Blog 8: 1980

Today was a typical day in life of a college student living in the 1980's. I woke up to my alarm clock radio blaring rock and roll. After I got up and styled my hair to fit the norm of huge over the top hairdo's, I put on my jean jacket and headed out the door not caring to bring my books or backpack. I hopped into my Trans Am and sped off to campus. After arriving to class late, I took a seat in the back of the classroom. The teacher was rambling on about Reagan and the Cold War. After class, I hung out with some friends in the courtyard while people played frisbee. We all decided to head down to the local burger place and get some food and play in the arcade. Pong and pacman are really popular right now. I had to use the payphone to call my roomate and tell him to leave a key under the mat since I forgot mine. On the way back to my place, Michael Jackson was playing on the radio. Once we got back we watched football. Tony Dorsett was playing running back for the Cowboys. Tired from doing nothing, my day ended with me falling asleep with the tv on and the radio playing AC/DC.

Blog #7 Pictures in Our Heads

In "Pictures in Our Heads" by Anthony Pratkanis and Elliot Aronson, the power of the media is really explained. People in America are broken into two groups: heavy viewers, and light viewers. Heavy viewers are classified by watching four hours of television or more each day. Light viewers are classified as those who watch two hours or less of television each day. Heavy viewers are more likely to view women as having fewer abilities and interests, more people being employed as an athlete, and there being more violence than there really is. Television is a huge tool in shaping the populations beliefs and views. Iyengar and Kinder were able to prove that exposure to certain things in the media make viewers have more concern for that issue. In their studies, they found that editing programs to show certain types of material made the viewer more concerned for that topic and made it their job to help that cause. The people believed that the issue they were exposed to was now the main problem that needed to be solved. The media can be a very manipulative tool to get society to believe something.