My job as a media consumer is reflected in the ratings

At one point in my life I always managed to make it back to my room to watch my weekly T.V. show. Lately, I have been slacking as a fan, partly because most of my favorite shows have ended for the season, or all together, or I'm just too busy. If you asked me what my favorite show was right now, I would have to say, NBC's ER.

ER has that touch of excitement of someones life is on the line, which is layered with the personal lives of the doctors. Even though I still hold true that the original, as seen in "where are they now" is always best, the current season is still good. Out of 15,411 shows, its popularity contest ranks it at 20, and its rating rank is 355. Overall, viewers rate it to be an 8.9 on a ten point scale.

I think the show's popularity competes the most with Grey's Anatomy. It seems like everyone is watching it, and then calling other friends to discuss what just happened, and forget all about the big ending to the night. I think the night works for it, but the time does not. I am too busy to watch television on the weekends and I'm too tired on Monday night. Between the rest of the days, I would keep it on Thursday because I'm getting excited for the weekend and need some mental relaxation by then. It would also be more likely that I would watch it if it was an hour earlier because I could stay up for it. However, I don't think it could buy that time slot from Grey's.

The nearest city to my home is Buffalo. According to the Nielsen ratings, it is rated as 49, with 639,990 TV homes, making up .575 % of the US. ER did not make the top ten, but Grey's did with a rating of 14.4, or 15,869,800 TV households. I think for the remainder of this season, Grey's will win out. My suggestion for ER would be to bring some of the original cast back for next season.

You think you have the power of equality

Why are we attracted to things we are denied? Its an unconsious thirst to have what we know we can't because its exciting and to arouse our emotional self is invigorating. In a storyline by New Line Entertainment, a young englishmen goes to Sarawak to become part of the colonial government trying to educate and control the native village. In The Sleeping Dictionary (2003), the young man falls in love with a his sleeping dictionary, but it is a forbidden circumstance for them to have a relationship beyond that.
It brings many themes of real life down to a personal level for the viewer. For example, with myself, I don't necessarily thing everyday that I will be denied something because of my status as a women, ocupation, or culture. However, the englishmen has authority in this community over all the Iban people. There is only one other englishman over him that has been stationed in the field for many years. But, according to Iban culture and the rules of the english, it has never worked for an Iban to marry a englishmen.
The movie incorporates the seriousness of life and the realities of dissapointment and sprinkles light notes in between. When your invitation for dinner is, "If you're about to be killed at least stay for dinner," I would reconsider where my behaviors and actions were leading me. The discrimination and subordination of the Iban women, especially when a English women wants to take her picture, she says nothing to her about not wanting her picture taken. She is an Iban women who should respect the English, but not receive any respect. On the English women's side, she doesn't mean to be disrespectful, but she is uninformed about the Iban culture and takes no initiative to interact with them beyond systematically recording evidence of their existence.
I would watch this movie over and over again because I think it is a little different from the cookie-cutter movies that we see today. How often do we see the same story played out but with different character's in a different setting. Of course The Sleeping Dictionary can be coined as a traditional love story, but the underlying themes that request your attention makes the experience worth while.
To address the question of how the web is changing the role of the movie and movie critic, I would agree that he or she is being empowered. The viewer no longer needs to go to the theater or even down the road to rent a movie. It can be ordered, or even viewed online. There are also numerous outlets for publication on the web for critics to express their opinion, as I am currently doing. Viewers won't watch what they don't like. Therefore, based on the ideas of marketing, and even the psychological theories of positive reinforcement based on a system of financial rewards, producers won't market movies that don't make money. Furthermore, I contemplate whether the world wide web as a free outlet of expression and communication would be infected with more charges and bills because producers are losing money in the theaters.

Who is that person, who am I?

Do we, in today's society, understand how influential our decisions our on our life? The average person watches over 2 hours of television a day. What if individuals chose quality media to consume instead of mindless entertainment in those few hours everyday?
One of my day's choices would include the move Crash. It makes you re-evaluate your definition and identification with a specific group. The movie's website even has a mini emotional experience study to make a bigger point in that individuals interpret other's reactions in a unique way everyday. Lippmann also says, "we cannot fully understand the acts of other people, until we know what they think they know." A tag line the producers is "You think you know who you are. You have no idea." I think this fits the movie well.
Racism is a key theme in the film. It is constructed of multiple layers of stories that seem to come full circle by the end as they slowly become involved in each other. I think, for myself, I came to the conclusion that stereotypes are created out of fear rather than dislike. The younger officer actually was an advocate for the equal treatment of black citizens. However, out of fear, he passes final judgement on a character at the end of the movie based on the color of his skin. The director's character, Cameron, overdid it with accepting that he was black when he stood up to the police after he seemed to steal his own car. After the episode, he said to the carjacker in his car, Anthony, "Look at me. You embarrass me. You embarrass yourself." Anthony was fulfilling that stereotype that others created of young black men.
I think by association with other movies, characters come with a stereotyped emotional response if a viewer has already seem them in another movie. For example, I had seen Hotel Rwanda and felt like I should pay attention and have more apathy towards Don Cheadle. This preconceived concept on my part worked alright, but then I had also seen Mummy with Brenden Frasier. In that movie he seemed to have a more lovable role which conflicted with is role in Crash. I'm unsure of how to go about fixing this, but for me it seemed to have a negative effect on my viewing of it.
Overall, I would re-watch the movie, which speaks highly of a movie for me. I don't know if I would go so far as to buying it, but I would definitely rent it again and choose it when my friends were trying to decide what movie to watch on a Saturday night.

The riches of the mind don't always match the pocketbook

I would like to correct an error I made in the previous post. RCA is not paying anything to Farnsworth's family in terms of license fees. The court forced them to give him a one time sum but nothing further. I think RCA should be ashamed for the corporation's behavior. They represent a large portion of technology in today's society, yet they are willing to stand behind this decision. I think, if they are worried about how their company looks to the public, they would benifit more if they took steps to attemp to reconcile this injustice with Farnsworth's family.

More info on Farnsworth:
http://philotfarnsworth.com

An American Dreamer vs. the World

Was it a Russian scientist or a Mormon farmer's son? Majority would guess that the individual with the doctorate would be the inventor of the television, not Philo T Farnsworth. Today RCA is paying royalties to the family of the little Idaho farmer who begain his sketching at the young age of 14.

Today's world is filled with discrimination. Just like the gatekeepers of media control what the public sees, as the public dictates what they want to see, that same public gives publicity to whoever they choose. The majority seems to always win. Who will choose the poor white man trying to make a living for his family? Who will give credit to the young kid over the wise man? Those in power, the gatekeepers, create a status hierarchy that Farnsworth was not at the top of. As we learn from sociology, those in power stay in power using oppression and subordination.

Farnsworth was a genius. He started with drawing and then decided to become an experimentor. His ability to excel in Physics and chemistry allowed the beinging of the televison to flicker in a lab with a single flash of light with the movement of electrons. However, after all this work, Sarnoff, the head of RCA took the credit for his invention. Farnsworth won the fight with RCA for the patent, but not the recognition. The individual in power keeps the member of the submissive class in check and didn't give it a second thought.

Too often in this world do we see another being discriminated against and we sit by and do nothing. To stand out away from the majority is a big task to overcome and many find it easier to be passive than proud. However, Farnsworth had the courage to be one man against a gigantic corporation. But he doesn't win the recognition for his invention. The majority does not let him because media had spoon fed them the information that Sarnoff is the inventor of electric television. Just like women not having equal rights as men, blacks the same as whites, young versus old, the minority is the outgroup. It is the outgroup that faces discrimination.

In an interview with "Pem" Farnsworth, she talks about her husbands life. As his partner by his side in the lab for 15 years, she wrote the book, Distant Vision, to capture his brillance. A genius until his death last year, he didn't even live to see a pocket calculator. His story is now being told through media again, but giving him the recognition he deserves. The American dream is to be free, have the opportunities to succeed at life, and watch a game of baseball. Is it too much to ask to allow the dreamer to win an inning or two?