The LDS church recently released information about a policy change with the children of gay parents the churches PR department did not release this information in the best manner. Public relations shapes the public's opinion of subject manner instead of the church PR department doing this they allowed other news companies mold their own opinion of the subject.

After the fact the church had to do damage control which is harder to do than using strategies to release the information correctly in the first place.

http://www.advocate.com/religion/2015/11/08/watch-mormon-elder-explains-why-children-gay-parents-arent-welcome

Barry Schwartz: The paradox of choice

Self Analysis of My Use of Media Using Gratification Theory

       In Gratification THEORY

It Talks about five different ways that individuals use media to gratify themselves. The five ways are Cognitive Needs

Affective Needs

Personal Integrative Needs

Social Integrative Needs 

Tension Free Needs   

When I think of gratification theory my first thoughts is that this theory is very agency based and that it acknowledges the different emotional needs that media can fill for the individual.For me in my life I feel like my emotional needs have touched all of these categories and fluctuates depending on my state of my mind; but there are certain ways I gratify myself daily.  Daily I watch ted talks on you tube or read material that facilitates my cognitive needs. I also listen to music when I am stress so that plays into my tension free needs so that I can escape from my anxiety and the pressures of daily life. When I use Affective Needs is when I need to lift my mood so I will listen to uplifting music or if I need an emotional release like after a bad break up I will watch a sad movie and cry for an hour.
 For my personal Integrative Needs this is the one I do not feel like I use as much but I maybe fulfilling this subconsciously. I don't feel like I measure my status off of what the media perpetuates on TV shows or in movies. When I interact on social media or try to connect with others online this is when I am gratifying my Social Integrative needs. My lifestyle is ever changing and the way I use media reflects what I need and how I fill the void.    

Puffery is something that advertisers use to make a product seem better than it really is. In a subway commercial it shows children with shopping carts without parents the children are picked a bunch of junk food. Subway made it seem that subway is better choice than any other place when in reality subway still has chips and soda which are not a fresh choice.

A week ago I was watching Charlie and the Chocolate Factory the one produced by Tim Burten with my little twelve year old cousin something that he pointed out was that in one of the scenes where there was a giant Wonka bar there was a Disney logo on the candy bar.  I did not realize the product placement as well as my little cousin which made me realize that my media awareness is not on the same level as my little cousins. For me if my cousin did not say anything about a the Disney logo I would not have picked up on the product placement. The world is changing constantly and it is giving new skills to younger children due to the technological advances.

The Murdock Scandal

          PBS front line created a documentary based off of the Infamous Murdock Scandal. The documentary showcased the corruption of The News of the World and how the boundaries in ethics were pushed to new extremes. As I watched this documentary this reminded me of the Enron Scandal that happened in 2001, both of the companies in a sense cooked their books Enron did this by creating secret bank accounts, hiding the income revenues and created a monopoly.  The Murdock Scandal was hiding how they accessed stories, lied to court, created a media oligopoly, and used their power within the media to blackmail others into submission. Both The Murdock and Enron Scandal collapsed due to the thrown of lies that built up the cooperation's. Ethics and morals in the work place are vitally important for a thriving company to stay on top when work ethics are not present that is when corporation tend to have there downfall. 

         

How to Make a Behavior Addictive: Zoë Chance at TEDxMillRiver

The Future of Journalism: Tom Rosenstiel at TEDxAtlanta

The Art of Rhetoric: Persuasive Techniques in Advertising

The Beauty Ideal

Cultural transmission is cultivated through the media and is changing peoples exceptions cross culturally. One example of this is expectections of beauty. Western beauty ideal has become prominent in Asian cultures. Women see american and western beauty in advertising and merchandise and they have tried to replicate this beauty ideal with plastic surgery. Which is altering there bodies and expections of beauty. Cultural transmission is extremely powerful and can change the structure of cultural ideals. Unattainable beauty exceptions are constantly thrown out by the media but there has been recent positive body imaging adds are starting to acknowledge that there are many types of beauty. For example there was a buzz feed video that featured women with different body types modeling Victoria Secret bathing suits. Positive body image adds are rare but are starting to trend acceptance of different people. Hopefully one day these messages will be culturally transmitted in a positive sense. 

                  

Hello!

Hello! My name is Caitlin and this is my new blog that will showcase my unique perspective of studying the field of communications at Brigham Young University. I was raised in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints which in short means that I was raised LDS. My father and my mother were both great examples to me and taught me the importance of determination and persistence, which ultimately gave me the strength to persue my dream of going to BYU. I never thought that I could attend BYU due to having dyslexia, but miraculously I got in to this great university! So now I want to share this experience with anyone who is willing to listen!