Friend or Foe

         Hollywood is made up of stereotypes. They’re the tool that makes it easy for directors to create a quick movie. Need a hero? Let’s have an underdog who comes from nothing. Need a sidekick or two? Let’s have 2 misfits who befriend the hero. Need a villain? Let’s have someone with a thick foreign accent. But why does the villain have to be foreign? I think this idea is a deeply rooted connection to that we see in movies and other media throughout our lives. Many films nowadays utilize foreign characters to play to stereotypes, usually that of a villain or a mysterious character. What’s interesting is that in many instances, these “foreigners” are played by Americans. The actors are forced to don fake accents or even sometimes speak the language of the character’s homeland. However, these characters have also been played by an actor or actress that is of the implied nationality. 

Think about movies such as the James Bond series or the Die Hard series. It was common for the villains in these movies to have accents of some sort. I think this is a tool used by Hollywood to easily represent someone as evil. Although it is an obviously ridiculous accusation to say that all foreigners are evil, it is easy to make them appear that way in cinema because they are foreign in the since that most Americans do not know about the culture of other countries. It is easy to portray evil by using someone who is from a different land because we don’t like to think of fellow Americans as bad people. What we don’t know, what is strange to us, is often viewed as bad. A multitude of countries around the world watch American television and movies, but Americans do not commonly watch foreign films or tv shows. This shows even more that a large number of Americans are uneducated about other cultures. Not all foreigners are portrayed as evil in movies, many times they can be a love interest or an ally to the protagonist. However I think it’d be close to impossible to completely do away with this practice of casting foreigners as the villain because it is so engrained into our mind.

Who owns my ears?

Atlanta is one of the largest music hubs in the country, therefore, it unsurprisingly has a ridiculous number of radio stations, as listed below:

8.5 WRAS GPB news/talk Georgia State University
89.3 WRFG Jazz, blues, Afro-pop, bluegrass, folk, Latin, Indian, talk
90.1 WABE NPR news/classical
91.1 WREK Diversified Georgia Tech
91.5 WWEV Christian
91.9 WCLK Jazz/soul Clark Atlanta University
92.1 WJGA Contemporary/oldies
92.3 DEPO Hispanic sports talk
92.5 WEKS The Bear Country,
92.9 WZGC The Game: sports talk
93.3 WVFJ Joy 93.3, Contemporary Christian
93.5 WRSM South 93.5, country
93.7 W229AG Simulcast of sports/talk 680/The Fan
94.1 WSTR Star 94 Hot AC
94.5 WSTR-HD3 Streetz 94.5, hip hop
94.9 WUBL The Bull Country
95.5 WBTS news/talk, simulcasts with 750/WSB-AM
96.1 WKLS Power 9-6-1 Top 40
97.1 WSRV The River Classic Hits
97.5 WAMJ Majic simulcast R&B 107.5 at
98.5 WSB B98.5. Soft rock from the 80s, 90s and today.
98.9 WWWQ-HD2  Nash Icon (a mix of current country with country from the 1980s, 90s and 2000s)

99.3 WTZA-HD2 Old School R&B (with a little bit of hip hop, too)
99.7 WWWQ Q100 Top 40
100.1 WNSY in Jasper. Mexican pop, simulcasting La Raza
100.5 WNNX Rock 100.5 Rock
101.1 WLJA Southern Gospel, bluegrass, and classic country
101.5 WKHX Kicks Country
102.3 WLKQ La Raza – Spanish
102.5 WPZE Gospel
102.9 WMJE News/talk simulcast of
103.3 WVEE V-103 R&B/hip-hop  

103.7 WXKT Chuck from North Georgia  pop-rock mix from the 1970s to today
104.1 WALR Kiss 104.1 R&B  from the 1970s until today
104.7 WFSH Fish Contemporary Christian
105.3 WBZY El Patron Regional Mexican
105.7 WWVA Alternative rock Radio 105.7 

106.1 WNGC Country
106.7 WYAY newsradio
107.1 WTSH X107.1 in Rome and Atlanta, alternative rock
107.9 WHTA Hot R&B/hip-hop 

(list found at http://radiotvtalk.blog.ajc.com/atlanta-radio-station-links/?__federated=1)

…and those are just the FM stations. With this long of a list and with so much variety, I’d say most formats are covered; many of the formats are even offered on more than one station. There’s country, rock, soft rock, alternative, R&B, pop/Top 40, news/talk, latin, Christian, classical, 70’s, 80’s, 90’s, jazz, blues, sports, and the list goes on. Unless you solely listen to polka music, you should be able to find a channel you like. Even with all the diversity that’s offered, it’s no surprise that the top ranked stations in the city are 2 R&B stations, followed by a multitude of pop stations.

But who owns all these stations? Apparently there is not one super mogul company in charge of all Atlanta radio. The larger companies with broadcasts in the area are Cox Media, Clear Channel, Radio, ABC Radio, and Lincoln Financial Group. But there are many other smaller companies or even individuals, who own stations in the area. Local colleges each have their own radio stations as well. There doesn’t seem to be as much of a problem with diversity of ownership and I think that’s perhaps why we have such variety in the stations that are offered. 

Internet Radio and Satellite Radio opened a whole knew door. They allowed people to listen to radio stations that aren’t broadcasted from their local area. Especially with these forms of radio now being featured in newer car models, I think it does hurt the FM/AM stations. However, I know that many cars do not offer that option, and even if they do, some people may not want to pay for satellite radio option. Unless you absolutely love a particular local station, I think satellite an internet radio are a greater alternative. There are hundreds of options to choose from and they can cater to a more unique crowd. For example, there are satellite radio stations just for 40’s music, Elvis, and Tom Petty. It gives the listener more power and choices. (Not having commercials isn’t so bad, either.) In the future I think there will still be plenty of local stations, but more people will move towards the satellite and internet options.  

It's not dead...it's dying

In my hometown of Dunwoody, GA there are 3 local newspapers but the largest is The Crier. You’d think as a journalist that I would regularly read the newspaper. You would be wrong. The only time I ever read the paper was when my cross country team was in it (narcissistic, I know). I want to know what’s going on around me but I never found myself reaching for what I viewed as the “old people’s news.” The stories covered almost always had nothing to do with things affecting me or things I would be interested. That being said, 23,000, that’s half the population of Dunwoody, people read the Crier so there must be some redeeming qualities, right? I suppose adults and older people might like it but the obvious bias put a bad taste in my mouth. I attended a public high school and it was apparent that the Crier had some sort of affiliation with private schools in the county based on the way that they covered and wrote their stories. 

Apart from simply not being a fan of the newspaper, I also found a better alternative. A woman in my neighborhood started up a website called the ‘Aha! Connection.’ It contains many of the same aspects that the newspaper does but it is organized into a format that it much easier to read and is more relevant. It features upcoming events, real estate listings, pet adoptions and community announcements much like other publications. However, the Aha! Connection has local business recommendations, classifieds that are open to anyone to submit (with a price much lower than a newspaper), book recommendations, garage sale announcements, special deals for local businesses, and much more. They’re connected through Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. They also send out a weekly email blast to subscribers with the most important news, events, and offers of the week. I have personally found out about many more events from the Aha! Connection that I ever did from the newspaper. It’s relevant and current and frankly, it’s more fun. In comparison, The Crier and even the website for the Crier, seem dated and drab. 

In this day and age, publications have to adapt to stay current otherwise they fall behind and disappear into oblivion.

Creativity is Dead

Looking at the list of top 20 movies for the past year I am astounded and slightly heartbroken at the number of spin-offs, reboots or sequels. Out of the twenty, twelve fell into this category. This leads us to the sad realization that the movie industry is running out of ideas and has been for a long time. This is why, I believe, many times they turn to books for inspiration and new stories. Three of the top twenty movies from the past year were based on the novels. I think this has the ability to both benefit and hurt the book industry. On one hand, there are the movies that are based off of books that are already extremely popular, such as the Harry Potter series or the Lord of the Rings series. These books were successful before the release of their movie counterparts, and continue to gain success even today. However, I don’t think those franchises would have been nearly as large and present in pop culture as they are now if there had never been any movies produced. On the other hand, there are movies that end up over shadowing the books they were based on. Sometimes the movies don’t don the same title as the novel or it may not have been advertised that it was based on a book. An example of this would be the movie “Mean Girls.” Despite its success even now in pop culture, despite its release date being ten years ago, it is a little known fact that it is based of a novel which is loosely based off of a Shakespearean play. In this case the book was over shadowed and did not receive the press or praises we see with other adaptations. I have mixed feelings about the whole thing. I think there are some movies that were put into production solely because they were based on popular books and they knew they would make a large profit. In a lot of situations these movies don’t seem to follow the story as well. There are other movies based on books that aren’t quite as popular but that do justice to the original text. Book-to-movie adaptations should be viewed as a separate entity because it’s close to impossible to find a movie that perfectly follows the storyline of the original novel. So as difficult as it may be for those die-hard fans to watch the movie based on their beloved book without pointing out the things that have been changed, I think its’s something we need to learn to expect and accept from the cinematic world.

The Purge

My 12 Hours Without Media

I thought it’d be easy, I thought I wasn’t so dependent on media that I couldn’t stand its absence for 12 hours. But I quickly caught myself counting down to 9 o’clock, when the challenge would end. There were little things in my daily life that I never even thought about as being media, they were just always there. For instance, not having music to listen to at the gym, or not being able to simply look up a restaurant online. The whole day I was worried that I had missed messages and calls piling up in my phone, which I turned off completely and left in my room. There was a definite upside to the experience, however. On my day without media I went to places and did things I had been wanting to do but hadn’t found the time. I visited the coffee shop on the square, went to the cool record store in town, finished my book, and even did some yoga. I walked around campus, for what felt like the first time, without constantly looking down at my phone, and was able to actually take in the world around me. Of course when I saw that beauty my immediate thought was that I wanted to take an picture and post it to Instagram. Wherever I went I felt like the only one not immersed in media. Everyone was on their phones and computers and watching TV. For the first time I realized how annoying it is that we are constantly plugged in. I was sitting across from my boyfriend at a coffee shop and realized he was more focused on taking a cool picture of his coffee for Instagram than he was on his actual coffee. Our generation is addicted to the social gratification we receive (or believe we are receiving) on social media. We’re constantly counting likes, reblogs, favorites, retweets. It’s not just social media, either. We turn towards television and music and movies as a sort of distraction from our lives. We as humans are some impatient that we can’t wait in line for more than a minute without checking our phones or glancing a television screen. At the gym I caught myself watching the football game that happened to be on TV. I don’t even like football! I just liked the distraction it offered while I was waiting. It may seem as if now I see media in a whole new light and I’m against it but that’s not this case. There’s good media thats’s useful in helping society advance, and then there’s mindless media that has no real benefit. I think growing up surrounded by media, it has become something many people take for granted. I’d love to see the chaos of the entire student population of Western Kentucky taking on this challenge at the same time. People might resort to ridiculous measures such as actually talking to one another.