GP essay time

31/50, bitches. That means I can pon(skip) my GP lectures. Or at least, that’s what I say to myself. The following essay has been cleaned up for spelling and grammar but no sentences have been changed majorly.

To what extent are our perceptions manipulated by the media? This is a hard question to fully answer, requiring one to sieve the tangled and fine web of relationships between people and the media. However, it is in my viewpoint that our perceptions, by and large, are consciously and subconsciously influenced by the media.

Firstly, the word “manipulation” implies an active role played by the media in changing perceptions. However, sometimes the case is that a person can also be influenced by the hidden bias in the media. Therefore that will be included as well. The media refers to any medium where information and new knowledge can be spread to the masses, including new media like video sharing and podcasting in addition to more traditional media like television and newspapers.

How can the media manipulate our perceptions? It can do so by giving us information intended to change our opinions of events or objects. Branding is one such example. Babies of over a year old are able to recognize fast food chain logos even before they learn to speak. That means that even before a child learn to order a burger, he will associate Ronald Mcdonald with fast food.

Everywhere we go, we are inundated with ads that tell us, subtly or not, that “Brand XX” has certain desirable qualities that we should crave. Without the information given by the media, we would be quite clueless on which brand to choose. In an experiment done by a university, subjects were given unlabeled drink cans which contained Coca-cola and Pepsi, When asked which of the drinks they preferred, the results were largely neutral and arbitrary. However, once information was given on which drink was Coke and Pepsi, a majority chose Coke due to a positive perception of “flavour”. This tells us that the human brain can made to anticipate quality in well-known brands(though the quality may or may not exist). This also demonstrates quite clearly the powerful effect that the media can have on our perceptions.

Stole this from Yeeloo’s tumblr. I’m a great fan of tighhighs, unless you have fat legs. >:(Hit the jump to continue reading)

The media, by itself, should solely be a conduit for information. However, because of various agendas wether political, social or religious, the media can and has become a manipulator of wills. In America, Evangelical Christianity is a big business, with television channels and radio stations dedicated to winning over believers. Thousands join every year and new churches are built that rival malls and have amenities such as swimming pools and tennis courts. Religion is a lifestyle choice and a deeply personal one at that. The ability of the media to change this is a testament to its power. Smaller religious denominations make use of the media too, but typically on a smaller scale. They do so through the use of community media and online media such as newsletters and Youtube. An example of more insidious usage would be terrorist cell groups like those of Al-Qaeda, notorious for extremist preaching online through the use of essays posted on Islamic forums and videos denouncing the West.

However, the media is not always an active manipulator. Sometimes it can change our perceptions passively as well. The news is a good example. News worthy items are usually negative and whenever we open up the newspaper we get an extremely bleak picture of the world. Instead of Jane Goodlady helping orphans, we read about Joe the Banker causing the collapse of financial systems around the world. We have come to expect a world that can only get worse and that is because of the hidden bias in news media. It is a hidden manipulation but manipulation nonetheless. [Teacher's note: Because bad news sells]

By now, the media can be seen as an evil puppet master, changing our views, forming our opinions for us. But it is not all that bad. The people still have a freedom of choice. Most niche media will hardly be looked at by other people from other factions. You will not expect a Democrat to watch Fox News. Furthernore, as a consumer, we can choose, by being educated for example, to make informed choices about our products instead of falling prey to advertisements or other persuasive media.

The media is a powerful tool to inform and empower. It can also be used to manipulate people to achieve certain aims. Even though we can raise our consciousness against such attempts we still still be under bombardment by the numerous viewpoints the media wants us to take as our own and inevitably a few will succeed in changing us. From that we can see that our perceptions are indeed manipulated by the media to a large extent.