Response Blog to Two of My Framing Questions

1. My first question from the reading comes from the idea that we are related to the formation of media. It goes back to the “chicken and egg” scenario. Do we control and manipulate what type of media is formed or are our expectations acutally being driven by the media creators?

To answer the question of which came first: media ideas or our love for the ideas, I feel like it is both. I feel like the different types of media will think of an idea and pitch it to the audience in some way. Then we as the audience of consumers responds back with either a negative or positive feedback. We may not even realize at this point that we are being evaluated or tested. It may be just a marketing ploy which is a little more sneaky in its tactics From there, they will either choose to implement their idea and make it public, or they will choose to tweak their idea to make it more user friendly. Also, some companies may take ideas from this and create their own product that they think will be just as successful with the public. Therefore, we as consumers had an indirect hand in controlling the products they create. I think that we do have a heavy hand in the media that we are fed. But I do think the line is fuzzy as to who makes the first decision. Is it the consumer? Another companies idea? Someone within the company’s stroke of genius? I think it is different in each circumstance.

2. While skimming these chapters and thinking toward my research project, I have to think about how children are becoming more and more dependent on media. I wonder what kind of influence does this have on their early development mentally and even physically?

I didn’t really touch on this topic much in class this week but from evaluating and thinking about it on my own, I would think that media most likely has a huge part in a child’s mental and physical development. I think that even as babies, watching intellectually stimulating videos like “Baby Genius” or “Baby Einstein” do affect the mental development of babies, learning shapes and colors. In the same way, as a toddlers and preschoolers, shows like “Between the Lions” and “Sesame Street” or the new iPad with Leap Frog  do a great deal about teaching children to read and write. I think media can also be effective on children in a social way. Television shows and songs and movies teach children the right and wrong ways to interact with their friends and peers and often times their parents. This can be a positive or negative influence. Either way it is most definitely making a difference in the child’s life. Lastly, I think that media can influence a child’s physical development in two ways. One way is that media shows children what is “acceptable” or “the norm” of what they should look like or wear. Often times this causes more problems then benefits. Another way the media can affect the children physically is that the overuse of the media may cause a lack of physical activity. (which then causes problems like obesity)

I don’t have any answers, yet, for my third question. I feel like that won’t really be answered until I start with the main portion of my research project.