Critical Media and Deconstruction

When it comes to advertising, organizations appear to depend on the fact that while watching TV or listening to the radio, we do want to critically evaluate what we see or hear.  We are programmed to be “led” to make a decision as a consumer and not to ask questions.  As a media changes the medium from which it works, we are influenced and massaged into making decisions as consumers.   While the medium of media has continued to evolve, the way we respond to evolves as well. There is no way to predict how consumers will react or engage with any given advertisement.  I was interested in exploring a bit more of McLuhan’s theories on media and people.  His theory states any great new medium of communication alters the entire outlook of the people using it.  My understanding of education and the way that we present material to be learned is that we should be altering the way we present it-not only to embrace evolving technology and develop skills to manage that new technology, but also to be able to critically analyze the response and mode of delivery.  What he challenges is the idea that marketing and sales is not pushing a product, it is selling a medium.  The medium from which they are communicated become part of us.  This is evident in how dependent we are on the technology that surrounds us every day.  It isn't necessarily the messages in the medium that drive us to it, it is the medium itself-the media.  Moving information is at the forefront of media-not selling products, but communicating and processing information.  Implied in parts of that is the advertising itself. Our job as educators and teachers is to utilize the medium’s, as they evolve, to push information back out to the public, the future consumers as well as the future citizens.  It is through evolving media that these consumers and citizens will become informed of relevant issues, challenges, tools and concepts.  Along with this comes the challenge of validating the information, regardless of how it is presented to us. If we have multiple means of getting the information, it is probably safe to assume that all the information out there is not accurate, or in some cases versions of the truth.  Today information is available almost instantaneously, and as such we have opinions of that information almost as fast, based on whatever information has been presented to us at the time.   Media should take some responsibility in teaching how to understand the information presented, but individuals also need to take responsibility for learning critical media literacy. As we are a global village, more so now than when McLuhan’s theories were evolving, we can no longer be limited by cultural and operational influences.  These boundaries, though lessened with the evolving media, their influence is still apparent on a local scale. Walking into a school one realizes the value of mobile media, walking into a business one values various electronic media, walking into a coffee shop one values the media of the spoken word, but it with music or a newscast. As we examined current advertisement this week, it is apparent that there are various implied meaning buried in advertising, from the appeal to emotion, to the characters, to the colors, to the branding of the merchandise.  It is everyone’s responsibility to understand both the limitations and values in a global world that each of these mediums present.