Media: A resource for recreation and education

            As we may know media is the plural form of the singular “medium”. It refers to the channels through which messages are transferred. Since the beginning of media, people have been using it as a form of distraction from the real world. If I’m not mistaken, when TV was invented people would usually use it to set their minds off what was really happening in the US, which was the great depression. The same thing happened with the radio and now with the Internet. At the same time, I think that the media also shapes people’s cultures. How people stereotype, have different assumptions and attitudes toward people from different culture are based merely on media and popular culture forms such as TV shows, movies, and celebrities.

            If you ask most of the time people use TV, radio and the Internet to distract themselves from what is really going on in their lives. They may also claim that they use it to look up information or to educate themselves. I don’t think that media is either a recreation or a tool to educate; in my opinion it’s both. It is obvious that there are many mediums that can be used for an educational purpose or that keep you informed of what is going on in the world. Teaching is not all, most of the time when people get out of their jobs or schools, they need a time to relax and the media offers that too. As we discussed in class, I don’t think that people analyze a media text critically. Instead, I think people view media more as a resource of education or recreation.

            Besides media being used as an educational or recreational tool, I think that it also makes a big impact when we talk about our perception about other cultures. As I said before, the media influences how we stereotype people from different cultures. Movies, TV shows and so on are the kind of media that shapes the way we perceive people. For example, when I was little my nannies would usually make me watch telenovelas with them. Most of the time, they were from Mexico. When I finally got the opportunity to travel to Mexico, I already had a perception about the Mexican people just because I saw it on TV.

            Now days, the media is used for several things. I personally think that in the world that we live today, media can be used as both educational and recreational. As humans, after a stressful day we need relaxation and media gives us both. Before writing this blog I’ve never thought about how I stereotyped people from other cultures just because I learned some things about then on TV or the Internet.  I encourage everyone to take a minute a think about what do you know about any other culture that its not yours and then think about how you learned that. I can bet that most of you will end up with the same answer as I did, which was through the media.