Media Log Media Service - Case Study Example

Media Log and Critical Commentary. A Media Log is a diary entry about a favourite media output chosen for the purpose of analyzing the way a viewer uses , consumes, relates, responds and learns from it. A critical commentary explains his reasons and evidences of his statements. I have chosen ‘FRIENDS’ as the media output. It was being telecast for a second time on STAR channel, on every Sunday evening slot. The log begins 7 weeks before the 8 of April 09. The Log Entries. 22 Feb.09. Sunday. 5pm- 5.45pm I am not a television buff but I choose to view selected programmes only. Friends is one of them as it is absolutely hilarious to watch. It de stresses the mind and there is no restriction of viewer ship audience. Anyone can watch it with anyone. The Sunday evening slot is very convenient as it is the time for getting ready for the day ahead. Most of us are at home finishing academic assignments or weekend chores. Watched ‘friends’! Rachel, Ross, Joey, Phoebe, Monica and Chandler in the episode and felt as though they were living next door. Watching while working is no hindrance as missing out some dialogue does not really make much difference to comprehension of the serial. Laughed off at all of them while ironing my clothes for the next day! At home! 1 March 09. Sunday. 5pm-5.45pm. Oops, got late from a friends home. Missed out the first 10 minutes but dumped myself in front of the television immediately. Was alone but with ‘friends’ on, you hardly feel so. Once again, it was just an ordinary episode but one that still made you chuckle. Phoebe is a surrogate mother. Got up and made myself some sandwiches. Watching friends is like making a social connection. You don’t feel you have not met anyone while you watch the serial. It is full of entertainment. No tensions while and after watching. 8 March 09. Sunday. 5pm-5.45pm. The submissions of this week were a big load. Just did not feel like moving out of the apartment. Friends had come for help and they had stayed over. Pizzas were the staple food for the last 3 days. Now we were all just sitting leisurely and watching ‘friends’. Guffaws and chuckles, like always. They too like the serial -friends. When there is a group it triggers off discussions on each character in the episode. How mundane and clumsy in their own way, each one is, and yet one feels a part of their life as one watches each episode. The one when Ross comes to know that his wife is a lesbian becomes a debate throughout the evening for us. 15 March 09. Sunday 5pm-5.45pm. Oh my God! Just like they say it in ‘friends’ I too said ‘Oh my god! A 20 times in different ways. Not to imitate them but because there was some kind of power failure and so I could not watch my favourite show. Felt disgruntled but fine! It happens! Just like in ‘friends’, anything can go wrong at any time! 22 March 09. Sunday 5pm-5.45pm. I was driving home. I did have the television on while driving but I don’t like to watch programmes while driving. Kept the audio on as that makes me feel I am in company. It makes me realise the importance of social bonding and interaction for all humans. Meeting people is an education in itself, and since it is not possible to meet so very often the media output of programmes like ‘friends’ does a lot for desolate people. It enhances their emotional quotient. I probably watch for the same reasons. 29 March 09. Sunday 5pm-5.45pm. Friends, friends, friends! Real friends and then the media ‘friends’. It was as though Ross was sitting next to me, Rachel was trying to seduce me, Joey was just entering with his flop audition, Phoebe was playing the guitar for us all with her clumsy song “smelly cat, smelly cat”, Monica was busy clearing up the mess in the room and Chandler was trying to snatch a romantic conversation with his new found girl friend, on his mobile, in one corner of the busy room. My college friends were none other than characters from ‘friends’. They annoyed me, made me happy, were nosy and noisy at times, but I still needed them around as much as the friends in the television serial. Each of them watched the show. Today it was a boisterous viewer ship. All of the same age, same aims, same problems, same pursuits and same state of quandary in each ones life. It was fun to watch a show when a real one was going on, on this side of the silver screen. Food, coffee, coke, frolic and fun! All was there. It was as though the café from the American street had come alive in this part of the world. Sheer entertainment, exhilaration itself! 5 April 09. Sunday 5pm-5.45pm. It was mom-dad’s wedding anniversary. Not a big party but I had made sure I was there. Watched the show with them. They enjoyed it too. While we had some wine and I made some snacks for them, they too felt light-hearted watching the episode of Monica and Chandlers dream plans for their wedding. I could see the nostalgia, romance, mischief in their eyes as they lived their younger days through the episode of ‘friends’ they watched with their son. Nothing negative about the serial is what makes it so popular I guess. It has no age, gender, geography; it gets connected spontaneously with each viewer. I suppose every one relates to it, may be as their past, or their present or their future, when kids in school watch friends with as much interest. Friends are for ever and so are the television serial ‘friends’ an eternal show of highest popularity in the world I feel. Critical Commentary Critical Commentary is logic and reasoning exercise about the media output selected. It elaborates supports, proves and disproves, assesses and examines the statements one has made about the show. The why, when, who, what and where of the chosen output of mass media with special reference to the details of genre, typical audience composition, typical and unusual features of the selected genre, important characters in the show, production and technical matters about location, sets, in context to the place of the programme and special discussion on personal impact, personal observations about the media output specially selected for this critical commentary. FRIENDS, is the selected media output for this critical commentary. Details of Genre. It is Soap. What is Genre? And what is ‘soap’? Genre is a class or category of a mass scale product, field or service. It is a systematic approach of learning and understanding a group by demarcating its category in heads and subheads depending upon what kind of a product it is. Friends as an output of television, mass media is in the genre of ‘soap’. A humour, light-hearted comedy show, serial of mundane but highly enlightening television programme that has gripped the world for the last 5 years. 1994-2004. informs the serial TV organization. ‘Soaps’ were initially sponsored on television and other entertainment media by business tycoons that were involved in the making of ‘toiletries’. Their commercial targets were mainly women of the domestic domains who would watch frivolous but entertaining melodramatic shows which were specially telecast in the afternoons for the convenience of maximum viewer ship. Hence they became popularly known as ‘soaps’ even till today when their audience has expanded into a multi-fold diversity. Males, children, aged, not excluded! Friends gained popularity in the world by its characters, which look like youngsters across our own street. There is fun, emotion, folly, stupidity, common sense, commotion and ordinary life shown in these serials which makes each viewer relate to the person in the show very naturally. The script is just fantastic! It is so hard to believe that someone is actually acting in the show when you see it happening on television. Friends can be called an epitome of‘soap’ as it captivates every one in the audience as though he is an entangled part of it somehow. The genre is undoubtedly soap. Typical audience Composition. “Television was poised to dominate the media industry in 1950.  There were 3.1 million television sets in American homes, and over 100 television stations operating...” informs Television. It is ubiquitous today. The augment of the internet has given viewers a new dimension to consume the mass media but television has still risen in its popularity of viewer ratings. The world today lives on the edge of time. Next to natural resources instigating world wars, the wars in homes and indoors are un-arguably for the remote control and the possession, position, place and ownership of a television set. But, ‘Friends’ has brought all family members together for once, I must say. It makes happy viewing for people of all class, age, gender, race, colour and country. Although the viewers are predominantly classified in the age group of 13 to 35 years of age as the typical audience composition but audience of all ages are seen watching all the episodes of the show. Why? It is human psychology – only the self matters! Therefore any one and each one can see himself and herself in the image of Rachel, Ross, Joey, Phoebe, Monica and Chandler. The show has a wonderful script, rigmarole and yet natural to breathe in. The adage ‘truth hurts’ has been totally disproved by the truth of daily life shown in ‘friends’. The fact that it has been dubbed into more than 20 languages proves the popularity of the show. This is only possible when people become part of the media output and get lost in it. The age group of 13 to 35 is closer to the ages of characters and hence the composition of the audience. Social composition of the show has crossed all boundaries as it is not the place and the skin colour nor the accent that gets associated with the serial but the essence of human behaviour that is focused throughout all its episodes. An American serial of youths relates to the youths of all countries as nowhere else do you find such a global citizenship as in the United States of America. So the venue makes no difference to viewers because the people in the show are very close to them. Typical and unusual features of genre. The soap is a show aimed at maximum viewer ship. Masses. From housewives to people from all walks of life as on today. Recognition, fame, success, identity, wealth, emotions, failures, crisis situations, dooms and self made distress, relationships, inhibitions, psychological problems, upbringing impacts, and back ground innuendoes are an innate part of every human being . Teenagers, adolescents, youths, middle aged and even the elderly in society seek purpose and motivation to live. Soaps like friends entice their attention by showing episodes of daily life just like the ones occurring in our life every day. Friends help to vent out basic human needs and satisfy them through their output. They make you live your own life but without the threat of being exposed for what and who you are. There is a psychological security offered in soaps like ‘friends’. People laugh at Phoebe’s stupidity even when their inner self associates with her. They feel the empathy for credit card debts of Joey while they justify him for doing so. Monica is a typical woman with feminine aspirations. A nice home, family, marriage etc. Rachel is vivacious and arouses every young girl while most young boys would like to have a date with her. Ross is a clumsy brother one would like to have only because he keeps you busy solving his personal problems. Chandler makes every socially inhibited person feel normal when you watch ‘friends’ at home. These are typical features of the genre of soaps. Making you feel as though it is not the actor/character in the episode but it is YOU who are there inside the show in real life. It buys your mind, plays with it, moulds it, shapes it, washes it and then leaves you with a hangover of ‘thinking’ about the show the rest of the week. The unusual features of the soap genre are its provocation and instigation of thoughts in the mind of viewers. The capitalist consumerism it promotes. People buy and do all the things that are done by the characters of the show. It is supposed to entertain, influence, inform, inspire and induce thinking but the highly successful soap –media output have many a times created tsunamis of moral and social behavioural change in society. They sometimes cross the boundaries of all mass communication. The audience loses control over themselves and their focus on main objectives of life is lost. Friends has minor unusual features as it is a very positively transcript soap. There have been neither negative reactions nor unsocial repercussions of watching this soap. Problems of promiscuity, living alone, morality, social ethics and character depiction of each of the protagonists are topics of daily discussions in offices and homes. But they have brought forth more solutions than perversion in viewers of all ages. Unusual features of this genre and ‘friends’ are their commercial outcome into games, video quizzes, fan mail lotteries, contests, gambling on characters and their impulses in episodes. But this is the gimmick of all marketing gurus these days. You tube, internet and other modern means have made it flexible to viewers to watch their favourite programmes so one does not have to rush back home to savour such soaps any more. Friends is one soap, media output, that has used mass media for a universal cause. The ultimate achievement of mass appeal and its global aim of reaching out to all corners of the world with a positive message! It has united isolated human beings across the world, given them emotional nourishment through their episodes. The people the world over have consumed ‘friends’ with an open gullet and a free mind. They have related to Rachel, Ross, Joey, Phoebe, Monica and Chandler as they have not even related to their next of kin. Friends has made viewers respond to the media like no other show ever. It has spread the message that mass communication has no limitations of age, class, caste, boundary or language. It has made the world one big studio, an apartment, a café, a room where ‘friends’ live with different names, under diverse cultures but for the very same purpose of life- emotional bonding. Shakespeare’s’ “the world is a stage and we are all actors, playing our parts….”no more holds good but needs to be changed to “the world is a television studio and we are all mass-media -engineered –clones…. ‘Friends’” for ever! Such is the power of the mass media and its output, reflected by ‘friends’. References Genre Studies in Mass Media. A handbook. Retrieved April 7, 2009, from http://www. entrepreneur.com/tradejournal/articles/192586874html Television. Media by Genre. Retrieved April 7, 2009, from http://library.thinkquest.org/27629/themes/media/mdgenre.html Read More