Media is something which is used widely in our world today and the impact it has had on us as individuals is undeniable. This has lots of positive effects on modern society, but there in lies a problem. Have you ever considered what viewpoint each type of medium provides us? Think about it for a bit. News articles give us a strikingly different view on a certain topic compared to a video on youtube.
The Medium is the the Message is a task that I worked on during my last two months of school this year. As a way to end the project, we had a Media Fair. The Media Fair was designed for us, the students, to be able to see what our classmates were interested in and how they looked at that specific topic. For this Media Fair, all the students made a poster to show their research and their view towards their topic based on the sources they found.
Now, you might be wondering what topic I looked at. I looked at the Oculus Rift Dk2 (Development Kit 2) VR (Virtual Reality). The Oculus Rift is used as a way to enhance video gaming as it puts you, the player, in the shoes of the character. I looked at sources which talked about the practicality of the product, the specifications and also the effects. That is just a quick overview of my topic, but today, I will be focusing more on the other topics that I saw during the fair.
The first person that I had to chance to speak to was Reece. Reece is a good friend of mine which made it easy to talk about his topic. Reece focused on running. He chose this topic because he is a passionate runner himself and he wanted to convince others to do the same through this project. He looked at the following types of sources: Cartoons, documentary trailers, online articles, books and adverts. Something that I find interesting about Reece’s source focus was that most of them were image/video based. I asked him why he chose to do this and his reaction was very reasonable and understandable. He chose these types of sources because they were memorable. The cartoon was rather funny and the way that the information was given in the video was apparently done in an interesting way that made it stick in his mind. His description of the topic was also very well done which made it one of the few topics which I wanted to talk about. Here is the link for Reece’s video for those who are interested.
After Reece came Marii. Marii focused on the in-depth topic of sleep deprivation. She chose her topic based on its relevance for students of our age and her personal experience. Marii used the following types of sources: Images, Cartoons, Posters and Quotes. Something which stood out for me was her use of visual sources. Even the quotes had some visual aspect to them which made it very memorable. She told me that she chose these types of sources because of one specific reason. They was little to no text in them. Since she was looking at the topic based on how it affects students of our age, she wanted to make it easy for us to understand and to make it memorable for us. I also found it interesting how this project had an effect on her own life. She said that she has had a terrible sleeping schedule and that she was actually looking at improving that because of what she had learned during this project.
The last person who I really want to talk about is Nana. Nana’s topic was about Sweat Shops. I didn’t get the chance to ask her why she chose this certain topic but I can imagine that she has a very good reason. Nana used the following types of sources: Online news articles, Television, Advertisements, Photography and Interviews. The main thing that stood out for me was the use of visual sources. Her photography and advertisement sources stood out specifically because they were sources which left their message open to interpretations.
Let me bring this back to the idea of the medium being the message. There might still be one specific question still in your head. What does the medium is the message have to do with this media fair? The answer is actually rather simplistic but once you understand it, this whole media fair will make a lot more sense.
Each type of media exists for each type of opinion and information that is being presented. I know it might seem rather confusing and truth be told, it is. For those of you who still don’t understand what i’m saying, here is a quick summary of examples. Youtube is laid back and cares about subtlety. News articles care about the delivery of the information no matter what. Images will contain a message which the viewer needs to find themselves. Advertisements provide hard facts while being disguised as something simply for the viewers enjoyment. There are so many forms of media that it would be impossible to list them all but I hope that now, you have a better idea on what the phrase the medium is the message means.
To conclude, the amount of visual sources being used was surprising and effective and the use of text sources was really well done and resonated within me. The poster and topic which stuck with me the most was Marii’s. Her inverstigation on sleep deprivation was very interesting, her motives for choosing her topic was fascinating and her poster presentation allowed it to stick with.
I hope you were able to learn something new about the media. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment about it and I will attempt to respond asap. Thank you for reading and have a good day.
