extra credit

- Had you ever used a blog before attending RTF 305? IF SO, WHAT WAS ITS FOCUS?


Yes, I have used one before. I had a few in the past and one now, all mostly for personal use. One of them was used also for a marketing blogging position I had for a while. None of them had a certain theme or focus - they were mostly just a place for me to write about random things and share ideas with my friends and whoever else would read it.

- What were the positive aspects of using the blogs in the course?


I liked the speed in submitting the post. I could do the blog at any time during the week and submit it even an hour before the actual submission time. Another aspect I enjoyed was the more personal feeling of the blog, giving the impression that we could say our own opinions as well as talk about the terms and the subject involved. The less strict atmosphere of the blog made it feel less stressful for me to do the assignment. Incorporating media such as videos and pictures also added to what could have been a more dry and boring blog. Furthermore, the ability to edit the post after it was already submitted was useful just in case something didn't work out the first time. 

- What difficulties did you encounter in using the blogs? (both technical and conceptual)


The only technical difficulty I encountered with the blogger was that it always reverted to my Gmail account even though I signed up with a Yahoo account. Maybe in the future you guys could use a different type of blog instead of one that was linked to a company that practically forces you to use their email service. One conceptual problem I had in the beginning was trying to make it somewhat formal while in an informal setting, but it wasn't too hard to overcome that.

- If you had difficulties in using the blog, how were you able to overcome the difficulties you encountered?


I just had to make sure my Gmail was logged out of before I started a post and I couldn't sign back in or else the blogpost wouldn't submit. Sometimes I would just save it in an MS word doc before.

- What types of blog prompts were more or less interesting or difficult? (provide an example and rationale)


I thought the blog prompts with more analysis were more interesting to me - such as the one analyzing television shows in a sociological point of view and the one analyzing commercials. This could be biased though because I'm also really interested in sociology. One in particular is the first blog prompt where you analyze the stereotypes in a certain television sitcom. I liked it because there was room for examples and it was a specific enough prompt to go in depth with. One I found less interesting was the one asking for an example of a 3-act structure - the blog was basically just summarizing a movie while classifying it in which act it went in. 

- Would you recommend using a blog in future course, either in RTF 305 and other undergraduate courses at UT-Austin? (explain why..)


Yeah, I really liked the idea of having a blog for a class. I think it makes doing assignments less stressful and I originally liked blogging anyway. I also liked all the positive aspects I listed above.

- What would you suggest to change or improve the blogging experience in the future?


I would suggest a change from blogger so that people who don't have Gmail or don't want to use their Gmail account for this blog. I also would have wanted a more interactive use of it since after you submit the post you wouldn't get much feedback on it from either the ta or the students. 


Oh and "Yes, you can use my blog in a paper or report."

glow ball is a shun

Globalization, to put it simply, is the process of increasing worldwide interconnectedness economically, culturally, and politically. While many people are talking about it in recent years like it JUST began happening, it can be argued that globalization began when Columbus first set foot in the West Indies, or really even before that. Personally, I believe globalization is just an increase in communication among diverse members all over the world, usually due to economic reasons. As the world's businesses and economies interconnect, communication among members of different nationalities, races, and cultures increases.


This of course has its advantages and disadvantages. Globalization can make us more unified, yes, but is that always a good thing? Is this process making us into one homogenized culture? Since the United States (imperialistically called "America") is a worldwide superpower due to its high standard of living and once-upon-a-time thriving economic market, it can also be considered a perpetrator of cultural imperialism. The easiest example of this is McDonald's - a company that essentially embodies what America is about - can be seen next to the Great Wall of China, the Eiffel Tower, or the Sphinx. It has no boundaries. If we were to find life on Mars and colonize the planet, there would, no doubt, be large golden arches dominating the landscape.


About 10 years ago when I went on a vacation to India, my cousins all had asked us to bring them Gap T-shirts, Adidas jackets, and baseball caps with names of teams they could care less about. These were simply for appearance purposes - to be 'cool,' you wanted to look wealthy and branded (pun unintended) like an American. However, things have changed in India since then. They don't look to this country as an idol anymore, but  as competition. 

Let's just say this was one of the more modest
photos out of the selection.

An NYTimes op-ed describes another example of American influence on Indian soil. The article is about how the Washington Redskins' Cheerleaders are coming to India to help hold auditions for a cheerleaders for an Indian cricket team. The author, Tunku Varadarjan, a professor at the NYU Business School, goes on to say: 

"All this, however, pales when compared to the broader lessons. With the Redskins cheerleaders on Indian soil, one can safely declare that the British cultural influence in India has been entirely replaced by an American one, cricket notwithstanding. India’s relationship with the United States — economic, strategic, diasporic and cultural — is now its primary external alliance, with a complex nuclear deal at one end of the spectrum and 12 cheerleaders and two choreographers at the other."

This quote perfectly describes cultural imperialism - usually the Western, more established countries have influenced the developing nations rather than having a balanced exchange of ideas and goods. If you look at Bollywood movies, the heavy influence of American culture is apparent over time. The music has changed from being softer, acoustic sounds to electronic, synthesizing sounds with rappers; the women (and men) bare a lot more skin and they actually...dare I say it...kiss! I feel like I'm rambling. I'll end it here. END.

Dove Evolution Commercial

Dove’s Real Beauty Campaign has created quite a buzz in television and the internet.  I recently just saw a commercial (called Dove’s “Evolution” Commercial) in which Dove revealed the entire process of makeup, lighting, digital retouching, etc. of a model to the viewer in a time speed video.  The commercial starts with an average-looking girl, pretty but not model-pretty, being brought onto a set for a photo shoot; and then the lighting changes.  The lights brighten up as if to show that this is the truth of the women that you see on the billboards, magazines, advertising to you makeup, beer, anything and everything.  The girl initially has oily skin, with lots of freckles, some minor blemishes, and in a matter of seconds (the video is sped up) the blemishes are covered and her skin looks flawless.  More and more makeup is put on, her hair is straightened and curled, and she looks incredibly different.  As if that weren’t enough already, the photo is shot and then Photoshop increases the size of her eyes, changes her proportions making her looks thinner and her neck longer, and at the end of the commercial her face as it is after the manipulation is put onto a billboard at the very end.  It proves that Dove is a good listener and is high on the level of integration, focusing on a long-term relationship with the consumer.  The company also conveys the idea that it is socially responsible in that it is changing the perception of real females.

Although blatantly a marketing strategy, the company makes it seem as though it is genuinely caring about the self-esteem of young girls and women in the world.

The appeal used in this commercial is satisfying curiosity. Many people do not know the extent it takes to make a models look the way they do on advertisements - the makeup, the lighting, the image manipulation, etc.  It also nurtures and guides the viewer into believing that Dove is a supporter of natural beauty and will uncover the shams of other beauty companies (Despite Dove allegedly photoshopping their 'Real Beauty' models and despite the fact that they sell skin lightening cream to women in Asian countries).  





Characteristics of the satisfying curiosity appeal in general are grabbing the viewers' attention and constructing an audience.  It grabs the viewer's attention through viral YouTube videos and making it styled as a short film that is sped up until the very end when the image of the 'more attractive' girl is shown on the billboard.  In addition, this advertisement was on many websites and was spread virally over the Internet. Using the internet for this commercial easily constructed and targeted an audience of younger people, and since it is a beauty company using a young women to advertise their product, it is obviously targeted towards females.