Media Literacy

Media literacy is the concept of analyzing all media in order to detect the real messages involved with the media presented to you. As young people it is of utmost important to try to be at least semi media literate. It has become far too easy for anyone to dictate opinions if they understand media literacy. These groups are very aware of their manipulative power on the greater public, and intend to use it as much as they can to sway your decisions.

Advertising agencies have mastered the art of using edgy images to convey their message, even the local mall being renovated back home in Waterloo has an ad campaign for their new edition. These ads generally tend to not make the focus on the product or idea being sold, rather focusing more on something more visually appealing. This strategy proves to be very effective in the aspect that people see an advertisement (say with an attractive female on it) and immediately either want to be the woman, or be with the woman. The consumer assumes that with this product or idea that this goal can be attained, thus giving false hope to millions around the world.

Politicians are also quite awful when it comes to their advertising, they however tend to use a different strategy. The men or women of congress seem to always use the same idea in their ads of avoidance/attack. Every time an election is approaching you know due to the fact of those annoying government of Canada advertisements, each hyping a particular political party. They all go the exact same way, there is no acknowledgement of the parties problems, just the positive aspects. As the ad comes to a close the speaker will attack an opposing party, then the commercial cuts. This commercial layout is enacted with you in mind (how thoughtful). It’s obvious that the political party would accentuate the positives as they only have a short time to get their message across. What takes the cake is the accusation at the end. This insult towards another party is meant to leave you with that insult in mind, as if you could even consider voting for that particular party. It is all a part of the grand political scheme to snatch the votes of people on the fence.

The fact that anyone can switch your opinions on anything seems kind of disturbing, but it has been happening for years. This concept is not new news, even dates back as far as the propaganda in world war one. However after this blog post I intend to analyze what I see more clearly, maybe that will save me some money.