Is the fake news the real news?!

Many of us would do or believe in anything the media tells us. According to O’Shaughnessy and Stadler on page 214, “the objectives of culture jamming often include consciousness raising (raising awareness of social and political issues) as well as using the media to criticise the media and dominant culture”. Sometimes these individuals (culture jammers) use some humour while reporting the issue, thus I think it is legitimate to suggest that satirical news reporting is a mainstream form of culture jamming. Adding a bit of comedy in news gives people different perspectives on issues. People are attracted to humour and I think it really makes us think about issues. Even though some people do not like satirical news reporting such as The Daily Show and The Rick Mercer Report, it starts debates. This makes people see other people’s point of views, and I think it’s entertaining reading some people’s comments on the Youtube videos. On page 214, it stated that culture jammers “try to denaturalise the media images that we see everyday by making us notice and challenge their underlying message”. Satirical news reporting is a different way to discuss issues and I think it is a useful addition to the public sphere. It is very popular among youth/ young adults because I see photos of The Daily Show on my Tumblr of them actually talking about important issues. When I see these pictures, I do my research on the issue. We are curious about what these culture jammers are talking about, and also why they are talking about it. We want to know if the things they are discussing about could be true. 

-       - Jen

References:

O’Shaughnessy, Michael, and Jane Stadler. Media and Society. 5th ed. Australia: Oxford University Press, 2012. Print.

What the Hail - Blog Responses

Many of my classmates’ blog entries on advertising and interpellation were very similar to my entry. For my entry, I focused on how us females have to do so much to our bodies to reach society’s ideal body image. I knew that males have to try to reach society’s ideal body image as well, but I always thought males didn’t really care about that stuff. After reading some of my male classmates’ entries, I realized they have it hard too. Liam stated, “…. There is also an overlooked factor for men with unrealistic standards of what a ‘normal’ body type should be” (http://dunsey.wordpress.com/2013/11/08/what-the-hail/). Liam is right about this – we often ignore that males have to try to reach society’s expectations too. He discusses how the ad he chose targeted males, telling them they should work out, and wear Nike clothing to get an athletic and muscular built. People around my age want to look healthy and have the perfect body, thus having a young adult in the represents our demographic. Madison talks about an advertisement for Revlon mascara. She stated that the advertisement is, “implying that we are not fabulous before, and we can only achieve being fabulous, while wearing their product” (http://mb12qe.wordpress.com/2013/11/07/what-the-hail/). Most females (but obviously not all) wear makeup and care way too much about their appearance. I am one of those females, thus I think this ad accurately represents my demographic. In our society, we have to follow our correct gender role. If we’re male, we have to be masculine and if we’re female, we have to be feminine. One of my peers stated, “our identities as members of our particular sex are engraved into our heads from day one and the media does its fair share of increasing the impact it has on us” (http://bkennedy94.blogspot.ca). He talks about the Old Spice commercial and how men have to smell like the man in the commercial if they want to feel masculine and have women run after them. Obviously some males want that, so they buy this product. For females, we should wear makeup to look girly and etc. These ads are similar to the ad I chose because if we want to look a certain way, we should listen to the advertisers. They tell us we should use their product to achieve society’s ideal image.

Advertising and interpellation

This is an ad created by Dove promoting a positive body image for women – but are they really? In the media, women are skinny, flawless, have big breasts, and etc. Dove wanted to show that curvy women were the prettiest and were more ‘realistic’ compared to the women we see in the media. This ad hails and interpellates me in its messaging by telling me I should use their product to take care of my body and to love my body. The ad also sends a message stating that ‘bigger’ women are gorgeous and normal. However, the ad was not successful in its attempt to represent my norms, values, and/or beliefs as a means by which to attract my attention to, and interest in the product advertised. I think it was brave for Dove to go against society’s ideal female body image, but sending a message stating that curvy women are more beautiful than skinny women is still wrong. I am not skinny, and I am not big, does that mean I’m not pretty in anyone’s eyes? Does it mean I am not ‘realistic’? The models in the ad are still flawess . They have no stretch marks, scars, and they all have perfect curves – not realistic whatsoever. I understand Dove is trying to promote a positive female body image (or is just a marketing strategy?), but in reality, not all women look like the models in the ad. “…Our personality, our individual identity, and our subjectivity have been produced by a number of external factors” (p. 184).  Ads like this one are the reasons why many of us are insecure about how we look and act, thus we change ourselves. We buy beauty products, change our eating habits and clothing style, and etc., to reach society’s ideal of beauty. Everything about us is created by society.

On page 189 of the textbook, O’Shaughnessy and Stadler (2012) said, “we live in a culture that stresses individuality, encourages us to believe that every person has unique qualities, and puts forward the view that we have control over who we are, what we do, and how others see us, but this view is questionable”. The media tells us to love ourselves the way we are. They tell us we are all unique and to ignore what others say about us, but if we do something against society’s norms or don’t reach society’s ideal body image, we will be looked down upon. We have to change ourselves to keep our society happy. Sometimes I wonder who would we think is beautiful if society didn’t tell us who is beautiful?


- Jen

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References:

O’Shaughnessy, Michael, and Jane Stadler. Media and Society. 5th ed. Australia: Oxford University Press, 2012. Print.

Is the media we want the same as the media we need?

I believe my media choices better inform me about important social, political, cultural, and/or economic matters. I think it is easy to find this information as well because media is everywhere around us. I can find news on the world by just going on my phone. I don’t even have to go on a website dedicated to news; I can just go on Twitter. I am a very curious person, thus I like being informed on things that are happening anywhere in the world. Is the media we want the same as the media we need? In my opinion, the media we want is not the same as the media we need. Like I said, I am a curious person, so I like knowing celebrity gossip, or knowing who went home on last night’s episode of The X-Factor. Do I need this media? Of course not, but I sure do want it and the media knows what’s popular and what is unpopular in order to keep their audience interested. I also believe that the media does alter the information they receive in order to keep their audience interested. All social, political, cultural, and the economic matters we hear, read and see isn’t always completely true. The media tweaks it a bit so we can stay engaged.

Reading my peers’ blogs, I chose three entries that had the same views as me. One of my classmate’s said “…when I type something into a Google search bar, that search is taken into account and used as information for advertisers’ so they will advertise something related to that search” (http://isaacc56.wordpress.com/). This is one of the media’s way of knowing what WE want, and using this information to keep us interested. I think this is a smart way for the media to know what is popular in our society, and to use that information to grab our attention. “Media is often developed to target specific needs and wants of the audience whether it be a sporting channel, home and garden programs, the food network, etc. “ (http://madysylvester.wordpress.com/). Mady is completely right when she said this because everyone is unique and have different interests. In my blog entry, I said myself I do not like the whole vampire/creature fad but a lot of people do, therefore the media creates shows, films, and etc. for people who are a fan of this fad. The media does have different stuff to keep their other audience members happy though just like what Mady said. Why does the media have to keep us happy? Well, if we’re not happy, the media isn't happy, thus the media needs to do their research to know what our wants are. Why? Well my classmate Veronica wrote, “because they want their audiences to eat up every little bit of it in order to make it profitable for them” (http://veronicatmeow.blogspot.ca/). If we don’t get the media we want, the media won’t get the money they want.

Do we get the media we want, or want the media we get?

This week’s blog entry definitely made me think, but after repeating the question for the 23^rd time, I believe we get the media we want. The media has to know what the audience (us) likes. On page 37 of the textbook, O’Shaughnessy and Stadler  (2012) stated, “if people do not like a product, they will look elsewhere for one, so the media must satisfy their popular audience”. The media has to listen to our ideas, know our likes and dislikes, and what is popular in our society so that the media knows what to show. If the media showed something that people had little interest in, people would ignore it. An example is the “vampire” fad. It all started when the “Twilight” series became popular. After the movie was a hit, the “Vampire Diaries” series became very popular as well, and someone decided to make this series into a television show. Smart move, because whoever created the show knew what people wanted, and now the show has become very popular (amongst female pre-teens and young female adults). However, it’s not just vampires, it’s mystical creatures in general. Television shows such as “Teen Wolf” have become very popular as well because of the character Jacob from “Twilight”. I am not a fan of this whole vampire and werewolves phase, but many people are, thus the media picks up from that and creates the stuff we want.

If we want to know how a society is/was, we use the media to help us. For example, if we wanted to know how people back in the 70’s dressed like, we look at pictures, films, and etc. “…The media reflect the realities, values, and norms of a society (O’Shaughnessy and Stadler, p.42). In my opinion, if society did not have these things, the media would have no idea what to create and to show to their audience. The media gets our ideas, our taste in style, our beliefs, and our actions in order to create something because why would they waste their time and create something that no one had interest in? The media only grab things that are popular, and present the stuff that WE want.

- Jen

References:

O’Shaughnessy, Michael, and Jane Stadler. Media and Society. 5th ed. Australia: Oxford University Press, 2012. Print.