Blog #1 Selective Exposure

In class, we talked a lot about selective exposure. Selective exposure means people typically seek messages and produce meanings that correspond to their own cultural beliefs, values, and interests. In the book, it talks about Michael Jackson's death. People had different views about him. They either liked him or disliked him. People liked him, because he "[broke] down racial barriers and [raised] music videos to an art form" (Media and Culture, pg. 12). The others "recalled the child molestation accusations brought against him or his unusual physical transformation and behavior over the years" (Media and Culture, pg. 12). In my opinion, his music was loved. My favorite song and video is Thriller, because it is an original and different from videos today that don't have choreographed dances. It played a story with Michael Jackson as the main character, who turns into a monster himself. With selective exposure, the people watch, listen, or read about Michael Jackson to what they like about him. Some even watch, listen, or read about things they do not like about him. The people select to their interest about everything they like such as movies, music, and television. Media is their gateway to all these things. This is a cultural approach to mass communication, because "people made meaning of his life based chiefly on their own values, history, age, race, education, and musical tastes" (Media and Culture, pg. 12). I feel that many people go online to look up stuff, but only things they like. For me right now, it would have to be Toy Story 3. On a popular site called Yahoo, the popular new story today is about Toy Story 3's hidden "Easter eggs" (the cinematic term for meaningful images or references buried in a movie). When I saw this, I had to go look at this, because I loved the movie and I like to see what I missed when I watched the movie. I was interested in Toy Story 3, because it had interest of mine such as toys and animation. Also, the movies before such as Toy Story and Toy Story 2 made the third movie a movie I had to see. When I watched it, I had different feelings that a Disney movie would not have. I was happy, sad, scared, and overwhelmed by the movie that I wanted to see it again. Let's just say, after I watched that movie, I wanted to play with my old toys such as Beast Wars Transformers and the Power Rangers megazord. All these were childhood toys that I haven't played in a very long time. It brings you back as a kid and seeing your self now as an adult. When I was growing up, the selective exposure that I was raised up was because of television. The media put what I wanted to see in my hands and it brought out me buying toys, watching movies, and reading comics. To this day, I collect DC Universe action figures, watch movies anywhere I can such as the internet, and I still read comic books.

Toy Story 3:http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/movie-talk-toy-story-3-easter-eggs.html

Michael Jackson's Death: http://www.tmz.com/2009/06/25/michael-jackson-dies-death-dead-cardiac-arrest/