Discursive Prompt In-class task for Research Journal / Blog

QUESTION 1: Discuss one way in which media (photography, video, etc.) has brought positive change and improvement to our (or your) lives and society, civilization …  You are welcome to use visual references to illustrate your point. Discuss critical aspects within this idea/issue (polemic).

I believe that media has brought positive change and improvement to my life because I feel as the upcoming generations are a lot more outspoken and open to new ideas today. For instance, with the idea of body positivity where in the past the standard was to be tall, skinny, and pretty to fit into the beauty standards but nowadays, I see so much beyond the perfections. It makes me feel “safer”/”relieved” in a way that I don’t need to look a certain way to feel “pretty” and there are so many people out there that I could relate to.  In the past, I talked about a TV show called “Euphoria” where it showcased the lives of teenagers and I just wish that the show came out earlier when I was actually in high school. The show portrayed the real harsh reality of high school students going through things that some people could actually relate to. Not as extreme as the show but at certain points of the show, they showed “emotions” that my friends and I have gone through. But not necessarily have the same experiences, but the show spoke my mind of how high school could be so suffocating and always trying to figure out who we truly are.

So in this scene, this character apparently had a sex tape that was released by accident but she had denied that because it was humiliating and embarrassing for a teenage girl. In this scene, when she was walking through the hallways and passing by other students, it just felt like everyone knew that it was her but it was only in her mind. The way the camera zooms into her face and passes the hallways, made it seem like she became the center of attention for a bad reason. This kind of reminds me of high school where you sometimes do something embarrassing and you think that everyone is looking and will remember that thing you did but in reality, people probably didn’t pay attention that much to it and won’t remember by next week.

In this scene, this character was asked to take a nude picture for a friend, but she kind of awkward and wanted to fit in with her cooler friend. So she says this line in a cool way saying that “it’s like easy, whatever.” This reminds me of in high school and even in a society where we would lie to fit in with certain groups or to create an “ideal” persona. But in reality, it really is not who we are and we just get pressured by society.

Therefore, one of the positive sides of media is creating more shows and content that is more relatable to people and speaks out against taboo topics that aren’t seen by so many people. Media shows the truth at times and it tells society to sometimes accept the harsh reality that sometimes high school is like a musical or all that fun.