of a film that I believe did a particularly good job constructing a believable reality. By using a poor quality camera, as well as poor quality angles, we are to believe that what they are using are just  general every day cameras. The actors talked directly to the cameras, and used informal language. You physically see the actors set up a number of video cameras around the house, and as the viewer, you watch the film through these set cameras. Basically, the film is shot almost as if it is a home video, which ultimately gives you the impression that it constructs reality.