The History of my Obsession

My favorite medium is my cell phone, so to investigate the company behind it, I had to look into Verizon Communications, Inc.

Verizon Communications Inc. is the result of many different mergers. It’s a great example of how synergy of similar companies can create one major, powerful company. (Synergy, as we learned in Ralph Hanson’s “Mass Communications: Living in a Media World,” is when multiple items combine their strengths to be better than they were individually.) Verizon is the result of a major merger between in 2000 between the Bell Atlantic Corp. and the GTE Corp. (which are both companies with their own history of mergers and synergy.)

Verizon customers span a broad spectrum, from individuals, to small businesses, to huge corporations, to the government. It is also much more than just a phone company—it also does internet and television. Verizon deals mostly with media services—getting you the connections you need to get the contact you want. While it might not control what you look at on the internet, it can control how quickly, how easily, how often. It might not create the television programming, but it controls which channels you can choose from. It's also continuing to change the face of these television, cell phone, and internet, by merging them together into one device. Through synergy and concentration of ownership, Verizon has gained the power to make these changes and improvements.

Stereotypes

Stereotypes are generalizations, judgements, or assumptions of certain social groups based on their similarities with each other and their differences from the majority or group the in “power.” They are not whole explanations of what the world really is, but they represent the pictures in our heads of what we can handle believing the world is.

As Walter Lippman said in Chapter 7 of “Public Opinion”, stereotypes “are an ordered, more or less consistent picture of the world, to which our habits, our tastes, our capacities, our comforts and our hopes have adjusted themselves.” Lippman is saying that we adapt to these “pictures” and become so comfortable with them that we’re often blind to any other way. We feel as though we belong to our stereotypical groups, and this provides comfort. It keeps us from having to think too hard or understand different people. In a more positive way, it's helpful because without such generalizations, we would have no organized, systematic way of learning what others are like.

Media & the Pictures in My Head

I’m not exactly sure how to answer this week’s blog question, but I’m going to just take a stab at it.

I think everyone’s reality is limited because even if we do a lot of traveling and learning about other people, we can really only understand so much. For me at the moment, my reality consists of college life and home life. I can explore other realities, though, via the internet, movies, and TV. But most of the things I see through the media will never really be my reality.

People are always complaining about media gatekeepers, that our news and information is too filtered by a minority. I agree that this is a problem, but is there a solution? Without gatekeepers, we would be absolutely inundated with information. How could we possibly make sense of it all?

My solution is pretty simple: Be aware of the fact that there are gatekeepers, there are people filtering our information through their own points of view, there is information that we might not get because someone doesn’t want it getting out. If you’re aware that all this is happening, you can take everything at face value for what it is—just part of the story. It’s really each individual’s responsibility to use a variety of media outlets for their information and to never assume that one message is the be-all-end-all, final say on the topic. (All of that can correspond to stereotypes as well. If you use stereotypes knowing that they’re not perfect judgments that describe every person or thing within the group, then you’ll be open to the possibility that it is really just a generalization).

Life with no cell phone...

My favorite media is my cell phone and if I didn't have it in my life, I would be a very sad person.

The biggest reason that I like my cell phone is how connected it allows me to be. No matter where I am I can just type in a few numbers and I'll be talking to someone across the country in no time. It's most useful for when I'm away from people I love and like to keep in contact with, like family and friends. Without my cell phone, I would probably lose contact with a lot of people, and that wouldn't be cool.

I could probably replace my cell phone with email or IM, but that's just not practical or portable enough yet.

Media Checklist

1.) How often do you use the telephone? Who do you call most often?
I rarely ever use the telephone, but I am absolutely addicted to my cell phone. I use calls and texts every single day. I usually call my sister, my friends, or my parents.

2.) When's the last time you listened to a speech or public speaker where you were physically in the audience (not required for class)? What was it and why?
I think the last public speech I was physically in the audience for was a couple months ago when I got to see Tom Brokaw and Brian Williams speak about the Huntley-Brinkley Report. It was pretty cool.

3.)How often do you IM? Name two people on your buddy list or people you frequently chat with.
I don't IM as much as I used to because I don't like sitting at a computer. I would rather use text messaging or something like that.

4.) How often do you use email?
I use email a lot, especially during school.

5.) When's the last time you paid for music to listen to? What was it? CD? iTunes? Concert?
I think I bout some music off iTunes a few months ago, but I also got some CDs for my birthday.

6.) What's the most recent thing you've watched on TV? Why?
The Today Show because I like having that on in the morning.

7.) When's the last time you recorded a movie or television program? What was it?
I rarely record tv shows anymore, but I think the last time I did it was an episode of Heros, so it had to have been in the last few months.

8.) Name the most recent movie you watched for fun at a theater? DVD?
I saw Alpha Dog in the theater before I came to school and we just watched In Her Shoes on DVD.

9.) Name the type of radio station you last listened to & why?
I listen to Titan Radio of course! But really, whenever I'm in the car or at home, I listen to the generic, popular, hit music stations of the area.

10.) Name the most recent book you read for YOU (not a class)? Why?
I read Jane Austen's Northenger Abbey because I just love Jane Austen books.

11.) When was the last time you read a newspaper? Name it? Why were you reading it?
I read a newspaper just the other day in the TUB. It was a USA Today because I haven't signed up to get the New York Times yet.

12.) Same question as #5, but apply it to a magazine.
I get a subscription to Vogue and InStyle, but I also bought Elle a few months ago.

13.) When's the last time you wrote a letter and sent it?
I wrote a letter and sent it just a week ago. I'm old school and still like to send letters.

14.) Name a website you frequent or have bookmarked on your browser? When's the last time you visited? Why?
I go to tvnewser.com because it's got all these fun newsy things on it. I haven't visited it in awhile because I have no internet in my room, which is a sad existence.

15.) Do you have a "MySpace" or "Facebook" or blog? Why?
I have all three. I like the first two because it's a way to keep in touch with people, communicate, and, let's face it, stalk your friends. And who doesn't like to do that. And I have a blog because it's required--and in all reality, my other blog is actually quite useful to give information to my capstone class and to organize stuff I'm trying to do for my future.