Chapter 12: Public Relations and Framing the Message

This chapter was all about public relations. Public relations was brought about in order to defend against muckraking journalists and working unions. Phinaes Taylor was a famous theatrical agent who was notorious for his gross exaggeration, fraudulent stories, and staged events to secure newspaper coverage for his clients. I find it funny that he later ran a circus. He seems like the quintessential scum-bag agent seen in movies and sitcoms. Women were also able to claim a spot in the public relations industry since it was new at the time and not entirely claimed by men. The Public Relations Society of America defined public relations as "Public relations helps an organization and its publics adapt mutually to each other."

Reaction to Big Pharm

The video is very informative. Some things that stuck out to me included the 'disease mongering', where they take everyday-normal conditions and turn them into medical problems, and how they take old pills that are losing their popularity, slap a new name on them, and sell them for way more money. In addition to that, they are given very expensive marketing campaigns which gains many uninformed consumers attention. It isn't fair since most consumers will not know about it without digging deep into the matter. The video inspires me to be careful when I get older about the types of medications I find myself under.

Reaction to Truth Merchants

The video was pretty interesting to me. It started off with a person working in public relations calling truth subjective, which I do not believe. Truth is and should be objective, and the opinions formed around it is what is subjective. However, this seems to be the basis of what public relations people do: try and give the public the truth that their clients want them to hear. I agree with the one media critic in the video that said something along the lines of not needing an over-paid adviser to help clean up his mistakes. Sometimes public relations can be a good thing for those clients that do have good intentions but are have their stories completely turned around. However, I feel that the opposite happens too often with public relations, with clients with none-too-noble intentions covering them up with the help of someone smooth-talking their way out of it.
Public relations definitely affects how my parents see things. I notice that if they hear it on television, they are most likely going to go along with the opinion, since there aren't many other sources of information.

Chapter 11: Advertising and Commercial Culture

I find it surprising that form of advertisements started as early as 3000 B.C. with ancient Babylonians hanging carved signs outside of their shops. It is also surprising that advertising had such a big effect on culture., such as advancing technology though vacuums and dishwashers, as well as raising sales in the country. I also found the section explaining the breakdown of advertising companies to

Reaction to Spin the Bottle

I think that watching this video was time very well spent. Teenagers are constantly hit with the media images that drinking is cool and invitations to parties where there's drinking. It's hard to say no to something that all of your friends like to do. Even the negative effects are hyped up. I've had friends brag to me about how they couldn't remember anything from the night before or how bad their hangover was. The thing is, the only people telling us that drinking is bad are those older than us; parents, teachers, etc. Obviously, not a very 'cool' source of what is actually the right information. So this video takes a good approach by giving the audience first-hand accounts of people a little older than us who have gone through the experience. Showing clips of actual commercials after pointing out what the alcohol industries do is also very effective. It makes the viewer see right through the content of the commercial, and for me personally, I become disgusted with it.

Reaction to Teen Alcohol Advertisements

It's hard to believe that teen alcohol advertisements should even be allowed. And yet, most alcohol commercials are scenes with beautiful people at parties playing teenage music on channels that teenagers watch. Industries could fight that the advertisements don't target teenagers, but anyone can see that these commercials obviously appeal to a wide age range from teenagers to people in their late twenties.

Reaction to PBS site

This site is able to point out the major tricks of advertising in a fun way so that young kids can gain awareness without becoming bored. Although the site doesn't necessarily make one an expert about how advertising really works, it does a good job of giving one enough knowledge to protect himself from media tricks, such as what is actually sold in boxes of toys. The section about the cost of clothes was effective as well, as many of the expensive clothes looked just like the cheaper ones. I also liked the section where it showed where all the money gained from buying a product goes. It seems crazy that only 50 cents of 50 dollars goes to the actual maker of a pair of jeans. I think the site does a good job of giving the public helpful information.