Reflection Post

As I have mentioned on my first blog post regarding my relationship with media, we are constantly surrounded by media. I constantly consume different types of media throughout my day, whether it be at school or at home. Because media is inescapable, it has a humongous impact on my life. It affects how I think and what I like. By reading an overwhelming opinion of a certain subject, that overwhelming opinion may become my own. This concept can be applied throughout all sorts of different types of media. The media tries to please people and the people try to match the media. Social and home entertainment media influence me very much. There is no line between what are the media's thoughts and my thoughts.
Taking this critical thinking class has allowed me to become more aware of my media consumption than before. Most of all, I started to judge the ethos, pathos, and logos of different pieces of media. I have become more critical when looking at different media and the different techniques they use to bring me in.
My media consumption habits have not changed much this semester. Although I have gained increased media literacy, that has simply caused me to be more critical towards judging a particular piece of media. I still enjoy going through, browsing and watching, the different types of media I like. Some changes may have occurred in my media consumption habits, but I do not notice them.
Media literacy is important because it allows for people to gain a better perspective on media. I am able to look at different types of media and their possible influence on me. I am also able to avoid bad advertised products by, for example, analyzing their logos. This is why being an educated consumer is important. There is a lower chance of falling to media messages, whether that is good or bad using the habits of a critical thinker.
Through keep this blog, I was able to analyze media better, using words to construct my opinion, while also getting to see other people's opinions on the better. Replying to comments should have been encouraged to stimulate analytic discussion. Looking back at my past media blogs, a large majority of my blogs have been on animated works or the songs that accompany them. I was able to see the different perspectives and interests in media through my each of classmate's different media blogs.
Overall, this class was extremely applicable to the world around us and I thought it was very helpful learning the material we did. People should try to become more media literate as our world is covered with it and to see the world in different perspectives. Watching the films we did gave me much needed insight to media. Although media can be bad, I cannot imagine a world without media as I use it so much and because of its usefulness. Although this blog will no longer continue, the different media in the world will. They will continue to have their presiding influence on all of us.

Social Media

Social Media

Entertainment Media

Entertainment Media

MissRepresentation

In class, we watched a video called MissRepresentation which talked about the self-objectification of women. The video discussed points such as how the media portrays women.
The video had very strong pathos through appealing to people's emotions. It creates feelings of anger by showing the degrading views of women that exists in the media. The same media that we are constantly exposed to. The video's ethos was strong throughout except for some parts where they used very unreliable sources to support their claims. The video's logos is strong because this is a big issue in today's society and causes at lot of debate. The video takes a lot of mostly logical examples to support their claim.

Being someone that is not a woman, it was harder for pathos to reach me. However, it was strong enough to where, even though I am not a woman, it reached me just fine. There was a small part in the video addressing the same problem but with men. It talked about how men had to establish a facade to remain "manly" and remain superior to women. Honestly, I do not see myself doing this as such a high degree as other people, who clearly outwardly show this behavior. However, women have a stronger reason to follow through with what the media wants, connecting to Merchants of Cool. Before watching this video, I was not aware to this extent of the injustice towards women. An important thing is breaking the loop in Merchants of Cool.

I see women being portrayed in countless anime series. The problem is that women need to somehow to take step forward and being more activate as media heads. For example, most anime and manga series are written by men. Men will try to create art that fits their target audience which increases their sales and keeps the men happy. However, this backfires as this creates women that are perfect who are impossible reach in reality. In fact, a whole bunch of people are are not even adults yet wish to become thinner than they already are to reach that perfect woman.

It is impossible for everyone in the world to recognize the problem are women facing and it impossible to completely solve this problem, but if there is more acknowledgment of this as a problem, women will have more motivation to take a more equal stand in the world.