MODULE 5!!!!!!! We’re DONE!
Group #3! We did it! We’ve reached the homestretch, and I can happily say that I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. It was so awesome to read your posts each week, and hear your insight on what you took from the module. At the beginning of this class, I had no idea what to expect as this was my very first online class, and my first summer semester at CI. I didn’t know what media literacy meant, let alone how it would benefit me as a future educator. I didn’t see how the two topics would overlap. However, now that I have completed (almost) this course, I can easily see the importance of media education, and why we need to educate EVERYONE in our society in the topic of media. That being said, this modules readings tied everything that we have learned over the course of the past five weeks together. It made it crystal clear to me how much power the media has over our society, and it is a crucial part of life to be able to determine the biased messages the media is giving us viewers.
The power of media on our lives is immense, it is not only a source of entertainment but it helps in making us form our opinions on major issues of social importance. The media has impacted society for decades by selectively reporting what they feel the public needs to know. After reading the first group of slides, titled ‘media and democracy’, the first thing that surprised me was how the role of the media had shifted since it had begun. When the media began, it had a political agenda. It was an outlet through which the common people would criticize the government. Now, it has shifted into the media giving viewers biased information to benefit billion dollar corporations. I believe that it is the medias duty to give honest, valuable information to the society. One of the things that make a democracy free is a well-informed public. We as a society need access to information about all sides of an issue or all the facts about candidates in an election. Which brings me to my next point, media ownership. It surprised me to read that a high percentage of media outlets are owned/controlled by only a couple of corporations such as: Comcast, Disney, TimeWarner, Fox, CBS and Viacom. This is extremely frightening to learn because the fact that all media in the United States is controlled by less than a dozen companies means that these companies control the information received by most Americans. Which then leads to these companies shaping the realities and perceptions of the public as a whole, and gives these billion dollar corporations ALL the power.
Another point made, that also shapes the publics ideas and thoughts and perceptions of reality was the unrepresentations in the media that has been brought to our attention multiple times in this course. In the video of Who makes the news, it touched upon in great detail this huge issue we have within our society. When the news is misrepresenting reality, it changed people perception of what reality is. In the article, “Who gets to speak on cable news” by Peter Hart, it reminded me of the evaluation we did of the news this module. Hart talked about how majority of news reports are done with white people. I found the statistics presented to be extremely unsettling, and I think this is an issue that needs to be addressed.
In Chapter 11, Karen Sternheimer also touched on the topic of inequality which ties into wrongful representation within the media. Once point that she made that stood out to me, was the one about poverty within children in America. “ Ads for starving children in faraway places might gain out sympathy, but poor American children are often seen as invisible or just seen as a threat to public safety” (Sternheimer, 2013) This point stood out to me because, prior to this class I had no idea the huge issues we had within our country of poverty, but specifically poverty within children. This is s a perfect example of how the media shapes our beliefs.
In Karen Sternhehimer’s chapter 10, I found myself having these “AHA! Moments”. Throughout the chapter, I felt like it really was hitting the nail on the head with what consumerism has become in our country, and even around the world. Sternheimer makes the point that, “we need things we are making statements about who we are as individuals, and we are affiliating ourselves with certain groups, making status distinctions” (Sternheimer, 2013). This quote really showed that consumerism has become our identity within our society, and I feel as though this is the greatest issue of all. Because this is such a huge part our peoples lives, it allows the people making those products and selling them(media) to have all control.
