http://www.ted.com/talks/johanna_blakley_social_media_and_the_end_of_gender.html
The TED Talk that I chose is given by Johanna Blakley, and she is talking about the role of women and demographics in the media and how it will change in the future. She explains that instead of actually tracking people true interests and passions, the media uses a generalization of people based on age groups. While a general outlook on people may help companies, it is not able to target groups as a whole. For example, it’s a generalization that all men like sports, but what about those men who actually don’t? This is what Blakley is trying to portray in her speech. She even suggests that women will be the “death” of chick flicks because of the fact that women in the media business are trying to steer clear of the sappy demographic that women possess. This video interested me because I think it is important as people that we take into consideration the differences there are between everyone. As a society we need to learn to grow and adapt together to insure that the end result of advertisements and whatnot please all parties involved.
Johanna Blakley majored in English at the University of Oregon and received her BA in 1989. She then continued her education at Orgeon and later received her MA in 1991. Apparently that was not enough for Blakely, because she then went on to obtain her PhD at the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1998. But before she got her PhD, she actually taught at Santa Barbara for about 5 years in between. After her job as a lecturer and teaching assistant, she went on to work at Blueprint R&D in San Francisco as a Web consultant. Blakley help to develop a CBS cartoon called Blasteris Universe. From 2000-present, Blakley has worked at the Norman Lear Center at the University of Southern California doing various jobs. She guided over 50 manuscripts into publication offices and wrote grants for the Lear Centers project on American propaganda. Blakley current gives lectures and helps to develop the Masters Program at USC.
After high school, I am going to California Polytechnic University Pomona ad am majoring in Marketing & Advertising. I know that over the years at college I may change my mind, but as of now this is what I really want to do. I think that some good internships for me to have would be to work at an actual advertising firm and to experience what everyday life is like for those in that business. I think it would be cool to be able to use my creativity and artistic side to intrigue those who experience ads and commercials 24/7. For the marketing aspect, I would love to be able to intern at a company and have a mentor to show me the ropes. I am a very persuasive person an work well with people, so I think that having to give presentations and getting clients interested in a certain product would be right up my alley. I do know that when I start in this business it will take a while to climb up the totem pole, but I am really to face that challenge.
After watching the video, I can totally agree with what Blakley is talking about. The current method of demographics can be effective but is used in a way such that it dehumanizes the individuals that it is meant to depict. As a result of this demographic method, I feel like the information that mass media has been accumulating isn't entirely applicable. Firstly, not all information collected is entirely viable because its validity can not necessarily be verified. Furthermore, based on the premise that a larger number of women are involved in these observed social networking sites, I feel as though the information that has been developed isn't applicable to the population as a whole. Usually when statistics are taken, they are taken at random at without gender bias which is highly likely to exist in this demographic method. While I do believe that stereotypes of general ideas such as the "chick flick" will eventually be disproved and that the methodologies behind developing these generalizations are flawed, I think that it is a stretch to say that women will control the media sphere in that way that she suggests.
ReplyDeleteI think that approach towards college will be very effective. I believe that putting your best effort into what interest you is the best possible thing to do even though it is possible that you may change your study in college. Hopefully, when you one day work in an advertising/marketing firm, you'll work in a firm that doesn't use ineffective demographics.
Wow that last comment was really long. I think that this is a very interesting topic because I hate ads and now i can see that part of this is that they overgeneralize. I mean most ads are so annoying because they think that everyone is the same and thatis totally wrong. Maybe you can help fix this. Have fun at Pomona!!!
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