Week 3: Assignment 11/14/2016

Ashford 4: - Week 3 - Instructor Guidance

Mediated Entertainment: Mindful or Mindless?

Do you remember the days when you were a kid and you spent endless hours playing games such as tag, hide-and-go-seek, kick ball, or simply a game that you made up along the way? That was entertainment at it’s best. We had the ability to modify the rules, change the way the game was played, and make it our own. It was a time where we owned our entertainment. Nowadays it is rare that I see those in the younger generation modifying and creating their own entertainment. Instead they rely on media to entertain them. Sadly, as adults we reinforce the behavior because we took have succumbed to media to entertain us. This week we will: 1. Discuss the entertaining role of media. 2. Explain the value and challenges associated with disconnecting from some forms of media for a specific time period in a simulated blog. 3. Analyze entertainment media using digital and media literacy concepts. Why We Do What We Do Every day we tend to engage in some form of media for entertainment, even without knowing it. Think about it: you walk into a restaurant and that television is on the wall and you begin to attend to the football game that is playing on the screen. You

have made a decision—conscious or not—to engage in that form of media as entertainment, if only for a few seconds. Had it not been there, you may have chosen to have an engaging conversation with the person who was accompanying you to dinner. At other times our choices are more deliberate such as when we logon to a website, turn the television on, or flip through the pages of a magazine. Why we do what we do or the choices that we make when it comes to media use has been attempted to be explained by the ​uses and gratifications theory​ (Katz & Blumer, 1974). The theory is used to seek to understand why we make the choices that we do in terms of media. In the Total Audience Report: Q2 2015, Nielsen reported the following in regards to media use. The chart indicates trends in overall use for those surveyed. More detailed information based on specific demographics can be found​ ​here​.

Can You Live Without It? Can you imagine life with the games on your cell phone? What if there was not social media? Could you replace having not television with some other form of non-mediated entertainment that would be equally satisfying? It can be quite difficult to answer these questions because we would have to give up media for a significant amount of time in order to understand the impact of it on our lives. Many of us truly believe that we cannot live without media as it is a form of entertainment that many deem

irreplaceable. Take look at this video of a teens’ account of social media use and its impact.

SOMETHING TO PONDER 1. How much time would you have for leisure activities if you did not use media for entertainment? 2. Do you think that entertainment media is responsible for some societal issues that we face? 3. What do you believe are the most beneficial forms of entertainment media?

THIS WEEK’S ASSIGNMENTS This week we will critically evaluate how we use media for entertainment. This task will require us to really think about why we use media in the ways that we do. We will consider the reasons behind our media use for entertainment. You will have a lot of time to think critically this week because you will also be disconnecting from as much media as possible for your blogs! So your reflection will be on the entertainment media you used prior to this week and this will allow you to critically examine your use of it.

REFERENCES

Nielsen (2015). The total audience report: Q2 2015. Retrieved from http://www.nielsen.com/content/dam/corporate/us/en/reports-downloads/20 15-reports/total-audience-report-q22015.pdf

Tedx Talks. (2015) The Role of Social Media in our Lives | Jake Swayze | TEDxSouthPasadenaHigh. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmV-4qx0sIs