media.fast.

nobody@vox.com(.tiff) — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 09:01:05 -0700

Mediated: How the Media Shapes Your World and the Way You live in It

I attended my very first course of the semester this morning which has already launched my semester into an interesting twist. The course is 'Mass Media and Society', a cross-over class under both the Media Studies department (which is one of my majors) and the Sociology department. Our very first assigment (along with the reading of Mcluhan and Zengotita) is to have a week long 'Mass Media fast' in which we are encouraged to strictly avoid all forms of Mass Media for an entire week, recording our successes, faults, and responses in a week long journal. The only acceptable condition in which we can engage with 'mass mediated' vehicles is if we need them for academic or job-related purposes. If we are under the condition where we 'cheat', then we need to be honset about it and record it.

I could start this assignment by making a smart-ass argument that as a Media Studies major I am under academic necessity to expose myself to all aspects of Media on a daily basis and that the same effect of the assignment could be achieved by recording every single mass mediated action. Then again, I am in need to develop that argument further before I decide to entirely blow off the assignment (which could come off as unfavorable in the eyes of my professor). Regardless, this post is my first cheat of the 'fast' so there may be a temporary lull in my vox activity for the next week or so. My second cheat will come later when I will play We Love Katamari and watch a documentary with the boyfriend (who is only visiting for another few days) later on this evening. Furthermore, tomorrow I am attending an orientation for my internship this semester that, under the line of business it is associated, woudl qualify my very standing in the building as exposing myself to mass media. That action I can at least relate to job and/or academic necessity.

I am, however, more interested in determining the limits and bounds of what can be defined as 'mass media' for this assignmett at this point as opposed to the actual fast of media. We will see what happens later on in the week.

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