News, trust, and “truthiness”

From my own opinion and from other classmate’s, it seems that we all agree that satirical news such as The Daily Show and the Rick Mercer Report, as equally as, if not more, good as your regular 6 o’clock news. Both provide facts and details about an event or happening, but the satirical news does so with humour and from a mindset that is more relatable to a younger audience that is more aware of what is going on in the world, and that isn’t as naive as other people.

One classmate states “I think this type of report (satirical) is very beneficial to the public sphere because it adds some comedy and entertainment to the way that news is portrayed to people. Although it can sometimes cause disruption in the news and media world, I think it is very beneficial for community members and news watchers”. When watching the regular 6 o’clock news, it can be a bit dry and you might miss some of the facts too when watching because it is making you fall half asleep, whereas the satirical news is very upbeat and enjoyable to watch. They also are a bit more down to earth and include humour.  Since news are on stations, they have to revolve around a certain ideology of the advertisers, so they tend to have biased, whereas satirical news say a bit more how it really is. As one classmate put it, “To watch these shows is a great way to get a second opinion of what is being reported and even a more truthful depiction of political characters” and put a real claim that the satirical news are in fact more useful than regular news since it gives the straight fact, which seems to be more real and not about money than the regular news. As megan put it, the news should be viewed with caution. She also reminds us that when news is reported incorrectly by mistake or just by design, it can indeed cause a lot of problems amongst the public. It seems the news uses the emotion of fear to drive people to watch their program, and to buy whatever the sponsors are putting on in the commercials in between.

The implications that the majority of us students would rather get our information from satirical news than the “6 o’clock” news is that people nowadays are more aware of what is going on than ever, which is due to various reasons. I think our younger generation are definitely not right wing, since we are environmentally aware, and our philosophy is not as much about money but more about being happy, albeit sometimes the two can go hand in hand. But naturally that makes us not so much of a conservative, and I can see in the future some of us being activists protesting for change of the way the news is delivered to us, and it should be. It should come to us in the most unbiased way as possible, and not revolve around money. And since we have the internet and just about anybody can make a news channel from their own opinion which could be more relatable to viewers, that could also force big corporate stations to change how they do the news just to appeal more to viewers to keep them. All in all, most of us do agree the satirical news provides a more relatable source to information of what’s going on in the world than the regular 6 o’clock news.

References:

http://brockbadger.wordpress.com

http://justmediaculture.wordpress.com

http://meganchey.wordpress.com

Is the fake news real news ?

Satirical news shows such as The Daily Show, Colbert Report, etc. I would definitely consider them to be mainstream of culture jamming.  When you think of it, the before mentioned shows do the exact same thing has regular news shows, they deliver the news, but they just do it differently. The news tends to be humourless, and have a bit of an opinion that suits whatever network they work for (right wing or left wing) whereas shows like the daily show give you the same news, just deliver it with more humour, and also provide their own skepticism and sarcasm to challenge certain topics that they are speaking of.  They usually stand up for the average joe person, and are against big corporations, and are media literate and are aware when something in the media is trying to manipulate their audience to make more money. Since these shows are on major TV channels (Comedy Network) which is extremely accessible, it is definitely a mainstream form of culture jamming.

Yes this type of reportage is definitely usage to the public sphere because it is a response to news, media ads, etc. and those things should be taking with skepticism because they are trying to take your money, and they are looking out for the public.  It is also a different option for people. If people don’t like the regular news, it is a refreshing alternative to hear the news in a more humourous way.

Demonstrable Demographics

There definitely seems to be a theme of “sex” in other ads that my peers are noticing as well, but there tends to be disagreement amongst us if these ads represent our demographic accurately or not.  One classmate used the brand Axe and their sexualized commercials for his example.  Axe ads typically show an average younger white male that a lot of young males can relate to just in terms of style, and once he sprays half a bottle of axe all over his body, good looking women swarm him, driving home the idea that if you wear our product, you’ll get laid.  The classmate did go on to say that he felt our demographic wasn’t represented accurately, and that we are not womanizing do anything to have sex type of people, rather we look for more than just looks in women.

Another classmate chose another fragrance ad, but a lesser known one. It was a magazine ad, of a young adult female and male, with the female in a very sexual position holding the bottle of cologne, and the male looking back at the camera with the same type of grin the cheetos cheetah has on in his commercial. This ad again shows that men, and more specifically young men, are all about having sex as their main life goal.  And I think even with the sly smile the guy in the ad has, it even interpelates young males to think this is what is going to make us happiest, this is the most fun thing to do in life, so buy this product and help fulfill your life.

And staying consistent with the last two classmates, this last student also referenced an axe commercial, and really panned in on the slogan used for the shampoo, “Lose the flakes, get the girls”. Is that all young men want in life? Why not, “Lose the flakes, while doing domesticated things like shop, clean the house, cook, and going to choir practice” I’m not a doctor but seeing as there are tons of dandruff shampoos out there, it seems like almost everybody suffers from dandruff. That is besides the point though. The slogan is clearly using sex as it’s motivating force to get males to buy their product, and just like the other advertisements as well.

I think on the surface of how young men seem to be, the representations the media makes of young males are a bit accurate, but I think when you take each young male individually there is obviously more to them. Yes we would all love to have sex, but I think we would much prefer to have 1 sexual partner that we love and can spend the rest of our lives with rather than going out and having sex with any girl that has two feet and a heart beat. Men too are sensitive and caring people, and I think with the feminist movement and trying to get rid of extreme masculinity, I think in the future more men will be allowed to show their sensitivity and emotion without looking weak, and it will be accepted.

References:

http://hecticglow.blogspot.ca

http://khalilstemmler.wordpress.com/2013/11/07/what-the-hail-blog-entry-3

http://chrisgarofalo.wordpress.com

What the Hail?

The Gillette multi razor commercial has a white, young, good looking, confident, well groomed male leading the commercial asking good looking white women in the commercial about what type of body hair they like on men. Of course they all say well groomed, hairless men or else that would defeat the purpose of the commercial if they all said “We like all of our men to be hairy cavemen beasts”.  This commercial seems to be targeted at my demographic (young male, single, white) I think the single male is the big demographic they are going after, because if you are already in a relationship or married, you’re probably not as desperate to take on new measures to find a mate or partner. The ad also has a lot of half naked men that are very fit and muscular.  The commercial also uses famous celebrity Kate Upton, which definitely will grab any heterosexual male’s attention. The commercial ends with the head honcho actor saying “the night is yours”.  That last statement relates to the masculinity discourse, that all masculine men can conquer the world, be successful, be strong and tough, party all night and get any woman he so desires. And with the gillette razor shaving off our body hair, that will help us even further to get any women we want.  From the textbook, using the nursery rhyme as an example “Slugs and snails and puppy dog’s tails”, using the end quote “the night is yours” interpellates males into thinking I am a man, I am dominant and strong, I can do whatever I want to do, when I want, and nobody will question me, which is definitely not the same for women, even in today’s day an age unfortunately.

This commercial is most definitely successful in its attempts to represent the values of it’s target market.  Most heterosexual young men stereotypically are attracted to beautiful women, so using that method alone isn’t very original, but it always seems to work.  And in the commercial asking “What do women want?” which I know from personal experience, and I am sure most guys can agree, is a question we have shared amongst each other for as long as we’ve lived. I think, psychologically speaking, by and large sex/love and death are the two biggest motivating factors for everyone on this planet, not just men, so sexualizing the commercial definitely also gets our attention.

You can sell almost anything, an event, any random product, if you sexualize the way you advertise it.
References:

O’Shaughnessy, M. & Stadler, J. Media and Society. 179-191.

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

Is anything that we want, ever something that we need? Sometimes yes, but I think most of the time no. Same can be said for the media. In terms of social, political, cultural or economic matters, unless you are involved with it personally, most of the time the way you are going to find out information about those matters is through the media.  Because we use the media as our source for these matters, varies on whether it’s better for it to inform you or to find out something from somebody specifically who knows it from their own first hand experience, which is of course rare to come by, and normally those people in turn go to a media source who relay the message to the masses.  One blogger believes it depends on the person if it’s beneficial for them to use the media as a source for various matters, because each matter is of a different level of priority or importance to each person. Some people only care to hear a little bit about sometimes, while some people care to hear a lot about other things. 

I personally think most of the time the media that we want is not the media that we need. I believe we need unbiased facts in terms of political news through the media, and that is extremely hard to come by. A political article from the Toronto Star, is going to have a different tone and opinion than an article from the National Post. Some folks are aware of what newspaper companies are right wing or left wing, but if you’re unaware and don’t yet have an opinion on political issues, just randomly grabbing whatever newspaper can shape the way you view society. Same with commercials, if you are not media literate and the commercial is saying “you need this” then you might actually go out and spend the money you don’t have on said item. One blogger thinks the media is a 100% same representation of society, that it is essentially holding up a mirror to the world, where as another blogger thinks it depends on whoever is on the other side of the TV or media outlet. Sometimes it is mirror’d, and sometimes it is not. You could argue that most of the media has a “capitalist” ideology, writing any article about anything, trying to sell anything, without any moral thought, just to make an extra buck. And you could argue on a personal level that yes, that is a perfect representation of yourself, or no, that is not a representation of yourself at all. Regardless if it is something that is an accurate representation of yourself or not, since it is contextual media in general that you find beneficial to yourself personally i think isn’t that hard to find, you just have to do some research at first, but thanks to the internet, it really is not that hard.  I think why maybe some people wouldn’t choose to search to find a source of media that they can relate to and agree with, and need essentially, is at times it can be a bit aggravating and tricky to find, and how do you know for sure the source is reliable? And also if you are really opinionated, naturally it is hard to find somebody with similar ideas and thoughts as yourself, especially if they are abstract.

I think once this capitalist ideology is gone from our society (could be sometime) that is more likely when the media we want will be exactly and just what we need. 

sources:

http://cardilloblog.wordpress.com/2013/10/25/1f25-post-2-do-we-want-the-media-we-get-or-get-the-media-we-want/

http://patricksimmonsblog.wordpress.com/2013/10/24/1f25-post-2the-media-we-want/

http://justmediaculture.wordpress.com

Media Impact

The way media impacts a person’s life depends on how media literate they are.  If a person has been bombarded their whole life through various mediums, they are able to on their own filter what the real facts are and use towards their world view.  If somebody isn’t used to, or just not media literate, being bombarded by media, it can have an enormous impact on their world view.  As an example, marketing companies are very smart. Even on children television networks, they will still have car commercials because they know what kind of role children have within their family, they cannot buy the car themselves but they can bug their parents to death about buying a certain car that they saw an ad for while they were watching saturday morning cartoons (if those still exist). It seems that most people are slowly becoming more media literate, and I think people in the age group of 21-41 are probably the most media literate since they’ve experience enough of it their, especially in their younger lives as well.

For myself as an example, I see things differently than what the media tries to say is true. I have never seen a film, commercial, TV show etc that has been a 100% true representation of society (like looking into a mirror). I think we can learn a lot from films especially, and some TV shows, but at the same time we have to take it with a grain of salt because whoever is the person behind making that specific show, commercial, etc, could have biases, and in turn that could influence you on the way you view the world similar to theirs.  One very specific example is the movie “An Inconvenient Truth” I am no way saying I am a global warming expert, but after this movie came out it really seemed all the eco friendly products really took off, and I don’t remember the movie too well, but I remember thinking some of the points Al Gore was making to be exaggerated. But nevertheless, that film had a huge impact on the sales of eco friendly stuff, hybrid cars, energy efficient appliances etc because they ultimately assumed Al Gore was saying truthful things, and also probably because of fear. I think whenever the media wants to get people to do something, they use fear as their ammo.

Since I feel I am media literate, I don’t think the media has as big of an impact on my world views as much as other peoples, but I still think since we are constantly bombarded by advertisements, and since we carry around so many technological devices daily we are surrounded by media every minute of our waking day, it obviously has some sort of influence on us in terms of impacting our world views, but it’s extent varies from individual to individual.  It can impact it greatly, or it can impact it not very much at all.