Copy Editor
On Jan. 9, Weekly World News posted an article that claimed Facebook was shutting down on Mar. 15. The article was complete with quotes from Mark Zuckerberg, the creator, and much more. Before anyone starts freaking out, this is not true, but it didn’t take long for this news to get everywhere. Facebook confirmed that it was not true and that’s the end of that.It is amazing how much people depend on the media for everything. Last summer, Agriculture Government Official Shirley Sherrod was fired from her job because of an edited video. The video was of her making a “racist comment” that she really didn’t make. The video had been edited and before anyone checked to see if it was true, she was fired.
We also rely on the media to tell us which brand names or businesses are better. If there are a lot of fancy advertisements for something, people automatically have it in their head that it must be better. Whether consciously or subconsciously, people are always making decisions based on what they see in the media. Teens alone are exposed to thousands of ads in one day.
Companies do whatever they can to get their products on your mind. They use “perfect-looking” people to create a positive image- Photoshop can be very helpful for advertisers. It also makes people feel insecure and feel like they need to buy it…and they will.
People don’t usually tend to notice how much they are being affected by advertisements and the media. Even if a product is placed in a movie, sales have been known to rise 65 percent higher than before the product was in the movie. The Internet has a lot of information and so does the rest of the media. The media also has a lot of power and facts aren’t always checked before they are laid out in front of the world.
