1f25 blog response 1: Media Impact on Others

For this assignment, I examined the blogs of Justin Young, Ronny Mondal, and Adam Tusim.  All three of these blogs insinuated that mass media is a significant part in their lives, however, the reasoning differs between all of the blogs including my own. They gave me an interesting insight into how much mass media influences my life in a variety of different ways.  

In my blog post, I mostly focused on how mass media can distort the representation of reality and inhibits us from getting an objective “truth”.  I didn’t really consider how it affects my perceptions of others, myself, and the world as a whole.  I knew it influenced my perceptions, but I didn’t really think that it did, at such a rudimentary level.  For example, I believe that all the clothes I wear is influenced by mass media one way or another.  This idea is effectively expressed in Justin young’s blog when he states, “…the fact remains the same; if the media emphasizes it, then it becomes the “proper” or “acceptable” way of life;  or at least, that’s what society believes. It isn't always obvious why we are who we are, but surely enough, the media has become a major contributor to the process”.  Because mass media defines the norm and society reinforces that norm, I will dress a certain way to pursue that norm or more simply “fit in” to what is deemed acceptable.

Justin’s blog focuses on the perception of “one’s self”, as Adam Tusim’s is concerned with how mass media influences perceptions of others. Adam writes, “The constant bombardment of negative imagery throughout the middle-east that mass media produces on a daily basis can sometimes give the public a negative perception when it comes to other certain individual backgrounds.”  I couldn't agree more with what Adam is saying.  It makes sense to me that our understanding of other groups, especially ones that we don’t encounter ourselves, will be significantly influenced by mass media’s representations of those groups.

Both these previous points have a negative approach to mass media, but Ronny Mondal’s blog explores mass media in a more positive light.  He says, “Without different forms of mass media telling me otherwise, I would have assumed that the entire world is, more or less, a safe place.” Despite his viewpoint being contrastingly more positive than mine, we are both saying that mass media gives us the information of the state of the world in which we live.  This can be a two edged sword, as mass media presents us with information, however, that information can be biased or subject to inaccuracies.

Although all these blogs describe an assortment of different opinions from different viewpoints, I think I've been able to find common ground amongst them. We all agree that mass media plays an important role in our lives, and that our perceptions, whether it be of ourselves, others, and the world are all gravely influenced by it.