1f25 blog response 1: Media Impact on Others

Despite taking in a large amount of similar media, the thoughts of the people that have consumed it are, though very similar, different in their specifics. For example, in this post I draw on the thoughts of three other students that all view media as having negative effects on society. However, each of them differs in their thoughts on and approaches to the media and though they all mention things that I previously did not, they have all added new dimensions to the media as I know it.   

Reading Brent’s post, I completely understand what he is saying. Claiming that the “ally of justice” (http://bb11tl.wordpress.com/2013/09/18/cpcf-1f25-assignment-1-how-the-media-affects-my-own-personal-worldview/), in him is slowly disappearing and that the media is to blame really struck a chord in me. Like Brent, I once held the idealistic view of the world that he describes early on and was dissuaded from these thoughts by the media. Though Brent makes a valid point about the reality that the media portrays, I do not want to agree with it because it is such a sad picture of media. However I know that it is true and completely agree with Brent.

                Different from but still complimentary to Brent’s post is Hunter’s post. Hunter agrees that the media has a substantial influence on its consumers and that this influence is primarily negative, but he goes into more explicit detail of how the media appears to do so. Hunter feels that the media shapes messages by withhold important details, which I also strongly agree with. It is described in the post that “media has made us their puppets” (http://lunterhackey.blogspot.ca  /2013/09/impact-of-media-on-my-worldview.html), and while I do not agree that the statement applies to all, I agree that it has a large influence.

                Montana agrees that media has a vast influence on people just as Brent and Hunter do, though she approaches this belief differently. As she puts it, “you get affected through movies, magazines; media sites (Instagram, Facebook, Tumblr and many others)” (http://montanahighley.wordpress.com /2013/09/19/1f25-post-1-media-impact-2/) and she is totally right; we are bombarded constantly by various forms of media and her approach to dealing with this is the one I connect with most. She continued to be herself and refused to let the media change her, which was my initial view until I let myself become opposed to mainstream media and fought  it.

                Though I did not explicitly express the ideas found in the three blogs I have referenced, I agree with all of these insights and they each add a new dimension to my view of the media. In hindsight, Montana’s approach to rebelling against the media seems more logical than my own, but it fights against media in a different way, namely choosing your own path whereas I allowed media to push me in the direction I was headed. Both Brent and Hunter’s posts appeal to my inner cynic and raise some good points of their own. All three posts have offered fresh insights and have made me contemplate my own position on the media.