Sydney Christensen

Matthew Merkel

COMM 1500

4/26/19

Reflection

1. What did you learn about media this semester that you didn’t know before?

Before taking this class I thought I had a good idea of how media played a role in our

society. Now, looking back I knew very little. Media and society has taught me society is

ran by media. I was un aware of how much of our own private life is shared with different

companies, so they can advertise to us. How we are tracked through cookies on every one

of our devices. This has made me more aware of what is on my devices.

2. Is there a specific element of media that you became interested in this semester and

why?

Much of the material in this class was very interesting but I feel I specifically was interested

in our discussion on how advertising can affect the consumers mental health. Social media,

magazines, radios, etc. Using exaggerated selling methods to make the consumer believe

they are not good enough unless they “have this”…“look like that”…“do this”. This is done

by photoshop, air brushing, fake reviews of the product.

I had always been interested and an advocate for the push to change the way we advertise

and felt more strongly about the subject after completing my Analysis 2: 5-Step Process. It

made me really think about the world we live in and what we are teaching our children.

How the feeling of not feeling “good enough”, based on societies expectations, can leads

to depression, eating disorders, anxiety, etc.