Monday, April 14, 2014

Sum Blog 9 Media Influence


For this week’s sum blog I would like to talk more about the Media discussion we had in class.  Media is under constant judgment because of the role it plays in our everyday lives and the fact that we are simply surrounded by it.  Media of course is the delivering of impersonal communications to a vast audience.  The media often portrays an ideology of wherever it is being broadcasted by defining and explaining the world and that makes valued judgments about that location.  The media also demonstrates a sort of Hegemony.  This refers to the assumptions we make about our social life and on the terrain of things that we accept as natural or the way things are.  This can be seen in an academic setting with professors and students and also in masculinity.  The two examples we focused on in class were obesity and rape culture.

Influence from media cannot be ignored and if very evident in the obesity example.  As we watched the video clip, I do believe that the “Headless Fatty” was a fitting yet interesting title.  It does however describe this nations view on obesity and supports the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis.  The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis states that people perceive the world through the cultural lens of language and this is shown in the obesity video because of the almost shame of being overweight brings to a person simply by the title of the video.  For the Rape culture example we watched and listened to a song called “Blurred Lines” and like many other popular songs of this time was a great example.  I found the study that compared the lyrics to actual phrases said by sexual offenders to be interesting and eye opening because I have heard that song before and never thought of it in that context.  Both of these examples have shown the influence that media has on the general public and I am excited to explore through many more examples.

Below I have attached a link to a video with a little different perspective on media influence than the mainstream and found it very interesting and I hope you do as well.


 

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