Top 10 Electronic Media Writing Revelations

REVELATION ONE: SO MANY JOBS!
I think my first revealtion would be how many different styles of writing there are for various types of media. I can't really quote a passage from the book because its pretty much the whole book that made me realize that there are SO many different styles and techniques for EVERY type of media. Each one has a different method or style, and it really just opened my eyes and made me realize that wow, there is more than your run of the mill movie script. There is something for everything.



REVELATION TWO: TV shows, simple entertainment or complex and in depth?
My second revelation has to do with TV shows. I learned so much this year about TV shows that I never knew before. While watching I never really realized all of the different things that go into TV shows. Like when Hillard states on page 21, right off the bat he states that a TV writer doesn't have to know all of the elements of the production, just basic knowledge of shots and angles. This was one of the first things I read from this book, and it really stuck out to me as something that never even remotely occured to me. There is just so much stuff that I never realized was happening, especially when it was something so familiar as TV.



REVELATION THREE: Power Tools!
My third revelation has to do with the power tools. I never knew that there were so many underlying techniques to commercials and such to try and get us to feel a certain way without even realizing it. It just blows my mind that a commercial can influence the way I think when I don't even realize it. Its truely amazing that this is happening everytime I watch an ad on TV, which if I'm watching a long program or a sports game, could be a lot of ads. Its also fun that I now realize these things and can say "Oh, that commerical is trying to get me to buy their product by using an attractive woman. Beautiful people!"



REVELATION FOUR: Scripts, Scripts, Scripts
My fourth revelation is about the scripting. The different methods of scripting really helped me out this year. I had no idea what a two column script was, or that I am supposed to have the audio in a certain format and the video direction is a different format, but then when Hilliard went and showed me, it was really useful to know, especially when I need to write scripts for other classes. These different types of scripts really helped me understand what to do, and probably got me better grades, just because I knew the correct format for a certain type of script. I now know a whole lot more about scripts because of this book than I did before.


REVELATION FIVE: Twitter-The Social Media From Hell
During this class, we have used Twitter on several different occasions. Let me tell you, this has just reinforced my raging hate for Twitter. I can't stand it. I, in no way, want anything to do with Twitter. I don't care what some celebrity did today. Oh, Ashton Kutcher went to see some obscure movie? Cool, I don't care. Little Jimmy had eggs and ham for breakfast? Awesome, let me throw him a party for EATING BREAKFAST! Everything about Twitter just frustrates me. If I wanted to know what one of my friends were doing, I would ask them, instead of getting "Tweeted" at or notified everytime someone says something. Its a huge waste of time, and personally, I think it is an invasion of privacy. Everyone doesn't need to know everyone else's business or what they are doing. End of story. I do understand the positives to Twitter, but my endless cloud of hate makes me bias. Yes, it can be helpful for work, yes. I might have a better chance of finding a job if I used Twitter, but honestly, I don't care. I. Hate. Twitter.



REVELATION SIX: Facebook.
Facebook has become one of the largest and most influential social sites of all time. And unlike Twitter, I don't hate facebook with a firey rage of a million angry gods. Quite the opposite actually. I think Facebook is a great site, and because of this class, I have learned even more about it and how it has been helpful. Personally, I use it to keep it touch with people from back home. I'm not going to call my friends once a day to talk to them, that would be creepy and a waste of minutes. Instead, I can Facebook chat them, making it much easier and convienent. Facebook can also update people on upcoming events or things like it. Facebook can be extremely helpful and is generally a great site for social media.



REVELATION SEVEN: VISUALS AND MUSIC
Music has influenced a large chunk of my life. When Hilliard made the statement on page 314 about how visuals need to be integrated with a program to hold the viewers attention, it instantly made me think of music videos, and I realized how much this is true. A good music video can boost a song infinite amounts because of the viewing it will receive on the airways such as MTV or FUSE. The same could be said about a bad video, if it has a bland, boring video, it may not do as well because TV stations won't play it as much.



REVELATION EIGHT: INTERVIEWS
When reading the section on interviews, I learned a lot of good things I never would have know without this book. I never knew that many, if not most large interviews were not on the spot, but rehearsed beforehand. While this may make sense, I always thought that the beauty of interviews had to do with the on the spot answers, and that's what made them good, so when I found out many interviews were rehearsed beforehand, it kind of took away a bit of the interest in interviews for me.



REVELATION NINE: DOCUMENTARIES
While reading the chapter on documentaries, it made me realize that documentaries are probably them most unappreciated form of film. I may be going out on a limb to say this, but I would say that when most people are presented with the idea of a documentary, they immediately are opposed to the idea, even if it is a film that has won the same awards as a feature film. They are just viewed as boring educational tools, instead of interesting films that take just as much, if not more effort to make than a regular feature film. But when presented with a well liked documentary such as the most recent series, Life, most people don't even realize that this program is in the same category as all of the boring films they watched in middle school.


REVELATION TEN: ALL OF THE AREAS SOCIAL MEDIA IS USED
During this whole course, I was really awakened to the fact that social media and electronic media writing is being used in almost literally every job these days. In some way or another, something I have learned in this course will be applied in any future job I may have. Whether it be my job from hell (using Twitter all day) or something as simple(or not) as a potential job checking your Facebook to see if you have any "incriminating" evidence, it is now a prevalent force in the workplace, and having more knowledge of these things could boost anyone up from having a job or not.