I often find titles to news articles intriguing, interesting, and sometimes even funny. The way that the media presents certain ideas can be twisted. In this photo below, we see a photo of two magazine front covers. The Time Magazine cover reads An American tragedy, while the Newsweek magazine reads a trail of blood. The picture on the cover is OJ Simpson, which we know went through a very controversial and public trial years ago. The OJ Simpson trial created a lot of divide in people as they questioned whether he was innocent or guilty. We see the two magazines portraying their different opinions through the just the titles, along with the photo used and the coloring of each article. We see how each article is attempting to evoke different emotions and feelings from the reader about OJ Simpson, giving them an opportunity to think about OJ a certain way.

Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw present to us the idea of agenda setting. Agenda setting theory is based on the idea of the media agenda. They define the media agenda as “the pattern of news coverage across major print and broadcast media as measured by the prominence and length of stories.” (376) They say that “the mass media have the ability to transfer the salience of issues on their news agenda to the public agenda.” (376)From this theory, we learn that the media has an agenda to display to the public in order to present us ideas and topics to think about. This is where the public can step in and fall into the medias agenda. The public then use an “index of curiosity” which is “a measure of the extent to which individual’s need for orientation motivates them to let the media shape their views.” (378) The media agenda can then lead into the framing of what they would like their audience to think ABOUT. McCombs and Shaw say that “need for orientation arises from high relevance and uncertainty.” This is how they say the audience begins to look for an agenda, in order to understand, leading to the media shaping their views.

The magazine covers mentioned and shown above is a great example of how the media sets an agenda, and can then go on to shape and frame how they want their audience to think about a topic. With the controversy behind the OJ Simpson trial, the audience had the index of curiosity that McCombs and Shaw discussed. This then allows the audience to pick up the magazine, or just see it in the store and form an opinion about the trial through the language used on the front cover. The coverage of the OJ trial and the prominence of it in the media when it was happening is also a general example of the media agenda. It was printed endlessly and covered prominently. OJ is a well-known public figure, therefore prompting the media to se an agenda behind it for years and years to come. With all that said, we see through the magazine covers and the OJ trial examples of many ideas presented in McCombs’  and Shaw’s Agenda- Setting Theory.

There’s no doubt that the age we live in today is a time of technology and all things digital. Social media, email, texting, etc. are all things that are embedded into our everyday lives. These things, while extremely handy, are changing the environment we live in drastically. My grandmother, who does not know how to text, prefers to make phone calls. If you text her, there’s a 99% chance that she will not see it or ever respond to it. Her understand of text messaging is that it is much more inconvenient, can be ambiguous, and she doesn’t feel as though she can communicate what she wants to say. Living in the world we live in now,  the younger generation would most likely strongly disagree, believing that it is quicker, more convenient, and can even allow you to say more than you may on the phone or in person because you can in a sense hide behind the phone. Both of these different beliefs can be related to media ecology and the way McLuhan discusses it within the chapter.

Marshall McLuhan discusses his theory of Media Ecology. He defines this as “the study of different personal and social environments created by the use of different communication technologies.” (317) Going along with this, McLuhan also bases this theory on the idea that “the media is the message.” (316) By saying this McLuhan wants us to understand that “media-regardless of content reshape human experience and exert far more change in our world than the sum total of messages they contain.” (317) Essentially, this theory is based on the idea that it is not as much what you hear, as how you hear it. The way messages are communicated and presented to us through technology are important as McLuhan believes that the media is the message, as stated before. Different people can understand these messages from media in different ways. McLuhan says that “different personal and social environments created by the use of different communication technologies.” (317)

As we read through McLuhan’s idea of media ecology, I thought immediately how my grandma would interpret messages different than I do based on different media bases that the message may be sent. Her environment is much different than mine. I am surrounded and engulfed in technology based messages, while that is not what she has always been surrounded by.  The way in which I communicate her is essential to the message, because one way will not resonate or even get to her for her to see or hear. The idea of the media being the message I see as especially prevalent between generations and the human experience for each person. I believe McLuhan was spot on when he goes through each “generation” that we have been through in regards to mediums and how we have communicated with each other. I have to be mindful with my grandma when I communicate with her, knowing that her preferred media is different than mine. To assure that we are on the same page, I can relate back to Media Ecology.

Recently, I went home for the weekend to visit my family. I went to look in the freezer for something, and it was taken over by a ton of cardboard boxes filled with cookie dough. My dad was in the kitchen with me and explained he bought the from a friend for his son who was selling for a fundraiser. I was beyond confused as there are only 3 people in my house while I’m at school, and I knew there was absolutely no way that they were going to eat 100 cookies anytime soon. It seemed like a waste, especially because we don’t really like the school fundraiser cookie dough. When I questioned this, he told me his friend’s son was selling them as a fundraiser for school. He said he really didn’t want them but because he liked the guy who was pushing them for his son, and he knew his son, he decided he would. I still didn’t think it was necessary to buy 100 of them, but he said that he felt pressure to ensure that he did his duty to the fundraiser to help and support his friend, because again, he really liked the guy and felt incline.

In Cialdini’s book Influence, chapter five discusses the concept of liking. Cialdini says that “as a rule we most prefer to say yes to the requests of someone we know and like.” (Cialdini, 167) Liking is essentially how a consumer acts when being asked buy a friend to buy or participate in something. You could need the product or you could not need the product, but either way you will be more inclined to purchase something from someone you like, according to Cialdini. “Other compliance professionals have found that the friend doesn’t even have to be present to be effective; often just the mention of the friends name is enough.” (Cialdini, 169) This is another interesting idea that Cialdini points out. The idea of pressures from friends can come from even just hearing their name, and from that we will be more inclined to participate or purchase. This can go to explain why so many business relationships are formed with an initial friendship as “professionals seek to benefit from the rule even when already formed friendships are not present….they get us to like them.” (Cialdini, 170) Overall, we find in most scenarios whether it be fundraising, business, parties, etc. the idea of liking plays a large role in participation and purchases.

While we certainly did not need 100 premade frozen cookie dough balls in my freezer at home, because my dad liked the guy who was selling for his son and did business with him, he felt inclined and essentially obligated to buy the cookie dough. He even decided to go above and beyond to really ensure that he was doing the right thing. This could also be considered from the flip side as my dad does business with this guy, and this small gesture could lead to liking from him, possibly encouraging the friendship and future business. Liking relates directly to this because if my dad had not known a man, trying to selling cookie dough for his son, he most likely would have declined. But, because he knew and liked the guy, and was probably trying to get the guy to like him even more, he fell into the persuasion trap of liking.