my favorite TV shows

One of my favorite TV shows is South Park. On the most basic level of the literacy ladder it is seen as a comedic cartoon that revolves around the lives of four 4th graders. Some of the things they say are immature, degrading, or even racist. People who watch the show for just these reasons don't have a strong understanding for what the show is actually about. On the next level we see that it is definitely low budget but receives strong ratings. The show has been on TV for many seasons despite their profanity. On the highest level you start to understand that each episode has a deeper meaning than the events displayed. Most of the characters in South Park are supposed to represent the American population as a whole, as naive. The people of South Park are not media literate. But the four main characters are and they understand politics, religion, and many other common themes of the show. You also see that even though there is political and religious satire they don't do it to be malicious, they do it to test the media boundaries.

Learning Ladders

I read about Leearning Ladders on the text book.　There are steps that allow us to improve our degree of media literacy based on four areas: cognitive, emotions, morality, and aesthetics. The emotional ladder caught my attention first because it discusses how ones emotions control them in the lowest level of development. Climbing the ladder to a higher level, people can use the media to shape their emotions. I also liked the part about the moral ladder. Opinion is a powerful force, but this ladder explains that at the highest level you look past individual characters in order to look at the overall narrative meaning.

Behavior

I found it interesting to think about my own behaviors corresponding to my beliefs. If you believe and preach about something you must take action for it as well. Since learning more about the media the past couple years I definitely do not watch as much television as I used to. Also after watching "Outfoxed" last year for 229 I stopped watching anything on Fox. Now that I think of it though, I let the media influence me not to watch Fox as well...

Movie

One of my favorite films is the Godfather part II. When talking about the learning ladders in regards to this film, I am well aware of what this film is trying to express. I have a cognitive sense for how this film is structured so it is able to have more structural meaning to me. On an emotional level, I can feel myself connected with the main characters in the film, and it makes me feel like I am a part of what is going on. I guess I have an emotional attachment to the main characters. As far as the aesthetic appreciation ladder, I appreciate the visual presentation of the film. I like this film, but I think I am able to say why I like this film. I like it because it relates to my Italian culture, so it is very relatable to me.

Studying about media.

I think that by expanding my knowledge in terms of media, I will be able to make better decisions on the type of media I want to spend time with. I should probably try to access my media through a more variety of outlets. I may discover that I like these new media outlets better than the ones I am exposed to now. I usually attach myself to the things that I like, and I think that by trying new things, I may discover better solutions for my media exposure. I think I may try to read the newspaper more. I never have liked it before, but I think it may be a good idea to try and expand my mind to this type of media source.

Exposure States

I read about Exposure States, this is interesting. The fact that there are four different types of ways a person can be exposed to media messages is fascinating to me. Whether messages are filtered in through automatic state, attentional state, transported state, or self-reflexive state, each exposure is unique. I liked reading about how in the automatic state, people are exposed to messages but they are unaware that these messages are being filtered in. I still wonder how this works and it is interesting to know I have or I follow this exposure in my own life. I really liked the transported state because I know for a fact I have been exposed to media messages this way before. For example, I love going to the movies, and many times what is happening on the screen pulls me in and I lose myself in the action. I have “entered” the message. The way our mind and body work in relation to exposure to media messages is truly eye-opening. There is definitely much more happening inside our heads than we realize, and it is actually exciting to learn about.

Recognizing that media is not the sole cause of social changes, what cultural changes can you attribute, in part, to mediated violence?

I was asked this question on the Japanese TV show. With violence constantly being displayed on television, people may think that "lesser" types of violence are "ok" to committ. People are desensitized to the violence they are seeing, so they may be more inclined to commit acts of violence. I think that violence may also be comitted because of the confidence in the economy. People are losing faith in our economic system, so this may result in people doing acts of violence, like armed robberies, bank robberies, purse snatching, or other acts of cruelty.