Module 5 Readings!

The article readings this week did a good job in clarifying the role of the news and those who are actually contributing to the news. I feel that all the articles and slides that we were assigned this week were all very closely connected as they all were talking about various news outlets and their roles in the news that we are consuming on a daily basis. The article that discussed the different issues and the stance that the liberals and conservatives took was really interesting to me. I am not “big on politics” I try and get as many different perspectives on an issues as I can and then make up my own mind, so I am not too keen on what party stands where on certain issues. So this article went into detail on different issues ranging from the death penalty to abortion. The article was quick and easy to define the issue and then address the liberal and conservative stance of it. I enjoyed reading through all the issues and seeing what side stood where. The one article that really stuck out to me this week however, was The News Bias, written by Radford. This article was really interesting to me because you see just how “hyped” the news is. I, like many other people, assumed that if it was on the news then it must be important. While reading this article, it soon became clear that a lot of times the story that is on the news is there simply, because it will bring in ratings. Reading this article showed just how unaware a lot of people are, we see something on the news and say, “Well it’s on the news so it must be true” but reading this article showed me that this isn’t the case. If anything, I think that these articles encouraged me to be even more media literate, as I want to know the truth about what is actually going on in our world today. I don’t want “lazy” journalism, rather I am looking for educated discussions on politics, economics, and the countless issues we are facing today. The media continues to play on our fears and uses it as a way to keep us tuning in to their outlets.

 

Chapter 10 in the class reading this week was really interesting. It starts the chapter out by discussing advertising on oneself, where corporations pay individuals to wear their logos as a form of advertisement. This chapter in particularly, was discussing how college students were doing this as way to help pay their tuition. Sternheimer discusses how the stories of individuals doing this led to media coverage, the media ran with the story that branding was now in every aspect of our lives, including education. When I read this, my immediate reaction was, their doing it to help pay for school. We’re focusing on the fact that this method is being used, but not on why people are turning to this. Sternheimer writes, “…the rise in costs of higher educations and the massive debt many students and their families take on in the process, self branding may be less of an onerous form of debt servitude than the traditional route of heft student-loan payments” (Sternheimer, 2013, p. 245). I thought this was important because it’s addressing the fact that students are being put in debt one way or another, maybe they are turning to advertising as a way to help themselves out. This is another example of the media pointing the finger at advertising and corporations, while ignoring the structural problems we are facing as a society. The chapter goes on to discuss the fact that children are seen as more concerned with materialistic things than in generations past. With shows coming out like MTV’s My Super Sweet Sixteen, that flaunts the outrageously expensive lifestyles of fifteen, soon-to-be sixteen year olds. The idea is that when shows like these are coming out and influencing other kids to want and therefore expect these lavish lifestyles as well. The book gives an example of preschoolers knowing, and being able to tell people, what brand of clothing they are wearing. For me, the book made a big deal about his, however I’ve worked with several children, and I’ve never noticed children having a lot of brand awareness. The biggest problem I have with the idea that children are being more materialistic is the fact that these children aren’t the ones buying the clothes are the other items, as clearly as preschoolers and pre-teens they do not have the income to do so. The question is then, who is? It is the parents of the children that are buying the items, and thus the materialistic attitude/values are coming from the parents. I think that children reflect their parents behaviors and attitudes, and if the parents didn’t make it a point to talk about the brands or the price of things then the children wouldn’t even know how to either. Sternheimer introduces us to a new word this chapter as well, “kidfluence” which is the power children have to influence their parents’ purchasing decisions. This was interesting first because I know that children can often influence their parents, but I didn’t know that someone had actually coined a term for it. Secondly, I thought it was interesting that the “blame” isn’t being placed on the parents, but rather on the children. Sternheimer acknowledges this as well, she writes, “Yet the problem here is cast as the child’s, not the adults’” (Sternheimer, 2013, p. 247). This is a common issue that we have addressed throughout the book, a problem (that to me) is so clearly an issue that adults need to work on is being blamed on children. I don’t believe children can make their parents purchase something. The book describes children as vulnerable to the advertisements, however it seems as though the parents are the ones who are vulnerable, as they aren’t able to say no to their children. Sternheimer writes, “ In fact, children are seen as a challenge, some companies…have hired specialized agencies to handle their children’s campaign. It seems it may be easier to influence their parents” (Sternheimer, 2013, p. 261).

 

I don’t see the parents of the victims of this “new materialistic society” as studies have shown that they are also active participants in the consumer economy. Another pattern that has been woven throughout the book, parents/adults are shown to be active participants in the behavior (i.e-  sexual promiscuity, TV watching, consumerism, etc) when studies show that adults can and will be affected more than children, but the focus of the problem is still on children. This is a tactic used to create fear. People don’t want their children to be at risk, so blaming the media (even though there is little concrete evidence) is easy. They ignore the fact that issues are more impacted than children and go from there. Sternheimer writes, “The truth is that our highly consumerist society has been created and sustained by a large shift in the American economy following World War II” (Sternheimer, 2013, p. 250). She addresses the social change that we faced and the fact that, that fact does in fact play a role in the change in our culture, not just blaming media. What this book has really showed me is it is a lot easier to blame media, be it TV, music, commercials, etc. than it is to actually look at the structure of our society and addressing the more complex issues that we are being distracted from. We, as a society, need someone to blame and the media is the easiest target. I think that in order to start addressing the problems that we are facing we really need to put our fingers down and stop playing the blame games, and take a real look at where we’re coming up short and the real reasons why.
Chapter 11 really wrapped but the book, for me anyways. It talks about the real problem, or the real problem how Sternheimer sees it. She talks about the fact that yes, there are media outlets and countless examples of media portraying less than ideal behavior. However, she doesn’t see media, in all its different forms, as the sole problem. Although it seems like a no brainer to assume that the problems we are facing are due to media, she doesn’t think that media is the center of the issues. She does acknowledge that media does play a role in the way our society perceives things but their are far more contributing factors from outside that we need to pay attention to. One of the issues we are facing is poverty. Sternheimer has addressed childhood poverty throughout the book and many of the issues that stem from poverty as well. We often attribute violence to the video games that have shootings, while ignoring the fact that many children who live in poverty are living in less than desirable neighborhoods often filled with violence. These neighborhoods also might not have the best schools, who in turn don’t have the funds to hire the best teachers, all contributing to a vicious cycle that can lead many children to do things that maybe given the right circumstances they wouldn’t have done. The fact of the matter is, not all children have equal access to resources. Sternheimer writes, “Yes, they might spends more time watching television or using other forms of media, but his is an effect of social structure” (Sternheimer, 2013, p. 276). She brings this issue back to the fact that we aren’t addressing the social issues but only acknowledging the role of the media. Chapter 11 really summed up the whole book, it addressed all the issues that we have discussed throughout the chapters and the author reiterates the fact that although media does play a small role in the issue, we allow the media (i.e. – different new outlets) to distract us and draw our attention away from the real issues. We continue to look at TV and video games, allow scary news statistics to mold our beliefs, allow people to determine our fears when really all we need to do is look deeper into our society. She talks about how building our critical analysis skills and directing them towards the media can only help as it gives us the ability to really interpret what the messages we are being given are truly saying. Sternheimer ends the book writing, “In order to address them directly, we can’t be distracted by the lure of popular culture, which is ultimately not the key problem, nor is its control the solution” (Sternheimer, 2013, p. 287). I think that this final paragraph summed up the book well, we need to focus on what people are actually trying to distract us from, and although blaming media may be easy, it doesn’t help us fix the issues that we are facing. In order to help ourselves we need to dig deep and address the issues that we have been blindly ignoring. Ignorance is not bliss.