Media, like nearly everyone else in our society, plays a significant role in my daily life. Without it, my life would be drastically different, in both positive and negative ways. In general, media plays some kind of role in every aspect of my life. For example, in school, I utilize media to complete typed homework assignments, watch videos or look up information to clarify difficult concepts, research information for papers or writing assignments, send teachers emails, take pictures of information presented in the classroom, and much more.
In this instance, media has positively benefited me by making different aspects of my life more convenient and efficient. Outside of school, media plays a prevalent role in communication, entertainment, and awareness. For example, communicating with friends and families is significantly easier and more efficient with an iPhone, as well as staying aware of the events in the world around us, and spending free time watching YouTube or playing video games.
The media blog project allowed me to become significantly more aware of the endless amount of media and advertising around us, and the motives of corporations behind the facade. For example, when I watch commercials on TV, I am able to look past the superficial messages they portray to the viewers, and how desperate advertising companies are to sell their products. For example, I see a lot of commercials trying to sell medicine products, using weasel words to attempt to draw in an audience to buying their product, since for “some” users, it’s “effective.” In this instance, weasel words, hasty conclusion fallacy, magic ingredients, and simple solutions are all techniques and characteristics of these kinds of ads I am now able to understand. Writing my media blog posts allowed me to analyze these techniques used more deeply, including more specific techniques from The Persuaders including Lovemarks, Madison and vine, guerilla advertising, and data mining.
I don’t think my media consumption habits have changed much over the course of the semester. I still use media for the same amount of time I used previously, and I still consume media in the same ways, with my iPhone, television, computer, and the advertising world around us. The only way in which my habits have changed are that I am more aware of the techniques used by the companies that promote different products, videos, websites, advertisements, etc. This Skill of media literacy that I’ve learned through the media blog project and the critical thinking class is essential for anyone in our rapid progression towards a technology based society.
In such a complex and in-depth world of technology, it’s very easy to get lost in the sea of media we are living in. Believing everything in the media world that is fed to us, from magazines, tv commercials, advertisements, billboards, etc. will result in an extremely skewed perception of reality that can cause us to live in a world of ignorance, blindness, and misunderstanding. This media blog project definitely put me on the right track towards avoiding this mindset, and gaining a small glimpse into the vast world of media that is vital for us to consume in a healthy and responsible manner.
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