News, trust and "truthiness"

People had different opinions on whether or not satirical news was more reliable. Some said that it was more reliable than the regular news reporting while others said that it wasn’t reliable at all. After reading my classmate’s blogs I still think that satirical news reporting is important in our public sphere and it seems like a lot of people agree with that.

                rcurkovic.wordpress.com says how the satirical news shows are better because they keep us entertained so that we pay attention. He said that culture jamming by using billboards isn’t very effective because they kind of lose our focus since they are too serious. I agree because no one is really going to pay attention to a boring conference or political meeting but they will pay attention if a reporter shows certain clips from it and makes it humorous. “Mainstream media is definitely an effective way of culture jamming and is most likely the best way to grasp our attention especially because of the lifestyles we live in today”.

                brownjada.wordpress.com says how satirical news is an important addition to the public sphere because it gets you thinking differently from the “norm”. “Satirical news reports discuss politics and mainstream issues, but instead of discussing what we would normally hear in mainstream news it delivers the truth by adding some comic relief”. She says that it is just as useful as the regular news reporting, it’s just a more entertaining way of getting the news across and even a bit more truthful. “Often times no one really knows the whole truth because we are given half truths and it’s hard to present the other half of the truth when you’re basically going against the majority. This is why culture jamming and satirical news reports are vital in bringing forth information that is very beneficial”.

                These two blogs pretty much said the same things that I did and I agreed with a lot of the blogs that I read, except for one of them.

                rdl3aj.wordpress.com says that satirical news is less reliable than traditional news because these shows embellish the news and twist the stories around a bit. “Of course the presentation of news this way is appealing and more entertaining to viewers, but is it worth it, when it’s not all that accurate?” I totally disagree with this person but everyone is entitled to their own opinions. I wouldn’t say that satirical news is fake because who’s to say that the regular news is real?

                It seems like a lot of people think that satirical news is good for our public sphere and people seem a bit critical of the regular news. I think it’s good to have a bunch of media outlets because we shouldn’t be getting information from only one kind of source.

Is the fake news the real news?

I think fake news can be the real news. I wouldn’t say that what we see when we’re watching fake news shows is necessarily fake news. I think it’s just a different way of reporting and who’s to say that the real news isn’t fake in some ways? Fake news shows like The Daily Show and The Rick Mercer Report are a useful addition to the public sphere because these shows are still reporting current news stories; they are just reporting it differently than how a regular news show like Global News would. They make jokes out of the news stories but we still get a sense of what the story is about and what is going on. It’s basically a reporter giving their own opinion on current events. I think it’s good because they can be honest whereas regular news anchors can’t be. By using humour, people might take more of an interest to the goings on in our world and actually pay attention.

                Culture jamming is “a form of media activism that subverts and reworks the intended meaning of existing media texts, or parodies major corporations, public figures, and their media images”. These shows are a mainstream form of culture jamming because all the shows do is make fun of what is going on in the media and the world and the whole show is a parody of each event.

                After watching an episode of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, I realized it is a form of culture jamming. On the episode, he talked about Barack Obama and Obamacare, saying how Obama promised that the website for it would be up and running by November, but it still doesn’t work. Jon Stewart put up various clips of Obama saying how he isn’t perfect, so Jon made fun of the president by saying that his presidential slogan should have been “Pobody’s Nerfect” instead of “Yes We Can”. Jon Stewart then talked about Rob Ford, making fun of him for his crack use and his comment about “eating enough at home”. This show is a perfect example of culture jamming because it parodies public figures. Even though he is making a joke out of the stories, I was still able to get a sense of what the story is about and am now informed.

These shows are also good because they put a different spin on the news stories and we perceive them differently. We don’t just accept what we hear, we now have an opinion about them and we are able to form our own opinions. “Often they actively try to denaturalise the media images that we see every day by making us notice and question their underlying messages”.

                O'Shaughnessy, Michael, and Jane Megan. Stadler. Media and Society. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2012. Print. Pg. 213 and pg. 214.

Demonstrable Demographics

After looking at a lot of ads and a lot of student’s thoughts and feelings on ads, I was able to come to the conclusion that our demographic is well represented. Maybe “well represented” isn’t the best choice of words because when you look at how they target women, they play on our insecurities but we are represented accurately. When I read the blogs, most people said that the ads they chose were successful at getting the message across and hailing our demographic. I think this is true because of social media. It’s a lot easier to see how each demographic thinks and what our interests are by just going on Facebook and Twitter. They can see everything and are able to go straight to the source instead of conducting a survey and doing research. They are good at hailing our demographic because they know that teen women are insecure about their body image because it’s something that the majority of us go through, so they use that to their advantage.

One of the blogs I looked at (karabalsdon.wordpress.com) caught my attention because she used one of the same quotes from the text book that I did about individuality in the media and because her ad was horrible. This blog was also the only blog that I read that said her ad was unsuccessful at getting the message across and hailing us.  Her ad was for Proactiv and this ad used body image and women’s insecurities to persuade us to buy the product but Kara said this was unsuccessful because it just makes girls with acne feel terrible about themselves and want to hide. I agree because I think they took it too far but this ad could be successful because it could generate a lot of attention because of how horrible it is.

 Three of the ads that some students picked all had a lot in common; they dealt with girl’s images. The ad about the Skinny Girl Cocktail that was used on lostirling.wordpress.com makes women become conscious about their bodies by saying that you should drink Skinny Girl so that you don’t overload on calories and end up gaining weight. The ad for Proactiv makes girls think that if you have a lot of acne, guys won’t want to date you, so you need their product if you want a boyfriend. The Covergirl ad on bernacayabyab.wordpress.com shows us that we can look better if we buy their makeup. After seeing these ads, we could see ourselves differently and start worrying about our image. “These symbolic systems, whether its media, images or language contribute to the making of our identities and subjectivities- the way an individual sees the world in their own way”. These ads do contribute to the way we see ourselves and the world. They can take something and perceive it any way they want to and whichever way they choose is how we could end up perceiving it too. Once we start to worry, we buy these products so that we can feel better. “This is where companies find great success if they are looking to target a specific gender because they will tailor their advertisements exactly to the stereotypes and “norms” of each respective gender.” This is a good quote because it is true. They think the “norms” of the female gender are that we are superficial and mainly care about our looks, so that is how they tailor ads to us. They usually focus on our image. The media is successful at hailing women and interpellating our demographic because they cater to our insecurities. They know that women at this age care a lot about their looks, so this is how they sell products to us.

“The media makes us believe there are certain roles different individuals play. Advertisements are aimed at certain people to get them to buy their product”. Ads single out each demographic and stereotype so that they can tailor everything in the ad to target a certain demographic. That way everyone wants to buy the product because they see it in a different way.

Basically, my demographic of teenage women is represented as superficial, insecure and ready to do anything to change their appearance. This is how companies see us and even though it is a horrible way to look at us, it is accurate. The majority of us do have self esteem and body image issues and we all go out and buy the latest beauty or diet products to make ourselves seem more attractive.

karabalsdon.wordpress,com
razanalkayed.wordpress.com
bernacayabyab.wordpress.com
lostirling.wordpress.com

What the Hail?

The blog that I am writing today is about advertising and interpellation. For those of you who don’t know what interpellation is, it is basically “a process in which we internalize ideologies as a response to being hailed or addressed”. The ad I chose to analyze was a Tommy Hilfiger ad that I saw in a magazine. The ad shows three white girls who seem to be college students living the college lifestyle because they are outside, on campus, carrying books and looking studious. The girls are all dressed pretty similar, wearing clothes from Tommy Hilfiger (obviously). One girl is wearing a Graduation cap on her head, two of the girls are carrying books in their hands, one has a bike and they are all wearing designer sunglasses, scarves, fancy shoes, knee high socks, big coats and pullovers. They all look really preppy.

This ad is showing us that we can look stylish like these women if we buy clothing from Tommy Hilfiger. They look dressed for success. You can tell that this ad is aimed at teenagers because the women in the ad look about 20 and they are living the college life, which would make them between 18-22 years old.

This ad is not successful at representing norms, values and beliefs because we normally don’t tend to dress that way when going to school, unless you are very wealthy. I’m not saying that nobody dresses like that at university but from what I’ve seen, the majority of us dress pretty casual. When at university or college, our values should be more focused on education and not on our clothing choices.

Even though this ad is not successful at representing norms (in my opinion), it still has the power to present ideologies to us that can change the way we think. We might not dress like that right now, but we might want to because these girls look so cool in their Tommy Hilfiger clothes. “On the other hand, the nineteenth and twentieth centuries produced numerous academic and theoretical perspectives that show the opposite- that individuals are not in control of their own destinies that we are subject to forces beyond our individual, conscious control”. Ads that we see address their target audience and basically give you ideologies and values that they want you to have, so individuals are not really in control because their ideologies are presented for them.

 “We live in a culture that stresses individuality, encourages us to believe that every person has unique qualities, and puts forward the view that we have control over who we are, what we do, and how others see us, but this view is questionable”. The fact that these women are all dressed pretty similar shows no individuality and the fact that they want us all to buy these clothes shows that they aren’t encouraging individuality at all. They want us to be the same or be different but then encourage others to be like us because if we are all the same, then we are all going to buy the same things. We are all going to want what everyone has. The media makes it seem like standing out is bad because it means being an outcast. This view is definitely questionable.

O'Shaughnessy, Michael, and Jane Megan. Stadler. Media and Society. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2012. Print. Pg. 185 and pg. 189.