Re-Evaluating Media NeedsDiscussion TitlePrepare This week, y.docx
- 1. Re-Evaluating Media Needs Discussion Title Prepare: This week, you will focus on re-evaluating your digital and social media uses and needs. Review Exercise 12.2 in the textbook. For this task, you will not answer each question individually but rather, you will use the questions to gauge your thinking about your digital and social media experiences throughout the week. This week, you will need to fully reconnect and resume your normal activities on digital and social media to complete this exercise. Reflect: After a week of being disconnected from digital and social media, it must be awesome to re-engage! Or is it? Perhaps you found some serenity in being left to your own thoughts without attending to social media, or that your relationships with others flourished because you met face-to- face or heard their voices over the phone instead of trying to figure out what they really meant by the text messages and the emoticons that accompanied them. Critically evaluate your use of digital and social media in terms of how much time you spend engaged as well as the benefit that comes to you from that engagement. Consider whether you can “live without” some of the interaction, as well as the positive and negative impact that lessening your dependence on digital and social media may have. Write: After reviewing how much time you have spent engaged in digital and social media across the week, write a 250- to 300- word blog about your evaluation. Share with your peers how reconnecting after a week of being disconnected made you critically examine your use of digital and social media. Include a byline at the beginning of your blog post. At the end of your
- 2. blog, include a full reference for all sources cited in the body of your blog. All citations and references must adhere to APA style guidelines as outlined in theAshford Writing Center. View theFormatting Stories and Blogs document for assistance with formatting your blog. Check It! Your blog must be submitted throughGrammarly prior to submission. Respond to Peers: After you have written your blog, read the blogs of your peers, and post a comment to at least three other bloggers about their evaluations of their digital and social media uses. Your comments should address them by name, be between 100 and 150 words in length, and you must include your name at the end of each comment. Persuasive Media Discussion Title Prepare: This week, you will need to engulf yourself in persuasive messages. It takes no real effort to do this. All you have to do is actually watch the commercials around your news and entertainment programs, pay attention to your surroundings, and really look at all of the pop-up ads on the websites that you visit throughout the week. You will also need to read Chapter 11 in the textbook. Then, choose one of the articles to read: · High Culture/Low Culture: Advertising in Literature, Art, Film, and Popular Culture · Representations of Masculinity and Femininity in Advertising · Ethics and Advertising · Sexuality, Race, and Ethnicity in Advertising · “Subliminal” Advertising ·
- 3. Reflect: After completing the reading in the textbook and reading the article that you chose, consider the ads that you encountered throughout the week. Think about the elements of advertising (mentioned in Chapter 11 of the textbook) that really resonated with you as a result of your attention to advertising messages throughout the week. Then, think critically about the article that you chose and consider examples of advertisements that coincided with it. Write: Once you have critically reflected on the readings and the advertisements, write a 250- to 300-word post that discusses your views. In your post, you must focus on one single element from Chapter 11 that resonated with you as it relates to your experience with advertisements throughout the week. Then, focusing on the article that you read, choose at least two examples of advertisements that related to what you read. Choose advertisements where you are able to include an image or link in your post to help your peers in understanding your example. At the end of your post, include your name and a full reference for all sources cited in the body of your post. All citations and references must adhere to APA style guidelines as outlined in theAshford Writing Center. Check It! Your post must be submitted throughGrammarly prior to submission. Respond to Peers: After you have written your initial post, read the posts of your peers and respond to at least two others about their experiences with advertisements during the week. Your responses should address them by name, be between 100 and 150 words in length, and you must include your name at the end of each response.
- 4. Ashford 5: - Week 4 - Instructor Guidance We have done a great deal of exploration over the past several weeks related to digital and social media use. Our explorations have led us to connect, disconnect, and the re-evaluate our use of media. This has forced us to think critically about the prevlance of media in our lives and the impact that it can have on us personally and on individuals, groups, and society as a whole. However, what we have engaged in over the last four weeks is only the beginning of truly becoming digitally and media literacy. What it has done is made us more aware of the media around us and the media that we use. That is truly the first step in becoming digitally and media literacy. You see, this process is not a destination, it is a journey that is consistently changing and new mediated technologies continue to evolve. This week we will: 1. Discuss the impact of mediated messages by reflecting on specific effects 2. Write about better management of personal digital media use in a simulated blog. 3. Create mediated messages for a specific purpose using a variety of media platforms. Positive and Negative Forces Just as with everything else in life, the media has positive and negative effects on us. Most often we will hear arguments related to how “bad” media are for us and the positive aspects are mostly downplayed. However, in order to truly appreciate the value of media, it is necessary that we understand both aspects. Potter (2014) notes that there are seven distinct types of effects that media can be divided into: cognitive, belief, attitudinal,
- 5. emotional, physiological, behavioral, and macro. This is certainly a more in depth analysis of media effects that we often think of on the surface. He also notes that we must think about effects from a multidimensional rather than a singular “effect” as we often do. We must employ critical thinking skills in order to truly understand the impact of media. Potter’s views, however, are not the only ones that exist related to mediated effects. What the video below for an overview of some theories that we use to analyze mediated messages and the impact that they have on society at large. Beyond the Boundaries Digital and social media have a great deal of value to us both personally and professionally. The issue is largely that we do not understand how to truly unleash the power of these platforms to achieve our goals. Rather than thinking of them as a quick and easy way to connect, if we think of them as a way to achieve goals, develop relationships, disseminate ideas and collaborate with others, then digital and social media can literally become the keys to our success in many cases. The issues, then, do not lie in the fact that we spend so much time with media, it is mostly in the way that we fail to effectively use media in our personal and professional lives. SOMETHING TO PONDER 1. How much time would you have for leisure activities if you did not use media for entertainment? 2. Do you think that entertainment media is responsible for some societal issues that we face? 3. What do you believe are the most beneficial forms of entertainment media? THIS WEEK’S ASSIGNMENTS This week we will critically evaluate how we use media for
- 6. entertainment. This task will require us to really think about why we use media in the ways that we do. We will consider the reasons behind our media use for entertainment. You will have a lot of time to think critically this week because you will also be disconnecting from as much media as possible for your blogs! So your reflection will be on the entertainment media you used prior to this week and this will allow you to critically examine your use of it. REFERENCESPublic Sphere (n.d.) Media effects. Retrieved fromhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvgURfZMGoQPotter, J. (2014) Media literacy.Matthews, D. (6 June etrieved fromhttp://www.forbes.com/sites/danmatthews/2014/06/06/how- effective-people)-use-social-media/