Bonus Round: Blog Evaluation

Before taking RTF 305 I had never written a blog. I experienced many positive aspects from the blog assignments. I feel the blog writing assignments improved my writing skills. I viewed the them as having an essay due each week. Also, the blogs allowed me to focus on technical parts that I was previously oblivious to. For instance, I previously was unaware how to link and embed media into a blog. I thought the most positive aspect of the blog assignments was the encouragement of creativity. This is what distinguished the blogs from normal essay assignments. In my opinion this was accomplished in two ways. First, the essence of a blog is supposed to represent a personal tone from the author. Second, the TA's encouraged creativity in order to receive full credit. I believe this prompted us to go beyond mediocrity and explore our creative talents.

The only difficulty I encountered with the blog assignments was learning how to link media to my blog post. I overcame this difficulty by persevering until I figured it out, basically a lot of trail and error. Looking back, I should have just asked a TA for help. This being my first semester here, I was busy trying to figure everything out and stay a float.

I enjoyed the blog prompts that focused on film language and structure. My view is very biased because my primary interest is learning how to make movies. I was not aware of certain film language and structure before and really liked focusing on them. For example, in the film language prompt i used a goofy 1980's urban kung fu movie and was still able to answer the prompt. I felt this added enjoyment in the learning process. I liked being able to apply an important element such as film language to a silly movie. On the other hand, i don't watch a lot of t.v. so the prompts such as four and seven regarding sitcoms were not as easy to work with. Bottom line I understand this is an r.T.f. class so really there is no compliant.

I would recommend using blogs in the future. The blog assignments provide a creative environment
to improve one's critical analysis and writing skills. My only suggestion would be to continue to teach the students how to link and embed media in their blogs before they nose dive into the assignments.

Yes, you can use my blog in a paper or report.

The Globalization of Michael Scott

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The theme of globalization helps explain the prevailing concept of hybridization in media platforms such as television. Globalization is the process of interconnectedness among nations, cultures, and people. Basically, the concept of globalization implies reducing differences that existed between nations in time, space, and culture. Technological developments have not only supported but accelerated globalization. Digital convergence has allowed poorer countries to produce greater amounts of production than previous generations with mobile phone and internet infrastructure expanding. To simply link the effects of globalization to poor countries would undermine the concept greatly, hint: the term globalization. Look no further than right here in the U.S. of A. to witness globalization at its finest. Our country is full of diverse cultures blending together that create a distinctiveness that represents and inspires innovation.


Hybridization is the interacting and mixing of previously separate cultures overtime. Think of hybridization as culture A meets culture B and the result is culture C. In essence this term could define the culture of the United States with so many different cultures meeting and blending on the same land to form various different forms of new cultures. Take our local food favorite, "Tex-Mex", which combines the heritage of Mexican food with a local Texas flavor. How about one of the most powerful forms of self expression, rock music, which blends jazz and blues together. Hybridization doesn't stop there, to witness it first hand in media just turn on the T.V.



Some of our most popular television shows are the result of hybridization. One of my favorite T.V. shows is The Office. This hybridized show is the result of what is called glocalization which combines global ideas with local ones. This occurs in media when a successful idea is taken from one place and adapted in another. Who does this better than the United States? Nobody! In this case NBC adapted its hit from the original BBC series The Office. The NBC version takes the audience inside the lives of employees of a failing paper making company. The humor is much more "Americanized" than the British version, focusing on their relationships in greater depth. In the NBC version Dwight Schrute character is a "right winged" machine, honest worker, and most importantly a walking joke. Take the NBC character of Pam Beesly, she works in a job she hates while completely throwing her artistic talents to the wolves. Oh, she also happens to be the pretty girl who has a history if dating morons. Can you get any more American than that? Well I guess only if you were to give the employees a boss with horrible taste in everything from music to restaurants and whose advice was usually exactly opposite from correct but in the end could sell paper pretty darn well.

Are you protected from mayhem like me?

I find the mayhem advertisements by Allstate insurance to be highly effective with their use of combining such appeals as humor and safety. Yes it is true, I am a young adult male that actually likes an insurance company. Despite the fact that for a few more years my rates are sky high and the former belief that insurance companies are Satan's way to make a profit. My view towards Allstate was similar to many disgruntled young males who are still waiting for that four hundred dollar check to repair their rear bumper that got tagged six months ago by a cranky soccer mom. One faithful Saturday afternoon my perspective got much clearer, I found myself laughing hysterically at an insurance ad! It wasn't some played out computer animated gecko or duck, rather a real human being acting out a real situation where insurance could actually come in handy.


"I'm a teenage girl. My bff just text me saying she kissed Johnny, thats a problem because I like Johnny." This is the opening line of the advertisement played by a white male in his late 20's to mid 30's driving a "Barbie" pink SUV posing as a teenage girl. He (or she, however you wish to view the scenario) is driving the SUV in a packed parking lot. After reading the text (while driving) he becomes emotionally incompetent and crashes into a parked car and without flinching continues driving while talking about the other girl kissing Johnny. The ad ends by the character telling the consumer to get Allstate so we can be protected from mayhem "like me."


This ad had a powerful affect on me as a consumer. The ad was particularly effective portraying a real life scenario where insurance could come in handy. Instead of focusing on an outrageous disaster occurring such as a hurricane,tornado, or something of that nature, the Allstate ad focuses on a much more common occurrence. It is widely believed teenage girls are not the safest of drivers on the road. For a multiple of reasons, for one they lack driving experience, another could be the persona that they are easily distracted, or how about the notion that they are social "jitterbugs" that text while driving. Whatever the cliche you wish to imply, the advertisement is highly effective with its use of identification with the consumer. The ad persuades the consumer by telling us, we at Allstate understand your frustration with everyday hazards, in fact, they actually take it a step further.


The mayhem advertisement by Allstate uses a combination of appeals to grab our attention. The first appeal used is safety. This appeal implies such themes as protection and security. These characteristics are crucial in advertising. The appeal of safety directly relates to one of our core necessities in life. Along side food and water, health and security is among our basic needs of survival. In the mayhem ad, Allstate tells the consumer that they understand your frustration with daily hazards and they are here to protect you from them, giving us, the consumer one less thing to worry about. Whether "mayhem" is a teenage girl driving while texting or multiple other scenarios the ad campaign uses, the focus is primarily providing protection from everyday hazards. I believe this approach is affective due to its common occurrences approach instead of using more serious situations such as natural disasters that have been used by other insurance companies.


What distinguishes the mayhem ad from competitors is the incorporation of humor with safety appeals. Humor is probably the most affective appeal to get a consumers attention. One could easily counter argue with sex appeal, but I must ask, do we really pay attention to the products in sex ads? Different genders and age groups all have different perspectives and priorities, but we all enjoy a good laugh. The ads that I hear my peers discuss in social gatherings typically tend to be humor based. The mayhem ad incorporates ubiquitous humor by using a grown man portraying a teenage girl. He fully submerges himself from the teenage girl perspective while keeping the tone of a serious adult male. Placing the pieces together, we now have a safety based ad with much humor by focusing on common disturbances


combination = mayhem.