1F25 Blog Response 4: News, Trust and “Truthiness”

After reading some of my classmate’s blogs, I’ve noticed that many of them agree with my opinion that satirical news reporting like The Colbert Report and The Daily Show are useful additions to the public sphere. In fact, some also said that they are just as informational as the regular news. Tara Wilken even goes so far as to ask “if these shows did not exist how many people would actually know what is happening within their government”. I know for sure that without watching the few episodes of The Colbert Report that I have, I wouldn’t know half of what I do about politics. These shows capture attention in a way that regular news shows can’t. They make you laugh but also make you think about what is being said. According to Ashley Gamsby, “this allows for a more well-rounded discussion”. I believe this is true, as shows like The Rick Mercer Report bring in different audiences from different demographics than those of the regular news, thus creating a broader amount of more educated viewers.

Haya Alsakka claims that satirical news reporting is even more reliable than the regular news, and that they cross boundaries with the criticism of anything that has a large impact on our society. She says that “only by crossing such boundaries can people fully understand an opinion different from theirs”, which brings me back to the broader audience. When people understand other opinions, they either automatically gain more understanding or they do more research on their own to create such an understanding. This only further proves the point that satirical news is very useful to the public sphere.

From the blogs that I read, it is hard to contest the idea that satirical news shows such as The Colbert Report and The Rick Mercer Report contribute greatly to the information base of the public sphere. They create understanding and push people to do their own research on important matters that help us as a society to grow both as a group and as individuals within a group. 

1F25 Post 4: Is the Fake News the Real News?

 

O’Shaughnessy and Stadler state that culture jamming is a “mode of resistance to the norms and conventions of mass culture that exposes and opposes the media’s underlying power structures and ideological messages”(p. 213, Media and Society). So, the question is: is satirical news reporting, like that in The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, a mainstream form of culture jamming? I think the answer is yes. Although those shows are used for comedy, they are also used for education on the basis of exposing what goes on behind the scenes of politics and whatever else is talked about, in a matter of speaking. These shows “actively try to denaturalise the media images that we see every day by making us notice and question their underlying messages”(O’Shaughnessy and Stadler, p. 214, Media and Society). I myself am not a devoted viewer of these shows, as I have only watched a few episodes of The Colbert Report, however the few that I’ve seen have both educated me and made me laugh. They also made me question the validity of what was being reported by other sources. This brings me to the next question: are shows like The Colbert Report useful to the public sphere?

Judging by what I said earlier, you can guess what my answer might be. Again, my answer is yes. These shows educate me on current events, since they need to give background information just in case the audience doesn’t already know what is being discussed. They made me question the validity of the actual news, which, in these days, is partially automatic but not always viable. I believe that these shows are just as useful, if not more so than the regular news. They create understanding and show the other side of the news stories that they report. They omit the stories about meaningless things like, as Professor Bradley says, “water skiing squirrels” and catch people’s attention by creating something funny that is also informative.

Satirical news reporting, such as the programs stated above, create an understanding of current events (which the news is supposed to do), while also making me laugh. In my opinion, they are very useful to the public sphere by doing these things while also being a viable source of culture jamming. 

 

Again, I’m not sure why the font sizes changed between paragraphs. I apologize for any inconvenience caused by it.

1F25 Response 3: Demonstrable Demographics

After reading many of my classmate’s blogs, I found a HUGE commonality in the theme of each one. All the blogs that I read talked about self image, no matter if it was a male or female author. Most of the girl’s blogs talked about commercials for lingerie, and all but one of the boy’s blogs I read talked about commercials for Axe body spray, saying that the media portrays images of our (I’m assuming we are around the same age group) demographic as ‘beautiful’.

Tara Wilken chose an ad for a Swedish eating disorder clinic that shows an image of a girl who is looking in the mirror and sees herself as overweight, when she is actually underweight. Tara goes on to talk about how the media portrays a beautiful body image and how that image makes money. She feels that “this advertisement conveys an accurate portrayal of the tennaged mindset and the need to be perfect”. As an 18 year old girl in this society I have experienced these feelings before, as I’m sure many others have.

Somaya Kalla chose an ad for the Victoria’s Secret fashion show. I think you can figure that one out for yourself. Somaya points out that the ad is trying to convey an ideal body shape, which she disagrees with. She talks about how “the superficiality…allows women to believe the ideology of having a slim body and a pretty face”, which is common in most of the ads chosen. I doubt Somaya believes that the ad was successful in hailing her, as she also says that she doesn’t think that the body shape portrayed is the ideal body for a woman. This is her opinion, however I agree. Just because a woman portrays society’s ‘ideal body image’ doesn’t mean she isn’t beautiful.

As I said before, I saw some male representations of ideal body image in the blogs that I read. Hunter Lackey chose a commercial for Axe Apollo Body Spray that shows a woman in a burning building who is rescued by a firefighter. However, after they are outside the woman sees a man dressed in an astronaut costume and chooses to go with him while the slogan “Nothing beats an astronaut…ever” is seen. Hunter believes that while the commercial is unrealistic, it is effective. He said that “it is obviously most appealing towards the young male audience”, which is agreeable because every heterosexual male wants a woman running toward him in a fit of love or attraction. He also speaks about the degradation of women in this commercial, and how they are wrongly portrayed. I noticed that this is a very common worry of many people in our demographic, and rightly so.

Overall, I believe that my classmates feel that the ads directed to our demographic are effective, but unrealistic. Body image is a big indicator of what is portrayed in the media, and most of the blogs I read took the opinion that it is the wrong portrayal. I agree, as what society deems as ‘beautiful’ is essentially unattainable. In order to properly hail people that are partially impervious to these types of ads because they know that no one actually looks like the portrayal in the advertisement. 

1F25 Post 3: What the Hail?

As a white 18-year-old female, there are many advertisements that are targeted toward my demographic. Many of those advertise beauty products or clothing, as does the ad I chose to, for lack of a better term, analyse in this entry.

This is an ad for Victoria’s Secret lingerie, if you didn’t already notice. As we’ve discussed in class, ads try to sell you something that you think will better yourself. This one seems to portray that their lingerie will make you love your body, possibly throughout all body types (which I’ll discuss later). Let’s look at how well (or not) this ad hails me personally.

First, I look at this and see models, not myself, in the product. When I see an ad I need to be able to identify with it, or see myself in the product, to be able to count it as effective. Second, everyone in this ad (with exception of the African-American girl) is blonde or only a slightly darker colour, which is seen as the more desirable hair colour overall, which is displeasing to me, since I’ve always had dark hair (not meaning that I’m jealous, but just bringing up how unfair it is). I would say that because of my experience in seeing and examining ads, this one does not successfully hail me.

Back to the overall effect of the ad, there are many issues with it. One could see this ad as accepting of race and weight, if one simply glances quickly and doesn’t look more into it. However, upon closer inspection, this ad is sadly a display of what our society has come to in the face of what is ‘beauty’. The phrase “I love my body” is, in my opinion, trying to make women want to lose weight and look like the women in the ad instead of loving what their body is actually like. It could be “putting us in our place”(O’Shaughnessy & Stadler, Media and Society, p.185) in the way of ‘true beauty’. It could also be that this ad is trying to answer for us the question of “Would being fatter, thinner, or more attractive…change how you feel about yourself and how you are perceived by other people?” (O’Shaughnessy & Stadler, Media and Society, p.185) with the simple word ‘yes’.

There is also the matter of race. Three out of the four women in the ad are Caucasian, and the African-American, although having her arm slung around the shoulders of the girl next to her, is seemingly disconnected from the others. I’ll let you do with that what you will.

That being said, while this ad in particular doesn’t hail me (though, in part, manages to disgust me), there are some that do. Our society will be dominated by advertising until the day when we aren’t susceptible to them, which, in my opinion, won’t happen in our lifetime.

1F25 Blog Response 2: Wanted: The Media We Need

Upon reading the blogs written by my classmates, I’ve come to the conclusion that we have a very diverse and intelligent group of minds within our class. This being said, it can also be concluded that there are varying opinions about the media that we as a society receive. While there are some people that agree with my point of view and some that don’t, there were a few that had a completely different opinion. The blogs that I’m going to bring up later in this post argue that both standpoints are correct in certain aspects. This is a viewpoint that I considered, but I had decided didn’t have enough evidence to support it. These blogs proved me wrong and changed my perspective on the media.

Wes Kewley argued that “as you get older you start to mature and see everything form a different point of view.” He argues that you want different things at different stages of your life, and therefore you grow from wanting the media you get to getting the media you want. This is very interesting to me, as I am currently studying some aspects of child development in CHYS 1F90. There are many theories that support Wes’ view of the media, considering the fact that there are different worries and perspectives of the world with each stage in a person’s life, from birth to death.

Another opinion was that it varies depending on the person who is receiving the media, shared by two of my classmates. Justus Duntsch says it varies more upon the basis of “how conscious he or she is in their reception of the media and how willing one is to give up certain entertainment, tools and services to keep themselves isolated from intrusive media.” She takes a very cynical standpoint in which one has to, in a way, protect themselves from what the media feeds us. I agree with this opinion in that a person has to be aware of what they are watching. However, I don’t believe people need to isolate themselves in order to do so. The media is a part of our socialization in Western culture, and although it is damaging in someways it is an integral part of life.

Linnea Davis says that “people perceive the media in different ways so what you want someone else may not want, or even understand.” She goes on to talk about how different young girls may have different tastes in music. I, however, thought about culture gaps. In Canadian culture we may see Japanese shows as completely ridiculous, but in Japan it could be the complete opposite. There are vast differences between trends and norms in other cultures, and I think this contributes greatly to the media we want/media we get debate.

The blogs that I read changed my opinion on the matter greatly. This demonstrates how the media help society grow in everyday situations. This also demonstrates how while I do believe some of the cynical viewpoints on the media, I also believe that they are a vast and wonderful group of ways that make us grow as people. 

1F25 Blog Post 2: The Media We Want?

As discussed in previous blog posts, the media are very influential in everyday life. “The media – press, radio, television, cinema, and so on – have become the arenas through which people receive most of their entertainment and information about the world, so they are primary sources for how we see the world,” (O’Shaughnessy, & Stadler, How the media work, 35). Therefore, the media can very easily control what we want in the way of consumerism. This being said, I believe that we want the media we get, but the media make us think that we get the media we want.

This is the case in many situations, especially on television. More specifically, with ‘reality’ television, a great example being Jersey Shore. For those of you who don’t know (are you living under a rock?), Jersey Shore was a television show about eight people who moved to the Jersey Shore who partied non-stop and acted like children. Before this show came on, who would have wanted to watch it? Certainly not me, although I watched every single episode (I know, its sad…).

It is quite possible that this show was created to make the ‘upper class’ feel good about themselves. “Traditionally, low culture has been denigrated as inferior and potentially damaging, and the fact that it was a product of mass media was used to disparage it,” (O’Shaughnessy, & Stadler, Fears about the media’s influence on culture, 18). This perspective has become somewhat of a joke, leaving the ‘low culture’ to be humiliated and ridiculed because of its differences in social norms. Although this was technically always the case in the world outside television, this has become the norm within television. The media is perpetually trying to categorize the world, and, in turn, creates the philosophy that is displayed in Jersey Shore, thereby training us to want the media we get.

With the general public being in such a vulnerable and influential position, this is very easy for the media to do. With each product placement and focus group they are able to figure out what we want, or in this case what we think we want, and feed it to us through television, movies, radio, and whatever else we use on a daily basis. The media are in a very powerful position and without the ability to make us think that we get what we want, that would change very quickly.

 As a side note, I don’t know why the font changes size in each paragraph, and I’m not sure how to fix it. Sorry! 

1F25 Blog Response 1: Media Impact on Others

From what I’ve read on other people’s blogs, many others share the same perspectives that I do on mass media and its effects on us. Every blog that I read said that since we’re all bombarded with the media, it has a big impact on our lives. In many blogs I read, like Tiziana’s, it is noted that the media “has both positive and negative aspects.” There are also similarities in how we should conduct ourselves on the internet in regards to what we believe.

Although, there are also dissimilarities, and quite a few more than I was expecting there to be. For example, in Vincent’s blog, he touches on branding and people’s self image. He says that the media has “flooded the youth generation’s mind full of brands, clothes, shoes and the latest trends in order for them to stand out.” I completely agree, and never even thought of it like that. I took the meaning of impact on our world view to be more broad and political, whereas Vincent took both the general and the specific.

Haya and I shared a lot of the same perspectives that I outlined in the first paragraph, but there was one thing I didn’t exactly agree with. She says “the mass media has a significant effect on our societies that is more often bad than good.” I agree that there are many bad effects, but I don’t think those occur more often than good effects. This brings me to Brent, who mentions a “bias toward the negative” that our society has. We both believe that the media tends to show more negativity because it has that shock factor and it gets people’s attention. Brent also brings up television shows shaping the career he wanted to have as a child, which I didn’t include in my perspective of our world view.

So, it seems that there are many different perspectives of the mass media that all show the same opinion on the effect that it has on us. None of the other blogs I read changed my opinion, but they all added another element to the vast topic that is the media, so I guess they changed my impression. The blogs that I read widened my view of the mass media and world view as concepts, so to speak. They added more elements to both of those things: the media encompassing everything from brands to television shows, and world view including everything from political views to desired careers. Also, when I think about it, this whole experience has been a lesson in how the media impacts our world view. We’ve been reading other people’s opinions, through mass media, to talk about impact on world view, when other’s opinions might change our world view. Smart move, Professor Bradley.

1F25 Post 1: Media Impact

I believe that everyone’s world view is impacted greatly by what we see in our everyday lives. In today’s world, we are bombarded with media from the moment we wake up to the moment we go to sleep, whether it be on the internet, the television, or any other form of technology. Mostly everyone is glued to some form of technology, and with that technology everyone has access to the mass media. These people are immediately connected to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and anything else you could think of. Having this access is what shapes our world view. If we see an article that looks interesting we read it and it changes what we see, even just by a little bit. We are forced to look at everyone’s opinion about everything, and that has a big impact, whether we think the opinion is right or wrong.

This happens to everyone, including me, in every moment of every day. If someone makes a compelling argument about what is happening in the world, maybe another person will read it and it will change their point of view on the entire situation.

Although, having this bombardment doesn’t necessarily make it significant. There are many people who choose to ignore these signals and opinions and just go with their original thoughts. I, however, am not one of these people. I like to take in many opinions and see what suits my beliefs best to form (and possibly change) my own opinion. For example, when the war in Syria was just becoming worldwide knowledge I looked at many different sources, including articles on the internet, reports on the news on television, and most recently a video made by Hank Green of the VlogBrothers to create a basis of information and then an opinion. Therefore, the mass media has a very significant impact on my world view. I believe that the media is a very important tool that, if used correctly, can be very informative and beneficial to a person’s world view.

However, the impact isn’t always positive, meaning the modification or building of an opinion. The media can also create confusion and illogical thoughts that ruin a person’s opinion or make a person unsure about how they view the world. Most days I see the world and the people in it as an amazing system of beings with some very bad parts, but overall making great progress with what we have. Although, sometimes I see news of a school shooting or a terrible display of violations of human rights and I think that the world is a terrible place that isn’t fair for anyone. Either way, the media has a huge impact on the way I view the world.

Having access to the mass media gives everyone the ability to form some sort of world view. As Malcolm X said, “The media’s the most powerful entity on Earth.”