Reflection

Since beginning this class, I admit that nothing has changed whatsoever as far as my own media consumption is concerned. The amount of time I spend either watching television or surfing the Internet, which was pretty much minimal to begin with, has not been impacted in any way. But what has changed since the start of the semester is how I perceive the amount of media that I am exposed to. Before, I would often just ignore what I saw, only occasionally giving my attention to an ad that seemed even more out of the ordinary, in other words, that broke through the clutter real well. Even then, I would simply remark that it was a well-made advertisement and keep going about my business.

Ever since then, I have become a bit more aware of the world of media around me, and I can now tell how marketers and advertisers try to manipulate us in the most extraordinary, and often desperate, ways. The glitz and glamour they try to promote is no longer as effective once you have analyzed it to the point of exhaustion, and I believe that is one of the key advantages of taking this class. The good advertisements are no longer as good, the bad advertisements are made even more awful as you see what exactly the companies are aiming for as far as the reactions of their target audience is concerned. The onslaught of commercials make sickening sense, as they form a pattern that helps you realize exactly how large corporations view you, how they believe they understand you and try to take advantage of that.

Perhaps one of the most remarkable things I have gained from this class is how the time-tested and tried formulas that corporations use have become so commonplace that we can see it being utilized outside of the commercial realm. I have often tied it to public service announcements and advertisements in this blog, but there are other ways to see it. After all, it's present in films, with actresses on the silver screen being just as demeaned and demoralized as the models who sell a specific product. We see it in politics, with many potential leaders saying that they have that special "magic ingredient" to add to their plans that will solve all of our country's problems, and how they try to convince us that they are much like ourselves, that they understand our hopes and desires. Everywhere you turn, there is some form of manipulation present, and perhaps the worst part of it is, that it often works.

In "Merchants of Cool", they often pointed to the whole dilemma of whether media is a reflection of society, or whether society is reflecting the media. Much like the one hand clapping or the hypothetical tree falling in the forest, this is a question that is extremely complicated to answer. Certainly, as I've said before, the media is present in our daily lives. But whether we're influenced by them, or they're influenced by us is simply a matter of perspective. Personally, I feel that this class is designed to help us break this vicious cycle and perhaps, make us either stop being a reflection, or distorting the image the media believes that we are.