Me-an-dia

If you are disgusted by the poor attempt of humour seen in the title consider this a warning for the rest of this blog and those in the future. This isn't one of those '18r haterz!' things many of the youth say today - it is a heartfelt plea on behalf of the author.
 
I first started looking at Media in terms of theory and practice at the age of seventeen when I started studying it as a subject in my Sixth Form. However, now looking back on my life I realise Media has had a large influence in my life before I even realised it.
 
I chose to take Media Studies as an option out of pure curiosity. I wouldn't have said I had a keen interest at the time, but enough of one to dedicate hours of school time looking into it. By the end of the two years Media went from being the 'wild card' of my subject choices to possibly of my strongest and favourite of subjects.
 
It pain's me to admit this but I think I first started applying the theories and techniques I started to require to the X-Factor. I wish I could say something more cultured or less 'main stream' but it's true. Every Saturday I would find myself idly watching the show - not paying any great deal of attention to it. It was the series that brought us Wagner Carrilho, a Brazilian ex. gym teacher. He was the 'bum note' (oh im so hiliarious) of the show - in the magical world of Simon Cowell he was made out to the project of the 'incompentant' Louis Walsh and was not expected to go far in the show at all. However, through social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter started to 'corrupt' the 'monopoly of Cowell' by encouraging people to vote Wagner through to the next show, regardless of his performance.
 
This practice had had previous success. Nearly a year to that point they had created the wonderous scene of denying previous winner Joe McElderry the before granted spot of 'whoeverwinsxfactorgetschristmasnumberone' and giving us the glorious scene of Fearne Cotton nervously staring into the viewers of Chirstmas Top of the Pops and uttering "and now here is your number one - Rage Against the Machine with 'Killing in the Name'".
 
The public oblivious to the 'trolling' exercise of the social networking community were in outrage as Wagner was now out-standing people who could actually sing. Cowell's media mogul's started trying to counter the internet's attack by releasing stories of Wagner's questionable (but believeable) antics in the house - the most memorable of which being him getting into another contestants bed and refusing to get out.
 
I soon started to label everything with my Media Studies mind. In Propp's theory of characters the internet communties had clearly labelled Cowell as the 'Villian' but Wagner, despite being a product of Cowell's evil creation, was clearly an anti-hero. He was a glimmer of hope in their plans.
 
However, somewhat ineviatably, Wagner's run on X-Factor came to an end. However, the manner of it outstanded me. His final song was 'Creep', by Radiohead. If anyone is unfamiliar with the song the general jist of it can be summed up by its chorus of 'I'm a creep/I'm a weirdo/What the hell am I doing here?/I don't belong here...'. You could clearly see what was going on here, without wanting to sound a conspiracist. The camera even zoomed into a close up onto Wagner's face as he sung the last chorus. Minogue called it his best performance as he 'connected with his lyrics'. Cole agreed with her. Cowell claimed it was 'very good'. Walsh said it was 'his best performance yet'. 

On the next results show - Wagner was voted out. 

So that was my baptism of recognising the world of Media. A Brazilian who could not sing.

Thanks Wagner

(Image taken from http://www.thenewsgrind.com/)