#templepop14

The last chapter of the book relates the whole social media world to a real life matrix. The corporate matrix is what stretches across the globe and is in control of the mass media itself, while we are part of the media matrix that fuels the corporate matrix. This metaphor is extremely accurate to how the mass media works. Without its consumers, those who are in power will no longer have a place in the mass media.  The corporate matrix will keep thriving off of what we consume, which makes them very powerful. I think that those who have gained control of the mass media will keep succeeding because the mass media is a global phenomenon.   We have been lured in extremely well that it will be hard to un-attach ourselves from them.  The problem with the corporate matrix is that they control what information they feed us, therefore, we are in their control and half the time we are blind to it. Their advertisements appear everywhere we go and it becomes close to impossible to not be exposed to it.

Although not all people will admit to being active mass media consumers, it is unavoidable. Even when you are trying not to consume it, you are still subconsciously thinking about it.  Social media has become such a powerful tool in today’s society. People are hooked on using social media sites such as twitter, Facebook, or Tumblr, so when you look around there are always people looking down at their cell phones or laptops updating statuses and posting pictures. I do not think I have been to one public place that did not have someone with their heads buried in their cellphone.

Women have become almost entirely unseen in popular Hip Hop today, a result of the current state of Hip Hop culture. Over the years, Hip Hop has been bought, sold and mass-produced by those with hardly any authentic linking to the culture’s birth and progress. Because of its international appeal, Hip Hop became one of the United Sate’s most profitable exports. This altered the way Hip Hop established itself artistically, as money became more of an incentive for many performers than the counterculture rebellion and free expression of the past. An article depicting gender representations in Hip Hop stated, “No longer are graffiti and break-dancing the popular art forms they once were, and DJs who once spun vinyl and scratched records have become producers who download electronic samples and piece them together on their computers. MCs rarely freestyle or battle anymore, and even their penned lyrics tend to be simplistic.”

This photo above shows a picture of a young model and how she carries herself almost as a young adult model. The caption relates to how the media influences everyone it can get a hold of, especially the younger generation. Instead of wanting to be a doctor or dancer, the photo relates the young girl's strive to be pretty. Is ‘pretty’ something you really want to aspire to be when you grow up?

The media gives us such a skewed image of what real beauty looks like. It feeds us false images that some people strive to see themselves as. Most perfume ads I see in magazines and on television commercials have girls half dressed seducing a man, such as in Calvin Klein and Old Spice. There are plenty of ways to promote perfume without having a girl half dressed trying to sell a product that has nothing to do with having to be sexualized. Even with selling clothing, women seemed to be sexualized a majority of the time. I have seen an ad where they were promoting jeans, but the woman had no shirt on, while she is covering herself. I do not see women walking around in public wearing jeans with a bare top, so why have to create an ad selling it that way?

The Matrix happens to be one of my favorite movie series of all time, and I’ve studied it in my other favorite class from college ironically enough.  To be honest, I think I love The Matrix because I understand and am fascinated by its message.  As a broadcast journalism major, I see and experience the media constantly, I, essentially, am the media.  To an extent, I have control over what my audience sees.  What I’ve learned above all though, is that I don’t agree with mass media.  I don’t agree with “the system.”

  It’s semi apparent when you read some of my posts that I’m very open and understanding to a lot of things.  I would like to think that I am able to see the pros and cons to every side of a situation.  However, when a position of power gets out of hand, I somewhat put up a defense to the system and somewhat rebel.  It’s hard to explain what I’m trying to say, but basically, if I were to take a test on which character I was in The Matrix, I’m pretty sure I would be Neo.  I prefer to separate myself and find my own way within the system, but not necessarily following the system.

  I see myself as different, therefore, a freak, who is similar to Neo in that my thoughts and ideas are very different than that of most people I interact with.  I understand practicality, reality, logic, etc., but there is more to life than that.  Again, there isn’t only one way to do everything.  There is no rule book to life.  What even begins to constitute “normal?!”  Once I asked myself this question and delved more into the idea, I started to accept and embrace the differences in people more than ever.  Since, people have absolutely FACINATED me.

This photo above shows different statistics on women in the film industry. It does not surprise me that there are more men in films than women. Even in television shows there are a large amount of men in contrast to women. Men are normally the main characters in films, while women are secondary characters. Over 30% of women in movies get partially naked in films, while only about 10% of men do. Also almost 40% of girls wear sexually revealing clothing. The representations of women in film spans across different types of social media. Women are normally sexualized or objectified in the media, while men are just portrayed as nothing really out of the normal. This does not help with the image of women because society will believes what they are advertising because it is becoming a norm to publish women in a manner that is no where near realistic. It can cause men to have misconceptions of women and how they should look and act. It can also make women insecure about their looks or body image because there are so many misguided images of what they should look like.