Media Use and Effect {Media Literacy}

When I was younger my media use was purely educational, even if I didn't realize it at the time. I watched PBS with my family when I got home from school, I listened to classical Japanese violin CDs to practice for my mandatory violin class at my Elementary School, and I read a lot of short novels. The Elementary School I attended from three years old to fifth grade was a Montessori School. The basis of the Montessori theory is that every student learns at their own pace and it relies heavily on visual and auditory learning (http://www.newfoundations.com/GALLERY/Montessori.html), examples of this would be: Playing Oregon Trail, Having all Fridays' be art day, making music a required class, learning how to take photographs and develop them yourself in a dark room, watching educational videos in the classroom once a week and being required to participate in The Shakespeare Festival, which included having to read the plays, rehearse them 3 times a week and then perform them in front of a large audience and judges. I strongly believe that my constant exposure to this type of learning improved my reading, writing and analyzing skills that I still excel at today, it also boosted my confidence.

When I went to Middle School it was a big change from what I was used to. It went from constant interactive learning to listen, memorize, repeat and forget. I still did well in my Language Arts and elective classes, but my confidence in my ability to understand the material diminished exponentially. I no longer participated in acting or arts in any aspect because my creativity was no longer appreciated. I also no longer read for pleasure because I had so much required reading. In 6th grade I lost a lot in my life and so when I was alone I would lose myself watching TV. It felt good. I began avidly watching the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It was already the end of the fifth season when I began watching it so I borrowed the seasons 1-4 from the library and saved up my allowance and babysitting money so that I could buy them. I soon became known as the Buffy girl at my school (I was even voted "most obsessed" in eighth grade).

My Buffy obsession quickly led me to become obsessed with other shows as well. First of course was Angel, which was a spin off of Buffy. Along with collecting all seven seasons of Buffy I collected all five seasons of Angel. I started following forums online talking about my favorite shows and new shows that I began watching. One forum I am a part of is
http://buffyforums.net/ I've collected all 5 seasons of The OC, 5 seasons of One Tree Hill (it's still on air so I have to wait for each new season to come out), all 3 seasons of Veronica Mars, and the collectors set of My So Called Life. I am working on collecting Burn Notice, Degrassi, Friends and Heroes.

I don't collect all the shows that I watch. I am an avid MTV reality show viewer, including The Hills, The City, The Real World, The Real World/Road Rule Challenge, Made and True Life. I do know that these shows are scripted and the reality is not real but I do enjoy these shows. I turn the media analyzing switch off in my head and just sit back and enjoy the drama. I find the plots funny and entertaining and just because it's not actually reality doesn't mean I can't enjoy it, it's just like another prime time soap opera. I enjoy watching music video compilations on the FUSE channel and Best Week Ever on VH1 (it's where I get all my pop culture news).

Along with watching the shows I also collect the music that they use in shows. I also found a website that lists all the songs that have ever been played on One Tree Hill, I tried to buy all of them but I ran out of money. http://oth-music.com/.Music has had a great impact on my life . It was never as noticeable as my obsession with television but it was something I could bring with me wherever I was. I never realized how much I could learn and take from music until my 12th birthday when my cousin Josh sent me a mix CD. He was living in New York and sent me an indie mix of bands that he liked or had seen live. At the time I was listening to mainstream pop/punk music like Avril Lavigne and Good Charlotte. He opened my eyes. I listened to that CD for a month until I had enough money to buy the discographies of the bands I liked. One day when I'm working for a indie record label I'll send him a mix CD of my favorite indie music with a letter thanking him.

I am constantly changing the genre of music that I listen to the most, but Indie Rock has remained my comfort zone, what I always come back to. Most of the music on the television soundtracks I own are considered Indie Rock. It's interesting the way the community around this type of music works, where every band promotes their favorite band and so on, this creates a constant exposure to new bands without having to look very hard. Listening to my favorite bands, reading about how they came together, and learning what it takes to record a CD and go on tour has inspired me to want to work with bands and help them promote and create a new community that someone like me would want to join. I want to learn to be able to create that kind of community, to find a band and promote them and have a group of people talk about what that music means to them.

My obsession with television, pop culture and music has all come together to make me the analytical media observer that I am today. Trying to understand why things are shown and not shown makes everything so much more interesting and gives you so much more to look for. Media is deep, no matter how superficial the quality is, there is something underneath, there is reasoning for the choices made. I want to be someone who makes those choices, someone who is in control of what the public sees and hears, and the person that makes people ask questions about what they're experiencing. That's my goal. Even to this day I can say that my media use is purely educational, not the actual content of the shows I watch or the music I listen to but what I can see that others can't, I have become a media analyst.