CPCF 1F25 – Blog Response #4: News, Trust, and “Truthiness”

Many of my fellow bloggers believed that satirical news is just as reliable as traditional news reporting though it depends on the person or age group concerning them with satirical news. Satirical news can also be known as “fake news” and can be seen through shows that irreverently imitate the real news we see on television. Examples of popular fake news are shows like: The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report. There were vast majority of different viewpoints on the reliability of satirical news however to my understanding, I contemplate that satirical news can be over exaggerated although helpful to the public sphere when it comes to generating popularity and awareness about the news on a global scale.

As I was reading my classmates’ blogs, I found an interesting example that Alana Lutz pointed out. She uses Rob Ford as an example and mentioned that “The information that they feed to the public sphere may or may not be completely accurate, but it definitely informs the public of what is going on in the world and can therefore be considered useful.”(http://itsalanalutz.wordpress.com/). This is a great example because teenagers would not be so interested at watching Rob Ford on the traditional news however with satirical news we are more engaged with our mayor looking like a fool and smoking crack. We laugh and are entertained more with satirical news because of all the comedy and parodies that have been made with news like this which also subconsciously condemning us to realize the hidden messages of the important news in which our mayor has now become very scandalous.

On a general level, I perceived that most of my classmates would agree with me and consider that satirical news can be unreliable. However, a classmate of mine considers that “Fake news should be seen as an art for…they enable individuals to reflect on multiple sides of a problem, rather than to accept dominant ideologies provided by governments and powerful individuals” (http://tizid1995.wordpress.com/about/). This being said, made me change my perception of the viewpoint of satirical news being corrupt into perceive satirical news in a positive perspective. They can very well benefit our society in a way because they make the news less boring, and contrive for viewers in our generation to take notice in what is actually happening around the world, though on a different part of the media spectrum.

“It is so common these days that it cannot be said that it is an ‘obstruction’ against mainstream anymore. It is even something that is now becoming mass-produced” (http://earthtosydney.wordpress.com/). This was quoted by one of my classmates who made a good point stating that satirical news as well as culture jamming is various and continuous cycles that have moved onto becoming mass-produced. Also, another one of my classmate’s said that “When watching these reports I take the information with a pinch of salt as I know that it is highly opinionated and not always the entire truth…” (http://st12tq.wordpress.com). As things are becoming mass-produced, we take in everything we can without even thinking at times because of how we have accumulated all of the information we get from the news especially emphasized by satirical news.

Regardless of satirical news and their humorous efforts, fake news shows are recognized as a dynamic voice of difference in this generation where we have some people believing in the popular media rather than traditional news discussing politics and such. Society views the media as a sagacious source of information and satirical news will try to appeal to the audience by any means necessary.

CPCF 1F25 – Blog Entry #4: Is the Fake News the Real News?!

Many people ask why is the news so important? Is the fake news the real news? All of these questions generally give society to inquire more about what is going on in the world and why this impact of the news broadcast and such play an important part to our daily lives. The news plays a vital role because it gives information on things that are happening around you and around the world. It is also important because it helps in day to day dealings with the information it rises ranging from politics, sports, business and lifestyle that can pertain to anyone in society. The news should however, be believed with caution since most people believe everything that is reported in the news agencies. The news exerts a profound influence on the viewers. And so, when some news is reported incorrectly, either by mistake or by design, it may cause a lot of problems among the public.

In chapter 14 of the Media and Society textbook, it brings up the idea of culture jamming. Culture jamming defined by the textbook is “a form of media activism that subverts and reworks the intended meaning of existing media texts, or parodies major corporations, public figures, and their media images”(O’Shaughnessy, Stadler, Technology, pg.213). Culture jamming actions have a crucial purpose to contest or disrupt leading dissertation using an amount of subversion and creativity. These actions use the spreading of disinformation as strategies which they often use the same tackles as mass media and marketing to make their disruptions. An example of cultural jamming can be seen from the magazine “Adbusters” which features subvertisements of brands such as Calvin Klein, Nike, etc.

We can have access to the media anywhere at any time with the amount of enhanced technology and e-mailing we have obtained. This also resides within advertisements. “Culture jammers use their familiarity with the codes and conventions of advertising and other forms of communication to throw a spanner the production of meaning by creating spoofs, defacing texts, and subverting the intended meanings of the media texts that they choose to rework” (Michael O’Shaughnessy, Jane Stadler Media and Society, Fifth Edition pg. 214). Culture jamming is typically active in opposition to a perceived assumption of the public sphere, or as a response contrary to social conformity.

“Email and other forms of computer mediated communication (CMC) have been celebrated as being both democratic and empowering mediums of mass communication because they enable individuals and smaller groups to get their message out to larger numbers of people without having to contend with restrictive policies and regulations or prohibitively expensive equipment and production costs” (Michael O’Shaughnessy, Jane Stadler Media and Society, Fifth Edition pg. 216). This helps with the useful addition to the public sphere and the mainstream form of culture jamming that at no point of the day people have to wait for certain news at a certain time, and they can absorb the news by other means within their technology they have. As a result, because we have easy access to the media, we take the news for granted. We are pushed towards believing this mainstream falsification the news gives us and implements opportunities for more diversified cultural jamming to continue and expand.

CPCF 1F25 – Blog Response #3: Demonstrable Demographics

Demographics are used in advertising to dividing consumers into groups based on age, sex, education, occupation, etc. This can help advertisers determine their target audience for particular products and develop advertisements toward a specific demographic. While reading other blogs from my classmates, I observed that there seem to be a shared concept from the advertisements we chose to analyze. This was the concept of how beauty and how solely aesthetics/appearance sells towards many young adolescents with its manipulative and persuasive advertisements they use. This can be seen with how the media and companies use advertisements to sell their products by using celebrities, popular television shows, lovable animals, or even ordinary people that can create a realistic approach from a person that can relate to you depending on age, gender, or ethnicity.

In my last blog post, I chose an advertisement that was made in Thailand of a Pantene commercial. It depicted a young girl and a shampoo with its tagline is “You can shine”. This idea of a young girl using beauty products in advertisements was similar to another blog post I found written by Christina Clark http://cclark865.wordpress.com/. She chose a dove advertisement called “Dove Camera Shy” which I have also seen on television many times. After watching this commercial, I smiled and this huge impact of self-confidence came uplifting me. Christina mentions that “This has a very wide target market. It has 16 to 60 year old women, which makes me think of my mother, my grandmother, baby sister, and myself”. This advertisement is touching upon young women of those ages as many other advertisements do so as well alike to the Pantene commercial. Like those girls, I too am captivated by the messages these ads are sending to me though, in a positive way of looking at things with self-confidence.

Another blog that reached out with its demographics is the hail they use out of the celebrity we know as a role model, Beyonce. I found several blogs that spoke about her however, Karly Mclinnis’s blog post really stuck out to me http://mcinniskarly.wordpress.com/ .The ad she chose was a perfume by Beyonce called “Pulse”. This advertisement leads a false impression of what the perfume will do to women. An interesting thing Karly noted was when she says “This product is being sold to consumers without it even being smelled. Perfume will not make you confident and powerful, it will just simply improve your smell”. This I thought was very true. When it comes to advertisements, they can create for very false and condescending objectives. I know from experience where I once saw a perfume commercial from one of my favourite celebrities. Like Beyonce, this perfume accentuated that if you use it, you will be as confident like Beyonce. I purchased the perfume because it looked nice but later after using it, I experienced allergic reactions with this certain perfume. It is rare for me to receive any allergic reaction with perfume although this product without even smelling it because of the impact the celebrity and advertising it had on me, persuaded me into buying it and not even being able to use it.

To pinpoint, I found another blog post that focused on the gender roles that most advertisements give. In Linda T.’s blog, she wrote about a Heinz company ad that had a woman pose with a ketchup bottle http://lt09mj.wordpress.com/ . She goes on to saying “The advertisement had a tag line; “You mean a woman can open this?” This advertisement not only ‘hailed’ the women but it also interpellated consumers on a subconscious level thus validated the male and societys’ perceptions of women at large”. I agree with what Linda is saying. She is showing that implicitly, even advertisements are categorizing women as to be weaker than men so in this Heinz ad “You mean a woman can open this?” is significantly impacting on how even in the 21^st century, women are still seen as unequal and vulnerable to the ‘power’ men seemingly show. In various advertisements, the women often are seen to be passive as the men are inferior; like those commercials with alcohol tend to felicitate itself with one man and numerous women surrounding him.

All in all, these demographics used in the advertisements represented a good example of how influential they can be on our society, and hail to the public by what can make their ads sell.

CPCF 1F25- Blog Entry #3 – What the Hail?

In the media, a major impact that enhances for our society to be influenced is moved by advertisements. There are many ads that can leave an encouraging effect however, there are also those ads that create for controversial and deleterious effects to be brought among the public as well. Most of us like to focus dramatically on the negative effects with advertisements such as alcohol commercials, fast food advertising and other ads like these which give an illusion of disbelief. On the other hand, there are plentiful advertisements that create for positive awareness that try to exhibit the greater good in society. Positive ads that help for a better motive such as helping the environment, saving energy, better water resources; or other ads that help with reinforcement as well as petitions to induce and aggravate for people to make an impact that can change for a greater good on a global scale.

I choose to focus on a Thai Pantene advertisement. My friend had showed me this commercial and after watching it I was amazed and here is the link to it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQyxU9Hp87A I chose this ad because to me it symbolizes and provokes a message that inspires many and gives benefits from the product as well as the person purchasing the product. This Pantene commercial was the story of a deaf girl who learns to play the violin against all odds. The four minute video was released briefly in September 2008, aired on television and in cinemas, and distributed online where it continues to grow in popularity.

This advertisement’s main message was “you can shine” outlining an inspirational route to attaining self-confidence. The film demonstrates how one is able to shine from within and targets women of particularity young age with. Pantene’s tagline “You can shine” speaks about unlocking one’s true potential where the brand plays a subtle, yet essential part of a woman’s intimate journey of confidence and self-discovery, eventually, manifesting itself in the presence of beautiful and confident locks of hair.

A word that is affiliated with advertising is interpellation. Interpellation in advertising has to do a lot with identifying with a particular idea or identity. If an advertisement is successful, it will have the viewer placing themselves mentally right in the advertisement. “So In our identity we internalize particular ways of thinking, feeling, and believing, we take on particular ideologies” (O’Shaughnessy and Stadler, Media and Society, pg.184). This quote helps explains interpellation and how it can be perceived in advertisements. With the Pantene ad, it makes us internalize our emotions and feelings of our identity along with this ad. The girl playing the violin knew who she was being deaf; however she still went on to play for her love of the violin as we were internalizing the ad, relating it to ourselves in other aspects from our lives as well.  This ad immensely hails to the audience by the impact from its message. “While your national identity, your personal name, and your body shape may seem to be a natural part of you, try to see these as parts of your constructed subjectivity…” (O’Shaughnessy and Stadler, Media and Society, pg.188). I found this to be very correct since in this Pantene ad, it attempted to make young women believe in having their hair as a distinctive part that with whatever our goal is, we should not be afraid to achieve it; thus being represented at the end of the commercial.

I very much support the message that Pantene was conveying to us and was inspired by it as well. As an emotional and moving person, I found this commercial great in targeting young women like myself to think beyond the shampoo Pantene is known for but to remember that we can also shine and gravitate towards anything that comes our way.

CPCF 1F25- Blog Entry #2

Throughout the years, the mass media has hugely impacted our lives and surrounds us with substantial influence. Surely, we are convinced by the media from entertainment, advertisements, the news, etc.  The questions that many inquire often are: Do we get the media we want, or want the media we get? It is difficult to answer this question, although presumably, I believe that we gear more towards wanting the media that we get. Our humankind has expanded into the many possibilities and endless encounters of what the mass media has given to us. It has become common for a person from an everyday life style, to wake up in the morning, and often check the news. If one day, there is no news whatsoever for that one person to check, it thus makes the person wanting some sort of news to exist since he/she is so vulnerable and use to checking it every morning.

From a personal perspective, I can guarantee as for myself like many others do that we want what the media gives us. From popular shows, to magazines and pop culture; we all want something new to come from those each and every day. “Most of us have, for example, some idea of what the Himalayas is and what they look like, but this knowledge is most likely to be gained not from our actual experience of going there, but through representations: reading about them, hearing and watching media stories told about them…” (O’Shaughnessey & Stadler 2012, 35). This quote is very evident and explains that the more one hears and sees something such as the popular cite of the Himalayas, it makes us want to go there, or want to know more about it. We are also exemplified to the technology commencing before us. Recently, the new iPhones came out with iPhone 5s or the iPhone 5c as well as the new Bbm app that Apple had bought from Blackberry. Something new and more advance is continuously being brought into our society because the majority of us keep asking for it. We yearn for more and more products to be given to us and have statements such as: we want to see something even better than the IPhone.  We are constantly inquiring and anticipating for a newer and better product to come into play in our society.

Ultimately, we are principally manipulated by what the media gives to us which makes us wanting more. From a view of interpretation, “the media teach us about masculinity and femininity, what it means to be a ‘normal’ man or woman…” (O’Shaughnessey & Stadler 2012, 35). This explains that the mass media has given us all an ideal image of beauty and aesthetics which also internally hurts us as human beings which create insecurities. However, there are foremost popular television shows that interest us on viewing them. Shows like America’s Next Top Model, Keeping up with the Kardashians, The X Factor, and so on. Shows such as these keep us coming back with wanting more of what the media gives us, though it makes for the implicit negative messages about the separation of what is to be a man and what it is to be a woman. Not only that but also, the many gossip the media exploits to us as well. From all the scandals of celebrities to which celebrity couple is getting engaged to next give us a huge advantage in wanting more of what the media gives to us. In the end, there are both positive and negative effects of what the media can give to us, nevertheless it is from our standpoint that we indulge and desire for more of what the media has to offer.

1f25 blog response 1: Media Impact on Others

It is considerably significant of the impact that the mass media has on not only me, but on others as well. While looking and embarking upon other blogs with topics such as this, I found that many shared the same opinion in which the mass media has greatly affected society as a whole.

                From a blog I read by Chloe Lemay, http://chloejocelyn.blogspot.ca/ she says “I have been corrupted to expect people to be either interesting, good and amazing like heroes on TV and half of the people on tumblr”. This was an interesting way to put things. I found that Chloe touched upon the major sites such as Tumblr and television to have an egregious effect on the way people think and act. I’ve made a Tumblr account myself, and so I can relate to what Chloe is saying and ever since I made an account on Tumblr, I’ve changed immensely as a person. Fashion wise, it gives great pictures of clothing and expression which is what I enjoy most about it however, it also comprises with many advertisements that can have a negative effect on a person, such as; many images and written  quotes that can hugely touch one’s insecurities. There have been many times where I’ve scrolled on my news feed to find pictures that have made me think “If only I were to look like her…” causing me to over think and further engage with this aspect to what the mass media has given to us.

                As for another blog I found by Ashley Penrice http://apenrice.wordpress.com/ she shares her thoughts on the ideal image of a girl being affected by the mass media. She says, “The media tends to show people in an unrealistic way, causing girls to resort to diets or eating disorders to resemble the skinny image. Although I have not had to deal with this issue personally, it has touched people close to me, trying to make themselves look ‘proper’ or ‘perfect’. “ I unquestionably  can relate to what she is pointing out here. We’ve all heard and touched upon this in class at one point in our lives; about how many girls have suffered do to eating disorders and wanting to have that ‘perfect’ image or be like a celebrity which corresponds to how we all are aware of this and even if we haven’t experienced this ourselves, most of us probably know of someone is suffering from this just like Ashley.

                A blog I read which gave me a different perspective and impression that changed one of my ways of thinking was from Jaime Foster http://comedressedtoimpress.wordpress.com/. “I’ve been into gaming since I was young and I now know the extent that this media reaches into your life, especially if you’re a super-geek like me and live by your favorite franchise.” Jaime says this which gave me a lot to think about. I never noticed how video games could impact others on a media-influential level. After reading what Jaime’s thoughts were, I started to notice that video games also play a big part in contributing the masses of the media’s influence. Lately, I’ve been hearing that a new game came out which was Grand Theft Auto 5. His video game in particular is a very violent and corrupted game. The fact that so many people play it gives for others to unknowingly be so captivated by what messages are actually derived from it.

                In a significant result, I found that their worldviews commonly talked about how we are constantly engaged towards the media and how we take in what the media gives us as well. My initial thoughts were very similar to many others however I found that there are other certain ways that the media can influence us. We live, breathe, and yearn for what the media has for us next.

CPCF 1F25-Blog Entry #1

The mass media that is seen today is immeasurably spreading throughout the entire universe. Everything and anything appears to attain and to captivate society as a whole by a means of communication through the media as well as a vast majority obliged by the technology created. The overall aspects that help influence the power of media to reach its masses can be seen from advertisements, propaganda, the local radio, broadcast, to the globalization of the internet which can be accessed anywhere at any time such as our iPhones, laptops etc. The internet has such an incredible effect on everyone’s daily lives. It is slowly changing us to have the need of wanting access to the internet at all times whether we are in the middle of a lecture at Brock University, or at a dinner table with the family. The chaotic behaviour we have now adapted to with how technology and the internet have taken over our minds makes it rather harder to cope without the usage of it at one point during the day. It is much more likely that society will be more concerned about the disconnection and discontinuity of having no internet than a progressing zombie apocalypse taking over the world.

Even though we know and are quite aware of what is happening to us as human beings succumbing to how we spend our every waking moment with the mass media and technology, the question is; what makes us drawn in by the media? There are many pros and cons with the role that the mass media plays in our day to day lives, and the effects to an extent can be very detrimental. This can have something to do with the mass of what we define as beauty to be, suicide rates, warfare, news broadcasted around the world and so much more. Many of the media affects us in ways of those matters, however it is the way that it is presented to us which makes a big impact. This can include music, television, magazines, and popular sites such as YouTube. There will always be some sort of access to the media and it is a predominant conflict we are facing.

From a personal perspective, I have greatly experienced and been manipulated by what the mass media has led me to experience. I have with an immense understanding of low self-esteem. I have dealt with racism and not being able to accept that I am what I have to be. To make things more clear, I have always wondered about what the essence of true beauty was and why I was so caught up with wanting to find an answer for it. Being insecure was also another attribute of what the media has given me to be. I know, I am not the only insecure person living on this earth, though I very well know the feelings of it. Being in a relationship, I have also become more insecure because of the pervasive images that the media gives us such as the objective of wanting to be the perfect girlfriend/boyfriend you can be to your lover and thus can go on to the influence of plastic surgery, weight issues, and so forth. The mass media does have an influence on our everyday lives and can later on turn us into something that will gradually change us as human beings.