I was inspired by this post on Prof. Boyd’s miscellaneous thoughts:
Posted February 7, 2012: Possible blog topic prompt
Apparently, dealing with unwanted friend requests can be a common problem for people. This article amusingly discusses this dilemma and provides possible solutions. Option #4 seemed like particularly good advice, especially as you define your online presence. Take some time to do some digital “Spring Cleaning” and write about your experience. The purging doesn’t have to only be contained to Facebook – consider any abandoned e-mail accounts, neglected social networking profiles, outdated blog and vlogs, etc.
Upon reading the attached article and doing a bit more research, I stumbled across another very interesting article. It cites a recent study presented at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology that claims that people with over 354 friends were less happy. The reason they point to? That Facebook is where we enviously view other people’s lives. We use Facebook to compare ourselves to others. And Facebook usually gives an inflated view of the perfection of one’s life. Therefore, with over 354 friends, you spend more and more time stalking and envying friends’ lives.
As it turns out…..very easy. Being a freshman at Tufts, though I had already done the ‘college purge’ of Facebook friends, it was not hard to find those people from high school whom I was merely acquaintances with. And with a click of a button, the last connection I had to them was gone. And I was completely fine with it. It is almost as if I feel a lot lighter. I feel like this is a very healthy exercise everyone should go through every so often. It is so easy to press the “accept friend request button,” but do you really want thousands of people able to look at all of your things? Are you really close enough to them to be concerned about their life?
Purge today!
I’ve always been curious about the so called ‘liberal media’ bias. I started by simply googling liberal media bias and found the Wikipedia page for Media Bias in the United States. I found many of the statistics interesting, but I thought some of the page’s statistics weren’t exactly relevant. The statistics mainly focus on the reporters and newscasters (like Brian Williams, who I saw speak today!) There was very little on the Wiki page that discussed the owners of these major news corporations and the huge media conglomerates that have formed. It is no secret that businessmen and huge corporations are overwhelmingly conservative and Republican. I think a good example of this is Rupert Murdoch and Fox News. I stumbled across two articles, The Worst Fox News Moments of 2011 and 14 Propaganda Techniques Fox ‘News” Uses to Brainwash Americans.
I found both these articles humorous as well as depressing. Now, granted, these articles come from very biased sources that obviously hate Fox News and what it stands for. However, this doesn’t change the facts. All the ‘worst moments’ happened. They’re not faking that. And in reading the ‘14 Propaganda Techniques,’ I found myself nodding and was easily able to think of examples right off the top of my head. All the same though, I myself am biased. I greatly dislike Fox News and lean very extremely to the liberal end of the liberal-conservative spectrum. I doubt I would criticize an openly liberal news media source as harshly as I judge Fox News. But although this is less than ideal in the goal of being impartial and unbiased, at least I am aware of my leanings and tendencies.
From these websites as well as my vast experience with media, I am still not convinced of a definitive media bias. My online research also surfaced many sites like this one, Newsbusters.org. I am still highly critical of these sights. They make me feel as if they are a part of a conspiracy to bring down the world. I’m not sure why I have such a violent reaction, but since I don’t believe there is a liberal media bias, these sites merely come off as lying, sensationalistic undermining of the current liberal government. However, upon further reflection, I think I would judge the same ‘watchdog’ sites on the liberal side of the spectrum as righteous and legitimate. And I am thankful for them. This is obviously also a problem. But again, at least I recognize it. I am not just spewing any fact I find that supports my viewpoint.
But, I do need to be more open-minded and centered. Maybe a good exercise would be to go through some of these more conservative websites to recognize the points they are making and then fact check them myself, trying to understand any points they are making.
Cited in this Post:
An interesting clip reminding us that we’re not usually seeing real life in advertisements.
I’m curious as to how successful Dove’s Real Beauty advertising campaign has been since it is a dramatically different approach than most companies in the same market take. Most take the approach of the following ad…
The girl on the right looks horribly thin. Very unnatural and very obviously photoshopped.
Both of these are good examples of the overall trend that is happening right now in the objectification and sexualization of women. A documentary that explains the problem and its troubling widespread effects is Miss Representation. The trailer can be found here. Its summary:
“Like drawing back a curtain to let bright light stream in, Miss Representation (90 min; TV-14 DL) uncovers a glaring reality we live with every day but fail to see. Written and directed by Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the film exposes how mainstream media contribute to the under-representation of women in positions of power and influence in America. The film challenges the media’s limited and often disparaging portrayals of women and girls, which make it difficult for women to achieve leadership positions and for the average woman to feel powerful herself.”
This is a fantastic documentary by Jennifer Siebel Newsom. The film is currently showing in theatres across the country. You can find a screening in your area here, or visit the MissRepresentation homepage.
I would highly recommend this documentary to anyone and everyone. This sexualization and objectification of women is so pervasive in our culture that I think it has primarily become a part of our automatic processing of media messages.
You hear about it every day. Kim Kardashian’s photoshop scandal. Blake Lively’s baby bump or just too many cookies? Has so-and-so had plastic surgery? Check out pictures of so-and-so’s bikini body. etc. etc. etc. Thanks to the media, it has become very difficult to grow up as a girl in our culture.
And I think this kind of pervasiveness is extremely hard to combat for one particular reason. Even if you consider yourself very media literate. Even if you notice crazily deceptive depictions of beauty. Even if you watch documentaries like Miss Representation. Even if you try not to conform to the advertisements and movies. It’s almost impossible. One can be totally aware of the skewed depictions and inaccurate portrayals, yet be unable to shield themselves from the negative effects of these images. Even though I am personally very aware of the issue, it is still impossible to ignore society’s depiction of beauty in how the media depicts it. How can this change? I hope that movies like Miss Representation will build awareness. And hopefully, with awareness and a whole new generation that has more women than men attending college will be able to try and shift the tides to a more accepting, accurate depiction of women in the media.
This video is an interesting look at women in business.
“Women systematically underestimate their own abilities.”
“Men attribute their success to themselves and women attribute their success to external factors.”
Sheryl Sandberg really made me think. About myself, but also, after seeing this talk I wondered why this is a problem. Where does this problem stem from? And I think this just ties back into the earlier point of women’s portrayal in the media.
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I love this website. It is a blog that has charts of all types about anything you could ever imagine. It is an interesting concept to me because of the way I usually look at charts. The way I use charts usually stems from some project or data that I’m trying to get across. I have something I want to express, and I decide a chart is the best way to do that. This blog allows me to view charts almost in the opposite way. The chart aspect is the focus, not necessarily the material it is expressing. Perusing this website has led to my knowledge of many an obscure fact. I would highly recommend checking it out!
(Source: tanjents)
Protecting our Children
This is a very interesting depiction reminding us that what we show out kids is important. The media they are exposed to could color their attitudes and opinions for the rest of their life. The messages are not always so obvious as we would expect. It is a scary thought that parents don’t even catch the underlying messages they are teaching their children. This graphic really demonstrates to me how easy it is to read these books (or any other type of media, really) at surface level and not really consider deeper meaning constructions.
This also reminds me of an article i read about Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series (then this one as well after becoming interested in the topic). The two articles point out many astonishing connections between the Mormon faith and the Twilight books. The parallels are subtle, until they are pointed out. A few of the large points brought up in these articles are Edward as a Mormon depiction of an angel, the Mormon “Word of Wisdom” health rules, etc. Another point that has been greatly argued and is discussed in the second article highlights the role of Bella as an antifeminist.
Growing up, I LOVED the Twilight books. I read each of them multiple times. And never caught on to these underlying themes and symbols of creepy imagery (which I do not agree with). Irregardless of whether Stephanie Meyer was purposeful about putting the imagery and connections in her books, they do carry these hidden symbols. After I read the article and reflected on my reading of the books, I was horrified because many of the underlying themes (no premarital-sex, pro-life, existence of eternal life, anti-feminism) were very apparent to me. It was one of those situations where something doesn’t occur to you, but once you become aware of it, you notice it more and more and it becomes more apparent with more deep consideration.
The fact that I had read these books and never realized the underlying imagery I was getting barraged with is a very scary concept to me. I feel very robbed of my own freedom and almost brainwashed. Although I still don’t disagree with the morals and general way-of-living Meyers reinforced in her books, I do wonder what kind of an impact they still had on me and could have on other young readers. Is there going to be a whole generation of girls that grows up touting the “patriarchal and conservative” bent of her novels?
Though we cannot reasonably expect authors to include no personal context in their works, the debate over Twilight should remind us of the importance of critically examining what we read (along with other media) and how media is affecting the next generation.
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An innovative new medium…
(Source: ilovecharts)
An interesting chart giving us insight into what the publishers are really selling and what consumers want to see.
(Source: ilovecharts, via wanderthroughlife)
Everyone has their heyday
Reminded me of a core principle of media literacy… the life cycle metaphor for the development of the mass media industries. Each of the main industries (book, newspaper, magazine, film, recording, radio, broadcast television, cable television and computer) have gone through the five stages of the life cycle metaphor: “innovation (or birth), penetration (or growth), peak (maturity), decline and adaptation.” Each have had their heyday and each have improved upon each other to make media more accessible and present in people’s lives.
This brought me to wonder about what the new and more recent media industries have been on the rise. I don’t think it has to do with inventing completely new channels or media anymore, but merely adjusting and reworking existing medias. For example, cell phones, tablets, e-readers and computers share many similar functionalities. An e-reader is a cross between a book, newspaper, magazine and computer. And some of them now play movies and music. These new technologies are merely blurring the lines between the boundaries of the existing media channels and morphing them into new forms.
But, even if these new technologies are not necessarily creating a whole new industry, they are changing the media landscape all the same. E-magazines can now have direct links to videos, music or websites as can e-books. Games and applications have infinite uses. Smart phones, e-readers and tablets are new platforms for advertising.
Now it seems as if media has something to do with every single facet of our lives, every action we take. Since it is already so prevalent in every part of our lives, these new technologies are morphing to be more convenient and better fit into our lives. What this means for our media consumption, I don’t know. But it does worry me how easy it is becoming to use media and such technologies. They are so accessible that I fear we are becoming too overdependent on them. My dad always says that to relax and hear our own thoughts, we need to ‘unplug’. And, I think he’s right. But I don’t think many people have that fatherly voice over their shoulder telling them to take a break. And because these new technologies are so accessible, easy and useful, it is easy to fall into natural patterns of constant use. And as helpful this all can be, it also means that we are exposed to more and more media messages. And we only have a finite amount of energy to process these media messages. So, if the amount of media we are exposed to increases, it logically means that we are forced to automatically process these messages more and more which can be harmful to our autonomy in thinking and decision-making.
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(via ilovecharts)
