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Reflective Blog

Reflective Blog After going back and reading the blog posts from my first assignment in this course, one in particular stuck out to me. The block post based question #2 (How have commercial interests influenced your media use and experience?) is the one I chose for my reflection because after finishing all the readings and doing the rest of the assignments in the course, I think a have a new or a deeper understanding of the issue surrounding advertisements and commercials online.  In my blog post from May, I wrote that social network sites track your activity as a way to see what things or products you are interested. Since then, I have learned that the actual social media sites don’t care about your online activity as much as they care about selling the information about your online activity. In Kenneth C. Werbin’s article entitled “Social Media, Commodification, and Sureveillance”, the author writes about how our actions online are monitored and the data collected from ...
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Question #5: How does your media use interact with a notion of Canadian-ness or national belonging?

How does my media use interact with a notion of Canadian-ness? National belonging? In all honestly, my use of media does not really reflect my Canadian identity at all. Few things are unique to Canadian media. We can usually find what we’re looking for elsewhere. I don’t listen to a lot of Canadian-produced music and I do not watch Canadian TV shows or movies at all. I read some books by Canadian authors but more often than not, I am reading those books for school, not out of personal interest.  When I really stop and take a look at the origins of the media I am using, it is surprising how little of it is Canadian. I think the main Canadian media outlet that I’m using these days is Canadian Netflix, but I am only using it because I don’t have a choice; American Netflix is not available to me. Actually when I think about it, the majority of Canadian media I consume is because I don’t have a choice. Most of the Canadian music I hear is on the radio and they only play it to fulfill th...
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Question #4: How is your experience with traditional media different from your experience with new media?

I was born in 1999 and my experience with traditional media involves phone calls on the landline and emailing back and forth. It involves flip phones or the cellphones with slide out keyboards. I remember getting home from elementary school and calling my friends on the landline or checking for emails instead of text messages. Now, I cannot remember the last time I touched the landline and I only use my email for work purposes. I witnessed the introduction of the touch screen and high-speed internet and it changed the way I experienced media immensely.  When the first iPhone was released, I was seven years old and I recall my dad being amazed that such a thing was possible. It changed the game for my family. Once my dad got his hands on his first iPhone, we never looked back. My being so young when all this new technology was released meant that I grew up with it. Waiting for someone to reply to my email became absurd because why couldn’t I just instant message them and get a respo...
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Question #3: What is your role as a media audience member?

The way I see it, there are four types of audience member. There are the spectators who simply observe. There are the users who are aware of the media and make personal use of it. Then there are the consumers. And lastly, the prosumers whose role is to create media content. I think it is possible for people to fall into more than one category of audience member and I definitely do.  I fall mainly into the user category. To elaborate, my part in the user category means that I know about a lot of the different media outlets such as social media, streaming services, music sites, etc. and I make use of them. I have a plethora of social media accounts and access to other forms of media and I use them on a daily basis. The majority of people play a part in the user category. When it comes to certain things, mainly things that I’m not interested in, I am a spectator which means that I am aware but I do not participate. For example, a lot of people I know have the social media messaging ap...
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Question #2:How have commercial interests influenced your media use and experience?

The biggest annoyance when it comes to media use is the constant advertisements that pop up everywhere. Because commercials on TV weren’t enough, we now find them as a precursor to every YouTube video and interruptions to our Spotify playlists. I see more advertisements on my Facebook feed than I do posts from my friends. Thanks to the combining of media ownership, the advertisements that bother us on Facebook follow us to our Instagram feeds as well because they are owned by the same company. Facebook and Instagram actually track your activity in order to see what kind of products are up your alley and then they customize your advertisements to things that you are more like to spend money on. Because of this method, I feel like commercial interests violate my privacy in a way and that makes me uncomfortable. Sometimes it feels like Facebook and Instagram are working together to trick me into emptying my bank account.  I have to give advertisers credit though. They can be very snea...
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Question #1:How has media convergence impacted your media use?

Media convergence, which can also be referred to a technological convergence, is a staple for the way we as people communicate with each other and the ways that we access information. The given question asks how media convergence impacts my use of media and the answer is that media convergence makes use of media easier for me. My smartphone gives me everything I need in the palm of my hand. Forget my camera? It’s okay, there’s one of my phone. Need directions? It’s got a GPS too. The smartphone is the most common example of technological convergence because most everyone has one and makes use of it on a daily basis.  Media convergence takes place on numerous technological platforms, not just smartphones. It happens on televisions and laptops, even the newspaper. These days, you can find your news in the newspaper (like always) but you can also access it on the internet and hear it on the radio. You can watch your favourite TV show on your laptop as well as your television. Your mu...
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This blog was created for the purpose of a school assignment. The questions I am required to answer are involving my personal experience and use of media on a daily basis. I must say, a public blog as part of an assignment is innovative and pretty cool so I don’t mind this at all. I am already familiar with this format of public blogging so this assignment looks like it will be in my comfort zone for sure.  As the other half of this assignment, I am required to record every form of media that I use for 15 minutes or more for an entire week. I have a feeling there will be more on my data sheet than I am expecting. What can I say? The world is media dependent these days.  Hannah M. CMNS 201 Athabasca University
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