#the character rotations happening on this website….off the charts

[anna-scribbles]

i love you guys(people in my phone who are crazy about emilie agreste)

[duhragonball]

Babbling about Comics

One of my New Year’s resolutions is to get back in gear with my plan to read my entire collection of X-Men comics.   I had this big plan to do it in 2015, but I only made it about halfway, which put me around Uncanny X-Men #280 (September 1991).   That’s about 29 years’ worth of comics, though, so my plan was probably unrealistic.

Ever since I reblogged this, I’ve been thinking about how I used to be big into American comic books, but not so much anymore.  One person in that thread jokes about how complicated it is to start reading X-Men and Wolverine, and the thing is, I actually know how to do that, because I spent maybe a week in 2014 obsessively studying the Marvel Chronology Project website to come up with a good reading order.  Honestly, it’s kind of fun, but only because I’m a maniac.  I can’t see how any normal person would even want to bother untangling that mess.  The system was designed for only two kinds of immersion.

1) You bought the comics when they were published, and read them in more or less their intended reading order, because you had no other choice.

2) You’re a maniac like myself, who accumulated all this stuff after the fact and you’re determined to go back and figure out what happened.

Nowadays, it’s a lot easier for a new fan to dig into the past, because so much of Marvel’s back catalog is available in digital format, but it’s still a pretty big paywall when you think about how many X-Men comics they’ve made.   And even if you download torrents, you still have to read the whole thing, and who has time for that?  Generally, Marvel’s marketing strategy has been to try to make the new stories accessible enough for new readers to follow, while only reprinting the older material that’s important or popular.   As a collector and a completist, this always frustrated me, but I think I’ve finally begun to see the wisdom of that approach.

See, the real gateway to a franchise like this is to stick to the greatest hits.  For me, that’s Uncanny X-Men #94-167, which spans 1975-1983.  Then you jump all the way to Wolverine’s solo book, which started in 1988.  The first thirty issues of that are really, really good.   I like the stuff that Larry Hama did with Wolverine later, but it’s not for everyone.  If you want to read a crossover, I’d recommend “X-Tinction Agenda”, since it provides a decent snapshot of where the X-Books were at in 1990.  Now, I’m skipping over a lot of other material from the period, but a lot of it was pretty awful, and the good issues of X-Factor and New Mutants  were kind of inessential.   The point is that you have to sample the best stuff first, then decide if you care enough about the characters to go dumpster diving through the rest of it.   You’ll find some gems, but you have to be willing to put up with some real crap to get at it. 

For example, right now, I’m in the middle of 1992, which was sort of a defining period for the X-Men franchise.   Chris Claremont had ended a 17-year run as the writer, and they were trying to build everything around superstar penciller Jim Lee.  I don’t know what went wrong exactly, but by the end of the year Lee had left to start his own company, and a lot of the X-Men comics from that year have a long list of co-plotters, co-scripters, and guest artists.  The flagship title, X-Men v.2, held up reasonably well, but it’s sister Uncanny X-Men suffered from neglect.  UXM #281 was supposed to herald this bold new era, but instead it just looks like a tire fire, one that continued to burn until #293 at least.   But, those issues are notable because they introduce Lucas Bishop to the franchise. 

I never cared much about Bishop, except that he looks pretty cool, and he had a cool voice in the X-Men cartoon.  Otherwise, I only knew he was a guy from the future with a gun, just like the dozen other future-guys-with-guns in 90′s comics.    But when Bishop was introduced, he hailed from the year 2062, where he’s part of a Judge Dredd-style security force.  Bishop revered the X-Men as legends, but once he meets the real deal he quickly finds out they’re not what he expected.  Bishop sees himself as a peacekeeper, and he’s honored to join the X-Men, but he keeps finding his violent, hair trigger methods at odds with the X-Men’s rigid protocol. 

The thing is, I identify with the guy.   I used to write him off as a knock off of Cable, or one of the other loose-cannon hardcases the X-Men keep recruiting, but they actually found a way to make Bishop stand out from the crowd.   He loves the X-Men in theory,  but he really doesn’t understand what makes them work.  Which is sort of like me trying to read all these comics I only know by reputation.    A lot of of the things fans praise the X-Men for are vastly overrated or completely misrepresented.  The conventional wisdom I always got from the fans was that the X-Men were only great when Claremont wrote them, and then Scott Lobdell took over and Ruined Everything(tm).    The reality (from my perspective) is that Claremont ran out of mojo around Year Eight of his 17-year run, and he was running on fumes from ‘83 to ‘91.  I’ve seen fans carry a torch over what happened to Madelyne Pryor, but as far as I’m concerned Madelyne Pryor’s introduction was when the Claremont run jumped the shark.  Her whole character arc was a no-win scenario and their biggest mistake was in not ending it sooner.  I used to think the X-Men comics of the early 90′s were a creative train-wreck, but somehow it managed to generate Bishop, and that gives me hope. 

Also, there is something oddly comforting about reading these old comics.   Nothing ever really changes with the X-Men.   If a character gets killed, they just come back a few years later.   If a character quits or turns evil, it’ll get reversed later.  The X-Men never really win or lose any battles.  They just sort of show up and fight, and then something else happens and they get distracted by that for several issues.  Last night I read the issue where Forge gets upset because he’s in love with Storm and he hasn’t even gotten five minutes alone with her to rekindle their feelings from 1988.   He awkwardly proposes to her, and she punts, telling him she’ll think about it.   In the very next scene they have together, he leave the mansion before she can even give her answer.  Forge is convinced that Storm doesn’t really love him, and that she’ll never set aside her X-Men career long enough to make time for a serious relationship.   As he slams the door, she mutters “I would have said... yes.”    That’s classic X-Men for you.   All angst, all turmoil, no resolution.   We don’t know if Storm is sincere or not, and Forge won’t even stick around to find out.   Is he right about her, or is he just too afraid of rejection?   Maybe we’ll see in a later issue, but I bet we don’t.   It’s Schrödinger’s ship.   Everything sort of hangs in midair. 

Now, I might have said that this is why I’ve come to prefer anime lately, because the stories are more decisive.   Goku married Chi-Chi and that’s it.    Done.   There’s no hotshot editor trying to split that up or retcon it to clear the way for a fresh pairing.   The real tragedy of Storm is that she’s trapped in Comic Book Time, so she couldn’t have a long term relationship even if she wanted to.    If she had married Forge in 1992 they would have inevitably been divorced a short time later, because Marvel likes to rotate romantic partners around every few years.   Storm actually married the Black Panther later on, but I’m pretty sure that’s over now.   But Goku’s marriage to Chi-Chi is absolute.   I like certainty.   It helps make the characters feel more genuine, and less like imaginary dolls driven by editorial whims and sales charts.

But, having recently finished Revolutionary Girl Utena, I find the X-Men’s open-endedness kind of soothing.   I didn’t get what I wanted from the ending of the Utena TV series.  I’m not sure what I wanted, exactly, but what I got wasn’t completely satisfying.  I may warm up to it later on, or I’ll watch the movie version and see if that’s more to my liking, but that’s pretty much all I’m going to get.   With the X-Men, I’m not particularly invested in the characters, and I have a general knowledge of what happens to them, and that anything that happens to them is mutable and transient.  It takes a lot of the punch out of Forge walking out on Storm, but it’s still decent theatre, and I’m not in the mood for dramatic punch right now.   Utena was like getting dramatically punched by Star Platinum for five pages.   I’d watch one episode and then I’d have to take a break before moving to the next one.    Not everything needs to be like that.  Sometimes it can be Bishop possibly getting Storm on the rebound, only to discover that she’s not as good in bed as the history books said she was.

Nevertheless, I think this is something the comics industry needs to address.  I got fed up with following comics because the new ones are expensive and inconsistently produced, and nothing worthwhile ever happens in them either.  They keep relaunching series with new #1′s, or renumbering them every time they get close to a Big Round Number, so it’s probably even harder to keep the reading order straight than it was twenty or thirty years ago.   So it’s a lot of the same hassles you get from back issues, except my back issues are already bought and paid for, so I might as well waste my time reading them instead of paying for overpriced new stuff.   Their best bet is to introduce new characters, especially female, POC, and LBGT+ characters that are tough to find in the back issue rack, because that’s something novel they can use to draw modern audiences.   Because Thor’s dealt with Ragnarok about a dozen times already, and the X-Men haven’t accomplished anything tangible in 30 years, so eventually no one’s going to fall for the same corny “Nothing Will Ever Be the Same!” gimmick.

[bradlew123-blog]

The softer skills include leadership

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[leroyamyterry-blog]

Adidas unveils new 3D printed shoe

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[kylesinochi]

Critical Approaches

1.

What is BARB?

BARB, or the Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board, is a UK based organisation founded in the early 80s that which gathers data for television ratings to be given out to television companies so that they might better understand the viewing habits of the United Kingdom in and effort to improve the service we receive.

This is achieved through the answers they ascertain from the following five questions.

Who is watching?

Age, race and ethnic background may be contributing factors to what a person may watch.

What are they watching?

This information can be made use of by the show creators to predict what would be the best show to make next or fund more. This may also be useful in knowing what would be good shows to do re-runs of in the long term.

When are they watching?

Television shows that cater to a certain demographic should be timed to be at the most optimal time for viewing. Meaning that a program about building or DIY improvements would be most effectively placed in the evening when the working day has finished and the people whom would be interested enough to watch are available at home.

What are they watching on?

This data may be used to decide how to best format the video being produced.

How did the medium get to the screen?

Know this could help providers know what is the best way to broadcast by finding out which method has the least complaints

How does BARB know who is watching and what they are watching?

BARB has a representative panel of homes that they select all over the UK. Their method for knowing whom is watching is a manual check-in & check-out system. To do this on TV each home on the panel’s TVs are fitted with data recorders and given a remote-like device which the residents of the home use to tell the machine if they are watching or not. For other devices such as mobile smart phones or tablets the check-in is done through software, like apps. The same thing applies though, turn on your option when you enter the room to watch TV or when you view on your mobile device and turn off when you’re finished.

The information of what are they watching is done through audio, this is because pictures of shows have the possibility to have text overlayed, have images side-by-side and be in different perspectives creating difficulty when trying to detect what is being viewed. Audio samples are taken and stored in a digital signal to then be sent off to BARB HQ and compared to a reference library of shows and adverts. This doesn’t always work though; for example, in the case that a show is being ran on multiple channels such as those that offer a SD and HD service, for this BARB relies on the channel placing an audio watermark that human ears can’t pick up but their systems can. Sky customers use a different method because BARB can easily access service information code to detect which channel is being viewed. Additionally meta data tags are now being used for television content distributed through the internet to find out what is being watched through mobile tablets and laptop/computers.

To make sure all the results are accurate and reliable BARB have a dedicated group of data specialists to detect anomalies within, this may be caused by a person not pressing the button on their remote properly or accidentally activating it twice. If necessary the home may be removed from the panel, reasons may include if the data in consistently off or if the home publicises that it is on the panel; for example, posting about it on Facebook.

How does BARB get data to their clients every day?

After having success gathering data from the representative panel, that is what content an individual is watching and what they are watching on, BARB delivers this data and information to their clients so that they can judge how prosperous their work is.

The process is done over-night, beginning at 2 am when homes start to send data back to BARB, this is then weighted - adjusted to represent the population of which the sample was taken. From here BARB’s research agencies scrutinise the reports before they are made available to the public at 9:30 every morning.

The data is given to the clients through an analytics system, which allows them to view and use the information as they please in their own personal ways. There are many of these systems are provided by BARB registered companies, a full list of which can be found on the BARB website.

Each day they provide ratings for all of the previous days viewing, the majority of watching is still to programs at the time they're broadcast, this is called the overnights which include the audiences that record the program and watch it back on the same day. BARBs clients have been able to see data of watched shows up to four weeks after initial broadcasting, this is extremely valuable to the providers when they need to plan schedules weeks in advance.

Difference between qualitative and quantitative?

Qualitative research is mostly research that involves exploring people, exploring people to better understand motivations, reasons and opinions. An example of qualitative research would be going for an interview, sample sizes are usually small and the respondents (potential employee for example) are selected to fulfill a given quota. Qualitative research is needed when numbers and statistics are not enough to give proper insight into a problem or subject.

Quantitative research is used to quantify the qualitative research, rather than showing what the opinions of the people are it shows how many of the people have that set opinion. The sample size for quantitative research tends to be much larger. Making the numbers from a survey or questionnaire, two very popular methods for collecting such data, into understandable and visual formats like charts help to visualise and predict trends. For example Coca-Cola likes to hear that people enjoy the taste of their drink "I like the taste" but that doesn't help them to know when and where to supply it.  Gathering quantitative data on where the positive qualitative results come from is important to project earnings in relation the geographical distribution of the product.

The Jeremy Kyle Show's audience

The Jeremy Kyle Show is a day time TV program airing at quarter past nine each weekday morning in the UK since 2005. Because of its airing time we can assume that its main intended audience is a mixture between the unemployed and single/stay at home parents (although actively appealing to the unemployed would be unethical in my opinion). The shows content would also indicate towards there being a more female heavy audience than male, this is because the show deals with issues such as lying an relationships, both subjects heavily weighted on gossiping, a thing mostly associated with women.

It could also be said that a portion of viewers watch for a comedic value, the show more often than not has guests with ridiculous appearances or stupid motives for being on the show, sometimes a combination of both. The Jeremy Kyle Show is known for having outbursts of rage and silly situations for Jeremy to deal with. Shock value I'm sure has as much to do with why it's viewer base watches as those who watch for the enjoyment of the show. This is similar to the massively popular TV soaps like Emerdale and East Enders each with often far-fetched story arks and shocking conclusions

Thrill and suspense play a large role in other aspects of the show, frequently there will be lie detector tests (although the accuracy of such tests are criticised) and DNA results. These are done after each party has told their story or had their say to drag the show out as long as possible. This further shows that people with less active lives (unemployed and parents) are likely to watch to have a more interesting day.

Newsnight's audience

Newsnight is a weekly current affairs program that specialises in analyses and cross examination of politics and politicians. It airs between half ten and twenty past eleven at night giving the impression that is main focus audience are adults with full-time jobs. Those interested in politics also tend to be upper class, upper class being a result of working.

The way in which the presenters speak is much more formal than most other shows and the way in which they present themselves through dress code speaks to an older audience that are used to the formalities of old media. The channel BBC2 also features shows like Flog It and Eggheads, both of these shows have a similarly aged target audience, if Newsnight was for a younger audience its probable to assume it would be on a different channel.

It doesn't seek to attract audiences through any other means than impartially giving the facts as they are supposed to be unbiased in their reporting. The elder community isn't interested in silly theatrics like you would find on The Jeremy Kyle Show for example.

2.

Watchmen trailer Technical Codes:

Watchmen’s trailer begins with fast paced rotation of logos and tense music to create suspense and indicate something important or shocking is going to happen. A shot of a character with his forearm at the bottom of the screen is put in to show that whatever this power that is taking over him is it is coming from under him. This same shot has his face fade out of focus, I would say this is to show that whoever he is now is being taken away and this new thing ruling him now. Again the next shot of our character has him centered for the shot as he mysteriously explodes, this indicates that the phenomena is coming from within. Throughout all this there is many flashing lights and fades to darkness to emphasise the intensity of the scene. Scenes end and begin on the drop of the accompanying music, this make you feel more involved as though you are interacting. More characters are introduced in quick succession each shot fading in and out of each other which shows a state of unease and anarchy. They appear and are shown in different situations and varying poses that are sometimes slowed down, probably to give them more time to make an impact on viewers minds. This also gives to the story that the Watchmen are going to be around for a while and their impact will be felt.

Once Upon A Time in the West Symbolic Codes:

3.

Hypodermic needle theory:

This concept of communication, sometimes referred to as magic bullet theory or other similar names, is the idea that the media uniformly controls the mass "sheep like" public with direct messages designed to prey on their predictably instinctual reactions to an issue or situation. In my opinion the reason for its name is that a magic bullet or hypodermic needle would be incredibly subtle and almost undetectable to the unsuspecting person - for example if an earthquake alarm is sounded, most people don't take time to assess whether a threat is real or not, they reasonably grab essentials and leave to a safer area, or panic and create mass hysteria. This may or may not be the right thing to do based on the eventual truth of a matter, if there was no threat then you have wasted time energy and resources to leave, but if there is a real threat then your best interests have been satisfied.

This has become a lot less common in the modern era where more and more people are becoming critical of the media and its reliability. Most people are educated and rational enough to know if the radio announces an extraterrestrial attack it is a hoax or joke. This is due in part to the progression of science which allows us to understand the world around us and its probable likelihood of certain events happening. However if it announced a terror attack the public, with all the recent happenings are more inclined to listen and stay away from the place of attack. Although these messages would have no negative outcome and are to the public's best interest, if an eighteen year old can use nothing more than common sense to predict this, imagine what monolithic media corporations with their massive reach, money and no doubt multiple teams on analysts who work day by day to broadcast their messages can do.

An example of this actually happening comes from the late 1930's when Orson Welles recited through radio his sci-fi story War of the Worlds to the nation producing a nation-wide panic in a scientifically illiterate time, where the USA's population actually believed it was under attack by Martians.

Uses and Gratification theory:

Uses and gratification theory, abbreviated to UGT, is a method or approach to better knowing how and why the public self-consciously seek out specific media to satisfy their needs and wants. UGT focuses on the audience and asks one of the most important questions “what do people do with media?” this may be to relax, socialise or learn, to name a few. UGT rightly in my opinion assumes that the public are independent enough to know what they want to read, watch and listen to when consuming media. This is to say that instead of gobbling up whatever it is the news and advertisement giants shove their way, the consumer are mentally active enough to sift through content and find what speaks to them. This theory is very active in the modern era through the internet now that YouTube (and to some extent Facebook and Twitter) has given a platform to alternative media companies and charismatic individuals with opinions, points of view, issues and questions that resonate with the middle and working classes, old media are now scrambling to even gain a fraction of the reach some of these online providers have.

For example, online news and current events company AJ+ are available through internet and social media only. They make great use of animated explanations, satire and most of their videos end with a thought provoking question relating to the story, creating an engagement that you can’t get through the standard televised news - All this without the immense costs of air time.

Negative effects of media on audiences:

Companies seek to portray their products in the most flattering way possible to the public, although from a financial point of view this makes sense and would seem to be the way forward for growth, profits and expansion there is an argument to be made on which methods of advertisement are ethical. When Apple flaunts their newest Smartphone or computer through the television at you it is simple and to the point, they show how good it looks and maybe one or two features that give it a USP to distinguish it from competitors - The iPhone 7 for example has a relatively high quality camera for a Smartphone. This is fine and nothing is told that is false, if Apple said it came with a jetpack and the finished product didn’t come with one there would be mass outrage and complaining, the product would be recalled and people should expect a refund. The same can’t be said for other things such as women's beauty products. It is widely known that when you see a model on a magazine cover (although already considered extremely good looking) they will have been edited digitally on a program like Photoshop - jaw-line sharpened, eyes made bigger or skin darkened/lightened. This is argued to have a negative impact on impressionable youths giving them a false and often unattainable standard of beauty to aspire towards. Feelings of inadequacy and actively starving themselves to unnecessarily lose weight would be a bad consequence of looking at these images day-in day-out.

It's not just in consumerism that our lives can be affected by the media. A very large portion of the population today has multiple social media accounts where they post and update about themselves on a daily bases. When using the internet there seems to be a false sense of anonymity, even when publishing on personal accounts. Having our thoughts seen by all our friends gives us a sense of connection, but the problem is our post are viewable to anyone. A decade ago you could come home talk about how horrible your day was at work and nothing would come of it, even in 2007 social media was just new on the block and businesses weren't bothering to check up on their employees through it - The only way your boss would know you hated him was if you told him. But now social media is such a large part of daily life, it’s considered foolish for a business to not promote through it, boss’ are much more likely to see a nasty thing you’ve said and punish you for it.

4.

(A)

Ice Age Dawn of the Dinosaurs is an animated action-adventure comedy film, the generic conventions associated with this form of movie are things such as canned laughter (although not in this specific film), recurring characters that have been developed with their own catchphrases (such as manny the mammoth saying he’s “not fat, its the fur that makes him ‘poofy’”) and outrageously stupid personalities like sid the sloth with his child like demeanor and attitude. The reason these conventions are more often than not included as part of the genre of film are that the movie producers want to hit their target audience with all the proven to work tactics at once, by making all the conventions people know and love available one after the other the film becomes more memorable.

(B)

The technology used to produce films such as Ice Age are specifically 3D softwares that produce CGI, for example Maya. The reason for this is that these films are mostly aimed at children, who’s media prowess for the most part only extends to cartoons. Using 3D applications to mold and sculpt worlds to their liking is extremely useful for production teams in striving towards have a product that looks inviting to kids. If the movie was shot in real life it wouldn’t have silly looking characters like Sid or Many, or the stylised environment to compliment them.

(C)

An open narrative is a story in which there’s usually multiple characters of importance with no foreseeable end in sight. It’s often the case that these extensive casts will have the limelight on them as individuals at one time or another, there isn’t only one or two people featured for the story. More often than not these story also take place in accordance with real time events and time, a week passes in real life, it passes a week in the show too. For example take your pick of any of the British TV soaps like emerdale, for a few months the spotlight may involve a family partaking in a crime of sorts and when the investigation has drawn to a close life for the rest of the village goes on and thus the show remains with a new set of characters taking the limelight for similar or different reasons.

(D)

A closed narrative is one within which there may be a foreseeable conclusion to the story. It is very different to the open narrative counterpart because in the majority of cases there are only a handful, perhaps less, of main characters that the plot revolves around: they may even be arranged in a hierarchy of importance. Time scale and events are exclusive to its specific universe and don’t rely on real life happenings. The story may take tangents to go back or forward in time. An example of this would be near an movie film, take Indiana Jones as the subject, time may shift months at a time to speed up travel in the early 20th century and the ending has a predictable path, Indy beats the bad guys and makes off with the dame and treasure.

(E)

Semiotics is the study of symbols and how they are used, with this in mind the connotation would be what the strict or more broad meaning of a picture or symbol, whilst the denotation is the opposite, opting to go with the more individual and emotional response or meaning. For example take the “Peace symbol”, Its connotation is that it is a symbol for the campaign against nuclear weapons, being the image for those that advocate for their dismemberment. Fast forward to the modern day and it’s true meaning is lost among a sea of alternative lifestyles and mindsets, its now the face of groups who believe in stopping greenhouse gasses and the defacing of natural landscapes to name a few.

Gerald Holtom- old meaning

New meaning

(F)

When comparing the portrayal of two women from both the “Load” and “Elle” magazines it’s clear to see the purpose of how they look. Load appears to be an adult themed read on which there’s a young woman with little no clothes on. I would say the target audience of this is young single men and gay women. I can’t imagine any other type of person buying this sort of material, and they would be doing this discretely. The lady on Elle however, who I recognise as the actress Jessica Simpson, is much more conservative in her appearance. She portrays the standard of a southern housewife, shown by the stereotypical large belt buckle.

Generally I wouldn’t say they are being stereotyped, women can dress as they like for whatever situation or setting but it would seem from this extremely small sample size that attractive women are supposedly blonde. Weather or not that is just the case in these two magazines or a more frequent occurrence I’m unsure about.