Media Regulation

We all enjoy being surrounded by media, because that is how we connect to the world and it has also become a way for us to express ourselves through social media. Much of the world still watches television, and of course, that is where mass media is concentrated - whether it is the news, TV shows, reality shows, advertisements, and movies.

Being part of the general public, we often prefer to have some regulation in the media to help filter out some things that aren't necessarily "good" or "healthy" for our people. I am talking about regulating media content where it they try to filter out obscene, sexual, indecency, and profanity contents. All these regulations help to manage our morality. Without them, I cannot imagine living in a society where everyone is not longer innocent, children who aren't mature for these materials will all be exposed and will go on for the next generation and so on.

If we impose regulations, then it will be in the public's interest and if we don't impose regulations it will be in the free market's interest. As long as we can balance out the amount of regulations, then it will still be better than no regulations at all.

Metaphysics and Pragmatism

Humans have always wondered how things came to be and it is normal as we are curious creatures that have a high intellectual to think and reason. A branch of philosophy called metaphysics is the study of being and existence (ontology). With many abstract theories, we humans will have never-ending debates about how the world was made, and on many other subjects.

Having theories and thoughts are needed so that we are not trapped - it allows us to think outside the box and have reasons in our lives. However, sometimes these questions can't help us move on. They aren't practical enough, and here is where pragmatism comes in. Pragmatism is also another branch in philosophy that focuses on everyday practical affairs; what works, what doesn't work, and why - so that improvements can be made.

My aunt has once told me a story while she stayed at my house temporarily before moving back to her home country. She has a very religious friend which is a close friend of hers. When my aunt has put her house up for sale, her friend gave her a bible as a gift. when my aunt's house got sold, her friend gave her a call and said, "See? I knew your house would get sold! That's because i prayed everyday for you, and also gave you a bible." After hearing that, my aunt just smiled but thought that what she said was not practical at all! Her house got sold because another person is looking for a house, not because of prayers.

There is nothing wrong with being religious, but sometimes pragmatism is safer in regards to everyday life, it is local, contingent, contextual, historical and helps us to measure and produce tangible results!

News Reporting Conventions

There are different types of biases when the news present their information. In the end, underlying all news production is The Profit Motive. And since news is a huge part of mass media, they will of course try to control what we should know and what we should be interested in. All sorts of news is biased these days, depending on the economy, the country, and even the situation itself.

Some biases that the news have when reporting include treating the news too personalized. They often focus on the individual and not on the larger social structure, which is also similar to 'authority disorder' - meaning that when a situation occurs, the news doesn't focus on "why the problem surfaced" or "why is it a problem" but only on the voices of the officials. One reason why they would do that is to try to gain public trust when there is fear so they can handle the situation however they want with the public on their side.

There was a video which i watched about half a year ago. This video was alleged as clip of the news that aired in North Korea and it shows the modern day America as well as how its citizens are living today. Now, the so called "modern day America" would definitely shock you as the video showed that Americans seems to be living in really bad economic times. It shows that Americans drink water from the snow and other things which is not true - but how will North Korea's citizens know? They've never been outside their own country. This is shown to the public so that every citizen will feel more powerful than the US.

However, that doesn't mean the US is better off, over in the states, news about North Koreans are always biased when any situation arises. News can be over dramatized by either countries so much that we really need to filter for ourselves as to what is true. We shouldn't believe every word that the news reporters say because then we would have a biased opinion as well.

Theory

After today's lecture, the professor gave us an analogy on theory. To me, theory is usually a persons' thoughts about an idea that is yet to be proven. But the analogy that the professor gave was comparing how an eyebrow looks like under an electron microscope; which is magnified 50 times, and a cover of a model showing her eyebrows just like how everyone perceives how an eyebrow looks.

And so, the meaning of a theory was that "it shows us things otherwise that we couldn't see". I thought that this was an interesting approach to look at theories, and the more i think about it, the more it makes sense. When the world was made, no one knew how it was made. We believed that the world was made by God (Whichever religion people belonged to), or there will be fancy stories and legends of how the world was made. People didn't have other views toward the issue until Georges Lemaître came proposed an idea that would later become the Big Bang Theory.

Without theories, humans would all be blinded by what they believe only and would be too scared to explore all the other possibilities. Just imagine if today we still believed that the world was flat, then no one would dare to sail the seas and would have never found out that the world is round.

Virtuous or Vicious Cycle?

Even before mass media came through, societies way back have already started implementing feudalism which is a system for ordering society around relationships derived from the holding of land in exchange for service or labour.

it all made sense to these people why they belonged to their rank in the hierarchy that they didn't even question why because they thought that it's how it's supposed to be. Till today, the society, or the economic system, shapes everything such as attitudes, values, and culture.

Ultimately, the government, institutions, legal systems all are equivalent to the ruling class back in the day and so their ideas are popularized in their own interest while making it seem like it is in the best interest of everybody.

The mass media will always stand with the ruling class, so where ever you stand differentiates whether you are helping to "create" a false consciousness or the one that is experiencing the false consciousness.  Like all citizens, we are mostly unaware of the true nature of the system. Even if we do, we just turn a blind eye to it because that is how the world is and there is nothing we can do about it but to follow and live with it for the rest of our lives.

Moving on to the title of my post today "Virtuous or Vicious cycle". I just thought that even though they associate a virtuous cycle for the ruling class and the vicious cycle for the lower class, the lower class might not even see it as a vicious cycle because they also believe that it is how it's suppose to be. And so we are just going to work, buying things and repeating it everyday, believing it as a virtuous cycle.

Commodity Fetishism and Advertising

When the professor first introduced this term "Commodity Fetishism", it took me a while before truly understanding what it means. To my understanding, it is the social relationship that the consumers have with inanimate objects and to them, under capitalism, their relationship with anyone has an economic value to it.

For us consumers, when we purchase an item, we don't see the value of the item coming from behind the item, instead, we see the value of the commodity coming from the item itself. That is an illusion which we call a 'fetish'.

when the professor showed us the video of where a woman was lining up to buy the Iphone 5 and what is it that she liked so much about the new Iphone that she is not willing to leave her spot after lining up for 2 days, we all just thought that this woman sounded dumb - she answered how the Iphone 5 looks so cool and that she would use it to text and take pictures (as if any other phone couldn't do the same).

However, after giving a thought, i realize everyone including me, is no different from this woman here. We are all sort of blinded by advertising in a capitalist society where it is necessary to work harder in order to buy more.

The cycle keeps going in order to sustain the economy system. This gave my chills down my back but it is unavoidable and it applies to me perfectly. I have a part time job and every time i am available, i ask my boss to give me extra hours in order to earn more money. I use that money for transportation to school but another reason is that i have the urge to go shopping every time i get i paycheck. Even though i really dislike my work, i am still willing to work longer hours in order to get more money.

After this lecture, i will definitely think twice the next time i am about to buy something. I know that it is 'normal' and that's how everyone has been living in a society but i would still try not to be too extreme in working more hours just for the sake of shopping.

Why study media?

Since we are constantly being surrounded by media, we often get confused by our reality and the virtual reality from interacting with social media. That is why by studying media, we can have a clearer understanding of the difference between the two realities.

I think that since the social networking websites have started to gain popularity, everyone is more connected virtually than in person. Everyone can just sit behind their computer screen, or on their smartphone, while they browse the net in their alternate persona.

 People spend so much time on updating their own online profiles, it's as if it's their job to update information about themselves. As they spend more and more time online, they naturally will turn into another person to the point that they will start believing that it is their real self.

Because of the endless possibilities of characterizing yourself when you are online, people can be deceiving and be obsessed in building their online personality. I think for some it is a good thing that they get to create another persona because they could be experiencing tougher times in real life. For example, someone that is always being bullied in real life might feel happier and more welcomed when they are online. Media realities could be an escape for some but ultimately, we should not mix up the two realities because all the things you think you can do or achieve virtually is pointless when you are offline. So think about who you really are and don't use virtual reality as an escape.

What is media studies?

Before watching the first lecture of MDSA01, i thought we would be talking about all the social media around us such as websites that include Facebook, Twitter, etc.

However, after watching the lecture i realized that a media does not only mean the things that we watch on TV or on the internet. The definition given to us was that a media is information that  comes to use through some indirect channel or medium. Most people in our day and age, particularly our generation is surrounded by social media more than ever, and it is no surprise that we only think of social media when hearing about media studies. 

My thoughts after watching the lecture was that media studies is for us to learn about the form of communications that humans have had since a long time ago. The quote "We make our tools, then our tools make us." by Marshall McLuhan (1964) is very true in a sense that the things we make, such as a watch, helps us to be able to know the time and make life more efficient. At the same time, we are being bounded by this watch because of the time - everything that we do in our daily schedule is all depended on time, and that comes from the watch.