Question 1: How do you strengthen your personal locus?
The term personal locus can be defined as the force that is involved when one I processing information. The personal locus takes part in ensuring that meaning construction and matching is shaped. Goals and drives are the primary components of the personal locus. The goals are important as they give a guideline to be followed when looking for information. This means that the more a person keeps his/her goals, the more he/she will be able to process the required information.
The personal focus is able to operate in two types of modes or forms namely the unconscious and the conscious forms. When the focus is operating under the conscious form, an individual is able to come up with his or her own decisions. The conscious mode gives an individual a chance of exercising his or her will by making a selection from different given options. When it comes to unconscious mode, all the decisions that are required in processing the information are made outside and away from an individual’s control.
As stated above, the goals and drives play a vital role in processing the required information. With the goal, the media personnel is able to filter the information and determine what he/she will be required to process and the information that needs to be ignored. Knowing one's goals and looking for vital information are looking for information increases which in turn increase the goals. If an individual knows his/her locus, the more he/she will be able to make conscious decisions hence making the process of information processing smooth. An increase in engagement by an individual in his/her locus ensures that their media literacy is increased.
Question 2: Explain the importance of thinking about the reality-fantasy continuum.
Having an individual thinking about reality-fantasy continuum is one of the important aspects of life. Sometimes life may be too harsh or too basic that it needs one to think beyond the situation that he/she is experiencing. Thinking of a place or even a different world where life is a bit easier than the harsh condition that an individual is living in is what most people experience. Is it possible for a person to change the world as a way of accessing a place where life is much easier? Have you ever watched a how that is far away from reality? These are some of the fantasies that were faced in our daily life; looking for a world that is perfect.
People normally fall on the reality that is portrayed by the media in some shows. Sometimes the setting used or even the plotting itself can be deceiving to some individuals. It is necessary to make your evaluation of comparing the realities portrayed by the media and the world realities. There is a possibility that the gap between the world and media realities is so large. Making personal assessment is important is such a situation.
Looking for a difference between the media reality and fantasy may challenge some people. People may have different views or perspectives on a script written. Most people compare the scripts to the real world and not the ideal world. Categorizing a situation on either being real or fantasy is not good sometimes since the media components most of the time lies in both the world of fantasy and the world of reality. This is because people need to be exposed to fantasies as it acts as a source of enjoyment. This means that being exposed to both reality and fantasy is not wrong if only one is able to differentiate between the two situations.
Question 3: To what extent do your behaviors as a consumer match your beliefs?
Different people have got have got different approaches when making purchasing decisions. Most people are used to mental shortcuts (known as the rule of the thumb) which entail making choices out of a wide range of alternatives even if they are not aware of the product. On the other hand, other consumers make independent purchasing decision regardless of the similarities of the alternatives available.
There are several factors that influence the purchasing behavior of consumers. They include the psychological and personal factors, culture, environmental factors, and family among others. Most businesses look for the most economical way that they can use to attract customers meaning that they will have to study the purchasing trends of the customers.
Apart from the factors that influence the purchasing power from the customer’s side, the businesses can also come up with a mechanism that they can use to make the consumers to buy their products. They include the availability of the products, store layout, advertisement and the product prices. Some of these factors normally make the purchasing behavior to shift within a short period. Some of them make the consumers purchase a product, but more of a specific product, or even make a customer not to purchase a given product. If the strategy that a certain business chooses is perfect, the more they are expected to sale. The business has to ensure that the needs that made the consumers to purchase their product are satisfied.
Question 4: Is your privacy important? Who, do you think, has access to your Facebook, Twitter, and other sites? Give some examples when people’s privacy was violated by marketers, potential employees, friends, parents, government.
Privacy is one of the controversial topics that are debated in the world today. We are given an obligation of deciding what to share, who to share with and when to share. It has been noted that even if one wants to put a private message online, it can be assessed by different people in the world so long as a few people can access it. People may decide to expose your private and will not give you peace of mind completely. Some people do not respect other people's privacy. Even if the information posted is only accessible to you, hackers are there to expose it.
Among the basic rights that we possess as human beings are the right to privacy. It is quite unfortunate that our private records and the general privacy can be accessed anytime anywhere by anyone. This means that the right to privacy has been taken from us maybe with or without our consent. Reports have shown that people are able to take control of one's identity or even change some important information about you without your knowledge. They are able to even to manipulate your information for their personal gain.
It is also evident that the government has been granted rights of monitoring and recording our privacy by the National Security Agency given that our actions may be a threat to the security of our nation. The government has a right of intervening on anything that seems suspicious. This has helped the security agencies to be able to detect acts of terror in various parts of the world. As much as people are not willing to allow the government to interfere with their privacy, it is essential for the sake of national and international security.
Question 5: How do you view your personal responsibility in being media literate?
Media literacy is a framework that analyzes and evaluates the messages in various forms in media. Thus, helps to build an understanding of the important role of media plays in our society, in which self-expression is demonstrated from each citizen the democratic society. Media literacy is the ability to understand and know how the mass media operates. Which includes how media forms are organized, how their meanings are produced and as well as how they use them wisely in their own favor?
An individual whom is media literate can clearly envision and describe the role that media plays in their lives. They understand the basics of various media sources and their messages, ultimately lead to an enjoyment in using them intentionally in a healthy, conscious way. They have a full recognition that protects them from being negatively affected and therefore has a full control over their media experiences. In my experience, every media source will try to manipulate the consumer in terms of making them a tied up, addicted audience to their shows.
It is important to have an understanding of what message a show is trying to get across. Because after all, everything on TV happens for a reason. Something we are not interested in, some other people are. We must manipulate everything from the media in our favor, so we can continually grow our lives. We should not allow ourselves to get lost in the loop-hole of media, because, needless to say, the media is endless.
Work cited
James potter. Media Literacy 5th (fifth) edition Paperback. Sage Publications, 2010.
