Skip to main content
My Relationship With Media:

My relationship with media is wonderfully twisted. While I despise the existence of social media and often find myself annoyed by conservative news outlets for their portrayal of reality, I believe that media is central to the continuation of society. Thus, I have created a paradox. This is complicated further by the fact that I would like to pursue Investigative Journalism, and in the process of carving a niche for myself in the career that I want, I will inevitably be confronted by the various forms of media that I dislike. Daily, I spend about 15-20 hours using different types of media. To the adults and children who find this number shocking and appalling, it is entirely true. I spend all day in school, using different forms of media to educate myself. Then, I go home and use various forms of media to communicate and do my extracurriculars. After that, I use other types of media to tackle the gargantuan amount of homework I was assigned in school. Then, I sleep. My life is lived in conjunction with media. I suppose there’s nothing to be done about this fact besides accepting and coping with it. The alternative is to recede into myself and move to the outskirts of society in order to live uninfluenced by the outside world. Shockingly, I don’t find this option appealing. Instead, I hope to find a balance with regards to my level of media intake where I can utilize it in order to keep up with the world around me without becoming entirely dependent on it.  As an Investigative Journalist, I will seek out an employer that doesn’t actively try to manipulate readers with choice language and content. I will also strive to work for a company that moderates the use of algorithmic data to create personalized news feeds. Media has to potential to do wondrous things for our world, but selfish, arrogant idiots pose a threat to its capacity to have a positive influence. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Si Perfume - Giorgio Armani (Post 2)

Perfume campaigns are notoriously vague, and they often portray sexualized famous people trying to convince the commoners (us) that we will be beautiful once we smell good. This campaign, "Si by Giorgio Armani," takes a different approach. Its main message is that women should take control of their lives and just say, "SÌ." By using their perfume as a symbol of power rather than sex, they are riding the wave of feminism in popular culture and telling their viewers that women will finally have the autonomy and control we deserve the moment we walk through a cloud of their smell-fluid. Shockingly, I think this is absolute bullshit. First, the character in the commercial is very far removed from reality. The idea of freedom she embodies involves sky-diving, wearing couture in a shopping market, and stealing a man's jacket. Few sane people who would buy this perfume, i.e. their target demographic, have the money to go sky-diving, sport couture simply because the
2 comments
Read more

The Internet: The Factual Candy Store (Post 6)

The standard of truth held dear by news media organizations and American culture has been diminished and often disregarded because of the rise of the internet. That is not to say that we were ever entirely truthful. While our version of democracy has always required a certain degree of transparency and communication, we have never shied away from propaganda and smear campaigns and rose-colored depictions of our own society (except when it was inconvenient). However, the internet has given way to a whole new form of communication and unprecedented access to information. People are free to choose whose writing they read and whose version of truth they listen to because there is an overwhelming variety of options and no time to listen to all of them. And this is bad. It opens new markets. Because we want to hear what we already believe, we seem to have reached the consensus that there is no longer a need for local papers and truthful news,
1 comment
Read more

An Ode to Barbara (Post 8)

One of the people interviewed in the PBS Frontline episode "Merchants of Cool" was 13-year-old Barbara, who epitomized the impact of media on youths and youth culture. Barbara, who had grown up watching Brittany Spears and the other over-sexualized Midriffs of the world, was intent on becoming a model and looking like the women she had seen on TV. And it broke my heart. It was horrifying that a child, a 13-year-old girl, was so moved by the image of femininity forced on her by advertising that she flew to the International Model and Talent Association's annual convention and walked on a stage to be judged by adults who wanted to use her in advertising campaigns that would further perpetuate the stereotypes she fell prey to and line their pockets with money. She beamed when she was told that she could pass for a 16 or 17-year-old, and she was told that she was a "good girl," when she said that her main goal was "success." She wore skimpy, sexualiz
1 comment
Read more