- 1) What forms of new media do you use daily?
The forms of media I use daily rely heavily on what I see through Facebook. I spend most of my time watching SportsCenter on TV. I am extremely well versed in what is current in sports but not so much with the world around me. I also spend my time listening to ESPN Milwaukee specifically designed around the Green Bay Packers news, when I’m in the car, which is 75% of my job. In regards to new media it is definitely through the use of Facebook. A prime example would be what I found out about the Malaysian airlines disappearance and what is going on with Ebola, all of which I got from different news stations I have liked through Facebook or the statuses of others that I read off of my news feed.
- 2) In what ways does media reach you indirectly (through friends, co-workers, etc.)?
- I would have to say media reaches me indirectly through friends from a social media aspect because I am able to see what they are posting through their status updates without any of my interaction. It allows me to keep up with those I’m connected with. A number of posts reflect what is going on in the world or news articles that are being shared across different platforms. As for coworkers a lot of that comes from mass e-mails throughout my hospital system that are being sent to all users. I tend to avoid mixing coworkers with Facebook because I believe Facebook to be more personal and don’t like the two to cross paths.
- 3) Do you think that media influences your perspective of world events?
Having worked in a new station during my college internship I have grown very skeptical of what I see or here about from the news. However, I am very influenced by branding, the more I see the more I believe it is the best or top of the line. A lot of that comes from marketing. I spend my time working in marketing and the more exposure to a product tends to lead people to believe that it is better then those other brands that are unheard of. This might not necessarily mean it is the best but clearly there is money being spent to show that they are something worth buying. It is attractive to the consumer to see a brand over and over again. When I was younger I was definitely more influenced by what the media portrayed. Thinking back to 9/11, I was very close to joining the Army but didn’t because that was never a plan of mine so it goes to show that the speeches made and recruiting efforts dished out by the media were very influential. One of my best friends did enlist after 9/11 for what I believe were very similar reasons to why I almost did.
- 4) Do you believe that the media has the power to tell you what to think about, but not what to think?
This is the whole process with agenda setting theory, in which they may not tell you what to think but what to think about. I absolutely believe the media has to the power to tell you what to think about. However, I think it comes down to the person themselves to do the research to make sure whatever you are being told is accurate. With all the technology we have today it is very easy to fact check, but it is important to pull information from a creditably source. We also can get sucked into believing everything that is on the Internet, which is why doctors ask patients not to Google symptoms because they will in return get too much information and think something simple as a cold is lung cancer. It is a fine line to walk but the ability to do so is there.
- 5) Can media shape your beliefs? If not, explain. If yes, to what degree? Is the influence strong and direct—for example, if a newscaster told you to go jump off a bridge, would you do it? Or are your beliefs cultivated over time through continued exposure, resulting in small but measureable effects?
I believe that I’m a very analytical person in which if I heard something I would double check and triple check before repeating it. There is a catch to that though because for instance if it was SportsCenter and they reported a scandal, let’s say the Ray Rice incident, one would think it is the correct information, but the reporters are only going off what they have at that given moment. The information it’s always subject to change. I think working in the news prior to healthcare has helped in my ability not to swallow everything I see or hear right away.
- 6) Are these positive or negative influences?
I would like to think positive because for the most part I’m being educated on information I know nothing off. I’m not following celebrities and doing what they are doing because it’s cool. The most influence I have is from sports media or what I see on the news through Facebook and I like to think the reporters have done their research but after all the studies I have had it’s clear to me that they are only human. It’s very simple humans make mistakes, they aren’t always going to be right. Of course there are negative influences, I truthfully think the Kardashians are a negative influence on the world and why they are being reported is mind boggling to me, but that is a personal opinion. I think it comes down to the person to decide what is negative and what isn’t. There are definitely news stations that are focused on their beliefs, for example there are Republican stations that focus their blame on President Obama which can have a very negative influence because they don’t believe in his policies. Some may see that as a negative influence and some may see it as a positive depending on their beliefs. For those uneducated on the matter it can be harmful because there are bias opinions being filtered without all the facts.
7) How have information revolutions resulted in ways of knowledge changing or remaining the same? How has the power of media changed throughout history? What are some differences and similarities of our current time and place to the past? (Hint: See Blur Chapter 2.)
After reading this week’s module assignments, the idea that stood out to me was that we have been here before (Kovach & Rosenstiel, 2010). Obviously we have advanced throughout the years from cave paintings, to books, to printing press, radio, TV, and now Internet/Social Media. However, something has always stayed the same, we use media to gain knowledge on the world around us. The power has changed because it has expanded to a global scale in which we can get information from all over the world by the click of a button. The differences from now and the past is that it’s more accessible through ICT devices. What I thought was really interesting in our readings is the idea that authorities will be replaced by new ones (Kovach & Rosenstiel, 2010). There may be more freedom to access information right now but it won’t be long until some government puts a law into place to regulate what can or can’t be said on the Internet.
Reference
Kovach, B., & Rosenstiel, T. (2010). Blur: How to know what’s true in the age of information overload. New York: Bloomsbury.
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