Media Blog - Reflection

Over the past couple months, I came to a conclusion that people have consumed media everyday. Media is all around us and has created all of this clutter in our heads. Personally, I probably consume up to a few hours of media everyday. From commercials to print ads, and even in movies or the internet, the media advertises what we as consumers want to see or think we should see. This has made an impact on my life by becoming a detraction to the way I'm living. I've realized that media has been involved in my life way too much during this time period. Instead of doing important things, such as doing homework, I would find myself on YouTube or looking stuff up online to keep myself entertained. But after finishing this unit, I noticed how media uses different techniques to find ways for products to be entertaining and relatable to the audience will and forever be involved in out lives.

After learning about the techniques, needs, value assumption, reality assumption, etc., I am able to point out what the media is trying to tell us. Whenever I see an ad come up on T.V. I think of what the advertisers are trying to say. Are they using the need to nurture, the technique of simple solutions? What are their value assumptions about us? These are the questions I ask myself when there is a commercial that is trying to get our attention. I have opened my eyes more in on media besides commercials. After watching the documentary Missrepresentation I have become more aware of what not products are being advertised but how women are being miss judged. The media has its own value assumption that women are just a tool for people to look at. Models are an example that missrepresent of what a woman is seen as in media, than what they should be which is a strong and independent women. Because of the false assumption that men should always be the strongest and hold the most power, or women should be portrayed in having a flawless figure, young girls are losing the confidence in themselves and make them fell less worthy. My media consumption habits have changed after learning about media in Critical Thinking. All of the tricks that we learned in class and how media uses it, made me aware of what advertisements are trying to do to consumers. I am able to not be one of those consumers who are blinded by some ads that make me want to use me "oh's" and "aw's" because I know what methods they are trying to use to reel people in. 

Since media has been with us in our lives, it is very important to have media literacy. Being and educated consumer, like myself, about media literacy has allowed people to not to give into what people are trying to advertise. This blog made me able to not see the surface of products advertisers are trying to show, but the value and reality assumptions that they have about people in the world. They use different ways to find things that appeal to the audience in order to come up with an advertisement for people to relate to and consumers to see. I am able to also see the needs and techniques used in the advertisements to attract the consumers. After watching the documentaries and learning about media in class, I have now seen that media is EVERYWHERE surrounding us and has affected the way the world is seen today.