The Return

Out of all of our blog posts for this class, this is the one I was most anticipating. I love sitcoms, and have watched every episode of both The Office and Parks and Recreation. For this assignment, I chose to watch an episode of The Office in season 3, episode 13 titled, "The Return". I have seen this episode a few times, so I know the content very well and can even recite a few pieces of dialogue. However, I have never noticed just how prominent product placement is in the show, even though I have watched every season at least 3 times (and there are 9 seasons!). 

The stars of The Office

I chose this episode on purpose, because in it, one of the main characters leaves his job at the office to work at Staples. This is very significant, because that is huge product placement for Staples. There are multiple scenes filmed there, showing the outside of the building as well as the inside and the products they sell there. Staples is mentioned by name in the episode, and it is openly discussed between the characters. This is, by far, the most notable piece of product placement in the entire episode. 

Andy punches a wall out of anger in this episode. 

The rest of the product placement in this episode is far more subtle, and not quite as 'in your face' as Staples is. The only products mentioned by name is a Sebring car, a Lexus, and Swanson brand chimichangas. The rest of the episode goes by without anyone mentioning specific brands, so all other product placement is seen and not heard. For example, in the office, the characters are all using HP computers to do their work, with the logo clearly shown. Also, a Cingular cell phone (boy, that's a throwback! Is Cingular even a thing anymore?) is held by a character, with the logo shown on the front.  

Other small product placements include; Cisco systems (shown on the office landline phones), Aquafina water bottle, Clif bars, Herr's chips, Poland Spring giant water cooler, Morton's salt, Panasonic TV, a Battlestar Gallactica sweatshirt, and, in Staples, the brands Kodak, Epson, Canon, and HP are clearly visible. Keep in mind, I had to search a little for some of these products to get an accurate representation as to just how much placement is contained in this episode, but they are all easily visible.

Apple's product placement in Modern Family

After researching the content of this episode, I have a firm belief that the rest of the episodes of The Office have just as much product placement, if not more so. Even just watching other sitcoms, like Parks and Recreation and Modern Family (another one of my favorites!), I have seen product placement without even really paying much attention to the episode. It amazes me how company's can sneak their products into a 20 minute show.

After this assignment, I will definitely try to take more notice of product placement not only in TV shows, but in all different types of media as well.

The Daily Show With Trevor Noah

For this assignment, we were told to watch an episode of the Daily Show with Jon Stewart/Trevor Noah. I found it easiest to access the most recent episodes aired on Hulu. The episode I watched aired on March 17, 2016, and the special guest for this episode was actor Theo James, from the Divergent movie series.
To start this off, I would like to be completely honest in saying two things that I feel are important to add for this specific post. First, I have never watched the Daily Show in my life. This is a personal choice, as I just have never been interested in watching it. Second, I do not find myself entertained by politics/current news. I know I should stay up to date on current news and politics, and I do to a fair extent, but I also don't go out of my way to watch Fox News or CNN every single day. I know what's going on in the world, but not enough to fully appreciate the Daily Show and the content that was discussed in this episode.

New Supreme Court Nominee Merrick Garland.

To start off the episode, Trevor Noah talks about St. Patrick's Day (since St. Patrick's Day is the 17th) and makes a few jokes about everyone who drinks, which I found to be quite funny. For the big story of the night, he discusses President Obama's choice of a new Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland. Trevor Noah makes a few jokes about the announcements. He also discuss "The Biden Rule" and makes fun of that, which I personally have never heard of. The issue that I have with watching news channels and politically-infused TV shows is that I normally do not follow what the host is talking about, and that's why I feel that this post is doing the Daily Show an injustice, because I do think it's very funny, but I can't comment on the content of it.
Noah then has a segment about March Madness, but for his show he is doing a game called Third Month Mania, which is similar to March Madness but has to do with what type of thing is the most annoying. For example, one of them is Trump vs. Trump supporters. I found this segment very funny and enjoyable as well. I actually considered going on his website and filling out a Third Month Mania bracket.
Trevor Noah brought in Theo James for his special guest, and they discussed his upcoming movie, Allegiant. Bringing on a popular guest star helps to counter-balance all of the political talk in the earlier part of the episode, which I found to be a good idea. It's a sneaky way to get more of an audience, because some people will watch an episode just to watch the segment with the guest star. Putting news/politics in the very beginning is a smart idea to keep more people informed about what's going on in the news before bringing in the guest.
I believe that this type of format to deliver the news is comedic as well as informative, because it does get people to become involved in what's happening in the world in a way that is not just straight talk and facts. Admittedly, I do not stay tuned to these kinds of shows, but I appreciate the comedic standpoint that the Daily Show takes on delivering news and discussing politics.

Trevor Noah, current host of the Daily Show. 

The Differences Between AM and FM Radio

Whenever I'm driving, I almost always have the radio on to the top hits station. I don't learn much from these radio stations besides the weather for the upcoming week, traffic conditions, and the latest gossip on the Kardashians. For this assignment, we were to listen to 20 minutes of an FM radio station, and then 20 minutes of an AM station and compare the two in terms of content and the length of commercials.

FM Station - 95.5 WPLJ.  Commercial percentage: 4%

The FM radio station I chose was a top hits station. During the time I listened to it, I learned about the weather for Seaside Heights in New Jersey, a polar plunge for charity that was going to take place, and the traffic conditions around that area as well. I personally enjoy FM radio, because I like to listen to the top hits and I love music. There is normally not too many commercials, and if there is they are spread out evenly after a few songs. In this case, I only listened to just above two minutes of commercials over a 20 minute time period, which isn't bad at all.



AM Station - AM 790. Commercial percentage: 10%

The San Bernardino shooters; Tashfeen Malik and Syad Rizwan Farook

I listened to an AM radio night show, and I learned about an issue involving the FBI's recent concern with locked iPhones. A few months ago, a couple in San Bernardino, California, shot 14 people and injured 22 people. Since the incident, the government has obtained both of their cell phones to check for information in reference to the shooters that could help solve the case. Unfortunately, there is no way to gain access to the iPhones, as there is an encryption on each individual iPhone that even Apple cannot break. During the talk show, the hosts and a guest discussed the San Bernardino shooting and Apple's response to the FBI's concerns on encrypted iPhone's. The discussion then turned into the fact that if there were no encryptions, then anybody would have the ability to break into a phone.

There was a total of five minutes and 43 seconds of commercial time during the 20 minutes I listened to the station. This is not substantially more than the FM station, but it did surprise me that there was more commercial time on an AM station than an FM. The AM station was definitely more informative than the FM station, as I learned about the news and what's going on in the U.S. today. While the AM station was enlightening, I enjoyed the FM station much more and found it more entertaining, as I love listening to music.

The Calming Affect Nature Has On Our Brains

Williams, F. (January 2016). This Is Your Brain On Nature. National Geographic, 229(1), p. 54-67.

Before this assignment, I had never read so much as one full article in National Geographic. However, for this assignment I figured I would choose a magazine that is well-known and interesting. Luckily for me, this year's first addition of Time was centered around celebrating the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service. I love nature and have gone on a few hikes the past summer, and had a really good time just being in the forest and enjoying the beautiful scenery, so this volume was right up my alley.

A picture I got from hiking this summer with my boyfriend. 

The pages in this volume were full of bright and colorful pictures of some of the most beautiful nature shots I have ever seen, and the article I read was just as intriguing and captivating as the pictures.

A gorgeous photo of the Grand Canyon in National Geographic

The article I read was about how being immersed in nature can actually calm our brains down and help us to have better focus, be less stressed, and be more aware of our surroundings. Starting off the article, the author, Florence Williams, explains how he joins a cognitive psychologist, David Strayer, and his class at the University of Utah on a camping trip. Strayer believes in a concept called the "three-day effect", which is a sort of cleanse on the mind after spending a period of time in nature. Williams explains that after the third day, he is more calm and at peace, and couldn't even remember for a few seconds that he had a cell phone and computer.
Living in a world where technology has all but taken over the minds of humans, connecting to nature is therapeutic and important for our brains. This article contains information and multiple studies about how relaxing it is for humans to be in nature, even if just for a short amount of time.
I'm very pleased that I picked this article to read out of all of the ones within the magazine, because I thoroughly enjoyed it and I now plan to read the rest of the magazine as a whole. It made me realize just how obssessed people are with technology and the impacts that it has on our brains and bodies as a whole. The information I learned in reading this article made me far more interested in nature and it makes me want to spend much more time outside than I ever have before.
Gaining access to National Geographic was not as bothersome as I had imagined it would be: all I had to do was go to the school library and check it out. I was only planning on borrowing it for a day instead of the full week, but after reading the article, I'll take advantage of the time I have with it and read the whole magazine while I still have time to.

Yellowstone National Park. 

Based on the theme of this edition, I was curious to see what kind and how many ads would be in the magazine. Since I have never read through National Geographic before, I was not sure what to expect. After skimming through all 144 pages of this volume, I found only 12 advertisements. As a percentage, only 8.3 pages had advertisements. Compared to many other popular magazines, such as Cosmopolitan, Men's Health, People, and Rolling Stone, National Geographic has hardly any advertisements. In additional, almost all of the ads were in the first 20 or so pages. There were none to be found in between articles, which was refreshing and made me want to read it even more. All of the ads I found were either focused on selling National Geographic, such as ads for their TV channel and for the magazine itself, or for multivitamins.

Overall, the article was a wonderful read. It was informative, interesting, and captivating. I felt compelled to read on and find out more information as I went from paragraph to paragraph, and I never got bored from reading. It compelled me to spend more time enjoying the outdoors, instead of walking around glued to my phone and listening to music.

Reaction to Opinion Piece in the Keystone Newspaper

The opinion piece I am going to respond to can be found in the January 28th Issue of the Keystone Newspaper from Kutztown University on page 5.
The particular article I wanted to respond to is titled "Ban on hoverboards rooted in financial and legal concerns." The article goes over the recent hoverboard craze that has taken over the nation, and how Kutztown has banned the use of such transportation on campus. The writer suggests that the reason for the ban of the boards on campus is more about financial and legal issues than anything else. She explains her reasoning for it, but her argument is weak and she barely skims over her reasons for why she thinks that is the case.
In addition, she takes the stance that students are enraged by the fact that hoverboards have been banned, but provides no quotations from anybody saying that they are upset by the ban. Her argument may be valid, but my question is, does any student truly care if hoverboards are banned?

The writer states, "Noting that skateboards are still allowed on campus, students would believe that if skateboards are allowed, then so should hoverboards." The difference between skateboards and hoverboards is huge though; skateboards are able to be controlled by the person riding them, while hoverboards literally have a mind of their own. So why would the student assume that hoverboards would be allowed solely on the basis that skateboards are too? They are two completely different modes of transportation.
To fix the problem, the writer suggested that hoverboard users sign a waiver stating that the college is not responsible for any damages to the user, which I think is a very good idea, but again, the underlying issue is: who are these students that are going to sign the waiver, who are the hoverboard users that are upset by this ban?
I agree that some sort of paperwork should be signed to ensure that the university is not sued, and I also agree that this is more of a legal/financial issue, but who is the audience of this article? As far as I know, students have not lined up to picket this ban and demand they use their hoverboards.
In any case, for now students at Kutztown will just have to stick with regular skateboards and longbaords to get quickly around campus.

Response to Professor's Post

"You never step into the same river twice" is the quotation that Professor Massie began his first blog post with. I agree with his notion that this quotation is about the changes that occur through life, but I do not really know if I understand how that pertains to his discussion of social media. 

I do agree, however, about the many facets of social media and the 'virtual world'. The world of social media is so hard to menauver, even though I myself have been a part of it for many years, I still am learning all of the "do's" and "don'ts" of this huge virtual universe that so many are linked into. 

One thing that I really connected with in Professor's article was what he said about social media, -"where critical reflection and examination are ghosts but the latest buzz or trend is a vibrant and seductive temptress". How wonderfully said! These days, everyone is so concerned with the latest outfit one of the Kardashian's were seen wearing, or what the latest gossip is on Justin Bieber. People find these topics so incredibly fascinating and always have something to say about them, and even go so far as to start fighting on social media about who's opinion is better. Meanwhile, nobody is paying attention to the latest shooting in that country or what's going on in politics, because everyone is so focused on the hottest trends of today. 

Social media is already running the minds of this generation. We are glued to our phones constantly, not only checking text messages, but our Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram profiles for what the latest news is. 

As the years progress, social media will only continue to grow, change, and prosper with technology. As the changes continue, lets hope that we are able to still be in touch with ourselves as we delve further into the virtual world. 

Introductions

Hello everyone, welcome to my blog!
My name is Katie and I am a Communication Studies major at Kutztown University with a double minor in Public Relations and Professional Writing. There are a lot of different occupations I could have with my major, but my dream is to work in Google in their PR department. I realize this is a very big dream, but it is something that I keep in the back of my head each day as I go through my college education.
Because I enjoy writing so much, I actually write for a website called the Odyssey, which is a website compiled of articles written by college students for college students. (or the millennial generation, to be less specific) I do not get paid for my position as a writer, but I love it just the same. Writing is one of my passions, and being able to do that on a weekly basis and have my voice heard by so many people is rewarding and exciting for me. One of my goals in writing for the Odyssey is to have my article shared by over 100,000 people, but I know the chances of that happening are slim. This summer, I plan to get an internship in something that has to do with the professional writing or public relations field, so I can start to get a feel for the type of job I would have in the future.
A bit more about my interests: I love music and musicals, hanging out with my friends and boyfriend, working out, and reading books. Working out is a huge past time for me, and something I take very seriously. It's one of my favorite ways to reduce my stress after a long day of classes. Reading has been one of my most treasured past times since I was very small, and I'm currently reading through all of the Harry Potter books right now!

I hope you enjoy my blog as much as I enjoy writing it. Have a great day!