Reflection Journal Entries by

Journal Entry #1

philwachowich — 2023-09-07 15:47:25 UTC

In this course I'm most looking forward to learning more about the nuance behind creating corporate communications and the analyzation of media. I finished the SAIT Journalism program this past spring and worked as a communications intern in the natural gas industry this past summer. Working towards a career in corporate communications is the reason behind my interest in the course and the program. One of the topics that I am excited to learn more about is Canada's media policies. Although I have been born and raised in Canada, I am much more familiar with the media policies in the United States and am looking forward to expanding my knowledge in that area.

Journal Entry #2

philwachowich — 2023-09-14 16:11:19 UTC

In my opinion, the installation of the trans-Canada radio link in 1927 was the first large piece of the installation of a Canadian identity and culture. Canada covers a massive space of land, and attempting to get people across the country to feel a sense of unity is a difficult task. Having all Canadians consume the same content everyday goes a long way into teaching citizens about the happenings across the country. Prior to the installation, it would be very difficult to know what is happening in any other province or territory on a day-by-day basis.

Similarly, the first transcontinental Canadian television service in 1958 used the principles founded by the trans-Canada radio link to further install Canadian identity. Watching Canadian news every night can, consciously or unconsciously, foster an identity towards the country. Even if people are not watching together, watching the same things every night creates discussion points and further evolves the communication and discussion surrounding Canada amongst its citizens.

While these forms of media certainly went a long way in shaping previous generations, they are far less effective now. There is more user control over what sources people choose to get their news and content from than there was ever thought possible when these models were conceived. Radio and Canadian television are now just optional content, amongst an impossibly long list of things to watch. Canada is still in its early stages as a country and must find new ways to cultivate a national identity amongst its citizens.

Journal Entry #3

philwachowich — 2023-09-21 15:51:04 UTC

The main meaning being conveyed by this message is that driving a Tesla will help create a better environment. This meaning is largely denotative, as shown through the text at the bottom of the advertisement as well as the green part of the vehicle. There are connotations with the green part of the vehicle, implying that the world will look like this if everyone drove a Tesla. I would put this under the myth or negotiated category, as the production of lithium batteries is not helpful to the environment, but long-term use of an electric vehicle can be helpful.

An additional meaning that the advertisement is attempting to convey is that driving any other vehicle is bad for the environment. That message is denotative and connotative, with the denotation coming from the text above the vehicle. That sentence implies that any non-Tesla vehicle is harming the environment. The connotation is delivered by the featured charging station and overall clean look of the advertisement. If they were directly disparaging a different car brand, they would likely not use a completely white background surrounding that vehicle. The goal of the advertisement is to have the consumer see the charging feature and believe that Tesla are a futuristic and cutting-edge company all while being eco-friendly. I would consider this to be a negotiated meaning, as plenty of other car companies are making eco-friendly vehicles but Tesla is certainly an untraditional and innovative company.

Journal Entry #4

philwachowich — 2023-09-26 21:29:39 UTC

The agenda setting theory most accurately reflects my relationship with media and news coverage. I completed the Journalism program at SAIT and my opinion is that the most difficult part of a journalist's job is locating the stories that need to be told. Once the topic and the angle are chosen, the rest of the work is much easier to complete. When I consume news from world-renowned publishers like the BBC or The New York Times, I believe that those journalists have found the most high-impact stories that merit public consumption and debate.

While I often don't agree with the angle or the spin that is put onto some pieces of news, I understand the relevance of the presented topic is high. It is the responsibility of the publisher to give the news to you, not to tell you what to think about it. I do see parts of my news and content consumption fitting into some of the model's and theory's presented in this weeks lecture. Cultivation theory and the uses and gratification model certainly apply to some of my watching-habits, but the agenda setting theory allows me to put trust and responsibility into the media without allowing them to shape my overall opinions.

Journal Entry #5

philwachowich — 2023-10-05 20:07:19 UTC

I think the Harry Potter universe is an escape from reality for many fans. The story is a wild tale of fiction, and I believe that is the best asset of the text. It attracts fans of all age demographics and upbringings. This diverse audience can easily use the text as an escape from their day-to-day lives and it helps to distract in difficult times. The movies are almost always replayed on TV, and I have seen many TikTok's and Instagram Reels over the past few months that encourage binge sessions of the show on gloomy days. The popularity of the movies and books still being this present in popular culture after more than a decade since it's last release shows the dramatic impact it has had.

People who are looking for something that isn't overly political in nature or real-world-infused found the books or movies and it gave them the release they were looking for. The universe applies to any era and any age demographic, it does not appear to be aging poorly (aside from the opinions of the author) or losing touch with new audiences. It's easy for all watchers and readers to put themselves into the text. Consumers put themselves in Hogwarts and ask themselves what house they would be selected to. It grants an escape from things that bother people, and the fans who become most infatuated with the Harry Potter universe are likely to have been the most in need of that release. These fans found a community and it makes some fans comfortable enough to express themselves and find people who share their beliefs.

I think the Harry Potter universe is a very rare example because it applies to any time frame and to everyone. It casts a wide net. While there's plenty to be said about the fans of Harry Potter and their reception of the text, it's hard for me to say that all non-fiction and fantasy texts get this level of political activism stemming from their audience. I think Harry Potter is very rare in that it's easy for the audience to put themselves into the text, and meet likeminded fans and people online. It came at a perfect time for its era, and the outgoing political activism that stemmed from fans is a result of that.

Journal Entry #6

philwachowich — 2023-10-19 05:07:22 UTC

"No Logo" provided an excellent backstory on the turn towards unethical advertising.
I found the story of Celebration, Florida most interesting. This is such a blatant attempt to submerge a population into a brand, I was surprised that people would move to live there. I've always noticed that some people are devoted to brands (will only wear Nike, only play games on PlayStation, only use Apple, etc.) but to uproot an entire life is a strange concept to me. I also really enjoyed learning about the contradictions in some brands messages and their practices, like Wal-Mart and shopping malls.

I found lots of ties between Dallas Smythe's Audience Commodity theory and the documentary. Smythe's theory of networks selling their audience to advertisers essentially goes hand-in-hand with the concepts raised by "No Logo." Brands would be able to hand-pick the hours of television that best aligned with the audiences they were hoping to attract, and could then strategize their marketing towards appealing to that exact audience. This creates a situation where one hand is constantly washing the other, and rampant consumerism follows. This has allowed brand association to continue its rampant growth since 2003.

I don't believe there has been a huge change in brand culture in the two-decades since the documentary was released. Brands still put a tremendous emphasis on selling the lifestyles associated with their products. Apple has still continued to use popular artists (Taylor Swift, Drake, Olivia Rodrigo, Kendrick Lamar, etc) to advertise their products in recent years. Nike continues to follow much the same blueprint they used in the 1990s. McDonald's ran advertisements over the summer that were simply compilations of all their references in popular movies or TV shows in American culture (brand bombing). These brands all continue to attempt to emphasize to the consumer that popular culture is influenced by their brand.

Journal Entry #7

philwachowich — 2023-10-26 20:06:40 UTC

I chose to remove the word "Sportsbooks" from this BetMGM advertisement and replace it with "Creating Addiction."

I have a long list of issues with how professional sports leagues and their broadcast partners promote gambling. There are advertisements for different sportsbooks on uniforms, on the playing surface, and advertisements are played at nearly every commercial break. I believe it is completely irresponsible and harmful to people of all ages to constantly promote sports gambling. It exposes young fans of the sport to gambling and it encourages them to sign up and lose money when they turn 18. It is particularly harmful to recovering addicts to have constant exposure.

The issues that are raised by this culture jam is there are extreme boundaries being crossed with the excessive advertising of this product. There should be policies in place that prevent this product for being advertised to widespread audiences. Continued advertising only promotes people to be put in danger of falling susceptible to gambling addiction at an early age.

Journal Entry #8

philwachowich — 2023-11-01 16:05:16 UTC

The number of ways that I am subject to surveillance is about the same as I thought, which is a lot. I believe nearly everyone with an active mobile phone lives in a panoptic society.

Everyday when I get in my car, my phone suggests that I drive to the place that I am most likely to go to at that time of day. Usually it's to school, or to the gym, but it has taken into account my daily schedule and routine and makes suggestions based on that. This can be useful because it shows the traffic patterns on the route, but if anyone gained access to this data they could predict where I would most likely be at any given moment during the week. As private as we think the data on our phones is, it is all being tracked and stored somewhere.

Everyone has the choice to turn off their location services if they'd like to, but even without those services, there's still records of all texts and calls. It's hard to have a private moment anymore if someone is carrying a phone. If you wanted to live in a non-panoptic society, you'd have to make a conscious decision to reject modern technology.

Journal Entry #9

philwachowich — 2023-11-16 21:54:24 UTC

Media policy is important because it has shaped Canada's cultural identity. Canada's proximity to the United States made it important to create a distinctly Canadian culture, and media policies served a great purpose in creating one. Canada is not nearly as old of a country as the United States, and it would have been easy for the American identity to overtake Canadians without policies being in place to encourage the spread of Canadian news. Canada is a vast country, and getting citizens to care for the provinces and territories that are not neighbouring their own would have been much more difficult if it weren't for the CBC. However, as was outlined in the lectures, having the state exude control over the narratives that are told to the citizens of the country has been damaging. It has left the current and future generation of Canadians with the task of reconciliation.

Media policies are easier to ignore in the digital landscape. If a Canadian citizen wanted to, they could make a choice to only consume American news content, and they wouldn't have a lot of difficulty in being able to do so. I believe it is important to modernize media policies to encourage Canadians to consume more local content rather than a international content. It's increasingly easy for any Canadian to lose a sense of what is happening in their own city in favour of what is happening on the world scale. Having a relationship with your country is important for installing pride and a sense of belonging in the generations that follow you, and media policies can go a long way in helping create that.

Journal Entry #10

philwachowich — 2023-11-23 21:02:36 UTC

My primary sources for world news are Associated Press, CBC and CTV. I like AP because they get news out in a pretty timely manner and have fairly unbiased coverage of events. I use CBC and CTV for coverage of stories on a local scale that AP wouldn't cover. I used to be far more reliant on Twitter for news, but in the last few years the problems with the website have made it much more unreliable then it once was.

I studied journalism at SAIT and feel I have a strong understanding of what is and isn't a reliable source for news. I do read a lot of different news stories each day from different publications across North America and Europe, but I often find that stories come attached with fairly evidently biased news frames. That quickly reduces the amount of stock I put into that publications coverage of a story. In my opinion, news coverage has become extremely divided and it's easy to see which news angles have an pre-determined angle attached and which one's do not. Stories that only include sources from one side of the event or don't have any sources at all are a quick way for me to determine the validity of a news story.

Journal Entry #11

philwachowich — 2023-12-06 17:24:27 UTC

I thoroughly enjoyed learning about the concepts that were taught in this course. I was particularly interested in the lectures about the creation of a Canadian identity through the use of the CP Rail. Canada is much younger than other established nations and learning about the ways in which they sought to foster pride towards the country by using communications was very interesting. I also really enjoyed learning and writing my research paper on Smythe's audience commodity theory, as well as the concepts explained in No Logo. I have always been conscious of advertising tactics, but delving into nuanced discussions on the ramifications and goals of the advertisements was something I was keen to do and learned a lot from.

I think this course was an excellent entry into communications studies. I've always been a very media-focused and media-conscious person, so I don't feel that any of the topics were too difficult to grasp. The journal entries were a excellent tool that caused me to think a little deeper on the concepts that were taught in the lectures. I would certainly say that the material in this course allowed me to build onto my knowledge of media. The research paper assignment was my first University paper, and the lectures that informed us on how to write the paper effectively (as well as Kathleen James' lecture) were indispensable. I'm five years removed from graduating high school and had completed some post-secondary education before taking this course, so that may have played a part in my assessment of the course.

My approach to communications and the remainder of my time in the communications studies program was certainly shaped by this course. This course has taught me to be very attentive when researching as there is an incredible supply of content that can help you express your ideas in the most effective way possible. Before taking this course I was additionally not conscious of how many terms other researchers had created to identify phenomenons that exist in media. Concepts like the hypodermic model, textual poaching, commodity fetishism, culture jamming and the panoptic society were all new terms to me, and I'm sure that I will bring them with me as I continue my studies in communications at U of C.