Tristan van de Heetkamp

looking back at all of my media blogs, I think that as a whole they really helped to learn more about media and ads and how they affect us.  Sure, we wrote mainly about what we learned in class, but writing about the topics in my own way really helped to bring the information in and truly understand it.  I think that the project really helps to better understand what we learn in class.  While we can study the concepts and maybe talk about them with someone else, actually writing about it and applying it to something that appeals to us is what allows for the information to be truly driven home. Reflecting on my writing, I think that i could have done a better job.  I think that maybe tying to apply the concepts to more real life situations would really help, along with following a better plan while wrtiting. I think that if I had followed more of an outline for my blogs rather than writing more randonkly would have really helped to improve both the fluency of the wr...

for our critical thinking class, we read an article on how teens are beginning to have more and more anxiety.  i agree with all the points made by the article, in that this modernizing age is a huge cause for more anxiety in our lives.  this is also driven by our needs, as in we want something as soon as possible.  i think the point of "bad news" affecting this is valid as well, but not complete. in my opinion, almost all forms of news or media affect our anxiety and make it worse.  media gives us all of these false expectations of how we need to be, and pressures us to fit in.  we try to live up to these impossible expectations that we create for ourselves through media or tv or news, but never can reach them.  and the entire time that we try we just end up becoming more and more anxious as we try to  become what we think we should be. however, the article still makes good points.  in this age, we have come to expect that we get what we want, p...

we see ads everywhere in our lives, and a big part of the ads we see are on tv.  ads on tv are designed much more for a specific audience than other ads.  a company is able to this is as they base their ads on the program that's being viewed. the more recent technology of recording tv shows however has allowed for us to skip these commercials.  when we do so, it obviously is taking away from the ads that companies are creating, but these companies still have a plan. many commercials on a certain program have scenes that make it seem similar enough to the actual show, so that you think that you must stop skipping here and end up in the middle of a commercial.  another strategy that companies use is to have the commercial look very interesting, such as a character who draws the audience in. i think that its ridiculous how many ads we see on tv.  companies shouldn't be this much after only money that they try to leave a mark on every single part of our lives. ...