Weekly blog..

Although I was relatively aware of the mass media and the influence it has on its audiences, I have found that after a few weeks of our Media and Technology class, I have become even more aware of the enormous impact that media has on society today. Since our Media class has begun, we have had class discussions, lectures, and readings that have made me recognize different sources of media in a somewhat different light. I find myself paying more attention to commercials/advertisements - the way in which they persuade people to buy their product. I have also found myself looking deeper into television shows, that I would have normally watched for pure entertainment. For example, in one of our lectures, the class discussed how characters on most television shows never finish eating their meal. I had never noticed this before and decided to pay extra attention to this when watching TV. And infact, it is certainly true, teenagers rarely finish their meal on television!!! I was shocked, and can only imagine the influence this can have on teenagers today.
Another example would be how teenagers are portrayed in the media. TV shows such as 90210 and Gossip Girl demonstrate families of extreme wealth where kids "appear" happy, however there is a much more dark side when you look more deeply (e.g. depression, unhappiness, divorce, drugs/alcohol, etc).
During this past weeks lab, our TA showed us how to use youtube, and record videoclips and embed them into our own blogs. It was very interesting to learn, and I found it to be much easier than I thought it would be!