My Ten Media Revelations

1. Epistemology
Epistemology is the complex study of the nature and origins of knowledge (Postman 17). In short, epistemology is the perception how to decipher knowing that from knowing how. In our society, we hear something and many times we assume that the information is correct and factual. People in our society also don’t do their own research and only take the media’s statements into consideration. Now that I have been more educated about epistemology and the media, when I hear the news I can ask myself; What is true? How do I know, what I know? What do people know?



2. The 3 Brains
Before taking this class, I had no clue that those who work in the media industry focus on everyone’s three brains. Learning how our brains worked along with how advertisers and producers use that knowledge to get their message across. Our brains are made up of the neocortex, limbic, and reptilian. Each section of our brain reacts differently to sounds, pictures, instincts, and thinking. Postman summarizes that television undervalues epistemological topics due to the way the media portrays what you view. The Persuaders illustrates that brands tend to persuade their target markets without the use of the neocortex.



3. Public Relations
PR is just way to use persuasive language. Public relations is the very opposite of advertising. Advertising is suppose to cut through the clutter; PR is suppose to be invisible. Over 50% of our news that we are in contact is PR. PR comes from a large corporation that has an agenda or propaganda. While reading Feed, there is a great example of PR and how corporations use their power to their target. On page 158, if you spoke to your friends about the great taste of Coca Cola one thousand times, you got a free six-pack of it. The kids would do it for hours thinking they could rip off the corporations.



4. Media and our Society
The media controls our society, lives, and how we communicate. Each new invention in our technological world, the media promotes and cultivates how we use it in our lives. Feed is a perfect example of how media affects our lives. Just as in our lives, Feed also uses Internet slang in the characters everyday chatter. In our lives we use, lol, brb, wtf, etc. In Feed they use meg rad, unit, mal, omigod, etc. Both fictional and non-fictional, the conjunction of media and how we speak reveals our society and our values. Media and Society, elaborates to the reader that language is never impartial and that it always reflects a portion of society in a particular way (215). As of now, the world is now trying to fit their life statuses in 140 characters.



5. Privacy
Now that I’m graduating I have been trying to limit my personal information and pictures on the Internet. Once something is on the web, it will always be there for someone to access. For example, say you had a picture of you on Facebook that was of you smoking an illegal substance, your future employer could very easily see that. Corporations or whomever, don’t need special permission to look at your life on the Internet. Just like in Feed, companies like FeedTech can search and look up your hard drive’s contents without any repercussions.



6. Media and the News
Postman clearly states that one of his primary concern with television is that it has made everything entertainment. Because everything is entertainment in his eyes, the news isn’t really telling the facts, just amusing the viewers (Postman 112). Major corporations control the media and what the public will hear. After reading Project Censored 2009, the general public has no idea what the media portrays and reveals to us. I found it extremely interesting that the daily news is all about celebrities and their lives, when we so much more happening in the world that affect our own lives. Anderson’s book Feed, makes note that the news which is entertainment is to keep our society happy and at ease rather than informed of the world news.



7. Social Networking
From when I began college until now, social networking has reached an all time high of users and websites. After reading Clive Thompson’s article, “Brave New World of Digital Intimacy”, I have realized the ins and outs of social networking. Being linked to internet, your information is able to be read by anyone. Users of Facebook can almost “stalk” you through pictures and users of Twitter can see your status updates minute by minute. Social networking has slowed down our physical contact with others which has even made us lazier than we were. Thompson says that it is harder to hide your real self on the internet because people can track you through these sites. Which I believe is extremely true, people should be aware of what information is on the internet especially when it pertains to them.



8. Google and our Society
Reading Nicholas Carr’s article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”, I realized that we rely on the internet for just about everything. I can remember being in elementary school, learning how to use the card catalog in the library to find books, magazines, and encyclopedia’s. Nowadays, like Carr stated, we all spend a lot of time on the net searching for these different types of mediums. Google has simplified the leg work of researching information. Now that we are lucky enough to have a place like Google, I wonder if young children still learn how to use a card catalog?



9. What a Small World
While I’m sitting here at my computer, I can search the internet for a movie time, look up a recipe, go on Facebook and Twitter, and send text messages or make a phone call on my cell phone. There is nothing that can hold you back from doing what you want to do through all these types of mediums. Postman has made it known that these important events are now made us for pure entertainment. I couldn’t agree anymore with what he believes. Media Society states in detail that technology has to adapt with the society in order to be accepted (320).



10. Media and the Future
Living in today’s society, I have been very lucky to experience great technologies that will keep our world ever-changing. It’s hard to believe that the technology that we have now has obtained so much power in such a little time. I can remember using dial up internet when I was in middle school and now if you don’t have internet on your cell phone you are out of sync with what is going on. To imagine if in twenty years we could have chips placed in our body like in Feed. Or the fact that finding out information about anything is possible in a very short amount of time. Media Society elaborates that the internet could actually connect the people and the government together. Where will technology and media take us in the next twenty years?




Work Cited

Anderson, M. T. Feed. New York: Candlewick P, 2004.

Carr, Nicholas. "Is Google Making Us Stupid." The Atlantic July-Aug. 2008. 3 Sept. 2008 .

Croteau, David, and William Hoynes. Media/Society : Industries, Images, and Audiences. New York: Pine Forge P, 2002.

Philips, Peter, and Andrew Roth, eds. Censored 2009 : The Top 25 Censored Stories Of 2007-08. New York: Seven Stories P, 2008.

Postman, Neil, and Andrew Postman. Amusing Ourselves to Death : Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. New York: Penguin (Non-Classics), 2006.

Thompson, Clive. "Brave New World of Digital Intimacy." The New York Times 7 Sept. 2008. 15 Sept. 2008