1F25 blog entry 1: Media Impact

19.3 million people, in 24 hours watched a single music video. 19.3 million people worldwide were consumed by Miley Cyrus swinging on her ‘Wrecking Ball’ for 3:42 minutes. People often don’t understand how this can be done. What causes this many people to link in, in such a short period of time? The media. The video is just one example of how media effects our everyday lives. In 24 hours, a single video reached 19.3 million people. Why? Because the video was provocative, and scandalous. The story behind the video, and the lyrics of the video were unimportant.

This isn’t the first of Miley’s viral videos. Her video for ‘We Can’t Stop’ has over 197,000,000 views, and her performance with Robin Thicke was also a hot topic. We all have seen the images that floated around Twitter when Miley cut and then shaved her head. We were thrilled when she got engaged to Hemsworth, and are now devastated that they split. Since the release of the video, ‘Wrecking Ball’ all everyone is talking about. The video is all webpages, home-pages, and over social media as well, as if it needed more attention. Through mass consumption by viewers, the media has ‘programed’ it in the minds of spectators that what Miley is doing is bad, but no one cares about Gaga. The media as made this simple music video into something bigger than anyone thought. All this focus on one celebrity, are there not more important things going on in the world?

During the same weeks of this videos release, the United States moved closer to a military strike on Syria. It could just be me, but as a student, I don’t watch enough of ABC or CTV news to even know the basics of whats going on in Syria, but you can guarantee I’ve watched Miley’s music video more than once. The internet is streaming with Youtube advertisements, not news casts. The media would rather shove information about celebrities wrong-doings down our throats then a civil war. This ridiculous statement is now our everyday life. Students of all ages are consumed by media in everything we do. Because of Miley’s new statement, when I shaved the side of my head I had more than one person ask me if I was ‘going Miley.’ Trying to be an individual just isn’t possible anymore now that media has taken over.