Wanted: the media that we need

              The question for this blog is: Is the media we want the same as the media we need? The media we want is definitely not the same as the media we need. We are made to think that we need what the media is selling to us but we don’t. We are just made to want things. I don’t need a fancy Iphone. My old phone worked fine, but I told my dad that I desperately needed an Iphone and now I have one. The truth is, I don’t need one but I was made to think that after seeing that basically everyone has one. The media, such as Apple commercials made everyone think that we need to have an Iphone and if we don’t, we’ll be an outcast.

                One blog that I read talked about how we want the media we get because we don’t get to choose the media we are given. Since we don’t get to choose, we end up wanting the media we are given because we don’t have any other choice. We have to settle for what is given to us and we end up wanting it because we are so convinced that it is really what we want. “What the media wants us to think about the world, is what we think about the world”. I really liked this quote from this student’s blog because it is exactly what I believe.  http://cpcfkells.blogspot.ca/.

                One student talked about reality tv and how we think we are seeing people’s everyday real lives but we aren’t. Even though it is supposed to be real and unscripted, it isn’t. It is still television so it is edited just like other shows on tv. “Shows such as “Keeping up with the Kardashians”, “Jersey Shore”, “Real Housewives of Vancouver”, etc, are all meant to show viewers the real life of living a rich life, but it fails to show the actual reality. The producers pick and choose the interesting parts that they want the viewers to see”.  http://adelina23.wordpress.com/. When we see these reality stars living these extravagant lives, we want to be just like them because we think it’s very real. We want to try to get the things that they have because we end up thinking that we need the same things as them if we want to have a great lifestyle like they do.

                Another blog I read talked about how we want the media we get because the media makes it seem like what they are offering us is what we really want and even need. “In the end consumers want what they get, because they desire what media gives them”. http://hecticglow.blogspot.ca/. We don’t actually want or need the media we get but we are persuaded into thinking that we actually do.

Our media choices do not better inform us about important social, political, cultural and/ or economic matters. The men that run the media choose what we see based on what they want us to see. Most media that we see isn’t here to inform us; it’s here to distract us from what is going on in the world. They have their own view of life and they want us to view life the same way. The only thing that I am better informed about through the media is celebrity gossip which isn’t important at all.

Overall, we are not better informed by the media and wanting and needing the media are two different things.