Genre in Journals and Magazines

Here is a list of different magazine genres:

educational
beauty
health
sports
hobbies
academic
occupational
religious
teen magazines
childrens magazines
Art
Car/aumotive
Home/furniture
Historical

These genres help to organize ideas and information into a easily accesible source for those who are a part of the semiotic domain relating to that genre.

I think it may be possible to organize magazines into three different categories: those pertaining to personal subject matter, professional subject matter, and educational subject matter.

Personal subject matter would be the magazines that pertain to hobbies, sport, or home life. (ex. better homes and gardens, teen magazine, Hot Rod magazine)

Professional subject matter would be magazines that focus on a speciffic trade, career, or industry (ex. American City & Country, Western Farm Press)

Academic or educational subject matter would be journal or magazines produced by a scholarly association, or for the speciffic purpose of furthering knowledge in vital areas of life and personal development. (ex. Popular Science)

Although these categories may be roughly sketched out, it is also easy to see that some magazines cannot be pinned down to one category. An example: For most Sports Illustrated would be viewed in the "personal" category, but for professional athletes it may fit into the "career" category. This problem occurs with many other magazines as well. So, while magazines are a classic example of organizing meaning for groups of people, the organization is in some ways loosely linked and overlaps from category to category.

Success of the Christian Music Industry

Music is definitly one of my favorite texts of media. A speciffic genre of music that I enjoy is Christian music. This is an interesting genre, because within it there are so many other genres. It is a messy web of overlapping, twisting, and intertwining of musical styles and themes. For the purpose of looking at how artists within the genre of Christian music view the genre differently, I would like to tell you about two of my favorite Christian Music Artists.

The first is Family Force Five


This group presents a dramatically different type of Chrstian music than most people are used to. If this isn't evident enough in the style of their music, the names of the band members may also be clues to their counter christian music culture movement. The members of family force five are:Soul Glow Activatur, Crouton, Phatty, Nadaddy, and Chap Stique. While they do keep their lyrics clean, and most of their songs send a positive message, they are by no means serious or theological. The reason I enjoy lisetning to Family Force 5 is because it's just plain fun!

The Second is Chris Rice
I really love Chris Rice's music, but it is drastically differnet than family force 5. While family force 5 would be considered Christian rock, Chris rice sticks to mainly acoustic music. He has written many original songs, and also has an album out that is all traditional hymns. As far as musical style goes, Chris Rice and Family Force 5 are about as differnet as you can get. This goes to show the wide range of media that a particular genre can have, and how broad a genre can be.


While these two Christian music artists are drastically different, there are certain qualitites they each posess which make them a part of the same genre. They both profess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and therefore maintain certain moral and ethical standards with the music they produce. At the same time they each push the paramiters of this Genre in different ways. Family Force 5 does it through dressing crazy and bringing high energy concerts into the sphere of Christian music. One way Chris Rice does it by trying to bring back older styles of music like Hymns to the Contemporary Christian Music scene.

Where do Genres come from?

In the beginning men tried to communicate with one
another. Now the media earth was formless and
empty, darkness was over the networking
systems of the deep, and the thoughts of man were hovering about them.

And then one man said "I have this idea" and he sent it out through the networking system. Through this system the idea reached many people, and the man saw that it was good.

And then Over time many other people sent messages out through the system of communication, and even discovered new networks for sending their messages. The people did this and found that it was good.

And then one man said "through networking I can send specific ideas to the people who care about those ideas the most." This pleased the people who recieved the messages, and they communicated back with a response to the message, making it's theme even more speciffic. This was the beginning of
genres.

It is an accepted idea that people flock to groups and things they are comfortable with or interested in. I believe, as explained through narritive above, that genres developed as a result of people with commonalities communicating with eachother. Through communication they formed even more speciffic groups and styles of thinking, art, music, tv, etc.

In respons to the Dogme 95 article

Reading through the Dogme 95 ideas helped me think about what I think makes a good movie, and I realized that it is very hard for me to describe what I think a good movie is in a concise manner. I think the reason for this is that film is such a huge medium of communication, and there are so many different things you can express through them. The Dogme 95 movement felt that it was important to portray realistic events, characthers, scenes etc. through their films. I can see why they would have wanted to do this. It seems like a lot of movies are completely unrealistic and don't allow for much connection for the viewer to make with what he or she sees on the screne and his or her own life. The type of movies made by the dogme group would make it easier for people to do this. At the same time however, a movie being compeletely realistic isn't the only thing that makes a good movie. Sometimes you want to just get lost in the "movies" expereince and not have to think too much. I don't believe that wanting this kind of expereience is wrong, or that movies that do this are bad.

So, the Dogme 95 movement is definitly valid, and seems to have done a lot for providing another avenue of and more characteristics for making good movies. It is an important part of the vast world of film making.

Slippage of the Rainbow

The rainbow is one visual symbol that has held different meanings over time. One website that I found tracked some of these differet meanings.

The rainbow is another ancient and universal symbol, often representing the
connection between human beings and their gods. In Greek mythology it was
associated with Iris, the goddess who brought messages from the gods on Mount
Olympus. In Scandinavian mythology the rainbow was a bridge between the gods and the earth. In the Bible a rainbow showed Noah that the Biblical flood was
finally over, and that God had forgiven his people. In the Chinese tradition,
the rainbow is a common symbol for marriage because the colours represent the
union of yin and yang. Nowadays the rainbow is used by many popular movements
for peace and the environment, representing the possibility of a better world in
the future and promising sunshine after the rain.

So, the rainbow is a visual symbol that has definitly undergone some slippage of meaning over time. It was originally a symbol for the relationship between a culture and their God, then in Irish culture it represented wealth in some forms, and was included in myths that talked about finding a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. As the previous paragraph discussed, it has now become associated with popular movements, the most known of which being the Gay rights movement. It is ironic that a single symbol is considered importat to the church, and to gay rights associatons, which are often pited against each other. This shows how symbols can have many different meanings and change drastically over time.

Analyzing Visual Semiotics Employed in the Film "The Greatest Game Ever Played"

WARNING: If you haven't seen the movie "The Greatest Game Ever Played" this blog entry may ruin it for you. Proceed carefully.

In "The Greatest Game Ever Played," several of the shots used in the movie help the viewers make connections between events in the movie, and create specific emotions about the events in the film.

The first shot is a "God Shot" taken of the main character, Francis Ouimet. In this shot he is about to make a pivotal putt, and before he does the camera angle switches to the overhead view. This gives the viewer a sense of omnicience, as if they know that Francis will sink the putt as soon as the angle is changed. Also, having the camera angle from above at a turning point in Francis' golf game alludes to the idea that God has a hand in how well Francis plays, and the fact that he goes on to win the American Open.

The second two frames of importance take place at the beginning and end of the movie. In the first, a longer (somewhere between medium and long) shot is taken on the green with Francis on the left, and the hole on the right. At the beginning of the movie Francis must make a putt on this hole in order to make it into the American Open, but he misses it. Evenutally he gets another opportuinity, and ends up playing in the open. At the end of the movie, the exact same scene is created on the last putt, only this time Francis is playing for the American Open title. In order to help the viewers associate these two scenes, the camera angles are carefully constructed to maintain the same shot range, and keep francis on one side of the screne, and the hole on the other without breaking the 180 degree plane that is formed.