Video Didn't Kill Anything

Just in case you didn’t get the pun in my title, it’s a reference to the song “Video Killed the Radio Star.” If you don’t know this amazing, check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iwuy4hHO3YQ.

The writer of the song, Trevor Horn, believed it was the end of the radio era and the dawn of music videos. In fact, this music video for this song was the first video ever aired on MTV. In many ways, this was true. MTV’s popularity exploded all over America as more and more bands created videos in addition to their music. Now, we would be thoroughly shocked if a popular song did not have a music video.

Personally, I never felt that music videos were a replacement for the radio. There are many situations where the radio trumps not only music videos, but even mp3s. Before you stage an intervention, allow me to explain myself. Music videos are usually only great when you have time to kill and are able to sit there and actually focus on what’s happening in the video. For example, you wouldn’t be able to drive and watch a music video at the same time. Arguably, you could- but I wouldn’t recommend it. So now you’ll argue that you can just plug your iPod into the stereo and listen to your mp3s while driving. Well, you can and many people do. However, where did you find the songs you have on your iPod? The radio.

The radio offers you the chance to listen to songs you’ve never heard before and broadens your music selection. It  opens you up to hear songs that you may love, but would have otherwise never heard. By keeping the radio on for just an hour, you’ll hear at least 5 songs you’ve never heard before. Do it everyday and you’ll be music connoisseur.  Personally, I listen to the radio before I even wake up (my alarm’s set to radio mode), when I shower, when I’m hanging out, and even right at this very moment. 

Alarm clock set to radio mode.

Radio in the shower. 

(All the girls in my suite turn it on when they're in the shower--> no accidental walk-ins!)

Radio on cell phone. I don't always have my mp3 on me, but I definitely always have my phone.

Pandora Radio- Great way to find news songs in the genre you already like.

Capture the Moments

My mom bought me my first camera during the summer of 2005. I was 15 years old and it was a week before our family trip to China to visit my grandparents who we hadn’t seen for over half a decade.  She did not want to limit the amount of photographs we took by the amount of film she brought with her so we decided on a digital camera.

During our month-long stay in our hometown of Wenzhou, I made sure to take as many photographs as I could not only because I was fascinated by everything around me, but also because I wanted to remember the past and preserve the present. Although I was 8 years old when I came to America, most of my memories of my native home quickly faded as I learned the culture and language of America. Many of these memories slowly came back as I traversed around my old neighborhood and explored the places I use to love. For person I met and every place I went, I took a photo. Pieces came together as I “retraced my steps” and rediscovered hidden stories. Photography was my way of making sure that these memories would never fade again because they were a large part of the person I am today.

A rice field.

In addition, it ensured that those memories not only existed in my head, but also in an external form that I could share with others. It helps me describe my home to those who have not been there and allows me to reminisce about my “other home.” I find that every time I look at photographs (which I admit, is quite often), I find something new I didn’t realize was there before.

           Artists use cameras to capture emotions, parents use them to preserve memories, and journalists use them to capture events. Anyone and everyone who uses a camera is documenting time; I just happened to be documenting the past as well as the present.

"Modern" rickshaws.

Family Home.

Huge grasshopper.

Urban meets rural.

What is Media?

            Media are the channels through which connections are made. They can come in all forms and express all kinds of ideas. They are channels through which the creator sends his or her message to the receiver. Media are the ways through which human beings have formed connections to reach each other. Media are books, games, movies, and so much more. Media all contain messages and are messages in themselves. I definitely agree with McLuhan that the medium is important, but I do not believe that the medium is the complete message. Rather, a balance of content and the medium itself is what defines media.

Marshal McLuhan argues that “the medium is the message” because the medium itself is more important than the content it carries. He believes that content is secondary to the actual media itself because media carry all the content within themselves. I do not agree with his idea that “the effect of a (medium) is not related to (its) content” (McLuhan 18) because content definitely adds to the media. Neither the media itself nor the content can stand alone and thus depend on each other to create a message to the receiver. While McLuhan believes that all the necessary content is embedded in media, I believe that although media have their own content, additional messages are also necessary. For example, while McLuhan believes that a computer is the complete message, I would not dismiss all the computer applications as completely vital to the medium.   

Our current mainstream understanding of media is those who cover the news and special events. We say things like “the riot was so outrageous that got media attention” because we see media as those who bring the world to us in a neat package. Whether in a television news report, a video of an event, or a newspaper article, the media to us is what connects us to the events that occur all throughout the world. I do not agree with this simplified mainstream definition of media.

My definition of media is very similar to McLuhan’s in the sense that I believe that media are messages in themselves.  However, I do not think the media contains the full message. To be more specific, I think that media are not things that occur naturally in the world. Trees in the Amazon are not media because there were no planters to give it a meaning. Media are things that have content and are content themselves. There needs to be someone to add messages to the medium by creating the medium or adding additional content to it in order for it to be media. Buildings, even though they may not seem to be media at first, are. They encompass the owner’s desires, the architect’s designs, and the construction worker’s labor. The buildings may not express an explicit message but the content is there, within the building. Contrary to McLuhan’s belief, if a family moved into the building, it adds content to the building and thus, affects the building’s job as a medium. Added content (family) is just as important as the embedded content (the message of the building).

You cannot separate the building from the creators, just as you cannot separate the idea of yourself and your home as an entity. We build for a reason. Even after the building is constructed, the reason does not disappear. It is, in fact, the core essence for why the building stands. There are different forms of media, such as electric media, paper media, sound media, and so on. However, they are still media.

Citations

McLuhan, Marshall. "The Medium Is the Message." Understanding Media; the Extensions of Man,. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1964. 3-47. Print.