Does media equals the truth?

"All media exist to invest our lives with artificial perceptions and arbitrary values"by MARSHALL MCLUHAN 

    In last few centuries, media only exsited in boardcasting with very few channels and information to delve. However, since the invention of computer and television technology, the one dimesional media"broadcasting" has transformed into the two dimesional prevalence-laptop,mobile phone,tablet etc, which means that the rapid growth of techonology has been enchancing the development of media world throughout internet.  
The bigger as the media world become , the more intricate of the representations of imformation, therefore more misleading values.

   People are using their techs read and browse information in the lesuire time, they get the advantages of  exposing themselves to a worldwide social interconnected society but they tend to trust whatever the media says.  
Intrinsically,we humans are easily distracted and fooled.

What does media do? To provide accurate news, or rather entertain audiences? 
   Media exsits for many reasons, but mostly they have to play the roles what government want them to do, known as scandal or hoax. In order to get as many attentions and followers as possible to keep the company operating, they must follow the rules. Just like the old proverb says,"When in Rome, do as the Romans."

In the recent events, America Election has became the most controversial affair. The governments(Republic and Demorat) invested the social media as the mediator of messages to win supporters for the final voting. Moreover, many individual media whether the local broadcasts or TV channels, even famed bloggers arised to help each parties exaggerated and distorted many information which contributed to more disputes.     US election and media: How did we get there?

WHO CONTROLS MEDIA, WHO WINS THE ELECTION! LOOK AT DONALD TRUMP!

  Why does media is not always trustworthy?
 Two reasons:
1. 1.cooperation media tend to use more imagery and icons make their advertisiment more enticing. All the imformation they published in public, must in the form for someone's benefits. Businessmen invested the biggest fish out the river,Government regulated or hided the truth to cover up any unfavourable news.
  
2.To meet more expectations of the crowd, media usually filters out some important details to simpify the whole information. As we all know information could be distorted into many versions when we communicate with others. By the same token, the media is a wider channel that processing information under various of opinions.


who are those people managed to control what we know is truth? 

 

    In nowdays, people are atrracted by abnormal and artificial information, social media boosted the yearning for gossiping and complaining because everyone has their right to be famous or even live a second life on the internet. To understand how this affect the relationship bewteen society and individuals, check on this video

 Clicking into youtube, instergram, thousands of bloggers sharing their fashions and styles. People believes that  videos and pictures made by some online professionals have more credibility than watching TV advertisment.Mnay people uses Wikipedia or Google to find a vaild answer for their inquiries, we think we know everything by just simply "Google",BUT who knows the editors of Wikipedia can be anyone just as innocent as you. (Not the professors!)

Are we changing the world or the media changes us? And yet, we are so affected by the beliefs and vaules around us, the enviroment makes 90% of personal identity. Henceforth, people are easily being inculcated false attitudes. We thought we were changing the world, but the truth is sometimes we are being fooled by ourselves. 

New tyrant rules?!!!

  "Today the tyrant rules not by club or fist, but disguised as a market researcher."

  Really? A market researcher= a tyrant? People might be frustrated, " How does that make any sense? "
Well... If you really think about it, you find out they have a lot in common. For example, they are the ones who set up the "laws" and "rules" in our society, they control the main stream and media favour to benefit themselves.


   We are losing ourselves and being influenced a lot under media and public main stream

   Have you ever wondered why everyone around you listens to pop music and all over the media? Have you ever wondered why google is the most popular search engine and people always think google has the most official information? Why wearing jeans is cool but wearing jean shorts isn't cool? And that's how media effect our society and our living, they create and hype the elements which can benefit the people who controls the market, and make those elements to become the main stream so that they get more benefits from ones that only follows the majority and has no brains.

How does a market researcher control us?  


    "He shepherds his flocks in the ways of utility and comfort."
    Today in the music world, billboard hot 100 is probably the most popular chart for people to find the most popular music. However, whenever you check the list, you'll find pop songs always dominate the top 10 spots. Those market researchers who work for record company would do a lot of public surveys, to find out the trend of the most popular music by collecting the results, which is pop. And they'll advertise the musicians who make pop music everywhere. So when the younger generation is surrounded by all those medias, they'll start to adapt this type of music intentionally. And that's why the media is trying their best to create idols and advertising them crazily, they want to grab more attention and control the main music stream by the influence of pop music.
   
    Iphone is another great example for this quote, after apple gained all the information about people's imagination and favour towards cell phones, the first iphone came out, with full of creativity and experience, apple became popular and lead to a new era of technologies. However, this was only the first step for Stephen Jobs and his crew. They started dominating the main stream of devices, every other company is trying to follow the new technologies from apple. Today, Apple is way overpriced and its popularity hasn't decreased yet even they are not as strong as they were before, People are still falling in the web which was set up by apple and the media. So personally, i would say apple is the tyrant in technology world.

Manipulated Media (Blog 1) By Troy R

Manipulated Media

"All media exist to invest our lives with artificial perceptions and arbitrary values" - Marshall McLuhan. 

Today in our society, many media organizations change the "truth" of a story to persuade the viewers standing on topics. This quote by Marshall McLuhan states that media interprets the stories and retells them but with a twist that is not always  one hundred percent true somewhat relating to propaganda since they tell the audience to give them a specific view on a topic. 

Media Changes The Story...

Media has affected many people views on topics in the past and in modern day society, some examples of this are the presidential debate where the media is siding with a specific candidate (Hillary Clinton) and persuading the audience (specifically Americans) her greatness. Another example of this propaganda is the situation in Africa. They manipulate the audience and try to show that the African people need our help which is good however they produced a stereotype that all Africans are living this way so people in rich countries feel guilty. The last point I will make is that media determines what to put in and what to leave out, it is common in everyday life to read some bended information produced by the media. As a student school is a prime example of this, they give us textbooks with information that the government put in to give us an opinion. Odds are they left a bunch of information out because they did not want us to step out of line with another opinion that they did not support.

Why The Media Persuades Us...

The media persuades us to get what they want. Whether it be a specific president, money or anything else they add their own personal twist so we envy the thing they're trying to promote. Most of the time they are greedy and do not do it for the people, but for the individuals at the top which brings me to my next point, our media now-a-days is controlled by a small percent of people. These people are rich for a reason and they often share the same opinion since they are living the same lifestyles. They persuade us (the people) to benefit them even more because at the end of the day if they can make a quick buck adding to their millions, they're going to do it.

How Media Persuades Us...

Media spreads the artificial perceptions by using many different methods. Depending on what audience they want to affect, they use different methods such as now-a-days they spread propaganda to children with anything that will keep their focus and interest such as television or some books. As for adults of this era, they are easily persuaded by the news whether it be written or on television. Furthermore adults get most of their opinion from these sources and half of the time the media changes the stories or over-exaggerates them. A personal experience of them using this is in the Trump versus Hillary debates they produced a list of how many times the candidates lied, they showed that Hillary beat Trump in a landslide and now my mother keeps saying that Hillary is the better candidate because of this point that has been repeated numerous times to brainwash the people that Hillary will be a better president. They do not talk as much about some of the beneficial points both candidates made but instead about who lied more.

Media Is Manipulated

No matter what we do, media will always be there and be spreading their artificial perceptions and arbitrary values on topics to all of the people around the world.  Marshall McLuhan exposes the media with his quote about how media can and will twist the stories to get what they want.

Matthew Song #1

"Today the tyrant doesnt rule by club or fist, but disguised as a market researcher, he shepherds his flocks in the ways of utility and comfort."-Marshall Mcluhan

 
The media is a source in which everyone uses nowadays to connect with people and see what other people are doing. Every video, photo, and post that you view, it shows what you're interested in on the internet and there are people out there who use this data to hand select what they want on their website or social networking sites(SNS). The market resarchers are defined as "tyrants" of the social media network because they control what goes on an off of the internet. For example from a young age you would ask you're parents whats right or wrong and they would tell you what they want their kids to act like (be nice, eat you're vegies, etc.) They tell you whats right and wrong, and thats similar to what the internet is today.

"Market Researching Tyrants"

"Today the tyrant rules not by club or fist, but disguised as a market researcher, he shepherds his flocks in the ways of utility and comfort."

This quote is from Marshall McLuhan who was a Canadian professor and philosopher. He predicted the World Wide Web way before it was invented. He was very interested in the idea of mass media. Global village is a word he created when he described the world with media, on how the world is connected with electric devices and instantaneous movement of information from every quarter to every point at the same time.

However, this instantaneous information movement isn't always a good thing. In the quote of Marshall McLuhan, he calls market researchers "tyrants" that rules the world of media. And it is true. If you look at your social media account posts these days, it is easy to spot an advertisement or survey. It means that this mass media system we have developed over the years is not exactly us regular people only. This system can be used by pretty much everyone including corporations that wants to advertise their product so and so.

The thing in issue right now is the vague definition of "market research." Since corporations use this as a business strategy to get information from their customers, they use social media. They use to use landlines to do surveys but younger population these days do not own a home phone. Which encouraged corporations to use social media to stay relevant. However the thing with social media is that it is more personal than just old landline phones. People upload their daily lives including where they went for their trip, what they ate for lunch and dinner, which people they have met - and sometimes very personal images of what they did with them. And you get the idea on how personal this gets. Corporations takes advantage from this and take personal information and advertise specific things certain individual would purchase. Sometimes it can be brainwashing since it pops up so much in their feed.

Now, you might think differently on what to upload on your social media account. What do you think? Which one is wrong? The fact that you are uploading personal information online, or the people are taking a pick at those information for their benefits? Are you using the internet or is internet using you?

BLOG 1 Making Sense of McLuhan

HAVE YOU EVER THOUGHT ABOUT THIS?

How did you gain info form others?
How do you gain info from others?
How will you gain info from others?

This is how we gain info nowadays.

I bet everyone are somehow using technologies to receive the messages from the others instead of using some old methods. But have you thought about this? Whatever people use to gain info, they always do it through some mediums. In the old days, people read newspapers, but the newspapers were published by journalists. Now we mostly uses apps in our phone, it is much easier and more convenient than the old way, though behind apps, companies control what can be posted.

In this case, medium passed the messages to us, but the messages are limited.

How media control us.

So how do you know that the messages that had been post for you to see is what really happened?
There are 2 methods:

1. Changing sources.

We have tons of choices.

There are so many choices of applications, be selective, choose the most reliable one.
But how can we choose the reliable one?
It is related to the second method.

2. Improve yourself

Studying.

Be smart, read more, think more, learn more, then you will be able to identify which source is better.



"the medium is the message. This is merely to say that the personal and social consequences of any medium - that is, of any extension to ourselves - result from the new scale that is introduced into our affairs by each extension of ourselves, or by any new technology." - Marshall McLuhan.
The statement of Marshall McLuhan describe the medium as extension to ourselves, but be careful, don't be lead to a "wrong extension".

The medium is the message Blog #1, Amy Ju

We are living with MEDIA.  TVs, , music, newspaper, radio, books, etcetera, etcetera.   They always deliver their  own messages to lure  people. Like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xbk4TcSNyFE 
Be careful not to fall for that tho. 

 Messages are everywhere.  Text from cellphone, thumbs up from FB, likes from Youtube.  Message alerts never stop.  So, we can say we are living in a deluge of messages.   What are we doing with these all messages? We are communicating with people all over the world. The slogan, "The medium is the message",  emphasizes how important communication is, no matter who we communicate with.

Look at the  t-shirt on your left.  Like this t-shirt, it says all the sizes are the message.Large messages or small messages. Capacity of Media is infinite. What messages are you carrying?





Do you think MEDIA always deliver us good messages? NO. Unfortunately, MEDIA may have negative messages.  Watch out!

Media may give us positive guideline, BUT we are the boss of ourselves. Don't let them stir us. 

MEDIA ADDICTION

Life without media?

Can you imagine a life without media? I'm quite sure that many people will say "I literally cannot live without media." But the life was normal 20 years ago. It has not been a long time since the concept of media was developed. 

In 21st century, we can see that our life - especially teens' life- is dominated by media. Pew Research Center said on their website, that 65% of adult in America used social media in 2015. This is a huge percentage compare to 7% in 2005. Not only the total percentage of people using social media, there are more interesting data on the website.

Here is the link of the page.

http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/10/08/social-networking-usage-2005-2015/

As technology of electronic devices developed, it helped the growth of the use of media. From then, a new type of addiction has appeared. It's MEDIA ADDICTION which comes out to be disorders and diseases, such as internet addiction disorder and social network addiction. These people cannot live without media and their prioritize media even more than their life.

McLuhan's prediction?

Herbert Marshall McLuhan, who was a Canadian professor, philosopher, and public intellectual, had said about this phenomenon. This is one of his quotes.

"We shape our tools, and  

afterwards our tools shape us."

It shows our current society very well. We invented the concept of social media, and we developed. Social media has been shaped as our tools. However, by the time when we looked back our lives, the media was shaping and even controlling us. We follow as what social media tells us. We follow the way that others think.

We should live our own life, not others' life.

As Marshall McLuhan said, our created tools are shaping us. Our tool, social media is being more powerful than the past and it affects our life a lot. Our life has been chained by social media and has followed the things which social media say 'cool'.  

Now, it's time to get out of the chain of social media. LIVE YOUR OWN LIFE. NOT OTHER'S LIFE!

@Waelucination. "10 Ways to Cure Your Social Media Addiction." Scoop Empire. Wael Abdul Aziz, 11 Feb. 2014. Web. 06 Nov. 2016.

"Marshall McLuhan." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 07 Nov. 2016.
Mueller, Walt. "Digital Media: Screwing Up or Strengthening Adolescent Spirituality?" Center for Parent/youth Understanding. Walt Mueller, 22 May 2014. Web. 7 Nov. 2016.

The New Political Era

"Politics will eventually be replaced by imagery. The politician will be only too happy to abdicate in favour of his image, because the image will be much more powerful than he could ever be." -Marshall McLuhan

I read this, and I wonder if Marshall Mcluhan was some kind of psychic that could see into the future. I mean, there is no other way that he could've known the current situation in the 21st century. He was so spot on, that it's actually kind of scary.

Let's look at what we have going on in the political world right now, here in 2016. 

The biggest campaigning strategy in the 2016 American election seems to be through social media. Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Vine, tumblr (shoutout to all those Bernie supporters out there), and even YouTube. There isn't a social media platform out there that isn't being used in the political campaign. 

They say "a picture speaks a thousand words" and these words could be good, or bad. 

Politicians aren't using these social media platforms for no reason. They have a strategy, and a very good one.

The fact is that, the fastest way for them to get their message out and to people of all different races, ages, and genders is through images via social media.

Many politicians use images to appeal to the masses, and create a strong voice that cannot be achieved merely through words. These pictures make them seem more than they are. 

They are able to leave out what they want, and only show what they need.

via GIPHY

Now, although imagery can be good for the politician/presidential candiate, it can also break them. The masses - everyday regular people - can create images that can really ruin a politician and bring them down. 

Just like the politicians, they are able to leave out what they want, and only show what they need.

The newly invented "memes" and "gifs" have a way of traveling fast, and its the perfect way of getting the message across without having to read more than a few words. (and I have to mention that they are also extremely entertaining)

A single 'meme' could literally ruin a candidate's image. 

via GIPHY

The politicians have no choice. 

They have no choice but to let images represent them.
Images now have a way of travelling fast. They are accessible to over billions of people, all over the world. It can communicate with anyone, whether they know a single word of english or not. That is the power that imagery has.

Even though it may ruin them, they have no choice. Does it do more harm, or more good? I guess that's all based on perspective. But either way, in this new political era of advanced technology and social media, the politicians have no choice but to use imagery to represent them.

What Marshall McLuhan said was right. These images WILL be more powerful than any politician could ever be and this is the fact whether they like it or not.

for humans are too easily influenced.

"We shape our tools and afterwards our tools shape us."

A very general statement that can apply to so many aspects of modern life. Marshall McLuhan probably had no idea what would be going on in the 21st century when he said it, but it seems to make sense with many situations in one's daily living.

Laziness is the mother of invention.

Looking for an easier way to do things? Fear not, your brain can usually come up with something that might make it even more difficult.

Or, at times, you might actually come up with something worthwhile.

Maybe you might even decide to spread the idea to people around you. Make yourself big. Share your solution to the public, hoping for a resounding chorus of "Yes, this is such a great idea! The world deserves to have this."

From mashable

Life is easier now.

Whatever the new idea was, it seems to make life a little easier. At the click of a button, you can now connect with your old college best friend that drifted from you after you started your master's degree. Tapping your screen a few times shares your smile when you finished that marathon to the world.

Certainly, a flick of the wrist is easier than approaching a stranger at the bar to say hello, in hopes that love may be found that night.

But what does that mean to us?

Media tools are created to make life easier for us, but what have we ceased to do in the process of transitioning into this world, so incredibly based on virtual interactions?

We've sacrificed one-on-one time to the convenience of text messages. We've thrown away our abilities to gather up the courage to talk to someone face to face. 

From giphy

These inventions have certainly made life easier for us, but are starting to take away what it truly means to be human.

The past and the present.

Marshall McLuhan had a point when he said that 'our tools shape us'. A genius idea from one person creates a community for so many other people to have access to influences and perhaps forget about their own values. Media is always a place that changes people.

People create social media platforms to broadcast values that are tuned to what will entice you, what will influence you, what will perhaps change you.

What's scary about it is that what is broadcasted on media is now creating identities for people in our society instead of reminding them that it's right to be unique, it's right to love your own values, it's right to be you.

I don't even know how different I would be without media.