Media consumer monsters: Why we need media literary

Everywhere people devour media like Cookie Monsters. Society tends to depend on reading a newspaper daily or habitually tuning into favorite television programs. It seems people consume all media without questioning it and are comfortable being told by the media how to think about concepts like technology, fashion, and celebrities. This mindset of media dependence can be remedied by learning how to become media literate.

Because media is all encompassing as a form of entertainment and education, the line between the two blurs into infotainment. Examples of infotainment include television programs like Entertainment Tonight and magazines that present some information about celebrities as though it is informational news.

It is in the best interest of society to educate themselves on understanding the media’s reasoning behind its messages in order to best decipher the degree of validity from media messages rather than accepting all messages as being valid. Committing to your own Media Literacy 101 program and being a media literacy ambassador to others helps our society to become media literate.

Neil Postman’s book, Amusing Ourselves to Death, supports Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World fear that what we love (the media) will ruin us in addition to comparing and contrasting it with Orwell’s fear that what we hate (the media) will ruin us. Regardless of loving or hating the media, our society is certainly obsessed with it.

MP3 players have given people license to feel a need to be entertained at every moment of everyday. Or, is it that the media’s messages have put the idea in people’s heads that they need to be entertained at all times to feel fulfilled.

A February 20, 2004 article, “Mini iPod: Size, Style Do Matter”, by CBS’ Larry Magid discusses the pros and cons of some of the Apple Company’s technology. He discusses his frustration with understanding why consumers would need a smaller piece of technology with less storage space, when a device with more storage space already exists.

This concept seems vastly different from the American frame of reference of bigger is better. However, after trying out the product, he appreciated that it was barely noticeable to have with him. Although he claims to not be too picky about the appearance of his electronic devices, he made the statement that, “Deservedly or not, possessing an iPod has become something of a status symbol and the prettier and more elegant the status symbol, the better.” This media message has been reinforced by iPod owners and media consumers.

Messages about iPods and technology fulfilling people by having a certain status and differentiating between the haves and have-nots are certainly evident in the media’s messages to someone who critically thinks about what the media is feeding to him or her.

The article continues to include that although there are less expensive off-brand mp3 players, consumers do not view them to be as sophisticated as the branded iPod. To argue for Apple’s iPod, Magid admits that the thought put in behind the brand name technology is helpful regarding the devices intuitive operational design while the off-brand competitor’s device seemed awkward after using an iPod.

Rather than digesting media without critically thinking about it, a culture of media literacy must be cultivated. By creating this culture that critically consumes media, a system of checks and balances is formed by consumers using discretion to determine the extent to which a message is true. By becoming media literate, we can become conscientious consumers and figure out for ourselves by using the media as an informational tool whether or not a product or service will actually do us good.

Orange You Glad You Can Become Media Literate?

Howard and Matthew’s book, On Deadline, Managing Media Relations, references journalism.org’s Eight Major Trends of Media Relations, one of which regards the convergence of media seeming to become more inevitable. With media messages being blasted from all angles, it becomes difficult to identify what factors influence our decisions and shifts along an influence spectrum.

In studying the patterns of factors regarding the effects media has, I analyzed the potential media effects for a person watching a cooking show.

For example, watching a particular cooking show could lead someone to pick up an organic food item at the grocery store if the show emphasizes healthy and environmentally friendly eating. A person could be influenced consciously or subconsciously by the products used on a program as well. Some shows cover product labels, whereas some cooking show hosts capitalize on product placement and mention or endorse products.

Changingminds.org cites persuasive tactics as an incentive to understand the meaning behind colors. An example being McDonald's using red and yellow as their colors. The use of red to signify fast and yellow to encourage hunger hence, fast food.

Color psychology is evident in the other fast food restaurant’s logos as well as the orange Food Network logo. The psychology of colors is a tool media can use to manipulate audiences. If the consumer is aware or media literate of this tool, he/she would be less likely to be consciously influenced by the sight of “golden arches”, but when the person is not engaged in being media literate of color psychology, the person could be persuaded by the color stimulus of a current or previous media impression.

Other factors contribute to acting on a decision to purchase fast food whether or not a person was immediately and/or previously exposed to a corresponding fast food media impression. Developmental and cognitive abilities move people’s manifestation points as they emotionally and cognitively mature. Sociological and lifestyle factors such as seeing a favorite television character, family member or friend model certain behaviors also influence a person’s habits. Refining these abilities within the scope of exposure to media attribute to developing a more media literate mindset.

When it comes to deciphering what effects the media has on people, the answer lies in determining what effects the individual allows the media to have on him/herself. By strengthening one’s ability to put media literacy into practice, the person can then have more control over his/her own actions and use the media as a tool rather than being used by the media.

I hope to use media literacy to be more conscientious about removing myself from media impressions and act as an impartial third party to analyze my frame of reference in relation to the media’s message. I also hope to develop my personal locus regarding my media exposure habits to make informed decisions regarding to what degree I allow myself to be influenced by the media and why I allow a particular media message to influence me.

Dancing & Singing

The Monday 8 p.m. timeslot works well for ABC’s Dancing with the Stars as it fell in the number 3 ranking according to Nielson ratings for the week of March 24, 2008 and the Dancing with the Stars results shown Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ranked 4th. Dancing with the Stars’ rating of 13 translates into 14,664,000 or 13% of a possible 112,800,000 households tuned into the program. The show works best in its current timeslots because it is a strong program for Monday and Tuesday evenings in comparison to its timeslot competition. The program is also better off earlier in the week rather than competing with Wednesday or Thursday night programming.

Dancing with the Stars came in only behind Fox’s American Idol on Wednesday nights which ranked 1st and on Tuesday nights at 8 p.m. which ranked 2nd. It is in ABC’s best interest to avoid going up against American Idol which has a dedicated following and successful longevity over more seasons than Dancing with the Stars. Although there are message boards and options to be able to have information text messages sent to viewer’s cell phones. American Idol viewers even have the option of signing up for an online community on the American Idol Web site, whereas Dancing with the Stars views do not have that option on ABC’s Web site.

It would also work to Dancing with the Stars disadvantage to be in the Thursday night 9 p.m. timeslot because the program would compete with CSI. Although CSI and CSI Miami, ranked 5th with a 10.3 rating according to Nielson ratings the week of March 24, 2008, are different programs CSI probably stands to take away a portion of viewers.

Another strength of the 8 p.m. timeslot is that Dancing with the Stars starts on the hour, whereas the 8th ranked with an 8.6 rating comedy Two and a Half Men begins at 8:30 p.m. Monday nights. However, Two and a Half Men is preceded by Big Bang Theory which works to the advantage of both the CBS programs. College basketball took 6th in the rankings with an 8.9 rating. Having basketball scheduled at 9 p.m. after Big Bang Theory did not seem to hurt the Dancing with the Stars ratings as basketball has a different target audience than Dancing with the Stars audience.

AP Television writer, Frazier Moore’s April 1, 2008 article indicated Fox won last week, averaging 9.93 million viewers (with a 5.9 rating and 10 share) capturing the network's 11th straight weekly success. CBS clipped Fox’s heels with 9.47 million viewers (6.1 rating, 10 share), while ABC had 8.83 million viewers (5.7 rating, 9 share) and NBC had 7.69 million viewers (5.1 rating, 8 share).

Media Literacy 101: How to digest what you consume

It is advantageous and in the best interest of students to institute Media Literacy 101 as a part of any curriculum which utilizes any media as part of the course. Neil Postman’s book, Amusing Ourselves to Death, supports Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World fear that what we love will ruin us in addition to comparing and contrasting it with Orwell’s fear that what we hate will ruin us.

Though I cannot find who to attribute the idea to, the thought that who (or in this case what) we love the most has the greatest potential to hurt us reinforces Huxley’s theory.

A 2000 survey quoted in Walt Larimore’s article, “Obesity-Television, Video Games and Your Children's Health” on iMom.com showed that the average American child spends about twenty-five hours a week in front of the television.

Karen MacPherson’s Washington Post-Gazette article quotes a landmark study of American children as devoting thirty-eight hours to television watching, movies, videos, playing on the computer or reading on average over a seven day period. The same article also cites a Kaiser Family Foundation survey which surveyed more than 3,100 children (of a nationally representative population) -- or their parents, in the case of preschoolers stating, “children aged 2-18 spend an average of 5 1/2 hours a day "consuming" media, including two hours and 45 minutes watching TV. Kids 8 and older spend even more time in front of the tube -- nearly 6 3/4 hours a day.”

The Center for Media Literacy advocates a philosophy of empowerment through education. Its philosophy incorporates three intertwining concepts one of which is, Media literacy is an alternative to censoring, boycotting or blaming ‘the media.’ Media literacy does not promote partisan agendas or political points of view. The power of media literacy is its ability to inspire independent thinking and foster critical analysis. The ultimate goal of media education is to make wise choices possible.

This ability to make wise choices possible and to critically deconstruct the media’s messages is vitally useful in refining one’s ability to define the blurred line between reality and media creation. As entertainment as news increases in popularity, (i.e. American Idol and Survivor cast-offs as morning news program interviews) the lines of reality and the media’s composed version of reality melt together.

Postman’s book focuses on learners and viewers wanting to be entertained and having the ability to absorb information better when given in the form of entertainment. Because viewers would rather watch of learn something that is entertaining, I believe Huxley’s theory is clearly correct. People in the United States crave a hard news piece about politics in Russia like they crave dry toast. When someone turns on the television or opens up a magazine the programs or articles about what a celebrity is doing or arts and leisure information are of much more interest and comparable to a super-sized combo meal. Without ample media literacy development, publics are in danger of mistaking what the media feeds them as a complete true depiction of reality.

Center for Media Literacy. “CML Media Lit Kit”. 10 Mar. 2008

Larimore, Walt. “Obesity-Television, Video Games and Your Children's Health”. iMom.
10 Mar. 2008 <http://www.imom.com/article.php?id=93>

MacPherson, Karen. “Kids spend 38 hours weekly watching, zapping, reading”. Post- Gazette National Bureau. 10 Mar. 2008 http://www.postgazette.com/headlines/19991118kidstv3.asp

Postman Part II

AGREE

The notion that advertisers do not sell the qualities of the product or service, but sell how the consumer’s life will be better because of having the product or service is supported by current promotions and can be seen as true when looking through a lens of media literacy.

This statement is supported by the Horn’s advertising in the Bell Telephone romances. “Horn does not express himself. You do not express yourself. Horn expresses you.” (Postman, 135).

The idea is additionally backed up on page 128 of Postman regarding, the commercial being about “the character of the products to be consumed” as well as “the fears, fancies and dreams of those who might buy them.”

The quotations on page 128 tie into other course discussions regarding media playing off of emotional appeal such as fear and fulfillment. These principles were also evident during discussion of exercises relating to analyzing the content television programs and how the media uses certain tools to manipulate the viewer throughout the episode.

DISAGREE

“By endowing things with magic, enchantment is the means through which we may gain access to sacredness. Entertainment is the means through which we distance ourselves from it.” (Postman, 122).

This claim seems far from the truth in the sense that television has become magical. People tune in because the media present an intimate medium with carefully crafted stories of people’s lives. For viewers it is part of something sacred to witness the special moments of others like getting a new house or the birth of a child. These sacred moments are presented as entertainment because they are presented through the format of media. Media are also powerful enough to increase the magic of a moment to fit it to their presentation needs. Viewers are not distanced from sacredness, the sacredness is distorted because it is viewed as a product packaged by media.

Can we trust these citizens? Are they media literate?

Chapter 7 of Potter’s Media Literacy describes that news for television programs and in newspapers comes from within the scope of the media and that the media are under their own frame of reference as well as at the mercy of others’ opinions.

A Web site blog, “the mcgill report” emphasizes the importance of global citizenship and that the vitally important practice of journalism has become endangered. The site has a linked article “5 Questions”, written by "local man". One of the questions regards the reliability of citizen journalism and gives eight reasons to place trust in citizen journalism.

His philosophy coincides with becoming media literate because he believes the core of journalism is similar to constitutional rights of freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Chapter 7 stresses the importance of having a vast assortment of media sources. Part of those sources can come from people without formal journalism training. However, Potter warns to be skeptical of public opinion that is ambivalent, as he believes it is difficult to differentiate between deep seeded opinion and opinion passionately formulated in order to respond when asked one’s opinion.

Potter’s warning interests me because I had not viewed ambivalence as a dilemma. I had found it surprising that Potter failed to address the issue of bias within citizen journalism, because an opinion or editorial piece is labeled as such, whereas citizen journalism does not have labels. While it can be understood all journalism has bias, it is more difficult to determine the extent to which the citizen journalism is biased.

Although we must discern all media we digest, part of becoming media literate is experiencing a variety of types and sources of media. What better way to understand the ins and outs of journalism that to practice it?

Postman

AGREE

"You cannot use smoke to do philosophy. Its form excludes the content." (Postman 7.) Postman's statement supports the two-way communication model. When decoding messages, part of the message is the form in which it is sent. Smoke does not work as a
effective means of communication for philosophy as it is not easily conducive for communicating details.

DISAGREE

"People like ourselves may see nothing wondrous in writing, but our anthropologists know how strange and magical it (writing) appears to a purely oral people, (Postman 13). Postman then states on the same page, that this book is about "our own tribe undergoing a a vast and trembling shift from the magic of writing to the magic of electronics". When we are capable of understanding when we are repeating ourselves by removing ourselves from the situation, the comparison of these statements seem contradictory because sometimes we can learn from the past if we study it and consciously realize the similarity of these situations. However, history tends to repeat itself when we do not remove ourselves from the situations around us, and compare present day to times of the past. A problem with comparing the situations of going from spoken traditions to print and from print to electronic archives is that people have not experienced both. So they must rely on documentation of others experiences of this transition.

An interesting question to pose to this argument is whether or not print is viewed as the most trustworthy of all media. Then the situations could be considered differently as a shift towards print and a shift away from print.