Matthewthomasvita's Blog

Blog Assignment 1

matthewthomasvita — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 18:52:07 +0000

For the past couple years, I’ve waited most days outside the Abernethy stop for my bus to go home. Not only have I never been inside, but I have never heard of anyone having a class in there or using it for any reason. Until this assignment, I had no idea what was inside. So I decided to look around the American Indian Center. Everyone inside was really nice and inviting. I saw most people spending time in the lounge, so I went to check that out. There were lots of books and movies concerning American Indians. I thumbed through a couple of books, and realized I could check out some if I ever wanted to. The Center has magazines, newspapers, and letters. Their bulletin board includes lots of upcoming events and speakers. The walls have murals of traditional Indian artwork and has things concerning the American Indian sorority.

The American Indian Center was very informative and a comfortable place to walk around. Like me, I imagine there are many students that pass the building without realizing what is inside. I think if students knew about it, they would see it as a great place to learn and get involved with campus and the culture. I think exploring places like these throughout campus and around your surrounding environment can only enrich you, and is a good experience.

MGMT Fandom

matthewthomasvita — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 02:12:07 +0000

I decided to look at a Facebook fan page of MGMT, which is an American alternative music group. They have become popular over the last couple years, and are releasing their follow-up to their extremely popular last album. MGMT told their fans that this new album won’t be the same as their last, and would be less about creating popular songs. The CD leaked online, and the band allowed its fans to listen to it for free on their website. I looked at comments on their fan page regarding one of the songs from the new album. Out of there over 500,000 fans, about 3,000 “liked” the post and over 300 commented. Of the commenters, they were pretty evenly split between male and female fans.

There was some social exchange throughout the comments, although generally throughout the fan page most people just give their praise to the band and comment how they want MGMT to play shows in their town. Since their new CD is not what some fans had expected, their are opposing views on the song and album as a whole. Most of the “social chat” on this post had to do with fans disagreeing with each other. It doesn’t seem like gender plays a role in this social chat, and people just briefly comment toward others how they agree or disagree with their viewpoints.

This post doesn’t include much “information” as much as it shows the opinions of the fans. Both males and females discuss their favorite songs, whether they like the album, and comparing it to their last CD. Since the album is not out yet, and they are currently not on tour; information concerning the group in general does not show up on this post.

This is a fan page, and I do believe that everyone commenting is a true fan of the group. With that said, there isn’t one “shared feeling” concerning this post. The thoughts on the new album are generally split into three distinct groups. People that love the album, people that are disappointed, and people that think after a while the album gets better with a few listens. You would think a fan page would have a general shared feeling of praise and joy. But under this post, there are fans that don’t agree with MGMT’s new work. There is no mean-spirited comments, but there are opposing views within the same post.

With respect to “musical knowledge,” it seems that the only representation of this is when some fans show comparisons to the new album compared to their previous work. But interestingly enough, most of these instances were from male fans. Not to say that the female fans don’t have as much knowledge, they just are not sharing it on this post.

Overall, I don’t find differences with respect to what each gender shares on this fan page. I think the fact that MGMT does not have a generally male or female fan base, it seems that the only real discussions on this page have to do with the band’s music itself. This provides a good outlook for social networking, because it takes away from arguments based on people’s background and moves it to discussions on the issues and ideas themselves.

IAT Test

matthewthomasvita — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 18:28:29 +0000

I took the Sexuality IAT Test this morning, and I thought it was fun more than anything. I really like statistics and seeing where I fall in a group or study like this. My score resulted in “little to no preference between gay and straight people.” That is what I put down before taking the test, and I was happy it turned out that way. Like you said, what people say and think are sometimes not the same. When talking about groups other than mine, I am always a little weary of coming off as biased or showing any sign of unforeseen dislike. Before taking this test, I said I had no preference between gay and straight people, but I didn’t know what to expect and was afraid of contradicting myself. I think it is interesting that most people fall above the middle where they prefer straight people and can associate gay with bad and straight with good. I also don’t think this test has much importance, at least for me, on how I actually feel. The main reason being is that if you are smart enough, you could easily just memorize it and get no mistakes. It is more of a game than a cultural test. The way the test is set up, with speed and positioning only four types of words together makes the statistics less usable in my opinion. There is something to say for automatic responses, but the test if you are not quick enough can cause problems that are not really there. The IAT results in a small number of categories, and makes it that gay people can only be good or bad in this case. If there were many more kinds of words, distractions, or feelings involved it could reveal a better interpretation. But overall, it was fun and I think I’m going to take another test right now.

“The Story”

matthewthomasvita — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 22:55:54 +0000

I listened to the blog radio show called “The Story” lead by Dick Gordon. I don’t listen to many radio programs, and definitely not much on the internet, so I don’t have much to compare to “The Story.” Gordon, like many talk radio personalities, seems to have little personality. I don’t know if that is done to make his guests capture the spotlight of the show, but I still don’t get why such plain-voiced people are used to tell stories and spread ideas. I like the musical interludes and the fact that there isn’t too many voices or noises bombarding the listener. The guests were interesting, but I couldn’t help but notice the difference in static between the interviewee and Gordon, because it made it sound fake or like something other than a conversation/interview. Obviously it’s incredible that technology that can bring people from different continents into a live recording, so I am just nit-picking. Overall, “The Story” seems like an average blog talk show, and didn’t leave me wanting more.

JOMC 441

matthewthomasvita — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 04:47:50 +0000

My name is Matt Vita and I’m a JOMC-Advertising major from Cary, NC. I studied abroad in Florence, Italy for a summer, and got to travel around Europe and had the chance to meet and hang out with people from different continents; some of which I couldn barely communicate with because of the language barrier. I’m officially a blogger.