Year 12 Media Induction

Why study the media?

Why study the media? It’s a part of our everyday lives. Mobile phones, everything at the tip of our fingers. Dangerous indeed! Apps like Instagram and Facebook providing images that deceive us and break our self-esteem. It’s crazy, photo-shopping your body so other people's perspective changes. The young girls that actually look up to you and will do ANYTHING to look like your photo shopped self. 94 percent of teens use social media daily. 74 percent of teens use multiple platforms of social media. Yes, I do have social media. I like to think that’s a silly question to ask a person of my age. I use it to communicate my thoughts or feelings on situations that are happening in today’s society. I don’t use social media to the point where I question myself against the Instagram models. The reason for this is because I understand that what I see on my 4.7-inch screen isn’t always how it is. We can all do them angles that get rid of a body rolls and double chin but at the end of the day, you’re still in the same skin as before. People only post their perfect version of themselves.

There was a cosmopolitan magazine cover the other day of a plus size model in a swimsuit. Some people are quick to judge or make negative comments. In my eyes, I see that as so much more inspirational than a photo shopped picture of a person we perceive as ‘perfect’. If more magazines did campaigns like cosmopolitan did the young girls of today would feel more confident in themselves. We just need to show them that is ok to not look like these ‘perfect’ models because we are all perfect in our own way. in a way, there is negatives to this as well, because at the same time we shouldn't aspire to that. the message cosmopolitan were trying to put across was for us to feel comfortable in our own bodies but at the same time it is unhealthy. a staggering 64% of adults in the UK are classified as 'overweight'. the government is attempting to decrease this percentage for obvious reasons. meaning is cosmopolitan publishing this as their front cover really a good idea?

Media has been around for many years now but, it has evolved crazy amounts. The first form of media that was ‘broadcast’ to a wider audience was a printed book known as the ‘diamond sutra’. It was printed in china in868 AD. The phrase ‘media’ began to be used in the 1920s. The notion of ‘mass media’ was generally restricted to print media up until the post-second world war, when radio, television and video were introduced. I feel media is always so negative. Everywhere you look its bad news. War, murder, economy and politics. Nothing is ever celebrated. I don’t tend to read the news for this reason. I do have the news app and I do check it sometimes but it’s all so depressing. Its constantly trying to manipulate us and influence us to form opinions. Everything we do is influenced by the media because it’s so in our face. There’s not a moment we can just stop and get away from it.