A main insight that I have gained from this course is that media is highly subjective and to view it as anything else will create a deranged sense of reality. As we saw in “The Ad and the Ego” advertisement is the “production of discontent.” The film relayed to us that “symbols and images have a power of persuasion that is undeniable.” And that advertisers understand the human search for meaning and use it to their own ends.
However, this can be applied to all media beyond just ads for specific material items. How about The War on Terror? Every government transaction and public speech is an ad. Behind every public media there is an agenda. This may be for good or for evil; that is for the moral voice inside the individual to decide. But the important thing to realize and understand is that the world is boundless and full of possibilities that have not been broadcast by large corporations or “Paid for by Viewers Like You.” After returning from Brazil last summer, I became painfully aware of the confines within which we Americans live. We have become so attached to media. I don’t fully agree with McLuhen that the media is the message, but the confinement that media has brought to our perceptions about life’s possibilities does often echo the sentiments that come through those forms of media. It has created a future-based ideal. Once I am this, or once I have this, my life will be happy.
Media is essentially a tool for communication. It should not be perceived as a reflection of reality. As we discussed at the beginning of the course, media are: technologies, tools for communication, social practices, a cultural system for the social construction of reality. It is as Buddha said (or so they say),
"Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it."