#she printed out a picture of maslows hierarchy of needs

[assorted-aesthetics]

anyway on this planet there are people who will invite themselves to your office and spend an hour and a half telling you insane theories they have on how you should do your job, but there are also boyfriends who will leave work early so they can make you dinner before you leave for game night. so it's a pretty big range.

[thisdiscontentedwinter]

Stella and the Wolf - Chapter 7

You can read it here on AO3 or find the Tumblr Chapter Index here. 

The last of the streetlights slides in a bright corona up the windshield of the Jeep as Stiles turns onto the road through the Preserve, and then the road is dark and deep, and reminds Stiles of a Robert Frost poem on that alone. The light from the headlights bounces off the potholed asphalt and the trees closest to the road, causing Stiles’s heart to jump whenever he thinks he senses movement, but as far as he can tell it’s only light and shadow and his imagination.

It’s reckless to be doing this, coming out here, with a bloodthirsty Alpha on the loose, but that’s Stiles all over, and it always has been. It’s partly because of his ADHD, he thinks, but there’s no denying he got a healthy streak of it from his Mom too. She didn’t have ADHD but Stiles can remember waking up in the car a bunch of times when he was little, before Stella came along and before Mom got sick, and discovering it wasn’t even dawn yet but they were halfway to the coast so they could have a picnic breakfast on the beach. Every day with her was an adventure. Stiles wonders what the hell she’d make of all this werewolf business. And then he remembers too, with a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach, how she’d seen monsters towards the end, while her brain withered and died inside her skull.

He wonders if her hallucinations took place on dark roads like this one.

He could be driving into a horror movie right now, he knows, but he’s been out here before in the daylight, and dark is just the absence of light, right? He knows what the Preserve looks like in the day, when the sunlight filters through the trees, and it’s beautiful. But right now, with just a sliver of the moon riding in the sky above the scant clouds, it’s a whole different world.

There was a time when Stiles would have thought that Derek belonged out here in a nightmare world, but he’s seen past the claws and the fangs now, the glower and the growl.

The road curves like it’s following the path of an unknown river as it cuts through the Preserve. Stiles follows the final curve, the shift grinding a little as he drops down a gear into second, and then the road ends at the clearing where the Hale house once stood.

It must have been beautiful, once, but now it’s nothing but a shell. The façade is still there, jutting up into the night sky like a headstone.

And god. Stiles needs to stop jumping straight to the horror movie imagery, in case he turns it into a self fulfilling prophecy. Stiles is the mouthy sidekick in this story. If it’s a horror movie, he knows how it ends for that guy, right?

Stiles pulls to a stop in front of the house, the headlights of the Jeep illuminating the charred, blackened porch. They’re illuminating Derek as well, where he’s standing at the top of the steps, looking at the Jeep. With his werewolf hearing, he probably heard the Jeep’s whining transmission from miles away.

Stiles climbs out of the Jeep, and slams the door shut. His sneakers crunch on dead leaves as he walks toward the porch. “Hey, Derek.”

“What are you doing here?” Derek’s voice is low, his syllables cut off into short, unhappy sounds.

And this is the part that Stiles hasn’t thought through. Because Derek needs his help, and Derek needs to not be alone, but Derek is also a brick wall. If he were a Stilinski, Stiles would have grabbed him and forced him to hug it out by now, but that’s not Derek at all. He’s more vulnerable that he wants to show, but Stiles knows he can’t just point that out and expect Derek to agree and come home with him. It’s absolutely no exaggeration at all to say Derek would rather die than show any weakness.

So he shrugs and says, “Stella was worried about you.”

It’s a low blow, but it’s not a lie. And okay, it’s not a conversation that Stiles has had with Stella, but he knows his little sister. She’s as protective of the people she cares about as Stiles is. Stiles’s list is a lot shorter than Stella’s but somehow Derek Hale has made his way onto both of them.

Derek stares at him. “It’s past midnight. You shouldn’t be out here.”

“Afraid I’ll turn into a pumpkin?” Stiles asks. The sagging porch steps creak as he climbs them.

Derek glares at him, but come on. He wasn’t raised on an alien planet. Stiles knows he gets the reference.

“Yeah, it’s past midnight,” Stiles says, squaring his shoulders. “And you’re camping in the burned out remains of your family home. It’s stupid. I mean, my house has a garage we can put an air mattress in. Dad parks in the driveway. He’ll never even know you’re there.”

Derek’s mouth presses into a thin line before he speaks. “I’m not coming to sleep in your garage, Stiles.”

“Why not?” Stiles demands, because he’s pretty sure Derek responds better to aggression than he does to comfort. “At least it doesn’t have holes in the wall.”

He actually growls. “I don’t need your pity!”

Derek is all hard angles and bristling anger now, but there’s an undercurrent of vulnerability to him. It’s always been there, like one of those dumb Magic Eye pictures. For a while Stiles just saw lines and shapes and colors, but he’s seen the real picture now, and he can’t pretend to unsee it.

“I’m not offering you pity, sourwolf,” Stiles says, part of him almost enjoying the way Derek turns up the wattage on his glare when that word falls out of his mouth. “I’m offering you shelter. It’s way before pity on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. It’s right at the base of the pyramid. You don’t get anywhere near esteem and self-actualisation until you’ve got a place to sleep. That’s science.”

Derek is unimpressed with science. “Go home, Stiles.”

He turns away and Stiles reaches out to grab his arm. “Look, you gave Scott that whole dumbass talk about being werewolf brothers now, and you know he’s not here for that, but, like, Iam.”

The slight widening of Derek’s eyes warns him he’s crossing into territory he didn’t mean to, and wasn’t supposed to, but Stiles’s mouth has never needed his brain to engage first in order to operate. Words just sort of happen for Stiles.

“And I know I’m nobody’s first choice, dude, but I’m offering you shelter, and probably even the occasional hot meal and shower, and that’s a hell of a lot more than you’ve got going on out here.”

Derek wrenches his arm away. “I’m not going with you, Stiles. Don’t you get it? The Alpha is trying to pull me and Scott into whatever game he’s playing, and soon that might mean coming after the people we know. Even coming out here tonight you might have put a target on your back. You think I should go and stay at your house? Where your dad and your little sister live? What the hell is wrong with you?”

Oh.

Oh, okay.

Stiles gets it now, he thinks.

It’s more words that Derek has ever spoken to him, probably, and it makes a painful feeling bloom in Stiles’s chest.

It’s not just Derek’s pride at play here at all.

Derek is trying to protect him, and Dad, and Stella.

“Yeah,” he says, his voice rasping. “But if the Alpha is coming after the people you know, then I’m already on his list, aren’t I? I’m Scott’s best friend.”

“You’re prey,” Derek tells him. “You’re supposed to stay quiet and still and hope the wolf doesn’t notice you.”

“Have you met me though?”

He hoped it would get at least a snort out of Derek, but Derek just stares at him a moment longer.

“Go home, Stiles,” he says at last, and turns and goes back inside whatever remains of his house.

Stiles stands on the porch a moment longer. When he speaks, it’s in his usual tone. He knows Derek will hear him.

“Dad’s on earlies this week. He leaves before six. Stella and I have breakfast at around six-thirty. We’ll put out a spare plate if you change your mind.”

Then, his eyes stinging a little, he leaves and drives home.

***

Derek doesn’t turn up for breakfast.

Stiles drops Stella off at school, hugs her goodbye, and drives to the high school. He’s early enough that he gets a good park, and sits in the driver’s seat staring at the school building, his finger and thumb pressing tight on the key in the Jeep’s ignition.

This is a mess.

This is a whole fucking mess, and nobody is doing anything. The Alpha is playing them all—Derek and Scott and the hunters, and even Stiles. He’s batting them all around like a cat does with a shivering mouse that it’s caught, and Stiles knows that sooner or later something has to give, and it’s going to be the mouse.

They need a game changer.

They need to break the pattern and shift the balance.

They need something.

Fuck this.  

Stiles might not be a werewolf, and he might not be able to fight the Alpha, but there’s one thing he’s always been good at, and that’s research. If he can find the connection between the Alpha and the murders, then maybe he can find the Alpha’s identity, and Derek and Scott can have a chance at getting the drop on him.

It’s about time Stiles stopped pretending that werewolf stuff was just something he can get around to after school and on weekends. This is life and death. The normal rules don’t apply. He’ll deal with the fallout for skipping classes when it happens, because—best case scenario—at least he’ll be alive to get his multiple detentions, right?

He stares at the school for a moment longer as the parking lot slowly fills, and then restarts the engine and drives home.

***

Stiles hears Dad’s cruiser pulling up in the driveway at just past nine. He shoves the files he’s printed out from the photos he took back into his old gym bag, and pushes the bag under his bed. By the time Dad gets upstairs, Stiles is curled up under his comforter, a glass of water and a conspicuous bottle of Tylenol on his bedside table.

His bedroom door squeaks open.

“Kiddo?”

“Hey,” he says, hoping he sounds weak and sad.

“I got a call from the school,” Dad says. The mattress dips when he sits on it. “They said you didn’t come in. Are you feeling okay?”

“Headache,” Stiles mumbles into his pillow. He doesn’t skip very often, which he hopes makes the occasions he does seem more believable.

Dad leans over him to feel his forehead, and Stiles feels a rush of warmth at the gesture. Then Dad straightens up again, and rubs Stiles’s back gently, the way Mom used to when he was sick. “You need anything from the pharmacy?”

“No. I think I’ll be okay if I can sleep it off.”

“Okay, son,” Dad says. “I’ll pick Stella up this afternoon, so you can rest. Do you want me to make you some soup before I head back in?”

“No, I’m good,” Stiles murmurs.

Dad leans down and kisses him on the top of the head, and Stiles feels like he’s a little kid again, warm and safe and loved. “Call me if you need anything.”

“’kay.”

He waits until he hears Dad tread down the steps again, and the front door clicks closed. Then he waits until he hears the cruiser leave before scrambling out of bed and pulling the files out again.

Because Stiles might not have fangs or claws, or super speed and super hearing, but he can still hunt the Alpha in his own way.

He gets back to work.

[survivingart]

PRICING YOUR ART THE RIGHT WAY Part II — Value and Worth

Oscar Wilde once wrote: “A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything but the value of nothing.” 

A true artist therefore should be the exact opposite, but not due to ignorance towards the ever-present concept of money; the real truth of the matter is that putting a price tag on an embodiment of love, hate, reminiscence or longing (and all the other messages that art can communicate) just isn’t as easy as adding up ones material and overhead costs and slapping a 20% markup on the sum.

At least not to those that really understand the depths of their own work, because they know that while symbolism allows us to represent temptation by painting apples, temptation itself cannot be sold in the same way as apples.

Because unlike this common tree fruit, temptation cannot be grown, packaged and distributed (even though the media will tell you otherwise). True temptation, unlike her watered-down cousin, lack of self-control, does not come in chocolate or vanilla flavours, it does not make you giggle and say: “Oh, I’m bad, but I’ll have another piece.”

True temptation destroys kingdoms, not waistlines — something corporations still haven’t figured out how to manufacture on an assembly line (or perhaps just decided not to do). But it’s exactly what the best of us are doing, and people like us have been doing since before the Dutch invented oil paints.

We create altars to truth, to the essence of what makes us human, and just as there is no universal truth to speak of, there are no all-in-one solutions of valuing it. But there are intimate, personal ways with which verities are created and in today’s blunder I would like to explore them and try to shine a bit of light upon the convolution that is added value in art.

As its name implies, it is a form of worth that is added, not inherent to the object, and because our time is defined by value as no other time ever was, all of us know that added value is present in all human creation, not just in art.

From bread loaves to trousers; because of the abundance of stuff that is floating around us, the value proposition or the amount and type of added value that any one product has, has become the defining factor by which people decide to either spend their hard-earned money or keep it in the bank.

Back in the day — by which I mean mid nineteenth century Europe and before — this wasn’t the norm. When Zara and H&M didn’t exist and a clean pair of un-tattered cotton trousers was more of a luxury item than a commodity for many people, you could make trousers for everyone because added value hadn’t been invented yet.

Of course you had to measure your customers, so that they’d actually fit the person, but the question of: “Do you maybe have these in salmon red?” had absolutely no chance of existing. Not because the idea of red trousers was too abstract for people to get back then, but because the demand for “trousers” was far from being met. 

There were no electric sewing machines and fabric was hard to come by. It was only after many technological advancements and the continued outsourcing of child labour into places, where labour laws could not reach, that the idea of “trousers” became a commodity. And by doing so, the ideas of “red trousers” and “blue trousers” and soon “light khaki skinny-fit jeans” replaced “trousers” as the only available option.

Every time a quicker, cheaper, or better way of producing something (the same goes for service) is invented, the thing being produced slips a bit more into the oblivion of commodities — making it possible for more and more people to be able to afford it and consequently producing a need for more sophisticated versions of that particular product for those who already had the means of buying it in the first place.

And while there are no real technological advances in painting (at least not compared to bio tech or computers) the basic ideas of supply and demand are the same. 

Art in its core is the polar opposite of what the idea of commodification is to trousers — though print-on-demand services and the overflow of uneducated artists painting pretty flower pictures have taken their toll on the market.

Because, while any other form of creation is roughly limited by the means of production on one side and the specific tastes and capital of the consumers on the other, paintings don’t behave like trousers or laptops. Because no work of art is the same as the other, scarcity is next to infinite (well, it’s precisely one, if we’re not counting editions).

This is the first and most important added value that a work of art has — scarcity. While philosophically one could even argue that it might actually be the only human creation that has inherent added value (I’m not, because I don’t believe this to be true), scarcity defines art unlike any other trait it might possess.

In any art economics book (and there sadly still aren’t that many), you can find at least one long paragraph that glorifies art as the ultimate product; one can have a bunch of villas, a dozen yachts and hundreds of beautiful old cars, but lose all interest and excitement about them eventually, because it’s not that hard to add one more into the collection. 

Vintage wine, like all the “good” things in the world, tastes the best when we first try it, then it slowly but surely slips into the oblivion of commodity. The only real thrill then is to own a Salvator Mundi, Picasso’s Boy with pipe or Pollock’s No. 5, because there exists (and ever will exist) only one of each in the world. The one we have. The one others cannot possess.

But scarcity has to arise from somewhere, because nobody just wakes up with a sudden urge to buy our art. Scarcity needs an ecosystem in which it can exist — it needs demand. But to really understand demand, we have to understand need first, and there’s no better place to go than the nineteen forties, 1943 to be exact, when most of the western world was at war and people’s demands for almost everything were far from being met.

While the zeitgeist of the fifties created many questionable things, it had also sown the seeds for one of the most important scientific papers of our times, titled: “A Theory of Human Motivation”.

Maslow’s paper would become the bedrock of the social sciences for many decades to come, because it stated something groundbreaking; namely that all people share a common hierarchy of needs that follow certain rules and influence our lives as never thought of before.

He found that people do not and cannot experience certain needs — located higher up in the hierarchy — without first satisfying the more basic ones, like hunger, sex and security. Thus he concluded, that without first giving priority to the basic securities of life, like food, water and shelter, we humans are unable to even feel the urge to want something more complex; the need to have a family or the need to be respected in the eyes of our peers for example.

The trick is that demand for art, unlike trousers or bread, isn’t as popular amongst the masses, and we can find a clue as to why in Maslow’s theory: unlike most of our physical needs, that could be described as being a reaction to a certain deficiency — needing sustenance, love, affection, camaraderie, etc. — the need for collecting art comes from abundance and the need to grow.

Be it as a person, a society, a business or a local community; art gives us the tools to express ourselves and to connect, create a common identity and express our power. And if we see it as such, it gives us a much easier time understanding why the majority of people don’t collect art or just don’t give art the same importance in their lives as we do. 

They just don’t feel the need for it.

Imagine you’re working two jobs and supporting a family of four; the chaos of having to put food on the table, paying the electricity bill and god forbid a mortgage on the house with less than 100€ in the bank to last you for another two weeks of grocery shopping, while your child is telling you she will be needing a new textbook for next week’s class that costs 50€. 

No sane person under such conditions will ever think about how the empty wall space in the kitchen could use a nice still-life with a bunch of flowers or maybe an impressionist seascape in the colours of the living room couch. 

Ever.

But on the other side of this equation are the people who are privileged enough to live in abundance; those who strive for power, fame, beauty or morality. Here, in a place of abundance the demand for art has a chance to sprout, but because there’s millions of artists around the world (1,2 million just in the US), it takes a bit more than a vague demographic analysis to find ones fertile soil. 

We need a niche. Without it, we’re no more valuable than a no-brand drill bit at the local hardware store; forgettable, replaceable and most likely dull.

Think about it. There are many different companies that sell drills and accessories, all competing for the same customers. Some differences do exist, of course; you have different sizes, varying quality of the bits, their intended purpose — to drill into wood or metal or stone etc. — but apart from the obvious, there is one that is equally important, but resides on the customer side and is quite often overlooked. 

Perception.

What I mean by this is that when a person goes to their local hardware store and buys drill bits, do they really go there with the sole intention to own drill bits or do they buy them only because it lets them make a hole in their wall to hang a painting of their dad? 

Even then; did they buy drill bits and the painting for the sole reason of owning it, or did they maybe see in the portrait of their father an object that would remind them of what a wonderful person he is? Maybe he recently passed away and the painting means a lot to them? As does the process of commissioning it, receiving it, unpacking, framing, … and especially hanging it.

And in a world full of drill bits, more or less similar in size, quality and defined usage, would a drill company that focuses on evoking a certain emotion in their customer like pride, or a feeling of usefulness or maybe even self-actualisation, not only have an edge over their competition, but provide a lot of value to anyone with such a need?

Imagine your dad was somebody that made you feel like you needed to be useful in your life, like it was your duty as a person to do good and create great things with your hands. To pride yourself on a simple job well done.

What if the company that makes drill bits tried to enhance this experience with their products? They could invent a great advertisement campaign to place their products in such a demand niche, reinvent the packaging so that is helps enforce this feeling, maybe as simple as a slogan that says: “Nothing like a job well done.”

Maybe they could put a small chip inside their drill bit boxes (and call them Drill Beats) and make them play Ain’t No Mountain High Enough by Tammi Terrell & Marvin Gaye every time you open them? The goal would be to help you actualise your wish for feeling proud, helpful, self-reliant and in charge when you are preparing the wall to hang your painting, and a good tune goes a long way for a lot of us. 

Would you not buy these bits over the competition if this was this exact experience that you are searching for? You might just pay a bit more, maybe 10% or 20% because you would see the added value that they embody. 

Or, you might laugh at the sight of them and take the cheapest ones — preferably returning them after you don’t need them anymore and persuade the cashier or manager that you never opened them and just bought the wrong kind.

The difference is, that there would be a lot less people willing to buy Drill Beats, of course, because they would only sell to those that identify with the added value that they provide. But at the same time such people would probably cherish the added value immensely and may even talk about their newly-found novelty drill bits with their friends. All in all, they would be deemed more valuable than the other, generic bits, if the right people got their hands on them.

The cheaper ones on the other hand would still be bought by folks that need a hole and don’t mind the quick and dirty way, if they can save a few cents because of it. The difference wouldn’t even be connected with the functionality of either drill bit — both make holes and nothing else.

All that would be different would be the customers perception of them, their ability to connect with the core need that made them go into the hardware store in the first place. And with drill bits, it’s usually never to buy drill bits.

People don’t buy drill bits, they buy the ability to create holes. But even then, they don’t need holes, they might need to hang a painting of a loved one, to pay respect, to remember, not to forget … to feel proud that they did it themselves. 

The real question for us then, is what do people really need when they buy our art?

from Surviving Art https://ift.tt/2PfV259 via IFTTT

[thestudyofaudiences-blog]

Audience Experience Blog Post #2

Thursday November 2nd, 2017

Focusing on the past eight weeks of this course, we have learned a lot more about audience studies. These past three weeks, although we have learned more about audience studies, the material we have covered so far is some what different from other concepts we have learned. One of the theories that we have covered is the uses and gratifications theory. Uses and gratifications is a theory that has a different concept from the other theories. Typically, concepts and theories in audience studies look at external aspects that effect people that use media in their everyday life.  Uses and gratifications takes on a functional perspective on the activity of audiences which essentially looks at why people do what they do. As mentioned in chapter 5 of the textbook, Elihu Katz and his colleagues essentially identified 5 needs that individuals have that also can be applied to me when examining television  and other media sources and to better understand the use of media among individuals. Essentially, this research was taken in Israel but became a way to categorize the psychological functions of  mass media.“Katz et al. started with the notion that individuals bring to their media use a pre-existing set of desires and expectations—what they termed ‘needs.’’(Sullivan, J., 2013, pg. 114) The first group used to identify is cognitive needs, which is the needs that is related to individuals wanting to strengthen their intake with information, knowledge and understanding. I essentially use this for the news media using both television and the internet. Fundamentally, I am not fully aware of certain crisis that happens in the world, thankfully the news enables me to understand what is going on in the world including social change,  political spectrums, entertainment, and current events. At the same time, not only do I gain an understanding of  the events that are taken place, I also strengthen my knowledge on these events which also opens my ability to gain knowledge on contents that are related to the events taken place. 

The second group is the affective needs group which is a groups needs that are related to strengthening aesthetic, pleasure, and emotional experience. This is relevant to me the most out of all the categorized groups because I tend to put my focus more towards media that has an effect on my interest. For example, I generally put my focus and interest towards Facebook, at least everyday I am on Facebook which satisfies all the needs that are stated in this category. I achieve my aesthetic needs because Facebook shows all platforms of specific content, including, videos, pictures, memes, Gifs, blogs, and pages where as Instagram and twitter are great media platforms but only provide one of the contents that Facebook provides. I essentially find pleasure from videos that are are posted. Facebook is mostly consisted with videos of entertainment. This can also be provided by emotional needs because Facebook does provide media involving emotional satisfaction. For example, there are many groups that provide information on current events. I follow one page called the dodo which is a page that bring awareness of animals and shows the emotional road that they go through. At first, the video is sad because they show the abuse or pain the animal feels but at the end, there is satisfaction because the animals either find homes or are restored to proper health. This satisfies my emotional need because essentially I do love animals an Facebook can provide that. 

A drowning dogs desperate wish comes true

Originally posted by the dodo

This video is one of the many videos showing the emotional need that is provided on my Facebook. Essentially the dog fell into a well and is trying to stay alive while she is semi drowning but people come to the rescue her resulting in the dog being safe.

The third group is the integrative needs, which is the group that their needs are related to being able to strengthen their credibility, confidence, stability and status. This is not as relevant to me as it would be to other people but for example, some times I do post videos on Facebook and feel satisfaction when I get likes or even a simple like or comment on any personal pictures. The fourth group is social needs. This group is essentially more focused on being social with friends, family, and the world. Again, as this being relevant to me, I would say that Facebook would fulfill this need for me as it is my main source of contacting people. Also and most importantly would be my phone as this source provides and strengthens my availability with my contacts around the world and friends and family. 

Originally posted by Vita Nova Counselling Centre 

The last group is the escape group which has needs that are related to escape or tension release and evidently reducing the strength contact with self and one’s social roles. For example, as mentioned in the textbook, a study was revealed that women who were housewives tend to listen to opera on the radio as a form of escape from tension. “Herzog’s initial guesses about these women were firmly rooted in the effects tradition. she hypothesized that women who listened regularly to daytime radio serials (1)would be isolated from their community due to the time they spent listening to the radio; (2) would exhibit a more narrow range of intellectual interests; (3) would be less interested in public affairs; (4) would be characterized by ‘anxieties and frustrations’ about their life situations and would therefore turn or radio for compensation” (Sullivan, J., 2013, pg. 111). Essentially, this research proves that this need is highly experienced within audiences. Although I do not have the social roles of a housewife, I can defiantly say that I am also apart of this group and so is everyone else as we use media as a form to escape and not think about certain situations or stress in our lives.

Uses and gratifications theory also uses Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs essentially explaining the basic concept of where our needs come from. “The concept at the core of the uses and gratifications approach is that of needs. the approach maps out a series of logical steps that begins with the social and psychological origins of needs, which then generates exposure and resulting in needs gratifications.” (Sullivan, J., 2013, pg. 115) Although Maslow’s theory is quite simple with just identifying the basic needs on order for us to survive, it is evident that it is highly more significant. As a student who is constantly faced with challenges and constantly stressed, it is really easy to lose control of these needs and have an imbalance in your life. Personally, with working and going school it was very easy for me to always be tired which I did notice that it was not healthy and affected my physical and psychological well being.

Originally posted by Stortify

Sundar and Limperos essentially explain how the changes in technology has been brought from the basic hierarchy of needs. “his approach assumes that people have innate needs that can be satisfied by media. Gratifications are conceptualized as "need satisfactions," which are obtained when a person's needs are met by certain types of media sources that match their expectations (Sundar et al., 2013 pg. 506).” Essentially, it is evident that the Users and gratification concept is basically studied with the social and psychological origins. Also as mentioned in the article, with the new media technology being apart of the new era, it often dominates the conventional media that was once commonplace. Before the new media has become apart of this generation, individuals used print, radio, and television as a main source of technology. Before, individuals were able to satisfy their needs by this means of communication. Now, that the Internet has brought upon a new form of technology, the internet has managed to form basic technology as one which has projected uses and gratifications.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs in Media

This video essentially analyzes how the basic concept of mallows hierarchy of needs are pretreated in everyday media basically concluding that new media has an affect on our needs because we watch what satisfies our needs.

Being in my 4th year at Brock and 3rd year in Business communications, the concept of sign, signifier, and signified has constantly been mentioned in this program and essentially is one of those terms that I can never forget. As mentioned a million times, in semiotics, a sign is anything that basically communicates a meaning. The signifier is the word, the sound-image and the signified is the concept, the meaning the thing indicated by the signifier. Although it is a very simple concept, this concept is basically interpreted based on who we are and what we see and have experiences when the messages are being encoded and decoded. 

Originally posted by Slideshare

To be quite honest, I thought that this concept was something very simple and had no deep meaning but, as I was watching The Dark Knight (because I never liked the movie for first time I watched it when I was young so I thought I should give it a try) I noticed that there were multiple form of semiotics portrayed in the movie. The main form of semiotics meted in the movie with multiple scenes was with dogs and dog-like activity to further its question of “trained” civility. Although the movie had a very clear focus with the altercation, depending on the age, gender, race, and even culture showing that the audience has control of how they interpret messages. With The Dark Night aside, a great example that has been interpreted in my life is a content argument between my roommate and I about the Kardashians. With the whole scandal of wether there derrières being fake we had a debate about Khloe Kardashian. I mentioned that I believe she has not gotten surgery a she is constantly working out while y roommate believed that she has gotten surgery because of the rest of the Kardashian sisters. At the end of the day we were no entirely sure, but based off what we both see we both interpreted the message in different forms even though we both were given the same message.

Picture on Left originally posted by iTunes Picture on Right originally posted by Pinterest

Ultimately, from what we have learned so far, it is safe to say that these theories and concepts play a big role in technology and constantly will since the theories are essentially created by basic uses of technology. Uses and gratifications essentially plays a big role in why we do what we do and along with this concept is the semiotics concept as our interpretation is based on who we are and what we see. Conclusively from my understanding of the past few weeks, I think that even though media plays a giant role in our lives, we also play a giant role in media.

Blog #2 Ends here.