*No need for a media update

A few days before my departure of the United States I did my first blog where I analyzed my media intake (the blog titled *A Media Update).

I was consumed in the electronic mediated world, with my television on, ipod charging, my Facebook and email up, music going, and my phone receiving texts. I was the ultimate media consumer.

Today, after living abroad for 4 months and traveling different parts of Europe, Asia and Africa I feel that I have changed, just slight. I have spent the past four months without a television, no real concept of what is popular in entertainment, what cultural news is happening, what’s happening in the world of sports or anything like that. It’s an odd feeling, to be disconnected, but it’s a feeling of content.

In my first blog I wrote: “Currently, I am  having one of those mellow days, some packing, some school prep work basically just a relaxing rainy day but the media is consuming it entirely. As I write this I’m listening to Time to Pretend by MGMT, watching the Sox day game, texting my friend from home that just left for school, while my new itouch is uploading all 12,891 songs before I depart. This is enjoyable, for me. That being because I’m “relaxing” by consuming myself with American mediums, several at a time.”

I have not had that much media intake at one time since the time I wrote this. I wrote how I found this to all be enjoyable and though I will probably still find it enjoyable when I return to the states, I have come to realize there is more to enjoy in the world than that of the media.

Don’t get me wrong I still check my Facebook, blog, look up information online and so forth but my life does not entail as much media as it once did.

In fact, just this morning I spent two hours sitting at a coffee shop in Athens with my friends just talking with no interruptions from  a phone call, text message, black berry email and no television or music being played in the background. We just talked about life. I feel that I have slowed down while here and the rushed world of communications has taken a step back from my lifestyle.

I have left this study abroad trip with a new outlook on the media, a new outlook on life and I’m interested in seeing how I instill these new outlooks in life back home.

Nicholas Vitukevich, Assistant Editor-in-Chief
Pierce Arrow Blogger

 

Dublin Down

“Low lie the Fields of Athenry
Where once we watched the small free birds fly.
Our love was on the wing we had dreams and songs to sing
It’s so lonely ’round the Fields of Athenry”

In my last weekend before finals I decided to take one more trip in Europe and go to Dublin, Ireland.

Dublin was rich in history and culture. It’s media content stressed heavily within the realm of music. Every restaurant or pub that we went to had some form of live music daily, many of these places had several live acts playing throughout the day.

Most of these performers played popular American classics along with traditional Irish tunes. Irish take pride in their music and much of their history is deeply routed into a type of celtic-folk music and street ballads. Unlike America who uses its music as a form of entertainment the Irish have historical references within their songs.

An example of this would be the song, The Fields of Athenry, which originates back to the 1700’s and references the Irish Famine that took place.

Music is such an intricate part of Irish history because it was a way of communication and still is being used as that. The Irish used poem and song to tell stories about events happening in time and would use these songs to pass their stories along generation to generation. Other historic Irish songs that I heard throughout my time in Dublin include, Wild Rover, Finnegan’s  Wake, and Molley Malone.

The fact that these songs are still being sung within present day Dublin does not surprise me as the Irish take pride in their history, culture and where they came from.

I feel that if American music was more enriched in history and had more substance to it, rather than it being purely for entertainment, then it would be a more uniform way of communication throughout citizens.

There are some American-Celtic bands, however, that have tried to instill these popular Irish Ballads within their music. The bands Flogging Molly, Dropkick Murphys and Street Dogs all put a punk-rock twist to these once folk-ballads. In fact, the Dropkick Murphys cover several traditional Irish songs including Wild Rover, Fields of Athenry and Finnegan’s Wake.

One of the most popular pubs we visited, The Temple Bar, had live music scheduled for every hour it was open and the last band of the night played songs from With or Without You to American Pie to Sweet Home Alabama with the bar being jammed shoulder to shoulder with people watching, reminiscing, singing and enjoying themselves.

I truly wish America was as musically enriched as Dublin was.

Nicholas Vitukevich, Assistant Editor-in-Chief
Pierce Arrow Blogger

Seek the truth…

Within the countries we traveled to as a class (Egypt, Turkey and Greece) I learned that their newspaper system are much different than that of Americas; Turkey and Egypt especially, since they do not have much freedom of speech.

Journalists in the states are given the first Amendment right of Freedom of Speech and to Seek the Truth and Report It. However, Turkey and Egypt are not given this right. Egypt has newspapers that are government owned, controlled and run. The editors and staff of most all Egyptian newspapers are chosen by the President of the country.

With the government control over most newspapers and sources of information it can be said that the citizens of Egypt do not truly know what is going on within a larger aspect of society and that they are only getting fed propaganda. The overall concept of journalism within America is to have unbiased information and let the reader form their own opinions but in Egypt it seems that the opinions are already being formed by the government and the citizens do not get that right.

In Turkey there are many newspaper and these newspapers are not allowed to display violent images. In America journalism students are brought up on the phrase, “if it bleeds, it leads,” this is clearly not the case in Turkey. They like to display what they call “happy images” throughout their newspapers.

Greece is the only country the has somewhat of unbiased form of reporting and shows a form of real news, not propaganda, within their media system.

When referring back to the idea of media literacy I wonder if the people in Egypt believe all the articles they are reading in the newspapers to be true. These newspapers as a whole are clearly unbiased and do not let the reader form their own opinions on topics as articles do in America. If the readers are truly media literate then they would know that what they are reading is not to be considered actual “news” but more so a form of propaganda.

My personal assumption after visiting these areas of the world is that the citizens of Turkey and Egypt are not as media literate as they should be and may believe what is being portrayed as news in their media systems.

Nicholas Vitukevich, Assistant Editor-in-Chief
Pierce Arrow Blogger

A Global Conglomeration

 

Egypt. A country set in the midst of the middle east, far, far away from the United States of America. Though yes as I was set next to the Nile and behind the Giza Strip in my hotel I was surprised to turn on the television, flip up one channel and see an American movies: Cheap by the Doze II. Who would have thought such a thing. In a Middle Eastern Country that there be American media forms.

I continued to keep an on the TV channel named “Channel 2” which played American movies over the next couple days and I saw everything from the original Batman and Terminator, to Deuce Bigalo Male Gigalo and of course Cheaper by the Dozen II. I began to wonder the impact these movies being played in Egypt would have on the citizens. Would they watch these as pure entertainment or would they take away the perception that this is what American culture is really like. That families really have 12 kids, that they, that to be a hero you have to blow something up, and that it is common to be a male Gigalo? I hope not, but the media we use as entertainment may be used to change or alter the Egyptians perception on what American culture is truly like.

Furthermore, while walking around Cairo and Luxor I stumbled across many authentic Egyptian stores, shops and restaurants. I mainly only ate the Egyptain food, however, I did stumble across many American restaurants, stores, and shopping areas.  So many I was overwhelmed and in somewhat of a culture shock to see so many American stores in a Middle Eastern country. This goes back to my notion I had at the start of the semester that the world is becoming more Americanized in terms of media and communication systems. I was also surprised to see the amount of Egyptian people actually eating at the Friday’s restaurant or shopping at Toy’s R’ Us. I decided to take photos of all these stores for this portion of my blog.

 

Nicholas Vitukevich, Assistant Editor-in-Chief
Pierce Arrow Blogger

post # 5 – Propaganda leaves us blinded

 As I have spent the last two months traveling different parts of Europe from Kusadasi, Istanbul, Athens, Agia, Rome, Florence and Pisa I have seen many different media outlets. One common factor that all these European countries have in common is the fact that they have a media overload of propaganda. From information overdrive with hundreds of thousands of flyers (promoting everything from Anarchy to a Irish pub) covering the streets of Athens and Rome to a more artistic form of vandalism in spray paint covering Florence and Pisa.

For countries that are not necessarily as media literate as the United States these forms of media are different sources that the U.S. is not as familiar with. Hardly ever would one walk down a major street in the U.S. and see thousands of posters and flyers covering walls and overlapping one another. One would also not see in the states hundreds of artistically drawn pictures and pieces of work in the form of spray paint on walls, buildings, cars and busses – more often than not the spray paint would just be a name of a person, place or “gang.”

So, for this blog, I decided to take a different route and show you my propaganda experience through photos. Enjoy.

Nicholas Vitukevich, Assistant Editor-in-Chief
Pierce Arrow Blogger

post#4: A Turksish Delight

After just getting adjusted and acclimated to life in Greece and my new cultural setting, my acclimation was put on hold and I was taken to a new setting for a week. We traveled to Turkey for a week of educational and cultural experiences.

Culture in Turkey surprisingly seemed to be more Americanized than I originally anticipated, even more-so than life in Athens. Immediately after getting off our ferry we were greeted by hundreds of bars, restaurants, stores and shops, all which played American music varying from Nirvana and Nickelback to Lil Wayne and Kayne West. Not much traditional Turkish music was played in the areas we were located (Kusadasi and Istanbul).

The people of Turkey also referenced American culture within mass media while holding conversations with us as well.  One of our waiters guessed what nationality we all were, Irish, Spanish, Italian. When he came to me he guessed I was Italian, and he said “Just like the Tony Soprano.” Our tour guide even referenced movie stars from Bill Murray, Jennifer Lopez and Britney Spears. At one point he referred to one of the statues in a museum as a goddess and called it an “ancient version of Jenifer Lopez.”

As we traveled to Turkey we get a variation of different cultures from Asia, Europe, the Americas and Middle East society I truly got a variety of cultures in one experience, but the media culture that was mainly focused was America.

We also traveled to a newspaper publication, “Today’s Zaman.” This paper was the largest paper within Turkey with a circulation of 750,000 daily and is the 75^th largest paper in the world. The paper is in English and is only one of two newspaper that are in English in Turkey yet is the largest out of all news publications in the country. The paper focuses on Turkish issues including their economy and politics but also has articles and references to American Society. The paper even had American sports in it from news on the Texas Rangers to the Los Angeles Lakers on the back page. This makes me wonder how much society is becoming Americanized as well.

The amount of Americanization within media culture makes me wonder if they were just doing this because we were tourist/living in a tourist area (in reference to music) or if because things are really becoming more Americanized. In my last posted I pondered and was leading towards media in global society being more of a Conglomerate based as opposed to Americanization but with my last travel I am not so sure. As I said before this is definitely something that I will have to explore through my 3+ months travel throughout the world.

Nick Vitukevich, Assistant Editor-in-Chief
Pierce Arrow Blogger

Music makes the world go round.

“Forrest Gump mama said, life is like a box of chocolates. My mama told me go to school, get your doctorate,” Kanye West Hey Mama

Within the realm of media and modern communication systems, rap music has evolved as one of the more popular musical art forms but it is one that has evolved mainly in the United States and is something that really isn’t “universal” in terms of popularity. At least that’s what I thought before my culture changing experience last week.

As I was exploring Athens in my first few days here, I came across a flyer for the 3^rd Annual Technopolis Hip-Hop and Break Dancing Festival. Being a Mass Communication student, a young adult, and a fan of rap in general I thought it would be interesting to go see this event.

The all day festival included freestyle rap battles, break dancing, and the main stage rap acts. Did I forget to say that none of this was in English? Part of the reason of going to this event was to see the relationship between American and Grecian musical forms; see if the beats were the same, tempo, rhythm and so forth. The free style battles were extremely entertaining, essentially the same as one would see in America, and pretty much what the basis for the movie 8 Mile was.

The reaction from the Greek audience was priceless, though we couldn’t understand what was actually being said, we couldn’t understand one word of the rap battle, it was as if we knew what was going on. We understood when someone got “dissed,” based purley on the fan reaction. We could also tell when someone “choked” on stage, based to the non-reaction of the audience. There’s a two minute video of this that shows this exact situation, the first rapper had little to no reaction and seemed as if he “choked” while on stage, the second rapper (who is wearing a Paul Pierce jersey by the way) got a large amount of fan reaction and one could tell without even knowing what he was saying that he was the clear winner. Click this link to see the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muNnd45vP1A

This experience made me wonder about the relationship between different forms of media and the term “universal.” As learned in prior Media Studies courses not all forms of media are universal, an example of this would be comedy movies being hard to adapt in other cultures, but action movies being more widely accepted. I originally thought the same would apply for music. With rap being much younger than other forms of music and being the most Americanized but I was clearly wrong in this aspect.

This concert also made me ponder the relationship the media has within a society and culture. And made me further a question I have been pondering since I arrived here in Athens while consuming the many forms of communication systems here: Is European culture Americanizing their media systems of is globalization taking over and the world only being run by a few conglomerates. Only my time in Athens will be able to bring that question to rest.

Nicholas Vitukevich, Assistant Editor-in-Chief
Pierce Arrow Blogger

post#2: Casino848.com

So throughout this blog I hope to compare and contrast Mass Communication systems within Europe to what we have learned in America and while at Pierce. I’m already learning this will be difficult with culture barriers, one being not knowing the language but as I come close to my first week in Athens I have a lot to share.

First, as we left the airport and made our 30 minute ride into inner Athens I noticed something: billboards – and lots of them. This is normal for such a highly trafficked area but the only thing is it was the same billboard advertisement the whole way to our apartment for Casino 848 (picture above). I counted the amount of time I saw the billboard from the time we left the airport to the time we got to the apartment and I saw 67 in a short 20 minute drive. I was amazed at the push for this casino and felt that there has to be a reason for such an overload. I wondered if this was purely a communication and marketing strategy or if this was more of a governmental/economical reasoning behind the overload of billboards. There’s no clear answer but I feel that it has to be leaning towards the economical aspect to grab attention of tourists looking to spend money.

Also, aside from the billboards within the first few days we have done much exploring and walking and have gone to several pubs and bars as we are of legal age in Athens. In doing this I have made one major observation, there are really no TV’s in the pubs over here. When thinking of a bar back home, you would think loud music, lots and lots of high tech flat screen televisions, everywhere (sometimes even in the bathrooms) playing sports games, but not here. I have seen a TV in a bar or two but they’re not high tech, and are often small in size, not 50 inch plasma screens. And the music is often more mellow and quiet in comparison to home. I feel like this is a bit different for us. Normally when going to a bar we are consumed by these two mediums and spend much of our bar time talking about the game on the TV, if there’s any talking involved at all. But here it seems like when out, people are more into conversing with one another and life itself rather than talking about media.

Also, personally, within my own realm of Mass Communications, something I noted was that none of us here have really even put on a television. Normally, this is a bit odd when thinking of college students as a TV is always on, even if it’s in the background for amusement while multitasking but not in the short week that we’ve been here. I think us personally are more intrigued by the way of life here in Athens as opposed to life in a media world. Though, I will admit I have checked my Twitter for updates on the Bruins and Red Sox.

For now those are a few main observations I have made. I will be discovering more as we get adjusted in the coming days. Stay tuned for more.

Nicholas Vitukevich, Assistant Editor-in-Chief
Pierce Arrow Blogger

Editors Note: Be Sure to check out “Pierce Abroad” by various Athens Scholars to read about what has gone on during the 2010 Athens International Studies Trip.

*A media update…

So I’m sitting at my computer, five days before I leave for my trip to Athens, Greece wondering what the media will be like. As a Mass Communication major with a double concentration in Media Studies & Journalism, and a double minor in Advertising & Graphic Communications, along with being a college student, the media and communication networks of America pretty much run my life!

From Tweeting, to the Blogosphere, itunes to Incubus, Scrubs to CNN, American media is everywhere but I wonder if it will be the same as I travel overseas.

Currently, I am  having one of those mellow days, some packing, some school prep work basically just a relaxing rainy day but the media is consuming it entirely. As I write this I’m listening to Time to Pretend by MGMT, watching the Sox day game, texting my friend from home that just left for school, while my new itouch is uploading all 12,891 songs before I depart. This is enjoyable, for me. That being because I’m “relaxing” by consuming myself with American mediums, several at a time.

But I truly wonder, what will my travel bring me in the realm of Mass Communication. What will their television be like? Will they have newspapers over there, and if so, will there be the same journalistic code of ethics involved or will it be a governmental media system? Will their movies be the same as ours? What will the timeliness factor be like?

*A media update: the Sox are up 2-0 and the song now on my itunes is Can I Get Witcha by Biggie Smalls.

Back to the timeliness factor, I don’t anticipate “them” to be in awe of this new television show called BAYWATCH, but who am I to say that that’s not what they’ll be watching and intrigued by. Or I wonder if they even watch TV. How awful that would be…

I am excited because I will be traveling to multiple countries, aside from staying in Athens, I will be traveling to Italy, Turkey and Egypt at least as part of class excursions, possibly more places on my own time. This will give me the chance to see numerous different cultural media systems and make analysis and determination on the media throughout Europe.

*A media update: itunes is now playing Bulls on Parade by Rage Against the Machine, Sox are now up 4-0.

What I anticipate out of my new media systems is that sports will be widely viewed, as it is in America. I feel that sports are universally a societal and cultural aspect and more than just a game. They are representing the honor of a geographical location so I feel that games will be largely televised and within the media system as a whole but what games will be viewed? Will a Rugby game be as watched as our Monday Night Football? Only time can tell.

I do also anticipate that American music will be largely in the media systems of Europe. I feel that music is a cultural language and artist varying from Lil Wayne to the Dropkick Murphy’s will see success within foreign media systems.

*A final media update, my ipod is done uploading it’s music, Sox are still up 4-1 now, and itunes is playing K’naan’s Wavin Flag.

Anyways, only time will tell what the Mass Communications system is like in my international studies, none the less, you will all hear about it via Tweet, Status Updates, emails, and of course, this blog.

 Nicholas Vitukevich, Assistant Editor-in-Chief
Pierce Arrow Blogger

Introduction

Over the course of the fall 2010 semester I will be traveling across Europe while I stay and attend international studies in Athens Greece. I plan blogging about the differences in media between the U.S. and the country’s I travel to.