News, trust, and “truthiness”

After reading many of my class mates blog posts about satirical news reporting, I started noticing that a lot of the blogs came to the final consensus that satirical news was equally as reliable as traditional news reportage because many people believed it was blunt and didn’t tend to hide anything from the audience. I agree with this consensus because I feel that satirical reporting shows such as the rick mercer report show the real news uncut, and go deep into the story. Although comedy may be used to entertain the viewers the news itself has not changed, only the way it is being presented.

 

I always enjoy reading the blogs of the males in my class and comparing it my own opinion because I like to see how each gender may view the certain subject. Hunter made a very valid point in his blog this week when he stated “While many sources continue to follow this pattern, the satirical news offers the information with little to none being held from the viewers.”(1) This only further applies to the idea that satirical news is equally, if not more, reliable than traditional news reporting because it does not withhold any information from the viewers but rather, tells the true uncut story.

 

Brittany makes a valid point in her blog when she says “Though these television shows may not be entirely focused on explaining what has happened in current events, they are bringing awareness to the situation.” (2) I completely agree with her statement, satirical news reporting is not focused on getting the daily news out into the communities of those who watch their shows but rather, bring the big issues to the listener’s attention. For example, we can take the Rob Ford ‘crack’ situation into account. This has become a large part of the news lately and is a prime topic for discussion in satirical news reporting because this is a very easy topic to turn into a comedic episode. Satirical news reporting is still presenting the facts about the news, but it focuses on a few key stories, not everything.

 

Satirical reporting works off of the comedic relationship they create with their audiences. David caught my attention while I was reading his blog when he said “Establishing a relationship with audiences in the public sphere will always be valuable, regardless of the presence of a satirical nature.” (3) I agree with this statement because I think that having only a satirical nature to our news reporting could create issues in our public sphere. As much as I believe that satirical news reporting has an importance in the public sphere I also believe that traditional news reporting plays a greater role because it communicates to everyone in the public sphere, not only the people who are looking for entertainment along with the news report.

 

I think that in the future satirical news reporting will play a great role in how news is reported in the public sphere but traditional news reporting will always take the lead because it is what listeners are comfortable with believing even if they know it’s the candy coated version.

 

(1) http://lunterhackey.blogspot.ca/2013/11/is-fake-news-real-news.html

(2) http://britshannon.blogspot.ca/2013/11/is-fake-news-real-news.html

(3) http://oconnormedia.wordpress.com/2013/11/21/1f25-blog-entry-4-is-the-fake-news-the-real-news/

Is the fake news the real news?

Every display of news we see in our society is different. We see news displayed through daily morning shows, daily 6’o clock news, magazines and even outlets like twitter or blog posts. Different types of consumers are bound to receive one of these types of news. The problem with this is that some news feeds are much more mainstream and political than others. Satirical news shows such as the Rick Mercer report may seem like culture jamming because the goal is not only to spread the news, but also to entertain the audience while doing so. While the point is being driven across to us as either wrong or right through humor and sarcasm the listener is being swayed to pick a side. As an example the rick mercer report often shows a strong bias towards a particular topic deemed important in that specific episode.

The type of news presentation shown in satirical news reporting is very effective because it makes the listener more interested in a particular topic. It is a very powerful way of portraying news to an intended audience because “the objectives of culture jamming often include consciousness raising as well as using the media to criticize the media and dominant culture” (O’Shaughnessy, Stadler, 2012, p. 214) and will therefore attract people’s attention about important news happening in Canada and around the world. Culture jamming is an important part of satirical news because it is what intrigues listeners to keep watching and agree with the news they are being informed about.

Something that is very interesting to me about the sector of culture jamming media is their freedom of speech. Freedom of speech is the right to express opinions publicly without interference from the government or other sectors (O’Shaughnessy, Stadler, 2012, p. 223), meaning that even if what is displayed on culture jamming news is controversial towards the government and what they might be saying it can still be said and heard by the public which I think is important. I personally feel that reporters who are involved in this type of media have a lot more say in what they display on the news. For example Rick Mercer, he creates his own show every week on a new topic. The topic is not always controversial but when it is he is able to display his own personal opinion about the subject where as regular news casters on a show such as CTV 6’ o’clock news cannot do this because they must remain neutral no matter what their thought is on the particular subject. This shows us that culture jamming is not mainstream in the way the news is presented to the public. I also think that this is the reason news like this is so important for todays society. People like to hear other people’s opinions in important subjects being discussed in the news; culture jamming allows this to be done in a truthful way.

I think that this type of report is very beneficial to the public sphere because it adds some comedy and entertainment to the way that news is portrayed to people. Although it can sometimes cause disruption in the news and media world, I think it is very beneficial for community members and news watchers around Ontario and even Canada to have an idea of what may be actually going on as opposed to being fed the candy coated version brought to us by the government. We deserve a little truth.

 

O’Shaughnessy, M., Stadler J. (2012). Media and Society Fifth Edition. Victoria, Australia: Oxford.

 

 

Demonstrable demographics

After reading many of my classmates’ blogs, I came to the conclusion that ads affect females differently than they affect males. Females are much more worried about their appearance than males, while males are more focused on what is happening in sports, what’s the newest video game or system and even the biggest and best car/ truck for the upcoming year. Females want to look their best physically, while men want to own the best things and therefore ads will appeal to each gender differently, Another blogger made a good point when she said, “Everything about us is created by society” (1) We display our gender to our peers by listening to what society deems as proper for our specific gender.

My Fellow blogger Patrick brings the following point to our attention “If you have noticed the newspapers are split up into sections that are more appealing to males or females.”(2) Not only are males and females segregated by gender, but by what ads we are attracted to and respond to. This doesn’t only happen in newspapers but in many different forms of portraying ads such as television. On the SPEED channel there will not be commercials about baking and shopping, rather commercials about cars and recreational activities. Patrick and I agreed on the hailing strategies that ads have towards a specific gender and this makes my particular demographic that much more understandable because I realize that is segregates females from males making my particular demographic group that much more concrete in its description.

After reading my classmates blogs, I realized the negative affect that hailing has on us as young adults. The hailing process makes us change our idea of beauty and forms it into what society want it to be. I could not agree more with Madison when she states in her blog that “It is unfortunate that the media has this amount of control over us, but we are willing to ‘enhance’ the way we look, in order to fit into our gender roles, and come across as attractive.” (3) It helps to further concrete my idea of how teenaged girls want to be beautiful and ads use this to their advantage to pull in females to purchase their product.

As a daily receiver of this type of media I feel as if I am trapped within the ads. When a new ad is presented to me, I am immediately interested in what it has to offer my particular demographic and it appears that my peers feel the same way. Media has obviously figured out the proper way to hail each particular demographic.

 

(1) http://jt11mb.blogspot.ca/2013/11/advertising-and-interpellation.html

(2) http://patricksimmonsblog.wordpress.com/2013/11/07/what-the-hail/

(3) http://mb12qe.wordpress.com/2013/11/07/what-the-hail/

What the Hail?

 As teens we are effected daily by ads and what they portray towards us. Ads encourage us to want what ever they are selling.  The ad I chose is a Covergirl, foundation ad featuring pop sensation Taylor Swift.  I chose this ad because it caught my eye with the colours and effects, it draws you in because someone as famous as Taylor swift uses it and yet the ad is simple and only contains a few written words to bring in your attention and yet leaves you wanting more.

 

The ad relates to my personal demographics because I am a teenaged girl who wears make up and knows all about Taylor Swift as a pop sensation and therefore the ad caught my immediate attention, just like it was suppose to. Cover girl focuses their campaigning and ads a lot around simple beauty, which is also something that I strive for. Cover girl cosmetics are a well-known cosmetic brand to all teenaged girls, many of which use their products. Cover girl, obviously focuses on the needs of young girls and women and therefore do not provide anything for men. This relates to the demographic of gender, which is developed from the day you are born. Wearing makeup is an appropriate way to display your gender and even enhance it, is the text it states “ to confirm this gender identity you probably adopt certain kinds of appropriate male or female behavior’s” (O’Shaughnessy & Stadler, pg.185) ads such as this are focused towards one particular gender and focus on the things that mean the most to them. Make up is something that most girls use everyday to enhance their beauty and confirm their gender for others to see, companies such as Covergirl use this to their selling advantage.

 

As a teen that is in love with Taylor Swift and everything she has to offer, seeing her in an ad makes the likely hood of me purchasing that item increase tremendously. The way that companies address their audience is critical for their selling ability. The ad is ‘hailing’ us by showing a perfect picture of a female, with a short description of what their product has to offer for us, the short description is enough to catch our attention and leave us waning to know more. Taylor Swift has a very large fan base, which includes many teen girls, the same group that Covergirl is targeting. This is why many cosmetic and clothing companies that aims to sell to teens use famous artist that these teens like, it helps to get the company noticed and intrigues their buyers.   Weather we see this ad on TV or in a magazine it is going the catch our attention as said in the text “ The way they address us, constantly interpolates us” (O’Shaughnessy & Stadler, pg.186). The way we are addressed affects they way we will respond to what we are being addressed about, if it interests up chances are we will give the product a second look and this is what these companies are aiming for, a second look which could lead to a further purchase.

 

Covergirl does a great job in representing the right ads to attract the right consumers, I support their product because their ads are always simple, appropriate and support beauty in a natural way. Covergirl strives for excellence and try’s to please their customers. As a customer of many years, I am very satisfied with their product and the means they go about selling and promoting it. I think many consumer companies could learn from what Covergirl has to offer.

Reference:


O’Shaughnessy, M. & Stadler,J. Media and Society Fifth Edition. Oxforod University Press, 2012.

 

WANTED: the media that we need

After reading several of my classmates blogs I have come to the conclusion that the media choices I make help to better inform me about the important social events in society but are not very informative when it comes to economic, cultural and political media. The social aspect of society seems to have taken the front seat when it comes to the importance of daily media leaving culture, politics and economics to take a back seat; this means that they are not mentioned in the media nearly as much as they should be.

I found it interesting when Amy Lowe stated “ we are at the mercy of the media in terms of the perspective we receive on events and groups of individuals, despite how adverse we are in our browsing”(1) this demonstrates how open we are to receiving information about culture, politics and the economy, yet we still only receive the social aspect of these portions of media. I very much agree with Amy when she talks about us being at the mercy of media, further backing up the point that we want the media we receive because we are unaware of what else is out there.

 Next I was rather interested in something Haley Borque said in her post, she stated “Together as a society, the media influences us as we become more knowledgeable and entertained through its information”(2) I agree tremendously with this statement. This helps to describe how hard it is to find media that pertains to culture, politics and the economy but is also portrayed in a way that is interesting for younger viewers or listeners such as myself. The shows and media that we tune into on a daily basis do not focus around these areas of society and therefore we are not exposed to it. Our personal media choices don’t inform us about these particular areas of society.

Finally I was thinking of why people would not want to see the cultural, political or economic part of society on the media. I came to the conclusion that it may not be that fact that they don’t want to see it but the fact that they are uninterested in this type of media and therefore do not search out a place to find it. A quote from Jenna Stancel only helps to steady my point when she states “Teenagers can be considered a popular audience because they fill their lives with different forms of social media. They are constantly in communication with their friends, family, and colleges through social media sites such as Facebook and twitter.” (3) When teens my age are browsing social media sites such as these we are bombarded with the social aspect of media not the cultural, political or economic side and therefore we do not go searching for it. We want the media we get and therefore whatever media is placed right in front of us on daily sites and apps that we use is the media we will view and respond to. We are comfortable with this media and most teens don’t go searching outside of their comfort zones for new ways to socially entertain themselves.

We are comfortable with wanting the media we receive, although it seems we could use a little adventure.

 

        

(1)  http://lifeoflowe.wordpress.com/2013/10/24/1f25-post-2-do-we-get-the-media-we-want-or-want-the-media-we-get/

(2)  http://hb123na.wordpress.com/2013/10/24/society-wanting-the-media-we-get/

(3)  http://jennastancel.blogspot.ca/2013/10/cpcf-1f25-blog-entry-2-media-we-want.html

The media we want?

It seems that we are surrounded by media every day. But have we ever considered that we are encountering media that we don’t want? I believe we have simply learned to accept what media we receive. So do we get the media we want? Or want the media we get? Media manipulates us to want the media we get. We’ve learned to work by the medias agenda. Whatever is presented to us is what we decide to accept. Media has its own agenda and is controlled more than we know. “Agenda settings refers to instances in which media coverage draws attention to an issue or event and puts it on the agenda for public discussion and debate” (O’Shaughnessy, Stadler, 2012 p. 25) When a piece of media is placed on the media agenda it is displayed on all kinds of media and social networks for everyone to see. This clearly shows us that we have to want the media that we receive because we have no choice in the matter of what the media agenda has to hold for us. We take what we want from the presented media and interpret in our own ways.

Ever noticed how lately when you watch the news it seems like nothing good is ever happening? It is only ever tragedies, wars and despair. This is simply because the media agenda has been bombarded with these national and worldwide events. We cannot avoid them so we accept them and continue to tune in the media. When a story has been covered the listeners become interested and want to know more  possibly sparking them to search online only broadening the display of media being used and attracted to. This is the medias goal and they succeed every time. “The news is supposed to be objective to provide a balanced account of issues and events to air both sides of a debate, and include diverse perspectives” (p. 26) This simply means the media try’s to hold something for everyone so that there audience is of a broad spectrum. We take what we want from the presented media and interpret in our own ways, which is why I find the thought of negotiated readings so intriguing. The media is always affecting a wide range of people with the same news, but everyone will interpret it differently. This is why media has such a large power over people, whether they like the media they are receiving or not everyone sees it differently. I believe that we are forced to want the media that we get because we do not have any other choice.

 

O’Shaughnessy, M., Stadler J. (2012). Media and Society Fifth Edition. Victoria, Australia: Oxford.

 

1f25 blog response 1: Media Impact on Others

In my first blog post I expressed my feelings on how I thought the worldwide media affected my peers and I.  My response was mostly negative because of the way media affects me in my day-to-day life, constantly changing the way I see and do things. I challenged the readers to be original and come up with there own ideas, to create a place in society for themselves doing the things they want instead of relying on what’s ‘popular’ or ‘cool’. 

 

I started to read my classmates blogs and one after another my fellow classmates were stating the same opinions that I had in my blog. We all agreed that our generation is deeply affected by what we see and read in social media. We agreed that it has affected our society negatively in most ways but positively in some. I was particularly intrigued by one blogger when she chose to put a positive spin on the social media network known as twitter. She stated, “Twitter is a useful site because not only does it tell us what is happening in the world instantly through 140 characters, but many people reply to these “tweets” with strong opinions. “ (1). I had never taken this opinion into consideration, I always looked at twitter as a way of people simply telling their followers what they have been up to, not as something more serious such as spreading worldly events. This blogger has shown me the positive side to the social media that I hadn’t noticed. This led me to a better understanding of why people use these networking sites as an outlet of their own opinion.

 

Next I read a blog that I couldn’t have agreed with more. Every point the blogger made was one I could strongly relate my blog to. The blogger stated, “Between stick thin models and perfect looking celebrities in almost every magazine and movie, it’s easy to understand why many young tweens and teenagers want to resemble what they are seeing in the media.” (2). I had stated in my blog that teens rely far too much on what they see in the media. The girls they see on TV and in magazines show an image of what teens think they should look like which is simply unrealistic. This causes a foggy idea of reality for teens and can be dangerous to their self-esteem. As girls we know what it feels like, always trying to achieve the body and looks that we will simply never have. Our blogs were very similar because I think that social media personally affected both of us in the same way.

 

Finally was a blog I read written by a male individual, I was interested to see what boys thought of the things they see in social media, I had often wondered if they would they would have the same ideas as me and other females. Turns out we had many ideas in common of how media is portrayed. I realized that media affects everyone in the same way; we are all bombarded with social media each and every day. I particularly agreed with one opinion he had, he wrote “Right now, there is a current dance that many people do called, “Twerking”.  This dance gained a lot of popularity after singer Miley Cyrus performed it at the VMAs last month.  Because of that, girls across North America have been posting videos of themselves partaking in this dance as well.” (3).  I agree with this statement because it helps back up my idea that teens in today’s society are simply unoriginal and are essentially stealing others ideas, or in this case dance moves. I had challenged my readers in my past blog post to be original and I am challenging you again. Do one thing a day that’s different than everyone else. Set yourself apart from others and be an individual in your community.

I really enjoyed reading my classmates blogs because I realized just how much we have in common. We share a lot of the same ideas on the way social media negatively and positively affects us in our lives everyday. We have each been affected in some way by the social media because it has become apart of our lives whether we know it or not.

 

(1)- http://melissalocquiao.blogspot.ca/?view=sidebar

(2)- http://hb123na.wordpress.com/2013/09/19/the-influence-of-media-a-blog-for-cpcf-1f25/

(3)- http://lunterhackey.blogspot.ca

1F25 post1: media impact

Be original 

Mass media has a very significant role in the way I see things worldwide. I am a 17 year-old girl living in a world where you are judged no matter what you do.  I am a need to know person so I am constantly on social media networks finding out what is happening in the world at that very moment, whether it is world events that happen each and every day to the breaking news happening now. My iPhone was the worst purchase I ever made because I am now addicted to many social media networks such as Twitter, Facebook, Vine, and Instagram. The moment I wake up I check my news feeds to see what has happened over night with my followers, friends and even celebrities that I follow. All of these social media networks morph the way I see other people and myself. One positive thing that these social networks provide for me is the incentive to strive to be the best that I can in every aspect of my life whether it be my physical appearance to the way I portray myself in my community.  Many others just like me are bombarded with social media networks all over the world each and every day forming pictures in our minds of the ideal person living the ideal life. The question I am constantly asking myself is what is the ideal life? The ideal life for me to live may not be the ideal life for someone else. Social media networks have taken the originality out of people, society has simply become lazy when it comes to being creative with the way we as individuals live our lives.

 

 A worldwide problem brought on by social media is the fact of appearance. I feel as if I cannot turn on the TV any more without being overrun with weight loss commercials, special diet pills and other things that will simply and easily make you ‘skinny and beautiful’ or so they say. It is very hard for people to feel comfortable with themselves in today’s society because of the constant pressure to be skinny, pretty and perfect. These commercials that are constantly played place a picture in our minds of the ideal body when again, these bodies are unattainable and unrealistic. Media outlets constantly create an unrealistic picture in our minds.

 

 I am challenging myself to be more realistic about the things I want to obtain in not only my physical well-being but simply in life, I challenge you to make realistic goals for yourself that are creative and not stolen from some social media network. Be original, be yourself. 

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