Reflection Paper

What did you learn about the media?

One thing I learned about the media was that how ever the media portrays reality and what happens in the world is how we as individuals view it. I thought it was very interesting when I heard the idea that people view the world as “pictures” as Walter Lippman had suggested. I definitely believe that there is some truth to this statement.
I also learned that different media have different success rates. Some messages are best delivered through certain types of media, whereas others through other types of media. One message may be better suited for one medium while a different message might be communicated better through another.

What were your expectations and were they met?

My expectations for this class coming in were that the class would be very basic and for the most part strictly informative. I was expecting to go over different types of media and how they are used to communicate in today’s world. My expectation were definitely met as well as exceeded. I really enjoyed this class. I was pleasantly surprised with how much I learned about the history and theories of various media. One example is the history of the television. This was very interesting to learn about. Also, the theories about mass communication made me think about things in a different light, which I see as a good thing.

How does the world see the media compared to how you see the media?

The world in general typically sees the media as being unbiased and reliably informative. They see it as a means of information, entertainment, and sometimes relaxation. I must admit, my perception is very similar to that of the world. The main difference is that I realize the imperfections of those that run the media. I realize that some media outlets allow fabrication and some allow things to be communicated that may not be true. I guess you could say that I view the media in a similar light to the world, only with added skepticism. I believe that many forms of media and many media outlets and channels truly try to communicate honest messages, but I believe that sometimes, they deliver misinformed messages. This does not question they’re ethics, merely, I question the credibility. As far as being a means of entertainment and relaxation, I enjoy watching a good movie or show as much as the next man. My only complaint is that I would like to see higher ethical standards portrayed.

How does all of this fit into the Lord’s plan for us?

I believe that media can be used for very good things. Media can be used to further the work of the Lord and build the kingdom of God. Communication is such a vital part of life and of being connected with other people. Every individual wants to communicate and be heard. The Lord wants people to communicate and interact. There is certain truth to the statement in the Bible, “it is not good for man to be alone.” To live in this world but not communicate with others is to be alone. I believe that it is vital to the Lord’s plan for us to communicate by whatever means are available to us.

Ethics

If I were hired to work with CBS and choose things that should be edited in prime-time, here are the 5 things that I would choose.

1. The F word
2. Nudity
3. Limit sexual content
4. Staunch religious degrading
5. Racial slurs

I would choose these things because I think that any show in the absence of these 5 things would not be any less popular. On the contrary, I would think that with some good ethical guidlines like these, that a broader audience could be reached.

Law

One situation where I think that personal and public expression went too far was when protestors against Proposition 8 in California were protesting outside of the LA temple. First of all, it was wrong to single out a single organization, but the part where they really crossed the line is when they vandalized church property and offered up threats to LDS members. To remedy this situation, I believe that such individuals should be promptly dealt with and should be helped to understand their rights to freedom of speech and how far is crossing the line.

PR

I believe that Public Relations like image consulting can be ethical as long as it is done truthfully. If it is done truthfully, PR can be a very good thing as long as the goal is to show the truth of a company.

Like PT Barnum and his extraordinary claims, these kinds of things certainly happen today. It is what is referred to as puffery, which is a perfectly legal means of building up the reputation of your product or service. One example of puffery would be the channel TBS which is self proclaimed as the "Number one cable network." This does not need to be true, because it is simple puffery. Often, puffery is not true, but presented as if it was true.

Advertising

The reason I don't think this ad is good is because I do not recognize the brand or what the product is exactly. Its clever, but I'm not sure whether it is detergent or something like Shout or stain remover.

This advertisement is too cluttered. The writing is too small and it is not clear what the benefit of this game is over others.

I like this ad because it catches the eye and is very memorable. Also, the message it portrays is clear. Clear message + Memorable = Good Ad


I like this one because I like Legos. Also, the message is clear and memorable, and the product being advertised is very clear. Eveyone knows what legos look like.

I definitely think that advertising is effective. Think of how many buying decisions are based on what we've seen in advertising. One example of when I was influenced by an advertisement was when I saw the 5 dollar foot long ad from Subway. I went out and bought a sub the very next day. Advertisements, however, are less effective when an individual is not in the target market. For example, whenever I see ads on TV for medications for heart burn, I would never go out and buy it because I don't get heart burn.

TV

I tracked my television viewing for a week and found some good results. The programs that I watch prodominately have to do with sports, especially basketball. On almost everyday of the week that I tracked, I watched an NBA basketball game as well as spent time watching highlights on SportsCenter. The week that I tracked also was the week of the Presidential election. I watched programs leading up to it to hear any political news. I also watched Simpsons and Seinfeld through out the week.

From this, I learned that TV provides me with entertainment with regards to sports and half hour shows, as well as political news. This fulfills the need for relaxing entertainment and well as the need for information about politics.

As far as networks tending to provide shows for the LCD, I pretty much agree that that is the case. In the case of shows like Simpsons, Seinfeld (both on FOX), these are shows that would really appeal to anyone, but especially the lower to middle class. These shows protray individuals that live in apartments, or small homes with their families.

I definitely agree that the TV has had a greater impact on society than any other media. Look at how much TV the average American watches. I think a close second would be the internet, and a very good argument could be made in its case, but to this date, the TV still remains a big part of 99% of homes in the nation. Think about how your living room is set up. To face the TV.

Movies

The amount of sex and violence is increasing in motion pictures I think based on both the fact the Hollywood is giving what most of the public wants as well as being based on society's acceptance of what we are given. Personally, if people truly did not want that kind of content in a movie, they would not put it in there. The fact remains that a lot of people do want that kind of content and those that don't typically just accept it. One example is the movie Ocean's 11. I know a lot of people that really like the movie, but are apposed to some of the content in it. These people are just accepting what is given. I have heard other people comment on the movie that do not hold to the same standards that really like seeing that kind of content.

Personally, if I were a movie producer, and I was to make a box office hit, I would completely avoid having sex in the movie. Even though, I know that most box office movies have that kind of content, I would not do it. I would look to make a movie based on a true and inspiring story or something. I do not think I would look to make a comedy, because what the majority of people seem to think is funny these days are sexual, violent, or sacrilegious jokes.

Radio

99.5 FM - Commonly called "My 99.5" because the station is in theory run by the listeners. There is no DJ that gets on and talks ever. A computer voice, after the song is played, says the name of the song. People can call in, leave a message, and say whatever they want, and it often gets put directly on the air. The music they play is predominantly recent music from current artists, mostly pop and rock, and Indy rock, as well as some older stuff of the same genre. As far as advertising goes, they advertise to the young generation with things like phone advertisements like AT&T as well as fast food places.

103.9 FM - Also called "107.9 The Mix". They play music from the "80s, 90s, and now". A DJ announces the song that will be next played as well as advertisements for the station itself and sometimes mentions promotions going on. Just like 99.5, they play pop and rock. As far as advertising goes fast food places and cell providers are popular advertisers on the station. One example is AT&T. They have a lot of commercials on the station.

KSL news radio - DJs talk about local events, local news as well as national news and weather forecasts. Typical advertising include home improvement products and services, things for kids as well as a lot of car commercials. This shows that the demographic they try to hit with advertising are families with children. They also do sporting events like football and basketball games.

104.3 - Known as "The Cowboy 104.3". A DJ announces songs and other things. If the name didn't already give it away, its a country music station. They do Weather forecasts and some news as well as play music. They also have "the fewest commercials". The advertising is directed towards the older generation families with kids. Advertisements include things like grocery store advertisements, car commercials and home improvement products and services.

107 - Known as "Movin 107". From what I could tell, the station was more geared toward females. With advertisements like the Blue boutique and cosmetology schools as well as playing "girl power" songs, their audience would predominantly be female. There really is no DJ. Pre-recorded voices announce songs and advertise the station.

As far as success is concerned, all of these stations are made possible by advertising paying for them, but the reason that advertisers are willing to put their commercials on the stations is because the stations are successful in grabbing listeners. For 99.5, they allow people in the state of Utah to basically run the station, allowing for these advertisers to see that a lot of people listen based on how many people call in, as well as knowing that a lot of the young generation listen to the genre of music that is played. For 103.9, again the genre of music matches the demographic of the young generation, which a lot of advertisers want to hit. Also,

Newspaper

Many metropolitan daily newspapers have lost circulation and some have shut down. One example of this is The Capital Times which has run for approximately 90 years. The article that reports on this was in the New York times that says the daily shutdown because of decreasing print revenue and increasing online revenue.

For community newspapers, people remain interested in recieving the daily local news. To me, the reason that these continue to do well is because in a typical city, in order to get local news, the local weeklies is practically the only place to go. For example, the Penn-Trafford Star in Pitsburgh, which has recently been launched and is finding success. The success of these weeklies comes from the local crowd that looks to these papers as one of if not the only means of truly local news.

One of our local papers, The Daily Herald, I find that there is a lot of soft news throughout the paper in comparison to hard news. The topics often covered are political news focused mainly on the Presidential and Vice-Presidential canidates. The soft news often has to do with feel good veteran stories (Veteran reunions) and feel-good sport legend stories (Lavell Edwards turns 78) I think that the newspapers still do a decent job of being "watch-dogs" but certainly not to the degree they used to. It is not uncommon to find a newspaper absolutely packed with feel-good stories and few hard news stories that would be considered the "watch-dog" stories of old.

Magazines

I went Seagull Book on University Pkwy and they directing me to magazine that is certainly not in my interests. The magazine was "Taste of Home" which is a cooking magazine. The typical reader seemed to be a midage woman probably with kids, that likes to learn about new cooking ideas as well as home decorative things. The reason I came to this conclusion is based on the content and the advertising. The advertising consisted of cook books like "Everyday Slow Cooker and more dish recipes" and "Delectable Desserts". Also, throughout the whole magazine, there were many pictures of middle age woman, including a profile of Katie Brown who is a "life style expert".

The electronic media has had a fairly big impact on the magazine industry in that people have more access to the material in the magazines, but do not buy as many or go look at as many hard copies now that they are available electronically. The best example that I find is the fact that when students look to find information on topics, they have access to magazine articles directly and now do not go look at the hard copies as often. I know that when I want to find a magazine article, I go online and search directly for the articles. The impact of this on the magazine industry is that less people are looking at advertisements which would lead advertisers to not be as prone to buy magazine advertisements.

Read any good books lately?

After polling 10 people I found the following results pertaining to books.

Avg number of books read in the last 6 months - 4.5

Types of books read - Religious books, novels, programming language books, and textbooks.

This tells me that my sample do read a lot per se, but that they do read a fair amount. All of them mentioned reading religious books as well as textbooks. This would suggest that they are religious students, which is true.


In college, I would rather use electronic text books. This makes these books accessible anywhere and is significantly less expensive. The only reason why I would want to use hard copy books is so I can highlight things, but you can print off those books and highlight the pages. I'm taking a Public Speaking class that is using an electronic text, so I just printed off the pages and it serves just as good as a hard copy at a fraction of the price.

As far as leisure reading goes, I would prefer hard copy. There is something to be said about having a hard copy book, sitting down and just enjoying a good story. Also, it gets annoying staring at a screen to read, especially considering how much time I spend doing other things on a computer. One example for me is that I like to read millionaire kind of business books and I would not enjoy kicking back and reading one on the internet as I would reading through a hard copy book.

Negative stereotypes in the Media

I definitely think that negative stereotypes exist in the media.

Take the George Lopez show for example. Occasionally there are actual jokes made, but most of the time, someone with a Mexican accent says something normal, and it is perceived to be funny because it is said with an accent. Are we to assume that when a Mexican says something, just because it sounds different than they way a white American says it, that it is comical?

Over-immersing in Mass Media

It has been mentioned that there is a possibility that people will be immersing themselves in the world of mass media to a point to where they begin to tune out the real world. In my opinion, if people overly distance themselves from the real world then they will begin to think that things will work out like a storybook or a TV show. Also, on the news we see reports of extreme things such as murders, robberies, and high speed chases because they are out of the ordinary. If people immerse themselves too much in mass media, they will begin to think that the extraordinary is ordinary, which can be very dangerous.

When being immersed too much in media, people may tend to pattern their life-styles after what they see on TV, or read in a magazine. One very dangerous example of this having already happened is a few years ago, a young boy killed his little sister by imitating wrestling moves he had seen on WWF wrestling.

Just by means of personal ventilation that is related to this topic, chick-flick movies bother me a great deal. Not that I just think they are dumb, but they portray real-life in an unrealistic manner which in theory is fine seeing that EVERY movie does that. In every chick flick, the girl in the story ends up with "the man of her dreams". A series of events take place that would indicate that "it was meant to be". Yes, it was meant to be, because the writer wrote the story! The problem here is not the movies. There is nothing inherently wrong with the movies (though sometimes I wonder) but too many girls think that there love life will be just like a fairy tale. Odds are it won't. Sorry. I know a girl may think, "but I'm different and it just WILL be like that." To that girl I say, "Just remember. You are unique. Just like everyone else."

The Communication Model

Newspaper
First, journalists encode a story by researching it. Then they write up articles that go through the "noise" of an editor which is published on a newspaper with pictures. The receiving audience recieves or sees the paper and either decodes it strictly by seeing the pictures or reading the article as well. They then encode feedback by thoughts which can either turn into direct letters to the editor, comments to friends and family, or remain unshared. The editor decodes the readers message through reading the letters or surveying newspaper readers.
Magazine Article
Magazine articles are similar in the communication model to the newspaper. First, writers encode a message by researching the subject. They then create the message by writing an article, typically longer and more detailed than newspaper, coupled with usually more pictures than the newpaper. The reader then decodes the message by reading the article and viewing the pictures to get a better understanding of what is said. The feedback is then given through in some cases letters and direct feedback, but most commonly as renewal of subscriptions if the reader continually enjoys the articles in the magazine. Noise in the case of magazine might be pictures that do not coorelate well with the article or distractions around the reader.

Radio Program

With radio, a message is encoded by the host through research and bringing experts or opinionated people onto the show. The message is delivered through the radio broadcast system. The receiver then hears the message via his/her radio and decodes the message based on strictly what they hear. Feedback is given through means of ratings but also very commonly through call-ins to the radio station where the receiver can given direct verbal feedback. Noise in this case might be static that effects the sound quality, commenting people around the listener or tuning in late to a show and thus not understanding the whole message.

Television Show

A television show encodes and sends the message through actor interpretation, writer interpretation, and situation depiction. The message is then decoded by the receiver through what he/she sees, hears, and understands. Some common noise is unrelatable circumstances, distractions in the area of the viewer, tuning in half-way through a program and more. The receiver gives feedback by watching or not watching the show, through channel ratings depicted by what consumers want, and sometimes direct feedback.

Which ones fits best?

Personally, I think the Radio show fits the model the best. A radio show allows for more direct feedback from receivers than the others. For example, Jim Rome hosts a sports radio show in Southern California. He debates a wide variety of sports topics while giving very opinionated reviews. The majority of the show is spent talking directly to listeners who take a side and explain what they think. In this way, the model of communication is more complete and not as one-sided as say a television show might be where it is broadcast to a large audience with little to none of them replying directly.

Informing

The mass medium that I think peforms the best in informing would be the television. For example, when the government bailed out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac recently, the story was all over every news channel and even comedy shows (Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien) reaching a very large audience. If someone wanted to know more about this incident, they could flip to, for example, CNBC or MSNBC and watch live debaters talk about what happened, allowing the viewer to obtain information from a number of points of view.

Entertaining

Again. The TV. How many of us watch TV on a regular basis. Why? I would venture to say that the main reason is for entertainment. For example, if you want to relax and enjoy entertainment through a mass medium, typically you would turn on the television and watch some Simpsons or Seinfeld or even......Gilmore Girls....ok...noone is that desperate...right? Apparently they are! Otherwise they wouldn't be showing stupid shows!

Persuading

Guess what? Yep. The TV. Of course this being my opinion. Again to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Well, actually to the bail out situation as a whole (AIG, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers). When the crisis hit, many news shows broadcast the situation and many different points of view. Also, again to the senses thing, these points of views are able to be communicated to more senses than just seeing or just hearing as the others do.

Comms 101

This blog is for a Comms class I'm taking right now. I'm going to be primarily talking about the media on this blog, so if you care, go ahead and read it and comment!