Ted Talk Paper Example

Journal #1 After watching this week’s video and reading this week’s article, it has opened my eyes more towards media and how media effects those who view it. Whether it is the message that is shown in the advertisements, or the hidden message that we find on our own, media has a big impact whether we see it or not. The “TED” talk video shows a perfect example of this when, the speaker, Andrea Quijada shows a credit card ad that was rearranged to show what that really meant in the person’s, who rearranged the ad, eyes. I feel that this is a perfect example, because it showed what “5% cash back” really meant. The ad was also changed from a picture of a money flower, to a cooperate like harm grabbing the money. It is basically showing the viewer

The scary part about all this is if you did not have any experience in media literacy you may have never noticed this underlining meaning. The video opens up with a great example about what knowledge of media literacy can relate too. That example is when Andrea says that she wishes she had a “Golden Lasso of Truth”, the one like Wonder Woman had. She finishes up the video by once again referring to “The Golden Lasso of Truth”, however this time she states that she has received that lasso through the media literacy that she had studied. The last great example of media literacy is the ad, which stated, “Reading. Writing. Color-coordinating.” This example is an eye-opening example, because the speaker states how some people may view this as it being cute that the child matches her mom. I also noticed this, and did not put much thought into the ad. However, the speaker went on to say that some people viewed the article, as women should worry about what they wear, and how media

The article, “Media Images and the Social Construction of Reality”, by William A. Gamson, David Croteau, William Hoynes, and Theodore Sasson, states how media, and more specifically images in the media, shape our daily lives. The authors state that there are many problems associated with our “images” that we create and more so that “We emphasize the production of images rather than facts or information…” (Gamson et al. 374) This is basically stating that we put more care into to creating an image rather than conveying a message in through an image. This can be troublesome because by doing this, we can sometimes convey the wrong message and if that happens the meaning can outrage people, or you can cause an opposite effect from the effect you were trying to create with your image. The authors then go on to talk about how there are viewers and then there are readers. What they mean by this is that some people will view the image as you proposed it, while other will tear apart the message, or as they say in the article “decode it”. This is fascinating because it shows you that every image has an underlining meaning or message, and it relates to the video, by talking about the importance of media literacy. The article goes on to state “Imagery production in the United States is overwhelmingly a for-profit enterprise, heavily dependent on advertising.” (Gamson et al. 374) This is my favorite part of the article because