Sunday, 9 March 2014

Final Blog Post

Hey guys, I'm just here checking in for the fifth and final blog posting required for my class. In light of the fact that this is the final posting that I think will be done for this blog, I would like to kind of summarize the concepts that I covered over the course of this blog. Essentially my idea was not to make you think that the media is "bad" or "wrong" I just wanted to ensure that you as the reader could see some of the different viewpoints that could alter what or how the media may cover something. One thing that I did to kind of allow you to analyze this was focusing on the coverage of the "Sochi 2014" Winter games where I looked at why different countries may cover certain events differently to give your home country something to cheer for. This is true in many other ways regarding the media as well, however I felt as though the "Sochi Winter games" would have been the perfect example to use to allow the reader to see my point.
 Another thing that I would like to point out as a final point is to not take everything that is covered as a solid truth of what a person is truly like. The media need something interesting to cover and they know that, so if they can get a "rise" out of somebody and get them to say something out of line it would be ideal for them and their coverage. I used the "Burt Jenner" example for this point because there is a clip of him on the internet completely losing it on some paparazzi, making him look psychotic. However the media forgot to mention the point that the paparazzi that Jenner was losing it on were also harassing him and his family for months before that. With that said I think that there could have been better ways for "Jenner" to vent however it was a very stressful time for him.
 People that are very known around the world tend to be the people that get negative coverage alot of the time, which is directly related to the media constantly watching them. This is another point that I like to cover because many people get a very negative reputation because of the media blowing something out of proportion. For example, look at somebody like "Justin Bieber". Although he is not well liked with alot of people, I do think that this is partially due to the media always watching him. He cannot go anywhere without cameras following him, and constantly doing something to get his attention. Even though he has had his "dumb moments" I think that it is safe to say that everyone has had these, the only difference is that Justin will get caught on many more occasions than the regular person due to the public eye always watching over him.
 Anyways though, that was just food for thought I guess. Those are kind of the big three points that I hope people can take away from this blog overall. Like I said before, the media is not something that I consider to be "Evil" or "wrong" however I do think that it can be modified or adjusted depending on who writes it and where it is from. Thank you all for reading and I hope you enjoyed the blog.

Wednesday, 26 February 2014

Twitter Posts on the Olympics

Hey guys, so its a few days since I posted and since then I have noticed yet another trend in  the media yet again. This one is more so leaning towards social media though. I feel as though this can be directly related to the other media topics that I have noticed before as it may be somewhat related to the coverage that they were shown during the Olympics. What I have noticed is a general turn in the public mood on the social media website "Twitter", in a pretty negative fashion. After the Olympics had concluded. there were alot of very negative tweets directed towards other countries around the world, with alot of Americans tweeting alot of hatred to other countries such as Canada. One of the trending topics on Sunday was "#F***Canada", and I feel as though this is both an unsportsmanlike and immature thing to be doing, especially after an event such as the Olympics.
 I know that people are entitled to their opinion, however when it comes to this I don't think twitter should have allowed for a trending topic such as this to use such vulgar language for people to see.I get that people were upset that the country that they were rooting for did not win in the Olympics, however the fact that they would display that amount of hatred is honestly surprising. It may be related to the coverage that was shown to them during the games, however I don't think that a huge amount of bias would have been used by the different media teams. I guess it was just an odd thing to see for me as the Olympics are supposed to be viewed as a fun, happy collaboration of all countries no matter what their situation is like. Anyways, that was more focused on social media however I feel as though this can still be counted as "media" and coverage as it was peoples opinions on a subject. It would have just been better if it had of been displayed in a more positive way.

Thanks For Reading!

Monday, 17 February 2014

Olympic coverage

Hey guys, so round 3 of the messages portrayed by the media is here. Not like its a huge deal or anything, but anyways I figured that with the Olympics in full swing I would look into some of the things that I noticed regarding the medias coverage of the events.
 One thing that I noticed right away was that in order to hear about your specific country, you will probably need to be tuned into a station that is broadcasting from your area. I guess to kind if explain that point a bit, if you have satellite you will need to find a Canadian broadcasting station in order to hear an ample amount of information regarding your country. I understand why they do this, however I found myself wondering if all medias coverage was the same in each of the countries. The reason that I think this way is because different countries have different media restrictions with respect to what they can broadcast to the public. I know that this may not be as strict of a topic to cover when compared to others, however at the same time I know that certain countries may want to filter what gets back to their people in order to maintain a "dominant" image.
 Last semester I took a course which looked at the levels of free press in different countries around the world and one of the conclusions that was drawn was that countries that are under communist ruling tend to be more restricted with what they can relay to the public. China and Russia were two of the countries that topped the list which makes me wonder what the people are being told by the media. I guess it is just food for thought, I doubt they would  be really strict about Olympic results, as in retrospect it probably isn't a big deal. But who knows right? I guess only people who have access to China/ Russia s coverage of the Olympics would.
The Olympics that I personally have access to makes it seem like a unified meeting of many countries for the sole purpose of the joy of sport. I guess its just a feel good feeling in which our media tries to spread to all of its viewers. Whether that's a message that is spread worldwide is another story, that's just something to consider I guess.
Thanks for reading.

Monday, 10 February 2014

Hey guys, just checking in for the second time here. I guess this is just an update to my last post regarding media coverage. Anyways one thing that I do want to talk about today is related to celebrity media coverage as there has been alot of things happening with celebrities these past few weeks.
 One thing that has gone pretty viral if you follow media websites such as "TMZ" is regarding Justin Bieber and some of the legal woes that he has been facing. Just for those that haven't been following this, Bieber has been caught up in legal issues including: Egging his neighbors house causing $20,000 in property damage, possible drug charges and he is now facing a DUI charge as well. Now these are all pretty serious charges for someone to get, however I am wondering if it is potentially getting blown out of proportion a bit. The reason that I say this is because the media is literally picking apart every part of Biebers life to try to add things to their story to make it more interesting, and I feel as though this is wrong. One thing that was done that I don't really agree with is the media exploiting Biebers father on his past which included drug usage and putting it on their website. This I feel is completely uncalled for as Biebers father has nothing to do with his son getting a DUI, which is what sparked all of this. If Justin got the DUI then focus on him, not his family.
 With that said another thing that happened recently was "Burt Jenner" who is the son of "Bruce Jenner" who is directly related to the "Kardashians" going off on the media for invading his families personal space. He was very adamant on the media staying off of his property and telling them to leave his family alone. At first I thought it was pretty uncalled for, however after I looked at it from "Burt Jenners" perspective I can kind of see where he is coming from. Everyone needs their personal space and privacy and unfortunately, the media does not always respect that, especially celebrities.
 I guess the point of this post was to shine light on the fact that not all celebrities are as bad as the media makes them look.Sometimes people snap or have a fall out, but everybody has those. Just take what is said by the media with a grain of salt, and remember that their job is to keep people entertained with their content. So they will do alot to keep your attention.
Thanks for reading

Sunday, 2 February 2014

First post on media coverage

What's going on guys? So for my blog I wanted to cover the topic "messages conveyed by the media". The reason that I chose this is because I follow many media outlets quite closely and I find that there is quite often mixed messages or messages that could be considered negative covered quite frequently in todays media. If you think about it, consider how often bad news is covered on television when compared directly to good or uplifting news. In reality the bad news usually overshadows the good news in dominating ways, One story  that I consider to be a prime example of this was the coverage of "Rob Ford" the mayor of Toronto. The media has made the general public view "Mayor Ford" as a drug abusing, foul mouthed individual. Which could lead some people to view "Mayor Ford" as a bad influence. However the media has overlooked many good things that "Mayor Ford" has done such as helping the city with some of its massive debt issues.
 The reason that I think the media does this is because people don't seem to care about the good things when they could be informed about the bad things going on in society. It is almost like the media likes to keep the general public on its toes. Large news companies such as "CNN" or "CTV" will often spend a large chunk of time talking about some sort of issue going on and then cover something positive with their remaining time. If you look at other media outlets such as "TMZ" which covers celebrities only, you will notice quite quickly that almost all of the stories refer to: drug abuse, criminal actions or death. This again I think is because the public doesn't want to know about charity work done by certain celebrities when they could know about a certain celebrity that has gotten a DUI or something along those lines.
 Anyways as a conclusion to my first post I just want whoever is reading this to consider these points the next time that you watch the news. The media has a lot of say in public opinion and they certainly know that. Thank you for reading.