Blog Post #3

“Mediated images and messages do not only reflect society but also create meaning and future direction for the audience” (217)

In todays society, media is very present and affects many beliefs and attitudes toward certain ideas.  Weather this be social media site, television shows or written media.  But are all mediated images and messages reliable and trustworthy? How are we supposed to know what sources we should trust and gather information from and what one we shouldn’t? As Jeff Hancock says in his Ted Talk that was titled “The Future of Lying”, “Much of Deception is everyday”.  He talks about not everyone lying everyday, but are you always aware that you are? As mediated images and messages become more present face- to- face communication is slowly dying away because human ideals and characteristics have changed. 

However, we still need to rely on the face- to- face communication to help build interpersonal relationships.  Technology and is what is causing this type of communication to be slowly phased out.  Technology; followed by mediated messages and images is changing the way that interpersonal relationships are formed.  In order to form better interpersonal relationships, we rely on the face- to- face communication that its mediation.  According to Warren and Fassett in the textbook, these mediated images can also cause misrepresentation of others relationships or of a specific event.   

            Mediated messages have also caused us to be more critical consumers because of the specific message that mediation causes.  When personally thinking about this, I have never realized how much I rely on advertisements and messages that I see while online or on television.  Now realizing this, I have based many of my decisions when buying different products on either reviews or advertisements. But again this can relate back to, what can we trust and what cant we?

Link to the TED Talk mentioned:  https://www.ted.com/talks/jeff_hancock_3_types_of_digital_lies/transcript