BLOG REPLY POST #2

Is the media we want the same as the media we need?

Hello to all,

The media has its own positive and negative attributes. On a positive note, the media allows us to be in touch with important information and events going on throughout the country/world; a crucial necessity for being an up-to-date member of society. A great example is the use of communication technology. Sam Dixon mentioned in his blog that he had emigrated from England; and that the use of mass media allowed him to stay in touch with his family back home.  On a negative note, media has the ability to put their own twists on stories and/or leave out crucial pieces of information, which makes it hard to believe everything we see.  Despite all this, the main mandate of the media is to impress its viewers; give them forms of media that interest them. Consumerism is the base of the media, Adrienne Redka states in her blog that “ With the way advertisements are being portrayed, now a days we see thousands of new things every day that we realize we want and are willing to work long hours for.” I believe the media gives us what we want and tells us why we want it; when that desire turns in to necessity, the media is then giving us what we need.

 Take cable television for example; there are a variety of channels, most channels playing shows and commercials suitable to certain types of personalities (i.e. SportsCentre). Allen Rogers made a very interesting statement that caught my eye: “Because of the consistency with what we actually get, we want what we get because it is what we are used to.” We are so used to what we have been getting in the media, we now want what we have been getting since we can remember. The answer to this blog’s question is located in the development of media as a whole. The reason why the media is flourishing in today’s society is because technology has advanced so much. It acts as a source of information for so many things going on in the world today; it is the reason as to why we have become such a diverse society. Mass Media is so crucial  in today’s world,  it has the power to tell us what we want; and it does exactly that.  I personally believe that we need media to function as a social, futuristic, and multi-cultural society. I also believe that the media has so many forms of itself suitable for so many personalities, the media we want may just be the exact same as the media we need.

Thanks for your time,

Ernest Coetzee (ec12qf)

Allen Rogers - http://arcpcf.blogspot.ca/2013/10/the-media-we-want-or-we-think-we-want.html

Adrienne Redka - http://adriennereds8.wordpress.com/

Sam Dixon - http://adriennereds8.wordpress.com/

Media: Do we want what we get? (OR) Do we get what we want?

Hello CPCF 1F25,

             In today’s society, it is safe to say that media has the power to shape our lives. There is a very relevant argument behind today’s mass media influence; and that is: Do we get the media we want? (Or) Do we want the media we get? 

Take advertising for example; “Because advertising promotes goods, it produces materialism” (Media and Society, 37) When materialism is produced, this is when society wants what they get in the media. Through advertising and reactions of the public to forms of mass media, media gets an idea of possible ideals that society wants to see and hear. This is when getting what we want comes into play. “The media teach us about masculinity and femininity, what it means to be a normal man or woman”. (Media and Society, 36)  For example, you see a cleaning cloth that has a certain technology in it allowing for more absorption when wiping; and then later that night one of the commercials on the show you are watching has a 30 second advertisement  specifically dedicated to that product; that is mass media influence at its finest. They know that in terms of cleanliness, that particular product can make a cleaning job way easier, quicker and more effective; they also know that people want a job made easier in any circumstance. Another example could be Swiffer Mops.  In a Swiffer commercial, mass media is addressing the hardships of using a regular mop to clean, and offers a solution to make mopping quicker and easier: The Swiffer Mop. These are two examples of the media giving us what we want. The particular audience that both advertisements are addressing is offering an easy way to do the things they do; the real question is: Who doesn’t want life to be easy? In conclusion, getting what we want and wanting what we get in the media are both factors in terms of influence.  So do we get the media we want? (Or) Do we want the media we get? Personally I feel like it is a mixture of both. 

- o'Shaughnessy, Michael. Media and Society. Fifth Edition. Austrailia : Oxford University Press, 2008. 36-37. Print.

Thanks,

Ernest Coetzee

BLOG REPLY FOR MASS MEDIA IMPACT - CPCF 1F25 - JAKE COETZEE - EC12QF

Hello CPCF 1F25

    From the Blog posts that I have read, it seems that a majority of the class has a similar opinion to mine. Everyone’s opinion seems to consist of how mass media only lets us see things through a small, filtered and edited mass media window. The question is not about how significant the impact of mass media is on our worldview; because realistically, mass media COMPLETELY controls our world view. My impression on mass media has not changed since I have been reading other blogs. Everyone seems to believe that sometimes we may not get the full story to something because some crucial information is being filtered out by mass media. The mass media publishes things that we take at face value. Not because we are close-minded, but because mass media prevents us from seeing the full story. 

      Connor (http://oconnormedia.wordpress.com/), from CPCF 1F25 had a very useful quote in his blog post:

     “Let’s use Twitter as another example. A man apparently commits a crime, and just for fun, let’s say his name is Zimmerman. What happens? Well, one person of significant “status” tweets out an opinion calling for Zimmerman’s guilt. Then it gets retweeted by 15,000 people. Since, according to Digital Market Ramblings, the average Twitter user has 208 followers, that perspective has now reached tens of thousands of people. And that happened all because an influential figure used a media platform to post a perspective. As a result, the views of people who all follow one person online have become quite similar. Anything unique or creative that could have existed is now gone.”

     This quote is a picture-perfect example of how we see events and items through the filtered window of mass-media. We only take things at face value. Connor made a good point here, he basically told us that 15000 people got a very vague description about a criminal. What these people did with this description was deem it their overall opinion of the situation. There is clearly more to the crime scene than a well-respected man’s opinion of the criminal. This proves that we sometimes only hear certain information about types of media; because sometimes all the media is looking to publish is half a story.

     Meagan (http://mm13sa.wordpress.com/) also made some good points about mass media’s influence:

 “Imagine a world where computers, cellphones, televisions, movies and music did not exist; a world where this idea of ‘media’ was not even thought of.”

  “How many times have we heard someone say, ‘I could never live without my phone!’”

These two quotes are small but so powerful. We never really think about what it would be like with no technology. This is because we are so used to relying on technology for our every need. I tried to imagine a world with no technology and all I could personally think of was how different it would be. Technology obviously ties in with mass media. If we are so heavily reliant on our technology then relying on mass media is completely an obligation. If only they wouldn’t filter stories to their liking.

 

Thanks for your time

 

Jake