MEDP/FILMP 160: Media and Film in a Digital Age Pt. 2

I am now up to the second semester of the Media & Filim in the Digital Age class!
I think I know what I want to major in now: Media.
I kind of fell into it. Freshmen had to choose "blocks," which were all ready set up schedule of classes. The only thing I was interested in was the Media block, so here I am. In other words, I wasn't aiming for anything in media when I chose the Media block.
Well, instead of saying I fell into it, I think I should say the block program steered me into it. I enjoy media a lot every day.

I have two e-mail addresses and I check them daily; sometimes several times a day. I use Facebook like three times a week. I like Facebook because of the networking and the interactivity. You can put pictures in albums for people to see, you can comment on other people's pictures, you can leave a message on their page, and there's thousands of applications for people to interact with each other. It's like having a virtual reality with applications like giving each other gifts, having a pet, buying your friends, or starting up a mob.

I watch TV a lot. What I watch the most is the Tonight Show with Conan O'brien and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. I can't interact with it, but nowadays every show has their own page on the internet where viewers can watch past episodes and comment on them. Late Night with Jimmy Fallon has a lot of user-centered design for viewers to interact with the show more than what the show itself offers. They even have a blog that talks about what will be on the show, or would go more in depth about something Jimmy might have mentioned on the show. Jimmy Fallon has held two contests -- a dance contest and internship contest -- to accept videos from viewers for an oppurtunity to generate content to interact with the show. Like Jimmy Fallon, Conan O'brien held a contest to accept videos of old trashy cars for "Conan, Please Blow Up my Car." He blew it up all right :) It was awesome.

Another show that has exclusive content online is Heroes. They have side-stories of different characters through their website, which includes online comics and webisodes. Webisodes are short episodes that are exclusively shown online. I don't view the comics or webisodes, but I do view the full episodes because I often miss a lot of things on TV.