Finally Final Post !

I remember all media advisors that I meet always tell me, ”Getting start early! Experience is everything! ” I am very happy that I can actually follow their guidance. I learned a lot about skills of media criticism from MDIA 205,which was a course that I took last quarter and I practice them in this online course. Even though I still think I am not good at writing critic for TV shows but at least I have started it. I found out media system in every country is completely different. They reference to their culture and they all have own history, different rules and show types. I am lucky here as a foreigner to learn media and culture at the same time. I choose to come to United State and take media major here because I always believe it is a convergence nation with the culture from variety of races so it will give me more. Unlike China, most of television stations are commercial and they are private ownership. The competition between the stations is serious so they need to convergence popular culture to make profit. I read most of Henry Jenkins’ s book Convergence Culture last quarter and I got lots of useful things from it. The media industry is a great example of convergence culture because all of media companies and television stations here are under threaten of each other and new culture. They are using lots of pop culture references to attract audiences and convergence lots of different media methods to promote products. The several big film companied try to make every successful movie into brand so they can help make long term profit such as they have theme parks, video game and millions of related products. Same as the television shows, they like using pop culture references to make their audiences get same feeling as their normal life. Realizing these points help me to understand how the media companies are running and why they product their shows or movies in those way.

I also found the target audiences have huge influences of a television show. They decide how the shows will be produced. For example, I think because most of audiences of reality shows are young people so they using celebrities’ influence to do the production placements and combine other pop media like Internet, text and social network to making profit. The Coca Cola product placement in American Idol is very obviously and audiences consume it. As another example, the situation sitcoms range several complicate but interesting storylines to attract audience from different social communities such as Community ‘s audiences are teenagers who can understand the jokes in that show. Hence I think critic a television show need to start from doing research of its target audiences so it will easy for us to understand the show.

Personally, I like drama more than other types of show. Their stories are interesting and fascinating. Most television shows that I am watching right now are dramas like CSI, Bones, True Blood and Vampire Dairies. I have followed CSI series for a long time. I like these police procedural dramas a lot. Their every single case is attractive and I like watching them use the high technique to looking for clues. They look so professional and smart. In addition, I think the story in drama is highly emotional so the connection between characters is more dramatic. The stories make me involve into them and I am kind of addict the dramas. The production company also spent a lot on producing drama so they always have nice setting and stage properties. They are filmed like movies. As I known, the cost of the dramas like Lost Prison Break used to reach millions dollars each episode. The cost makes sure their quality and cast, which are major points to attract audiences.

Overall, I get much information about writing critics and I practice a lot in this class. I know to be a media critic is no easy but I will always try my best to learn. I hope I can involve into American culture more and more in the future. Studying media is really an interesting thing in my life. I have watched lots of movies and shows after I have done those media courses. Now, I can watch them with critic views and it makes the movies and shows more meaningful for me. Thank a lot for every teacher in this course. Thanks your patience to check my blog posts because I know I have poor grammar ☹. Thanks all of my classmates who have posted comments on my blog. Wishing you guys have a nice summer!! Thank you!!!!☺ ☺ ☺ ☺ ☺ ☺ ☺ ☺ ☺ ☺