A Theoretical Explanation for Why Someone Would Tattoo Drakes Name on Her Forehead

Uses and Gratifications Theory (U&GT) or perspective "places emphasis on the active role of the audience in making choices and being goal-directed in its media-use behavior” (pg. 37). In other words, this theory looks at the ways in which the viewer chooses to put certain media to use. It also says that depending upon the ways in which the viewer takes pleasure in (or is motivated by) certain media will determine certain behaviors associated with media use. Incidentally, cultivation theory has been reinterpreted in line with a uses and gratification approaches, stressing the active mental activity of the viewer while watching (pg. 35). Harris presents the horror film example to illustrate U&G perspective. That is to say, watching a horror film will vary for different people depending upon how the person develops empathy, or not, to the victim in the film. Perhaps most notable about U&GT involves what Harris deems as the critical issue of “what draws different people to consume different types of media” (pg. 38). For example, why do people watch violent pornography? What use and gratifications come from such a viewing experience? The uses and gratifications perspective may lead researchers to understand other social, cultural, and psychological factors, besides media consumption, that influence why people consume certain types of media, particularly media that are violent in nature. Harris continues to outline six current research directions for uses and gratifications research. These six approaches involve the following:

1. developing taxonomies of communication motives.
2. comparing motives across media. This is particularly important for CMT research.
3. looking at different social and psychological circumstances of media use (e.g. coviewers, personality, lifestyle, or religiousity).
4. looking at how one’s motivations for using media are satisfied or not.
5. examining the role of individual differences in experiences, motives, and exposure on the media experience.
6. studying measurement issues like the reliability and validity of instruments measuring motivation.

Another notable insight for Harris’ section on U&GT constructs concern how people form relationships with media figures they have never met. Harris cites these relationships, whether between viewers and real people or with viewers and fictional characters in media, as parasocial interactions (Klimmt, Hartmann, & Schramm, 2006, etc) (pg. 38). The following are some useful examples that illustrate parasocial interactions, a construct of U&GT:

• Judith Warner's NYT article, Sometimes a President is Just a President is about the surge of Obama fantasies and dreams by U.S. Americans after he was elected president. Warner begins her article by describing a dream she had about President Obama. She then references friends and strangers who have admitted to having sexually explicit dreams about the President and the First Lady, Michelle Obama. The way in which people admitted to identifying closely with the Obamas was not only illustrated through sexually explicit dreams but through fantasies of close friendships. From the article: "These are people for whom the Obamas are not just a beacon of hope, inspiration and 'demigodlikeness,' as a New York lawyer put it, but also a kind of mirror. And the refracted image of self they see is not one they much admire."

• Fan tattoos Drake's name on her forehead. Drake is a popular actor-turned-rapper/artist whose music videos continuously appear on MTV, BET, VH1. His songs are also on heavy rotation on various hip-hop and R&B radio stations around the country. This is probably one of the most bizarre displays of how a a super fan (or stan) illustrates a sense of closeness to a media figure she has never met. I haven't come across her response yet, but for the full interview with the tattoo artist who tattooed the name "Drake" on the women's head, see Vice.

Reference

Harris, R.J. (2009). A cognitive psychology of mass communication. Routledge.

I'm from a black dot on a white canvas searching for rainbows

This is a multimodal piece I produced for my class in Culture, Media, and Education. I like fusing media and genres (written/spoken poetry, painting, digital video). Suites me quite well. [vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/20187343 w=398&h=224]

I am from long strokes of acrylic bent on canvas sky from blotches of black and blue mixed with white and reds I am from the taste of colors long forbidden Soul food, Black Foot, Irish-American.

I am from somewhere vague like shadows at noon from Negro seeds planted in the fields on hot southern days from an east coast milk truck named “Conley” for short. I am from somewhere whose love managed to give me life.

I am from hard fights and harder hugs from bedrooms of imagination filled with stories of magic carpets and gospel songs. I am from the house on 8th street where herbs grew in gardens instead of mangos.

I am from my mother’s eye Watching and waiting from her spirit longing to be free from the rainbow shirt that covered her belly with me inside.

I am from my father’s hands lost in the strokes of oily painted white mountains, from the heart he held to stop the attack, from hardened pale fingers I touched that were unfamiliar. From the shadow that moved curtains when it was over.

I am from an amalgamation of memories from a black dot on a white canvas searching for rainbows.

#culture #media #education #multimodality

I think I wanna be a digital artist

..and a digital ethnographer, and the innovator of another Internet called Inet, and a media mogul, and a digital humanitarian, and I still want to fall in a wormhole. Currently taking bets on how long it'll take for me to think of a dissertation topic. #Go

[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/6939976 w=400&h=235]

High Line Record from Mark Edward Campos on Vimeo.

#art #data #digital #media

Where I'm From

(Source)

After reading Where I'm From by George Ella Lyon, I chose a line that resonated with me the most and then created my own poem.

From Lyon:

From the finger my grandfather lost to the auger, the eye my father shut to keep his sight.

My father was an artist. I witnessed him take his last breath on 12/17/08 at 9:40 p.m. In the spirit of mourning my father’s death, this is what I came up with:

I am from my father’s hands lost in the strokes of oily painted white mountains, from the heart he held to stop the attack, from hardened pale fingers I touched that were unfamiliar. From the shadow that moved curtains when it was over.

#personal #narrative #creativity #education

Welcome to CheeseEggs.com, a.k.a Breakfast Ed.D. Omlette, a.k.a MSTU 5002

I'm eating cheese eggs thinking about culture, media, and education.

And so it was written.

#cheeseeggs #culture #media #education