Okay so this week in class we started talking some of the history of mass media and the basic building blocks of mass media. So for our homework, we're suppose to think about the role(s) media plays in our everyday lives. After some thought I realized that media is a big part of every ones lives. Every where you look there are logos and advertisements for items. Lets say you go into Giant Eagle and you walk down the cereal aisle, one of the first things you will see is the name brand of the cereal. If you sit down to watch the evening news, there will be about 5 or 10 commercials during the commercial breaks. Even if you would watch a TV show on Hulu, they still have advertisements in between the segments. So I would say that media plays a hugh role in our everyday lives because it is everywhere and it is how we know what is popular or on sale at any given point in time.
Another topic we were told to think about was do we mostly consume media messages or do we also create media messages and I think we all do both at some point. We were clothing that have logos on them, we leave stores with bags with their store names on them. We are basically walking advertisements for what ever brands we may be wearing or carrying that day. So in that way, we are also consuming it because we are buying our favorite brands and basically show them to the world around us. Lets say you go to Starbucks and buy a cup of coffee, when you leave, you're carrying a cup with their logo on it so everyone else sees it and may go, oh I want to go to Starbucks. I think this is the easiest form of advertisement a company can do because it's just word of mouth. So in both ways, we consume and create media messages every day.
I'm very interested to see where this class will lead me because I'm already seeing things in a different light and it has only been one week. So far I find the class extremely interesting and I hope to learn more about all the different forms of media. After looking at the syllabus, I think the week I'm most looking forward to is the week we talk about the food network because I love food and I sometimes find myself watching that channel all the time. So I guess for my finally question of what I hope to get out of this class, I would have to say that I hope that I get a better understanding of how media messages are made and put out for me to see. I want to understand more about how these messages influence me on a day to day basis.
