Media

My journey through media was a rollercoaster ride filled with shocking realizations, and light bulb moments. I was very surprised at how much I didn't know or understand before this semester began. Both in class time and outside of class time were learning experiences as I learned the material, and then was able to immediately apply what I had learned to the hundreds of advertisements I see around me everyday. I consume so much media. As I drive my car I am bombarded with advertisements begging to distract me at every turn. The bright colors and catchy slogans compete for my attention in a space that should command my full attention to be on the road and the task at hand. while I am watching TV, doing research for my many classes, or simply reading emails, I am bombarded with advertisements for things that I know I will never buy. I believe that the ways in which media markets fight for our attention is harmful to our society, and distracts us from what really matters in the world. The media has taught us to be self-centered, materialistic beings that focus only on what we can buy next, rather than our friends and family. Being aware of my media consumption has helped me tremendously when living my life outside of school. I no longer pay much attention to the hundreds of ads, and I constantly attempt to warn others of the negative effects of our modern day media. It is so important to have media literacy because if we do not, we are letting others control us. We feel the constant need to be free, yet we let ourselves be enslaved and brainwashed by those who are attempting to control what we think in order to persuade us to hand over our money. Being an educated consumer is liberating. It shows those around us that we know what we are doing, and what we are spending our hard earned money on. Keeping this blog was fun and interesting, and really forced me to look at my world through a more critical lens. It has definitely helped me in the long run, and I am grateful to have had the experience of keeping it. Education is important. It liberates us, and allows us to make the choices that we want to make without the help of others. In the end, all you really possess is yourself. The truth is that all paths lead nowhere, so in order to love yourself in the end, you must choose a path that has a heart.

Recently, while driving around downtown Sacramento with my family and friends, I couldn't help but notice the billboard that is becoming more frequent on our city. The advertisement is for Carl's JR., and is advertising the brand new "All-Natural" burger. What does that even mean? "All natural". I personally have a huge problem with this ad on the basis that it is highly deceiving on many levels. The major crime on society the company and advertisers commit is their wording: All Natural. This is an example of weasel words. Words made to deceive you into thinking that a product is something that it is not. Stating that the burger is all natural gives it the heir of being healthy. This is an example of using words with a positive connotation. When we think "Natural" we think about whole food markets and co-ops that sell high quality, highly priced, flax seed and kale as well as all natural peanut and almond butter with no added colors or preservatives. We think of a down to earth farmer pulling beet roots out of the sun warmed soil, then placing it directly onto the plate of your family and hundreds of others along with a glass of fresh milk from cows who live happy lives of peace and tranquility. The disgusting, grease-dripping, soggy, cholesterol filled burger that is slopped together by minimum wage druggies at carl's junior does not fit this ticket. What the consumers need to know is this: Just because a company states that something is all natural, does not mean that it is in any way healthy for you. If you are going for something healthy, maybe don't go for a fast food restaurant. Cows and other dairy animals are treated so incredibly badly. They are crammed into spaces that don't allow them to move, and are pumped with hormones that fatten only the parts of them that are good for slaughtering. this makes it difficult for them to walk or even stand. This has to stop. We as a society must say NO to the mistreatment of these animals. We must take a stand to know where our food is coming from, and support local farms who treat their animals right. Though one burger might import beef from Australia, others at Carl's JR. come from factory farms and are the products of years of torture, and lives wasted. The words natural deceive the community, and lead to a more obese, more cruel society, that does not care about the cruelty of animals, the planet, or being kind.

During a few of our class periods this year, my critical thinking class and I were allowed to watch the documentary, "Merchants of Cool". This documentary highlighted the different techniques used in marketing campaigns in the early twenty-first century as well as different attitudes towards them. One topic that I found interesting in this documentary was the ideas of the "Mook" and "Midriff ".In order to get the idea of the perfect target audience, many companies still today create one single individual. This person represents that company's entire target audience. In the case of the companies displayed in "Merchants of Cool" Their entire target audience (the teen population) could be virtually crammed into two people. These people were named The "Mook" and "Midriff". The "Mook" was the male teen. he was a large, hairy, immature boy with a massive need for sexual interactions and a large amount of disrespect for women, hiding a jumble of insecurities and discomfort within himself. This character did not care about anything his parents or teachers said to him, and existed only to have sex with women whom he sees merely as sexual, disposable, objects. The "Midriff" on the other hand, gives the "Mook" exactly what he wants. She is a shallow girl caring only about her appearance, and undermining those of others. She is overly sexual and has no desire for self respect, or respect from others. Though fully inaccurate, these were the companies' views on teens of the decade. However they were not completely off base. their idea was that teens were aspiring to be similar to these characters. That would explain the amount of insecurities they feel while trying to become these crude figures. This is all fed by the advertising storm that tells these kids that this is what they must become in order to gain self acceptance, and the acceptance of others. This was a very interesting documentary that I would definitely recommend to anyone interesting in marketing techniques, and I believe would be beneficial for other teens to see they way the media tricks and deceives them as a whole.

Earlier this week in Critical thinking class, we watched the movie "Missrepresentation". The movie highlighted the struggles of women and girls not only in the media but in society today. The very informational and eye-opening movie links disrespect for the female gender and female un-empowerment to media and advertising. It seems what we see on the big screen and in many of the magazines at the cashiers register in the stares are leading contributors to sexism in America. One aspect of the movie that completely surprised me was the amount of sexism in the news. Studies done by the filmmakers show that when most people watch a woman deliver news story or vie for a leadership role, we mainly focus on her outfit, hair, or how she looks in general. Instead of focusing on what she is delivering or proposing, society sees her only as a sexual object with flaws and impurities. I would like to say that the problem arises from only men who criticize women, but the truth is it comes from both genders. Sadly, women are naturally very competitive towards each other. By putting each other down, we hold ourselves back from going anywhere in  this society or making advances for women in the world. These negative attitudes and sexist viewpoints heavily affect young girls. Young girls see models and Barbie dolls throughout their childhoods and think that that is the standard that they must uphold. It is my own observation of young girls throughout many generations that all they seem to see the world through a pink tinted lens. From birth these girls are given pink baby clothes, playing with pink dolls, sleeping on pink sheets and going on to enter school with pink notebooks and pencils. Some may argue that pink is simply a popular color for young girls, but in reality they have been taught since birth that pink is a color for girls and that they too should like the color. Story time. When I was a baby my room was blue. It remained that color as I grew up and I learned to love the color. One day that I remember well in the first grade I told one of my friends that my room was blue and she told me that my room was painted a "boy's color" and that I should paint it pink like all the other girls in the class. After hearing this I gave a lot of thought to repainting my room, all because of this girls comment and the comments of other young girls who had grown up with the mindset that pink was the color that defined them as females. Luckily my room remained blue, but I will always remember the first time I felt self-conscious about the way I lived. Young girls and boys should be taught that colors as well as careers, and respect levels have no gender. This movie was extremely eye opening for me, and forced me give a lot of thought to the situation of women in the United States and throughout the world today.