I personally believe that as a society, we do not want the same media that we may need. Many people living in today's society are craving and looking for media regarding their favourite celebrities or athletes rather than media regarding social and political leaders that discuss world issues which people our age should be concerned about. Since the majority of today's society focuses on media that revolves around entertainment, it is less common to see media regarding cultural, political, social, and/or economic matters.
After reading many of my classmates' blogs, i have come to realize that many of them are using the media for matters such as news which is very informative. I am personally not using the media in such a way but am now contemplating starting to use the media equally for news as I do for entertainment. In her blog, Mary Castaneda stated: "The use of the word 'terrorist' versus the use of the word 'rebel', the word 'terrorist' consisting of 'terror' sounds much more threatening than rebel". Her saying this shows her understanding and knowledge of the types of tricks used by the news to make stories more interesting. She is knowledgeable in the sense that she can understand what the news does to try to draw in the society as watchers.
(http://mc11he.wordpress.com/)
Many people are very concerned about what is going on around the world. An example of this is my father who is constantly watching the Egyptian news on satellite. He is concerned about what is going on in his native homeland because his family still lives there. Kevin Shen said in his blog that: "The biggest piece of media that we want is the news because people want to know what is happening around the world or maybe in their own cities". I believe that Kevin understands that people are genuinely concerned about news that has any kind of connection to them.
(http://kevinshen94.wordpress.com/)
Media is constantly changing and redesigning who we are as people. When we see something on TV or in a movie it shapes who we aspire to become. For example, when I watch hockey on TV, namely the Chicago Blackhawks team in the NHL, I wish to become as good as the captain Jonathan Toews who is my idol. Haley Bourque had stated in her blog that: "As a society, we learn to listen and become influenced by what we hear or see through advertisements, magazines, reality TV, news channels etc.". I feel as though Haley understands the ideas of the media by knowing that, what they are trying to do is make the consumer want what they are producing/making.
Thursday, 31 October 2013
Thursday, 24 October 2013
Blog Entry #2: The Media We Want
When you look at what media we are being provided with today in relation to the wants of the consumers in the present day, you can make a relation between the two. You can either think that the consumers (we), get the media we want, or do we want the media that we get. When I personally look at this, I believe that we get the media that we want. When referring to an individual in the mass media world today, the person would normally only partake in the media that they truly like. Seeing as how there is so much media in the world, people with different preferences can get the things they prefer since the whole media spectrum is covered. I believe that as the consumers, we shape what the media becomes. The creators of the media have to create the media in a way that it is likeable by the audience. The reflection of the world in the media displays the impact that the viewers have on the media, showing that it becomes what we are and what we want. "The first suggests that the media reflect the realities, values, and norms of a society. Thus, if we want to study a society we could turn to its media-its films, novels, television series, magazines, and popular stories-which reflect to us what people feel and think, how they behave, and so on" (43, O'Shaughnessy). If the media is reflecting the people of the world then it can be easily seen that we shape the media and we get the media that we want. If the media is going to be successful, they need popularity. "When commercial television was first introduced into Western societies, audiences quickly turned to those channels that offered the entertainment they liked best, particularly game shows and soap operas" (37-38, O'Shaughnessy) For media to be popular, its consumers must enjoy what they are taking part in. Media that ends up successful is media that the consumers genuinely want. If they don't want it, then they will switch to another brand of media, for example a different television series. In short, media types will become popular and successful when consumers sincerely want what the media is providing them with.
O’Shaughnessy, M., & Stadler, J.. (2012). Media and Society. 5th Ed. South Melbourne, Oxford University Press.
Thursday, 3 October 2013
CPCF 1F25: Blog Response 1
Mass media is something in the world that cannot be avoided by an individual due to the fact that it is pretty much everywhere you go. Whether you know it or not, mass media is constantly shaping your feelings and behaviours towards all other things in the world, even towards yourself. After reading several blogs written by my classmates, I have come to realize that the many of the people in my class feel that the mass media has had a negative impact on the world, however many people also think that it has a positive impact on the world. From my reading it became apparent that the students in my class are about split down the middle regarding whether they feel that the mass media has had a negative or positive impact on the world.
In my previous blog I had spoken about how I felt mass media had a positive effect on the world rather than a negative one. When reading the blog of Haley Bourque it made me contemplate whether or not the mass media was truly creating positivity. Haley had made some quality points about how the mass media is negative. One of such points was when she had said "Between stick think models and perfect looking celebrities in almost every magazine and movie, it's easy to understand why many young tweens and teenagers want to resemble what they are seeing in the media. The more losing weight and showing skin is portrayed the more young girls feel they should live up to this expectation". I had initially never really thought about the negative aspects of the media, but reading Haley's blog and seeing what she wrote about young teens made me realize that young teens truly do emulate what they see in the media. This could lead to positive or negative behaviours from the teens, however, in the media now-a-days there is a lot of negative things that could be emulated such as sex, drugs and alcohol that most rappers write songs about.
http://hb123na.wordpress.com/2013/09/19/the-influence-of-media-a-blog-for-cpcf-1f25/
When reading through another blog written by Alex Mohamed it was also concentrating on the negative aspect of the media. Alex's blog had interested me because he had written about sports which I am greatly interested in. Sports are probably my favourite things in the world. When Alex had stated "I saw athletes such as Barry Bonds or Alex Rodriguez as my idols because of the way they played baseball and thought they were perfect but as it turns out the media tells us what they want us to know. Both of these men who I viewed as role models both used performance enhancing drugs, which showed how the mass media can instill an idea into your head and we as viewers will believe it until told otherwise." he had used his idolization of certain baseball players to portray the negative aspect of the media. This intrigued me since I as well idolize athletes. I found it as a very effective way to get me interested in his opinion. He made me realize how easily that the audience of the media can be deceived into thinking certain things about celebrities or athletes because of what the media says.
http://am13lr.wordpress.com/
Karly McInnis made a very valid point when discussing the positive effects of social media. "Many people lose friendships as the years go on, especially after high school. For me many of my friends have moved long distances away from one another, I have been able to keep close contact with these friendships all because of social media." I definitely agree with her because I, myself have left all my friends and family to go to school here at Brock. I find social media a great way to keep in touch with the friends and family you had such a hard time saying goodbye to.
http://mcinniskarly.wordpress.com/
Reading through the blogs of my peers has opened up my eyes to the multiple views that can be seen when looking at mass media. I am now more aware of the negative aspects of mass media such as the deception when looking at celebrities or the pressures models put on the younger generation and such. Even so, I still truly believe that the positive aspects of the mass media outweigh the negatives.
In my previous blog I had spoken about how I felt mass media had a positive effect on the world rather than a negative one. When reading the blog of Haley Bourque it made me contemplate whether or not the mass media was truly creating positivity. Haley had made some quality points about how the mass media is negative. One of such points was when she had said "Between stick think models and perfect looking celebrities in almost every magazine and movie, it's easy to understand why many young tweens and teenagers want to resemble what they are seeing in the media. The more losing weight and showing skin is portrayed the more young girls feel they should live up to this expectation". I had initially never really thought about the negative aspects of the media, but reading Haley's blog and seeing what she wrote about young teens made me realize that young teens truly do emulate what they see in the media. This could lead to positive or negative behaviours from the teens, however, in the media now-a-days there is a lot of negative things that could be emulated such as sex, drugs and alcohol that most rappers write songs about.
http://hb123na.wordpress.com/2013/09/19/the-influence-of-media-a-blog-for-cpcf-1f25/
When reading through another blog written by Alex Mohamed it was also concentrating on the negative aspect of the media. Alex's blog had interested me because he had written about sports which I am greatly interested in. Sports are probably my favourite things in the world. When Alex had stated "I saw athletes such as Barry Bonds or Alex Rodriguez as my idols because of the way they played baseball and thought they were perfect but as it turns out the media tells us what they want us to know. Both of these men who I viewed as role models both used performance enhancing drugs, which showed how the mass media can instill an idea into your head and we as viewers will believe it until told otherwise." he had used his idolization of certain baseball players to portray the negative aspect of the media. This intrigued me since I as well idolize athletes. I found it as a very effective way to get me interested in his opinion. He made me realize how easily that the audience of the media can be deceived into thinking certain things about celebrities or athletes because of what the media says.
http://am13lr.wordpress.com/
Karly McInnis made a very valid point when discussing the positive effects of social media. "Many people lose friendships as the years go on, especially after high school. For me many of my friends have moved long distances away from one another, I have been able to keep close contact with these friendships all because of social media." I definitely agree with her because I, myself have left all my friends and family to go to school here at Brock. I find social media a great way to keep in touch with the friends and family you had such a hard time saying goodbye to.
http://mcinniskarly.wordpress.com/
Reading through the blogs of my peers has opened up my eyes to the multiple views that can be seen when looking at mass media. I am now more aware of the negative aspects of mass media such as the deception when looking at celebrities or the pressures models put on the younger generation and such. Even so, I still truly believe that the positive aspects of the mass media outweigh the negatives.
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