Reflecting Back

After watching numerous media documentaries in class, I have heard countless times that media is what is impacting our minds, interfering with our lives, and controlling us. It is really so? Looking back, my definition of media was pretty faint and indistinct. Media is only television and radio and internet. Nothing special, at least nothing so special enough to affect my life and perspective of the world.

Ohh how wrong I had been! It’s these kinds of feeble minds that make up most of the media population. And it’s these kinds of minds that are making marketing advertisers successful. Most of us process the information that is thrown at us with no intention of actually analyzing it. When we see a commercial on T.V. or print ad in a magazine, it’s the unique decorations and distractions that attract us. What is this actually saying and why are we so immersed in them? We consume media daily and we cannot control this consumption.  In this 21^st century era, media is everywhere. It’s almost impossible to not consume any media. They force feed it to us and it is pretty scary.

Before taking this Critical Thinking class, I was pretty much oblivious. My media literacy was undefined and weak. I consume so much a day and not know that this affects my daily life tremendously. Linking back to the documentary Miss Representation, media is humongous and pretty big.  Watching that and many other ones before, I have no other option but to conclude that media does control our minds and emotions. It’s what makes us appear how we do and act how we appear. If Justin Bieber is promoting his new fragrance, and the commercial shows that you can be his girlfriend by using that perfume, then God knows how many girls will go get that perfume. Trends and what’s “cool” is always changing. This semester, I have learned that a key in advertising is finding the focal point of media’s largest marketing audience: teens. What advertisers are doing is researching our interests and making the product from there. That is what attracts us, they sell us what we like and favor using various techniques and appeals. But despite the attractions, understanding and analyzing these techniques and appeals can cause us to be media literate. Because the media and the marketing world impacts our lives so much, it is important to be an educated consumer. It is important to know what we consume in such a big market. During these couple of weeks in studying the marketing world, I have learned numerous ways to consider and analyze the media. I have learned to identify which techniques and appeals are being used to attract, recognize methods used to deceive, and distinguish between devious information and messages.  

Because of keeping this Media Log updated and analyzing countless commercials and advertisements, it has been more than an assignment to notice more media. It has been a daily habit to note and interpret these findings that I find attractive.

In the 21^st century today, everyone is affected by media. And it is common for people to have different perspective and views that represent messages the media gives us.

I would like to say that the media is, whether many of us are aware of it or not, a part of us.  It affects us in a way that does have an impact on how we live our lives. And sometimes, we can’t control this impact. But what we can do is understand the techniques and appeals to be a more educated consumer, to have more media literacy.

From taking this Critical Thinking class and studying this media unit, I am not going to lie, I think I have actually learned somewhat something I can be sure of using in the future. I can now say I have media literacy and am consumer educated!