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.