Reading Blog Homework for 8/31/2010 Hegemony

This picture represents Religion.  Religion is a great representation of hegemony, because it is a small, but powerful, group which can influence the masses.  Religion can even have great power over politics and governments, which in turn control the people who are ruled by them.  A great example of this is the USA, where we have never had a president who was not a christian.

 

This Picture represents the power of television.  The media companies that control and make the shows that people enjoy have influence over those who watch them.  This can be done by advertisements that air in between the shows , or by the ideals and mannerisms that they portray within the show itself.  They can induce trends, fads, and even political views on almost anything in today's society.

                                    

This image represents censorship.  Censorship is a way for small groups to control the masses.  The news media does this to project their views and opinions into the public by only feeding them the information that supports their cause.  Governments also use this tactic for political control.  The worst part is that the people being affected may never know that the information being fed to them is censored and may never know the facts about things they form opinions on.

Research Final Choice (Research)

I will be researching the Blizzard community for my paper.  I will use their site www.blizzard.com because they have their own community site for each of their games and have discussion boards/Forums for each.  This seems to be the website that most of the community uses to post ideas and keep up on current game events.

Sub Culture Research Choice (Research)

                   I decided to go with the sub culture of the gaming company Blizzard.  They are becoming very popular in today's culture with easily over 10 million followers/customers.  I am one of those people, and have been a huge fan of Blizzard for almost 15 years.  As a gaming company they only have 3 franchise titles they work with,  but each one has become intensely popular in today's culture.  This popularity is worldwide and is actually more popular in some countries than it's popularity in the USA.  A few have even dedicates TV channels to their games and hols huge gaming contests with cash prizes.

             Blizzard as a company if very considerate to the community they have created.  They offer all kinds of prizes, both in real life and in-game, for contests they hold for fan art, fan videos, and user made game maps.  They have also started an event they hold in Anaheim, California called Blizzcon.  Blizzcon is their annual event that celebrates the 3 game titles they are famous for, and also inform people of new things to come in there games.  Blizzcon has become very popular amongst the community ans ticket are usually sold out the day they become available.

      I expect to learn a little more about how this culture goes about in other countries and why it has become even more popular over there than it has here.  It would also be good to learn how much their games have changes the way games fit into today's society,  and how much they have affected some of the real world consumerism.

Sub Cultures (Research)

• Star Wars Community
• Trekkies
• Moders
• DotA Community
• Gleeks
• Blizzard Community (gaming company)
• Hookahville
• Furries
• Halo Community
• Twihards
• Deadheads
• DAG (Medieval War games with foam weapons)

Pop Culture Homework 2

This image represents Binary Opposition to me.  It shows an image of a woman (in our culture a sign of frailty, gentleness, and tenderness ) On the contrary she is shown as being tough, rugged and firm (A stern look on her face, Flexing her muscles, and wearing clothing that looks to be a work uniform).  This opposes the general idea of how women are perceived in today's society.

Pop Culture Homework

This is a picture that represents a mix of mass culture.  It is using characters from a popular 80's video game (Super Mario Brothers) that the video game culture can relate to (The Princesses from the game, and the one-up (or extra life) item), But is using it to make reference to a very controversial, however popular, vulgar pornographic clip that was an internet sensation. (Two girls, One Cup)