Reflection

1/20/16:

I have taken more away from this assignment than I have ever expected.  I hardly had ever seen the depth of media messages before this assignment.  All the different techniques used and how people are trying to manipulate your thinking is really mind blowing.  The main thing I have taken away from this assignment is how I view advertisements and I guess overall media messages.  To really see yourself how the media is shaping the way you go about your life is a little disturbing.  Many of the things we find important i.e. how we look, how we act and so much more has been determined by the media.  I believe a big concept to understand is that the “media” isn’t just this stuff that comes from the cloud it is from other people.  So in a sense, the way we think about ourselves and other people is determined by someone else.  The even more surprising part is how easily we’ve accepted these messages without question.  We have literally grown up with media.  We are bombarded with it every day, all day.  We wake up to an alarm on our cell phones, then check it, look it all day during school, we go home and do homework on computers, and then watch television at night.  That is a lot of media.  

The most shocking part of this whole analyzation of media to me was that most of the media is developed just to get us consumers to buy stuff.  The media is one big giant advertisement.  The video Miss Representation really brought that into focus for me.  The media allows us people to be reached all the time in huge mass numbers.   For example things lie Facebook, take in all of our information and in turn sell it to companies to figure out what we like and in turn sell us what we want.  

The media greatly shapes how we see a lot of stuff.  That is a hard concept for me to grasp but it is true.  We are insecure about how we look.  Our minds are filled of stereotypes.  There has been so many stereotypes established by media messages.  I thought media was supposed to make us as humans more connected.  I don’t think it has done this.  At lunch time when everyone is on their phone I don’t think we are more connected.  The media and technology in general as managed to take us out of the real world and put us into one they want us to be in.  One where what you tweet is a top priority.  One where you have to digitally edit yourself before you post something on Instagram.  They have brought us into this virtual world only to get us to buy products.

To be completely honest with you it will take a long time for my media habits to change.  I am not at all a big media user as it is now.  I will however, completely change the way I see media messages.  Advertisements I see will never look the same.  What I value might change a little bit.  To know that the media has created this ideal body image helps me see that it doesn’t really matter that much.  I know that may seem confusing but it is true.   I will continue to minimally use media but see it differently.

My perspective of media has forever changed.  Media shapes how we see lots of things in this world if not all.  They are trying to change your perspective so they can get into your head and know your desires.   The people behind the media then take that information and try to sell you stuff.  You buy this stuff to be the ideal person of yourself the media had created for you.  The cycle is endless.  I am very curious as to how this cycle first began, why the people behind it do it now, and how it is going to end.  All are currently unanswerable questions to me right now.  This assignment as greatly opened my eyes to essential what shapes our lives.  I have forever changed my perspective and for that I am forever grateful. 

If You’re Out There by John Legend

1/16/16:

Song Lyrics:

If you hear this message, wherever you stand
I'm calling every woman, calling every man
We're the generation
We can't afford to wait
The future started yesterday and we're already late

We've been looking for a song to sing
Searched for a melody
Searched for someone to lead
We've been looking for the world to change
If you feel the same
Then go on and say

If you're out there
Sing along with me
If you're out there
I'm dying to believe that you're out there
Stand up and say it loud
If you're out there
Tomorrow's starting now
Now, now

No more broken promises
No more call to war
Unless it's love and peace that we're really fighting for
We can destroy hunger
We can conquer hate
Put down the arms and raise your voice
We're joining hands today

John Legend has been a long time, go to music artist of me.  I have looked over the majority of his songs and this is one of my favorites.  The song comes from John Legend’s album Evolver which was released in 2008.  The song was actually debuted at the Democratic National Convention in support of Barack Obama’s run at the presidency.

The song is very inspirational to listen to.  John Legend’s voice is beautiful, one of the best I’ve heard.  The simplicity of the beat lets the lyrics shine through more than anything.  The lyrics are moving and clear.  Legend is attempting to unite people all over to make a change, a positive change that should begin now.  This song was released six years ago.  Six years ago was a very different time.  Obama is now in the final year of his second term as president.

John Legend’s song was eventually put up on Obama’s campaign website as a free download.  Obviously Obama’s run for presidency succeeded.  In my opinion, he has done many good things for our country.  I hope future leaders take the strong responsibility of improving our nation.

I took the song as John Legend’s attempt to get people to stand up for what is right.  “If you are out there” basically means “if you agree with me” then help fight the world’s issues today.  He advocates for peace instead of war, a better economy (2008 wasn’t our best year), and just a better world in general.  The main themes expressed in the song have to do with the idea that we need to make a change.  He wants the nation to have hope, and take action on creating a better tomorrow.  The song is perfectly fitting not only for the time it was released but anytime.  We should always strive to be better as a nation.  There are plenty of issues needing to be solved.  We are out here and we are the ones who should strive to make a difference.

The power of music always has the ability to capture my mind.  The beat a song has, the voice singing it, and what the voice is actually saying all has a powerful impact.  I look forward to hearing John Legend’s future music.

Game Changer

1/16/16:

Lately sports are becoming more and more popular on social media.  The sport fans of the world have embraced twitter as a way to connect with their fellow fans and freely say their opinion where people might actually see it versus yelling to the ref on the screen where everyone knows they really can’t hear you.  This is why I believe social media and sports are becoming more closely connected.   People feel more engaged in the conversation of that horrible call or epic shot.  They can express how they feel about all this with another world of people who also saw the same thing.  It is amazing how it can connect us as a nation.  When the U.S. women’s national team won the world cup twitter went crazy.  In that moment much of the nation was united.

Without social media sports play a huge part in our nation’s values.  Our love of sports is so deep that our values start to reflect those that are presented in sports. America is a competitive society.  We value winning a lot, probably too much.  This may be a reflection of the heavy influence sorts have on our lives.  That being said, the people who lead these sports or are the faces of them have great power in their hands.  They have the power to uplift and improve our society as a whole.  That is a pretty great power. 

The company KT Tape collected data on how much things like twitter and Facebook are used in association with sports.  They found that 83% of sports fans will check social media sites while watching the game on TV.  Also that 63% of sports fans will browse social media sites while they are at the game!  This was quite surprising to me.  I could see checking social media for updates because you can’t watch the game but when you are watching it I don’t see the need to do so.

With this rage of media and sports athletes are gaining more attention to their lives than ever before.  This means these athletes have even more influence over our society than before.  As said above, the main faces of these massively watched sports have great responsibility on their hands.  They have the ability to inspire us and drive us.  

I’m not really sure if us tuning in to social media to tweet about the game is a good thing or bad thing.  It does united people and it lets my dad call out the refs on Facebook versus him yelling at a screen which is nice for me.  I do believe you shouldn’t be talking about the game on social media if you are actually at the game.  I mean you should put down the screen in front of your face so you can see the game being played in front of you.  I am very interested to see where the world of sports and social media go next.  It was very interesting to see just exactly how much we connect sports with social media.  There is an endless amount of possibilities this could go.  We’ll just have to wait and see what happens.

Miss Representation Question #5

1/14/16:

Do you see evidence around you of this getting better or worse?

I would say the evidence suggests this matter is getting worse.  The media message is that the best thing a women can be is pretty is getting worse.  Kids are getting pressured into this idea of perfect beauty at younger and younger ages.  The media people consume is only rising in levels as time goes on.  We now can view these kinds of media messages 24/7 no matter where we are.  We go to school and we have little phones in our pockets that we can take out and look at to see all of these messages.  We can go home in get on the computer to be bombarded with these advertisements and videos telling us that we are “things.”  We go to watch TV and yet again we are bombarded with commercials.  All of this is advanced technology that is only continuing to grow and take up more and more of our attention.  It is an advertiser dream.  Everyone has their attention on some sort of technology so it is easy to reach the masses.

Another very important aspect to this growing is the amount of advertising there is.  We have this giant blob of information being thrown at us.  Advertisers are having to try harder and harder to stand out and capture our attention.  This may mean making the negative messages being implied to girls even worse and more extreme.  With all this being said and the power media has over us there is two sides to this question.

We are beginning to see more and more females take leadership roles in our society.  Some people are slowly beginning to realize the effect of media.  In doing so they have the power to rise above it.  We have Hilary Clinton running for president and doing so with quite a large amount of determination.  Win or lose that shows girls who are aspiring to be presidents one day that it may be possible.  The less we confine ourselves to the preset standards given to us the more potential we have to make a great difference in the world.  In order for young girls to aspire to be something amazing they hold get the privilege of seeing strong powerful women.  They should be able to see women who aren’t respected because they are pretty but for everything else about them.  We have the potential to make that change and we can take the lead against these stereotypical media messages.

Photoshop Apps

1/10/16:

Recently have I noticed more and more of these so-called “photo shop apps” coming up that are supposed to help edit how you look.  I find the whole concept a bit freaky and odd.

Both the media and we the consumers of media have took it upon ourselves to create this ideal body image of a person who is apparently flawless.  The media puts many images of the same body type and we as consumers then in turn make it our goal to look like that.  The ironic part of this whole thing is that a lot of the time the people we are striving to be like in the picture are most likely photo shopped in one way or another.  We literally as humans are taking technology to make already pretty people look more perfect to persuade other people to change their body image by photo shopping their own pictures.  How insecure are we?  Not only are we changing the way we look with this new way of technology but we are changing it purely out of the need to be accepted by other people. 

Not only does the media flood our minds with the idea that we need to strive to have these perfect bodies but it creates things like photo shop apps to help us at these appear that way through a picture.  In reality the beauty one possesses is so much more than what you see in a picture.  It’s in their personality and how they interact with people and present themselves.  It isn’t defined by how blue your eyes are in a picture.

This is one of the most negative affect media has had on people.  We can’t blame everything we do and how we think on the media.  Yes, it can have negative influence but we are the ones who create these ideas in our head.  This body image the media has presented us has extremely lowered people’s confidence (especially girls).  We feel we need to match up to the standards of what is one the media.  We have a pre-determined definition of pretty that we are trying to achieve.  It is really disappointing and sad that that is what we judge each other by.  We have created photo shop apps for our bodies to appear “better” purely for others judgment.  Have confidence in yourself enough to be proud of whom you are without editing yourself.

LISTS

 

1/10/16:

It seems like whenever I try to find something online lists come up.  The top ten “blank” is every other article.  I am usually drawn to them and like them for finding information.  I was curious why I am drawn to this version of articles and why the titles capture the eye.   It has recently become a huge part of the media.  “Top ten places to see in San Francisco," “Top ten healthily fruits," “Top 20 places to travel in your 20’s” the list of these kinds of titles is endless.  I often like racing this and I recently questioned why I and so many others like reading these list articles do.

We have this mass media market where there is literally limitless information you can access.  I can’t even begin to explain how much stuff is on the internet.  Quite frankly, it is extremely overwhelming.  Keeping the idea of lists in our heads when we’re looking for something to do in San Francisco I see a list of top ten things or a long article.  I am going to choose the list.  The simplest conclusion as to why that is it is clear, precise and easy to process.  Our brains are trying to make sense of all this information presented to us.  Lists provide an extremely easy way for us to take in the main information.  They are right to the point and we don’t need to analyze or make sense of the article.  That is why it captures people’s attention and is effective in presenting an argument.

Our media world is absolutely flooded with information.  These lists are a very smart idea by authors.  It gives us a relief from searching through this pile of information.  I do however wonder how much we lose from not reading and analyzing the whole article.  I feel like we do those some of our brain skills.  These days we have more and more easy way outs for our brain.  Whether or not it’s healthy for us?  I am not really sure.  I do know we are missing some of the little details that make an article whole.  As for now, I will enjoy the ease of these “list articles” in the mass of media today.

Women Fall Victim to Sexual Abuse On Migrant Trail

       

1/3/16:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/03/world/europe/on-perilous-migrant-trail-women-often-become-prey-to-sexual-abuse.html?_r=1

       For quite some time now there has been an issue involving migrants and how countries are not letting them in.  This has been a struggle for all migrants and they have had to work extremely hard to find a place to live safely.  Reading about this and how women migrants are in extreme danger has left me extremely outraged and wanting to learn more.

 

       The article contains multiple personal stories from women who have been sexually abused in the process of migrating from Syria to Germany.   In many scenarios women had to give their bodies to smugglers because they could not afford to pay them anymore.  These people are experiencing war and violence and home, a dangerous road to get away from it, and then a country that has the potential to be unwelcoming.  Mass migration has brought on a mass amount of violence.  “…women report violence from fellow refugees, smugglers, male family members and even European police officers.”  Seriously?  Who can these women trust if all those people have the potential to place acts of violence on them.  Men outnumber women in the migrant stream three to one.  Men are clearly dominant.  Women are being asked to I've their bodies as form of payment so her family gets to continue on.

Once arrived in Germany women are terrified.  They are experiencing major post -traumatic stress disorder here.  They are scared to leave their homes and rarely want to get out and do stuff out of fear.  Therapists for these migrants are in quite a demand and desperately needed among these women.  The stories I keep seeing about the horrible things happening to migrants really leave me outraged.  The fact that people don’t have the decency to look out for each other but rather harm each other as migrants is appalling.  The fact that reports of violence committed by police is really worrying and disturbing.  The police are the ones who are supposed to be stopping this stuff from happening not committing it themselves.  In a time where these people should be coming together to fight the situation that has been given to them violence and extreme sexual abuse have instead arisen.  It is shocking to be personally.  I can’t help but wonder why it is normal for women to give up their bodies as payment for these smugglers.  Are people really that inhumane?

When we go to evaluate the root of this problem we can’t see it as all men are cruel and all women are victims.  That kind of thinking will may lead us back to where we started.  Everyone is upset and angry at the situation presented to them.  “Sitting with her youngest daughter curled on her lap, Samar concluded: ‘Almost all men in the world are bad.’”  That is an example of the thinking going through these women's heads.  Frankly, I would probably think the same thing if I had gone through what they have.  That shouldn’t be their way of thinking.  We shouldn’t have to completely separate men and women for people to be safe.  There is for sure no easy solution to this growing problem.

The New York Times providing this article has opened my eyes to an issue I would have otherwise not known existed.  It shows the power of media and how sometimes the knowledge it provides can have a positive effect on the world.  It makes us feel inclined to change the horrible events happening throughout the world like this one.