Creative Critical Reflection 1

My Media Consumption

To further understand Blumler and Katz’s theory of Uses and Gratification we created collages of the media we consume. By doing this, it became apparent that as well as being a consumer I’m also a prosumer. This means that as well as consuming media, I also create it. This can be done through instagram or facebook posts or even posts on this blog.

Another thing we learnt from the collage exercise was which categories of the Uses and Gratification theory were most prevalent in our interests; and also which categories our biggest interests fell into which was often more than one. For example, Amy Winehouse fell into both Entertainment ans Personal Identity because the genre of music you listen to often also says a lot about you. Another example of this is a TV series like ‘Peaky Blinders’ which, as well as being entertainment is also a spark for Social Interaction; another category, by being a show that lots of people watch and are very invested in.

Blumler and Katz’s theory will help me produce my own piece of media, in the form of my music magazine, by directing what I should add in order to make it a successful piece of text. This means I need to focus on my magazine being entertaining, relatable, conversation-worthy and informative in order to cover all the categories of Uses and Gratification.

The Media Ecology is the assortment of components that work symbiotically to create and produce media as we know it today. There are 8 main components:

• Social media eg. instagram
• Audience
• Creators eg. youtubers
• Technology
• Government
• Distribution
• Institutions eg. Sony
• Money

Whilst discussing which component/s are the most important to media as a final product, we discovered that every component is reliant on others. This means that all factors are equally responsible for what the public consume, whether its by creating it (creators and institutions), endorsing it (money), or regulating it (government).

My music magazine would fit into the institutions component of the ecology because magazines are usually produced by large teams and then distributed by publishers. When producing my magazine I will have to be mindful of all the components of the ecology but, specifically, I need to focus on the audience aspect. This is because if I do not have content aimed towards my target audience then the engagement for my magazine will be low. I also have to be aware of social media because since it has become such a large part of media today, the magazine would need to be up-to-date in pop culture in order to appear contemporary and cutting-edge.

Whilst studying Media, I hope to learn about how the world views media today, and how it is constantly changing and evolving. It will also utilize my existing skills such as creativity and communication in a new environment; therefore making my repertoire much more transferable and flexible.

I also hope to learn some new skills during the next two years that I can use in later life in my future career; these may include things like time management and the ability to work independently as well as contributing to a group.  I think Media Studies will help me with these skills because it is a very involved subject, meaning there are many opportunities for discussion and contribution.

In particular I’m most interested in the technical side of media and how it’s made, for example the photography of magazines and the colours used to convey different meanings.