The Museum of the Moving Image

The Museum of the Moving Image is clearly one of the greatest museums I have ever been too. There were so many cool things in that museum that could not be seen in another museum. One of my favorite things in the museum was the stop-motion display. It was really cool to learn about how stop-motion films are made. We even got to make our own stop motion videos on the computer. What was amazing to me was how much time it actually takes to make a stop-motion animation. It is unbelievably time consuming. You can take twenty five pictures, changing something slightly to make a flipbook, and you’ll have five seconds of an animation. But it makes some really cool animations.

Another thing I liked about the museum was that it had some really old stuff in it. I know this is common in museums, but it was really cool to see some of the first cameras. Although they did not have the original Lumiere camera, they had some pretty old ones. I learned a lot about how cameras were changing throughout the years. While I knew that some of the old cameras were operated by a crank, I learned that the cranks were actually controlling the shutter speed as well as the amount of light that was exposed to the film in the camera. It was very informative and stuck out in my mind.

Finally, one of the exhibits that I thought was great was the exhibit that had the stand in dummy of Yoda and other props like a giant version of Freddy Kruger’s sweater. I didn’t know that they actually made larger or smaller props for certain shots in movies. But looking back, it actually makes more sense, because it probably wouldn’t be possible any way else. The giant sweater, for example, was used in a scene where the souls were pulling themselves out of Freddy’s body. I also liked that they had a replica of the Yoda puppet. This was one of the coolest museums ever, and I would love to go back someday.

Radio, Radio

1. What kinds of radio networks exist now?

There are different kinds of radio networks that are starting to form these days. One of the major stations is the National Public Radio, which was significant in the news and public affairs as well as linking many radio stations together. There are other kinds of radio other than music radio too. Talk radio is a kind of station that specializes in talking about the news, sports or anything local. These stations will tend to be more AM stations rather than FM.

2. How are radio formats related to music genres?

Radio formats play off of what music genres people want to here. Because of this, radio formats can change frequently. For example, in the 1990’s many radio stations switched over to alternative rock because that’s what was popular at the time. Other stations will play Top 40 hits, or songs that are very popular. Today, many stations are playing a variety of music from different decades, called “Jack.” This is how radio stations try to get ratings.

3. What are the target audiences for some of the main radio formats?

Radio formats base their choice of target audiences on certain demographics. For example, a Top 40 station might be aimed towards a younger demographic. Talk radio is usually aimed for adult listeners. The radio stations can base what music they should play on certain demographics.

4. Why does the concentration of radio ownership cause concern?

Concentration of ownership is becoming a problem in radio. More times than not, a couple of large companies can own as many as half the radio stations in a given city. This poses as a problem because it reduces the chances of local ownership of radio stations. This also reduces the amount of diversity on the radio, even if the owners say it will increase diversity.
5. What copyright challenges are raised by Internet radio and pod casting?

Music that is released is almost always copyrighted. According to copyright law, if you want to play a song, you have to pay in order to do so. Internet radio and pod casting have many issues when it comes to playing copyrighted music on their stations. Internet radio stations have to pay the song writers and performers at a higher rate than satellite or terrestrial radio stations just to play the songs on the internet.

Monopolies and Mass Media

There are lots of gadgets out in the world these days. Many of them are made by Apple, Inc., which was owned by Steve Jobs up until his death. The question that is always asked about whether or not Steve Jobs had a monopoly on the media business. It can be pretty easy to say that this could be true in this case. For years now Apple has been producing a number of different products to appeal to the masses such as iMacs and laptops. While they are still in competition in the computer department, in other areas they are dominating. For example, most people who like to listen to music are listening from their iPod. To the best of my knowledge I know only one person who has ever owned a Zune, which was the Microsoft equivalent of an iPod, which was phased out years ago. Because of this, there isn’t much of a variety in the mp3 player market. This results in the Apple products being more expensive because there is not much competition against them. For this reason it can be said the Steve Jobs was a monopolist.

Mass media is a business in itself. Basic theories and economics shows that mass media should be making profits. One of the main ways that mass media makes a profit is through the law of supply and demand. This law states that cost savings caused by economics of scale can be passed down to the customers. This results in more of the product being made, which makes more people by the product, causing a spiral effect of profits and supply and demand.
There are other ways that mass media can make profits. For example, in many commercials these days use songs that were written and copyright by a certain music artist. The artist receives a copyright royalty fee in exchange for them to use their song. This is only one of many different ways to make money, including advertising and syndication. It is important for the mass media to make profits because it helps keep the mass media running.