I believe that my media collage is representative of Blumler and Katz’s theory as it highlights many aspects of media such as such as personal identity, entertainment and distraction and information. The artists included in my collage are reflective of my identity. The music artists that I have included are Juice Wrld and XXXTentacion; these are rappers that personally resonate with me. Their main philosophy on art is that it should come from a place of pain. X embodied this ideal as he was a very aggressive and violent person but despite this, he was still able to create music that touched people. Harlan Ellison was another such person, an author of Jewish heritage was constantly harassed for his religious beliefs and so went on the road for a long while. He had many careers including a lumberjack. But he wrote many stories and his most famous book that is studied in universities today is “I have no mouth, and I must scream.” Which he wrote in one afternoon and remained virtually unchanged. You see the correlation here. I respect and follow artists who have made something of their pain rather than wallowed in it. HP Lovecraft, for example, was mentally disturbed and died at age 46 due to malnutrition and a tumor. But his legacy that he laid down in the Cosmic Horror genre will last for many more lifetimes. The Blumler and Katz theory has helped me understand why I idolize these individuals. They represent individuality, resilience, and creativity.
In the terms of understanding media consumption, and actually understanding why we consume the media that we do we really need to understand the individual’s values and philosophies. Much like Plato’s theory on love “…we seek in others what we lack in ourselves,” the same can be interpreted in media. A person who may consider themselves dull will follow such avenues of media like National Geographic and Discovery. Someone who thinks of themselves as ugly may follow the ever-evolving fashion trends and branding buying expensive clothes like Supreme, Gucci, LV etc. Thus boosting their confidence. Modern media has provided an avenue for those who feel inadequate to work on themselves as people, and it works. Keep in mind this is no way me belittling people for consuming modern media, I’m a sucker for fashion, and media is full of groups that share the same interests and vision. By filling this hole we are developing ourselves as people which is perfectly healthy. I’ve simply drawn a correlation between Plato’s Philosophy on love and how we consume modern media
I shall use this in my own work by developing my style around these media forms. I hope to make my work raw and unique creating an individual personality for myself.