The Power of $$$

Throughout this semester, we have focused on the role of media in our lives and how it affects the world we live in. While we have mainly discussed technological forms of media in class, we know that media exist in all forms depending on our own definitions. From phones to games to fashion, media's impact on our lives is a direct result of one particular media form: money.

Money is an "extension of ourselves" because it is the primarily way through which we show the world what is most important to us. In addition, it is the way society shows us what "should" be important to us. The ways through which we use money is a great indicator of how we live our lives and what we see in the media reveal who has the money. Both active and passive audiences are not free from the influence of money's power and neither can deny that American culture revolves around the importance of money in both societal improvements and rampant corruption.

Money is power and authority. It influences all other media forms in a way that nothing else can. The profit-incentive of numerous media forms clearly shows us that money plays a huge role in what we perceive as reality. What we see on television to what we hear on the radio are very often influenced by the wealth of those we see on television (Cosby) or the economic class of who is actually listening to the radio (Invasion from Mars). Even more importantly, the wealth of the people behind the media controls what we see/hear. Money is the message and that message is clear: the more you have of it, the more powerful you'll be in the world of media.  all It is the driving factor behind many decisions and the attainment of monetary wealth is the goal of most individuals. 

Now You're Speaking My Language

After nearly a whole semester reading about the different forms of media today, we often forget the true value of the foundation that made it all possible: language. The main way people express themselves is through verbal communication and verbal communication would not be possible without a common system of sounds and meanings. We do not consciously think about the language we speak because it comes as naturally as breathing. Therefore, the importance of language gets lost on us until we have to directly confront it.

An example of when confrontation leads to consciousness is when we cannot understand the language used around us. It makes us realize the shortcomings of the language we personally use and opens our minds to the various forms of communication out there. We come to this revelation because we are forced to find new ways of expressing the simple things we would have used language to do. This usually occurs when we struggle as we try to learn a new language. It makes us realize difficulty involved with communication and how much we take it for granted. Luckily for us, English is spoken nearly everywhere you wish to travel and thus, we never have to experience the extent to which language dictates our lives.

In my Cultural Anthropology class, we recently read a novel about a Hmong family who immigrated to America and had an incredibly difficult time trying to assimilate into the new world around them. Aside from all the expected culture shocks that the family went through, language was at the center of it all. It laid the foundation for the family’s future because it determined whether or not someone could get a job, understand street signs, watch television, or even get from one place to another.

As the saying goes, we need to have something taken away in order to fully appreciate its value. Language embodies the meaning behind this saying so well because as much as we believe we are capable of now, a shift in what symbols and sound represent will completely throw us off.

Fat in Your Waist and in Your Breasts

Plastic surgery is a medium that does not flaunt itself the way its recipients do. In fact, there are many who would never reveal their “beauty secrets,” but would be more than happy to reveal their post-surgery bodies. According to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, the two most popular cosmetic surgical procedures performed in the last few years have been breast implants and liposuction. In other words, we live in a country that spends $10 billion a year trying to get either bigger or smaller. Apparently, no size is just right. Well, unless the fat is in the exact place you want it.

This obsession we have with size would be easier to understand if it was overall size. However, it is not that at all. As the statistics show with boob jobs and liposuctions, there is a strong desire to be small in some areas while larger in others. We want smaller thighs, larger eyes, tighter butts, bigger busts, thinner hips, larger lips. This obsession with size is entirely unhealthy, but it has become a medium in itself. This distorted image of beauty now serves as our way of expressing ourselves. Forget our personalities and opinions; if we don’t have the bra size to match our brain, we might as well give up.

When we do discover that someone had plastic surgery, the thought that they are insecure individuals is overshadowed by the thought that they are wealthy people whose looks are their livelihoods. Therefore, we have this idea that bigger boobs and smaller waists equal a disciplined person with a fat wallet, pun unintended. It has come to a point where we see our bodies as customizable commodities that can get the fat sucked out of it and then be injected with silicone.

There should be no surprise that this dichotomy of needing to be big and small at the same time causes self-image issues for the youth.

Silicone Implants

“We must, we must, we must increase our bust...the bigger the better, the tighter the sweater, the boys depend on us. “

5 Easy Steps to Selling Yourself!

No, I'm not talking about prostitution and I'm not actually going to give you tips on how to sell yourself. I'm talking about the medium of networking, specifically for jobs. As business students, we are constantly told to sell ourselves to companies in order to get a job. We need to create an image of ourselves that will sell. The true person inside? Oh no! That won't do at all! They want to see what they expect and they need to hear what they want.  Basically...play by the employers' rules, kiss serious butt, and forgo your true self to get the job. 

"If you can't sell yourself, you might as well just give up"- this is the message we're bombarded with. So we put on our suits, paint a smile on our face and proceed to be fake. What happened to the days when skills mattered? Why are we managing personal images rather than company assets? How is it that we're putting our focus on people's perceptions rather than the actual job at hand? Why do rumors play as big of roles as they do in our professional lives? Most of us can answer these questions through superficial justifications because we've been trained to believe there is nothing wrong with holding back to gain more.

It's ALL about image control and how people perceive you as opposed to how skilled you actually are. Those who aren't social butterflies will definitely find it difficult to compete in the business world

Is it no wonder that our society is so focused on image when that was the most important thing for the business leaders of our nation?

Makeup your mind (face)

If we want to see the effects of the media on our society, we can just take a look at ourselves. Just by reflecting on our own consumption patterns, we will find it extraordinarily difficult to deny that we are greatly influenced by media. One of the main victims of media is appearance. The way you look; the way I do. We are constantly being bombarded with advertisements telling us that we need this lipstick, that cream, those shoes. The irony is that these weapons against our appearance have now become the medium through which we express ourselves.

For the sake of keeping this post short, let’s focus on one medium; makeup. Makeup is one of the highest grossing industries in the world. It emphasizes the “flaws” we all have and then introduces a solution for our flaws. Of course, we would have to buy this solution for this amount and use it this many times to see this much change. Many females (not exclusively) use makeup, myself included; use makeup as a way of expressing ourselves. Because of what we have been led to believe, we wear smoky eyes for those nights out, red lips for those elegant events, neutral shadows for those interviews, and endless other combinations.

Because media is a profit-driven institution, its sole intention is not to shape society in a way that positively affects all the participants. If you know someone’s main goal in life was to make money, would you not find it more difficult to trust them in critical situations? This should apply to the media in the very same way. We need to stop letting profit be the justification for allowing our own reflections to be victimized. 

The American Comic Book

When I began to learn English, I picked comic books as my medium of choice. Because I did not have a strong grasp on this new language, I relied on the images to help me understand what the words meant. Outside of school, television helped me speak English, but could not teach me how to read or write. For my parents, it was much better to see their daughter with a comic book than in front of the television. They believed in the idea of a “weak audience” and thought that television corrupted impressionable young minds.

My favorite comic books were the Archie comics that were famous way before I was born (founded in 1939). These comics were not funny in the modern sense (“stupid funny”), but were appealing because of its corny jokes, positive outlook, and representation of carefree teenage lives. What I read in the Archie comics shaped my view of American living and the stereotypical American family/friends.

The fact that I loved the artwork in most comic books and graphic novels made this medium even more appealing. Although comic books today are not as popular as they used to, most great comic books have turned into television series and/or movies. Whether or not that’s a good thing is up for debate.

Paper and Pen of the Modern World

In my last post, I talked about the progression of traditional paper books into revolutionary digital eBooks. Since the media through which we view ideas are changing, it stands to reason that the media through which we create ideas would change as well.

Today, let’s focus on the paper and pencil. These have been our staple mediums for inscribing messages and relaying information to one another for centuries throughout the world. For many years, we never believed we could really improve on these tools, but then came pens, markers, crayons, etc. 

However, they were all still pretty basic tools.

Let me introduce you to the paper and pencil of the modern world.  

This is a digital tablet. It comes with a stylus pen to write/draw with and the tip of the pen has pressure sensitivity so if you push down harder, the lines are thicker and darker. 

I originally bought this tablet for digital drawings on Photoshop, but have come to use it as my mouse too. It connects to my laptop through a USB cable and is very ergonomic in design.

Drawing have become much easier and writing handwritten notes in programs such as OneNote is a breeze. Not to mention, with all that paper I save, digital media is very eco-friendly.

Here is an example of a simple eye I drew with the tablet.