Student Documentary Showcase

Come experience a documentary that is sure to open your eyes and make you want to learn more. Our documentary features a Jewish husband and wife as well as a Christian husband and wife. The two couples have been close friends for many years, but do they understand each other's religions?

Our participants are fascinating, and you won’t want to miss this FREE screening. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the show on May 8th at 12:45 PM. Four documentaries will be shown; each roughly 15 minutes long. Shalom.

Documentary Update

Even though our group had to change our original documentary topic, I am happy with the new direction we took and think that our message is a meaningful one.

We interviewed a Jewish couple who are friends with my grandparents, who are Christians. We also interviewed my grandparents about their interfaith friendship/relationship with the Jewish couple. We finished filming before Easter break and have almost 2 hours of footage. Based on this, I do not think that we will have any trouble meeting the required 10-12 minute time limit.

Our participants were really excited to help with our project in any way possible. We have a plethora of old photographs and it was easy to talk with all 4 of our participants. Our documentary group is ready to start editing footage. We plan to put our footage on an external hard drive and will start editing this week so we can have a rough cut done by the April 24 deadline.

What's With Reality TV?

“Does television expose us to a diversity of people from all sorts of places with different lifestyles from our own? Or has TV replaced reality with “simulacra” as Baudrillard wrote?” I believe that the answer to that question varies, depending on what you choose to watch on television. However, after watching an evening of Monday night prime time television, I’d have to say I agree more with Jean Baudrillard’s theory.

Before this assignment and taking a Mass Communications course, I didn’t give as much thought to the reality that television presents to the world… or should I say the “reality TV” that is presented to the world. When I was asked to watch an entire evening of prime time television, I found myself gravitating to the same type of shows. Reality television has practically taken over the spotlight and you can almost always find some sort of reality program airing throughout the day.

At 8:00 PM last Monday evening, I began flipping through the channels and came across “Deal or No Deal” on NBC. I can’t help but leave this show on when I see it. I watched the show until it ended at 9:00 PM, and it was the same as always. It’s hard to watch this show and not think that if you were a contestant, you wouldn’t be greedy and would quit after winning a certain amount of money; however, it seems like the contestants can’t get enough and risk it all every time.

After the show ended, I knew I had to browse for thirty minutes before “The Bachelor: Officer and a Gentleman” came on at 9:30 PM. I stumbled across ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars.” I feel like this show is just an American Idol “wannabe,” and it doesn’t really interest me. However, if the show is still on after a few seasons, it must be doing well. Viewers can text or call-in to vote for their favorite couple. I can only imagine how many people spend their money on this…

Finally, the one show I was actually looking forward to watching came on ABC. On Easter, my mom asked me if I was going to watch the new season of “The Bachelor,” and I probably wouldn’t have known about it if it wasn’t for her! I can’t explain why this show is addicting, but I enjoyed every minute of it.

Our society fixates on what we see on television, but when you evaluate the prime time television I watched on Monday, you have to ask yourself if the world we are living in is really the way it’s presented on TV. I don’t think it is. How many people do you know who have won millions on a game show, danced with a celebrity, or married someone they met on a reality show? The world doesn’t work that way. It’s odd that we base so much of our lives on what we see on television: hairstyles, fashion, and even the way we talk, when reality television isn’t an accurate representation of the world.

“Media scholar Joshua Meyrowitz argues that the very existence of television is an influence on society because it breaks down the physical barriers that separate people,” according to Hanson's "Mass Communication: Living in a Media World." Meyrowitz believes that television gives everyone the same, equal view of the world, but if we are watching reality TV, our view of the world is very different than if we are watching CNN. I think that it’s important to realize that reality TV is fun for entertainment, but we must not live our lives based on what we see on these shows.

Anatomy Schmatomy

When I am asked about my favorite TV show, nothing in particular pops into my head. It’s not that I don’t like TV… in fact; it is usually on when I am cooking lunch or while I’m doing schoolwork. I just honestly don’t have time to watch the same show every week.

So for this blog, I decided to research statistics concerning “Grey’s Anatomy” because it seems like every person I know is obsessed with the show. I have NEVER seen a single episode because I was always at practice when it was on television, and I’ve never had the urge to watch it online.

According to the Nielson ratings at USAToday, "Grey’s Anatomy" averages #5 on the top 20 list for broadcast programs. According to this site, 25.8 million viewers tune into ABC every Thursday at 9 PM.

The Nielson ratings at Zap2It rank "Grey’s Anatomy" #6 on the top 20 list of Network Primetime Series. This is the average for the 2006 – 2007 season through April 1, 2007.

The biggest news for "Grey’s Anatomy" was that the show drew its second-largest audience ever during the concluding episode of the season. According to TVGuide, an amazing 27.29 million people tuned in. This was a jump of 1.7 million people from the previous week. “That was also ABC’s largest audience in the Thursday 9 pm hour with series programming in more than six and a half years (since a May 2000 millionaire).”

Other shows during the same time-slot include "Deal or No Deal" and "CSI." I would most likely watch one of these shows instead of "Grey’s Anatomy" because I’m not a fan of “hospital shows.” Maybe I’m just being stereotypical, because I haven’t seen an episode, but anything involving death, blood, pain, or hospitals is not appealing to me. I’d much rather watch something happy, but obviously I’m unlike 27 million viewers in the United States!