Illusions of the Media

Sorry I haven't been writing lately. But here's an update. :) Last Thursday I attended a talk by one of our Communications Department professors Dr. Jane Ballinger at the Recreation Center in the Uni Village. 'Twas a very interesting topic; I've learnt some shocking truth... and if you may, rather horrifying too, and so I thought it'd be nice to share with y'all.

Nowadays people don't watch TV much anymore, and even when they do, the majority ignores the advertisements. So how do the advertising companies promote their clients' products? The solution lies in something called product placement, which is, really quite effective, especially on the vulnerable teenage minds in this era. Check this out.


Have you personally been influenced by it too, perhaps unconsciously? Or have you noticed it amongst your friends, how they talked bout what Beyonce is wearing in her newest music video or how Lindsay Lohan's new look is so fabulous, and that they'd kill to get their hands on "something like that" or even look like that?


Are you one of the "victims" too? Or are you one of those who realize all these yet don't mind being their prey?

Some may argue that there's nothing wrong with product placement because there will be products being used in the movies anyway, so why not make those companies sponsor the products (and the movies) since featuring their products is definitely gonna boost their sales? It's a win-win situation, no? Or, is there an ethical issue at stake? Because when you accept privileges from one party, all the competitors of the similar products have to do is offer you more, to get you to use their products instead! To the point where personal interests come into picture, i.e. bribery,... hence the ethical issue. Then what? Something for you to ponder. :)

Then there are the other stuff apart from product placement. Not sure if you guys have heard of fake news, but its a kinda PR approach to advertise for their products, and it's done through video news release (aka VNRs) - which is made by the product companies itself AND THEN distributing those VNRs to news stations for free! Which means, sometimes what you watch ain't really 'news' but just commercials that are made in the form of news!!! Here's an example of VNR, check it out if you have time. - http://www.prwatch.org/fakenews/vnr1

After reading these, you'd wonder, so when do we know what to believe and what not to believe? Which part of the news are true anymore? Even if it's world news, how are we supposed to know that they didn't edit parts of the video footage so that it'd be interpreted by the viewers the way they want them to? Believe it or not, perception is reality. And! It's one thing when companies send short clips of their products to news stations to be put as news, so that people would wanna buy them. But it's another when government do the same to spread their propaganda, i.e. to make you believe there is a war worth fighting or that certain group/association is bad and are terrorizing the world so we should all fight against them!! It's one thing to advertise in the movies cuz we're more or less aware of it, but to do it in the news - it's just impossible for us to know what's the truth anymore.

And then of course, there are the high tech adobe photoshop editing and all the makeup products in the world not to mention the perfumes, colognes... that can change almost any pictures of an ugly looking pimple popping pig into a beautiful soft-skinned tan swan.


"No Wonder Our Perception of Beauty is Distorted." How true. There's really no one out there in real life who will look perfect as they are in the magz. Those are just marketing gimmicks to make you wanna buy the newest/coolest make-up product (or anythg else) on the shelf. Strangely enough, we live in a world where majority actually don't mind succumbing to the commercial manipulation and being sucked into the world of consumerism.


"Thank God Our Perception of Beauty is Distorted." Good point! XD ahahahaaa. Ah well, we live in a contradictory world.