Andy Griggs

I love the song by Andy Griggs titled. "She Thinks She Needs Me."  I think portrays such a cute romantic couple.  I could totally be wrong, but I think it is healthy when both people in the couple look up to the other person.  I love that each of them get strength from each other.  I guess I just like happy stories and happy songs.  It was interesting, because our group did a content analysis on body objectification in music.  We found that country has the most affectionate references of all the genres tested.  It was even more interesting that the country only had a few vulgar references.  I just love country even more!

The FCC

Federal Commission Committee

445 12^th Street, SW

Washington, DC 20554

To Whom It May Concern:

I am writing you concerning the rating systems and content information of various media forms. I am a college student attending Brigham Young University.  I am currently taking a class discussing the different effects of media on family.  As we go through the history of media, I am impressed by the good content that is now available such as appropriate children’s TV shows and movies.  I am also surprised by the content “now okay” for PG and PG-13 movies.  For example, the number of times the F-word can be used in a PG-13 movie has changed from 2 to 3 to 4. Often what is allowed in the movies is constantly changing as the years go on.  Sometimes as a consumer it is hard to stay informed and up to date on the rating systems. 

There are two areas that would greatly benefit users if they were improved.  The first is a universal rating system, and second content labels for books.  Although, I do not necessarily believe that you should restrict certain media, there should be a more consistent rating system across media forms.  Songs, books, TV shows, movies, and video games all have different rating systems.  Movies go from G to NC-17, even though TV ratings are similar there are many differences.  The TV rating system has TV-Y, TV-Y, TV-MA.  Video game ratings seem to run on a completely different track.  Music only has the one rating.  Consumers are not even sure what constitutes the rating “Parental Advisory: Explicit Lyrics.” If there was universal rating system confusion would be greatly reduced. 

Books are a type of media that have no rating system or content warnings. Parents and other readers would greatly appreciate a content label for sex scenes, high levels of violence, profanity, and drug/alcohol use.  Many people would benefit from content labels on books.  These could be a simple box on the back warning for sex scenes, graphic violence, profanity, and etc.  These simple warnings would help readers know what they are about to read and whether the content is something they want. It would also be beneficial for parents who are trying to promote good literature to their children and teenagers.  I understand that it would be costly and time consuming to go over every book, but it would be worth it. It also doesn’t have to be all at once, but we do need to start somewhere, so why not now?

12 Dates of Christmas

Last night I watched 12 Dates of Christmas.  I loved this movie.  It was such a great motivator for me.  I finished that movie and wanted to serve.  Not only serve, but be kind, giving, selfless, and everything else that movie portrayed.  The movie was about a woman who is stuck on her old boyfriend (who is about to get engaged to another woman) and has a blind date on Christmas Eve.  It is similar to Groundhog's Day, in that she keeps repeating the same day over and over.   I loved it!  What a great way to motivate people to do good!  I love movies that motivate me to be a better person!

Media Overload!!!

Have you ever had a media overload?  No, I'm not meaning watching back to back episodes of Psych or hours and hours of Facebook (but that is definitely a type of media overload).  I mean when your refrigerator is so full of announcements that you don't even know what color the refrigerator is?  Or when you just open your email and you can't believe the junk mail you got that day.  Or when you check the mail and all the mail is advertisements?   I sometimes feel we are bombarded with media that we don't really need or even want.

Moods

I love music because of its ability to change your mood so quickly.  I love that I can a choose a song to choose my mood.  When I want to be happy, I go "Walking on Glass."  When I want to be sad, I listen to some sappy sad country song (I am not bashing on country I love it).   When I want an empowering song Carrie Underwood is the artist of choice.

A Baby

I have the cutest niece, in my opinion.  She is just over two months and I love her!  I love getting pictures from my sister-in-law of her.  I love being able to stay connected with such a cute baby and that I get to be part of growing up with her.  I love that the internet is able to keep you connected with family members, whether it is through Skype, email, chat, pictures, etc.   I really rely on the media to be able to keep up with my family.  What would I do without the internet?

Looks Can Be Deceiving.....

Photoshop.... greatest deceiver since magic tricks.  Take anything and turn it into something completely different.  Speaking of magic tricks, I recently saw the Illusionist.  It is an amazing movie that makes you sit back and think.  I loved that it taught the message that some things are perceived incorrectly.  Even though there was tons of evidence to support their assumption, they still made the wrong assumption.  This is exactly what happens in Media, airbrushing, special effects, etc.   What incorrect assumptions are we making?  What untruths are the media convincing us of?  Some things we obviously don't believe in.    For example, can an orange tree grow in the space of five minutes, probably not.  What about simpler yet profound things?   Do they effect our beliefs about beauty, occupations, violence, love, education, and weight?  Studies have shown that they do.  Maybe we need to realize that we are believing too much in illusions.  It is interesting to note that even in the movie Eisenheim tells everyone that everything he does is an illusion, yet they still believe in the illusion.  What illusions are you believing in?