Blog #7

I was watching tv the other day, and I caught myself analyzing each ad without knowing it. I remember watching ads that I was very familiar with and noticing countless marketing techniques that I had previously been oblivious to. I would catch all the weasel words and the propaganda, and find myself noticing who the target market was. While this was happening, it occurred to me just how obvious it all is to somebody with even the smallest idea of what to look for. This truly shows you how much the media assumes we can be affected by the simplest of tricks. As soon as you know just exactly what they are trying to do, it becomes increasingly obvious just how much advertisers attempt to manipulate the public, and how little they respect our critical thinking skills.

Product Placement

In my opinion, product placement in movies and TV shows is an ineffective means of advertising. As teenagers, we are already overwhelmed by traditional advertising such as commercials and billboards. I know that I hardly even notice product placement unless I am specifically looking for it. We see those products so much that it doesn't even register as anything out of the ordinary. We are so exposed to these things that nothing is surprising anymore. Maybe if the product being used was something completely new or unheard of, this would be an effective way to advertise. At the moment, however, I am perfectly aware that Coke is good, or that iPhones are cool. Everything I see tells me this. I don't need a movie star blatantly using these things on screen to try and convince me any more. It's overkill.

Option 2.

After completing the power point exercise, I was left very curious as to what other people put down as heroes and celebrities. I know that my hero count was significantly less than that of the celebrities, and I wonder if that is normal in today's media drenched world. I know the mass media today would have me believe that many of the movie stars and tv hosts I saw should be heroes. They put them on pedestals and tell us that we should strive to be like them, that they are perfect, almost god-like. I know that almost every hero is not perfect, and those vets in that picture surely aren't. My Grandpa is a veteran and he is not perfect, but I love him for it and he is a hero in my eyes. A hero is not a perfect bodied movie star, or a loud mouthed talk show host, or even a comic book character, as the media would have us believe. No, a hero is someone who is not perfect, but somebody who sacrificed so others could gain. I wonder how many people had even heard of, not to mention knew about, Harvey Milk before they saw the Oscar's on Sunday night..

Core Values

While watching the television this weekend, I came across a show that always seems to catch my attention. Survivorman, on the the Discovery Channel, is a show that demonstrates several American Core Values. The first of these would be activity and work, as the host of the show is constantly moving and working in order to teach survival techniques, and to aid in his own survival. Similar to this is efficiency and practicality. Les Stroud, the host of the show, carries himself in a professional matter, and goes about his tasks very efficiently. He wastes no time and applies his knowledge of survival skills effectively. The final core value, and perhaps the most important that is shown, is individualism. The whole idea of the show is that one man, left alone in the wild, can fend for himself and survive until he is rescued. This is the main point the show makes, and it is obvious that viewers should value this individualism above all other things.

Consuming Kids.

I thought this video made some very good, if frightening, points. The more I think about it the more I see how from the day we are born, the media tries to turn us into consumers. Through this process of transforming children into consumers, they also objectify them. They show kids stereotypes, and teach them that this is the way they should be. Another frightening thing is the products that are marketed to these kids are often unhealthy both psychologically and physically. Kids born today will have shorter life spans than those of their parents, and the connection between that fact and the unprecedented media saturation today is something that cannot be overlooked.

Media Interviews.

I learned some interesting things while looking at the answers i received while conducting these interviews. Each person had a similar idea of what media was, and they agreed that it's purpose was to provide information. However, what i found interesting was the way they differed in their views towards which medium was the most important. This seemed to have some relationship with the age of the person interviewed, as the older people seemed to choose more traditional forms of media such as the newspaper. As the age decreased, the type of media viewed as the most important changed towards more modern and technical forms such as the Internet. The final thing I found interesting was the fact that many of the interviewees chose one type as the most important, but then answered differently when asked what medium they used the most. This could have something to do with the ease of access to some forms of media today.