Most teenagers, never genuinely love a homework assignment they're given. Projects can be fun, until they're actually graded. I confess that I was actually looking forward to this assignment. Although, like most great things, the novelty eventually wore off.
The word blog has a positive connotation. Every successful fashion writer that I've ever come across in Teen Vogue, has started out with a blog. Today, people often read political blogs, like the Daily Howler, more than they do columns in the New York Times. Blogs allow people to express themselves. It gives us a chance to share our life story, our opinions and have people actually care. I think making this assignment a blog was a good strategy. It is also reflective of the influence technology has gained in today's society. Ironically, it also reflects the influence of media.
The statement, "technology is all around us", no longer surprises us the way it might have ten or twenty years ago. Technology, and its impact on media, is an inherent part of our generation. I didn't need to write this blog to realize that. This blog did, however, help me realize that I can no longer keep track of how much time I spend with technology or how much time I spend consuming media. Maybe it's just me. I might be making a generalization by saying that this probably applies to most people.
We spend all this time consuming media, but how aware are we of what we're consuming? Most people have a general awareness. By that I mean that they are aware that media is a kind of a game. They know that advertisers, news producers, and other media-related professionals use certain angles in the media to get what they want. I think most people realize that media is developed specifically to influence you. I knew that they had strategies, but I didn't know what they were. I think, or I hope, that most people are in the same boat that I was in before I took this class and wrote this blog.
The critical thinking class gave me the skills I needed to improve my media literacy, but the blog allowed me to apply those skills. In some ways, it was like learning to read. It's not enough to learn the sounds and meanings of the words. You have to be able to piece of text and read it. I think I've become more media literate. I notice fallacies, advertising appeals, and advertising techniques in media now. As corny as it sounds, I feel like I solved a mystery. Writing this blog gave me that Sherlock Holmes-"aha" moment. In context of my teenage social life, it was like figuring out a secret that people and been keeping in front of my face.
I firmly believe that media literacy should be a required class. Media has a negative influence on a lot of issues. Unfortunately, we can't regulate media for the same reason that Congress can't stricter gun laws. Big corporate names, with power akin to that of the NRA, can and will convince people that the government is trying to take away their freedom. People love their freedom too much. Most wouldn't vote for this law even if it was for the good of society. That's why a media literacy class is so important. If media is unregulated, then people need to become media literate, so they can process it all.
Is becoming media literate a good thing? Does it really defend us against big corporate interests? Are we really being brainwashed by the media? Yes, yes, and yes. Becoming media literacy does defend us against big corporate interests. Media is really brainwashing us into believing some things that aren't true. I think a lot of people buy things that are being advertised online, on the TV, in magazines, or anywhere else. We buy things or believe in ideas that have a lot of media "hype", so to speak. Take Kony 2012 for example. High school students alone donated thousands of dollars to an organization that kept getting sketchier and sketchier as the money poured in. After the "hype" died down, and was killed by the organization after the founder's nervous break down, nothing great happened for those invisible children.
Becoming literate in the media, for me, debunked an current American myth: there is no glass ceiling in America. Women have made a lot of progress in the United States, but my media literacy skills and the documentary Missrepresentation helped me realize that there is still a glass ceiling. Its been hiding in the bushes that are the media. Women are still over sexualized in the media. The same misogynistic or sexist stereotypes and assumptions still exist, especially in the media.
I thought this media blog was very beneficial. It helped me take a closer look at the media I was consuming. As high school students, we are reaching a point where we're going to start making our own decisions. We won't have our parents with us to hold our hands. Even our parents our influenced by the media. As teens, we've realized, or will come to realize, that our parents aren't always right. We need to respond by learning to make our own educated decisions, instead of with a "screw you". All Americans need to become educated because our voice, not the voice of big corporate (or whatever big wig suits your fancy) interests, needs to be the loudest. As a world population, we need to become media literate. Sure, people say that the media "markets" to us. In actuality, media often shapes us so we are marketable. That's why we need to become media literate. We need to get educated and get literate, media literate.
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