MediaPath

Everything has its history. Everything comes from somewhere and goes to some direction. It is very simple, logical, and natural. Each event is specific in some way. Each day has its right to exist in history. But the most interesting is that only people can make each day extraordinary, give them specific meaning, status and understanding. Depending on origin, culture, traditions each nation differs from the other. That makes people travel, take photos, make albums. List them thousand times to look past life through. I can hardly imagine that there is a person who does not have the photos of Halloween in his/her album. Some write “Halloween” on the top of the photo to indicate what day it was taken, some do it on the back of it, some do none of them because photos say everything and sometimes even more than words can express. And still it is amazing how these photos appeared in our albums?

This holiday dates back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (sow-in). Celts inhabitants of Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France celebrated the new year on November 1. This day was associated with the end of summer and the beginning of winter, cold, dark, and in most cases identified with death. According to the beliefs Celts thought that the boundary between living and dead worlds were blurred this day. Presence of ghosts could help Druids, or Celtic priests predict the future. But the understanding of the holiday changed after Romans had conquered the large territory of Celts in A.D. 43. Romans ruled this territory for 400 years. During this period two Roman festivals were combined with Celtic. Festivals of Roman origin were Feralia and Pomona.

Later in 800s after spreading Christianity among Celts, Pope Boniface IV declared 1 November All Saints’ Day. It is believed that designation of this day as All Saints’ Day served the purpose of changing the day of dead ghosts arrival day into saints’ day. The new celebration was called “All-Hallows”. As for the night before the celebration, it was called All-Hallows Eve, Halloween.

Halloween symbol is identified with the carved pumpkin with a lit candle inside. Story about Halloween is impossible to imagine without Jack O'Lantern. The tradition of making jack o’lanterns counts centuries. It is originated from an Irish Myth about “Stingy Jack” who deceived the Devil. Invited him to have a drink but did not want to pay for it. Jack convinced him to turn into a coin. The Devil was deceived, Jack put the coin into his pocket next to a silver cross. The power of the cross prevented the Devil from turning into the original form. Jack made a kind of barter with the Devil and freed him for 1 year freedom. But that was not enough for Jack and the next time asked the Devil 10 years of life...

But Jack died soon. Why? As legend says God will not allow such man into the heaven too, neither the Devil opened the doors of hell, and since then he wanders with the burning coal trying to find the way.

Album waits for new photos, memories find their own places in our minds, Jack O’lantern still searches for the ways to release himself from uncertain freedom and masked faces are waiting for the 31 of October.

Posted by Julie Andghuladze at 4:01 PM | 0 comments  
Labels: Feralia, Halloween, Jack O'Lantern, Pomona, Pope Boniface IV

It is hardly imaginable to be a parent and have no concerns about the influences that an environment has over youngster. In a highly competitive world of highly developed technology, is it difficult to control the information that one can get through the communication channels today. As everybody knows the variety of types of channels increased. In old times we only had “mouth” to send a massage as one of the sources of an advertisement, but later on print media continued accomplishment of the job done by “Mouth,” radio, television followed the path of development and took society to the world of Internet as its final stage. The term “Final stage” is used conventionally. Nobody knows what is going to happen with nowadays' reality after stating that “Sex and marriage with robots can soon be possible.”

World is full of extraordinary events and technical, scientific developments. Nobody could imagine that one day a child could click the remote controller, turn on the PC, play games and even watch inadvertently the advertisements spread over the communication channels.

Though it is said that children in early years have abilities to absorb the amount of information that elderly people can only do in 15 years, the question is how much positive and productive information is. It is easy to guess that children of all ages are heavy media consumers. According to Kaiser Family Foundation, Kids and Media at the New Millennium a child spends 6 hours a day sitting at the TV (or PC).

High attention and control over the effects of advertisements on the children at the age of 8 and older is caused by children’s inherent vulnerability. One of the most spread effects the advertisements have resulted in children is childhood obesity. It is a logical result because in majority cases the advertisements directed to the children at the age of 8 and older are more food oriented.

One of the most successful ways of attracting child’s attention is the use of cartoon or game characters, the heroes they want to be resembled with.

The issue of advertisement influence is of great importance and it does not come necessarily from the last years but in 1974, the National Advertising Review Council (NARC) established the Children’s Advertising Review Unit (CARU) as a self-regulatory program. The main purpose of which was to promote responsible children’s advertising.

Controlling the ads placement on the TV is much easier than in the Internet. On the TV the advertisement should be corresponding to the program, whether the advertisement appears after or before the program children watch, is of great importance too. Advertisements’ target audience, in case it is youth, has different features and ads are of different forms and content. It should be educative and relevant to the understanding of a child. Deceptive and unfair ads draw false image on the product and damage consciousness of a child.

To underline effects of the TV ads we can apply to oboulo.com. There are 4 effects of the TV advertisement that influence children:
The appealing effect of advertising,
The 'parent-child' conflict,
Advertising that creates materialistic values,
The impact on children's health.

As for the Internet advertisements, they are harder to control. When the 11 years old child teaches you how to make a free web site, the possibility of watching internet ads is high.

Similar to the TV, the Internet has also appealing effects, it also creates materialistic values, and has the impact on child's health, but the conflict between child and parents is doubled because parents are not less affected by internet because of its indispensable and ubiquitous nature. Anyway the media that aims to the gain profit from audience should try to work on the basis of mutual benefit and be directed to minimization of harm.


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Posted by Julie Andghuladze at 9:10 PM | 0 comments  
Labels: Advertisement, CARU, Internet, TV

According to the Journalism.co.uk from October 22, Times launches a new mobile service. The service provides access to the following features: Breaking news, business, sports, arts, and entertainment coverage.

The high quality and fast browsing experience is provided by a mobile media and Buongiorno.
Zach Leonard, digital publishing director of Times Media says that “It is yet another example of our strategy to deliver content in the most convenient way possible for our audiences.”

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Posted by Julie Andghuladze at 9:52 PM | 0 comments  
Labels: mobile, Times Media

Information technology, the sphere that goes through transformation stages and transfers the ways of communication itself, becomes of great importance. The value that obtains IT is increasing each day, and gives youth opportunities realize their abilities and strengths.

According to the research presented by Forrester teleconference, Laurie Orlov, vice president Forrester Research, based in Cambridge, Mass, says that "Enterprise IT is going through a metamorphosis. The career path is not as straightforward as it once might have been. You used to start as a programmer or operator and move up the ladder, and this is no longer the case”.

As each sphere, IT undergoes different levels of development, one can say IT does that the most intensively than any other one. According to eWeek CHANNEL INSIDER: “The previous enterprise IT path followed one of four routes. In the sourcing path, an IT professional moved from vendor administration and relations to sourcing contracts and ecosystem management. In the management path, the worker moved from project management to portfolio or IT line-of-business management. The innovation path took an IT pro from a business analyst position through process management and ownership to internal consulting. In the final, and often considered the most exciting path, the IT worker moved from entry-level tech up the ladder through integration to architect.”

These routes are not necessarily to be led separately. The cooperation of the routes will lead to more profitable exchange of values. As Forrester says “IT will be considered not so much a finish line but a gateway to other roles in the company.”

It is worth mentioning that the successful accomplishment of work or the development of IT sphere is not determined only by IT works, programming, but business analytical skills, too. There is no success without assuming events in chain.

IT changes too many things in the surrounding world. Though the Earth is of the same size as it was in the past, it becomes smaller and smaller, and why? Can you remember how many days it was needed to get information in previous centuries? Probably you do not remember, but probably you have read about that in the books of history or some other. Communication level has increased, the more we know, the more we do, the more chances we have. IT is no longer only the comfort or only the way of improved communication, it involves “integrating applications and managing business and vendor relationships, and has globally dispersed virtual teams. Most pertinently, the new IT professional works in a business, not IT context.”

There is no IT product without the content created by the human being. In the highly competitive world of communications, full of hard or soft news, informatiive or entertainment information, two sources are needed to be used, one working on technical side and the other on the content, but their cooperation is the bases of business in the broadest understanding of this term.

This post has been featured on BLOGVASION.COM

Posted by Julie Andghuladze at 3:59 PM | 0 comments  
Labels: Forrester, IT, Media

Posted by Julie Andghuladze at 12:45 AM | 0 comments  
Labels: New York Times, Pulitzer Prize, The Wall Street Journal