Final Class post

Final Post

The semester is over and on to my next class for the summer session. This class has been  different than other classes that I have taken at the Master’s degree level. Some of the reading was a bit confusing and as the semester went on they started to make sense and penetrated my thick skull. I have a new outlook on how I view items such as images for example.

I found myself fascinated by Marshall McLuhan and how far ahead of his time his outlook and predictions were.  Even though, we were assigned one video to view his theory.  I found myself on you tube for hours looking for other videos and interviews with him. I found myself entertained by how smart he was and how every single person who conducted an interview with him could not match wits with him. His view on the world was so much different than anyone  during his era and was even more intrigued by his analyzation of the presidential debate in the 1970’s. His lecture on the medium is the message was spot on and make you sit back and think he is correct.

There were two other assignments in the class that I enjoyed and learned a great deal from, and they were the dissection of the alcohol advertisement and the literacy guide module. The literacy guide assignment came at a good time for me because I am currently trying to teach my kids how to save money. If it were up the then, they would spend it all and keep asking for more. I was able to put together a learning guide for kids and how to save money and banking basics. The dissection of the alcohol add was fun. I was able to find a Corona Beer ad to direct. After going completely the parts of the assignment and answering all of the questions it is amazing how many addition pieces are in a beer commercial. For the longest time I thought the commercial was about the beer. I was not correct in my thoughts. The beer is a small part, how it makes you feel, how and where you may want to go. The commercial has you hope you were the one into commercial or at least into a location where the commercial was filmed while cracking open a cold beer on a nice tropical beach.

The media aspect of this learning experience is what intrigued me in this class, and I do find myself paying more attention to the pictures and advertisements.  The reason is that I have learned that they are more than about the image or the product they are selling. I will continue to be fascinated by influential people like Walt Disney, Milton Hershey and now have added Marshall McLuhan to the list of people that keep my coming back for more.