Module 5 Reflections
In the process of this module we have learned how media influences us, and what knowledge the media has on us that we as a whole might not know; how the brain works. Apparently emotions is what triggers our full potential of knowledge. Well media is aware of how much influence emotions play in our everyday lives and they decide to incorporate this everywhere they can. When participating in the activity of watching the news and keeping count of topics and who is speaking made me realized how fear plays a key role into grasping our attention. “The media profit from fear mongering through sensationalized headlines. Nothing gets viewers to tune in to a news program like fear: fear of war, fear of deceases, fear of death, fear of harm coming to love ones” (Radford, 2003, p.66). The news really knows how to manipulate their information through their point of view of importance and present it with frightening headlines. Even though some of us are aware that it is a trick being used we still seemed to be influenced by it, why is that? Is it because the title struck a cord of fear?
Another observation during the activity of watching news and keeping track of who is talking made me more aware of how women are underrepresented. However, the women representation did not come close to the underrepresented African American males and females, especially females. According to “Who Gets to Speak on Cable News?” by Peter Hart my findings stay true. Hart states, “Hannity had only four women of color on his show. This pattern is related to the phenomenon of the Fox News blonde. The young attractive female guests who are regulars on both shows” (2014). I don’t understand how African American males seem to be of great value in sport news but why not in everyday local, state, world news?
“The patrons become what William Evans calls normative reference organizations, whose requirements and demands the media must accommodate if they are to succeed” (Herman & Chomsky, 2002, p.34). This quote caught my attention because it made me thankful to have many ways of accessing news. “The commercial press system became less competitive and ever more clearly the domain of wealthy individuals, who usually had the political views associated with their class” (McChesney, 2002, p. 365). If we had to rely on the richest white male in our own city to provide our news, our perception of the world would be dreadful. It seems to be in history we were dependent on the little news we received from the few hands that had the money to provide it, and now those who have the money and power to provide it have to grab our attention in order to succeed. It is in our hands to choose what news we receive and whether we can make someone more powerful and richer.
Being able to detect biased news is important because such placement influences peoples sense of what is important. One question I found to be very important when learning about how to detect bias in news media was, from whose point of view is the news reported? I think it is important for media news to represent all sides to a story and have the appropriate candidates who pertain to the topic to input their thoughts and knowledge. I believe by incorporating true factors that belong to the topic at hand will make the information more valuable.
When reading “A new generation of greed?” by Karen Sternheimer I couldn’t help but relate child and parent consumerism to the brain system lecture. “In a study of pre-schooled children, researcher Ellen setter found that children use consumption to create both group and individual identity (much like their parents). the children wore T-shirts with recognizable logos and carried lunch boxes with Disney characters to create a shared culture and let their peers know that they were in on kid culture” (2013, p.242). It seems that parents want to be accepted and not be the “weird” outcast parent who didn’t provide their child with the right accessories to relate to the other kids. If the parents feel this way, how can we blame their children reflecting these same values? In the brain systems hierarchy of needs esteem was second and love and belonging was third. These two needs seem to be influenced on consuming the right technologies, clothes, cars, and houses in order to be respected by others and create the right friendships (be popular). Why have we portrayed esteem and belonging to having such materialistic things? Have we let media influence us in believing that?
The limbic system is the seat of emotions, and fear as we have learn is a good media seller. However according to Sternheimer implying to much fear can lead into denial and ignore frightening information (2013, p.268). “This is why the things that we need to be concerned about, the problems without easy solutions, are not as compelling as news stories. They scare us too much” (2013, p.268). Inequality is misrepresented in the media, and apparently is not news worthy to broadcast. Discrimination and inequality still exists, we might take a step forward but we tend to take two steps back. We have had a black president for the past 8 years a huge accomplishment in America, however now we have Donald Trump initiating false accusations and stereotypes of people creating discrimination amongst each other once again. I don’t understand how such ignorance from ones man mouth can intrigue us to hear more and support it, but hearing the ugly truths of inequality/discrimination scare us to the point we turn away?
