Abstract:
“So what is media psychology?” I was asked this about a dozen times in the last week sitting over meals in the dining room at Hotel Mar Monte. I said, “We live in a high-tech media world with cell phones, Internet, social-networking sites, print sources, movies, and devices, with new ones coming out every week. How does that stuff affect people?” That was my discussion on day one. After a week at NSO in Santa Barbara, my explanation of what media psychology is has grown leaps and bounds.
Treatment:
In the loud world of constant noise, images, and advertising, what captures consumers’ attention? Or better yet, what captures consumers’ emotions? Dr. Karen Dill spoke of her mentor Dr. Anderson who questioned if people are persuaded easily and fall into a sleeper effect often times, in which a point is planted and stays dormant in the brain till enacted. This launched the question of consciousness verses unconscious digestion of media (Dill, 2010). That interests me! I know we are exposed to a plethora of images and ideas daily, but which ones stick and why?
The lectures by Dr. Jean-Pierre Isbouts and Dr. Jason Ohler dove into visual and aural paradigms and the importance of engaging emotions as a connection to memory. “Media is a form of persuasion in such a way that we want to reach emotions and suspend critical thinking. This activates faculties we don’t use when we just use text” (Isbouts, 2010). In other words, if we add visual context that is meaningful, such as iconography, nature or motifs, to our imagery plus add music, the combination is a winning one. For example, a scene of a woman sitting on the beach starring at the ocean in quiet solitude is maximized if a contemplative classical tune sits in the audio track while the camera zeros in for a close look at the tear on her cheek. We question, “Is she okay” and our hearts tug. We experienced the emotion of the scene and therefore that combination worked.
We tried this ourselves as we spent an afternoon session on Monday to make one-minute movies that employed the method of DAOW: digital, art, oral, written, as Dr. Ohler explained (Isbouts & Ohler, 2010).
I made a movie about the fast pace of my life. I pulled literal and artistic images from the Internet and I dropped a lyrical track by Adele into my movie. It was exciting and a great exercise on how to create emotional media that tells a story.
Another thing I learned this week was about narrative and how intrinsic they are to people, particularly creative writers, who watch the world, see it, feel it, and try to capture it. Jonny White covered that in his defense for his dissertation, and the point was well-made. Narrations are the stories of our lives. If we in media can capture the narrations, use imagery, music, and emotional delivery systems such as movies to reach our audiences, a potential for great influence is there.
The powerful part of NSO for me was that I was inspired. This field of media psychology is incredible. It includes: movie makers educating the world one documentary at a time; creative writers capturing the essence of love and living; those who create real-time data devices that help farmers in Africa sell their goods for the right price; or those setting loose thousands of virtual butterflies in Japan for game players to find. I am so excited about this industry and my future in this field.
I realize my thinking was too small when I arrived in Santa Barbara on Saturday, September 11. I thought I would pursue imagery in advertising for my dissertation, simply looking at the images on the page that I can see with my bare eyes. Now I think I might pursue augmented reality and advertising, and how images will transport viewers from static pages to a virtual world of participation and engagement. How cool will it be to figure that out?
Conclusion:
Fielding is an amazing educational institution. I found Fielding on an Internet search one day back in April but the randomness of that search was not so random, as I do not believe in coincidences. I know my education here will launch me into this new field. The journey has begun with great faculty, colleagues, and staff, and I am thrilled to be on this path to better define media psychology for the world.
References:
Dill, K. (2010, September 12). Fantasy verses reality [Speech]. NSO SB lecture media psychology
Isbouts, J.P. and Ohler, J. (2010, September 13). Visual and aural paradigms [Speeches]. NSO SB lectures media psychology
PicApp. (2005). Young woman lying on air bed on beach. Retrieved from http://www.picapp.com/search.aspx?term=woman%20on%20beach%20sad&pageNum=0&cats=creative
PicApp. (2008). Computer animation . Retrieved from http://www.picapp.com/search.aspx?term=high%20tech&pageNum=0&cats=creative
YouTube. (2008). Did you know. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cL9Wu2kWwSY
YouTube. (2009). Layar, world's first mobile Augmented Reality browser. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b64_16K2e08
No comments:
Post a Comment