Reflection Post

This semester has been really eye opening onto the true messages in media. What I have learned this year has changed the way that I look at media. Whenever I watch TV, during the commercials I find the critical thinker coming out in me. I will whisper a technique used in the commercial that I saw in the images. Despite this I look at media in a different light than I used too. Before taking this course I thought of myself as an individual that doesn't fall for the media society. I realize that my ideas I thought of to be individual were really brought on by images I had seen in the media.

Since the beginning of our study of media, I have become more aware of the subliminal messages that are in all sources of media I use. The media literacy I have developed over the course of our studies I believe is very important. I will carry the knowledge that I have learned this semester. It already is helping me in my everyday life. Just the other day my mother and I were at the grocery store. She wanted to buy some almond milk single serve cartoons. When we got to the area where they were sitting on the shelves, our eyes were immediately drawn to the bold advertisement saying "4 for $5." We almost got sucked in to the weasel words. Later we read the fine print on the advertisement and saw it said "single sale $1.25." After some simple math we realized that 1.25 times 4 equals 5. The advertisement wasn't giving us any deal it just pointed the obvious out to us. If I had not learned what I had learned about media this year than my mother and I would have fallen to the tricks of the advertising company.

I don't think my media consumption habits have changed over the course of the media unit. I still do the same things I did when we started this unit. However, I have not taken nothing from this unit. I consume the same amount of media but I look at it in a different way than I would have before. Before this it was a world of colorful pictures and persuasive words. Now it is beast that tries to trick you at every corner. With the media literacy I have developed I can outsmart the advertising beast.

Media Crazed Elections

This is election season. The election is on June 3rd. This makes this time of year full of political ads. Every politician sends out multiple ads to degrade its competitors in their election race. This year is even more special for the city of Sacramento because we have 4 political races going on. Three of those races have multiple candidates running. in them.

When I get home from school everyday I take in the mail. I have been taking inside the political mailers for months. I realized on Friday this would be perfect media blog material. So instead of recycling the 8 mailers we received I kept them to look at the advertising techniques they all use.

From the 8 mailers, 6 of them had quotes from Sacramento Bee articles. The sender of these mailers wanted to improve the ethos of their argument by putting a Sacramento Bee quote. When some people see a Sacramento Bee quote in a mailer they will instantly be persuaded to vote against or for this person because The Sacramento Bee never lies.




One mailer I received was arguing against Kevin McCarty. It had a line of text on it that read, "Kevin McCarty is a weasel doing weaselly things." This was accompanied by a picture of a weasel. I think you can see what I'm getting at. This argument uses weasel words. We don't know what the campaigner means by 'weaselly things.' You have to project your idea of a weaselly thing a politician does and assume McCarty does it. The campaigner wants to portray him as a lying, sulking weasel.

I received three different mailers concerning Dr. Richard Pan. To start he really is playing the doctor thing. On every campaign I have seen for or against him, the Dr. title has always been there. His main issue he wants to cover is healthcare and making sure all Californians are covered. He is trying to show he is certified to be a politician and talk about this subject because of his Dr.status. Also the pictures that are on his ads that are for him usually show him with his family. He is trying to express that he is a family guy ans not just aspiring politician.

These and many more in-home mailers we have received play on the idea that the opponent is a corrupt politician. They scrounge around to find little things like Dr. Richard Pan taking a per diem even though he only lives 10 minutes from the capital. Or how Anne Marie Schubert took pay raises year after year despite budget cuts and people being laid off. Or. how Roger Dickinson went on multiple tax payer funded trips despite budget cuts. All these and so many more are sent out to persuade the receiver to vote in their favor.

But the real problem here is not the politician themselves its our world that is so over run by media that campaigners will have to send out so much just for their voice to be heard. It makes running for government which should be available for all people more of a rich persons job so they can pay for advertising to win their election.

Women in power

The number of women in the legasilature in the United States is astoundingly low. The narrator of Miss Representation gave a statistic I found very interesting. She said that only 17% of Congress is women. This movie was made back in 2011. Since then the percentage of women in Congress has grown to 18.5%. Still despite the marginal growth men far out weigh women in the political realm.

So after hearing this I went home and looked up the number of women in the California legislature. I was surprised to find that 11 of the 40 representatives in the Senate were women and that 21 of the 80 representatives in the Assembly were women. Now with some simple math, (ugh math! I know just bear with me.) we can calculate that 31 of the 120 California legislators are women. That equals 25.8% of the representatives in Californias legislature are women. Alright not bad California thats more than Congress but still it isn't equal. In a nation of democracy where our main doctrine is equality for all, this doesn't add up. In a perfect world, which I know this isn't, the number of represnetatives would be split 50% men and 50% women. But it isn't nor is it even close to that number. Instead it is way lower than that equality.


After looking at all the legislators nationwide women make up just 24.2%. That is less then even a fourth of all legislators. Women are out numbered completelty throughout our country. So instead of getting laws made by the people for the people we get laws made by the men for the people. Not saying that all men are defincent but they lack the imoportant view of the women that should be present when making laws.

The United States is ranked 98 in the world for the percentage of women in the legislature. This is lower than in 1998 when the Unites Sates was ranked 59. This is not a good example to be setting if the United States wants to be setting an example as the leading world power. I think it is a problem more of the people. We have been told for so long that women can't be as good as men in politics. We think that a political career is a mans job. We should follow more of the mindset in Rwanda, who is the leading country for the percentage of women in parliament. Rwanda's parliament is 51.2% women.

As a young girl if I was asked if i wanted to be a member of the legislature I would say no. I would much rather prefer to be a doctor. Before I saw this movie, my reasoning was I'm not good at writing speechs and speaking in public really isn't my calling. But afterward, I think it is more because i haven't seen a large number of women at the capital. My mom is a lobbyist so throughout my childhood i have found myself at the capital more times than I can count and I have met many people at events. If you can guess the majority of the people my mom would introduce me too would be men. There was the occassional women but I didn't meet them in the numbers that i met the men of the capitol.

This inequality in the politcal realm needs to be resolved. Women need to believe that they are just as powerful as men.