Paper 1: Media Is...

Bradley Chukwuma

Professor Li

Media Studies

9/13/2010

Paper #1

Media Is…

Throughout the ages, the opinion of the general public has been able to be swayed, manipulated, dictated, altered, subjected, and refuted by strategic use of media.  Dictionary.com defines media as "(usually used with a plural verb) the means of communication, as radio and television, newspapers, and magazines, that reach or influence people widely (Dictionary.com).  I define media as the forms of communication that can be used to connect people regardless of geographical location.  Although media can be defined by the physical means and methods used to convey a message, it can also be defined by its message and by those responsible for conveying it due to the fact that it is often altered based on the beliefs and motives of those using it.  For example, when President Obama was giving a speech at a rally while he was running for office, he and his wife bumped fists.  Many news shows interpreted this as a “celebratory fist bump”, or a “pound” but Fox News interpreted this as a “terrorist fist jab”.  Fox News is known to be a Republican run news channel and it is more than just coincidence that they would report this from an angle that makes a democratic Presidential nominee look bad. 

            Mark Twain once said that “There are only two forces that can carry light to all the corners of the globe... the sun in the heavens and the Associated Press down here.” (Twain, 2010, p. 1).” This quotation means that it is only the sun and media that truly enlighten the world.  The sun do so in the literal sense of the word by shining light to cast away physical darkness and the media does so by educating and connecting people around the world.  In this quote, Twain has an idealistic belief of media because he speaks of media as if it just conveys news and doesn’t give its own bias interpretation of it, which is not the case.  Although media hold the responsibility of enlightening the masses, those who are in charge of media will always have their own beliefs and agendas that they will want their audience to agree and side with them on.  George Orwell held the same view on media when he said “Early in life I had noticed that no event is ever correctly reported…”.  As ridiculous as this allegation sounds I am convinced that it must be true due to the fact that an individual can hear about the same event in three places and get three different versions of the same story.  This is true when we look back at the situation where Obama and his wife bump fists and Fox News interprets it as a “terrorist fist jab”, MSNBC calls it “fist-bumping”, and the NY Times refers to it as a “closed fist high five”

            Many times in popular culture we hear expressions like “once the media found out”, or “the media is going to have a field day with this” or even “the media has managed to completely misinterpret the situation” which show how commonly it is personified.  Media is not only the message and means of expressing it, but in modern culture the media is a tool used to convey the beliefs of individuals and groups in order to further their own agendas.

Media connects the masses.  Media is a source of information for people to use to develop their own opinions.  Media comes in many different forms and vehicles that all have the purpose of making the world even more interdependent and united. 

 

Works Cited

Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com. 1 January 2010. 9 September 2010 <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/media>.

Twain, Mark. www.proverbia.com. 1 January 2009. 9 September 2010 <http://en.proverbia.net/citastema.asp?tematica=747>.

"Love The Way You Lie" - Eminem featuring Rihanna

In our modern society there are several provacative topics in media that get a lot of attention and popularity for talking about things that are taboo.  One such taboo topic is domestic abuse.  In one of his latest songs called "Love The Way You Lie", rapper Eminem goes in depth into his story of domestic abuse with his significant other  This song is vivid and fully depicts the anger, frustration, and emotion that Eminem has for the topic.  Eventhough we all know that domestic abuse happens it is not something that is usually discussed in public or intentionally brought to the light.  In this case, Eminem not only brings it to the light, but he spends three whole verses reiterating the same story with more passion and anger than he did the verse before and ends with the bone-chilling line "And if she ever tries to leave again I'll tie her to the bed and set this house on fire!"  This is a song that makes light of domestic abuse, and arson, but is one of the most popular songs due to the fact that it has a good flow and Rihanna's beautiful voice on the chorus.  It probably was not in my generation, but I'm pretty sure there was once a time where something like this was not tolerated.  Oh how times have changed.

The Displacement of AIM

Throughout our generation it seems that many forms of social media have come and gone.  Sconex was kicked to the curb after the introduction of MySpace, and MySpace met its demise at the hands of Facebook, and even Facebook is currently battling Twitter, the current fastest growing social media, for the position of "#1 Internet Social Media". Before all of these, however, was AOL Instant Messenger, or AIM.  This was an istant messaging program by AOL that provided users with immediate communication when online.  AIM was the most popular social networking media for my peers and I from elementary to highschool.  It even survived well into the Facebook age, until Facebook developed FB Chat that is.  Facebook chat is basically instant messaging on the facebook profile that can get in contact with any of your Facebook Friends when they are online.  Since Facebook adopted this upgrade, the user rate of AIM has dwindled closer and closer to "non-existant".  I am probably one of the very few that still have the AIM application on my phone, a T-Mobile Sidekick LX, and that is only because I am very nostalgic and try to cling to the remnants of my childhood.  If only a lot more people felt the way I did AIM would be doing a lot better.