The Media Consumer I am now

After taking this class, I’ve become very aware of how the media manipulates what we, the consumers, get to see. I am somewhat scared of how the media controls us. It has made me somewhat borderline schizophrenic knowing that.

Remember “A Face in the Crowd”? Even some country bumpkin can make a nation follow his lead; or the movie "Chicago"? Chicago was about a woman who was a cold blooded murder who was able to get off the hook because the media made her into someone lovable.

The media does have a lot of power, and especially when the media is controlled solely by a handful of people and when only their views are getting heard and independent voices get muffled, I feel my free speech is threaten. It happened to the Dixie Chicks when they bad mouthed President Bush on national TV. All their songs were pulled from a lot of major radio stations because the man who owned it didn't like what they said.

I am more aware of the media. I am more skeptical of the views that radio, TV, print expresses. I do not jump to conclusions when I am given information because it can be spun into what the owner of the station perceives.

I have been taking in the media in small doses. I am very wary of what they have to say. Ah, how I've lost my consumer innocence.

Youtube and All of It's Follies

Youtube was founded by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim in 2005. Youtube is a video sharing website that allows people to upload clips and share clips with each other. It was sold to Google for a staggering 1.65 billion.

Youtube clips most contain individuals who made their own video and wanted to share it with it with the world. Sometimes, it is videos of unsuspecting co-workers making a fool of themselves.

A Bank of America employee, identified as branch manager, Ethan Chandler, was filmed spoofing U2’s “One”. The original lyrics were replaced with, “It's one bank/One card/One name that's known all over the world.” Followed with, “What's in your wallet?/It's not Capital One/It's us.”



I wouldn’t be surprised if the guy uploaded it himself.

Public Relation’s New Toy

So what have I learned about blogging in relations to my PR major? I’ve learned that the business market have been using it as a communication tool. Major companies are creating blog sites where they have their employees blog. Remember the whole controversy with Apple? They really didn’t know what to do with a blog. And there are PR companies that really are bad when it comes to using blogging to attract their market.



Wal-Mart has been under scrutiny because of bad press from planting a blog with a couple posing as real people going on a RV trip called "Wal-Marting across America". The couple would use Wal-Mart parking lots as a free camping ground for their RV. During their stay on Wal-Mart grounds, the couple documented it on their blogs. They wrote about how the employees love working at Wal-Mart and their great work conditions there. It was later discovered that the couple were hired by Wal-Mart and when bloggers found out about the scandal they were infuriated. Wal-Mart does not understand the mechanism of a blog; Blogs are not advertisement but a form of communication and that is why Wal-Mart has not succeeded in the blogosphere.



But I still shop there because where else can you buy 20 packages of Hoho's for a little over two bucks? The "Walmarting Across America" blog does attract negative press but I don't think it affects their business because their items are really cheap and people will still shop there.