Reflection, the Finale

Taking a look back at the times where I'd stay up late watching TV, I remember that I watched a lot of infomercials and even today, due to basic cable, see a lot of infomercials too. When I'm at my grandparents, eating dinner, my relatives typically turn on the news channel in the dining room and I listen in to the stories, and when I'm done eating, I sit in the family room where the news is also being broadcasted. When I use the internet, there are tons and tons of stories about what's going on in the world. So basically, I'm exposed to the media every single day, even from people who talk about what's going on in the world. When I hear these stories, it immediately goes to the part of my brain of the value systems, and then it affects my view on reality, as the media is able to make reality assumptions. The media actually is shaping my brain to believe that different things are going on in the world and they're my only way to figure this out.

Being aware of the way the media is producing things is actually very important. Because they're allowed to manipulate words, events, stories, etc. like in the news or for a product, they can basically control what we think with a few simple words. I believe limiting the media only to advertisers is silly; isn't the news just advertising the things going on in real life? You can apply lots of the things used to analyze and break down advertisements to the news broadcasts.

When I watch the news, I realize they typically pick stories of bad things that have happened and those typically have the most coverage due to the amount of viewers they gain for those stories being interesting. After critical thinking, I've used some of the habits to debunk these stories and understand why they come first. Even in the drama I was watching, Pinocchio, they focused a lot on how the media coverage is used to derail our minds from what's really being presented. Like when a certain news station covers an event such as a police shooting or anything in the media that covers the police shootings, I find myself having problems joining the outrageous bandwagon every other person seems to be along; the "fact" that all police are bad or corrupt. Through tentativeness and keeping an open mind, I've been questioning why people have been judging the police force to be like this, an recently I saw the effect of this as police officers now have to wear cameras on their bodies to monitor behavior. The media can make any hero a villain, and can also make any villain a hero. I remember during this one discussion about media in some class where we looked at a video of the police officer beating up a person on the highway quite violently. When I chose to speak, I talked about how it was too quick to assume that the police officer was "evil" and that we should analyze all the facts before we jump to conclusions.

The media, in my opinion, is an evil institution. It takes what's going on in the world and twists it in some way that denies the facts and leads to speculation. While not all of the media is like this, many of the companies for advertising and broadcasting are manipulative and don't realize the weight of their words, or do and use this to brainwash us. The uneducated masses suffer the worst because they're typically found following the crowd.

"I don't think of broadcasting as a joke. With one word, you can kill a person. That is what broadcasting is. How would I dare to think that it is a joke?" -Choi Dal Po, Pinocchio

Miss Representation GET IT? Because it's about females...

So, within the video we watched in class, and also common knowledge, I have learned that America is basically a male dominated nation. By this, I mean the ideas, actions, etc. are typically made by men, for men, without ever having any consent to women and their perspectives.

There was talk about how the media typically portrays women for their bodies only and typically not their minds. They also talked about how the media trains men to care only about how the woman looks and not who they really are. And they try to put the idea that women's bodies are the only thing that are important into women. While agree this is true, I dislike the way the people in the video talked about this. Basically, to me, the "opposition," the opposite gender, I see it as them saying that EVERY male thinks this way; that women should be judged based on appearance. I beg to differ. That's basically like me saying every women likes a man who looks handsome; which is actually a double standard that is not as often portrayed by the media. Typically, the media objectifies women, a term that has been used quite a lot by feminists recently. I have to agree, that seems like it's the case today for the majority of teenagers (from my experience). I walk down the hall, see my friends, whatever interaction I have with guys and I realize; these guys are super shallow. They only care about how a girl looks rather than getting to know her and finding out who she is before they can make a judgement on her. Personally, whenever I talk to someone, no matter who it is, I am interested in who they are, I always worry about how they're doing; but that's just me. Honestly, making someone an object seems dehumanizing, a term coined in the video, and this is probably the biggest part I have to agree on.


When I walk downtown or in a mall, I notice that the majority of advertisements that advertise aesthetics like makeup, clothing, jewelry, etc. are mainly of women. Probably one of the more well known of these is the Victoria's Secret line of advertising. Typically portraying scantily-clad women or a woman. While I understand they are trying to show off products, I can't help but notice the big sign that says, "I l<3ve my body." This is pretty discouraging because I know from just general knowledge that people go to shopping centers and watch TV that have these sort of images. And these images and messages inject into our brains that the only things that women should care about, or that anyone should care about, is their bodies.

I honestly feel like this is what makes things worse in the world. Because people are naturally self-conscious. Nobody likes being told, "Hey, you're ugly," "You're fat," "You're different because you don't buy the same designer brands I have," whatever insult about how you look. Now caring about your body is a good thing, like if you want to be healthy, that's important cause you know, dying isn't good in most people's minds. But being happy in your body is seriously what the media is trying to manipulate. A bit ago, I heard that girls really cared about this thing called a "thigh gap" where there is a gap in your thighs typically brought on by lack of muscle or mass in the legs that produces this. And girls would go out of their way to even just make their entire body look good in the eyes of other people.

But that's just the thing; instead of trying to look good for themselves, they try to look good for other people. The message of the media, you don't look good, try to be as "perfect" as our models, buy our product, whatever it is. Do this so people will love you because you look good. They don't care what you think, they don't care how you feel, they only want your body. That's the media's ideas that are meant for women.

Of course, my standpoint should probably matter here since this is my blog post. Honestly, I feel no one should be limited by their body or even really care about how they look. I mean if you want to look good for YOURSELF, then by all means go for it. Nobody's input is more important than your own because you will always judge yourself harder than anyone else does. I like to always think of the song, New Beautiful, by the group Epik High which basically tells you that other people's viewpoints don't matter because you are beautiful as you are. As different as you are, your opinion is the only thing that matters because nobody really knows you as good as yourself.

"If beauty is not talent, but being included, and harmoniously blooming into a flower, you can go do that."

"The world’s fingers pointing at me, only trying to give me orders.
It’s an irregularity, not a foul play, so why am I the only one who gets a yellow card?
Not everyone is like Picasso just because they have a slanted, close view.
I’m me, you’re you, you look at me with different colours, only."

The song has such a deep meaning to it, and I think more people should realize this viewpoint instead of stubbornly sticking to their views on the world. I'm willing to listen to how you think, why are you not willing to listen to how I think?

But I digress. Honestly, the media is extremely manipulative in how it deals with the minds of our society. The media makes our nation and sets our ideals. It's the strongest form of idea spreading. People need to realized the weight of the words they carry and how disgusting their words can really be. The media can make anyone beautiful, but the media can also make anyone ugly. The women can make humanity, but the media can also make objects.