Topic 1:
What I'm most interested in when it comes to the study of media is the integrative ways in which people use it to reach a wider audience. We've been able to create groups around the world with the power of media. Gathering likeminded people together and sharing ideas, and content to further our values and our identities.
Outside of college I'm a very avid comic book fan. Much of my apartment is littered with gathered comic books. I have been reading since I was a kid and I just enjoy this world of heroes, and hope. I consider myself an optimist and I believe we can shape the world to be a perfect place for everyone. We have the power to do so and we are all extraordinary in our own way.
Topic 2:
So for this part I really had to think in depth about where I gather my sources. Honestly there are many locations where I read my news and it often varies. I usually avoid media bias and try to just get the brunt of the information. One way in which I've gathered information is from Twitter, actually. During the conflict between Palestine and Israel in which Israel showered Palestine in a volley of rockets it was very hard to get concise media from the major representatives. On the ground many Palestinians began using twitter to build up their profile and explain how things were happening on the ground there. They weren't seasoned journalists, just people. The journalists were incapable of gathering and delivering information from within Palestine and the Palestinians were willingly delivering their messages from inside. This personal connection is important and as powerful and influential as the media outlets are nothing compares to the point of view of the people that were there firsthand. Another is Vice News. I often question their staunch media bias but as far as getting in on the ground they're a step above the others in my opinion. Not only that they delve into areas that other news outlets wouldn't dare go. I remember Vice News reporters were in on the ground floor as they were writing articles on the growing Rap underground in Miami. CNN and Fox both feed into what is told of them, and I'm not saying Vice doesn't do that but they also deliver stories that aren't as forced as the other outlets. Final place is YouTube. There's definitely a lot of junk on YouTube but sifting through it all we find videos that cover events that matter, supplying the user with easy evidence to prove, or disprove what everyone is claiming. It's not always reliable and the individual can definitely structure their bias in the same way they can on Twitter, but since we're built on seeing evidence I believe YouTube is very strong candidate.
The media always has a way of hiding, or obscuring the truth. The freedom of passable information doesn't always mean the information we receive is inherently valid. I guess we have to just to think to ourselves about what we can consider truth, and what is merely fabricated to fit an agenda. No outlet does it any less than any of the others. They spin the truth for their target audience and they get away with it. I'm not really concerned for myself because I'm able to separate factual information from media fantasy but seeing other people so easily fall for these ploys can be upsetting. In order to paint a clearer picture I usually read several outlets interpretations on an event that happened, then I dig through personal accounts by people on twitter, on reddit, on facebook, etc. Even then being that we weren't present means that we won't get the most accurate understanding of an event but we do get to see what happened in some way. When I pass on this information to others I try not to present my biased understanding of the event and I usually encourage the person to use the same tactics I used to get a more precise understanding of it.
