About Me
- Neva
- I am a wife, mother, business owner and A Doctor of Psychology with an emphasis in media. I studied Psychology and Media at Tennessee State University and Fielding Graduate University at a time when the world is alluded by propaganda, framing, social media, narrative's and a vast amount of media genre eager to divert our attention in a positive or negative way. My hope, through my rigorous, hands on training and studies (10+ years), is to offer insight on "how media is influencing our behavior." This perspective has been lacking since our media evolution has shaped into a universe of it's own.
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Social Media
Social media is growing rapid everyday with sites and tools like RSS, Blogs, Wikis, Social Bookmarking, Delicious, Google, Twitter and Facebook. Social media can be very beneficial, for example, Delicious is a social bookmarking site that allows you to save your favorite bookmarking. You will be able to access the bookmarking from other computers, not just your own. Also, it allows you to share your bookmarking with other contacts, which are categorized by tags. In addition, social media can also help you find a job. For example, one can create a fan page or group in Facebook about the industry that one may be interested in or connect to people and get testimonials. There are many ways that social media can be beneficial, but done in excess, can be detrimental to one’s life. I believe that with the whirlwind of innovation and creativity in social media, it is easy to lose sight of the need for balance between the online and real world. You still need real world interaction. With using anything in excess, one must find a balance.
Advantages of Social Media:
· Relationships and conversations
· Creativity and remix culture
· Embrace your passion and identity
· Community, sharing and connecting
· Increase transparency in government and organization
Criticisms of Social Media:
· Lots of great content still gets over looked
· Writers have problems delivering content consistently
· Anonymity can engender polarization and hate
· Information overload and social networking overload
· Work/Life balance is hard to achieve
http://compassioninpolitics.wordpress.com/2008/02/01/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-social-media/
http://www.slideshare.net/pkitano/twitter-friendfeed-080602 (slideshow)
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Plugged In
- Risk of loss of a significant relationship, job, educational, or career opportunity due to excessive internet use
- Internet engagement to relieve or avoid withdrawal symptoms
- Internet engagement used as a way of escaping problems or relieving feelings of guilt, helplessness, anxiety, or depression
The article "The End of Alone", examined how technology can put an end to loneliness. Cell phones, (i.e., Blackberries/Bluetooth) for example, will give the illusion that he or she is never alone, even if no one physically is with them. The Washington Post reported that people who rely on Bluetooth ear sets just can’t get enough of wearing their accessories. Also, technology gives a person the sense of importance; it keeps him or her in the loop at all times.
Take Away: Technology is an absolute necessity for the fast paced world. But when technology becomes a barrier to our relationships and evolves into an addiction, its benefits are squandered.
Reference:Am I Still Here? (Doerr, Orion Magazine, 2009) <http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/4234>
The End of Alone (Swidely, Boston Globe, 2008) <http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/magazine/articles/2009/02/08/the_end_of_alone/>
Meet the Life Hackers (Thompson, NY Times, 2005) <http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/16/magazine/16guru.html?_r=1&pagewanted=1&emc=eta1>
The Washington Post
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjhjS-MiTIc&feature=email (media clip-Tyra Banks Show)
http://www.worth1000.com/emailthis.asp?entry=381891 (image)
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Consumer Psychology
The gatekeeper is a person or people who decide which information will pass through or not. In the media realm, the gatekeepers control the public knowledge by letting some stories pass through and not others. For example, in the film This Film Is Not Yet Rated, the Motion Pictures Association of America (MPAA) has industry raters that operate anonymously as the gatekeepers for the film industry. The MPAA controls 95% of the film business. They rate movies from G, PG, PG-13, NC-17 and X. Each rating has control on what extent and to what capacity the movie will be seen. The rating will also control on how the movies will be distributed and marketed. Kirby Dick states, “The anonymous raters are untrained, given no standards by which to judge movies, have no apparent qualifications, and whose seemingly arbitrary decisions and inconsistent applications of standards determine film content and have played an informal role in shaping cultural landscape.” Nonetheless, media gate-keeping is showed to base their decisions on news values, organizational routines, input structure and common sense. An example of the MPAA rating system is the rating on the movie Boys Don’t Cry. The MPAA rated this movie an NC-17. The reasons: One of the scenes portrayed an actresses wiping semen off her mouth, an anal rape, and a long orgasmic scene.
Bias that contribute to gate-keeping starts with the person or people who decide what passes through or not.
Do we as consumers feed into what the producers and directors what us to see? Do consumers have to accept not knowing the full story? Or do we accept only what the media wants us to know?
Take-Away: Gate-keeping is necessary because the public should have some information censored. But in contrast, it can create a unilateral view of the topic and give an incomplete perspective.
References:
http://www.wordsinspace.net/ (cartoon image)
www.itbusiness.ca/.../Mar31/gatekeepers.jpg (diagram image)
This film is Not Yet Rated, 2006
www.HighBeam.com
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Consumer Psychology
The first noted consumer psychologist was John B. Watson. Watson suggested that baby powder advertisements should play on the inherent sense of insecurity experienced by many first-time mothers.
- Unconditioned Stimulus: Causes automatic reflex response.
- Conditioned Stimulus: Something that is learned before creating a response.
- Unconditioned Response: A reflex that has happened automatically without having to learn how to do it.
- Conditioned Response: A reflex that can be evoked in response to a conditioned stimulus.
Each Component generates a stimulus response through association. Therefore, in theory, Classical Conditioning is used to stimulate the unconscious trigger from a previous association with a product.
John B. Watson and Ivan Pavlov noted that conditioning is the process of learning. Consumer Psychology is, based on these applied theories, motivation of particular interest groups by appealing to basic needs and/or desires. Carl Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs explores the range of consumer emotions and desires that advertisers hope to appeal to. The Five Levels of Hierarchy coincide with the consumers needs: The Psychology Need, Security Need, Social Need, Esteem Need and Self-Actualizing Need. Each need consists of a fulfillment that the consumer desires and each need must be met in order to reach the next level of fulfillment. The three classical Psychology authors teach us basic fundamentals of Human Nature and Conditioning which are essential when using advertising that manipulate the consumer.
Take Away: Critical thinking must be exercised when subjected to this manipulation versus the actual need or desire for the product or service.
Reference:
http://www.chroniclebooks.com/ image of dog w/leash
http://www.cartoonstock.com/ image of dog in chair
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/classical_conditioning.com
http://psychology.about.com/od/theoriesofpersonailiy/a/hierachryneed.htm
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/637615/John-B-Watson
http://www.muskingum.edu/~psych/psycweb/history/watson.htm
http://www.wsu.edu/~taflinge/psych1.html
http://www.myscp.org/media.aspx
http://www.consumerpsychologist.com/
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Bias in Wording
To demonstrate, A study was conducted by Amos Tversky that investigated the cause and effect of the Prospect Theory. The study consisted of 120 Stanford graduates. The participants were used to give their preference of dying from natural causes versus unnatural causes. The following data summarizes the probabilities of each type of death in an itemized format.
Estimates of Probabilities of Death From Various Causes:
Cause: Subject Estimates/ Statistical Estimates
Heart Disease: 0.22 /0.34
Cancer: 0.18 /0.23
Other Natural Causes: 0.33/ 0.35
All Natural Causes: 0.73/ 0.92
Accident: 0.32/ 0.05
Homicide: 0.10/ 0.01
Other Unnatural Causes: 0.11/ 0.02
All Unnatural Causes: 0.53 / 0.08
The above data represent the probability estimate of one group in the study. Another group was not asked to estimate the probabilities for separate causes but only the probability of death by natural versus unnatural causes. The probability estimate of a natural death by this second group was 0.58, significantly lower than when the subjects considered each cause separately. The second group's estimate of an unnatural death was 0.32, again significantly lower than for the first group. The most notable aspect of the estimates is that the subjects significantly underestimated the probabilities for natural causes and vastly overestimated the probabilities for unnatural causes. This indicates that probably people give more attention to worrying about the unnatural dangers and not enough to the natural dangers (Berstein, 1996).
The work done by Kahneman and Tversky demonstrated people's attitudes toward risks concerning gains may be quite different from their attitudes toward risks concerning losses. In addition, authors use the prospect theory to create bias. When an author applies the prospect theory to his or her writing, the author can then cause the reader to change their focus on loss and gain by appealing to the reader's emotion.
Take Away: Words are powerful. When an author uses statistics, information has to be delivered without being skewed or slanted to their point of view. And ask myself, are all the subjects involved in the study being held equal, or are they manipulated to illustrate a philosophy?.
Reference:
Peter Bernstein, Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk, John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1996.
symptomresearch.nih.gov (graph)
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Power of Music
Music affects everyone in every way. Music is all around us: in stores, restaurants, elevators, bathrooms, television shows and theaters. Whether we like it or not, music is everywhere and is used for many things. But, we ask ourselves, could there be a ploy for when music is being used and played?" For example, when music is played in restaurants, is it played for mood enhancement, or to drown out conversation and to add privacy? Music can maintain listeners' attention by engaging them in a number of ways, including keeping them alert, intrigued, anxious, happy and even sad. During an examination, I compared the role of music in news reporting versus entertainment. I found that when music is combined with media, it has the power to manipulate and cause an unconscious reaction.
For instance, after examining broadcast WTVF News Channel 5 in Nashville, TN. I found there was no music playing during the dialogue. However, during the introduction and synopsis of the telecast, there was a strong, hard hitting, musical theme. The theme was only played at the beginning, before and after commercial breaks, and at end of the telecast. I found this to be extremely interesting as I drifted off from watching the telecast; the loud introductory music would act as a cue to redirect my focus back to the news. In addition, during some dialogues, there were the sounds of sirens, rushing water, fire trucks, etc... I believe that this type of audio realism gives the audience a brief feeling of actually being there.
Entertainment uses music that covers a wide range of emotions, such as, suspense, fun and exhilarating. I found that strategically selected music contributes to our unconscious mind’s eye by making us react physically and mentally without reason. I compared the use of music in telecasts with music found in entertainment programming, specifically episodes from HBO's series "Big Love" and "The Sopranos." I found that in the scenes that had some type of drama, there was a “moment theme” as the particular scene played out.
Applying critical thinking to the uses of music created awareness of how music is actually used and for what reasons by questioning its administrations.
Take Away: Music is very powerful. Music is used to exploit our unconscious mind’s eye for the purpose of how and why music is actually used by media producers to persuade and influence by behavior. Critical thinking is applied directly in questioning reason, sound, and purpose.
Related Studies:
- (2003)Education Resource Information Center (ERIC)-Effects of background music
www.eric.ed.gov - (2005)The “Mozart Effect”
http://www.parenting-baby.com/Parenting-Baby-Music-Research/Music-Research.htmlMozart Effect - (2001) Brain and Emotion Research-University of Wisconsin, Madison
http://www.news.wisc.edu/packages/emotion/