Hey everybody! A few days ago, my class presented their Genius Hour (YES!!!), meaning that for the time being, we have moved on to something else. Specifically, we’ve been working on media literacy. We still have some time before we finish the unit, but I’ve already learned a lot from what I’ve seen. In other words, I’ve been reading between the lines of different types of media and have come to some conclusions on how media impacts a culture, gender, economy, and me personally. Here’s what I found (by the way, there was no real research done on this; these are inferences from my brain and my brain only):

Culture: First off, how does media impact a culture? I believe that media can either bring a culture together or break one apart. On one hand, it could bring a culture together if the majority are willing to make changes. Other than certain cultures that have different ways of avoiding influences by the outside world (such as being a relatively disconnected society from the world), more likely than not, multiple people are bound to have a different perspective of their culture based on influences from media outside the world they live in. If everyone is okay with making minor changes to fit the world of today then it could bring the culture together and help the culture as a whole become more modernized. On the other hand, it could cause rifts in the culture as two different groups grow in numbers: one that believes the culture should stay the same and the other that believes their culture should stick with the times. Overall, media’s impact on a culture depends on how open the culture is to the information that the media gives.

Gender: I can bet that when you read that, the first things that came to mind were gender equality and double standards. Yes, the media has majorly affected gender. The thing is, we’re not at the point where women are feeling bad about themselves due to media and aren’t doing anything about it (of course there are still so many people in the world negatively affected by the media, I can’t deny that). We’re at the point where there are so many different messages and counter-media that are telling us to love ourselves rather than critisize every piece of ourselves that we declare isn’t perfect. In conclusion, I think that media has majorly impacted gender roles and stereotypes, but there is now counter-media trying to fix that mistake.

Economy: I believe that media impacted how economies are portrayed. For example, commercials about a certain topic will always be exactly the same but with different words. One very easy example is comparing the U.S.A advertisements to African advertisements. American advertisements, no matter what the topic, will still be lighthearted and somehow promote the nation. If there is an American advertisement that’s incredibly sad, it’s either about a sickness (which is totally fine to talk about) or trying to help out a country or continent like Africa, who is portrayed as a country that is incredibly poor. That is right, to a certain extent, but there’s more to that than them being poor. And where do we see that? In African advertisements. So I guess it depends on where you’re watching from. Unlike gender equality, this is not a problem that we are striving to fix. It hasn’t had too big of an impact on the world as a whole, but the effect is still there.

Me: The best topic of all :). Personally, I try not to think about media I find offensive or media that I think could be hinting that I need to change something about myself. I’m not really sure why, but it is relatively easy for me to ignore stuff like that. I’m not saying it’s the easiest thing in the world; I needed my family to practically pound that resistance into me. Every derogatory advertisement my mom or dad would announce to my sister that these advertisements that show me a super skinny model or a little girl eating salad are not totally real. For example, it’s likely that that same little girl eating a salad or whatever product she was advertising would prefer eating the complete opposite, like a pizza. Overall, I’m not as affected by the media (at least when it comes to my personal image) but I had extra help with that.

Overall, this is how I feel about these four areas of life that the media can affect. I know other people have different views. If you do, don’t be afraid to comment down below. See you later!

-Eltina 🙂