Power of influence in the media

How much power does the media have? Is there influence on us more than we suspect?
In reading "Framing class, vicarious living and conspicuos consumption", by Daina Kendall, i agreed with how she talked about how the media can sometimes skew our perceptions about other classes of people and even our own. She mentioned how the media doesn't mirror society, but helps to shape it and create cultural perceptions. she then goes on to say that the media encourages people to emulate the upper class and shun the working class and the poor. I don't really understand how the media encourages people to shun the poor and working class, but i can see how it encourages us to emulate the upper class. It is always about outdoing someone. Your neighbor, freinds, or whoever. competition. The television is huge in this.

The next essay, "tow ways a woman can get hurt, advertising and violence" by Jean Kilbourne was interesting to say the least. There were a lot of ads that i could have done without seeing. The author has some pretty interesting ideas. I really don't know whether or not i agree with them. she made a pretty good argument, but i really don't know enough about the subject and stuff to make assumptions. I have never really though about this subject, but it was really interesting to read.

How much does the media influence us? I would say very, very much. The media is all around us. We really can't escape it. They can twist and turn anything they want to. The sad thing is that so many of us get manipulated and sucked in. One of my political cartoons was on media manipulation. It was interesting.