Introduction/profile task

Name: Jack Sims

Hobbies: Reading, writing, watching TV, acting (occasionally), gaming

Media Interests:

  Print media:

I rarely buy or read newspapers, but occasionally pick up The Sun to laugh at the ridiculous stories. I tend to skim through and find something slightly insane to point out or criticise if it’s the only thing to read. I prefer accessing the news on the web, seeing as I can filter out all the sensationalist piffle and read stories which interest me in particular.

  I read several magazines in my line of interest. I buy Empire monthly to read about upcoming films and the happenings in the industry. Occasionally I buy the Official Nintendo Magazine for game reviews and queries. Music magazines tend to keep in the likes of Kerrang! or Metal Hammer for my niche of musical taste.

  Radio media:

I tend to listen to Kerrang! Radio or local stations for some news, as long as I can stand the endlessly repeating playlists of chart topping mediocre bands.

  Music Industry:

My preferences of genre stay in the wide scope of Rock and Metal; Occasionally General Rock, Punk, Grunge etc., but mostly Heavy Metal (Thrash, NWOBHM, Proto). I don’t belong to a band, as I have no grasp of any instrument apart from a dated Casio.

  I tend to access most of my music from the PC after compiling all of it onto iTunes. Illegally downloading music from sites is something we might have all done in the past, though I disapprove of bands not making any money with droves of fans torrenting tracks.

  The music industry definitely affects the way I dress and what I aspire to. The general style of Metal set down by bands such as Black Sabbath and Judas Priest is still popular among many. A lot of Metal is written in protest, like Sabbath’s War Pigs, conceived during the turmoil in Vietnam and elsewhere.

  Video Games:

I don’t particularly have a favourite video game, but most of my highest rated ones were released by either Nintendo or Valve. Sidescrollers like Super Mario Bros. were masterpieces back in the 80s, setting down the blueprint for almost every other similar format game in history.

  In terms of Valve, my favourites would be Half Life 2 and Left 4 Dead 2. HL2, much regarded by players and critics alike as the best game of all time, follows Gordon Freeman in a First-person Shooter in which he fights the totalitarian invading aliens, the Combine. Unlike other games of 2004 and beyond, all of the cutscenes were fully playable, and the Source Engine physics were incredibly accurate. Further episodes to the storyline were added in 2007, and we are currently waiting for the final instalment.

  L4D2 is the sequel to the controversial best-selling game of 2009, Left 4 Dead, and runs on an updated Source Engine. Up to 4 players slash, shoot and sprint their way through several multi-stage campaigns set in the American deep South to find safety in the zombie apocalypse; The graphic nature of the game and false allegations of racism lead to a thankfully unsuccessful boycott.

  The attitude that videogames are violent and offensive could be supported by L4D2, but looking closer it is much more rounded and correct. The concerns arose with parts of campaigns being flooded with bloated corpses in water, not long after hurricane Katrina. Some zombies were also black or Asian, which aggrovated this and led to a racism boycott. If all of the zombies were white, I think it would be far more racist, and a slection of various nationalities in zombies is actually reasonably PC. The graphic nature of the game is also expected in an FPS. Violent games have distinct age restrictions to stop this outrage happening, but small children may still be influenced badly by such games.

  New Technology:

New technology has allowed me to get the news as it happens, anywhere, which is a great advantage for everyone. Mobile phones have also allowed us to be more social and keep in contact halfway across the globe. Multimedia ways of watching films are a great way fore the industry to attract customers, and programs allowing you to broadcast your own media on the internet are available to all. The media has evolved, and in turn the consumers have.

  Television:

I watch channels as the programs come and go. I tend to switch channels if something interest is elsewhere. My favourite TV channels include the BBC, for its decent amount of drama and satirical comedy, and its overall left-wing undertones. As genres go, I would choose Comedy for the joy of laughter, especially at the state of the country, or Horror. I consider quite a few programs memorable, but the most recent one to stand out to me is the series on E numbers on the BBC. Contrary to popular belief, they do you an amount of good.

  Feature film:

I like to watch films whenever I can. My favourite genres would be Comedy and Horror, or a mix of both like in schlock or horrifically low budget laughs. Three films I would describe as outstanding would be Vertigo, The Matrix and Green Slime.  The first was one of Hitchcock’s superb movies, relatively flawless in my opinion. The Matrix was, for lack of a better word, game-changing, and altered the way our generation thought. Green Slime was, even on 60s sci-fi B movie terms, a low budget atrocity. If you didn’t laugh, you’d cry. The Hendrix-esque end theme was mental.

  I consume films from television, cinema, the internet, anywhere that films could possibly be shown.  But the atmosphere of the big screen is the better than any other. I usually head down to Riverside Odeon, since Vue’s rubbish. I prefer watching films in a group. I have never contributed to anything in media other than the activities week road safety.

    I am not easily offended by texts, but those which have were awful. Some papers portray teens as 100% antisocial, which is a misleading stereotype in my opinion. Heavy Metal also gets bad press, seeing as for some bizarre reason people think we all worship Satan: they’re only a nutty sub-culture, made up by the clinically insane and the odd National Front News reader. Contrastingly I thought the work on artificial life was ground-breaking, and points toward a bright future for man rather than an act punishable by God and his lightning bolts.

  Reading about unsustainable Palm oil in Borneo has altered my way of consuming products, as I sometimes look for a source of Palm oil on the packaging. If I were to write a media text for the reading of the public, I would write about the idiotic stereotypes of Metalheads being Satanists. I chose media studies due to my interest in film and drama.