Morocco

Ever since I visited Morocco in Disney World’s Epcot last spring, I have been extremely interested in visiting the country. All of their music, food, and colors make up a culture that is extremely different than that of our culture in the United States. Their music incorporates the violin in such an exotic way and the bright blue tiles artfully crafted in their mosaics are so unique. Although Morocco has been greatly influenced by many European cultures, the country has remained mostly Arabic. The country is one of the most advanced countries in the continent of Africa due to its urbanization, and this is partly why many tourists have been drawn to Morocco.

While our cultures are visibly different, our print media does share some similar characteristics. The first print news source that was ever started in Morocco was an English newspaper. From that one newspaper, there are now 618 publications currently in print, with most of these being circulated in the Casablanca region. Because the country used to be a French protectorate, newspapers are printed in French and Arabic, and their newspapers are starting to be accessible in multiple languages.

One specific newspaper, the Agence Maghreb Arabe Presse is available as a print source and online. This newspaper has been printed in French, Arabic, English, Spanish, Chinese, and Japanese for a wider viewer base. Their newspaper is broken down into sections of ‘politics’, ‘economy’, ‘social’, ‘world’, ‘sport’, ‘culture’, ‘regional’, and ‘general’. There are lead stories on the website, banners with the latest and most important news stories, and an option to have news sent directly to your cell phone. USAToday is broken down into ‘news’, ‘travel’, ‘money’, ‘sports’,‘life’, ‘tech’, and ‘weather’. This website also has a “Top picks” section and bold article titles to highlight the most important news stories. This website seems to be much more colorful than the Moroccan newspaper and much more organized.  Both offer interactive news articles and places to comment on the articles.  I was interested to learn that the citizens of Morocco are entitled to freedom of expression in their Constitution as we are here. I did not realize that their country was as advanced as they were, so if I were to visit I’m sure I’d be in for even more surprises!

http://www.maroc.ma/PortailInst/An/MenuGauche/Society+and+Culture/Media+and+Communication/Printed+Press.htm

http://www.usatoday.com/

http://www.map.ma/eng

Dialect Coaches

Many people, including myself, walk out of a movie theater or hit the power button on their television remotes directly after a movie is finished to avoid seeing the long list of credits. What we forget is that the credits are the movie staff’s moment in the spotlight, to earn credit for the work they contributed to a film.

I had never watched or read the full credits to the 2005 film Pride and Prejudice. From the time the director’s name appears on the screen, it takes six minutes and nineteen seconds to view the entire credit reel. While viewing these credits, I came across some interesting job titles worth noting; fabric buyer, hair stylist to Keira Knightley (only actor to have their own stylist), animal wrangler, and credit was given to the source of the walkie talkies and wigs.  While these were the most interesting job titles, I wanted to find out more about the dialect coach of the film and what was required to hold this position.

The dialect coach for this film was Jill McCullough. Jill McCullough has worked on The Duchess (2008), National Treasure: Book of Secrets (2007), The Phantom of the Opera (2004), and many other well-known titles. Dialect coaches teach people to speak in a different accent that is different than their native speech. Dialect coaches are hired to help prepare actors and actresses for films that require accents or they can also help foreign speakers perfect a new language. Some coaches prefer to use a vowel chart to help their clients visualize the sounds they are supposed to be pronouncing.

There is not a specific path to become a dialect coach. Some coaches take daily speech, voice and public speaking classes to become familiar with other cultural languages, travel to other countries to be immersed in other cultures, and have worked as actors themselves. It is important for dialect coaches to be well educated on the different elements of voice and diction, and even learn another foreign language.

The film Pride and Prejudice was fully filmed in Great Britain. The film was set in the late 18^th century and featured different class groups. While some of the actors did speak with an English accent, it was necessary to incorporate a sophisticated and 18^th century spin to it. Each character had a different persona that distinguished them from the other characters. Jill McCullough could perfect words that were being mispronounced to make them fit the character’s personality.

Research Presentation Reflection

Throughout high school and already in college, I have completed many group projects. I have been paired with reliable and unreliable group members, so I have learned that I work more efficiently in situations when I come prepared with a plan. When I was in high school, I transferred at the beginning of my sophomore year to a smaller, academic-oriented school.  Whenever I was given a group project during my freshman year of high school, I was always wary of who I would be assigned as a partner because many of my peers found it acceptable to not turn in any work. Because I experienced a lack of group participation in group projects early on in my high school career, I became very hands-on to control the outcome of my grade.

For this project, I came in with a plan and sometimes took on some more work because I get anxious about due dates and the quality of the end product. Personally, I prefer to work alone because I am able to motivate myself and work with my own schedule. Although I prefer this, working with a partner was a good experience. I had to put my trust into someone else, which is difficult for me, and collaborate our ideas to create a final product that reflected both of our visions. The topic of fashion photography was really interesting to me and I enjoyed looking through the sources we found, especially ‘In Vogue’. I have taken photography classes before and I am still interested in photography, so looking at how the images evolved in Vogue magazine really amazed me. It was surprising to learn that fashion magazines, such as Vogue, originated in or around 1892 and still contain most of the same fashion sections, advice columns, and media reviews as content.

At the beginning of this year, I had to give a presentation in front of one of my classes. Instead of using my powerpoint to discuss my research paper, I got dizzy from nerves and felt as if I were about to fall. I know that during my presentation I stumbled a few times with some of my thoughts, but I am proud of myself for remaining composed in front of the class. My public speaking has definitely progressed since the beginning of the year, but there is certainly room for improvement. Overall, I enjoyed completing this project and I was able to see a different aspect of photography than the 35mm dark room photography I was studying. I am especially pleased that I am one step closer to conquering my phobia of speaking in front of large groups of people during presentations!

“You will launch many projects, but have time to finish only a few. So think, plan develop, launch, and tap good people to be responsible. Give them authority and hold them accountable. Trying to do too much yourself creates a bottleneck.”

– Donald Rumsfeld

Fortune 500: Walt Disney Company

The Walt Disney Company is currently ranked as Fortune 500’s sixtieth largest company. Walt Disney earns revenue from the Disney Channel, Walt Disney World in Florida, Disneyland in California, the Disney Store, Disney movies, and various other ways. The Walt Disney Company developed Disney World to attract young children, families with young children, couples who want to get married, or teenagers who want to go for fun.

Disney has many symbolic icons that attract people of all ages. If Mickey Mouse is seen in an advertisement people are likely to take a second glance at it because Mickey is a popular figure. To attract business to Walt Disney theme parks, Disney can make their webpage more interactive. People could send in ideas for alterations to be done to Cinderella’s castle for special events, and the person with the best design could win a trip to the park. Children could upload pictures of themselves with their favorite Disney characters. With the addition of microphones to computers, the websites could have sing-a-longs on the Internet, and children could record their voices to popular Disney songs and have the option of having their favorite Disney characters sing with them. Disney could update their Facebook fan page to attract teenagers and adults to inform them of any upcoming events, then Facebook users could discuss the changes and decide if they would like to take a trip to one of their locations. Whenever a new movie comes out, online games should be created to supplement it. Disney could have an interactive site that allows users to personalize t-shirts related to new movies and their favorite movies.

Advertising banners for Walt Disney could be posted on airline websites, travel agency websites, yahoo, AOL, and child-oriented websites. A link on the website could be created to send information about new updates to e-mail, twitter accounts, or your phone. Because Disney has such a prominent presence in American culture, Americans would be more inclined to participate in interactive online advertisements provided by this company.

Presentation

Ellie and I met up tonight to discuss our project and to look over some of the sources we had gathered separately. We needed to narrow down our topic and make the topic’s thesis more specific for our fifteen-minute presentation. After meeting, we decided to evaluate the evolution of editorial fashion photography in Vogue Magazine. Our thesis statement for this project is:

Editorial fashion photography has experienced drastic changes in content, objectives, and technology as displayed in Vogue Magazine.

Ellie and I chose to focus on the content, objectives, and technology of editorial fashion photography because the subjects being photographed, reasons for capturing certain photos, and advancements such as color photos, photo shopping, and editing have changed to alter Vogue’s overall image.

Three articles I found to make the presentation informative were:

Digital Alteration of Photographs in Consumer Magazines by Shiela Reaves (questions the ethics of magazines for editing pictures)

The Mediated Body: Cosmetic Surgery in Television Drama, Reality Television and Fashion Photography by Anne Jerslev (discusses the media’s obsession with changing body image)

Pollock in Vogue: American Fashion and Avant-garde Art in Cecil Beaton’s 1951 Photographs by Änne Söll (discusses the role of magazines in creating America’s identity)

I also found two books that should be helpful:

In Vogue by Norberto Angeletti (detailed history with pictures)

Fashion as Photograph: Viewing and Reviewing Images of Fashion edited by Eugéie Shinkle (evaluates fashion photography)

Tonight we talked about ways to make the presentation interesting for the class, and we found a YouTube video. The video showed how models could wear elegant attire at low-key settings that may not look correct in reality, but this mismatched look is accepted in Vogue. We also talked about having a class discussion. We would show some of the original and present-day Vogue images and then discuss the visual differences. It would be interesting to find photographs from Vogue that were photo shopped and those that were not photo shopped to see if the class could guess the difference.

Women’s Health Magazine

Magazines have developed into a medium that has created a unique relationship between the magazine itself, writers, and readers. The majority of magazines target a specific audience, and automatically the reader can find a common interest with others who read the magazine, the writers, and through the text. Vogue, for example, specifically targets teenage to adult women interested in fashion. Women who read the magazine can relate their fashion interests to the clothes the models are wearing, the advertisements, the editor’s comments, and can see their own traits in other women reading the magazine.

Currently, I own Women’s Health Magazine. Women’s Health Magazine promotes a healthy lifestyle, fitness, offers beauty tips, and more. When reading this magazine in public, I am expressing the values Women’s Health Magazine promotes through myself. By holding this magazine, my public identity would seem to reveal that I may be involved in some form of fitness, I am conscious of my weight, I may be trying to lose weight, or I am looking for nutritional advice. Based on the title of the magazine I am reading, my true identity and personal motives for reading the magazine may be stereotyped to match my ‘public identity’, which may not be parallel. The reality of my interest in Women’s Health is for enjoyment at the gym, to see latest trends in health foods, and to look for new exercises. I am interested in health and fitness, but my main motive for reading this magazine is for enjoyment. Stereotyping a person to match the title of a magazine they are reading may be a way for us to evaluate the world around us and establish a difference between those who are similar and different from ourselves. Even though people may be reading a magazine solely for enjoyment, it is in our human nature to be curious about other people’s interests and to see if theirs are compatible with our own.

Internship Possibility Abroad

When looking for a potential internship, I was looking for an opportunity that would be immersive into the medical field. I am interested in pursuing a career in medicine to help other people, possibly chiropractic, so working hands on with other doctors would be a great experience as an undergraduate student. I first went to Elon’s Career Services website to try to find an internship that would match my job interests, but I was not able to find anything that was a strong match. When I started browsing the Internet, I found a website called internabroad.com run by the Volunteer Adventure Corps. The website offered many internships in various locations, and a medical internship in Cape Town, South Africa at the Heideveld Community Health Clinic. After taking an African Issues course during my senior year of high school, I have been extremely interested in traveling to Africa to do service work there and learn more about the culture.

The cost of the Heideveld internship is $1,550. Staff of the program help to find all participants housing, which is included in the program fee.  Upon arrival to Cape Town, there is a two-day orientation and throughout the ten-week internship there are weekly visits to different parts of the city of Cape Town. All internship participants take a cultural Xhosa language class, join a soccer team, and attend internship seminars about future jobs and how to improve resumes. To be admitted to the program, applicants must apply online, take an application assessment, and provide a resume.

For this internship, experience is not required in the medical field and undergraduate students are accepted.  The program is flexible with an undergraduate student’s schedule because applications are taken year round and accepted interns are able to start at any time.  Interns at the Clinic are able to shadow many different doctors and see a variety of different patients, so learning about different medical fields would be helpful in decided which career path to pursue. If I were to apply for this internship, I would need to get a passport and it would be in my best interest to go to Elon’s Career Center to perfect my resume.

After graduation, my ideal job would be a chiropractor. Chiropractors made a mean salary of $94,454 in 2009 and employment for chiropractors is projected to increase by 20% in the next eight years. Chiropractors only use natural healing and do not prescribe any medications, which is why many people use chiropractic as an alternate form of treatment. Chiropractors need to attend a four year chiropractic college program to obtain their doctorate of chiropractic (D.C.) license. Chiropractic schools focus on classroom lecture, laboratory work, spinal adjustments, and experience.

http://www.vacorps.com/internships/heideveld-community-health-clinic/

Dee Dee Meyers

Everyone who went to listen to Dee Dee Meyers speak tonight was really fortunate to have heard what she had to say. I thought it was a great opportunity to hear her talk about her life and about the qualities of good leadership. It was interesting that she did not seem to perceive herself to be on the same level as the leaders she admired, such as Hillary Clinton, Meg Whitman, and Nancy Pelosi, but she is a prominent figure in American culture of reputable leadership. When Dee Dee Meyers was describing her life experiences, she said she graduated college with a political science degree, but did not know what she was going to pursue with that specific degree. Because she followed her interests after college, she was able to create opportunities that were beyond herself, and I find that really inspiring. At the end of the talk, Dee Dee Meyers gave five phrases of advice; find your passion, be committed and work hard, learn to communicate ideas, learn to collaborate, and if you get knocked down, get back up. From listening to her speak today; I really believe that she has developed this advice from her own experiences. Knowing that Dee Dee Meyers, the first woman to serve as White House Press Secretary, a Vanity Fair magazine editor, and a West Wing consultant, was unsure of what to do in her life during her college years should bring some reassurance for us all.

Working for Bill Clinton, NBC, and Vanity Fair opened Dee Dee Meyers to the information sector. All of her jobs required her to communicate and interpret different types of information pertaining to American and foreign cultures. Because the media desires to deliver information to the public immediately when anything newsworthy occurs, sometimes the public was informed of current political events before the White House and reporters would ask anything about the president. Ms. Meyers learned to relay information she was required to as a press secretary but also learned to listen to problems the president could be faced with from media sources. Ms. Meyers was also confronted with the issue of privacy and dealt with the Clinton Family’s privacy. Ms. Meyers described the family’s vacation to Martha’s Vineyard, which was covered by the press. Her duty was to serve the White House, and had to take calls at 2:30 in the morning, learning to be receptive of disturbances.

Dee Dee Meyers seems to be an extremely down to earth person and is modest in the presence of her accomplishments. My questions for her would be…

–       What was the most difficult part about adjusting to a job in which privacy was not really an option? Did you ever feel as if you were invading the privacy of the Clinton Family or intruding on their time together such as their vacation to Martha’s Vineyard?

–       You mentioned that Bono was one of the people who you most admired because he used his celebrity to change the world, but to what extent do you think celebrities in general should be able to use their celebrity power to make changes in the world?

Culture is controlled by the media

Our culture is driven by and controlled by the media. Teenagers commonly look to the media for the latest fashions, dating advice, and music trends, while adults tend look to the media for diet and exercise fads, vehicle options, or a local restaurant with high ratings. People have different motives for using the media based on personal interests, but in general, our culture is obsessed with being “in the now” and not one day in the past.

Magazines are a medium that appeal to various groups of people. Americans buy magazines for entertainment and to be informed about the latest advertisements and products pertaining to that specific magazine. Teenagers who read Elle or Cosmo are more likely to have a false sense of reality due to the pictures and writings presented in the articles. The readers of this magazine are more likely to be swayed to buy the makeup suggested, buy clothes movie stars are wearing, or believe a columnist’s dating advice.

Television has become an extremely controlling medium and the media has taken advantage of this. Television is teeming with commercials and infomercials that are telling the viewer what products they should be buying. Commercials use repetition, popular songs, and celebrities to make the products more enticing and allow for the images to remain in the viewers’ minds. The media is feeding us this information and the consumers are responding. Media also uses television shows to control culture. As time has evolved, cultures have become progressively desensitized to vulgar images on television, and with this change our clothes, speech, and music has changed. Television shows have gone from being more conservative like I Dream of Jeannie to more open-minded like Real World in a short amount of time. Because Americans see people on television acting a certain way, we find it acceptable to mimic these behaviors.

Recorded music has become a way for artists to relay their personal beliefs, share political thoughts, and persuade audiences to do certain things. While music is still a source of entertainment, people take artist’s lyrics more seriously. Artists have the ability to speak to their audiences on a more personal level and control groups of people based on their style.

Media dictates how our culture behaves. Because people are constantly being introduced in the media with new ideas, our culture changes because our idea of style is adapting.

My First Post

This is the first post for the COMM100 class.