Media Literacy Unit Reflection
In this day and age, the effect of media is very prevalent. Inevitably media consumption  has a great impact in my life because it holds so much power. Before taking critical thinking as a course, I never would have imagined the depths of media messages or their role on culture and life. Looking back at the knowledge I aquired this unit, I realize that everything that I learned here is important.

As a person who uses social media apps, frequently browses on the internet, and watches TV, I consume thousands of media ads and content daily.  When I began keeping a media journal, I started to be more aware of the things I see everyday. The healthy skepticism was definitely a habit I caught on to. By looking at small things like the ad techniques in a Coca-Cola commercial I begin to unravel the subliminal message the company intentionally promotes. Slowly, I felt I was becoming literate in identifying media messages. However,in order to take my knowledge of media literacy outside of this class I must be an active critical thinker.

The media not only reflects the social standards that socitey holds but also it prepetuates the current social situations. Undoubtedly social injustice has presence in race, gender, and class. Unfortunately the media has the power to inforce the oppressive systems and revert progress on social injustice issues. People of color and women are misrepresented in media. These groups are often depicted negatively and sometimes not represented at all in the media. I feel like its important to recognize this whole picture when one develops media literacy. If you can't see the role of media on the culture, there will be a vacancy in your media literacy.

In the media blogs I put a lot of focus on advertisements and commercials. I wish I ventured out into different areas of media but nevertheless the blog was an opportunity to apply my skills. I enjoyed keeping this media journal,and  I felt a that I expressed my feelings in most of my entries. Although I wiill not be keeping a formal written record of my media experiences in the future, I would like to apply the skills that  I adopted.

Elk Grove Auto Mall Special Offer

I never realized that narrowcasting was a technique used in YouTube ads until I came across this commercial for the Elk Grove Auto Mall. Clearly this ad appeared because I live in the Sacramento area. Although I am not a car owner I know that my father bought his Toyota at the Elk Grove Auto Mall. Anyway I was pleased because this ad wasn't about purchasing a car but it was about getting a limited time offer to gift cards. If you get an oil change you could revive $20 gift card from Grace Coffee Roasters, Original Pete's Pizza, Double Nickel Somke House, and Leatherby's Family Creamry. I must say for the first few seconds of the ad I was thrilled by the offer. Then it reached the end of the ad and it turned out you can only get a $5 gift card to each of these places.

What is anyone supposed to do with a $5 gift card in a steak restaurant? Five dollars will not buy you much in the menu of Leatherby's and certainly not in the other offered places. Still I think they had clever technique because they were able to advertise their auto mall and several other places they offered the gift cards to. The ad clearly used the bribery technique, and they also slightly used the time pressure/ exigency technique. They attempted to appeal to physiological needs by showing various food items from the place they offered gift cards for. Also the ad reminded me of an infomercial but it was much shorter and to the point. In 15 seconds they were able to capture my attention by a loud man's voice over talking about free offers. Although I felt negatively about this ad, I began to understand that I would remember it and because of that they have succeeded in making it effective.

Miss-Representation: Social Injustice in The Media

There was very little that shocked me in Miss-Representation because all  that was exposed is constantly present in my reality. Especially after I tried to be concious of social injustice  and became a feminist, I became well aware of these painful facts. As I watched the film I got another glimpse at the things I knew: women are objectified in the media, the media affects how women view themselves and can even drive them to serious illness, and women in leadership is very rare. These three  things are sadly something that one can't deny present-day.

When women happen to be represented in media there is almost always a degree of objectification  in their character. Even as women play superheroes part of their main image is their look or body. When it isn't Hollywood movies, the value of women is diminished to their look in advertisements. Meeting an impossible beauty standard has become the goal of many girls who consume these ads daily. The ads are digitally edited to make a skinny girl even skinnier and even change face shapes. Young girls flipping through magazines internalize these images and set out to prove their worth. The problem is their worth has become merely their look. There the problem expands and effects the girls on a mental level. The number of teenage girls that are unhappy with their body rises to 78% when they reach 17. Many of those teenage girls suffer from an eating disorder. For a woman to rise from these atrocities and present herself as a powerful women is becoming more difficult these days. Even women who reached the place of political influence like Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton, and Sarah Palin are ridiculed. I feel that the backlash they receive is an example of men trying to maintain the oppressive the social order. The truth is women are misrepresented in the United States because the voices in the media is often the one of men. The major media corporations are lead mainly by men and after the media was deregulated in the1980's things only got worse.

I personally agreed with the solution presented in this documentary which is to regulate the media. The fact that things were more progressive in the past shows that the United States is now moving backwards. As a country that places pride in the values of the Constitution we should not be 90th in the world for having women in legislation. Also I liked how the documentary talked about how patriarchy harms men as well. Men are expected to be emotionally constipated and often that is unhealthy. I feel that the road to gender equality and end of patriarchy requires everyone's cooperation and including men.

"Making Cents Out of Teens: Merchants of Cool" Response

I never thought that so much of the teen culture had to do with marketing and business. After watching  "Merchants of Cool" the documentary from Frontline, my perception of American teen culture changed. I was appalled by how media companies like MTV have played an incessant role in what is considered cool. The problem with the companies having this much control over teens is  that they see teens as consumers they can capitalize on. There was even an analogy that states that teens were like a country to colonize. Their value for teens indicates that they are not concerned for the well-being of people but only thinking about making money. MTV is  like one long infomercial because they are always attempting to sell something. They find ways to make us think that "cool" is tangible ,and they trap us in a cycle that forces us to conform to the new cool. As soon as one trend picks up, they search for another by trying to reach out to those who consider themselves outcasts. An example is how they marketed the rap rock band Limp Bizkit. At first, rap rock was an unpopular genre but as soon as  they advertised  Limp Bizkit as the new cool , it became more prominent.  Also in their  search to find extremes and make it mainstream, they have no regard for the effect. In one of Limp Bizkit's concerts ,total chaos broke out when the crowd broke numerous items and assaulted people. There were even four reported cases of rape. Even when these atrocities occurred,media companies did not care about the stuff they promoted. Also the mook and midriff personalities that media outlets created are detrimental to soceity. The mook is a character that capitalizes on the testosterone driven madness of adolescence. He isn't necessarily a representation of the teen boys but he has this hypermasculine behavior that seems to be normalized.The midriff is a female character who is consumed with her looks and displays her sexuality. However this character made women objects and not people; their worth was measured by their look. Both personalities were an attempt to sell cool and mostly their attempts were successful. There were even many girls lining up to be the next big midriff. All of the market research and advertisement was not about appealing to teens as people but simply as customers. The more I think about these major companies and their motives, I get shocked. I find that these careful strategies such as cool hunting and stealth marketing are unbelievably efficient. Too much of our culture  depends on the media but at the same time they claim to only be responding to what we want.  In reality they give us what they want and with that they have come to define our customs and values.  I find it extremely frightening to think that companies with the only objective of making money, have the power to shape our norms and what we values.

 Pepto-Bismol Commercial:Pepto-Copter

You might already tell from the title that this is another strange advertisement, but  I promise I'm not trying to deliberately look for wired ads. They just happen to be around when I am just casually streaming a YouTube videos. Pepto-Bismol is a brand that has a monopoly on over the counter treatment for stomach pain. In this ad, their approach to capture an audience was humor. It began by a man eating a chili dog at a backyard party. It was clear that his stomach was queasy, and all of the sudden a song begins. The song is narrating the man's situation and points out how the pepto-copter is there to save him. The Peptocopter looked like one of those remote control models made for toys , but in this commercial it's much more prominent. It is pink with the Pepto-Bismol logo on it and it had the capability to deliver a bottle of Pepto-Bismol attached with a parachute to the man. The lyrics of the song as the Peptocopter carried out this action were quite humorous: "When the chili dog stats to rumble below, it stops your stomach from being a weirdo . So you can be a backyard hero!". This song could potentially be catchy if you listen to it a couple of times. However catchy songs tend to be annoying. As humorous as the lyrics were the singing was clamorous. It sounded like loud chanting ,and it slightly reminded me of the Food Maxx song.
 Also the man with an upset stomach  was holding a badminton racquet which is why the song mentioned something about being a backyard hero.  The ad was claiming that with  Pepto-Bismol the man would surely win the game. With this ad, they are attempting to appeal to out need to dominate. It could also be appealing to our physiological need because it will allow us to consume the good we enjoy. Judging by the man in the commercial, the target audience is middle aged men. Problems with digestion could be the reason why middle aged men can't participate in their favorite activities with full potential. The Pepto-Bismol company is explicitly trying to say that their product is the one to save you from your digestive issues. Implicitly they are trying to say that their product is a simple solution which will allow you victory in other things  such as sports.

Coca Cola: While Your Tongue is Young?

So on Tumblr I've come across these series of Coca Cola ads that were strange and used the  slogan while you tongue is  young. One of the ads in the series that really caught my attention was titled "Bicep".
The ad had a close up of a boy observing his arm muscle then slowly drinking a bottle of Coca-Cola. What was most amusing about the ad was the voice over of this man with an obscure accent . The man  said  that if the boy really wanted to be impressed with his body he'd put a microscope in his  mouth to see  his 'young taste buds'. Already by those fifteen seconds I was  drowned in a mix of emotion I was giggling at the mans voice and at the same time I was utterly confused.

So in that moment I knew they were using the gestalt technique because my mind spent way too much time trying to figure out a 15 second ad. At the same time ,I was trying to think about the message an the target audience for the ad. Because of the young man picture and the weird "while your tongue is young" slogan, the target audience is aimed at teenage and young adult boys. I guess the ad was also conveying biceps aren't the only things that display your youthful strength but also your ability to taste coke. The voice over man also stated that the bicep is merely a delivery system so that you can drink Coca- Cola . Again I was confused, but I was able to unravel the logic on that line and I think that they were attempting to be humorous when they minimized the purpose of a bicep. At the same thine they were witty enough to guide you towards wanting the beverage. It is appealing to the physiological needs because it really highlights the beverage throughout the ad.  Towards the end it shows the bubbles up close and also there is ice to make the drink even more appealing.

Dove : What Gives A Man Real Strength?

By seeing the title of this ad  I had a general idea of who the target audience was , but nevertheless I watched it because I was curious to see its content. When I did I was absolutely taken away with how sentimental the  images were. There were sons and daughters of all ages  calling out to their father whether it was a cry for help or a moment to appreciate. Most of the time the children also embraced their father  and it was clear that  their dad played a special role in their life. These images greatly activated the need to nurture especially for the kids that were younger.The music in the background was a mix of piano , violin, and xylophone, and overall it had a happy tone. It played slowly in the beginning and then sped up towards the end when the text "What makes a man stronger?". The music came to a complete stop at the end and the text "Showing that he cares" . I felt that the change in the tempo was very effective because it heightened the message and it was especially dramatic when the  "showing that he cares" text appeared. Then after that a man had a voice over and he said "Dove men plus care. Care makes a man stronger".  Then it just hit me and I was like:

What does a sanitary product have anything to do with being a caring father?

It  doesn't ... well it's not like  I didn't expect that Dove wouldn't eventually mention their product but I realized how immersed I was in the emotional part of the ad  which has nothing to do with the product . They got me for that minute with the diversion and transfer association technique. Yet at the end I couldn't help but laugh at the man who said dove plus care is  the tool to make a man caring and therefore stronger.  By that point I realized how I was too carried away the images they had shown before  and  I laughed at myself because I almost forgot that this was an ad for a synthetic hygiene product.

Although their diversion was clear to me I was pleased that they were instilling proper morals into men. Caring is a wonderful trait and associating it with strength makes it a trait that men would want. The grandeur of strength is always something that men always want to achieve because it is a standard set for them. I am glad that this commercial projected a new meaning into strength which is not tied to the physical strength but the ability to care.