Sunday, December 5, 2010

reasearch blog 15

The most illuminating parts of this research site/project were how we could read and talk about things in class and then apply them to our site. It was nice to be able to see what we were talking about and reading about and not just talk or read about them. I think it will stick with me longer because of this fact. It was also neat that we got to choose our own site and something that interests us rather than you pick something. I found that I was more interested in looking and applying terms to something I was interested in rather than something that I wasnt interested in.

The one thing that I thought was the most frustrating was the book. It was just too hard to understand and comprehend. I would read a page and then say what? I would almost have to read each page twice. The language the book used was way over my head I found it easier just to read the terms in the back of the book and try to understand it from there. I think it would be more beneficial to give the guidlines of the final research paper, before the students pick there site. This will eliminate picking a very difficult site, to research and give the students and idea of what they will be expected to do. Just like the course syllabus we get for each class that states what we are expected to do ahead of time so we are not caught off guard when it comes down to it.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Works Citied

Randle, Quint, and Rob Nyland. "Participation in Internet Fantasy Sports Leagues and Mass Media Use." Journal of Website Promotion 3.3/4 (2008): 143-152. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 16 Nov. 2010.
Dae Hee, Kwak, et al. "How Confident Are You to Win Your Fantasy League: Exploring the Antecedents and Consequences of Winning Expectancy." Journal of Sport Management 24.4 (2010): 416-433. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 18 Nov. 2010.

Poulton, Emma. "Toward a Cultural Sociology of the Consumption of "Fantasy Football Hooliganism." Sociology of Sport Journal 25.3 (2008): 331-349. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 18 Nov. 2010.

O'Brien, Susie, and Imre Szeman. Popular Culture: a User's Guide. Toronto: Nelson Education,
            2009. Print.
Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Football. Web. 18 Nov. 2010. <http://football.fantasysports.yahoo.com/>.

Reading blog 10

List:
Vagabonds
Older people/ elderly- that don't want change and don't want to adapt
Very stubborn people who don't want to conform

Tourists
Youth and younger people who accept change
Middle class (age wise) are very willing to adapt to change

No tourists don't just exist in the first world, and vagabonds don't just exist in the third world. Everyone lives in the same world. We may think that we live in different worlds but in reality there is only one world. We must all adapt and conform to each other or this one world we all live in will not be functional. As stated by O'Brien, most of the people around the world can't afford expensive vacations that involve leaving the continent that they call "home", they are simply just too expensive. People who are able to go on these very expensive vacations should consider themselves lucky, the other people around the world don't have the economic means to go accross the world for a week, just because they want to. ( O'Brien 338)


 The roles that race and gender play in the politics of mobility are great. Stereotypically some races are much more impovershed that others, therefore those races don't have the same oppurtunity to be in political power. Gender also plays a vital role, women around the world are thought of as being second in line to men. These categories are changing in that more minorities are becoming politically impowered such as Barack Obama. There are still not many minorites in political power, but with Obama's election it's a start, to a every changing future.



O'Brien, Susie, and Imre Szeman. Popular Culture: a User's Guide. Toronto: Nelson Education,
            2009. Print.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

responses to reading blog 9

posted on samantha's and deavins

research blog 13

Randle, Quint, and Rob Nyland. "Participation in Internet Fantasy Sports Leagues and Mass Media Use." Journal of Website Promotion 3.3/4 (2008): 143-152. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 16 Nov. 2010.

This article was published to show how much interaction with fantasy sports, increases the amount of mass media a person uses throughtout a period of time. Studies showed that when people were involved in fantasy sports team they watched more tv, listened to more radio, and looked up more stats on the internet. The studies also showed that users of fantasy teams were slated to watch more sporting events each week. It also talks about reasons why people like sports. It gives a list of reasons and backs them up with very reasonible explanations.

I found some very interesting statistics in this article. One was that an estimated 15 to 18 million americans participate in fantasy sports every single year. This has made fantasy football go from a hobby to a business. With all of these users an estimated 1.5 billion dollars is gained in subscription fee's and advertising. Another very interesting fact I found was that 85% of boys ages 14 to 18 said that they "loved sports" or "liked them alot. What was even a bigger shock to me was that 74% of girls the same ages said they "loved sports" and or "liked them alot." The last stat that shocked me was that 73% of females and 83% of males thought of themselves as sports fans. I would have that the males was about right, but the females I thought would be much less, I don't see that many females that are sports fans. I think the biggest thing I can take from this article is that fantays sports have gone from being a hobby to being a big business, maybe unlike anything else ever has.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Reading blog 9

I live near two small towns, and I have seen the effects of "brands" in these towns, and they are quite devastating. There is one main street, which encompasses a wide variety of hometown eating, buying and selling cars, grocery shopping, and many other services. Subway is also in this same town, not on the same street, but in the same town. Subway is a bargain to get a footlong sub for five dollars, you can't beat it. That's exactly why these local small restaurants can't compete, they have to make money, and they can't sell footlong subs for five dollars. Same thing with the grocery store, prices are more expensive here than at larger stores, because the local store needs to make money to stay a float. When it all boils down to it small businesses can't compete with brand names like meijer, kroger, or k-mart. It's destroying little towns like the one I live near.

Living near toledo and detroit there are always rumors, and/ or jokes about them being "bad". There are bad sides of every town, but not as bad as people make them out to be. The people that say bad things about these neighborhoods are just contributing to the stereotypes that this area has already recieved. This "bad" space/ side of town is avoided by people at all costs. I guess this is a way of people having a feeling of self security. A public space such as detroit and toledo should never be as unsafe as people make it out to be. This space is for all to use, unlike private which is used for monitary profit or however the owner see's fit.

In this chapter it talks about people going on vacation to one of two locations or types of locations. One is a very urban city where their is alot of things to do. The second is the "nature" vacation where people go to be secluded and enjoy the space that is open and free, not conjested with people. My family and I go on vacation often and most of the time our family chooses the second option. We would much rather prefer a non conjested nature vacation rather than going to a city. I would relate our decision with where we live, we live in the country and are more likley to enjoy a nature vacation rather than someon who dwells in the city.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

posted on for reading blog 8

samantha's and sarah's

Research blog 12

The website that I chose is yahoo fantasy football. This is an example of a subculture, because it's not in the social norms of people to sit on their computer for hours on end to look up stats about football players, or fantasize about what stats players might bring. This fantasy world is exactly what the word fantasy means. It's FAKE, anything that isn't real, and people religiously act in or on is a subculture. Fantasy football also has the space on the internet needed for it to be considered a subculture. Where members can pick up, drop, trade, cut, change positions, and bench players. They can also talk to other "owners" of teams in their league. Authenticity plays a crucial role in this subculture, it's role is that it's completley rid of authenticity. Everything in this subculture is fake the team names, the owners names, what teams the players play for, and many other things. My argument for fantasy football as a subculture is simple, it's not in the social norm and it has it's own "space" to meet or talk and still be in existance therefore it is a subculture.

Reading blog 8



LAIRE stand for live action interactive roleplaying explorers. This is an example of a subculture, because this is a society that exists not in "secret" but behind the scenes. Laire is very much outside the norm. Laire has their own "space" or place they can meet or have their battles, which every subculture needs. This is a subculture because everyone who participates in laire has something in common, and that is their interest in interactive roleplaying.



This picture from the movie American History X depicts a counterculture. In this picture is the leader of a gang which is for white supremecy. This is an example of a counterculture because it's trying to change the world. It's trying to rid this particular city of everyone other than "whites", they go into an asian owned and run store and trash the place, assault the workers, and rob the store. This is a counterculture because this group is contradicting everything that these not "white" people bring to the culture.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Research blog 11

I have been in this subculture for sometime now, so I have been interacting this entire time. When i first got into fantasy football i was very anxious and very excited to see how i fared. After awhile it wore off and i wasn't very "into" it anymore. I still "play" in the leagues but i just do it usually just to be apart of my friends. Most of my friends take part in this fantasy sport. I don't have that much time to watch the nfl anymore so thats why i'm not into the sport anymore. I was responded to well in my first interaction of this cite. My brother and my friend are the creator of the league, so I know just about everyone on a first name basis. I felt very included because i was taking part in trades and free agent signings, adding a dropping players and the conversations that were taking place on the cite and in the league. Well there were boundries i didn't cross because some people get pretty amped up about fantasy football and use curse words and such i stayed away from that but other than that i have enjoyed fantasy football alot.

http://football.fantasysports.yahoo.com/

posted on for reading blog 7

dustin and sarahs

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Reading Blog 7

Representation was in my opinion a big part of the movie bamboozled getting it's message accross. Representation is how something is associated with symbols or sign systems. In this film black men were all stereotypically represented as dumb, uneducated, desperate, and oblivious to someone trying to make them look bad. They actors were represented by being poor, which walks hand in hand with not having an education. They also didn't have jobs, were tapp dancing in the street to have money to eat, which represented them being desperate. They also didn't realize until the very end of the movie, what the producers were making them, and all sorts of people like them, look like.

Identity also played a big role. The identities that the characters took on were many. The bossman, the white guy, took on a bigget/ racist role. He called them very derrogetory names and made fun of them on many occasions. The secretary, who was made out to be so good, actually had an identity of a desperate, foolish woman who slept with her boss to get a job. The identity of the main character manhan was one of desperate, needy, hungry, and very guilable. This movie was filled with identity, stereotypes, representation "some good but mostly bad", and mythology.

Monday, October 25, 2010

Research blog 10

Hegemonic masculinity in laments terms means the ability of men to dominate women. This plays a big role in fantasy football. Fantasy football, in the leagues I have been a part in have been all male. There are women that participate in fantasy football, but not many, at least that I know of.

Performativity also plays a big role in fantasy football. For instance, in the league I am in people are looked at and judged on how they "perform" in the league. Even though this "sport" is purely luck, draft day is a big part of it. If people draft well or pick good players then they are looked at as a good player, and are respected. If people feel you've drafted poorly then they look down on you. As for performing goes, if your team is good, then you are looked at as a "guru" or a very knowledgeable player. If a player wins year after year they are, as in any other competitive activity, looked at as the best, and have a target on their back. Everyone is looking to beat that person. This term walks hand in hand with hegemony. The best players are the dominant figures and earn everyone's respect and submission. Identity also is related. You can be looked at as a very risky player, smart player, dumb player, a player who doesn't care, and many other things. It's the way that you play, that give's people an idea of what type of player you are. Social constructivism plays another big role in fantasy football. It's all in how people perceive you compared to other people.

posted on

posted on deavins reading blog 6

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Research blog 9

Well interpellation had an unusualy part in getting me to play fantasy football. This site really isn't trying to get more people to join, well of course they are but it seems not very hard. Althought I have been a member for about 5 years, it wasn't this site that got me to join fantasy football. It was my friends, and the I guess the peer pressure of being left out of this sport. It gives us something to talk about, and have a feeling of I guess a brotherhood, they made fantasy football part of their lives so why shouldn't I make it part of my life? I was called on by my friends, and agency came over me to wanna be in this social group. I knew I didn't wanna be left out, and I wanted to play at the same time. So I figured why not i'll play. Fantasy Football became part of my life, I didn't realize it but I could spend hours strategizing going back and forth between two players. Who should I sit and who should I start? It really is a useless, meaningless, waste of time, but I enjoy it and so do my friends. It also gives the winner bragging rights, and I guess hegemony over all the others. Thats what everyone really is after I believe. POWER, is the ultimate goal of any competitive campaign. Why do people play video games for hours on end? Because they want to be the best at that game. When they have their friends over they want them to say "jeeze" your too good for me man. They want the power of being better, of looking down on someone, and that same person looking up and not aloud, but saying it in their head " I want to be that good." So they go home and play for hours on end. This world is all about power, and whoever has it, wants more. Whoever doesn't have it, wants it, and will do just about anything to get it.

Reading Blog 6

The educational systems I have went through have all taught me one thing in common. That is to obey. This isn't a bad thing. I feel as though I have been taught since kindergarten to not question what the teacher had to say, the teacher was always right. It was always a totalitarian state if you will. Follow obiediently, don't ask questions, do your work. Almost as if me and my fellow classmates were slaves, and the teacher the slave driver. We were taught to be a good responsible member of society who's opinion should be heard, but oddly enough our opinion never exactly mattered when it came to school. As student's at least in high school I was always wrong, teacher was right. Even if the teacher was sort of lazy, and didn't exactly care to teach, he was right. I was brought up to stand up for what I think is right, and be a productive memer of society. This sort of contradicts what I was experiencing the the class rooms at my local high school. Everything I was even being taught in the high school was being contradicted by what environment I was sitting in, being quiete and getting yelled at for talking. I'm not really talking about my whole education, really just one teacher in particular that didn't really care to teach, just expected us to know everything the first day we stepped into the class. I was also taught that I am just as important to society as the teacher that stood in front of me. Which, in a way, is being contradicted with every class i've ever been in. The teacher's desk is up front, or they stand up front. This to me symbolizes, the teacher being superior to me and the other students. Never really thought about this kind of stuff before, kind of interesting.

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Research Blog 8

There are some company logos but not as many as you'd think. There are only two that immediatley stand out to me. The first is a toyota advertisement which is a pretty good size. First I want to say that I believe in today's subculture every corportation has a brand, or a lifestyle that the corportation wants to portray as it's own. I believe that toyota's is a lifestlye of high quality cars, that get great gas milage. Maybe toyota is trying to appeal to the tree huggers of america, or more probable the people who want to try and save money and get better fuel economy. The next advertisement I came accross was a subway advertisement which is kind of hidden, you have to scroll down about half the page to see it. Subway's brand/claim to fame is it's "healthy" food. Which some may argue isn't that healthy. Either way it's healtheir than going to McDonalds and getting there supersized french fries. There is one more "advertisement" if you even want to call it that from facebook. It's simply a like button with a thumbs up next to it, so if you click like on your facebook it will appear that you like yahoo fantasy football. This webstie overall isn't very corporate. I mean there are ony the two advertisements, three if you count the like button. This site does a very good job of keeping most of the content revelant to fantasy football or other related areas. In all honesty the advertisements don't influence how I look at the site in the least. I've looked at this site so many times that the advertisements have become a blurr, they are non existant to me anymore. I believe alot of users of this site feel the same way, and don't pay any attention at all to this advertisements. The truth is on the world wide web advertisements are everywhere, I think ads have become part of the interent culture, with this people have learned to ignore their presence.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Reading blog 5

 
These are the images that come to my mind whenever logo's are talked about. In the world of sports specifically basketball the jordan logo is king. This image depicts Michael Jordan dunking a basketball. I encounter these logos all over. Gym bags, shoes, sweatshirts, t-shirts, headbands, sweatbands, and all other sorts of clothing. Commercials also sport this logo. The creators of this logo deploy them all over appearal because they know people will buy it. I believe that people wear these clothes as to say look it's MJ and I support him, or I represent him. It's a trend that many people have latched onto. Anything with a jordan logo on it fly's off the shelves. People just can't get enough of him and his logo. Most people, I believe, want to be know as the kid that wears all the jordan stuff. It's become an identity to wear the logo. The attraction of this logo to people is that this logo represents arguably the greatest basketball player that ever lived, and people like to think they are apart of that if they have the logo on their chest. I believe that the consumers are using the creators and the creators are using the consumers. The consumers are using the creators by using thier logo as their own "brand" and making it into their lifestyle. The creators are using the consumers by having the consumers wear the logo all over town, furthur advertising it to everyone else.

The nike swoosh is also a very popular logo these days. The image doesn't really depict anything real. The same as the jordan logo's I see nike logo's everywhere. The creators of the logo deploy them where they do, simply because of advertising purposes. If everyone has nike shoes on, then the guy that doesn't have them on feels left out and wants a pair. That's why they put their logo all over. People have adopted the nike logo into their appearall maybe even more than the jordan logo. Everywhere you go, you see nike shirts, deffinatley nike shoes, and lots of other nike things. The attraction of the nike logo is that nike sponsers many of the top athletes in the world. People feel if they have the same logo on their body as the "superstars" then they are apart of those "superstars." Famous people set the trends if they hae pink shoes, with lime green laces, you better bet the next day quite a few people are going to have on a very similar pair of pink shoes and lime green laces. In this incidence I feel the creators are using the consumers as advertising tools. Nike doesn't have the same, "brand" as the jordan logo does, to have it's own style. This is why I believe the creators are using the consumers in this case.

Monday, September 27, 2010

Research Blog 7

The power structure of yahoo fantasy football is greatly slanted towards the users of the site rather than the creators of the site. This isn't a pay site so that makes it a lot less lean-ant. I'm not exactly even sure if there is any "policing" of content on this site. As I have played fantasy football for the last 4 years and have never heard of someone being kicked off. People can say whatever it is that they want, and not have any consequences. For example the name of the league I play in is a curse word, just to illustrate my point. If the name of our league is a profane word then I don't assume the creators of the site really care what people  comment or put on the league message board. I have seen people put very offensive saying on the message board that the entire league can see and nothing has come up of it. Creating content is allowed and in no way shape or form banned unless it's an image of pornography or something along those ridiculous lines. As far as the continuity of the site I would have to say it is a "top down" website. All of the links to the site or to further navigate the site are at the top. At the bottom of the site there are just some copyright links to make sure nothing is plagiarized, this instills my point that it's a "top-down" site because there isn't much attention paid to the bottom of the site. This site seems to still be up and running because people like the freedom they are given to say whatever they want to when they want to say it. People don't like to have to "edit" or "refrain" from saying things they just like to blurt out exactly what they want to say.

Posted on

I posted on deavins blog for response 4

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Monday, September 20, 2010

Research Blog 6

The creators of this site make yahoo fantasy football a shining spotlight. In the middle of the page there is the word Football with a football right above it, under it reads yahoo fantasy sports 2010. Behind these words is a watermark which is a football field, except the only light spot on the football field is where this saying is, everywhere else on the "field is black, or a dark green fading into black. I believe that to their cohorts or users, on the home page, they are suggesting they are part of an elite group. On the very top left hand corner there is a "sign in" link. This link is kind of link the classic night club scene, when everyone is standing in line waiting to get it, then the "cool" guys walk up and are let right in. For the guests on the site, there is a register button. This is suggesting they could be like that "cool" guy and walk right in one day, all they have to do is register and wait a little bit. One major thing I have noticed is that all the fonts on this page are different. Outsiders or guests of the site, are thinking all of these different fonts kind of keep you guessing or keep you excited, you're not seeing the same old boring fonts. It suggests this fantasy sport is fun, exciting, and always changing, which it is. The subway advertisement in the middle of the page advertising a coffee and breakfast muffin, suggests to all that visit this site, that this "sport" is easy. As to say "you can do this sport sitting in a chair drinking coffee and eating a muffin." Overall it's a very welcoming site, that appeals to everyone who visits.

Reading blog 4

http://www.bodybuilding.com/store/index.html




The site that I chose is bodybuilding.com. This site offers a vast amount of supplements, clothing, and other goods that interest me. I think this company "nails" me as a customer because I love to lift. This website caters to me because it is full of products that help me perform, recover, gain muscle, and lose fat more efficiently. This site also appeals to me as a customer because it is cheaper than going to a store and buying the same products, and at a store you don't have the diversity of products as you do on this website. This site is also very easily navigable. You can look up exactly what you want according to what your looking for, it's very convenient. 


This store uses body builders either very well known or not very know on "coupons" if you will to sell them. This is inadvertently saying "if you buy this product you will look like me." It's very appealing because body builders are enormous and it would be nice to be that ripped. As far as packaging goes, the packaging of the products have some compelling statements on them that bring up convincing arguments on why you should buy them.  This website is also catered to a certain lifestyle. The physical fitness fanatics, the wanna be body builders, actual body builders, or for the average joe looking for some cheap protein. This site also has many articles about workouts, a workout plan, nutrition and many other general physical fitness phenomenons. To me all of this is very interesting and I am on this site all the time. I have bought products from here before, and I am sure I will again. They have offers on shipping as well. If you buy so much money's worth you get a free item, it's not the most expensive item, but it's a ploy that gets people to say "only ten more dollars for the free item, lets go buy something to get that free item." These shipping ploys work for many companies who sell things online. Overall this website is very user friendly, cheap, and very convenient, and that is why people like me continue to use it.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Eric's reasearch blog 5

http://football.fantasysports.yahoo.com/

There are a couple things that really "jump" out to me when I look at this page. The first is an advertisement for yahoo sports. This phrase is in large font that is why it sticks out. To the right of it centered in the page is the word football with an image of a football directly above it, and the words yahoo fantasy sports 2010 right beneath it. The last thing that really stands out is an advertisement for sprint. This ad is on the far right of the page and has the word Sprint in large white font with the companys logo next to it.

Once you get past the initial aspects of the page that stand out you find many useful things. Such as: a search bar where you can search the web from this page and look for anything you would like to find. Above this search bar on the very top right of the page there are links to your email, your yahoo home, yahoo sports, yahoo finance, and yahoo news. These are very useful web effectively surfing the web for easy passage way from one page of the cite to the next. On the very top left of the page are more links that enable me to get help and to log off my username. These links are one of the top reasons people use yahoo, because the cites are very easily navigated.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Posted On

I posted on dustins blog for my second chapter 3 blog response

Monday, September 13, 2010

Posted on

I responded to Deavins Chapter 3 Blog post

chapter 3 reading blog

Chapter 3 Reading Blog

These blogs work by making fun of actual news. These types of shows get many people to watch them because they are funny and everyone likes to laugh. Coverage of major news events is done by one making fun of actual news and two by telling the truth and giving people the straight out news. Both kinda of tell the news because the programs that make fun of the news tell what they're making fun of so in actuality they are letting their viewers know whats going on. The straight news programs just give the out right news.