The Media and Its Message

This past week was “disOrientation” at my university. Hosted by the University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU) and the Ontario Public Interest Research Group (OPIRG), this was a set of events that challenged students to think critically about the world around them. This was the Facebook event page for it.

As an aspiring journalist and a self-proclaimed media junkie I went to the “Understanding Mainstream Media” workshop (after stocking up on goodies from the Independent Media Fair of course). It was an incredible experience.

It wasn’t that I learned anything new about the media but rather that I was able to synthesize that information and consider the implications. The speaker, Justin Podur, put in perspective. If we agree that media (television, radio, newspapers, all of it) was a for-profit industry than it follows that they are selling a product. Do they sell their programming? Does CNN sell you the news? Does CP24 sell you the weather update? Media, he said, sell audiences and their customers advertisers. Again, this wasn’t groundbreaking – I learned this in the first week of my Intro to Media Studies class – but I was now forced to realize that the media has no interest informing me; they just need me to keep watching.

Podur was joined by two guests who shared their experiences using the media as tool for resistance in Colombia. They shared some wisdom that I had the good sense to write down lest I forget it.  For them media, or rather communication, was not the end in itself. It was the means to action. The steps they listed are inform, reflect, decide, and act.

I have spent many many years dreaming of having someone read things I write. “I have lots to say,” was my rationale. For the first time I am considering what the purpose of my writing would be and what I would want people to do.

Clearly my pen needs a purpose.