In Media Theory class, we discuss topics such as what are the different types of media and how the affect the world. A few classes ago we talked about how media desensitizes us to real life issues. As an example our teacher talked about how years ago he was playing a FPS like Call of Duty in an internet cafe and after he had finished played he walked down stairs to see the police detaining a man who had a gun. He explained how this came as a shock to him because of how the situation was and irony of it was that just a few minutes ago he was playing a shooting game and he was unfazed as the in game characters were dying and attacking people but when he saw a real gun he was frightened.
I think being exposed to raw media like this is a blessing and a curse, at one hand it is good because you gain knowledge how things are in different places of the world and lets us see a different side of things but it also makes us naive. An example of this is on News where everyday we hear about people dying but we are not phased by it until somebody we love and know personally passes away.
Another class, we talked about how media could be dangerous and how it can be used to easily manipulate people. We watched an episode of a show called Black Mirror where someone used media and manipulated the press in attempts to potentially tarnish a government person reputation.
Black Mirror logo
This video had me thinking of how powerful media could be in certain hands and how people are willing to believe things without any reliable information and in addition how people are willing to bandwagon for the sake of being involved and starting drama.
EPHRAIM SAKUGA 