Wanted: the media that we need

In today’s society, media has a large impact on people’s lives in many different ways. However, the way we allow media to enter our lives depends on what form of media we use; how we use it and how we interpret the media that they are getting. To answer the question of “Is the media we want the same as the media we need?” I believe it is completely based on personal opinion because it is dependent one’s preference for information they desire.   What someone finds important and needs, another person may find it unimportant. The want verse the need of the media completely depends on the viewers. A fellow classmate stated “we take the media the way we want to and make our own interpretations about what is meaningful”. This statement I find to be completely true. Someone who cares about issues happening in the world will receive information from a media source from that distributes global news; and someone who only cares about celebrity issues will follow media outlet reporting on entertainment.

Also, we can choose the media that we want to focus on, though we don’t need to focus on any media. We as viewers have the ability to control what were watching, hearing, or reading. In another blog it was stated, “We are the ones choosing what we see or rather what we’re shown. If there’s something about it that we don’t like, we are the ones that have the power to try to change it”. Essentially, we as the viewers have the ability to filter through the media and pick out what we need and what is important to us, eliminating what is not needed. . We are in control of the types of media that enter into our lives; the media does not control us. The media has the ability to censor what they air thus, it is the viewer’s choice to determine the media they need as an individual and to further extend their knowledge of media forums.

Further, the media producers must be aware what the viewers’ find important so they can draw viewers in and cover the mass amounts of media that will be well-liked by people. Another blogger wrote “producers have to take into account what we as a majority population want displayed”. The producers aim their works of media at what viewers are enjoying and accessing, but as stated above every person finds their needs and importance of media viewed differently. The media needs to work to produce the media that is needed rather than what is wanted.

Each person has a different sense of importance towards media all depending of their personal views and experiences. No matter if we’re getting the media we want or the media that we need, how if affects us is the same. We are creating a society that is becoming more and more media driven, therefore I believe that eventually a society that is completely media driven will be in the future. We will become dependent on the media as our major source of information.

Dickson, P. http://therealmedia95.wordpress.com/2013/10/21/the-media-we-want/)

Freeburn-Hing, L. http://lf13ak.wordpress.com/

White, S.  http://shanwhite95.blogspot.ca/

The Media We Want?

Does one get the media they want, or want the media they get? I believe that we get the media that we want. The media is powerful and can influence people in many different ways, but we can choose how we interpret the media that we are receiving. We can also control the media that we are being exposed to. Far too often, people focus on exactly what the media is stating, rather than looking further into a topic to get another side of the story. This becomes a manner in which we can control the media that we are being exposed to. The media also can effect us psychologically with a type of “brainwashing” in that the media will control what it reports; what we see and hear, and encourages us to believe in it. One can interpret the media as it comes, or they can expose themselves to more media and get a better understanding on a certain topic.

            In hearing a News segment on the radio, or catching the 6:00 o’clock news segment on the television, we have to ability to understand what we are hearing in the way that we want to understand and believe it. Or, we can be more skeptical and look for more information through another form of media.  The media impacts our reactions towards things; it controls what we hear and what they derive to be important. The media does not always focus on both sides of a story.  The two main methods of media development is agenda setting- “the process by which media producers set up the issues- the agenda- that the media will focus on and that audiences will subsequently perceive to be important” (p.25) and gatekeeping- “the process of controlling what gets included and whose voices are heard in the media, particularly in the news” (p.25). With those methods, it shows that we are able to get the media we want.  We can interpret the information the way that we want to, and we can disregard the information that is uninformative.  Also, media does not always show all sides of a story, in some cases leaving significant information out. In the text it says “…it is important to show all images from the conflict, however violent or upsetting they may be” (p.57). This statement is very significant in the way that, people don’t always get a full look at something that is happening and are choosing to form an opinion based on a little segment or a mass of segments that they see, and yet still may not beware of the full truth.  The media may be seen as brainwashing people into what they are seeing and not giving the full truth about many stories.

            Further, psychologically the media also effects how we interpret it things. I believe that the media attempts to persuade many people with little things such as catchy ads, billboard posting, or commercials.  According to the text the term ‘effects’  “…suggest there is a precise response triggered by the media: we watch something and it makes us do something” (p.45). The media catches our focus on a daily basis, whether it is an ad about a theme park or an ad about ways to lose weight. When we see these eye-catching advertisements or hear the catchy jingle we become drawn to the message, whatever it may be. We can choose to listen, watch, or change the message and in doing so, we are able to choose the media that we want to get.

O’Shaughnessy, M., Stadler J. (2012). Media and Society Fifth Edition. Victoria, Australia: Oxford.

1F25 Blog Response 1: Media Impact on Others

Going through the multiple blogs that my classmates had wrote, it surprised me to see the wide range of variety and opinions. My initial thought was that my peers would have mainly argued for media rather than against it, but to my surprise there was a large range of people arguing against media; for media; comparing the positives and negatives of media; and arguing how the media does not affect them at all.

In my initial blog I focused more on body image and the way people perceive themselves due to media, but I never really thought about all of the world events that are found in the media. Like my fellow classmate stated, “to say that the mass media has influenced my view on the world is an understatement- it’s pretty much created my view. I understand this view is considerably limited, however I believe it is because a news program may show of a subject, only what is relevant to that particular news story. In that way, what that news program shows me is the only impression of that subject I will have.” (http://t7ums.wordpress.com). I am now beginning to expand my thoughts on mass media and I am starting to realize how the news also shapes my world view. I don’t pay regular attention to all of the good and bad things that are happening in the world, but when I do decide to catch a glimpse of the news, it is my only source of information on a specific topic and it is tailored to how the news company portrays the event. 

In my first blog I also abandoned the thought of looking on both sides of how the media affects one’s life. A peer in their blog compared the pros and cons of media whereas I just focused with the cons. She described how the media can have a great impact on one’s relationship. She shared her first hand experience “one dad overseas in the army gave his daughter, a camper at the YMCA, a cell phone so that she would be able to answer when he calls, no matter where she is. Without the help of media the idea of global communication wouldn’t be possible.” (http://souspression.weebly.com/blog.html) I can now see  how the use of communication through the media can present as a major pro to our everyday lives. Many people use media as a means of staying connected with those that they love. Things such as Facebook, Skype, etc. allow for us to keep in touch and be able to maintain all different types of relationships with people all across the world. As I am thinking about this, I use Skype as a source of communication between an exchange student from Brazil who I met as she visited Canada last year. Without Skype it would be extremely more difficult to keep our friendship going.  

In addition to reconsidering my views on the impact of social media, I was also able to find a classmate who experiences the same type of body image pressure from the media “The media also affected me rather negatively back in my younger days as well in regards to my appearance. At the time of when I was around at least nine or eleven years of age I remember that only blonde guys were considered attractive, and of course I wasn't blonde so I thought I wasn't attractive” (http://shawnpoulin.blogspot.ca). This shows me that media not only affected the female’s perspective of life, but also males. To be honest I was shocked to see this kind of feedback about the affects of media appearing on a males blog, but it only proves to me in a greater way that media immensely affects ones body image that they portray of themselves.

After reading my fellow classmate’s blogs, it has defiantly widened my perspective on how the media affects ones life. I can see how there are  pros and cons to media and have an understanding that the things viewed in the media such as world events often  only portray one side of the spectrum and should be looked into with greater detail before forming an opinion on something.