Baron Opal

OK, ARTelevision, you have piqued my interest.

Now, I've just started reading this thread, so I'm posting my obervations "now" at post #32 to keep myself honest. I realize that the discussion may have spiralled far away from where I am now.

First picture, four flowers, a bird (pidgeon-like), and a fly.

Second picture, gin ad. And they are totally related... ok, I'm guessing that there is some kind of sex reference here, but I'm not seeing any connection. It's always about the sex, right?

Onward with the thread!

OK up to post #55 - Unless Dr. Frankenstein is her PCP, that's not her arm.

Commentary Thus Far

Yes, media does, can, and will attempt to influence us any way they can. To buy products, promote lifestyles, and manipulate our political choices. Yet, mass media is how we obtain our information and the ability to sift through such information for they key parts is vital. This is particularly important in my line of work.

I am a clinical pharmacist. My job is tendering my learned opinion on drug therapy. Not only what works, but what works best considering the patient's current health, concurrent medications, habits, and finances. Patients, physicians, and family of patients look to me to know what I'm talking about. Every time there is a new commercial on a drug the questions I field about that drug and that class of drugs increases tremendously. Fortunatly, I usually know of these drugs before the public does and have a judgement already made. How I make that judgement, however, is ultimatly based on the companies that manufacture the medications. There is a mountain of data generated on safety and effectiveness on drugs that is submitted to the FDA. What is sent to the FDA, I, as a health care practitioner, have access to. (Y'all have access to it as well, but I've been trained to know where to look and what it means. This makes the search a lot less time consuming for me.) Still, as we see from the Vioxx / COX-2 debacle, the companies that generate the information, or pay to have it done, resist the dissemination of the negative information.

On another point, the when the media designs an advertisement, they make certain assumptions about how we think and how we process information. These assumptions don't always hold true. My son is autistic. He processes information differently than other children, and certain senses have unusual sensitivities. His frame of mind may be quite different from typical people. As my wife and I had our son tested when we noticed some strange behaviors, the therapists started asking some interesting questions. These involved certain habits of his and what we might expect as he grow older. I discovered with some alarm that the behaviors that she was mentioning are behaviors and coping mechanisms that I have. After some further research it turns out that I may be autistic too, but I have learned adaptive coping mechaisms to deal with the stress.

I have a lot of trouble following a point. If you point your finger at something, I try to get you to describe what it is that you are pointing at, because I can't visualize the line that leaves your finger to the object in question. I tend to focus on the hand, and I recognize it as a symbol of direction, but that's about it. When I saw the bank advertisement I came away with a vastly different interpretation. At first it looked like a picutre of a young man, college age, studying hard. There was a distorted picture in the back, but it wasn't relevant to the focus of the picture since it was out of focus. If it was relevant, it would be in focus, right? I came away with the initial impression of once the man graduates he will have a use for the banking service.

After some reflection, I found the ad disturbing, almost threatening. The distorted picture of the girl wasn't sexual, it was malformed, spectral. The image wasn't a wispy image of a reward, but the dire image of the consequences of failure.

Now, I'm not saying that I have alien thought patterns and am thus immune to media swaying. But I have found that I interpret symbols somewhat differently than others. Also, I pick up on details that most people seem to miss, and miss other things that most people find obvious. So, maybe, if you are looking for an astute advisor or news filter, you find someone who thinks a little differently than others.

OK, next comment will be on a new post.