Untitled

Although I am not Canadian, as an overseas student in Canada, the media plays a crucial role in shaping and expressing Canadians' sense of identity or national belonging. For example, Canadian television programs, movies, music, and news can establish a connection to Canadian culture, values, and experiences.   Whether through traditional or digital media, participation in Canadian news channels can keep people informed of local, regional, and national events and help them understand the formation of Canadian identity. People can connect with fellow Canadians, participate in democratic elections, and contribute to discussions by keeping up with current Canadian events. For example, because of advances in online technology, absentee MPs can vote remotely from their cell phones to ensure maximum democracy.   In addition, social media tools allow Canadians to express their Canadian identity and interact with others. For example, people can post or participate in discussions about Canadian holidays, cultural events, or shared experiences. This online participation builds a sense of belonging and solidarity and allows people to connect with others who are proud to be Canadian. Since Canada has many immigrants, newcomers from different cultural backgrounds use media to find identity and belonging and to gain information about the country's history and culture.

After I learn Unit 2 of Introduction to Mass Media. I know there are a lot of distinctions between traditional media and new media.

The first difference is the privacy issues of the new media. Traditional media face the public, like television, newspaper, and radio. In traditional media, every user receives the same information, such as daily news in newspapers. However, the new media focus on individual interests through Big Data technology. This technology can recommend to users their favorite content. For example, you always swipe to your favorite video on TikTok. One scary thing is sometimes I'll talk to a friend about a new game, and then these media will immediately push me relevant content. This example shows why the rise of these new media has also made protecting users' privacy a severe issue. Because in the traditional media period, the public is the object of their service, so personal information and preferences will not be leaked.

Next, new media provide a two-way channel to communicate. In traditional media, people or citizens are the information receiver. They can only receive information from television or newspaper but can't give their opinions. Therefore, at that time, the media and the public were far away from each other, making it difficult for people to use the power of the media to express their demands. However, with the development of new media, people have much more ways to express themselves, which also helps the government maintain democracy.

Under the media convergence background, most people play more than 1 role as media audience members. I would define myself as both a media consumer and a producer.

As a consumer, I consume and use various forms of media, such as news articles, TV shows, movies, music, podcasts etc. Media is a part of my life. After recording a week of my media use, I realized that media occupied about 4-5 hours per day of my life. As an unprofessional producer, I create posts on different platforms, usually Xiao Hong Shu, to share my life, such as how I studied and managed my time. Being an influencer or producer has a lot of fun; it’s so glad to see my posts bringing positive effects to others and helping them.

We can see a lot of information about media ownership and advertisements for platforms on the web. Commercial interests have influenced our media use and experience. For example, Twitter began to change after Elon Musk purchased it. For example, Blue Certified users will have to pay for a Twitter Blue subscription or lose their "Certified" badge. Furthermore, unverified users can currently read 1,000 tweets and verified users 10,000 per day. Although I use Twitter sparingly, these new rules and limitations have already impacted and decreased the experience of lots of users. Many Japanese illustrators moved to other platforms like Wei Bo because of these. Therefore, media ownership and its transformation will influence whether we want to use one media or forum. However, if there's no choice besides this media, people can only continue to use it.

The cost is the most important factor that decides whether I use media. I need a monthly subscription fee for a better experience, like viewing more tweets or no advertisements. In that case, I will not subscribe to that media and use it occasionally, like Twitter. If I want to know news or other information, I still have a lot of choices, like using Instagram, and even if I don't subscribe, it won't affect my use very much. However, if I want to watch an exclusive TV show, like Squid Games, I have no choice but to subscribe to Netflix.

The convergence of the media has significantly impacted my life. When I was in primary school before the advent of new media, big businesses and traditional media dominated the methods through which individuals obtained information. For instance, in the past, we obtained knowledge via reading newspapers, watching television, and listening to the radio.

However, interpersonal sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram have grown significantly as news and information providers with the onset of media convergence. These platforms are now digital centres where news organizations distribute their material and users discuss the day's happenings.

Nowadays, we can use these new media platforms to express our opinions more straightforwardly than ever. We can discuss the plot of a TV show together online, even with strangers. For example, recently, I’ve been watching Alice in Borderland, a TV show on Netflix. I love season 1 more than season 2. As usual, I wanted to know if other people held the same opinion, so I searched online and shared my idea on social media sites like Instagram.

Moreover, because of media convergence, people can vote online to join public event decisions, saving a lot of time and maintaining democracy. For example, if the Toronto government wanted to increase financial expenditure to build a new subway, they could collect public opinion by posting a poll on platforms like Twitter.