Module 5 Reflection
The question that stood out to me the most in Module 5 is “what gets our attention?” This module talked about consumerism, advertisements, and bias in the media. Personally, I believe these are all interrelated. This industry knows exactly what to do to grab our attention. Bias in the news is a major issue that media literate students are taught to be aware of. However, it is important as a society to understand that not everything the news and advertisements say are necessarily true. There is always more to the story. Radford and Brinkley (2003) explain, “Television news producers and directors do not help viewers decide what information is useful or helpful to the audience. Ultimately their job is to increase ratings…” (p. 68-70). Unfortunately, not everything in the news is credible or even newsworthy, the main thing that drives media is ratings, and as a society, we are responsible for increasing ratings. FAIR stated a few aspects of detecting media in the news. One aspect that is not only important in the news but for everything, is “who are the sources?” It is extremely important to question where the information came from. From politics to gossip magazines, knowing where the source came from will help you detect bias. Another aspect that stood out to me was making sure the headline actually matches the story. Before I read FAIR, I did not know the reporter of the article does not make the headline. The headline is used to get our attention, so we will read the article; another untrue aspect of media. News is one medium that is completely changed to fit the content in a short period of time (Radford, p. 68). It is acceptable to be skeptical of the information you receive.
Another aspect of attention is advertisements. For the past few weeks we have learned the ins and the outs of advertising. A part of the success of advertisements is consumerism. As consumers we are obsessed with making purchases, swiping are credit cards and waiting to buy the next big thing. At a young age we were taught by advertisements what is cool or not. Advertisers study their target markets. Children are the most influenced by advertising, even though adults can be persuaded. Advertisers know what will catch the eye. Sterneheimer says that advertising is a multi-billion dollar industry (2013, p. 258). They are willing to spend so much money on this type of market because their strategy actually works.
Overall, Module 5 taught me that it is OK to question the media and to understanding that not everything I hear or see is accurate. As I previously said, there is always more to the story.
