Media Diary Week 5

I recently watched a show called JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, a Japanese Cartoon about a man named Jonathan Joestar in 18^th England as he fights against his step-brother Dio Brando. I mainly watch the show to serve as entertainment and social interaction, the show lives up to its name as the adventure that the main protagonist goes on is far too ‘bizarre’ for anyone to really relate to apart from dealing with siblings. Since I do not have any siblings I am unable to relate to that aspect of the character, though I can see others empathizing with JoJo because of this fact. Others could relate to it as JoJo’s pet dog tragically dies, some could relate to the feeling of losing a pet and would be able to empathize with his lose.

JoJo’s main use is for entertainment and escapism, from the ludicrous and overly dramatic plot to the rather flamboyant characters who take the absurdity of the situation one hundred percent seriously. Something that could be considered simple as stealing a kiss is highly over exaggerated, from the strange and out of place sound of the guitar in the scene to the stylized Japanese text. The colour pallet also further reinforces the surreal nature of the show as it is never fully consistent, depending on the environment a blonde haired character will instantly turn green and in another environment it will be purple. The colours used is by far the shows strong point as it is always changing and never stays the same for long, especially in frantic situations such as a fight between the two brothers JoJo and Dio. The use of supernatural monsters such as vampires and zombies reinforces the unrealistic nature of the show, helping the audience to with the goal of escapism.

The show gives plenty of opportunities for social interaction, for example I first starting watching the show due to a recommendation from an opinion leader in my life and I discuss the show regularly with them. I communicate to this person through the social media website Google Plus; this is due to the distance between us.

The other media text that I have consumed recently is a game known as Payday 2, in this game you play as a robber apart of a team known as The Payday Gang who go to various locations and steal items from them. This can be as simple as money, gold and weapons to more unusual items such as artifacts, samurai armour, cocaine and meth. The entertainment from this game comes from the adrenaline rush of robbing a wide variety of good’s, it taps into a person’s rebellious side and being able to coordinate a robbery without any real life consequences. The humour the game presents is mainly from the characters dialogue and their overall desensitized nature to violence, fighting the police and general criminal activity. For example in one mission, while defending an armoured vehicle with an old heister inside it he is still willing to make jokes even with the heavy police presence and gun fire “not going to miss that prison food I’ll tell ya that much, shit on a fucking shingle” , “fucking  hell lads, think about going straight. You don’t want to be around Hazelton on Thursdays. Two words, fucking kinky night” and “admit it, you tossers missed my beautiful English accent didn’t you? Did you? Wankers!” This display of vulgar language and use of stereotypical English slang is just one of the many ways that Payday 2 uses humour, there are many other stereotypes used as well for humour from a Scottish woman to a Japanese man.  

The game thrives on social interaction, as Heists cannot be successfully completed without members of the group working together as a team. In terms of social interaction outside of the game there are several community forums and posts dedicated to the game which allows users to discuss about Payday 2, whether it is a new update or something related to the characters there is always a place to discuss about the game with others. Because I mostly play the game with friends I am able to talk to them about it, this also means that we have better communication while playing and thus we have a better experience because we are able to communicate more efficiently.

While many would not be able to personally identify with the experiences that The Payday Gang have to go through, the use of Stereotypes for the characters helps to give the user a way to identify with the characters in one form or another. This can be something as simple as the characters race and gender to where they are from and things that the characters say. There is one character who the audience could potentially personally identify with and that character is Bonnie, Bonnie grew up in Glasgow during the 1980’s, during this time those who were in the working class struggled for work and were highly effected by the conservative government. Those who grew up during that time or those who are in the working class could identify with Bonnie as she has experienced the same troubles and hardships they have.