Introduction to media industries

11th August 2015 (1st class)
Today was an introductory class of Introduction to media industries. In this class we talked about the meaning of reality. Reality is the state of things as they actually exist, as opposed to an idealistic or notional idea of them. The class was generally based on the discussion about the individual’s perspectives about reality.

18th August 2015 (2nd class)
In today’s class we discussed in detail about what is reality. We also saw a video on Optical Illusion. Optical illusion is a perception as of visual stimuli that represent what is perceived in a way different from the way it is in reality .Moreover, sir introduced us a new concept known as “Semiotics”. Semiotics is the study of signs and symbols. Semiotics is based on signs which is the object and signified which is the derived meaning of that object. For example, a knife is an object or sign. This is an image that our eyes create. The signified or derived meaning of the knife could be murder. This is what our brain interprets. Furthermore, we again discussed about reality and shadows. Sir gave us a scenario wherein there were few people who are tied together in such a way that they could only look straight at the wall and the shadows that appeared on the wall due the fire which was behind them. Now the point rose was that if one of the people was untied and was given the freedom to explore the outside world how would he feel, considering the fact that he has only seen the shadows and thus the shadows were the reality for him.

25th August 2015 (3rd class)
In today’s class we learned essential tools for analyzing with the help of advertisements. The three essential tools for analyzing are:
– What does it represents?
– How does it represent what it does?
– Why does it mean what it means?
We analyzed various advertisements related to public service issue and about brand advertisements. We also discussed gender disparity and how women and men were portrayed in these ads. We also saw an informative video named “The secrets from the science of persuasion. The essence of the whole video was that we need rules and shortcuts to guide us in our decision making. There are six shortcuts of persuasion
1. Reciprocity: It is the courtesy to return the favor. In sales, this could be added gifts
2. Scarcity: People tend to demand or say yes to those things which are unique or scarce.
3. Authority: People follow the advice of their consultants.
4. Consistency: People like to be consistent. People ask for small commitments that can be made.
5. Liking: People prefer to say yes to people whom they like.
6. Consensus: People tend to follow other people’s action to determine their own.

1st September 2015 (5th class)
We talked about cognitive bias. Cognitive bias is when we make mistakes in remembering, evaluating and reasoning. We tend to make inaccurate judgement of other people’s social reality. We don’t want to believe in something which is contrary to our previous held beliefs. Furthermore, we also learned few questions that could help us in understanding media literacy better.
• Can news from other person be termed as objective description?
• How can media manipulate and be opinionated?
• Do news agents crop out emotional information?

8th September 2015 (6th class)
We saw several advertisements that portrayed men tobe masculine and sporty. In majority of the ads, men’s bodies were not exposed unlike women who are being objectified to sell products. We also talked about criticism. People generally assume that criticism is a negative thing. However, critics provide information that people are not aware of. Based on information that critics have they can judge the medi text by four following ways:
i. Aesthetic value
ii. Sociological value
iii. Functional vlaue
iv. Humanistic value
Critics can provide new directions and suggestions to the producer of the product. They explain things in such a way that is understandable to the audience.

15th September 2015 (7th class)
Critical literacy is the ability to interogate texts that is beng able to analyse and criticise text and to examine the ideology at work. We also saw a video on analysis. Analysing is the process of breaking a complex topic into smaller topics to better understnd them. There are three steps of analysis:
i. Thesis and main idea
ii. Structure
– Problem-solution -> identifies the problem then present ways to solve it
– Comparision -> group ideas according to their similarities and deifferences
– Cause and effect -> shows how one event causes another
– Sequential -> present event in the order in which it happened.
iii. Format- information that can be in the form of documentaries, news, interviews, cartoons, ads etc .

29th September 2015 (8th class)
Mid term exam

6th October 2015 (9th class)
We talked about that Aristotle (Greek philosopher) divided the means of persuasion, appeals. Into three categories- Ethos, Pathos and Logos. Ethos is convincing by the character of the author. Pathos is persuading by appealing to the reader’s emotions. Logos is persuading through logical arguments. We also learned the reasons for advertising. we advertise
1. to attract attention
2. to arouse interest
3. to stimulate desire
4. to create opinion
5. to move viewer to specific action for eg. in buying the product.

13th October 2015 (10th class)
We discussed ‘Seduction Capital’ which means seducing people to trying to love you and you will feel more validated when more people appreciate you. Loving someone is the ultimate form of control to validate yourself. It is like making you feel like as if you are the ‘one’. we also talked about how we are part of ideological stereotype. When we communicate with people we have a certain set of expectation from them. We expect them to answer in certain way and when they don’t, we think the other person took it out of context.

20th October 2015 (11th class)
Core of the narrative consists of protagonist, antagonist and conflict. The protagonist has two main aspects
1. Outer desire
2. Inner desire
We also analysed a short film called ‘Butterfly Circus’ in terms of the outer and inner desire of protagonist