Reflecting on what we've learned so far this semester, I have become a far more informed consumer of the media. I didn't realize how omnipresent the media is in our life and how much it truly affects our day to day happenings. Media saturation has caused us to lose ourselves in the craze. The television unit, which we are working on/wrapping up right now, has really opened my eyes to the effects of this huge mass medium. Because of its accesibility, its reaches are vast and its effects are great (great as in large, not great as in outstanding). It never really hit me that the media has control over our lives. By coming to this realization, I am a more aware consumer. I notice their advertising tricks and the sneaky things (like weasel words) they use to pull us in to their grasp and never let go. I've found myself (sadly) analyzing commercials as I watch TV. I can pick out the target market, propaganda devices, you name it. By being able to do this, I can also catch on to the tricks of the advertisers and it becomes more and more obvious that the media is what it is to make money. You never really realize that all you're getting is ads. The media can do basically whatever it wants and it can make you believe most anything.
"When you trust your television,
what you get is what you got,
cause when they own the information
oh, they can bend it all they want."
-John Mayer "Waitin' on the World to Change"
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