Top Ten
10. Viral media
Viral media plays a large role in my everyday life. There are many different types of viral media, including important topics in today’s society including economics, abortion, foreign policy and climate change, as well as funny and informative internet videos. Viral media has an effect on a vast population as it is quickly spread amongst people online. I enjoyed learning about the ways in which things can go viral and why they do, and what impact these viral media have on society.
9. Desensitization
Media has many influences on the thoughts and actions of people in today’s society. Due to the fact that there are a large majority of instances that get caught on camera in modern times, it is extremely easy to view a wide-spread of media at the touch of a button. Due to this, it was interesting to learn how people have become desensitized to certain topics like violence and crime as they are able to view them daily through places such as socail media platforms.
8. Stereotyping
Stereotyping was a topic that I had not thought about much before taking this course. I learned a lot about how stereotyping can be shown in many different forms of media including television, movies, and social media. One of the most interesting thing to me about stereotyping was the impact that it plays on adolescent children. In one study mentioned, it was stated that children that were shown films portraying stereotypes were more likely to agree with the sexualization of women and gender roles. It was also talked about how adolescent girls who were shown women working in fields outside of normal stereotypes were more eager to explore these fields in the future.
7. How do people get the news?
Learning about how people get their news was very eye-opening for me. It is very interesting to learn about the different ways in which people of various age groups get their news, and how that news lays a large role in the way people think and act. Before this course, I did not think about how other people in the United States may be receiving news from very different sources which can lead to the divide in opinion on important topics within the nation. News comes from all different sources including social media, newspapers, television, radio and cell phones. I also learned that different news outlets may be very biased and only report on certain information that fit with the narrative they are aiming to portray, large examples of which include Fox News and CNN.
6. Content moderation
Content moderation is a topic that I did not know anything about in the past. I learned that there are specific people hired in order to view each individual piece of content to deem if it is valid for public viewing. It was shocking to learn that there is a high suicide rate among content moderators as they are often exposed to exremeley graphic content. I believe content moderation is extremely important, however it can only be done to a certain extent before it is considered total censorship.
5. Advertising techniques
Advertising techniques differ largely from their predecessors in the past radio and television days. Learning about all of the new advertising techniques made me realize that I have been exposed to thousands of advertisements I may not have consciously noticed. Things like product placement, shoutouts during videos, and use of certain brands on popular media pages are ways in which advertisers can expose themselves to viewers. It was interesting to learn about ad-tracking and how advertisers can sell your information and searches to other advertisers in order to create a tailored selection for each individual.
How do media companies make money
4. Screen time
Screen time is something that I have paid attention to over the last few years and have tried to limit as much as possible. During the activity of tracking my screen time, I noticed that I was spending a lot of time on social media and messaging apps, and little time on productivity. Actively watching my screen time made me realize that technology is a much larger part of my daily life than I had ever thought, and helped me to actively manage what I’m doing when on my phone.
3. Censorship
The topic of censorship was one of my favorite to learn about as it is extremely prominent in my every day life. On every form of social media that is popular today, there are many forms of fact checking and censorship that take place which limit what information is seen by the public. In recent global events such as the invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces, we can see examples of extreme censorship by Russian news outlets within the nation. Censorship is one of the largest forms of control in today’s digital society, and to what extent it should be allowed is still a hot topic of debate.
2. Propaganda
I found the topic of propaganda to be extremely interesting. When doing the partner project with Michelle, we talked about cases of propaganda that Russia is using on their own people. I learned how many governments across the world spread fake information in order to further their wanted message. Propaganda is used as both a weapon and distraction in today’s society and is very prevalent especially in areas controlled by dictators.
- Algorithms
The topics of algorithms was overall the most interesting topic to me. I was not too aware about the overwhelming existence of algorithms or how they exactly work. I now know that they play an integral part in the function of most large platforms including Netflix, YouTube and Facebook. Algorithms allow for content that you tend to enjoy to be presented to you until your likes and dislikes are well known. I also learned how it may be difficult to get out of the cycle of an algorithm and learn about new information and topics if the majority of items presented to you are already tailored to your liking.
