Wanted: The media that we need
Is the media we want the same as the media we need?
There are positives and negative ways to using the media to interpret the world around us. The media can helps us understand social, political, cultural, and economic matters. However it can also give us a false representation of the world around us.
The first blog I want to discuss is Rachel’s (http://rd13aj.wordpress.com/). She talks about how through consuming media we involve ourselves in business and economic matters.
“This type of media relies on feedback and research on how populations respond to the media given to them…For example we had the I-pod and then it evolved to the I-pod Touch. The media showed us the I-pod and watched to see how we liked it, based off this example they found that people liked it but seemed to find that it was too small. From that small piece of feedback the I-pod Touch was born” (http://rd13aj.wordpress.com)
By consuming media we involve ourselves in the business process. Companies like Apple invest a lot of money in order to predict how their target audience will react to their new product. In order to make a better product these companies build off what the audience liked about their old products. In 1996 Apple computer actually made a video game system called the Apple Pippin. At the time Apple didn’t really know anything about the video game market, this lead to the Apple Pippin’s failure. Nowadays Apple is really careful about launching new products and prioritizes fan feedback.
Fun Fact: Apple Software Engineer Andrew Carol re-constructed an ancient computer using only Legos!
The media can also be a horrible place to learn about the world. This is because it can construct false reality upon us. This idea can be seen in Skylar’s blog (http://skyr12.wordpress.com/).
“Every year one or two new crime and reality show comes out with the continuation of the old ones. Some people believe what they are watching are real situations, but what they don’t realize is the media puts twists on them and only shows things they want you to see, to influence the viewer’s emotions.” (http://skyr12.wordpress.com/)
Reading this quote made me think about the 1999 film The Matrix. I never actually watched the film but I know it takes place in a world were humans are tricked into perceiving an artificially constructed reality. What it actually reminds me off is how my grade 12 English teacher used the film as an example to show how society lives in a false reality. The Matrix popularized a visual effect known as “bullet time”. Bullet time shows the audience the heightened perception of a character by slowing time around them. Anyways my English teacher said that when the Matrix came out everyone was copying the bullet time fight scenes. The point she wanted to make was that by imitating what we see in the media we start to interpret it is as our own reality.
Don’t do this…or you’ll live in a false reality 😦
Similarly Korrina (http://lookingformargo.wordpress.com/) talks about the dangers of perceiving the world through the media. She uses ideas from the text to better illustrate these ideas.
“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 of how we see the world, “ (O’Shauhnessy & Stadler)
“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 makes us think we get the media we want.” (http://lookingformargo.wordpress.com/)
The media is a big part of our lives, a lot of who we are has a connection to the way we consume media. Since it such a big part of our lives the media can show us a world that they want to us to see and not the world around us.
Check out these awesome blogs
http://lookingformargo.wordpress.com
References
Media and Society 5th edition
http://www.theapplecollection.com/Collection/objects/images/9132Apple_lego.gif
dcharles10 
