Reflection Post

After this class, I doubt I'll look at media the same way again. Now, I'm noticing things about media and about the way people think I never noticed before. We consume media almost everywhere we look. Over time, we've learned to shrug it off, but there is always that impulse, that whether we are interested in buying it or not, that makes us think we need it.
After taking the class, techniques that advertisers use and different methods of advertising are obvious, and now definately effect my view on the product, as far as the recognition of vagueness and the ability to recognize weasel words.
My interaction with media has definately changed. Especially after watching the documentaries, it has really got me thinking about media and how so many companies are competing for our attention. As far as the level of media we are comstantly exposed to, it can only become an increasingly more prevalent part of our lives if things keep going the way they are. After reading more about commercials and advertising in television, for every three hours of football, there is about 10 minutes of actual action, and the rest is advertising and replays.
Through keeping this blog, and disecting ads, I learned more about what the advertisers might have been thinking, and learned that they aren't interested in letting you know about the ad a lot of the time, but just getting you to buy it, and making you think that you need it. A lot of the time, since the advertisers just want you to buy their product, and make you think that you need their product.
I also learned this through the media campaign, and trying to design motives that will make people think they need their product.
I think that people need to be educated in media literacy, and to be an educated consumer. But I feel like if more and more people were to be aware of the media in our lives and all the tricks advertisers use to compete for our attention in the world already riddled heavily with media, they would go to more extreme measures, and would make media more and more prevalent. As if it wasn't "in our face" enough already. If things continue on the current trend of more and more things pressing us to try and consume, things would definately almost more than certinaly become less and less focused on techniques, because people would already know them and the tricks that advertisers use to try and get our attention, but more focused on just getting it more and more in our face. This would not be good for a while, but I think eventually we would just adapt to it like we have already, and not notice it as much after a while. It also made me conscious of the fact that people just tune out much of media we see and make it a kind of normal occurance being exposed to the level of media that we are.
This class really made me think about media in a totally different way, and I wish more people could be educated like this, because I'm never going to think about media the same way.