Media Consumption Log (Week 1)

Before I got to School (6:30- 8:00)

- Alarm clock logo

- Toothpaste (Colgate)

- Brush (Oral-B)

- Shower

o Nivea soap

o Nivea shampoo

- Adidas deodrant

- School AIS T-shirt and Castro men jeans

- Watch (TagHeur)

- Nike socks and shoes

- My Jansport bag

- I-Pod on the bus

- Used my Nokia phone to text (SMS) a friend

- Various different signs both on the bus and outside (No Smoking sign, Ikea sign, etc.)

In School (8:00 – 15:00)

- Various different laptops in school (Dell, HP, Toshiba, Acer, etc.)

- Black and White Photography cameras (Canon, etc.)

- In free block, used my apple macbook.

o Surfed the internet using Safari

§ Checked squirrel mail, Gmail, etc.

o Used Microsoft Word

- Used textbook for Physics

- Lunchtime, noticed some drinks (Neviot water, Kinley soda, etc.)

- Watched a movie on the TV in 20^th Century History

- Used the SmartBoard

After School (15:00- 18:30)

- Saw little kids playing video games on the bus (Sony PSP, Nintendo, etc.)

- Got home, and drank some Nestea

- Watched a movie on my Sony TV

- Ate some Act I Pop corn

War of the Worlds

In class, after listening to the hoax radio broadcast on October 30, 1938, I could easily understand on why people were panicking and were tense about this broadcast. This is because the radio broadcast, was indeed extremely realistic. Furthermore, they only said that it was a play, and not reality, in the beginning, that too, really quickly, very hard for someone to comprehend. It was so fast, that even many people in my class, including me, couldn't understand what the person said in the beginning. In addition, I think that in 1938, when this hoax broadcast actually did happen, majority of the people tuned into the radio after this message was played, thus they didn't know that it wasn't real, but only a play.

Moreover, the play was directed and preformed exceptionally well. They had many different factors to it, which made it sound even more real. For example, they had many callers, with different stories, which could've been true. They even, had a point where the guy was walking into the "spaceship" and then all of a sudden, he gets killed by the laser. All of these small little touches made the play realistic, which forced people into believing in this hoax broadcast. This is why, I begin to agree with the end of the article, that media does own us. However, I do believe that in todays world, it is almost impossible to make such a hoax, as people are more educated and aware of their surroundings. Also, people have learned to trust more than one source, which gives me confidence that something like this, wont ever happen to me.

Who Owns the Media?

In our world today, I believe that the wealthy and the big companies are the ones who really own the media. This is because, in our world today, where money is extremely critical, it can buy just about everything. Not only can these influential people and colossal companies “bend” the truth, but they can also adjust the media to be suitable for them, and present their perspective. On the other hand, the audiences, who have total control of their ‘media’ usage, are vital, as they come from various different backgrounds and are unaware of the amount of media they consume.

There are a countless number of examples of large companies and influential/wealthy individuals who tend to ‘own’ the media. A great example is AOL/Time Warner, an extremely large, prominent, and prosperous company. This prodigious company owns various different forms of media. Receiving total revenue of $32.6 billion, AOL/Time Warner indeed own quite a bit of media, including various different companies such as HBO, Warner Bros, etc.

Moreover, A great way to visualize what big companies such as AOL/Time Warner is with the allegorical example of this is from Plato’s philosophy and his example of the Cave from The Republic. He points out that the prisoners in the cave try and understanding objects according to its shadow, is extremely important that the prisoners in the cave only get to understand objects according to its shadow, rather than spotting the actual thing, and knowing that the truth isn’t what it seems to be. As we can see here, the prisoners only manage to grasp every object with its shadow reflected from a fire (which the prisoners aren’t aware of). The prisoners are convinced that the shadow is the reality, and aren’t aware that there is an actual, physical representation of it. When, one of the prisoners attempt to change, and tries to go against what he sees, and seeks the reality, all the other prisoners criticize him and threaten him. It is extremely easy to put this allegory into what media has done to us in today’s world, where the shadow, would represent the media we encounter; the fire representing the big companies and lucrative individuals; and finally, the prisoners, representing the audience.

In conclusion, it is evident that media is all around us, and is utilized greatly. In every day life, without even noticing it, we tend to use media, as it is available to us in various different forms. However, not many are aware of the fact that all media are owned, are constructions, and are tampered in such away that is mostly beneficial to the rich. We can clearly see that with the example of AOL/Time Warner, which is a large company, owning media in various different forms. With the help of media, every year they get a revenue around $32.6 billion. It is very important, that we, the audience should be alerted about this. Finally, one can conclude saying that media is owned by the affluent.