Media Blog Reflection

My view on media is pretty different than it was at the beginning of our media unit with a few exceptions. our media unit has made me realize just how much media we are bombarded with every single day. I also now realize how much goes into marketing and what techniques advertisers use to persuade consumers to buy more of their products. I also now realize the amount of deceit and misrepresentation that media includes. Important ideas such as how our society views women are determined by their portrayal throughout media. impressive statistics were shown throughout the media unit that made society's obsession with media very evident. Many statistics were shown that stated how many pieces of media teenagers are exposed to everyday and how much time teenagers spend on media everyday. I learned all about the techniques and methods that marketers use in order to sell to media consumers. I still believe that so many of these methods cannot work for everyone at the same time. I am very vulnerable to the need to nurture in advertisements especially when i am shown a dog or a cat because I love animals. Pretty much all other kinds of techniques are ineffective when trying to sell to me because I never really feel the need to aggress or be unique or affiliate with a certain crowd. I realize that these techniques are usually used to target specific audiences only because any technique wont work with absolutely everyone. I now understand the use of generic words and weasel words in advertisement that make the product sound better than it actually is. I think this unit was very important in order to understand the importance of correct representation in the media as well as becoming more informed about how media works and how to approach it. In this unit we were exposed to the example of women in media and how inaccurately the media portrays them. Women are viewed as objects rather than intelligent potential leaders. My media habits have changed because I can now look at marketing ploys for what they actually are. I am also aware of how much media I consume everyday and I have cut back on some of the social media and useless scrolling I used to do everyday. The amount of media I consume impacts my life because usually I am constantly sucked into the world of media and I waste a lot of time looking through social media and click bait articles and advertisements. I think that society's use and especially teenagers' use of media needs to change rather than believing that we should stop consuming media altogether because some of it is helpful. We need to shift our attention away from our obsession with celebrity lives and appearances, and instead become more informed about world events that really matter. Instead of actually paying attention to the news about Donald Trump, many people simply know about his tweets, which goes back to our obsession with celebrity lives and social media. I know that I like social media like most teenagers, but I am attempting to cut back on social media and become more in touch with political and social issues throughout the world in the news. I also understand that the news uses certain weasel words just like advertisers to make the issue discussed sound different. I understand that media distorts my perception of reality. Being an educated consumer helps you make more reasonable decisions and a healthy amount of skepticism helps you look deeper into an issue rather than believing everything as it is displayed on the surface. Through keeping my media blog, I realized that no matter what kind of media, there is always different sides to stories and that society needs to change its usage of media in order to create a more equal society, as well as a more well rounded view of different kinds of people as they are displayed in the media. I still believe that media is a very helpful tool and I am grateful to have access to it, but I do believe that I am more educated and can handle my usage of media in more well rounded ways.