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.
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